Episodes

The short version The Institute for the Future, where I did my futures thinking training, has released its Ten-Year Forecast for 2036. One of the ten forecasts says discernment will be the most essential human skill by then, replacing empathy as the soft skill we most want to teach in schools, train for at work, and build in our personal lives. In this episode I read that forecast, talk about why it caught my eye, and share how I practise discernment now: in low-stakes conversations about TV a...

Spoilers, Easter Eggs and How We Pay Attention to the Future In this solo episode, I follow a question I couldn't let go of: why do so many people hate spoilers but love Easter eggs? And what might that tell us about how we react to signals, trends and possible futures? This podcast is where I follow my curiosity and look at things I think need more attention. This one starts somewhere unexpected: arguments on Threads about TV shows, movies and books. I should say up front that this is a theo...

I've been watching a lot of TV lately. Reading a lot of books too. And I keep noticing something I can't stop thinking about: Canadian stories are having a moment, and I'm not sure Canadians are the ones who benefit most from it. This episode is about intellectual property. Specifically, what happens to the value of a Canadian story once it's adapted, licensed, and streamed around the world. That covers original scripts from Canadian showrunners and screenwriters, and it covers adaptations of b...

I've talked about thought leadership on the podcast before, most recently in my conversation with Amanda Cupido. Amanda launched her podcast, Let's Talk Thought Leadership, right here in Keswick, so it turns out Keswick is something of a hotbed for thought leadership in Canada. In this solo episode I look at what shapes thought leadership: money, power, influence, and whether the person sharing ideas ever listens back. In this episode: Why the podcast is self-funded. I don't take sponsorship. ...

A Leadership Living Lab: The Future of Advice and Mentorship | Episode 1 How do I advise my kid? It's one of the questions futurists get asked most. What should they study? What skills will be in demand by the time they graduate? Honestly, it's the most approachable version of futurism there is, because almost everyone ends up giving this kind of advice. Parents do. So do aunts and uncles, godparents, neighbours, and every leader who has someone show up asking for their perspective. This epis...

I'm looking at the current breakdown in the Canada–U.S. relationship — tariffs, trust, and everything in between — through the lens of my own career, and what it means for Canadian leadership at a moment of real convergence between politics, economics, and the future of work. For 16.5 years I worked for the American division of a Canadian company, hired under the premise that I could "pass" as American, complete with a Buffalo mailing address and rehearsed small talk about Buffalo traffic and sn...

Make It So is my new eight-week seminar, and this episode is the full walkthrough — what it is, who it's for, and why I built it around practice instead of prediction. The name comes from Jean-Luc Picard: you're telling me you want to do something, so do it. And there's research behind that instinct. Herminia Ibarra at London Business School has shown that identity shifts when you apply what you're learning — you can think about something extensively, but real learning starts when you make it r...

A reader told me my AI-assisted essay didn't sound like me anymore. That critique kicked off a week where reputation and AI collided in public three times: Substack's new Pangram "human-detection" scan, LinkedIn's AI-slop report button, and the backlash over an influencer's OpenAI brand trip. Each one exposes the terms platforms are quietly setting for anyone with a public body of work. This episode is me working out how to stay visible without giving up my own ground. Pillars: Trust · Visibili...

If knowledge I gave a company five, ten, or twenty years ago is still generating value for them, why does the payroll relationship get to end while the value extraction doesn't? That's the question driving this episode. I read and respond to an excerpt from a LinkedIn post by a former colleague about AI systems that capture and index employee knowledge — the recordings, conversations, and stories that make expertise valuable — so all of it stays discoverable inside a company long after the perso...

Episode: What the YAP Challenge Teaches Us About Trust, Presence, and the Future of Work In this episode, I dive into the phenomenon of Jessie Jean's YAP Challenge—a 30‑day video‑creation program that has taken the creator economy by storm. Her first cohort brought in $1.2M, and the second crossed $6M, all at a price point of $297. I'm not interested in the hype or the mechanics of her launch; I'm interested in the trust behind it. Why This Challenge Captured My Attention I explore why so many ...

What Is an Assumption-Ground Audit? Introducing Make It So | Hope + Possibilities Episode description The assumption ground audit is a structured practice for surfacing the beliefs, values, and past experiences that silently shape your decisions — at work and in life. In this episode, Nola Simon introduces Make It So, an 8-week cohort built around everyday futurism and the assumption ground audit as a leadership practice. What is an assumption-ground audit? An assumption-ground audit is a re...

In this episode, I dive into trust through a pop culture moment that became a global case study: the Coldplay kiss cam incident. What looked like celebrity gossip actually opens up bigger conversations about leadership, workplace ethics, public perception, and how we decide who and what to trust. Time-Stamped Highlights 00:00 — I introduce the episode and explain why trust is the real story behind the viral Coldplay kiss cam moment. 02:00 — I recap the incident and how it became a ...