All language subtitles for A.Brief.History.of.the.Future.S01E05.1080p.WEBRip.x264-BAE_track3_[eng]

[vehicle horns honking,
siren blaring]

[music]

Ari Wallach: The most important
thing for any human being

is to be with
other human beings.

We are not solitary creatures.

We are not
individuals in the way

that we think of it
or the stories that we tell.

Evidence shows us that we
have been traveling and moving

in groups as far back
as we can actually find

skeletons and bones in caves.

Humans feel the most
in themselves, the most happy,

the most joyful when they're

actually in large groups
together.

We're all kind of
focused and aligned.

We're actually
having a sense of awe

at whatever is happening.

We find that when people are
at certain events together,

that eventually their hearts are
actually beating in unison.

What we are meant to be
is to be in groups together.

It's who and what we are.

Drake: ♪ Listen ♪

♪ Seeing you got ritualistic ♪

♪ Cleansing my soul
of addiction for now ♪

♪ 'Cause I'm falling apart ♪

♪ Yeah, tension

♪ Between us
just like picket fences ♪

♪ You got issues that
I won't mention for now ♪

♪ 'Cause we're falling apart ♪

♪ Passionate from miles away

♪ Passive
with the things you say ♪

♪ Passing up on my old ways ♪

♪ I can't blame you, no, no ♪

[music]

Wallach: So there's
two things that Homo sapiens do

fundamentally better
than almost any other species

on Planet Earth.

It's to work together,
to cooperate,

and also a sense of prospection,

actually,
to think about the future.

And those are
inextricably linked.

As my journey continues,
everywhere I go,

I'm struck by how similar
we all really are.

We want to connect, to belong,
and to see ourselves

as a part of a team or a tribe.

Why is this sense of
togetherness so central

to who we are,
and what does it mean

in a moment when
that's often not reflected

in the world around us?

How can we build on
the best parts of who we are

in order to create
the future we want to see

and leave behind?

That's led me to Japan,
headed out to a small island

I've read about for years.

Coming here
is a dream come true,

as this quiet, distant place is

home to a troupe of
world-renowned drummers,

who've always struck me
as a beautiful picture

of what's possible
when individuals come together

to create something they could
never achieve on their own.

[people vocalizing]

♪

[scraping and clanking]

Leo Ikenaga:
My name is Leo Ikenaga,

and I'm a performer for Kodo.

Kodo is a Japanese
drumming ensemble.

Japanese drumming
is called taiko.

And we are a group
that uses the taiko,

but we try to incorporate
different traditional,

cultural elements
that are native to Japan.

And we try to kind of create
something new out of it.

We travel all over the world

and perform and work with
a lot of different artists.

And we're just trying
to create something new

from this Japanese tradition.

♪

Wallach: What does it take
for someone to join Kodo?

So, to join Kodo, you
first have to complete

a two-year apprenticeship.

And then you become
a junior member,

and then you become
a full-time member.

And the two-year
apprenticeship is

a very, very rigorous
process.

You're living

in an abandoned
70-year-old middle school

with 15 to 20 other people.

You have no privacy.

You have no phones,
no TV, no Internet.

And you wake up
at 5:00 in the morning.

You run every day.
You plant your own rice.

You harvest your own food,
and then you practice all day.

And you do that
for two years.

So it's
a pretty crazy process,

but it's a great opportunity

to get in touch with
yourself,

because you're constantly
under pressure

and you're constantly
under stress.

Right now there are
about 15 apprentices.

Maybe one or two will
make it into the troupe,

so it's very,
very selective.

But the beautiful thing
is, these apprentices,

even though maybe one or
two make it into the group,

they have to work together.

They have to cook
for each other.

They have to perform
with each other,

because we're never looking
at them individually.

We're evaluating them

based on how well
they work with others,

how much they
improve others.

It's hard to see that when
you're in the apprenticeship,

but once you become
a member, it's very apparent,

because, you know,
when we're performing,

you have to be in sync with
everyone without a conductor.

So these apprentices,
they're constantly

fighting and competing
with each other.

But at the same time,
they have to be,

like, very, very close-knit
with each other.

So it's difficult,

but a very, very
rewarding journey.

Wallach: What's possible
when you move

from being kind of
a solo player

to being an ensemble?

What is it that
you're able to do

that you couldn't
do alone?

Ikenaga: You're able to
create something that you

could never do by yourself.

You are able to put
yourself into a situation

where you strive
to be better

and you strive
to make others better.

And it's this process that
we go through every day.

It's really hard
to do that alone.

It's possible.

But when you have
someone next to you

that's drumming
their heart out

and they're doing the best
that they can

and they're
doing it every day,

you want to be
like that person.

