Intelligence Squared: Business

The podcast features Dave Evans, a mechanical engineer teaching Designing Your Life courses at Stanford, and Dr. Grace Lordan, an Associate Professor at the London School of Economics. They discuss tools for building happy lives, navigating career changes, embracing failure for growth, practicing gratitude, and exploring the dynamics of being vs doing for personal growth.

In the second episode of our new podcast series Tides of Transformation: An Oil Story, produced in partnership with the Fraying Ties? project, Gavin Bridge from Durham University and Alexander Dodge from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology are joined by Keith Myers, the former President of Westwood Global Energy Group and an ex-BP exploration geologist, and Chatham House’s Dr Valerie Marcel, for a conversation about who owns oil, and the implications of this for the energy transition. Our panelists also explore the history of current ownership structures in the North Sea; how these compare to other oil producing nations; and, how these structures – themselves the result of historic government policy – stymie policymakers’ influence in the North Sea today. Other contributors Nana de Graaff, an Associate Professor in International Relations at the Department of Political Science and Public Administration at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam– Keith Myers was President of Research at Westwood Global Energy until 2021. – For more information about Tides of Transformation: An Oil Story, please visit: https://www.intelligencesquared.com/tides-of-transformation/. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In the first episode of our new series Tides of Transformation: An Oil Story, produced in partnership with the Fraying Ties? project, Gavin Bridge from Durham University and James Marriott of Platform London and the co-author of Crude Britannia: How Big Oil Shaped a Nation are joined by former CEO of the Net Zero Technology Centre Colette Cohen OBE and former trade union organiser Jake Molloy for a conversation about the evolution of the oil sector in Britain and the different components that comprise it, including the offshore, refineries, trading and finance. Our panelists also explore the differing pace of change across the oil sector, the complexity this creates for the expansion of clean energy projects, and what must be done to ensure a rapid, and just, energy transition. Other contributors include the co-founder of Extinction Rebellion Gail Bradbrook, Morgan Stanley’s Global Oil Strategist Martijn Rats, and Fuels Industry UK’s Director of Downstream Policy Dr Andy Roberts. The host is Dr Helen Czerski. – Colette Cohen OBE was CEO of the Net Zero Technology Centre, not the Net Zero Technology Company as stated in the audio. The UKPIA (United Kingdom Petroleum Industry Association) changed its name in August 2023 to Fuels Industry UK. – For more information about Tides of Transformation: An Oil Story, please visit: https://www.intelligencesquared.com/tides-of-transformation/  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this episode, Y TREE’s Harriet Johnston is joined by two trailblazing women, Sharmadean Reid and Debbie Wosskow, for a conversation about their journeys as entrepreneurs and working mothers. What more needs to be done to support female entrepreneurs – and women more broadly – to ensure combining work and motherhood isn’t financially punitive? What can the entrepreneurial community do to ensure more female founders receive financial backing? And, why is investing in women simply good business? Sharmadean and Debbie have tirelessly campaigned around these questions, and they’re issues we’re constantly focused on at Y TREE too, with 60 per cent of the UK’s wealth is set to be female by 2025. Success means recognising female founders as the business opportunity they are. The Futureverse is brought to you by Intelligence Squared in partnership with Y TREE. For more information visit y-tree.com/futureverse Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What does it mean to be truly successful? In this episode, Y TREE’s Head of Brand and Marketing is joined by former barrister, police officer, educator, and author Adam Pacifico for a conversation that seeks to get to the heart of this age-old question. Drawing on his learnings from talking to guests on his own podcast, ‘The Leadership Enigma’, Adam and Harriet delve into questions around meaning and fulfillment; whether having more money really does improve our wellbeing; and, how to decide what success means to you – for after all, isn’t that the most important question of all?    The Futureverse is brought to you by Intelligence Squared in partnership with Y TREE. The past is in your head. The future is in your hands. For more information visit y-tree.com/futureverse —We’d love to hear your feedback and what you think we should talk about next, who we should have on and what our future debates should be about. Send us an email or voice note with your thoughts to podcasts@intelligencesquared.com. At Intelligence Squared we’ve got our own online streaming platform, Intelligence Squared+ and we’d love you to give it a go. It’s packed with more than 20 years’ worth of video debates and conversations on the world’s most important topics as well as exclusive podcast content. Tune in to live events, ask your questions or watch on-demand, totally ad-free with hours of discussion to dive into. Visit intelligencesquaredplus.com to start watching today Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

