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First, Marty travels 30 years back to 1955; then they both travel forward 30 years to 2015 (not our 2015 — because in their future the Cubs beat Miami in the World Series, which can’t happen, because they’re both in the National League). Finally, they head back a century to the old west, before returning home to their original time.
Throughout the year, there have been discussions about what the Back to the Future films got right and wrong about the future, which is now our present. So, in honor of our collective arrival at the future portrayed in Back to the Future, on today’s show, we discuss what depictions of the future in film and literature can tell us about the eras in which they were created, and what generations past thought the future would have in store for them. We then turn to Greater Houston and consider whether life here has become what previous generations of Houstonians may have envisioned.
Then we turn to you for a special project – we're going to create an audio time capsule for the Houstonians of 2045 and ask you to look 30 years ahead and make your best predictions about what life will be like here, from inventions to infrastructure, from culture to science, from industry to politics. What will Houston be like in 2045?
We'll share your predictions today, and then hang onto them for the next 30 years. Yes, really. We're saying it now. Houston Public Media will present a program in 2045 in which we'll unearth your predictions and share them with Greater Houston. It's a Houston Matters program 30 years in the making! (E-mail your predictions to talk@houstonmatters.org or join the conversation on air at noon at 713-440-8870).
Also this hour: We chat with Jeremy Hobson of Here and Now about his impressions of Houston after reporting and broadcasting from here much of this week. Gail Delaughter delves deeper into the transportation-related findings of the just-released Houston Public Media News 88.7/KHOU 11 Houston Voter Poll. And we discuss what the History Channel got right and wrong in their miniseries Texas Rising.