Yeah, it's
pretty incredible.

♪

Wallach, voice-over: Being here
and experiencing

how the drummers live
and work together is moving.

And it makes me wonder
just how much we've lost

in the pursuit of seeing
ourselves as individuals

above all else.

In a time when distrust
feels more common than trust,

what kind of
collective price are we paying?

And what type of
futures are waiting

on the other side of us coming
to see ourselves as connected,

not alone?

Man: We are the only species
in the animal kingdom

with the ability to blush,

which is, I think,
a telling fact.

We involuntarily give
away our feelings

to other members of our species
in order to establish trust.

We are the only species
among primates

with white eyes, right?

So that means people can see--

I'm looking in the camera
right now.

If I was a chimpanzee,

that would have been much more
difficult.

I'm looking to the left.
Now I'm looking to the right.

So I'm involuntarily giving
away my gaze,

which, again,
helps to establish trust.

So it's in our biology.

It's in our DNA that
we've been optimized for trust.

You want to feel like the
social system of which you're

a member and a participant
has something

legitimate, fair,
desirable, good,

something worthy about it.

We want to feel like
our sports team is

better than
the other sports teams.

We want to feel our town or
our city is better than others

or our university or college
is better than others.

It could also be
a racial or ethnic group

or other kinds of social groups.

That's where
the tribalism comes in.

Rutger Bregman:
We have created systems

that increase the distance

between people, right,
increases the distance between

people on the work floor
and the managers,

between the citizens
and the politicians.

The longer the distance becomes,

both physical distance
and psychological distance,

the more difficult
it becomes to trust one another.

So that's what we have.

We have a deepening
crisis of trust.

Person:
Listen, why must we divide?

Why are we dividing people?

[indistinct shouting]

[both speaking Georgian]

You're completely
destroying our city!

You come down--

Reporter:
Things got so heated that

the board members
eventually walked out,

leaving the police
to deal with the unruly crowd.

Different person:
I was so disgusted, like,

that people
would do this.

People: Close the border!
Close the border!

Close the border!

...for 20 years.

You're just screaming...

I was screaming...

Come on.
No one's giving me free food.

No one's giving me
free housing.

We do a tax--
I need order.

Right?
This is what everyone does.

[overlapping chatter]

Woman: OK. Time-out. Time-out.

[chatter continues]

[people chanting indistinctly]

Wallach: We've always
had disagreements,

but something more serious is
happening here.

The ideas and institutions
that govern our societies--

long taken for granted--
have begun being challenged

in new and unsettling ways.

Here at Stanford University,
Alice Siu

is working with her team at
the Deliberative Democracy Lab

to better understand
where we are right now

and what we can do to create
lasting change moving forward.

What is the state
of democracy today?

Many will say
democracy is in crisis.

A lot of democracies around
the world are backsliding,

and we have trouble
trying to figure out

what a lot of people
actually want,

what kind of system
of government

people want to live in.

But I think, as of today,
a lot of people

are concerned about whether
their voices are being heard

and if people are
really representing

their likes and dislikes.

Wallach: But Alice also sees
an opportunity here,

a chance
for new and needed ideas

around how to improve
our democracies

in order to better
face the future

and engage directly
with the citizens they serve.

A growing set of ideas known
as deliberative democracy

are beginning to take hold in
countries around the world...

like here in France,
where they've started holding

citizen conventions--forums
designed to better engage

their citizens in addressing

the major challenges
and opportunities before them.

Wallach: So how did this
all first come about

here in France?

Look, I mean, first, we had
this yellow vest crisis

in France,

a crisis of
working classes in France.

You have a lot of
fears and anxieties,

climate change,
digitalization, geopolitics.

And a lot of people in
small cities and so on

having this feeling not to
be respected by our policies,

not to have a place anymore
in this world,

and not to be prepared
for this change.

So I made this tour,

and I launched a series
of citizen conventions.

On a random basis, you
take 100, 200 citizens

and you formulate a question.

You put them in
a situation to have

a lot of interactions
with experts.

They propose a solution,

which is based on a consensus
and collective intelligence

and ability to understand
the complexity of the problem.

So I did it on climate change.

It worked because we passed
a law after that

largely inspired
by the citizen convention,

and the feedback
was very positive.

They learned.

They were very committed,
but they respected each other.

But for me, this is
a constant work in progress

because it's never perfect.

But where
I'm really optimistic

is that you can have emotions,
positive and negative,

and argumentation
and rational discussion

to be merged together

regarding
our collective future.

Wallach, voice-over: Back
in the U.S., Alice and her team

have pioneered something
with similar ideas in mind.

Wallach: Your team
put together an event

called
America in One Room.

What was that?

