Everyday Futurism

Start here

Nola Simon — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 12:15:07 GMT

The future isn’t predicted. It’s practiced.

I’m Nola Simon. I am the case study.

I help leadership teams see what they’re taking for granted. About strategy. About trust. About what their organization is becoming. The work has a name: the Assumption-Ground Audit. The logic underneath it is called Everyday Futurism. The pattern I’m tracking right now is what I call Witnessed Trust: how trust is shifting toward unmediated, unscripted moments that institutions can’t manage at scale. Trust is the subject, the method, and the outcome.

This Substack is where I think out loud about it. Cross-domain pattern recognition, signal scanning, and what’s assembling itself underneath the decisions that feel obvious. One essay every Sunday. Free above the paywall, paid below.

Three places to start

Witnessed Trust: A Case Study. The macro piece. The Coldplay kiss-cam moment, the Astronomer crisis response, and the Reynolds-Paltrow campaign. Witnessed Trust applied at organizational scale. What it actually is, why it can’t be manufactured, and why distraction is not resolution. If you’re a CHRO or strategy lead, this is the AGA running on territory you’ll recognize immediately. The institutional version.

Witnessed Trust: Receipts (Ben Affleck and Reese Witherspoon). The micro piece. Same framework, individual scale. Two people in the same industry facing the same crisis (AI) with completely different receipts. What that gap reveals about why coherence, not disclosure, is what trust actually rests on now. Read with the case study above. They’re the same logic at macro and micro.

The Assumption-Ground Audit. The methodology essay. What the AGA actually is: a way of surfacing expiring assumptions before decisions harden into policy. How it’s different from a strategy review or change-management exercise. Why most leadership teams need it but won’t ask for it. If you want the framework directly after the case studies, this is where it lives.

How the work is layered

Free. The Sunday essay above the paywall. Read it whenever. No urgency.

Standard. $12/month or $120/year. Same essay, plus the application section below the paywall: how to actually use the idea, the worked example, the prompt for your own team.

Founding member. $300/year. Adds quarterly AGA conversations (small group, four times a year, 75 minutes, peer thinking and direct work on what’s in front of you) and the annual signal report (long-form, drops late August, the kind of thing you’d forward to your CEO).

The 2026 founding cohort has a launch kickoff on June 4. Virtual, small group, the start of the year. Subscribers who join after June 4 still get the four annual conversations and the signal report. They just miss the kickoff.

Pricing page →

What’s not on Substack

The advisory work lives at nolasimon.com. The AGA itself, the keynotes, the 1:1 by invitation. Substack is where I think. The site is where the consulting lives. The podcast (Hope + Possibilities: A Love Letter to the Future of Work, 100+ episodes, 13 seasons, Goodpods Top 100 Leadership Indie) is on its own page at nolasimon.com/podcast.

If you want to talk: paid intro consultation at tidycal.com/nola/intro-consultation-nola-simon. The fee is a trust signal, not a barrier.

If you want me to speak at your event: tidycal.com/nola/book-a-speaker. $1 booking fee. Same logic.

What you won’t find here

No countdown timers. No fake scarcity. No webinar funnels disguised as free trainings. No “you won’t believe” subject lines. When something is full, the answer is waitlist, not act now.

In George, we trust.

Nola

Self-Trust and Inner Practices

Nola Simon — Wed, 21 Jan 2026 19:41:19 GMT

There’s a lot of data showing that trust in governments, institutions, and organizations is declining worldwide. Employers were once considered the last trusted institution—and even that is eroding. As someone who has spent years working independently, I’ve often noticed that these conversations leave out people like us entirely. When you don’t have an employer, trust shows up differently. Stability looks different. And the relationship you have with yourself matters more than most people realize.

How AI Decides Who Gets Hired:

Nola Simon — Fri, 21 Nov 2025 01:43:58 GMT

In this episode, I sit down with investigative journalist and NYU professor Hilke Schellmann to discuss her groundbreaking book, *The Algorithm: How AI Decides Who Gets Hired, Monitored, Promoted, Fired, and Why We Need to Fight Back Now*. Our conversation reveals the hidden world of AI-driven hiring tools, their surprising flaws, and why transparency and accountability matter more than ever.

