We Overlook This Superpower | School of Radical Imagination, Ep. 2

​‪@ProgressReimagined‬ Imagination is directly tied to your mental wellbeing, and most of us stopped using it on purpose years ago. Dr. Sheila Pontis has spent over two decades studying imagination, wellbeing, and design at University College London, Princeton, and MIT, and her argument is that imagination isn't a gift reserved for children and artists, it's a cognitive skill every adult still has and can train. Sheila now leads the Everyone Imagines initiative and teaches at the School of Radical Imagination. In this episode, she explains why the quality of what you imagine shapes your emotions and wellbeing, why researchers describe this moment as a crisis of imagination, why she doesn't think AI is imaginative at all, just a tool that reflects whatever imagination you bring to the prompt, and how a few minutes of daily practice can rebuild the skill. For anyone who feels stuck searching, scrolling, and asking AI for answers that never quite land, this conversation is for you. 🎓 Applications for the October cohort open Sept 1, 2026. There's a discount code near the end of this episode (new students only): https://www.radicalimagination.school/ 01:51 What People Get Wrong About Imagination 05:33 The Link Between Imagination and Wellbeing 09:08 Living Through a Crisis of Imagination 10:33 Imagination Is a Skill You Train, Not a Gift 12:25 Imagination as the Seed of Problem Solving 14:40 Is AI Imaginative? What Testing It Showed 19:51 Everything Was Once Imagined, and Can Be Reimagined 21:01 Inside Sheila's Courses at the School 23:02 What a More Imaginative World Looks Like 24:50 A Year of Daily Imagination Practice, on Instagram 26:48 Small Ways to Start Practicing Today 29:51 Why Sheila Left Design to Teach This Full Time 32:31 Choosing a Path Others Don't Understand Key Insights —Why imagination isn't just for children or artists, and what that costs us —Why the quality of what you imagine changes the quality of what you feel —Why we're living through what researchers call a crisis of imagination —Why imagination is trainable, not a fixed trait —Why AI isn't imaginative on its own, it reflects the imagination in the prompt —Why some people resist imagination even when the research is clear —Why everything around us was imagined once, and can be reimagined again —A five-minute way to start training your imagination today Connect with Dr. Sheila Pontis and the School of Radical Imagination Website: https://sheilapontis.com/ Instagram, Everyone Imagines (approaching six months into a year of daily imagination practice):   / everyoneimagines   Course, Being Human (Fall 2026): https://www.radicalimagination.school... Sheila's recommendations: Prof. Amy Kind's blog on imagination, Junkyard of the Mind: https://junkyardofthemind.com/ Rob Hopkins, climate and imagination activist: https://www.robhopkins.net/, his latest book, Falling in Love with the Future ❤️ If you found this conversation helpful, share it with someone who'd benefit from it. Music licensed through Soundstripe. Code: KAA5ZDIHWI0FX5OY, 5CNVEVA3VKNLJBVJ, ZOF9NKNYMD3E2JSL #SchoolOfRadicalImagination #ImaginationMatters #Imagination #Wellbeing #CohortBasedLearning #AIandEducation #FutureOfEducation #HigherEducation #AlternativeEducation #RadicalImagination © 2026 Progress Reimagined. All rights reserved.