It was a four-day-long
deliberative poll,

where we gathered a nationally
representative sample.

We flew them in
to Dallas, Texas,

from across the country.

There were 523 people that
came from all walks of life,

and they gathered
together in small groups.

They deliberated
about immigration,

economy, foreign policy.

And for four days,
they discussed

in their small groups
about these topics,

and then they had
panels of experts.

And, actually, five
then-presidential candidates

answer their questions.

What we learned
from 500-plus people is

that people can and will
change their minds

after just four days of
being with each other.

We learned that those that
may have had extreme positions

on either side of the spectrum
actually moderated

and became
closer to each other.

We learned that after
deliberation together,

they liked each other more.

They came to understand

why the other
person held certain views.

President Macron: I think,
especially on a local basis,

we have to find a way
to involve citizens,

make them much more
player of the game

and doer of
our democracies.

Wallach: Paint a picture
for me of the democracy

that you want to see.

We don't have
to live like this today.

We can change it now, and we
can have those conversations

that build empathy.

We can have those
structured conversations.

We can build those skills.

And if we just start
somewhere and not wait,

then we can really
get to that future

where everyone actually
listens to each other

and our democracy
is held together

by everyone that's involved.

[applause]

Man: It's the organization
of humanity,

the self-organization
of humanity

which is the key change
that needs to happen.

Now, we live in this
extraordinary situation

where a tiny number
of people,

which calls itself
a government,

claims
to be able to control

this complex system that we
call society from the center.

There is no complex system
on Earth

that can be controlled
from the center.

It can't possibly work.

And yet at the same time, we
have this tremendous capacity

for participatory,
for deliberative democracy,

where we can come together
and make decisions together

for the good of all.

And where we've been
allowed to do this,

if only on a small scale,
or a partial scale,

the results have
been extraordinary.

♪

Rutger Bregman: I think it's
quite clear that we are living

through probably
the most dangerous century

in the history of our species.

It could also be
the most prosperous century

and the most exciting century
to be alive.

What we need are people
who are willing and able

to look forward to a future
that could be

so, so much better than
the world we live in today.

Wallach: In some ways right now,

that can feel naive,
even impossible.

But this idea of
building on our desire

for connection and cooperation
can begin anywhere.

And that's what's led me
to Nashville,

where Reverend Jennifer Bailey
is working to create

new forms of community

to reach across what feels
like a growing divide.

It used to be, you know,

we kind of find
some common ground.

We kind of live together.
We broke bread together.

Now it just seems
ripped apart.

What do you attribute
that to?

It's feeling--it feels
very strong right now.

Yeah.

People are experiencing,
in the U.S. context at least,

higher rates of loneliness and
isolation than ever before.

And where they find
community can often be

in these online pockets,

where they're getting
talked to by the same folks.

And, see,
the world becomes--

rather than becoming bigger
and having spaces

where people can hear more
in the marketplace of ideas,

it becomes
smaller and more rigid.

And then you, like, make
the fool's errand

of believing everybody
thinks like you.

And the person who doesn't,
then, must be my enemy.

Tell me about the work
that you're doing

and how you kind of
got started in it.

Yeah, so the People's Supper
was a project

that I co-founded
with two friends

after the 2016
U.S. presidential election.

We wanted to create spaces
around dinner tables

for people to begin
having conversations

across lines of difference,

whether that be political,
ideological, religious,

racial difference.

We've hosted thousands
of suppers around the country.

And I think at the core
of those suppers

and our time together
is really an ability

for people to hear each other
and not just deeper speech,

but deeper personhood,

to be reminded of the fact

that we are not
just how we vote

or how we look, but that we
are a collection of stories

and that our story
is not individual

but the continuation
of other stories

and prologue to the stories
that are to come,

even if it's just
for one meal.

Wallach, voice-over: While I was
in town, Jennifer invited me

to one of these dinner parties,

joining a small group
of people

from various walks of life
and different backgrounds

to sit down together
for a shared meal.

[indistinct chatter]

We're gonna have a fun
conversation tonight.

I like to say
you all are joining,

whether you knew it or not,
a movement of people

who've been gathering
around the country

over the past six years
almost.

Well, just to toast you all,
thank you for being here.

So grateful
for this time together.

Wallach, voice-over: That night,
I experienced something

so simple and yet profound.

I witnessed a group of
strangers,

who in some ways
have nothing in common,

come to see the common
humanity they all share.

Our past and our stories
are unique,

and yet what we want to see
unfold in the future,

for ourselves
and for those we love,

is so much more alike than what
we often stop to consider.

I really feel like we're
at a period of rebirthing

and remaking the world.

And we see that

with the intensity
of the climate crisis.

