Surviving the Future.
Led by author, activist, and educator Shaun Chamberlin, Surviving the Future: Conversations for Our Time curates spaces for realists about our troubled times. Exploring responses that bring hope and meaning amidst the intertwined crises unfolding as you read these words.
“Each morning I awake torn between
a desire to save the world
and an inclination to savor it.
This makes it hard to plan my day.”
— E.B. White
Most offerings free of charge
Major programs offered on trust-based sliding scale pricing;
scholarships also available
Through either self-paced or live online offerings, join Shaun Chamberlin and distinguished guests to explore together the critical issues reshaping our world.
And, crucially, how our families and communities might change direction before we end up where we are headed.
The program was designed intentionally to attract diverse participants, who since 2020 have arrived from forty-six countries on every continent on Earth, from 20 years old to 93.
Alongside guests like David Abram, Sherri Mitchell, Nate Hagens, Lyla June, Kali Akuno, Isabelle Frémeaux, Mark Boyle, Kate Raworth, Stephen Jenkinson, Helena Norberg-Hodge, Iain McGilchrist and Vandana Shiva, be part of the conversations — live, or whenever suits you — about life well lived in the context of the dramatic changes we face.
Available through these two main pathways or the other options offered below:
Surviving the Future:
A Path Through Tumultuous Times
Affordable and available to take whenever you’re ready, this flexible yet guided online program demystifies the interlocking ecological, economic and social crises of our often frightening and confusing times. And offers a tantalizing cultural vision of how we might respond — reclaiming much that we miss — in the context of the diverse realities we each face today. Find your path through our times, at the pace that suits you.
Surviving the Future:
The Deeper Dive
Meanwhile, our Deeper Dive each winter offers a long moment — a ten week opportunity — to slow down, pull back, and explore responses to profound change as part of a small global community, among and alongside some of the world’s leading thinkers and doers. Created and curated for those seeking insights and allies to help themselves and their localities, and ideal for those who’ve completed A Path Through Tumultuous Times.
These Surviving the Future offerings are for anyone who:
- Is tired of turning a blind eye to the crises we’re collectively creating,
- Wants to get beyond both doomsday fatalism and green dreaming,
- Might be in that agonising ‘space between stories’ as to what’s important and worth striving for,
- Is ready to confront our dark predicament yet still seeks meaningful paths onward, to make the future better than it would otherwise be,
- Craves the humour and companionship that comes from facing such difficult realities together.
Your menu of ways to get engaged:
If you’re new to our global community or the issues we explore, we suggest either…
- Reading the book (or audiobook) that started it all — Surviving the Future: Culture, Carnival and Capital in the Aftermath of the Market Economy
- Recommended: Enrolling in our self-paced online program, A Path Through Tumultuous Times — which includes free access to the above book as well as our online community, and guides you gently into the very heart of things.
- Getting a feel for the diverse community exploring these ideas by attending one of our regular online EcoGatherings on a topic that interests you or joining our friendly online forums, all free of charge.
- Or starting with a look at the late David Fleming’s Dictionary for the Future and How to Survive It, the initial inspiration behind all that we do, and now available completely free in custom fan-built web format.
If you’ve already read Surviving the Future you might also consider…
- A Path Through Tumultuous Times offers guidance, conversation and resources around applying and reforging the principles in the book; a valuable deepening of the experience, available year-round and in your own time.
- And/or join us for The Deeper Dive, each winter’s 10-week opportunity for more time, space and real-time connection alongside exceptional guests and a small, supportive online community. Exploring vitalizing responses to our collective predicament, together.
- You can also support us to reach more people by donating (use the dropdown menu to designate the Surviving the Future Scholarship Fund).
- Or let us know what else you’d love to be part of!
Shaun discusses his path to this work and, from 18m20, the spirit of the Surviving the Future program:
“My biggest takeaway: I am not alone in this – and I do not have to be alone in this.”
— Surviving the Future participant