Interviews of Leyden about his Ideas
Peter Leyden is able to constantly iterate his ideas and apply what he knows to the constantly changing news of the day. He does this through traditional media outlets and the burgeoning world of podcasts, as well as the occasional documentary film. Here you can find a range of some of his most interesting recent appearances. Click on the images or links to get to the original material.
Documentary Film on Solving Climate Change
Leyden was one of the key interviews of a new documentary film on how the world can find common ground to solve climate change in time.
A half-dozen members of a Canadian film crew rented out the penthouse of a skyscraper in San Francisco to provide the environment for Leyden to give his big-picture, relatively blue-sky analysis of how we can stop global warming in the next 25 years. (The photo at the top of the page and adjacent are part of that shoot.)
The full-length film “Common Ground” is expected to be ready by the spring of 2023 and be part of film festivals and available to the public later that year.
Politico Interview on the State of Strategic Foresight
On the 25-year anniversary of The Long Boom, Leyden’s famous - and quite prescient - cover story in Wired Magazine that later went into a book in multiple languages, Politico circled back to get Leyden’s take on the state of strategic foresight and a look ahead at the next 25 years. Check out what he had to say.
NYT Ross Douthat on Leyden’s California is the Future Series
Leyden coauthored a four-part series of articles in Medium called California is the Future that exploded in popularity and controversy well before the 2018 midterm American election.
The series made the argument that California was roughing out the future of American politics and predicted that the Republicans would lose the House and Senate in the 2018 midterms, and Trump would lose his reelection bid in 2020 - both of which turned out to be prescient.
In the spring of 2018 Ross Douthat, the conservative columnist for The New York Times, weighed in on that analysis in a full column. He was quite impressed by the argument, though pushed back on various aspects. Here’s the column or click on the adjacent image.
Executive Summit in Paris: Interview on the Coming Long Boom Squared
The last talk Leyden gave in a physical conference before the global pandemic shut down the world was in Paris in late 2019.
He was working through the early material of what became The Transformation body of work and presented to an elite executive summit of C-level business leaders from across Europe.
This short edited video gives an overview of his thinking at the time, which turned out to hold true despite the intervening pandemic.
De Zeit Interview for European Audience
The prescience of The Long Boom, Leyden’s iconic cover story for Wired and book of many languages, lead to many interviews by the mainstream media. Here’s one by De Zeit, the leading media company of Germany with a large European audience.
This interview went through many of the positive as well as negative developments that the original work forecast - and that turned out to actually come true. He also talks about why some missed the mark too.
The Realignment: Is California the Future of American Politics?
The Realignment is an ambitious podcast driven by two young conservatives who are trying to explore what American politics could look like in the decades ahead. They consistently get A list thought leaders and have amassed a devoted following.
Leyden delivered his analysis about what actually could happen in American politics in the 2020s, and he kept going on a wide range of topics about the future of America and the world in a conversation that lasted for an hour and a half.
You can listen to the audio podcast on The Realignment’s dedicated page that links to all major podcast platforms, or watch the conversation on YouTube or by clicking the adjacent video.
CleanTechies Podcast to the ESG World
In this hour-long podcast, Leyden focused on the clean energy transition, the circular economy, and how synthetic biology could remake many materials in a much more sustainable way.
You can listen to the audio podcast on Apple Podcasts, or listen to the conversation on the dedicated website with all the extra notes and outlines.
Podcast in DC on National Policy & Government
Leyden was asked to lay out his latest thinking on a podcast that is well-known within goverment and policy circles inside Washington D.C, hosted by the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation.
Leyden explained how he expects three world-historic tech booms to play out this decade and keep driving an economic long boom. He made suggestions of how the federal government could best manage these booms in order to make the most of them for the American people.
Check out both the hour-long audio podcast as well as a written transcript of the conversation too.
Stanford Interview on Civilizational Changes
Leyden was asked to give a very big picture look ahead to a group at Stanford University called the Millennium Alliance for Humanity and the Biosphere (MAHB).
This transcribed interview of 10 questions gave the space to look deeper into the 21st Century and put a much wider lens to the changes are are starting to experience now.
The Futurati Podcast for the Futurist World
The futurist Thomas Frey has hosted a podcast that is directed more to the world of futurists throughout America and the world. He asked Leyden to come on his show relatively early in the series, which now numbers in the hundreds.
You can listen to the audio podcast on Apple Podcasts, or listen to the conversation on YouTube in the adjacent video.
Whiskey & Lemon Podcast Geared to Millennials
This 30-minute podcast came out shortly after Leyden published his magazine piece The Great Progression: 2025 to 2050 in the fall of 2022.
The host has read the piece and loved it so much he asked Leyden to lay out the ideas on the show. So you can get a lively conversation about the key ideas that come through in that popular magazine piece.
You can listen to the audio podcast on Apple Podcasts, or listen to the conversation on the dedicated website with all the extra notes.
