Lives of Tomorrow WGSN

Hello and welcome to the fortnightly Lives of Tomorrow podcast about the macro societal shifts, exploring what they mean for all of us and how they will affect our Lives of Tomorrow.
In this episode, WGSN CEO Carla Buzasi discusses the future of fashion with Jane Shephersdson, the founder of clothing resale and rental company MyWardrobeHQ. Jane is well known for being the former brand director of global retailer TopShop where she pioneered many of the retail trends that remain today, not least the full shopping ‘experience’ – the London flagship offered in-store vintage and individual designer concessions, plus hair styling, a piercing salon and a cafe.
A sustainability champion, Jane discusses the state of fashion, why we must recognise and appreciate the value of clothes, how she’s adopted the Rule of Five and why she set up her rental business MyWardrobe HQ.

Hello and welcome to the fortnightly Lives of Tomorrow podcast about the macro societal shifts, exploring what they mean for all of us and how they will affect our Lives of Tomorrow.
In this episode, we discuss the rise of the kidult. At WGSN, ‘kidults’ are simply put, adults that shop like children. Adults around the world are escaping the polycrisis and finding comfort in buying toys and rekindling experiences from their childhoods through play.
We’ve been closely tracking this trend and today we hear from Genevieve Cruz, LEGO Group’s Head of Product – Senior Director within Adults Global Marketing to find out how the brand is engaging AFOLs (Adult Fans of LEGO) and pioneering and leaning into this trend.
Gen explains how LEGO strategises to capitalise on this consumer shift, how playdates are revolutionising the LEGO world, and about the different sub-communities shaping the future of how we play with LEGO.
Tune in to hear why more adults are turning to LEGO as a pastime, the future of the kidult trend, and how building blocks are a unifying antidote to doom-scrolling.

Hello and welcome to the fortnightly Lives of Tomorrow podcast about the macro societal shifts, exploring what they mean for all of us and how they will affect our Lives of Tomorrow.
We are forecasting Glimmers for 2026. If you don’t know what they are, consider them the inspiring, positive antidote to triggers. Glimmers describe micro-moments of joy, and psychotherapist Deb Dana joins WGSN’s CEO Carla Buzasi to discuss this emerging customer sentiment, an evolution of awe that we forecast for 2024.
Deb Dana defines glimmers as ‘small moments of positivity that can combat negative emotions’. In 2026 we will see glimmers become a prized coping tool. Find out why glimmers coexist with suffering and how opening yourself up to these simple moments of joy can help you move forward and lead you to seek out more. 
Tune in to hear Carla and Deb discuss polyvagal theory, how glimmers can crop up in the most mundane, everyday places, and how important it is to share the joy. 

In this episode we discuss ageing. We are all living longer and this is creating consumer shifts, opportunities and imperatives for age-positive products and services. 
WGSN’s CEO Carla Buzasi welcomes fashion influencer Lyn Slater, aka the accidental icon to talk about life after influencing, the narrative around ageing, the lack of women over 50 represented in advertising and the challenges of being yourself as your body begins to change. This former professor of social work, now retired fashion influencer, writes about this and more in her new book ‘How To Be Old: Lessons in Living Boldly from the Accidental Icon‘. 
The conversation meanders from reflections on the world of fashion bloggers and influencers to the advantages of multigenerational living and why ageing closer to death, encourages Slater to embrace living life in the moment and to its fullest. Hopeful about the future of ageing, Slater is keen that more older women should be “blowing it up and inviting young women to ask us those hard questions” – tune into this episode to hear just that.
At WGSN we’ve been tracking the rise of age compression since 2015 and are forecasting the dismantling of age-related stereotypes for 2026, as we all embrace a more inter-generational world – you can sign up to read more about this here.

In this episode of Lives of Tomorrow – WGSN’s podcast about how we will live our lives in the future – we discuss nocturnal living.
Director of Strategic Forecasting at WGSN, Lisa White, joins Carla Buzasi, CEO of WGSN, to talk about why daytime activities in many regions of the world are shifting to happen at night. 
Scorching temperatures are pushing people in the world’s hottest regions to live more of their lives in the cool of darkness, which is impacting when they shop, work, rest, and spend most of their day-to-day routine. OpenTable in the US noted rises of up to 24% in late-night dining in 2023. The shifting schedules of consumers are pushing cities to reimagine their after-dark economies, with shopping, entertainment, leisure, and tourism pushed into nighttime hours.
Lisa White shares insight into how brands can tap into this lifestyle shift, plus gives examples of nocturnal living, the data behind this trend, and her predictions for the future – including constellation leggings and thermoregulated pyjamas.

WGSN CEO Carla Buzasi talks about the future of sex, sex tech investment, and how porn is impacting young people with guest Cindy Gallop.
Former advertising executive Cindy is the founder of Make Love Not Porn, a user-generated video-sharing platform. A sex-tech pioneer, she aims to build a community to promote positive sexual values through user-generated content, in response to the ubiquity of hardcore porn and the harmful myths it generates.
In this episode Carla and Cindy discuss social attitudes towards sex and porn, the future of the adult entertainment industry, and how Cindy plans to utilise AI to help build an algorithm for consent. The two CEOs also talk about why so few female entrepreneurs in the sex tech industry were able to secure Venture Capital funding in 2023 and why this needs to change.