This episode of The New Abnormal podcast features Clare Stark, Head of Futures Literacy and Foresight at UNESCO - the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

They’re a specialized UN agency dedicated to promoting world peace and security through international collaboration in education, arts, sciences, and culture. Headquartered in Paris, its mission spans 194 member states and encompasses several focus areas. Key Initiatives include World Heritage Sites, Global Education, Scientific & Ethical Standards, and Cultural Heritage Safeguarding.

Clare is a dedicated professional with more than 20 years of experience in international development cooperation, she’s passionate about ensuring that technology leads to positive social transformations, and using futures literacy and foresight to inspire collective action to shape the futures we want, using evidence-based approaches to enhance anticipatory capacities.

She covers a lot of ground in the podcast, including UNESCO's role in advancing futures literacy and anticipatory governance / Embedding foresight into national and int’l policymaking / The Global Anticipatory Policy Coalition / AI governance, AI readiness and responsible deployment / Climate anxiety & information anxiety / Trust, democracy and misinformation / Leadership through collective intelligence and collaboration / The importance of culture, history and indigenous knowledge in shaping future policy / Participatory foresight involving young people, educators and citizens / The future of education, creativity and public policy in an AI-enabled world.

So, I hope you enjoy listening to her as much as I did, in what I hope you'll agree is a fascinating conversation re: the growing importance of anticipatory governance and futures thinking in addressing today's global challenges.