No Bullsh*t Leadership is our straight-talking podcast that cuts to the chase about leadership. In this episode, Chris speaks to Lord Karan Bilimoria, one of this country’s leading entrepreneurs, a business leader, and politician. He was born in Hyderabad, India in 1961, but moved to London in the 1980s, where he qualified as a chartered accountant and subsequently studied law at Cambridge. In 1989, he co-founded Cobra Beer from a flat in Fulham, a brand that has become globally recognised. In 2006, he was appointed to the House of Lords, where he sits as a crossbench peer. He was awarded a CBE in 2004 for services to business and entrepreneurship, and is the Chancellor of the University of Birmingham. Chris Hirst is the author of the award-winning book, No Bullsh*t Leadership: Why the World Needs More Everyday Leaders and Why That Leader Is You. Chris’ latest book, No Bullsh*t Change, is published on June 1 2023. His brand new online leadership training programme is available on his website (www.chris-hirst.com) —We’d love to hear your feedback and what you think we should talk about next, who we should have on and what our future debates should be about. Send us an email or voice note with your thoughts to podcasts@intelligencesquared.com. At Intelligence Squared we’ve got our own online streaming platform, Intelligence Squared+ and we’d love you to give it a go. It’s packed with more than 20 years’ worth of video debates and conversations on the world’s most important topics as well as exclusive podcast content. Tune in to live events, ask your questions or watch on-demand, totally ad-free with hours of discussion to dive into. Visit intelligencesquaredplus.com to start watching today Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Expanding our global electricity networks is key to unlocking a renewable future, especially in the United States: the world’s largest economy that produces 14 percent of global emissions. The Inflation Reduction Act, signed last August, aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 – America’s largest ever investment to fight climate change. However, one serious obstacle could stymie these ambitions: an outdated and overloaded grid. The impact of insufficient infrastructure across the United States is already showing: queues to connect renewable energy projects to the grid stretch to years, and the number of active large-scale solar and wind projects is decreasing. In this episode, Kamal Ahmed is joined by Pedro Azagra, the CEO of Avangrid to discuss the specific difficulties facing the grid in the United States, and the upgrades and expansion needed to decarbonise the country’s electricity networks, and facilitate the energy transition. For more information please visit iberdrola.com—We’d love to hear your feedback and what you think we should talk about next, who we should have on and what our future debates should be about. Send us an email or voice note with your thoughts to podcasts@intelligencesquared.com. At Intelligence Squared we’ve got our own online streaming platform, Intelligence Squared+ and we’d love you to give it a go. It’s packed with more than 20 years’ worth of video debates and conversations on the world’s most important topics as well as exclusive podcast content. Tune in to live events, ask your questions or watch on-demand, totally ad-free with hours of discussion to dive into. Visit intelligencesquaredplus.com to start watching today Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Expanding our global electricity networks is key to unlocking a renewable future. But, traditional grids need to adapt too. They don’t just need to be bigger; they need to be smarter and more efficient. Much of the equipment on the electric grid was built decades ago and needs to be upgraded. Our energy infrastructure was designed for a world in which electricity flowed in one direction – from the grid to people. Now, with homes and businesses increasingly supplying energy themselves, we have a grid with two-way flows of electricity, multiple different energy sources that need to be coordinated, and high voltage power from renewable plants, like offshore wind farms. Digital technologies are the key to handling this complexity. But, what do the grids of the future look like in practice? What are the evolving technologies that will enable the grids to be more resilient and robust than they are at present? How can data and digitisation help us to make smarter, more