Reading aloud, listening together

As someone whose research project is titled 'Design and the Deep Future', and whose primary concern is climate catastrophe, you might think that, when asked to ruminate on the future of publishing, I'd conjure a time and place where books are long gone - the last of them used in our survival bunkers as layers of insulation against extreme heat or as rubble in flood dikes. And while I don't dismiss this bleak prospect, for this exercise I'd like to evoke a less pessimistic scenario. I want to delve into publishing's past. To retrieve a format I believe contains inspiration and relevance for our immediate futures as those who write, design, edit, publish, read, and listen to books.