Amy Webb
Amy Webb is a quantitative futurist and a bestselling, award-winning author. She is a professor of strategic foresight at the NYU Stern School of Business and the Founder of the Future Today Institute, a leading foresight and strategy firm that helps leaders and their organizations prepare for complex futures. Webb is a Visiting Fellow at Oxford University’s Säid School of Business, a Nonresident Senior Fellow in the Atlantic Council’s GeoTech Center, a Fellow in the United States-Japan Leadership Program and a Foresight Fellow in the U.S. Government Accountability Office Center for Strategic Foresight. She was a Visiting Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, where her research received a national Sigma Delta Chi award. She was also a Delegate on the former U.S.-Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission, where she worked on the future of technology, media and international diplomacy. Webb has advised CEOs of some of the world’s largest companies, three-star generals and admirals and executive government leadership on strategy and technology. She is the author of several popular books, including The Big Nine: How the Tech Titans and Their Thinking Machines Could Warp Humanity, which was longlisted for the Financial Times & McKinsey Business Book of the Year award, shortlisted for the Thinkers50 Digital Thinking Award, and won the 2020 Gold Axiom Medal for the best book about business and technology, and The Signals Are Talking: Why Today’s Fringe Is Tomorrow’s Mainstream, which won the Thinkers50 Radar Award, was selected as one of Fast Company’s Best Books of 2016, Amazon’s best books 2016, and was the recipient of the 2017 Gold Axiom Medal for the best book about business and technology. Her bestselling memoir Data, A Love Story is about finding love via algorithms. Her TED talk about Data has been viewed more than 8 million times and is being adapted as a feature film, which is currently in production. Webb was named by Forbes as one of the five women changing the world, listed as the BBC’s 100 Women of 2020, and the Thinkers50 Radar list of the 30 management thinkers most likely to shape the future of how organizations are managed and led.
Amy serves on a script consultant for films and shows about artificial intelligence, technology and the future. Most recently, she worked on The First, a sci-fi drama about the first humans to travel to Mars. She is a member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and has served as a Blue Ribbon Emmy award judge.
3 words to describe Nature?
Essential. Quantifiable. Mysterious.
3 things Nature taught you?
Humility. Humility. Humility. (Seriously!)
3 most treasured Nature spots?
The hiking paths of Mt. Hayachine, which is part of the Kitakami range in northern Japan.
Walking among the giant redwoods of Sequoia National Park.
Hiking the foothills of Stowe, Vermont, especially in fall.
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel...?
Concerned. The oceans are a vast ecosystem that we've ignored and polluted.
When you see a forest, it makes you feel...?
At home. There is a concept in Japan known as "shinrin-yoku," which is loosely defined as taking a forest bath. Connecting with trees and the sounds of a forest, breathing in the air, and taking time for contemplation and reflection are ways to improve mental clarity, emotional health and physical stamina.
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel...?
Curious.
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel...?
Spirited. Some of my fondest memories are of canoeing and camping in Big Bend National Park in Texas and waking up with the sunrise. Even in the summer, the air is fresh and cool, and there's both a calmness and a sense of anticipation for a new day.
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel...?
Like I'm at work. When I'm researching, reading and writing, I listen to brown noise, which has lower, thicker tones than white noise. Some of the brown noise tracks I listen to include a continuous stream of rumbling thunder.
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel...?
Cold. Even if it's not actually cold.
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
Mountain
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
10
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
There was a small lake near our house, and it was fully alive: snakes, butterflies, fish, frogs, weeds, flowers, trees, and all sorts of bugs. My dad used to take me there just to walk around, look at tadpoles, and observe nature. One afternoon we found a beehive beneath a pile of boulders. We climbed on top and spent hours watching the bees do their work.
Yancey Strickler
Yancey Strickler is a writer and entrepreneur. He is the cofounder and former CEO of Kickstarter, author of This Could Be Our Future: A Manifesto for a More Generous World, and the creator of Bentoism. Yancey has been recognized as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and one of Fast Company’s Most Creative People. He cofounded the artist resource The Creative Independent and the record label eMusic Selects. Yancey grew up in Clover Hollow, Virginia, and began his career as a music critic in New York City. The London Spectator called him "one of the least obnoxious tech evangelists ever."
3 words to describe Nature?
Shhhwwwwwwww (wind through the trees)
tckltckltckltckltckl (leaves on the ground)
grglgrglgrglgrgl (water falling from a rocky cave)
3 things Nature taught you?
How to hide
What it means to be healthy
The upside of death
3 most treasured Nature spots?
Canopied forests with pine needles on the ground
Any beach
The farm where I grew up
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel...?
Infinite
When you see a forest, it makes you feel...?
Taller
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel...?
Side-eyed
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel...?
Like a George Harrison song
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel...?