efficient energy decisions? In this episode, our host Kamal Ahmed is joined by Marta Solaz, Head of Grid Operations at Scottish Power Networks; Charles Wood, Deputy Director of Energy UK; and, Rob Gramlich, Founder and President of Grid Strategies LLC for a discussion about innovation in the grid: the progress that has been made – and what more needs to be done. For more information please visit iberdrola.com—We’d love to hear your feedback and what you think we should talk about next, who we should have on and what our future debates should be about. Send us an email or voice note with your thoughts to podcasts@intelligencesquared.com. At Intelligence Squared we’ve got our own online streaming platform, Intelligence Squared+ and we’d love you to give it a go. It’s packed with more than 20 years’ worth of video debates and conversations on the world’s most important topics as well as exclusive podcast content. Tune in to live events, ask your questions or watch on-demand, totally ad-free with hours of discussion to dive into. Visit intelligencesquaredplus.com to start watching today Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Expanding our global electricity networks is the key to unlocking a renewable future. In the US alone, the electric grid will need to expand by at least 60% by 2030 to ensure renewable energy can make its way into our homes and businesses, and the UK’s networks are also in dire need of regeneration. To implement such a project will require seismic policy change, innovative thinking and massive investment. It’s an essential part of the energy transition.There are big questions and issues to discuss: how will we fund improved networks? How will the private and public sectors work together to facilitate these changes? How can we change regulations and reduce bureaucracy to increase the speed at which renewable energy sources can be connected to the grid?In this episode our host, journalist Kamal Ahmed, is joined by three brilliant guests, including Keith Anderson, CEO of Scottish Power, to give us an insight into the state of networks in the UK, US and Europe, the difficulties we currently face in improving them, and the potential solutions that could be put in place to reduce global carbon emissions whilst still meeting all of society’s energy needs.For more information please visit iberdrola.com—We’d love to hear your feedback and what you think we should talk about next, who we should have on and what our future debates should be. Send us an email or voice note with your thoughts to podcasts@intelligencesquared.com or Tweet us @intelligence2. And if you’d like to support our mission to foster honest debate and compelling conversations, as well as ad-free podcasts, exclusive bonus content, early access and much more, become a supporter of Intelligence Squared today.Just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Not many of us can claim to have hunted with the Bushmen of the Kalahari; been detained for spying by the KGB; or smuggled ourselves over a border into an active war zone under the floorboards of an ambulance. Yet, for our latest guests on the Futureverse, this is all in a day’s work. The Sunday Times’ Chief Foreign Correspondent Christina Lamb, who has been covering conflict around the globe for over three decades, does not regard herself as a risk taker, though. It was not an attraction to danger that led her to war reporting, but a surprise wedding invitation that landed on her desk in 1987. Similarly, as a teenager, the adventurer and broadcaster Simon Reeve, enjoyed the thrill of cycling down Acton High Street on his BMX, but did not imagine that he would spend his early professional life on the tail of neo-Nazi terrorists in Boston Spa.In this special episode of the Futureverse, Christina and Simon join Kamal Ahmed for a conversation about their attitudes to risk: what motivates them to take the risks that they do and how they calculate risk on the ground. It is a fascinating insight into what it means to put your life on the line in order to shine light on the darkest corners of the world. It also is a prescient reminder of Y TREE’s core principles: mitigate unnecessary risk – even Simon Reeve will not get in a car without a seat belt – and always set a personal risk level that feels right for you.    The Futureverse is brought to you by Intelligence Squared in partnership with Y TREE. The past is in your head. The future is in your hands. For more information visit y-tree.com/futureverse —We’d love to hear your feedback and what you think we should talk about next, who we should have on and what our future debates should be. Send us an email or voice note with your thoughts to podcasts@intelligencesquared.com or Tweet us @intelligence2. And if you’d like to support our mission to foster honest debate and compelling conversations, as well as ad-free podcasts, exclusive bonus content, early access and much more, become a supporter of Intelligence Squared today.Just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices