From What Is to What If

Unleashing the Power of Imagination to Create the Future We Want

By: Rob Hopkins

Narrated by: Rob Hopkins

The founder of the international Transition Towns movement asks why true creative, positive thinking is in decline, asserts that it's more important now than ever, and suggests ways our communities can revive and reclaim it.

In these times of deep division and deeper despair, if there is a consensus about anything in the world, it is that the future is going to be awful. There is an epidemic of loneliness, an epidemic of anxiety, a mental health crisis of vast proportions, especially among young people. There’s a rise in extremist movements and governments. Catastrophic climate change. Biodiversity loss. Food insecurity. The fracturing of ecosystems and communities beyond, it seems, repair. The future - to say nothing of the present - looks grim.

But as Transition movement cofounder Rob Hopkins tells us, there is plenty of evidence that things can change, and cultures can change, rapidly, dramatically, and unexpectedly - for the better. He has seen it happen around the world and in his own town of Totnes, England, where the community is becoming its own housing developer, energy company, enterprise incubator, and local food network - with cascading benefits to the community that extend far beyond the projects themselves.

We do have the capability to effect dramatic change, Hopkins argues, but we’re failing because we’ve largely allowed our most critical tool to languish: human imagination. As defined by social reformer John Dewey, imagination is the ability to look at things as if they could be otherwise. The ability, that is, to ask What if? And if there was ever a time when we needed that ability, it is now.

From What Is to What If is a call to action to reclaim and unleash our collective imagination, told through the stories of individuals and communities around the world who are doing it now, as we speak, and witnessing often rapid and dramatic change for the better.

©2019 Rob Hopkins (P)2019 Chelsea Green Publishing

Critic reviews

“Rob Hopkins has long been a leader in imagining how we could remake our societies for the benefit of nature and humankind. His new book is a powerful call to imagine a better world. It should be widely read and appreciated.” (Christiana Figueres, former Executive Secretary, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change; lead negotiator, Paris Climate Agreement)

Incredible insights and review! Brilliant!!

I delighted when I began listening to this book.
Even though I keep up with some of the quoted sources and resources MikeEven though I keep up with some of the quoted sources and resources like sir Kenneth Robinson I was very delighted when I realized the book was long enough to be more enriched than I had even imagined The insights and examples in this audiobook are invaluable for reinventing and envisioning and then creating (co creating) a new more sustainable society and civilization...

The distionctions listed between creativity and innovation and the need for both was made clear in many colorful ways.

Please write and narrate more of these..I follow hundred and hundreds of new audiobooks every few months and this is at the top. it gave me some new directions that inspired and reignited my own passion to really sue these tools and examples to reform the bonds of community and sustainable yet practical community ..

Bravo!!

A Source of Hope from Within

A much-needed antidote to the pervasive pessimism of so much of today’s world: the wonder of imagination! From its title through the afterword, this book inspires and uplifts with hopefulness made possible by reminding us to envision the future, our futures, to glimpse the flickers of possibility in our imaginations, then expand those flickers into lasting flames of hope that can power us to reshape our realities and so our world by focusing our consistent thoughts and actions on their achievement, having witnessed their possibilities and the potential for a better world for all. Thank you, Mr. Hopkins.

Best book ive read! (Heard)

If you are wavering on listening, stop! Get this book! Dont hesitate! Make time to hear it out and tke some notes. What an amazing book! Also this was a text book for me so i wouldn’t have picked it up, but it needs to be broadcasted across the nation! Required reading for all politicians! Love it!

The book I didn’t know I needed

This book is wildly hopeful and inspiring and yet it never made me roll my eyes as pie in sky thinking. It has changed my outlook on the future and how to go about effectuating change. A truly holistic approach to a bright future.

Most Fascinating

This is truly one of the most fascinating books I’ve ever read. I will listen to it again and again, drawing inspiration from the author’s ideas for years to come. Just wonderful!

Amazing 10/10 Inspirational

Can't recommend this enough, especially for creatives, visionaries, thinkers, dreamers, and volunteers. I also recommend his podcast.