The Short Longpath

Change is inevitable yet the pace of change in our times is deeply unsettling and mysterious. What are the shifts that are reshaping our cultures, demographics, governments, and economies? Join Futurist Ari Wallach for a conversation about some of the larger megatrends in our world with Majora Carter, Don Chen, Dr. Hollie Russon Gilman, and Dr. Wendy Greenspun.

Ari ben Zion Wallach is a futurist and social systems strategist. He is the founder and Executive Director of Longpath Labs, an initiative focused on bringing long-term thinking and coordinated behavior to the individual, organizational, and societal realms in order to ensure humanity flourishes on an ecologically thriving planet Earth for centuries to come. Ari’s TED talk on Longpath has been viewed over 2.5 million times and translated into 19 languages. Wallach was also the founder and CEO of Synthesis Corp., a New York-based strategic innovation consultancy whose clients included CNN, Volkswagen Global, The UN Refugee Agency and the US State Department. Wallach was the co-founder of the 2008 presidential initiative “The Great Schlep with Sarah Silverman” and most previously hosted Fast Company magazine’s Fast Company Futures with Ari Wallach. He is adjunct associate professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, lecturing on innovation, AI and the futures of governance and public policy.

Majora Carter is Senior Program Director of Groundswell’s Justice40 Accelerator designed to ensure that 40% of the $2T clean energy / infrastructure funds are deployed in disadvantaged communities. She is also a real estate developer, urban revitalization strategy consultant, MacArthur Fellow and Peabody Award winning broadcaster. She is responsible for the creation and successful implementation of numerous economic developments, technology, green-infrastructure projects, policies and job training & placement systems.

Don Chen is the President of the Surdna Foundation where he leads the 100-year old foundation’s efforts to strengthen and further leverage its commitment to social justice. Prior to his appointment, Don was the Director of the Cities & States program at the Ford Foundation, where his work supported urban development initiatives to make housing more affordable, promote more equitable land use practices, and empower communities to have a powerful decision-making voice in American cities and in developing countries. He also led a multi-program team to support the strengthening of social justice organizations and networks in targeted U.S. states. Previously, Don was the Founder and CEO of Smart Growth America, where he led efforts to create the National Vacant Properties Campaign (which later became the Center for Community Progress) and Transportation for America, and managed a merger with the Growth Management Leadership Alliance. He has authored many pieces on land use, transportation, social equity, and environmental policy. Don currently serves as Co-Chair of the Presidents’ Council on Impact Investing and on the boards of Living Cities, Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy, and Philanthropy New York. He holds a master’s degree from the Yale School of the Environment and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Yale University.

Dr. Hollie Russon Gilman is a Political Reform program fellow at New America and the Huo Foundation Fellow at Columbia World Projects. She is also an Affiliate Fellow at Harvard’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation. She is most recently the co-author, with Sabeel Rahman of, Civic Power: Rebuilding American Democracy in an Era of Crisis (2019). She is the author of Democracy Reinvented: Participatory Budgeting and Civic Innovation and America as part of the Harvard Kennedy School’s series on governance innovation in the 21st century. She served in the Obama White House as the Open Government and Innovation Advisor in the Office of Science and Technology Policy and worked as a field organizer in New Hampshire. She holds a Ph.D. and M.A. from the Department of Government at Harvard University and A.B. from the University of Chicago with highest honors in Political Science.

Wendy Greenspun, Ph.D., is on the faculty of the Manhattan Institute’s Certificate Program in Psychoanalysis and Adelphi University’s Postgraduate Program in Marriage and Couples Therapy. She has written and presented internationally on ways psychologists and psychoanalysts can engage with the climate crisis, and has taught courses on Ecopsychoanalysis. She has also provided workshops and classes for university students on ways to build resilience in the face of climate anxiety. She is a supervising psychologist at Columbia University Counseling and Psychological Services and is in private practice in Manhattan.