I have some important news about Build For Tomorrow. And here’s my new show, Help Wanted: https://link.chtbl.com/85RcT5bT Get in touch! Newsletter: onethingbetter.email Website: jasonfeifer.com Instagram: @heyfeifer Twitter: @heyfeifer Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
For decades, people have been told they have a certain “learning style.” Maybe you think you’re a visual learner, for example, or a reading/writing learner. But new research is upending all that. Here’s what we got wrong — and how we can become truly better learners. The “Build For Tomorrow” book is here! Grab your copy at www.jasonfeifer.com/book Get in touch! Newsletter: onethingbetter.email Website: jasonfeifer.com Instagram: @heyfeifer Twitter: @heyfeifer Learn more about your ad choices. Vi...
In 1923, a famous scientist predicted how work would change in 2023. Now, 100 years later, we can confirm: He was shockingly right… and yet totally wrong. What happened? The answers can tell you a lot about what’s coming in the next 100 years, and how technology will (and maybe won’t) change work forever. The “Build For Tomorrow” book is almost here! Grab your copy at www.jasonfeifer.com/book Get in touch! Newsletter: jasonfeifer.bulletin.com Website: jasonfeifer.com Instagram: @heyfeifer Twitte...
Everyone’s freaking out! How can that be put to good use? In this episode, we discuss the unexpected benefits of the bubonic plague, what the four-day workweek tells us about the future of work, how world-changing technologies become adopted, why business failures lead to success, how to use crises to change the status quo, and more. This episode originally aired on The Jordan Harbinger Show, as he interviewed me, Build For Tomorrow host Jason Feifer. The “Build For Tomorrow” book is almost here...
Have you ever messed up — or just thought you messed up! — and then obsessed over what you could have done better? This episode is about what’s happening in your brain, why you’re doing it, and how to finally let it go. The “Build For Tomorrow” book is almost here! Grab your copy at www.jasonfeifer.com/book Get in touch! Newsletter: jasonfeifer.bulletin.com Website: jasonfeifer.com Instagram: @heyfeifer Twitter: @heyfeifer mfmpod.com Indeed.com/ARCHIVE Jordanharbinger.com/subscribe JenniKayne.co...
You can find opportunity in the hardest situations. But how? To answer that out, we take lessons from one of the most fascinating changes in cultural history -- when the record player was invented. Many people loved it, but musicians hated it. They tried to stop it. But their anti-recorded-music campaign did not go as planned. This is a story about what it takes -- for us all! -- to let go of the past and embrace the future. The “Build For Tomorrow” book is almost here! Grab your copy at www.jas...
Want to fix the problem with work today? It starts by understanding the common phrase “nobody wants to work anymore” — including what’s right about it, what’s wrong about it, and why critics have been using these exact same words for more than a century. The “Build For Tomorrow” book is almost here! Grab your copy at www.jasonfeifer.com/book Get in touch! Newsletter: jasonfeifer.bulletin.com Website: jasonfeifer.com Instagram: @heyfeifer Twitter: @heyfeifer mfmpod.com Indeed.com/ARCHIVE Jordanha...
Barbie sales were plummeting. A new leader had a vision: The doll needed to be “a reflection of our times.” But how do you make something more modern? In this episode, we learn how Barbie took some big risks — and then take a trip through toy history, to discover just how much our toys say about ourselves. The “Build For Tomorrow” book is almost here! Grab your copy at www.jasonfeifer.com/book Get in touch! Newsletter: jasonfeifer.bulletin.com Website: jasonfeifer.com Instagram: @heyfeifer Twitt...
The teddy bear: Is it cute and cuddly, or a “horrible monstrosity” that’ll destroy humanity? In 1907, many people feared the worst — that this new toy would ruin young girls’ developing maternal instincts, and lead us to a terrible fate. This is the story of how the teddy bear changed us all… and how we then changed the bear. The “Build For Tomorrow” book is almost here! Grab your copy at www.jasonfeifer.com/book Get in touch! Newsletter: jasonfeifer.bulletin.com Website: jasonfeifer.com Instagr...
Our brains are full of fun facts: the memory span of a goldfish, Marie Antoinette’s famous words, the vomitoriums of Rome, and more. But what if it’s all wrong? In this episode, I debunk more than a dozen common misconceptions and then ask: Why do we remember misinformation so easily? And is there a better way to learn? The “Build For Tomorrow” book is almost here! Grab your copy at www.jasonfeifer.com/book Get in touch! Newsletter: jasonfeifer.bulletin.com Website: jasonfeifer.com Instagram: @h...
The four-day workweek was once just an experiment. Now it’s regular life for many people. So what’s that like? In this episode, we look at the good, the bad, the reason our workweek evolved the way it did, and what it’ll take to get everyone else another day off. The “Build For Tomorrow” book is almost here! Grab your copy at jasonfeifer.com/book Get in touch! Newsletter: jasonfeifer.bulletin.com Website: jasonfeifer.com Instagram: @heyfeifer Twitter: @heyfeifer Sponsors: mfmpod.com Indeed.com/A...
Do you wish you could predict the future? Not in a street-corner psychic kind of way, but in a more personal, meaningful way. How can you know what’s coming, and to know what decisions you should make? To answer that, we talk to many experts — including the head of a group called the Superforecasters! — who explain how to do just that. The “Build For Tomorrow” book is almost here! Grab your copy at jasonfeifer.com/book Get in touch! Newsletter: jasonfeifer.bulletin.com Website: jasonfeifer.com I...
Climate change is described as a “generational battle,” in which young people care and older people don’t. But this is a perfect example of how we think about generations all wrong — and that has big consequences. If we can drop our assumptions about generational divides, we might just have a shot at solving some of the world’s most urgent problems. Get in touch! Newsletter: jasonfeifer.bulletin.com Website: jasonfeifer.com Instagram: @heyfeifer Twitter: @heyfeifer Sponsors: Indeed.com/ARCHIVE L...
Who is to blame for people’s poor writing skills? It isn’t texting or tweeting. It’s a fateful decision made in 1875, from which we’ve never recovered. In this episode, we find out what went wrong — and how today’s educators are reinventing the way writing is taught. Get in touch! Newsletter: jasonfeifer.bulletin.com Website: jasonfeifer.com Instagram: @heyfeifer Twitter: @heyfeifer Sponsors: mfmpod.com Indeed.com/ARCHIVE Lightstream.com/BFT Beforeithappened.com Learn more about your ad choices....
We like to laugh at lawmakers for their technology ignorance, like when Sen. Richard Blumenthal asked a Facebook executive if she’ll “commit to ending finsta.” But how do gaffes like these actually happen? The answer is more complicated than you'd think. In this episode, a deep investigation into the cause and effects of a political gaffe — and why it's something that we, together, should want to fix. Get in touch! Newsletter: jasonfeifer.bulletin.com Website: jasonfeifer.com Instagram: @heyfeif...
Sex robots?! For decades, people have debated their dangers or called them ridiculous. But what if these bots can actually be a good thing? Here is the surprisingly human argument for a dystopian-sounding technology — and why it matters far beyond the bedroom. Get in touch! Newsletter: jasonfeifer.bulletin.com Website: jasonfeifer.com Instagram: @heyfeifer Twitter: @heyfeifer Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
People worry that technology changes our brains. It’s the reason why tech critics talk about dopamine, a chemical that they say turns us into social media addicts. But when I called actual brain scientists and asked them to fact-check the critics, I heard a very different story: Our brains are way more flexible than we think, they say. And dopamine? It’s complicated. Get in touch! Website: jasonfeifer.com Newsletter: jasonfeifer.bulletin.com Instagram: Instagram.com/heyfeifer Twitter: Twitter.co...
Is everything really political these days? Or has it always been that way? To answer that, let’s look at the story of knitting. Can anything get simpler than knitting? Balls of yarn! Comfy socks! So when the knitting community began reckoning with racism recently, many people complained that it ruined their simple pleasure. But the history of knitting is long and controversial — and includes many of today’s most hotly debated topics. (Sexism! Conspiracy theories! Fears of automation!) On this ep...
The most dangerous thing about smartphones, according to critics, is that we're never bored. Boredom is healthy, they say! But history and science may say otherwise. People have spent thousands of years desperately trying to escape boredom, and even considered it a sin or disease. So should we really feel guilty every time we fill a dull moment with a screen? In this episode, we dig into the surprisingly fascinating history of boredom — which once terrified America's Founding Fathers and has lon...
You might think you’re bad at talking with strangers. But in fact, you were built to talk to them — and you’re more natural at it than you know. In this episode, we go back millions of years to learn how our cultures and even our bodies were shaped by strangers, and what that can teach us about healing today’s great divides. Get in touch! Website: jasonfeifer.com Newsletter: jasonfeifer.bulletin.com Instagram: Instagram.com/heyfeifer Twitter: Twitter.com/heyfeifer Check out guest Joe Keohane’s b...
