TODAY’S GUEST

Uri Aviv is a Science fiction Evangelist. He is the Founder and director, of the Utopia Festival for Science Fiction and Fantastic Films in Tel Aviv. A festival which merges an international film festival with an events program emphasizing the mutual inspiration between science and science fiction, and the social and philosophical significance of speculative thought.

Uri is also Program curator and Producer for conferences and festivals, including academic conferences, public science talks, tech meetups, workshops, and art exhibits and more.

He’s also an accomplished writer and speaker in his own right.

 

EPISODE SUMMARY

In this conversation we discuss:

[3:03] How Uri is affected by the Covid crisis

[5:46] The challenges of productions under the strain of an epidemic

[7:25] The psychological challenges of dealing with uncertainty.

[11:13] How Science Fiction became Uri’s calling and his life from an early age, and his growing skepticism

[15:46] About good parenting and good teachers

[20:35] Uri getting into Star Trek at a very young age.

[26:52] What it felt like to lead a popular national science fiction festival at such a young age.

[29:15] Why Israeli culture seems anti science fiction

[41:27] Why it’s so important to imagine alternative futures

[44:13] The creation of Designing Tomorrow, an international, interdisciplinary program for creating alternative futures.

[53:22] On the space between Utopia and Dystopia

[56:28] On where we are headed with climate and technology

[1:00:27] Two final quotes about chasing utopias.

 

EPISODE LINKS

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