Five years old
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel...?
Small
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
E) All of the above
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
10
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
Age twelve waiting for the bus when a deer, wounded by a hunter's bullet, came staggering out of the woods and collapsed across the street from me. I stayed with it and spoke with it until its eyes went blank.
Paula Wallace
Paula Wallace serves nearly 15,000 students and more than 40,000 alumni as president and founder of the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), a private, nonprofit, accredited university offering more than 100 academic degree programs. The university has locations in Atlanta and Savannah, Georgia; Lacoste, France; and Hong Kong, and has been recognized for its revitalization of historic buildings by the American Institute of Architects (AIA), the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and UNESCO. Wallace is known for creating many of the university's signature events, including the SCAD Savannah Film Festival, SCAD aTVfest, SCAD deFINE ART, SCAD FASHWKND, SCADstyle, and the SCAD Sidewalk Arts Festival.
Wallace is an honorary member of the AIA, a Senior Fellow of the Design Futures Council, a Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Palmes Académiques, and a Georgia Trustee. She is the winner of the 2017 ASID Nancy Vincent McClelland Merit Award, 2016 Arthur Ross Award for Stewardship, 2016 Louise du Pont Crowninshield Award, and 2016 Roger Milliken Honorary AIA Legacy Award. In 2016, she was featured among Blouin Artinfo's "Power List: High-Wattage Women of the Art World" and named one of Condé Nast’s Daring 25. Wallace is the author of children's books, interior design books, and a memoir, "The Bee and the Acorn."
Wallace earned a Bachelor of Arts from Furman University, Masters in Education and Specialist of Education degrees from Georgia State University, and an honorary Doctor of Laws from Gonzaga University.
3 words to describe Nature?
Resourceful. Tenacious. Sublime.
3 lessons Nature taught you?
Nature has taught me that anything is possible, with determination and patience. I titled my memoir The Bee and the Acornin recognition of two of nature’s wonders that inspire me most. Both are incorporated into the SCAD crest.
The bee (our mascot!) symbolizes hope. Back in 1978, when my family and I created SCAD, many people said our little dream would never fly. Our mission to focus on creative careers was very much ahead of its day. Seeking encouragement in those early years, I was reminded of a study completed by French entomologist Antoine Magnan, who noted that a bee’s flight shouldbe impossible. The bee’s body is far too large, its wings minuscule in comparison. The bee, of course, flies anyway, appearing to defy the laws of physics and rising to great heights. I guess bees have never paid much mind to what others think! And neither does SCAD.
In the South, where SCAD was founded, the acorn is a symbol of strength arising from humble origins. From tiny acorns, they say, mighty oak trees grow! Our students are acorns that flourish and grow into a mighty grove with broad limbs that touch and support one another and their communities. SCAD Savannah (among a family of four SCAD locations worldwide) is stippled with enormous live oak trees. Their comely limbs, draped with Spanish moss, sprawl across streets, boulevards, entire greenspaces. All of us at SCAD remember: each began life as an acorn.
3 most treasured Nature spots?
The first is easy! Any view from SCAD Lacoste — where every evening is a new palette, every morning a study in color theory. For centuries, artists (Matisse, Picasso, others) have cherished Provence for its natural beauty and wondrous light. There’s a magnetism to the way the days move in Lacoste, stretching lusciously into the Luberon horizon. Lacoste both arouses the senses and quiets the soul.
My second choice would have to be Winn Park in my hometown of Atlanta, Georgia, a short walk from SCAD Atlanta. This park is an oasis of green and one of many beautiful public parks in the city. With a meandering stream and an enchanting iris garden, this vernal treasure offers many spots for a meditative retreat from urban bustle.
And third is my side garden in downtown Savannah, verdant and blossoming nearly all year round. I enjoy its brilliant red roses, the fountain’s murmur, the aromatic herbs in terra-cotta pots, reminiscent of my childhood. The side garden acts as a portal between my busy, professional life and a cozy, familial one.
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel...
The lure of the voyage. The promise of grandeur beyond the horizon. Savannah is one of the great port cities of the world. At Tybee Island’s North Beach, where we host our annual SCAD Sand Arts Festival, you can watch immense container ships wend the Savannah River. These ships’ magnitude and power astound. As they drift into the Atlantic and become smaller and smaller, I imagine where they might travel next — it’s the same feeling I get when I watch SCAD’s students and graduates sail off across the globe. The ocean makes dreamers of us all.
When you see a forest, it makes you feel...
As though I’m home. I grew up around trees in Atlanta ("the city in a forest," they call it) and at my grandparents’ farm in Mississippi, where trees offered respite from the hot summer sun.
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel...