We see that

with threats to the notion
of democracy globally.

We're at a real inflection
point in global history.

I find myself asking,

What does it mean
to be human in the future?

What are the things
that aren't replaceable?

And care for one another
feels like something

that we will never be
able to fully replace.

Wallach: For tens of thousands
of years, even for centuries,

we would live
kind of collectively

in relatively dense
accommodation.

Even just in
the past 150 years,

many of us
began living in cities,

but something happened,

especially
in America after World War II.

We had returning GIs and
a rapidly expanding population

with not enough housing.

A lot of these people

needed to be close
to cities for jobs,

and so the cities gave way
to surrounding suburbs.

You and I live in a period
of tremendous growth

with many problems.

Across the United States,

new homes are springing up
by the thousands

for our rapidly growing
population.

Modern shopping centers
satisfy most

of the material needs of
suburban dwellers

who no longer depend on
the city as a retail center.

Wallach: Now, the suburbs
could only happen in America

with the advent
of the vehicle.

We needed vehicles to live in
these new kind of communities.

And as they continued
to expand,

the newly needed roads
did as well,

in some cases paving roads

right through the heart
of existing neighborhoods,

separating what had been
thriving communities.

American suburbs
were held up as a symbol

of a thriving middle class,

but they had a distancing
effect on people as well.

Common areas
for human connection

were replaced
by individual spaces

and separated by greater
and greater distances.

What ends up happening

is a sense of separation
between people

right in the midst
of their own communities.

How does architecture,
how does urban planning,

and how do the neighborhoods
we live in today

impact how we relate
to each other?

How can we build
futures where we design

for more human connectedness?

And is that
even possible in a moment

that feels more deeply divided
than anything in our lifetimes?

I came to Washington

to sit down with the Secretary
of Transportation,

Pete Buttigieg,

someone who thinks a lot
about how we are shaping

not only the social fabric

but the actual infrastructure
of America.

You're leading the Department
of Transportation.

That's real infrastructure.

It's bridges. It's tunnels.
It's airports. It's roads.

That being said, what are
the takeaways to build

other types of kind of
social infrastructure,

in a sense more of that
human connective tissue?

Well, there's
a very real relationship

between how we connect
to each other physically

through transportation

and how we connect
to each other socially.

Even in an era where we
are discovering

remote and hybrid
and virtual interaction,

we're also seeing
how important it can be

to just be
around each other

or to literally
walk the streets

of one another's
communities,

to travel and understand
through travel

how other societies work.

One finding that I think
is very powerful

is when people get to
know each other better,

they tend to trust
each other more, not less.

It's 30 years from now,

and you're talking to your
children about this era,

this moment in human history.

How do you describe it?

Well, I'm gonna tell them
that this was a moment

when a lot of changes
happened in our society,

certainly in transportation,

and those changes led to
their lives getting better.

I think that we need to be
in a season of building,

not just because
we have a backlog

and there's a bunch of stuff
we should have been doing

the whole time
but because the projects

that are ahead
in this century--

the big shared national
and human projects--

like confronting
climate change,

staying a step ahead
of the next pandemic,

preventing
nuclear conflict--

will require levels
of cooperation

that, in turn, require

a lot of good
infrastructure.

Are we able to rebuild

to that kind of golden era
of community

that we once had?

Yeah, I believe we can,
and I believe we must.

This is not
just important

because of some vague
and romantic conception

of neighborhoods
and communities.

It's also got
life-and-death consequences.

There's evidence,
for example,

that the survivability
of tornadoes--

all other things
being equal--

goes up in neighborhoods
or communities

where neighbors
know each other.

So a simple principle
or test,

whether you're designing
a suburban subdivision

or a dense city block,

would be, Does
this design encourage

or discourage people

from knowing
who their neighbors are?

I really believe in so many
of these dimensions--

political, social,
even technological--

our salvation
will come from the local.

And we need processes

that empower
local decision making.

♪

Wallach, voice-over: We spend
a lot of time these days

separating ourselves
into groups

based on ideas and identity.

But I wanted to see
what's possible

when a local community
decides to build together

around a shared sense
of belief and belonging.

In Amsterdam,
Marjan de Blok decided

to do just that,
when she helped create

a floating village right
here in the heart of the city.

Wallach: Usually when I
show up to a village,

I just take, like, a path,

and I just, you know, start
walking among the homes.

But here I
immediately walked

onto a dock on the water.

So tell me where we are.

You are in the north
of Amsterdam

in Johan van Hasseltkanaal.

And I'm the founder
of this village

that you are in right now.

One school--one school
is here, very near...

Marjan de Blok, voice-over:
So we have a big jetty

connecting all the houses.

There are actually
46 households living here.

