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Bringing Back Space Age Optimism in California
What will it take to align culture, technologists, and policymakers around techno-optimism?
Jarrett Catlin
June 24, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 2 minutes
From Star Trek to Skunk Works, California once led the world in space-age dreaming. What happened? In this solo episode, I trace the roots of that generation of techno-optimism and ask what it might look like to summon it again in an era of cynicism, scarcity, and political drift to get Californians dreaming again.
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/california-future-society/id1807612672
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0zzVSVdCUCTGuZUyl8qZXA
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVNumolJuKvqJScBEnhe8hQ
Chapters
00:00 - Intro
03:31 - Defining the First Space Age
05:28 - The Twin Boosters of the Space Age
08:07 - Southern California: Epicenter of the Space Age
11:19 - Competing Views of the Space Age
12:47 - Fostering Techno-Optimism in California
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