Osaka Expo 2025 Futures Lab: an inside look with Jamey Wetmore

Jun 17, 2025

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Fresh off a 10-day immersion at Osaka’s 2025 World Expo, returning guest Dr. Jamey Wetmore joins Sean and Andrew to unpack the spectacle, surprises, and sociotechnical undercurrents he witnessed alongside 17 ASU students. Jamey explains why today’s expos feel less like gadget bazaars and more like “collaboration theme-parks,” spotlighting national visions of cooperative problem-solving rather than single, shiny inventions. He walks us through standout pavilions—from Jordan’s multisensory Bedouin-camp of real sand, stars and cardamom coffee, to Belgium’s uncanny AI-driven “digital-twin” ballet, to the Future-of-Life pavilion’s three-torso android that left visitors wondering whether immortality is nightmare or nirvana. We hear how the U.S. pavilion’s rousing “Together, Together” anthem now clashes with recent policy shifts, why Expo logistics can clock 25,000 steps a day, and how students used bingo cards and breakfast debriefs to turn sensory overload into critical insight. Jamey also shares lighter moments—Kawasaki’s rideable four-legged “lion” robot, Kubota’s mysterious podcast “seed” lozenges, and the silky Japanese immigration form that sparked a reflection on material care. Throughout, the trio connect historic World’s Fairs—Chicago 1893, New York 1939 & 1964—to modern questions of power, equity and human-centered futures, asking what these grand showcases still teach us about designing the possible, probable and preferable world ahead.

Links:

World Expo 2025 - Osaka Japan [Website]

SLATE EV Truck customizable EV base [Website]

Jamey's EV Substack: Tech Skeptic Goes Electric

The Japanese Toilet article [Website]

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Host Bios:

Sean M. Leahy, PhD - ASU Bio
Sean is an internationally recognized technologist, futurist, and educator innovating humanistic approaches to emerging technology through a Futures Studies approach. He is the Executive Director for the Future of Being Human Initiative and Research Scientist for the School for the Future of Innovation in Society and Senior Global Futures Scholar with the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory at Arizona State University.

Andrew Maynard, PhD - ASU Bio
Andrew is a scientist, author, thought leader, and Professor of Advanced Technology Transitions in the ASU School for the Future of Innovation in Society. He is the founder of the ASU Future of Being Human initiative, Director of the ASU Risk Innovation Nexus, and was previously Associate Dean in the ASU College of Global Futures.

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