We are a community,
so we share a lot together.

And we try to live
as sustainable as possible.

All our houses
have solar panels.

All our houses
have a heat pump.

We have a green roof,
and all the houses are built

with sustainable materials.

All houses are
really well-insulated.

And we have a smart grid,
which is quite special.

By the smart grid,
we are all connected,

so we can exchange

the surpluses of
the energy we generated.

And all the houses
have a battery.

And in this battery,
we can also save energy

that we don't need
at that moment.

If one house generates
more electricity

and another house
needs more electricity,

you can share electricity
among the homes?

Yeah.
That's how it goes.

So what was the motivation

for starting
a community like this?

Well, it actually
started 15 years ago.

At that time, I was living
in a small house in Amsterdam.

I hardly knew my neighbors,

and it was all really kind of
lonely and individualistic.

And I just completely
fell in love

with the concept of living
sustainable on the water,

but also to live
a more social life,

because that was something

that I was really missing
at that time.

I had this idea of
starting a group.

Build a couple of
houseboats together,

make them sustainable.

And living on the water makes
you feel closer to nature.

And the fact that you would
generate your own electricity

gave me this really
great sense of freedom,

a feeling that I would
never have

in the house that
I was living in.

[indistinct chatter]

[music]

Whoo.

Wallach:
So tell me more about

what it's like
living in community.

De Blok: Yeah.
It's uncomparable.

It's uncomparable.
It's a feeling...

You are never alone.

You have like-minded
people around you.

If you have to do everything
by yourself, it's not fun.

And so then
the community makes it nice

to try all these new
sustainable technologies.

So I really think that
the community is needed

for a transition to
a more sustainable society.

Hi.
Hello.

De Blok, voice-over:
When I started this

or when I had
this initial idea,

I had no idea how important
it was, what we were doing.

[indistinct chatter]

And that it's also
about, what can you do,

instead of what
you can't do or what is--

you can't eat meat,

you can't drive a car,
you can't fly.

It's all, like, negative.

And, of course, those things
are important to keep in mind

and to adjust your behavior,

but there's
also another side to it.

And I think that's
the side that we touched

and realized here
with this community,

because it's all positive.

It's all about connection--
connection to your neighbors

but also connection
to your environment.

If you are connected
to your environment,

you will think twice
before polluting it.

There's a lot of respect
for one another,

and I think everybody
realizes that it's

not just a jetty
with some houses.

I feel that it's an organism
that is still growing,

and it's almost
an organism in itself,

like, a live thing.

It's not just a project.

And I think people
realize that.

So they know it's special,
what we have.

And that's a really
nice feeling

if you have that
in your daily life.

[both speaking Dutch]

Wallach, voice-over:
It's so exciting to think about

the futures we can create
when we design

with human connectedness
in mind.

Collaboration and cooperation
is how we got to this point,

and it's
our only path forward.

And yet, in so many ways
right now,

it feels like we're
moving further away

from these
primary human traits.

Bregman: What makes us special?

Why have we humans
conquered the globe?

Why not the Neanderthals,
you know?

The Neanderthals
were pretty smart as well.

Actually, they had
bigger brains than us.

Why not the bonobos?
Why not the chimpanzees?

What distinguishes us
as a species?

John Jost: All of us
are individuals.

And we have
individual needs, wishes,

wants, desires, and so on.

But we also are
part of social groups

that can mean a lot to us.

Man: Being human
is this team sport,

is this collective,
collaborative

endeavor that we actually
have to bring ourselves to.

This whole story of evolution,
that may the best man win--

that's not
what Darwin was saying at all.

Page after page,
what he's actually doing

is marveling at
the way different species

communicate and collaborate
for mutual survival.

Bregman: There's a really
old idea that's deeply embedded

in our culture
and in our history,

which says that human beings
are fundamentally selfish.

So what scientists
now believe is

that the secret of our success
is not our intelligence,

it's not our strength.

No, it's our ability
to work together.

It's our friendliness.

So this is what they call
survival of the friendliest,

and it's basically the secret
of our whole story.

Wallach, voice-over: These ideas
matter more than ever

because we have important,
unfinished things

to do right now that we
can only do together.

One of these things is
creating enough housing

for everyone who needs it.

In Austin, Melodie Yashar
and her team at ICON

are working on ways
to meet this challenge

by building 3-D-printed homes
that can be printed

in a matter of weeks.

OK, so tell me,
Where are we right now?

We are in House Zero.

House Zero is a project that
we both designed and built

in collaboration with
the architect Lake Flato.

And it is intended
to showcase

what is possible
using 3D printing.

It is a project
that we took on

as a research-and-development
effort to show what's possible

and to introduce
to the general public

what it's like
to live on the inside

and be on the inside
of a 3-D-printed home.

