Remember when you were a kid and used to think about the future? If you were like me, visions of the future were full of hoverboards, flying cars, and shiny chrome everything. There was no doubt the future would be awesome, even if it seemed forever away.

Things seem quite different as an adult, especially one living in the early 21st century. The future no longer waits quietly over the horizon, but is instead standing at the doorstep. At times, peering ahead one or two decades seems somewhat unfathomable, as our lives change so much with each passing year. How to put it all into perspective?

The solution is simple: turn to a media futurist!

Particularly, I speak of media futurists Gerd Leonhard and Glen Hiemstra, the work of whom has left me recently fascinated. It isn’t that they talk about the things that will happen, but rather the things that are happening right now in the realm of media. That is, anything and everything pertaining to the web, music, video, technology, copyright, sharing and so forth.

Life in the information age will be quite fascinating, and it is great to have thinkers like Leonhard and Hiemstra working hard to help us make sense of it all. Curious to hear what they have to say? A great introduction to both Leonhard and Hiemstra can be found in the FutureTalks series of conversations. The pair share their ideas and thoughts on several different media-related topics, as listed below. I have included links to each conversation in both video or mp3 form.

Otherwise, the blogs of both Leonhard and Hiemstra are great places for regularly updated views and news. Do yourself a favor and check them out… you will not be disappointed!

The Future of Media (Hiemstra)
54 minutes | mp3 | video

The Future of Media (Leonhard)
53 minutes | mp3 | video

The Long Tail
11 minutes | mp3 | video

The Future of Communications
14 minutes | mp3 | video

The Future of Entertainment: Music and Media
12 minutes | mp3 | video

User Generated Content
13 minutes | mp3 | video

Commercial vs. Shared Culture
13 minutes | mp3 | video

The Future of Advertising
12 minutes | mp3 | video

Beyond Web 2.0
12 minutes | mp3 | video

Technology vs. Copyright
13 minutes | mp3 | video

Media Megatrends
12 minutes | mp3 | video