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Predictions from the 19th century as to what life in the new millennium would look like are at best ambitious, often laughable, and sometimes wildly misjudged.

According to Back to the Future II, we should have been riding around on hoverboards since at least 2015. thought that by the new millennium, the popularity of television would have rendered a generation totally illiterate, not to mention hunched over, short-sighted, and fond of the dark. Ok, maybe we could work on our posture somewhat… But what do we think the world will look like in years to come?

These four thrillers have drastic, dystopian predictions for the future of the planet, yet they may inspire us to prevent these prophecies from becoming reality.

Tempted to take a listen? Here’s what you can expect from these thrilling futuristic dramas.

When the planet is dying around you, it can be easy to feel powerless. Sometime, the only solution is to stand up and take power into your own hands. Literally.

Power Out follows Sean, who joins a group of eco activists in their campaign to take down the National Grid. This new podcast series, by writer and activist Sarah Woods, explores what happens when the power systems we rely on fail us. To ramp up the tension, this thriller is recorded in binaural sound, which gives you a truly immersive experience when listening through headphones.

Listen to Power Out here

Many of us have insecurities about our bodies, but fewer have the means, or indeed inclination, to surgically alter them to our liking. What if, instead of having modifications here and there, we could transplant ourselves into a different body entirely? Would you?

In dystopian thriller Body Horror, set in the year 2050, the transplant industry is booming, and our looks have a greater bearing on our success in life than ever before. Caroline McAleese (played by Jill Halfpenny) is a disillusioned mortician, who feels ignored and invisible; she knows that a full body transplant will be life changing. But will life in a young, beautiful donor body live up to her expectations?

Listen to Body Horror here

The Western Antarctic has melted and the world is ravaged by floods. A family lives in a hotel at the edge of the water, which is rising and rising. But this isn’t all that poses danger to them: food is running low, and there is a sense that someone, or something, is watching them. Terrible things seem to have occurred on the island before the family’s arrival, which the hotel – a character in itself – seems to know about. Danger is all around, but when there is no place but the water, where can the family go? Perhaps the hotel and the forest beyond hold the answers…

Listen to No Place But The Water here

Forest 404 is set 300 years in the future in the aftermath of a data crash, in a world where forests cannot be found - hence the 404.

This environmental thriller tells the story of Pan, a young woman with a mundane job which involves sorting and deleting sound files from before the crash. She unwittingly uncovers a collection of 21st century recordings which document the sounds of the rainforest, an eco-system which no longer exists. Pan seeks to discover what the rainforests were and what became of them, and in doing so has to escape the oppressive power of The Hands, whose job it is to keep the past in the past.

Each episode is accompanied by a related talk and an immersive soundscape of the natural world.

Listen to Forest 404 here