Give me a sense
of the problem.

Like, how many people are
we talking are unhoused

in the U.S. and globally?

Melodie Yashar: It's close
to a billion people,

a billion homes that
we need to deliver

to address
the global housing crisis.

The way that we've
been building--

using sticks and bricks
of the past, and steel--

is just not getting
us there fast enough.

And so, to really address

and make a true impact
in this problem,

automated technologies
can get us there.

And 3-D printing, of course,
is one of them.

Take me through what
actually happened here

and in general, right?

We'll start off
with a concrete slab.

So you have level ground.
Now what happens?

Yashar: Once a slab is poured,
we deploy our 3-D printer,

which is a 9,600-pound
Gantry-based robot.

We deploy it on rails
adjacent to that slab,

so the Y rails run back
and forth and parallel

to the slab.

And then we have two towers,
as well as an X beam,

that goes across
those towers,

which essentially comprise
the overall Gantry system.

We have
a material-handling system

that travels
through a very long hose

and gets deposited
at the nozzle of the printer.

And layer by layer,
the structure is fabricated.

Yashar: We are at
the Wolf Ranch development.

This is a 100-home community.

This represents the largest
3-D-printed community

that we're aware of
in the world.

And as you can see,
it's well underway.

We have multiple printers
printing simultaneously,

adjacent to slabs that
have been poured by Lennar.

And we're delivering
the vertical-wall system,

which is the 3-D-printed
walls of these houses.

Wallach: And how long
does it usually take

for one of these homes
to go up?

Roughly, two weeks
on average,

assuming that we have

continuous
24-hour-a-day printing.

But that's
essentially the idea,

is that we deploy
the printer within a day,

the printer prints
the home,

and the home
is finished traditionally.

You put on
a traditional roof.

Your plumbing and all
of that--electrical--

happens still traditionally.

I also know in your bio,
you're an architect

for both on-world
and off-world architecture.

So the on-world I get.
We're here.

Tell me more about
the off-world work.

3-D printing is
a leading contender

in in-space construction

because the premise for
3-D printing in space is

that we would use local
and indigenous materials

on the surface of the planet

rather than bringing
anything with us from Earth.

That's a really
high-impact concept

because it is
prohibitively expensive

to launch heavy materials
from Earth to space.

And it's not going to
enable us to create

the kinds of infrastructure,
small cities, and settlements

that we've seen
in science-fiction images

for decades in the past.

So NASA is really interested,

and other aerospace companies
are really interested,

in this idea of using

the soil that is local
to the moon and Mars

and sending up a single
3D-printing robot

that can leverage that soil
and those materials

to 3-D print, really,

any kind of infrastructure or
any kind of surface element

that would be beneficial
to the crew.

Wallach, voice-over:
The collaboration and innovation

at work here is beautiful.

And it's inspiring
to see how solving problems

with creativity and concern
for the here and now

is the same work as building
far-off futures as well.

Narrator: Our story
is about you and me

and why we are alike
in some ways

and yet why each person
is different from every other.

Bregman: Cynicism is
another word for laziness,

because if things
are lost anyway,

then you don't have
to do anything.

You can just sit back
and, I don't know,

make the best of
your own life, and that's it.

If things are not lost,

if we can do so much better
as a species,

then that gives
you a certain responsibility.

Douglas Rushkoff: If you want
to call human beings

the most evolved species,
it's because we've evolved

the most elaborate means

of collaboration
and communication,

letting us do stuff together.

When you start
to understand that nature is

a collaborative dance
of different things,

you start to understand, Oh,
well, being human is that, too.

We are not alone.

We are in one big,
connected nervous system.

Bregman: We become the stories
that we tell ourselves.

What kind of society
are you gonna create?

So, for example,

I think we should get into
that problem-solving mind-set

and think about, like, What
are the really big challenges

that we face
as a species today,

and what are the most
effective solutions?

Wallach: I'm often asked
how new tools will enable us

to solve these challenges,

but the truth is
that all too often,

what we lack are not
the technologies

but, rather, the collective
will to act together

on behalf of our
neighbors and communities

rather than just ourselves.

One of these challenges is
around food,

a constant source of
unnecessary suffering

all over the world,

including right here
in this country,

where a shocking amount of

us are still hungry
and food insecure.

In Upstate New York, a farmer
named Karen Washington

has spent her life fighting
for a different future,

one in which healthy,
affordable food for everyone

is seen as
an essential human right.

Wallach: Here we are--

beautiful, kind of,
Upstate New York.

Tell me,
did you grow up here?

No.

Believe it or not, I grew
up in the concrete jungle

of New York City.

