“We’re living in a story-based world. We’re hard-wired to process things through the lens of stories which are linear narratives.” - Neal Stephenson Writer and futurist Neal Stephenson sees mythology everywhere; from the stories we tell ourselves, to the stories the media tells the masses, to the stories about the future of humanity. These “myths” define our past, outline our present, and will build our future… so what can we do to make them realistic, optimistic, and (capital “T”) True? Neal walks this line of thought in his latest book, Fall, where he asks the reader to question how close we are to emerging technologies that will allow us to learn and evolve more quickly.  In this episode, Chad and Neal discuss the concept of ‘islands’ online, the impact of social media on our collective imagination and our ability to live out our agreed upon realities. Neal also shares how he came to be the first employee at Blue Origin, a company founded by Jeff Bezos, which is committed to advancing space travel. Currently, Neal serves as Chief Futurist of Magic Leap, a company working to bring transmedia projects such as AR and VR to the masses.  You can catch Neal on his book tour here as he is traveling the next few weeks across the United States! - Don’t forget, we have a new partnership with b8ta! B8ta.com gives you access to some of the most innovative and cutting edge consumer tech products. This week, we will be giving away one Qwerky Keyboard and one Muse Brain Sensing Headband. Enter the giveaway for a chance to win! -- Mission Daily and all of our podcasts are created with love by our team at Mission.org We own and operate a network of podcasts, and brand story studio designed to accelerate learning. Our clients include companies like Salesforce, Twilio, and Katerra who work with us because we produce results. To learn more and get our case studies, check out Mission.org/Studios. If you’re tired of media and news that promotes fear, uncertainty, and doubt and want an antidote, you’ll want to subscribe to our daily newsletter at Mission.org. When you do, you’ll receive a mission-driven newsletter every morning that will help you start your day off right!