Long Now Talks

Long Now Members

Geeky, fanciful, poignant, educational, with fresh angles on long-term thinking - Long Now Members shine in our annual Ignite Talks!

Watch & share these talks on YouTube and Long Now

For almost two decades, Long Now has produced hundreds of talks from the world’s leading long-term thinkers—and it’s all possible because of the support of our members and donors. Now, we are showcasing a curated set of short Ignite Talks created and given by the Long Now Members themselves.

With thousands of members from all around the world, the Long Now community has a wide range of perspectives, stories, and experiences to offer. What's an Ignite talk? It's a story format created by Brady Forrest and Bre Pettis that's exactly 5 minutes long, told by a speaker who's working with 20 slides that auto-advance every 15 seconds (ready or not).

These Ignite talks will range from geeky, fanciful, poignant, educational, with some fresh angles on long-term thinking - join us online for a fun and fast-paced event full of surprising and thoughtful ideas!

Our Ignite Speakers and Their Talks:

Monica L. Smith: Nature Always Wins
George Ferrandi: Introducing: Jump!Star
Matthew Dockrey: Scientific revolutions are kind of messy
Thais Nye Derich: Ectogenesis
Sandy Litchfield: On Distant Keys
Jose Julio Zerpa Rodriguez: West Mexico Volcanoes
Adam Long: How Marketers Ruined The World For The Long Term
Linda Gass: The Living Shoreline: Growing Community & Planting for the Future
Jason Crawford: Can economic growth continue over the long term?

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Long Now Talks are made possible by David and Abby Rumsey, Kim Polese, The Kaphan Foundation, Garrett Gruener, Scorpio Rising Fund, Peter Baumann, Brian Eno, Greg Stikeleather, Cameo Wood, Ping Fu, Peter Schwartz, Lawrence Wilkinson, Ken and Maddy Dychtwald, Future Ventures, Ken and Jackie Broad, AtoB, WHH Foundation, Stewart Brand and Ryan Phelan, Jackson Square Partners Foundation, and The Long Now Members. We would also like to recognize George Cowan (01920 - 02012) for being the first to sponsor this series.

Learn about sponsorship

Long Now Talks are made possible through the generous support of The Long Now Membership and our Seminar Sponsors. We offer $5,000 and $15,000 annual Sponsorships, both of which entitle the sponsor and a guest to reserved seating at all Long Now seminars and special events. In addition, we invite $15,000 Sponsors to attend dinner with the speaker after each Seminar, and $5,000 Sponsors may choose to attend any four dinners during the sponsored year. For more information about donations and Seminar Sponsorship, please contact donate@longnow.org. We are a public 501(c)(3) non-profit, and donations to us are always tax deductible.

What is the long now?

The Long Now Foundation is a nonprofit established in 01996 to foster long-term thinking. Our work encourages imagination at the timescale of civilization — the next and last 10,000 years — a timespan we call the long now.

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