How to Survive the Future

Alex Chambers and Allison Quantz
  • 5.0 (3)
  • DOCUMENTARY
  • SERIES
How to Survive the Future

In How to Survive the Future, we ask everyday people to imagine a world where they have made it through the challenges of the present and faced the pain of the past and then tell us what life is like after that. Farmers, poets, parents, organizers and others imagine how their lives, and the landscapes around them, will be different than they are now—hopefully for the better, though it’s never that simple. From the interviews, we create sound-rich “imaginative documentaries” that explore real stories of the past and possible stories of the future.

Season 1

  1. Nightfall Farm

    EPISODE 1

    Nightfall Farm

    Alex visits a farm in Southern Indiana – Nightfall Farm – to talk with the farmers Liz and Nate Brownlee about climate change and crawdads. And all the rain.

    20 min
  2. Bloomington Birth Center

    EPISODE 2

    Bloomington Birth Center

    Katie is a criminology professor and a doula. She’s also the mother of two sons. They’re grown men at this point, but they still do dinner together almost every week – along with her older son’s wife, and her husband. This episode starts with some news from Katie’s daughter-in-law.

    27 min
  3. McCormick’s Creek State Park

    EPISODE 3

    McCormick’s Creek State Park

    Ellen retired from her work as an ecologist decades ago, but she still walks in her favorite state park. One spring day, she takes Alex along trails that keep getting wider to search for disappearing spring ephemerals: among others, guyandotte beauty, great waterleaf, and the puttyroot orchid, which can be hard to find.

    32 min
  4. Martinsville

    EPISODE 4

    Martinsville

    When his daughters were teenagers, Chuck and his family lived close to downtown Martinsville. That was also the time - they found out later - that the city’s drinking water was most contaminated with toxic chemicals.Chuck’s dreams are with his grandson now, an early-career jazz musician making a life in a city where things are starting to look up.

    23 min
  5. The Near West Side

    EPISODE 5

    The Near West Side

    When Alex said his neighborhood needed speedbumps to deal with the cops speeding through, poet Ross Gay said, “Build your own. That’s what we did.” Ross is in his nineties now, but he’s as much a part of the neighborhood as ever.

    31 min
  • 5 Episodes

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
3 Ratings

About

In How to Survive the Future, we ask everyday people to imagine a world where they have made it through the challenges of the present and faced the pain of the past and then tell us what life is like after that. Farmers, poets, parents, organizers and others imagine how their lives, and the landscapes around them, will be different than they are now—hopefully for the better, though it’s never that simple. From the interviews, we create sound-rich “imaginative documentaries” that explore real stories of the past and possible stories of the future.

Information

  • Creator
    Alex Chambers and Allison Quantz
  • Episodes
    5
  • Seasons
    1
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2022 Indiana Humanities
  • Show Website
    How to Survive the Future

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