As a matter of fact,
I grew up in the projects,

Lower East Side,
so those were my roots.

I started really growing
food back in the city,

back in the 1980s.

And then came a time where
my friends and I decided,

Let's try something
bigger.

And so we landed
here back in 2014.

You're here
at Rise & Root Farm,

which is in Chester,
New York, Orange County.

We are in the Black Dirt
Region of Orange County.

So what does that mean,
the Black Dirt Region?

Well, if you look at soil,

normally, it's between 1%,
maybe 2% of organic matter.

But here, the soil is 40%.

Wow.

So GreenThumb is
the organization

in New York City that runs
the community gardens.

So we grow for them.

There are over 400 community
gardens in New York City.

And so we've been asked
the task

of growing their starts.

And so each
community garden will get

a tray of flowers and herbs

and a tray of vegetables.

And so yesterday we did

all the flowers and herbs.

And today we're doing
all of the vegetables.

Wallach, voice-over:
When they leave the farm,

these plants are sent out
to community gardens

across New York City that
are working

to fight hunger and food poverty

by equipping local communities
in underserved neighborhoods

to grow their own food.

Wallach: What's the role of
food in America today?

I think it has
been co-opted.

If you think of food,
food is the essence

of nourishment
for human beings.

But I think that has
now been made

more of a profit
sort of thing.

And it has divided
the human race

for the haves
and have-nots.

You know, people in
low-income neighborhoods

have food that is cheap.

It's processed food.
It's fast food, junk food.

And people who
are more affluent have

"healthy, organic foods."

Back in the day,
it was the small farmers.

It has been
industrialized.

And so what happened is
that this sort of

commercialization
of farmers

started swallowing up
small farmers.

The emphasis was
on that mighty dollar,

you know,
on a capitalistic system

to produce food
at a rate

that we wind up
producing so much food

and wasting so much food,

yet that food is not
getting

down to the people
that need it the most.

Why is that?

Why is it that just
the healthiest stuff

goes to one group

and the overly processed
goes to another group?

I think for so long,

we have been complacent
as a society.

We have gone home
in our nice houses

with our nice cars
and closed the door

and said, you know,
"That's not my problem.

That's someone else's
problem."

Why, in the greatest
country in the world,

where we grow enough food
and we waste enough food,

yet that food is not
getting

down to the people
that need it the most?

Why is it it's based
on race,

the color of your skin?

Why is it based
on where you live?

Why is it based on
how much money you have?

And start having
those hard conversations

that we don't have.

Wallach, voice-over:
The challenges in food systems

here and around the world
can easily feel insurmountable,

but Karen's work reminds me that

real, scalable,
and lasting change

is going to
start in our own communities.

Wallach:
What can it look like,

from where we are right now
to where we want to be?

Tell me, Where
do we want to be?

Karen Washington: I think
where we want to be is

that everybody,
everybody--

and not only here
in the United States

but globally--

but everybody
has to understand

that food, clean water,

and shelter
are human rights.

And we're not
there yet.

Wallach, voice-over:
To create a future

where all people have access to
good, nutritious food

isn't just going to happen.

Better futures are not
easy or inevitable.

But together,
we can look around

at the systems
across our societies

and decide they are not
sufficient for the world

we're building.

That's the story of all progress
throughout our history--

people coming together to
decide the injustices of today

have no place
in our tomorrows.

Jost: I think of history as
essentially two steps forward,

one step back.

Resistance to change is

part of what it means to be
human, for better and worse.

We grow up in a world,

and we're socialized to see
the way things are

as essentially
the way things should be.

And most of the adults in
our lives are telling us this.

Literally, our teachers,
our parents, and so on

are all doing things
that make us experience

the reality that we're
growing into as natural,

perhaps even inevitable.

We want to feel good
about the social, economic,

political institutions
and arrangements

on which we all depend for
our livelihoods, for our lives.

And it's painful to
believe that you're living in

and operating in
an unjust social system.

Bregman: Every single milestone
of civilization

that we are used to right now,

whether it's democracy
or the welfare state

or equal rights
for men and women,

all these milestones
were fantasies once.

It's ideas that really govern
and determine

our trajectory as a species.

And that idea in itself,
that progress is possible,

is probably one of the most
powerful ideas we've ever had.

[vehicle horns honking]

Wallach: Being here, you see,
on the one hand,

just kind of cutting-edge
infrastructure--

high-speed rail--just things
that are just so amazing.

And on the other hand,
you see folks

who are carrying
drinking water on their heads

back to their homes.

They don't have indoor plumbing.

And so when I think about,
What does it mean

to live sustainably
and regeneratively,

it can't just be
for the richest countries.