Many people are reminiscing about the things they enjoyed during Covid, which is a surprisingly common thing to happen after bad or challenging times. Why do we do this? Because our memories work in strange, unexpected, but ultimately very helpful ways. In this episode, we take a deep dive into how our memories work — including why we remember good more than bad, why reminiscing about the past prepares us for the future, and how, in some way, we are all living a lie. (And that’s OK.) Get in touc...
Are smartphones and social media addictive? Tech critics say yes. But actual addiction researchers say something else — and they point to ways in which our broad use of the word “addiction” can cause real harm. In this episode, we look at the history of supposedly “addictive” technologies, understand the surprisingly odd science behind today’s scariest claims, and discover who really has the power to break these supposed “addictions.” (Hint: It’s you.) Get in touch! Website: jasonfeifer.com News...
What was once only available to kings and queens, but that you can do today? The answer: Shocking stuff you've never even thought of. If you ever worry that our world is in decline, this episode can help put that in perspective. We also look at some amazing predictions from 1921 about 2021, and see how we’re living in the world they only fantasized about. Get in touch! Web: jasonfeifer.com Instagram: @heyfeifer Twitter: @heyfeifer Newsletter: jasonfeifer.bulletin.com Learn more about your ad cho...
You’ve heard the story: Young people got “participation trophies” as kids, and it taught them to be entitled, lazy workers. But here’s what you haven’t heard: Participation trophies are 100 years old, and for most of that time, they were considered a good thing. Here’s the real story of how these trophies became villainized… and what their actual impact is. Get in touch! Website: jasonfeifer.com Newsletter: jasonfeifer.bulletin.com Instagram: Instagram.com/heyfeifer Twitter: Twitter.com/heyfeife...
You can learn a lot from a simple margarita… because when you take one home from a restaurant in America, you’re participating in a change that was hundreds of years in the making. In this episode, we dig deep into how cocktails-to-go became suddenly legal (and why they were once illegal in the first place). It’s a surprisingly complex story that reveals our weird history with alcohol, and how the smallest shifts can lead to unexpectedly massive changes. Get in touch! Website: jasonfeifer.com Ne...
We like to say that things were better before. But... what year was that, exactly? Join me on a trip through history, as we return to every supposed "golden age" to find out just how golden it was. Then we answer the big question: Is nostalgia useful or harmful, and how do we make people more excited for tomorrow? This is a full remake of our classic 2016 episode, now with lots more insights and history! Get in touch! Website: jasonfeifer.com Newsletter: jasonfeifer.bulletin.com Instagram: Insta...
This podcast was called Pessimists Archive. Now it's called Build For Tomorrow. Why? Because this show is optimistic — and it needed a name that reflected that. It's the same show you love, now with a name that loves you back. Ready to help spread optimism? Here are some things you can do: 1. Sign up for my newsletter about how to find opportunity in change! 2. Tell friends about the show! Need my help? DM me on Instagram or Twitter. I'm happy to send a note to your friend. 3. Stay tuned. Becaus...
We once knew how to do important things... until new technology made us weaker, lazier, and dumber. That’s a story we’ve told ourselves for centuries. But is it true? Get in touch! Website: jasonfeifer.com Newsletter: jasonfeifer.bulletin.com Instagram: Instagram.com/heyfeifer Twitter: Twitter.com/heyfeifer Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
These feel like historic times… so how can we share our wisdom and experiences with future generations? Turns out, it’s really hard! This episode explores why time capsules fail, why almost nothing lasts for thousands of years, why the future may not care about us after all—and why all of that is just fine. Get in touch! Website: jasonfeifer.com Newsletter: jasonfeifer.bulletin.com Instagram: Instagram.com/heyfeifer Twitter: Twitter.com/heyfeifer Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastch...
If you’ve ever voted in an election, watched the Bachelor, or worried about the end of days, then you’ve probably fallen for a specific rhetorical trick. In this episode, we explore the history of the phrase “the most important election of our lifetime,” and why the human brain is so UNIQUELY, INSANELY, OUTRAGEOUSLY(!!!) susceptible to hyperbole. Get in touch! Web: jasonfeifer.com Email. jasonfeifer@gmail.com Twitter / Instagram: @heyfeifer Newsletter: https://jasonfeifer.bulletin.com Learn more...