The Canary Code: Exclusion Does Not Need A Reason, Just An Excuse

Nola Simon — Mon, 10 Nov 2025 16:05:11 GMT

Hope + Possibilities: A Love Letter to the Future of Work

Building Your Brand at Work with Cher Jones

Nola Simon — Tue, 04 Nov 2025 16:19:32 GMT

🎙️ Hope + Possibilities: A Love Letter to the Future of Work

Episode:

My guest in this episode is Cher Jones — a powerhouse in personal branding, digital communication, and corporate training. If you…

From What Is to What If: Igniting Imagination with Futurist Nikolas Badminton

Nola Simon — Tue, 04 Nov 2025 15:56:39 GMT

🎙️ Hope + Possibilities: A Love Letter to the Future of Work

Episode Title: From What Is to What If: Igniting Imagination with Futurist Nikolas Badminton

Guest: Nikolas Badminton — Chief Futurist, aut…

Let's Talk Thought Leadership and Podcasting with Amanda Cupido

Nola Simon — Sun, 02 Nov 2025 19:38:01 GMT

Amanda Cupido — Founder of Lead Podcasting, author (including “Let’s Talk Podcasting for Kids”), experienced broadcaster, keynote speaker, and TEDx presenter.

Let’s Talk Thought Leadership and Podcasting with Amanda Cupido

Sat, 01 Nov 2025 20:01:47 GMT

Who is a podcaster? Most people haven’t met one in real life. I often get a double take when I mention that I podcast. It’s like seeing a unicorn.

When you think about the stereotype in pop culture, w…

Flexibility, Advocacy, and the Politics of Care

Nola Simon — Fri, 19 Sep 2025 17:06:54 GMT

If you say you don’t want to be political, it’s often because the system is already working for you. For those of us who’ve had to fight for flexibility, access, or equity—that’s never been an option.

How to Practice Futurism in Daily Life

Nola Simon — Thu, 11 Sep 2025 15:55:27 GMT

When people hear “futurism,” they often picture science fiction, flying cars, or long reports from think tanks.

Who Will You Be?

Nola Simon — Mon, 01 Sep 2025 17:23:22 GMT

An exercise to try when you are considering the future of work is the 10 possible selves exercise. The idea is to think about possible avenues you could take based on your goals, skills, abilities an…

Futures Thinking

Nola Simon — Sun, 31 Aug 2025 12:29:25 GMT

There is never just one future. There are multiple futures. It’s why the multiverse makes sense. It’s why Choose Your Own Adventure books were so popular. The future is full of possibilities and the …

The Experiment

Nola Simon — Tue, 12 Aug 2025 19:37:31 GMT

When I decided to apply for a global TED talk, I knew I also wanted to expand on the idea beyond just that specific talk. The power of place and presence and how that is changing in storytelling as t…

The Myth of Proximity

Nola Simon — Fri, 01 Aug 2025 14:04:33 GMT

Read about my global TED talk application.

In 2018, I commuted to Toronto with the belief that physical presence would help me with my career. The executive vice president of our division had personal…

The Thing About Place

Nola Simon — Thu, 24 Jul 2025 16:29:28 GMT

I’m always fascinated by the accepted norms that live within advice people give, especially when it involves place.

I saw advice on networking today which is good advice in many ways. Networking doesn…

Reclaim Wednesday: Small Actions, Big Change

Nola Simon — Tue, 08 Jul 2025 18:26:42 GMT

The idea of shifting how musicians are treated by the music industry and fans feels enormous. It’s so easy to turn away and just listen to the music and do nothing. Consuming — listening, buying merc…

Brilliant, Lost, Damaged:

Nola Simon — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 19:21:40 GMT

Almost 9 months after the untimely death of Liam Payne in Argentina, the calls for systematic change in the music industry have gone quiet. Nine months after Liam Payne’s untimely death in Argentina,…

Die Hard from the Couch

Nola Simon — Sat, 05 Jul 2025 14:40:47 GMT

Location makes a difference to how we tell stories.

Die Hard and it’s sequels/inspirations are proof.

Die Hard - the office

Die Hard 2 - the airport

Die Hard 3 - gamify the commute

Die Hard 4 - digital tr…

Podcasting as Leadership

Nola Simon — Tue, 24 Jun 2025 15:06:23 GMT

Perhaps the Real Value of AI is The Opportunity to Stand Out

Nola Simon — Wed, 28 May 2025 15:44:22 GMT

Today I responded to someone despondent about the future of work in view of AI adoption.

Tell me the skills present So the thing about AI being trained on everything that has ever been created or publ…