How We Future: Stories of Hope, Hype, and Gratitude

Your local library is an important hub for building community.
Today, Lisa is talking with Shamichael Hallman, Director of Civic Health and Workforce Opportunity at the Urban Libraries Council, about the many ways libraries are evolving beyond only a place to borrow books. In fact, Shamichael’s been working on transforming libraries into recording studios and makerspaces with entrepreneurship resources, civic programming, community events, and spaces for people to gather.
Shamichael believes that libraries can be places where people learn, create, connect, and participate in the life of their communities.
Lisa and Shamichael talk about libraries as bridges where people with different backgrounds and perspectives can come together through shared experiences. A cooking class, a knitting group, a coding workshop, or a community event can create the conditions for people to encounter one another in ways that begin with shared interest rather than political identity or disagreement.
In this episode, we explore:
How ShaMichael helped reimagine Memphis’ Cossitt Library as a creative and civic hub
The difference between “more than books” and “books and more”
How libraries can be embedded into existing community gathering places like malls and barbershops
And what each of us can do to participate in the future of our local library
Shamichael is also the author of the amazing book Meet Me at the Library: A Place to Foster Social Connection and Promote Democracy. Reading it will inspire you to get a library card and use it, organize an event, volunteer, share what your library offers with your neighbors, and advocate for the libraries that make your community stronger.
Links from the episode:
Meet Me at the Library by Shamichael Hallman
Shamichael’s TED Talk: Reimagining the Public Library to Reconnect the Community
Urban Libraries Council
Follow How We Future:
Lisa Kay Solomon on LinkedIn
@lisakaysolomon on Instagram
@howwefuture on TikTok
howwefuture.substack.com
Want to contact us? Email hello@howwefuture.com

What do we get wrong about Gen Z?
Rachel Janfaza has devoted her career to listening to young people across the country. College campuses, community centers, focus groups, and conversations with her growing Gen Z community at The Up and Up. What she’s found is far more nuanced than many of the headlines about young people and politics would have us believe.
In this episode of How We Future, Lisa talks with Rachel about what Gen Z is actually thinking, what they want from their leaders and institutions, and why you should simply have a conversation with a young person in your life.
Rachel explains why the viral debate over Gen Z bringing iced coffee to job interviews is a perfect example of how easily older generations can make assumptions about young people without actually asking them what they think.
In this episode, Lisa and Rachel talk about:
Why calling Gen Z “apathetic” misses the ways young people are already engaging in civic life
Rachel’s “Two Gen Zs” framework and how COVID, TikTok, and AI shaped different cohorts
Why trust in institutions and authority has declined among young people
What Gen Z is actually focused on heading into the 2026 midterms
Why economic anxiety is intersecting with young people’s political views
If Gen Z is the future, understanding how they see that future and giving them agency in shaping it is a civic responsibility we all share.
Links from the episode:
The Up and Up
Rachel’s website
Rachel’s Instagram
No, Gen Z doesn’t actually want to bring iced coffee to their job interviews
Follow How We Future:
Lisa Kay Solomon on LinkedIn
@lisakaysolomon on Instagram
@howwefuture on TikTok
howwefuture.substack.com
Want to contact us? Email hello@howwefuture.com

What can a basketball court teach us about being a citizen?
In this episode of How We Future, Lisa is joined by two people who have had a huge influence on civic engagement in college athletics: Coach Eric Reveno and Joe Kennedy, co-founders of The Team.
Their work began exploring how student athletes could practice civic engagement in a way that empowers them and others to create the future they want to see.
For Eric, or Rev, that question came to life in 2020, when a conversation with his players led him to launch All Vote No Play, an effort to give student athletes time and space to vote. Joe soon joined the effort, bringing his background as a college basketball coach and former Obama White House staff member. Over time, Joe, Rev, and Lisa created The Team, an organization focused on integrating nonpartisan civic and community engagement into college athletics.
In our conversation, we talk about:
Why being a great teammate can be a form of civic practice
Why athletes and coaches have a unique ability to act as trusted messengers and civic leaders on their campuses and in their communities.
Examples of accessible civic engagement, like a tailgate, pizza, and a competitive game of rock, paper, scissors.
When you don’t know exactly what to do next, sometimes the best thing you can do is just try something, and then go to the next play.
Listen to the full episode to hear how two coaches turned one simple idea into a growing movement and what sports can teach all of us about getting in the game.
Links from the episode:
The Team
All Vote No Play
The Team’s Engaged Athlete Fellowship
Home Court at the Obama Presidential Center
Follow How We Future:
Lisa Kay Solomon on LinkedIn
@lisakaysolomon on Instagram
@howwefuture on TikTok
howwefuture.substack.com
Want to contact us? Email hello@howwefuture.com