The power that rests beneath our feet. They say an ancient super volcano left the island of curious hexagonal rock columns off the coast of Hong Kong, near our SCAD campus on Sham Shui Po — it’s like nothing I’ve seen before. This formation impresses on me the infinite ways that nature asserts itself, and how our art stems from its beauty.
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel...
Possibility. As a girl in Atlanta, I heard Scarlett O’Hara’s refrain aplenty! Tomorrow is, indeed, another day. Both sunrise and sunset denote the opportunities that time affords to create.
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel...
The reprieve from a sultry summer day, as the afternoon storms drift along the coastline. The thunder storms bring winds and rains that make the bricks steam. The relief never lasts long, but a nice cool iced tea helps make the humidity bearable.
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel...
Nostalgic. One of my favorite books, A Wrinkle in Time, begins with the line, “It was a dark and stormy night.” The winds of that storm carry the reader straight into the book’s plot. It’s wonderful that Ava DuVernay adapted the book. Reese Witherspoon, Oprah Winfrey, and Mindy Kaling all have visited SCAD and shared their wisdom with students. It’s a joy when a beloved classic from childhood comes to life on film as the result of the leadership of visionary women behind the camera and on the screen.
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
All four! SCAD’s locations in Savannah and Hong Kong reside next to two of the world’s great ports. Hong Kong is also situated alongside mountains, surrounded by country parks and nature reserves blanketed with forests. I would be remiss if I neglected the trees at all of SCAD’s campuses — live oaks in Savannah, maples in Atlanta, banyan in Hong Kong, and the cedars of Provence. Provence can even have a desert feel with its dry, hot summers. And, of course, Provence leads one to the Alps. We are surrounded by such loveliness on all sides!
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
10!
Would you share with us a childhood nature memory?
I fondly recall reading books under the magnolias on my grandmother’s farm near Collins, Mississippi, and shelling peas from her garden on the front porch. Porches offer the best views of nature and civilization. They create connections among indoor worlds, people, and the outdoors. I have fond memories of my parents’ porch in Atlanta, too, where my sister and I would pretend to be Laura and Mary Ingalls. Other times, I would sit tucked beside my father on a glider as he listened to baseball games on the radio against the backdrop of leaves rustling in the breeze.
Jonathan Santlofer
Jonathan Santlofer is the author of 5 novels, including the international bestseller The Death Artist, and Anatomy of Fear, which won the Nero Award for best crime novel of 2009. He is editor, contributor and illustrator of the short story anthology, The Dark End of the Street, editor/contributor of LA NOIRE: The Collected Stories, The New York Times bestselling serial novel Inherit the Dead, Akashic Books’ The Marijuana Chronicles, and The New York Times “notable book” It Occurs to Me That I Am America. His stories have appeared in numerous short story collections. Santlofer, also a well-known artist, is the recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts grants, has been a Visiting Artist at the American Academy in Rome, the Vermont Studio Center and serves on the board of Yaddo, one of the oldest arts communities in the U.S.
His bestselling memoir, The Widower’s Notebook, has received starred reviews in Publishers Weekly and Kirkus, has appeared on more than a dozen “best books” lists of 2018, and is an Amazon bestseller. He was recently a guest on Fresh Air with Terry Gross.
3 words to describe Nature?
Beautiful. Calming. Fierce.
3 things Nature taught you?
To be respectful
To slow down
When I bought an old house in upstate NY there was no lawn, no grass, which I planted and was awed when it grew!
3 most treasured Nature spots?
Dutchess County, NY (where I had my house)
Canyon De Shelly
The Arizona desert
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel...?
Mostly calm
When you see a forest, it makes you feel...?
From a distance it makes me feel small. Inside, I can feel either protected or lost and it often reminds me of fairy tales, like Hansel and Gretel.
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel...?
I have never seen a volcano in nature. In pictures or films they amaze me with their power, and make me think of Pompeii, which I’ve been too.
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel...?
Depends where I am, and what it’s like, but often good – if I’m paying attention (and I guess I should be).
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel...?
I love thunder if I’m inside.
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel...?
Again, if I'm inside, or on a porch, it’s like eerie though beautiful music.
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
My upstate home was surrounded by forest, which I liked. I love driving through the desert. Being near the ocean is always special. Mountains are beautiful in the distance, but I’d never climb one.
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
Not sure I would put a number on nature but it’s essential to my well-being. I live in a city so it’s important for me to escape on a regular basis. I am always calmer in nature, which makes me wonder why I live in a city!
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
Getting lost at the beach when I was around 6 or 7. Always a kid who daydreamed, I wandered along the shoreline far away from my parents. I remember sitting in the sand and drawing pictures in it with a stick and watching the waves wash them away. I was very happy doing this, having the water lapping over my feet, and not at all afraid even though I knew I was lost. Eventually the lifeguards found me and took me back to their station, where they gave me ice cream.