Twenty years ago somebody on the radio asked me what was coming, and I told them, on air, with a date on it. Then they asked again the next year, and the year after that, and I kept saying it.

This year I went back and listened to all of it.

So this morning I started a podcast called Then and Now. Each episode is one year, from 2006 to this one. You hear exactly what I said back then, nothing changed, and then I tell you how it turned out and what I make of it now.

Where to listen

It’s in your podcast app now. Search for Then and Now with Morris Misel, or tap straight through:

Or hear every episode, with the full transcript, at welcome.morrismisel.com/listen.

How much radio is that?

More than I thought. When we counted everything I’d kept, there were more than 2,500 radio programmes from 2006 to this year, well over 300 hours of me talking about the future on air, plus 44 television appearances going back to 2003 and more than 500 recordings from the stage.

If you count each day and station once, it’s about 1,700 interviews.

They came from about forty stations: 3AW and the old MTR in Melbourne, 6PR and Curtin FM in Perth, 2UE and 2SER in Sydney, 4BC in Brisbane, 5AA in Adelaide and 2CC in Canberra.

Then there’s the ABC right across the country, from Darwin and Alice Springs to Tasmania, the Gold Coast, Townsville, Gippsland and the South West of WA. That’s every state and territory, and a few places I’d never have found on a map, like 2WEB in Bourke and Triple M in Albany.

And then it went further, because ABC Radio Australia carried me across Asia and the Pacific, and for more than ten years now I’ve been a regular on RTHK Radio 3 in Hong Kong, nearly four hundred mornings on air since 2014.

My busiest year was 2015, with more than three hundred recordings. Some days I was on four stations, and one week eight different ones.

Who I talked to

Some of the names will ring a bell. Denis Walter had me on 3AW more than twenty-five times, and Mark Holden had me on there too.

On 6PR it was Todd Johnston, Ted Bull, Harvey Deegan and Jason Jordan, and on Triple M Albany, Anthony Tilli, more than thirty times.

At the ABC there was Alan Brough in Melbourne, James Lush in Perth, Nicole Dyer on the Gold Coast and Sonya Feldhoff in Adelaide, with Rod Quinn and Tony Delroy on the late-night shows that go right across the country.

Derryn Hinch and Peter Switzer had me on, and in Hong Kong there’s Phil Whelan, who’s heard me on everything from a COVID app to ChatGPT.

Television came along too, from 2003, on Ten, Nine with Kerri-Anne Kennerley, Seven, Sky News Business and the ABC. And over the last ten years I’ve been a guest on thirteen other people’s podcasts, from pharmacy to retail to smart cities.

What we talked about

Pretty much everything, as it happens. The internet and the phone in your pocket came up most. Then how we live together, health and getting older, the year ahead, work and jobs, getting around, robots and AI, shopping, money, school, space, and what’s for dinner.

The gadget changes every year, but listening back, people keep asking me pretty much the same questions. They want to know if this will make life better or just busier, and whether their kids will be all right and there’ll still be work for them.

The ones I got right

On New Year’s Eve 2008, with an economist on 3AW talking about a million Australians out of work, I said it would be tough but nowhere near as bad as we feared. Unemployment peaked a bit under six per cent and the country never went into recession. I’m glad I held my nerve on that one.

In January 2010, on Radio Australia, I said Apple’s tablet would be a big iPhone, all touch and no keyboard. Nineteen days later Steve Jobs held up the iPad.

In 2012, on ABC Wide Bay, we talked about meat grown in a dish, five to fifteen years from market. Eight years later Singapore approved cultivated chicken for sale.

And back in 2006 I said the internet was turning from a library back into people talking to people, and I think that has held for the whole twenty years.

The ones I’d like back

In 2009 I told 6PR that Foursquare would be the next Twitter, and it wasn’t anywhere close.

In 2010 I said the iPhone would run out of puff in two or three years. Apple’s still selling it.

In 2011 I said we’d print our dinner sets at home. Most of us still buy plates at the shop.

And in 2020 I told Phil on RTHK that the COVIDSafe app was exactly what we needed. It was switched off in August 2022, having found two cases the human contact tracers hadn’t.

The misses are all still in there, and some of them taught me more than the hits did.

Looking back, the slow ones were nearly always slow because of people and habits and the law, which I only noticed once I put what I said next to what happened.

Why these twenty-one clips

With 1,700 interviews to choose from, picking twenty-one was the hard part.

We kept one call per year, the one with the clearest question and a date on it, so you can check me against what happened.

They run in order, so the printed dinner sets from 2011 take you into 2012’s food in a tower, and then into 2013’s car with nobody driving it.

Out now, and what’s next

The first three are out now: 2006, what’s the internet actually for; 2007, will everything end up in one device; and 2008, the crash.

2006: What is the internet actually for?

2007: Will everything end up in one device?

2008: Is the crash as bad as we fear?

After that there are two a week, every Tuesday and Friday: 2009 on 3 November, 2010 on 6 November, 2011 on 10 November, 2012 on 13 November, and on through the years until 2026 arrives on New Year’s Day.

Where to hear the rest

Twenty-one clips is only a small slice of 1,700 chats, and the guest spots on other people’s podcasts are listed on the Listen page too.

Seasons by subject will follow this one, pulling out everything I’ve said over the years about work, food, money or getting older. And the whole archive, every hour of it, is going into the Choose Forward room, where you can talk any of it through.

What did you think was coming twenty years ago, and how did it turn out? I’d love to hear yours.

Choose forward.

P.S. If looking back makes you want to look ahead, I’ve written a guide called Before the Year Turns for getting your business ready for 2027, with a worksheet for each step.

If you’d like a little of this every Tuesday, join the Tuesday email.

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Morris Misel is a foresight strategist, keynote speaker, and trusted adviser. He works with organisations to interpret what’s changing and make better decisions about what comes next. Heard by more than a million people a year on stage and in the media.

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Questions people ask

What is Then and Now?

A podcast from Morris Misel. Each episode is one year, from 2006 to 2026. You hear exactly what he said on the radio back then, nothing changed, and then how it turned out and what he makes of it now.

Where can I listen to Then and Now?

Search for Then and Now with Morris Misel in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or Amazon Music. Every episode, with the full transcript, is at welcome.morrismisel.com/listen.

How often do new episodes come out?

Two a week, every Tuesday and Friday, on through the years until 2026 arrives on New Year’s Day.

How much radio has Morris Misel done?

More than 2,500 radio programmes from 2006, well over 300 hours on air, about forty stations, and about 1,700 interviews if you count each day and station once. Add 44 television appearances going back to 2003 and more than 500 recordings from the stage.

Which calls did he get right?

On New Year’s Eve 2008 he said the crash would be tough but nowhere near as bad as feared. In January 2010 he said Apple’s tablet would be a big iPhone, nineteen days before the iPad. In 2012 he gave meat grown in a dish five to fifteen years, and eight years later Singapore approved cultivated chicken for sale.

Which calls did he get wrong?

Foursquare as the next Twitter in 2009, the iPhone running out of puff in 2010, printing dinner sets at home in 2011, and the COVIDSafe app in 2020. The misses are all still in there.

Why one call per year?

With 1,700 interviews to choose from, each episode keeps the call with the clearest question and a date on it, so you can check it against what happened.

Sources

Morris Misel’s radio, television and stage archive, 2003 to 2026 (his own recordings).

Then and Now with Morris Misel, every episode with transcripts.

Then and Now with Morris Misel, Apple Podcasts.