What if being a good citizen has less to do with politics and more to do with how we show up for one another?
To kick off Season 5 of How We Future, Lisa is talking with civic leader, author, and Citizen University co-founder Eric Liu about his new book, Live Like a Citizen: 8 Ways to Change Your Mindset and Our Country.
The conversation explores why civic life needs joy, grief, love, imagination, and practice more than facts and policy solutions. Eric shares a practice called Power Walk, which helps people take stock of the civic decisions embedded in the places around them. He also explains how Civic Saturdays became a way for people to gather, reflect, and reconnect after the 2016 election.
In this episode, Eric and Lisa discuss:
The story of Rosa Chang and the transformation of an overlooked space beneath the Brooklyn Bridge
Why joining a club might be one of the simplest ways to fight isolation and reclaim civic agency
How civic imagination can be used for both pro-social and antisocial purposes
Why building a better future requires both imagination and commitment
Ultimately, this episode is an invitation to stop being spectators of the future and start practicing citizenship wherever we are.
A few ideas to take with you
Take a power walk. Walk around your neighborhood with fresh eyes. What do you notice? Why is it that way?
Join something. Find a club, community group, neighborhood organization, library program, or other place where you can show up repeatedly and build relationships.
Practice civic joy. Choose to animate the things that give us life even when things are hard.
Imagine and Act. Turn your picture of a better future into collective choices, habits, and commitments.
Links from the episode:
Learn more about Citizen University.
Buy Live Like a Citizen: Eight Ways to Change Your Mindset in Our Country.
Learn how to host a Civic Saturday
Watch Eric’s Ted Talks
Check out Citizen University’s resources
Follow How We Future:
Lisa Kay Solomon on LinkedIn
@lisakaysolomon on Instagram
@howwefuture on TikTok
howwefuture.substack.com
Want to contact us? Email hello@howwefuture.com

What does it take to have hope when the future feels increasingly brittle, anxious, nonlinear, and incomprehensible?
In this special bonus episode of How We Future, Lisa continues her conversation with futurist Bob Johansen and welcomes Jeremy Kirshbaum, co-authors of the forthcoming book Disciplines of Hope. Bob previously joined Lisa in Season 4 alongside Bishop Andy Doyle to explore the book’s ideas around faith, hope, and action. This time, Jeremy brings the lens of the intersection of generative AI, meaning-making, and hope.
Jeremy, Bob, and Lisa explore what we might gain and what we might lose when we optimize everything for speed and frictionlessness, and why some forms of useful struggle, reflection, and repetition are essential to building meaning.
In this conversation, you’ll learn:
What it means to live and lead in a BANI future
The value of useful friction in a world increasingly optimized for efficiency
What religious traditions can teach us about hope and collaboration
Why leaders increasingly need to help people find faith in a future worth building
The idea of generativity
Listen to the full episode to explore how we can develop our own disciplines of hope and use them to create futures that are more meaningful, connected, and generative.
Links from the episode:
Pre-Order Disciplines of Hope
How We Future featuring Bob Johansen and Bishop Andy Doyle
Navigating the Age of Chaos by Bob Johansen, Jamais Cascio, and Angela F. Williams
Institute for the Future
How We Future featuring Bob Sutton
How We Future featuring Roman Krznaric
The Friction Project by Bob Sutton and Huggy Rao
How We Future featuring Jennifer Dulski
Follow How We Future:
Lisa Kay Solomon on LinkedIn
@lisakaysolomon on Instagram
@howwefuture on TikTok
howwefuture.substack.com
Want to contact us? Email hello@howwefuture.com