We won't have the futures
we want for everyone

until we can run basic
electrical lines into homes

and allow for indoor plumbing.

The project of moving forward

to a more kind of sustainable
way of living on Planet Earth

is going to require
electrification of everything

for everyone.

♪

I'm here to visit a community
that made news around the world

by becoming the first village
in India

to become completely powered
by solar energy.

Wallach: Thank you
for inviting me

to your village today.

So I thought we would
start by you letting me know,

like, who you are
and what your role here

is in the village.

[speaking Hindi]

What is the kind of historical
and spiritual significance

of the sun here in India?

[speaking Hindi]

Wallach, voice-over:
Safir explained to me

how this new form of energy is

especially meaningful,
here in a place

with such a long,
rich history with the sun.

Wallach:
So what were the challenges

that you were facing
as a village that led you

to have to and want to take
on a project like this?

[Safirmiya Sumarmiya Sindhi
speaking Hindi]

Wallach:
How many panels are there

here in this entire village?

[Sindhi speaking Hindi]

Wallach: How does it feel
to see children playing

in a community that isn't
using dirty energy sources,

that's using the sun
to power, you know,

their homes and their schools
and their way of life?

What does that feel like?

[speaking Hindi]

Wallach: When you think
about the future of India

potentially moving
to all solar,

how do you feel being such
a kind of pioneer village

for the entire country?

[speaking Hindi]

Wallach, voice-over: Seeing
countries take very small steps,

like you see in
a very small village,

saying, "You know what?

"Here's how we're gonna
contribute to the solution.

"We're not gonna
wait for something

"to come from Brussels
or from Washington,

"even, necessarily,
just from Delhi.

We're gonna do
it here locally."

And, you know, they say
all politics are local.

All energy is local.
All everything is local.

Even a sense
of community, right?

We talk about the need for
there to be more community.

And it's sometimes
talked about

almost at a national
or a nation-state level.

But you come to a village like
this, and I walk the town.

And that's community.

That's how futures are made,

really, at this
much more ground level,

be it about how you're gonna
make your electricity

and how
you're gonna power your homes

or how you're just
gonna act as a community

towards one another.

And it's beautiful to see that
happening in a place

that, to be honest,
has been getting,

really, just the exhaust
from all these other countries

who have been contributing
to the problem.

They're actually showing us
another way forward.

Program host: What must we do as
active and informed citizens?

We must decide now,

for how well we live tomorrow

will depend
on the action we take today.

Jost: I do want people 50 years,
100 years, 200 years from now

to know that people were really
trying hard

to leave the world
in a better place for them.

And I don't know
whether it will succeed,

but we have to try.

Washington: In order for us
to look at the future,

you got to understand
the past.

I have real hope that
these young people

are looking for
a more just system.

Pete Buttigieg:
If we're not tapping

into shared humanity,

then we're not gonna be
finding the best answers.

The best answers
are the ones

that allow everybody
to prosper

and to succeed
and to belong.

Ikenaga: We all have
to have a common goal.

We all have to know what
the other person wants.

It's a collective
experience.

It's a state of mind.

Bailey: How can we take what
we see as some of the worst

of humanity's propensity
towards violence,

isolation, and exclusion

and transform that
into an opportunity

but also cast
a new way forward?

This distrust is hurting us
as a society.

Humans have evolved
to connect with one another.

We need to connect.
We need our friends.

We need our family members.
We need our coworkers.

We need the strangers
in the streets, right?

But if society keeps telling us
that we can't trust them,

that they're dangerous,

that we should be
wary of one another,

then that's tearing us apart.

De Blok: We are not
supposed to be alone.

You have to be connected,

and happiness
comes from connection.

People don't realize
that enough, I think.

♪

Wallach: I thought people would
want to talk about the future

through a kind of
almost individualized lens,

they would want to talk about

the careers
that they're gonna have

or they're worried
about artificial intelligence

is gonna come for their job
or for their children's job.

But what I keep hearing is

a desire
and a hope for community.

Everyone I'm speaking to,
when I ask them,

"What do you want the future
to look like,"

inevitably, the idea or
just the term of community

comes up--this idea
of human connection.

And sometimes it's more
deeply with their friends,

and sometimes it's more deeply
as a town or a village

or as a state

or, really,
just as a kind of human family,

you know, as almost something
post-nation-state,

something bigger.

And that's both been surprising
and unbelievably delightful.

As we move forward,
as we kind of rethink

these baseline assumptions
about how we order the world,

there can no longer be

an "I win, you lose" mind-set
or mentality.

No one flourishes
until everyone flourishes.

As we move forward, we
have an amazing opportunity

to do that for ourselves
and for our species.

♪

[laughter, excited chatter]