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What I Want to Want for the Future

By Nate Hagens, originally published by The Great Simplification

July 14, 2025

Future Wants

Description

In today’s Frankly, Nate imagines that he’s looking back from an unspecified point in the future (even from beyond his lifetime), and ponders the core things he would want during his time on Earth. Breaking from what our culture steers us to seek out, Nate examines what a bedrock of human experiences might include — the things in our lives that keep us grounded and experiencing life to the fullest extent.

While naming some of the things he values in his own life, from experiencing full spectrum love to having a purpose, Nate encourages the viewer to reflect on what they might “want to want” for their respective (or hypothetical future) lives, divorced from desires tied to an unsustainable period of massive energy consumption: When stripped away from cultural inertia and sunk cost, what are the things we really want out of a life well lived?

Nate also reflects on some important questions about what factors go into these desires. Which of the things we want in the full human experience are dependent on society or external factors? Which are about internal values, and are durable through time and changing material conditions? These are the questions we must begin with in order to have real conversations about the future.

Recorded on: Jul 8, 2025

Show Notes & Links to Learn More

02:48 – Carbon Pulse

02:59 – Biosphere

04:30 – the commons

06:38 – mutual aid

08:10 – Wolf Trees: Elders of the Eastern Forest

10:52 – Hyperloop

Download transcript

Teaser image credit: Author supplied.
Nate Hagens

Nate Hagens

Nate Hagens is the Executive Director of The Institute for the Study of Energy & Our Future (ISEOF). Allied with leading ecologists, energy experts, politicians, and systems thinkers, ISEOF assembles roadmaps for understanding how human societies might adapt to lower-throughput lifestyles.

Nate hosts the podcast The Great Simplification, where he has conversations with experts in energy, ecology, government, technology, and the economy to provide a systemic view of the world around us.

After ten years in finance, Nate left Wall Street to study the interrelationships between energy, ecology, and economics—and the implications for human futures. He was the Managing Editor of The Oil Drum, one of the most respected websites for analysis and discussion of global energy supplies and implications of the upcoming energy transition.

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