The Failure of the Future

Original version

BBC Radio 4 LW

Documentaries

Factual

Johny Pitts examines failed utopias to decipher if they can help us reimagine the future.

BBC Radio 4 FM

The Failure of the Future: The Economic Dreamland

The Economic Dreamland

BBC Radio 4 - The Failure of the Future, The Economic Dreamland

Johny Pitts looks back at visions of failed utopias to see if we might build a brighter future from past projections. He examines the bubble economy of ‘80s Japan.

For decades, artists and scientists have dreamed up utopias that aim to reform the way we live. But why did they not become the future we are living in today? Is there something in those “what-might-have-beens” that’s worth returning to?

Writer and artist Johny Pitts explores a series of failed visions of the future. But rather than discarding them with the sands of time, he asks what we can learn from those past projections. And might elements of these forgotten worlds propel us towards a brighter tomorrow?

For Johny, there was a time when he felt he was living inside the future. Between 1950 and 1990, Japan was a time of great prosperity, innovation and invention. The nation seemed to be mapping out an advanced reality that could shape the future that the rest of the world might live in. And yet, that didn't come to fruition.

In the second episode of this four-part series, Johny considers what our future workplaces and creative practices might take from the explosive “bubble economy” era of 1980s Japan - a time of happy workers, booming industry, and pioneering inventions that we still love today. But was everything really as shiny as it seemed? What made the bubble era come crashing down and what can we learn from its collapse?

Presenter: Johny Pitts
Producer and sound design: Anishka Sharma
Mix Engineer: Nigel Appleton
Executive Producer: Phil Smith

A Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio 4

BBC Radio 4

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

The Failure of the Future

The Economic Dreamland

Genres

Brand

BBC Radio 4 LW

About BBC Radio 4