Part One: How We Got To NOW!

(air swishes) (mouse clicks) (enlightening music) Headspace Studios (echoes). (metal rattles) (engine running) So we're walking along this path on the edge of Hampstead Heath, a place that's been here for almost 2,000 years. And I always love taking people on this path for the first time, because it doesn't feel like we are in the middle of London. You feel like you're kind of going back in time. The city starts to evaporate as we get deeper into the green and the woods of the heath. We're just about to get to the Hampstead Heath Ladies' Pond. So here we are. This is where I come when I need a break. (metal clatters) Once you get far enough in to escape the sounds of the surrounding roads and shops, there's a real sense of timelessness here. It's not like a normal swimming pool at all. You can see the tree roots going into it, the bulrushes coming out of it, and a little smattering of dead leaves along the side. My grandma swam here into her 80s. And in these murky waters surrounded by other women of all shapes and ages, I can see why she kept on coming. It's really nice to get change, standing under really old trees. The water is dark. I'm gonna dip my feet in first just to check it out. Oh wow. And absolutely freezing. (water splashes) (water splashes) When I'm here, it's like I've escaped time. Escape the noise, the stress, and overwhelm of the every day: the endless meetings, the to-do lists, the self-improvement, the Twitter feeds, the Instagram grid, the news churn, the family commitments, the shopping list, spiraling inequality, the climate crisis. (clock ticks rapidly) (breathes deeply) Yeah. I wonder if you ever feel the same. If you do, I'd love to invite you to come and join me at The Long Time Academy, where over six episodes, we'll discover how stretching time can improve our lives today and tackle the huge threats we're facing as a species. (enlightening music) So here we are, The Long Time Academy. I'm really glad you're here. My name is Ella. And now that I've dried off, perhaps we should begin with a little orientation. That feeling I described, that the sense of being stuck in a jam-packed present of firefighting every minute. Well, six years ago something happened. Something which made me start to suspect that it wasn't just sucking the joy out of the day-to-day, but also seriously affecting our future as a species. Time just didn't feel like our friend, but more on that later. What's important to know is that it set me on a journey to meet people from all around the world who were thinking differently about time. They were looking for space, solutions, and a bit of joy, too. Now, just a few years later, the world has never felt weirder or more overwhelming. And I think it's safe to say that a lot of us are...