What Happens Next? Podcast: What Happens If We Don't Change?

24-hour "news" channels offer viewers a feast of experts and pundits who make predictions on the future based on their self-proclaimed expertise and insistence on their inability to be wrong. 

What we know, however, through numerous studies is that media experts and pundits are often wrong, and wildly so. As consumers of media, we don't have many other options. 

Let me offer you one today. The What Happens Next? podcast.

The show's elevator pitch goes like this: "The Handmaid’s Tale. Brave New World. Mad Max. Fictional dystopias have never seemed so close to becoming reality. Is it too late to change our course?"

"Academic and commentator Dr Susan Carland steps through the sliding doors with global experts and thought leaders to find out what could happen if we don’t change, and what the world could look like if we do."

Through compelling story-telling and expert commentary framed by current affairs, Monash Lens via Monash University in Melbourne, Australia aims to bring into sharp focus the work being undertaken by our research and academic communities and the impact that work is having on a global scale.

Monash University has more than 8,000 academic staff across multiple campuses, including Malaysia, and international partnerships. It is Australia’s largest university.

Through industry partnerships and collaboration with government and other organizations, many of those discoveries are being translated into innovation that is having an immediate community benefit.

What Happens Next? has completed 100 episodes as of the end of November 2024 and is in its ninth season. The podcast is hosted by academic and commentator Dr Susan Carland, who excels in academic circles and is a terrific podcast host. Dr. Carland could easily host a Vox, Slate, or New York Times podcast.

Unlike U.S.-based politics podcasts, What Happens Next? steers clear of conjecture and relies heavily on facts, research, data analysis, and thought leadership. The podcast rightfully trades political ideology for data purity and innovative thinking. That's a strategy unfamiliar to many U.S. audiences, who find comfort in "facts" from outlets like Fox News and Facebook posts.

In the final two-part series of the eighth season of Monash University’s What Happens Next? podcast host Dr Susan Carland was joined by world-leading journalists, commentators and academics for an investigation of civility.

Is that decline in politeness we’re all sensing real, or merely perceived? Research conducted by Monash political scientists Dr Steven Zech and Dr Matteo Bonotti indicated there’s been an incremental increase in incivility in society, especially in the aftermath of global stressful events. Steve Zech discussed the concerning trend of increasing incivility among certain groups, especially politicians.

Not surprisingly, the most obvious examples of rude behavior may be found on our roads. Dr Amanda Stephens, a senior research fellow at the Monash University Accident Research Centre, discusses road rage and the “de-identifying bubbles” of our cars, which cause drivers to become more hostile and less tolerant towards each other.

In season nine, one of the episodes that had the most impact was episode 96 in November 2024 called -- Will Climate Change Wipe Out The Indo-Pacific?

 I found this episode so impactful because Americans are so U.S.-centric, especially climate deniers, who conveniently forget that climate change affects nations around the world in ways far more severe than America.

 This show -- in its ninth season -- has a rich archives of episodes to catch up on. Previous seasons explored topics as diverse as reproductive rights, food insecurity, loneliness, political extremism, and the gig economy.

 If I could compare it to another podcast with similar goals, I'd compare it to Freakonomics.

We all want to know what happens in the future. Check out the What Happens Next? podcast and find out.