RGS Presents: The Future of Exploration
Hosted by Matt Pycroft, this new RGS podcast series is an inquiry into what it means to explore in a rapidly changing world. We’ll speak with leading thinkers, scientists, and explorers to examine both the practical frontiers and the philosophical questions that define modern discovery. The series asks what’s left to explore, how exploration is changing, and why it matters more now than ever before – a conversation that will challenge assumptions, broaden perspective, and help shape how we understand the unknown in the decades ahead.
The Future of Exploration Live with Tim Marshall
Hear a live recording of The Future of Exploration with award-winning journalist and bestselling author Tim Marshall, interviewed by Matt Pycroft.
Tim Marshall is one of the UK’s most respected geopolitical commentators and the author of Prisoners of Geography. With decades of experience reporting from conflict zones and global hotspots, his work reveals how geography continues to shape politics, power, and the future of nations.In this conversation, Tim turns his attention beyond Earth, exploring the emerging geopolitics of space. As nations and private companies race to expand their presence beyond our planet, what does exploration me...
3. Oliver Steeds reveals how much we really know about our oceans
How much of our own planet have we truly explored?
In this episode of The Future of Exploration, ocean explorer and Nekton Mission Director Oliver Steeds challenges one of our biggest assumptions that the final frontier lies in space. Instead, he argues that the greatest unknown is much closer to home, in the vast, largely unexplored depths of our oceans.
Oliver reveals why we have mapped only a fraction of the seabed, why most marine species remain undiscovered, and how these hidden ecosystems play a critical role in regulating the Earth’s climate and sustaining glo...
2. Tom Allen on what it means to explore our world today
What does it mean to explore a world that already feels mapped? In this conversation, Tom Allen, explorer, author, and the Society’s current Expeditions and Fieldwork Manager, frames the future of exploration as curiosity in action – the ongoing practice of looking closer, asking better questions, and sharing what we find.
Drawing on years of slow travel, expeditions, fieldwork, and translating these experiences into books, films, even actual trails to follow, Tom argues that the future of exploration lies less in going further and more in going deeper: into places, into cultures, and through that into our unde...
1. Bruce Parry on the real frontiers of exploration
In this live recording, explorer, broadcaster and author Bruce Parry challenges one of the most enduring ideas in exploration: that its purpose is to discover what’s ‘out there’. Instead, he argues, the real frontiers of exploration lie in rediscovering what we as a species have forgotten about ourselves.
Best known for the multiple BBC series that documented his time living with Indigenous communities around the world, Bruce reflects on his personal journey beyond the screen as his motivations evolved from ego-driven adventure to a deeper responsibility to listen, learn, and bring insights home. He discusses the radica...
RGS Presents: The Future of Exploration trailer
How is exploration changing? Why does it matter now more than ever before?
Our new podcast series asks what it means to explore in a rapidly changing world. Across 10 episodes, host Matt Pycroft interviews a leading thinker, scientist or explorer to examine the practical and the philosophical questions that define modern discovery.
Episodes are released every two weeks starting Tuesday 30 June 2026. Get early access by heading to our YouTube channel and be the first to watch.
RGS Presents: The Future of Exploration is available in both audio and video formats on YouTube, Apple Podc...
