We are midway through 2025, and today’s innovation landscape can be called anything but stable.
Universities are grappling with a combination of macro challenges: slashed research budgets, shrinking state support, punitive immigration policies, and the arrival of the long-anticipated demographic cliff that’s forcing campuses across the country to rethink who they serve… and how.
Meanwhile, venture capital, once the fuel behind every big idea, has been sitting on the sidelines since 2021. Unless you’re building something in AI, the money isn’t flowing.
Meanwhile, Big Pharma is staring down a patent cliff – over 70 drugs, each bringing in over $1 billion in revenue, are coming off patent protection by 2030.
And, 4 years later, many return-to-office initiatives have failed, weakening the very cultural glue companies need to attract, retain, and inspire top talent, not to mention the impact that fewer workers have had on the vibrancy of city centers of all sizes.
In short, we are living through a period of transformation and turbulence not seen in over 50 years.
And that’s exactly why The Commons is back for Season 5.
I’m your host, Thomas Osha, and this season, we’re diving headfirst into this uncertainty.
We’ll talk with those who are building through the chaos.
The researchers, founders, corporate executives, university leaders, artists, and policymakers.
We’re bringing you into candid conversations with guests who lead by example and with purpose.
You’ll hear from Nobel-winning scientists and early-career researchers working on next-gen therapies and sustainable tech.
You’ll meet corporate innovation leaders who are betting big on partnerships with academia — and doing it differently.
Artists and designers will share how they’re reframing our understanding of place, memory, and culture in innovation spaces.
And we’ll sit down with policymakers, philanthropists, and university presidents who are fighting to ensure the innovation economy remains open, inclusive, and generative.
And through it all, we’ll ask the hard questions:
- What does it take to sustain innovation in an age of scarcity?
- How do we fund what matters and turn ideas into impact?
- And what new models can carry us forward across academia, industry, and the civic commons?
Because now more than ever, we need bold thinking, shared insight, and collective action.
This season, we’re not just highlighting what’s broken, we’re lifting up what works. And we’re inviting everyone — from lab bench to boardroom to our studio — and in many cases, bringing the studio to them. The Commons will hit the road visiting Knowledge Communities in Charlotte, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Phoenix, and Sacramento.
So join me for Season 5 of The Commons.
Let’s make the case together for why innovation still matters, and why the places that power it deserve our attention and investment.
