Season 5 Trailer

The Commons · 2025-08-05 · 5 min

Episode notes

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 turbulencenot seen in over 50 years. And that’s exactly why The Commons is back for Season 5.

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