Where Shall We Meet

Questions, suggestions, or feedback? Send us a message!Our guest this week is Guy Standing, who is a British labour economist. He is professor of Development Studies at SOAS and co-founder of BIEN, the Basic Income Earth Network.He is best known as a long-standing and prominent advocate of Basic Income, but he is also responsible for redefining and revitalizing the term ‘precariat’.Guy has written extensively about capitalism and labour market policy. Among his many books are Basic income: and how we can make it happen, A plunder of the commons, a manifesto for sharing public wealth, The Corruption of Capitalism: Why Rentiers Thrive and Work Does Not Pay, The Blue Commons: Rescuing the Economy of the Sea.We talk about:A brief history of capitalismRentier capitalismThe emergence of a precariatPlutocracy and TrumpWill AI liberate us after allThe dignity of a basic income for everyoneRealisation and execution of basic income pilotsLet’s debate!Web: www.whereshallwemeet.xyzTwitter: @whrshallwemeetInstagram: @whrshallwemeet

In this engaging discussion, philosopher poet David Whyte shares insights from his poetry and prose, focusing on the profound meaning of everyday words. He reflects on how solitude can inspire beauty and fear while redefining our connections to others. Whyte explores the interplay between language and identity, revealing the emotional journey of storytelling. He emphasizes the importance of presence, humorously challenging the notion of living in the moment, and highlights how personal injuries can lead to deeper self-discovery and compassion.

Questions, suggestions, or feedback? Send us a message!Our guest this week is William Sargent. He co-founded Framestore in 1986 and led its rise from an award winning commercials production house to world renowned film and digital studio. During three decades the company has worked on all the Harry Potter films (and the JK Rowling 'Fantastic Beasts') , Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity, James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy, Paul King’s Paddington, Dr Strange, Christopher Robin, Blade Runner 2049 and Marvel’s Avengers Series.William and his team have won all the major creative awards including 3 Oscars, British Academy, Primetime Emmys, D&AD, Royal Television Society and most recently over 100 global awards for the newest format Virtual Reality.Equally at home in Hollywood and government, he was Permanent Secretary, Regulatory Reform, at the Cabinet Office, and Board Director of HM Treasury. He is currently a governor at Europe's largest arts complex Southbank Center, the U.K. governments innovation agency, Trinity College Dublin's Provost Council and the London Mayor's Business Council. William is a fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts, member of BAFTA and the Academy. He received a CBE in 2004 and was knighted by the Queen in 2008.We talk about:Rear ProjectionStop motion animationAlfonso Cuaron’s GravityHow music videos started the UK film industryGeorge Lucas’ vision of multi-platform story tellingHow car manufacturing robots help in filmmakingTennis balls and florescent tapeHow to create dinosaursThe next decade of filmmakingLet’s roll.Web: www.whereshallwemeet.xyzTwitter: @whrshallwemeetInstagram: @whrshallwemeet

Questions, suggestions, or feedback? Send us a message!Our guest today is Janine Benyus, who is the Co-founder of Biomimicry 3.8. She is a biologist, innovation consultant, and author of six books, including Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature. Since the book’s 1997 release, Janine’s work as a global thought leader has evolved the practice of biomimicry from a meme to a movement, inspiring clients and innovators around the world to learn from the genius of nature.She has personally introduced millions to biomimicry through two TED talks, hundreds of conference keynote presentations, and a dozen documentaries such as Biomimicry, produced by Leonardo DiCaprio’s Tree Media, 11th Hour, Harmony, and The Nature of Things with David Suzuki, which aired in 71 countries.In 1998, Janine co-founded the Biomimicry Guild with Dr. Dayna Baumeister. That consultancy morphed into Biomimicry 3.8, a B-Corp social enterprise providing biomimicry consulting services to clients like Nike, General Electric, Herman Miller, Procter and Gamble, and Levi’s.In 2006, Janine co-founded The Biomimicry Institute, a non-profit institute to embed biomimicry in formal education and informal spaces such as museums and nature centers. Over 11,000 members are now part of the Biomimicry Global Network, working to practice, teach, and spread biomimicry in their region. In 2008, the institute launched AskNature.org, an award-winning bio-inspiration site for inventors.Janine believes that the more people learn from nature’s mentors, the more they’ll want to protect them. This is why she writes, speaks, and communicates so prolifically about biomimicry.We talk about:Learning from biological systemsWaging war against nature rather than allyingHow profitable emulating nature can beFitting form to functionHow ant colonies inspire mobile phone networksThe dependence of the agricultural system on oilPhotosynthetic Reaction CentreNature is the best chemistAI helping the detective work of biologistsLet's get inspired by nature!Web: www.whereshallwemeet.xyzTwitter: @whrshallwemeetInstagram: @whrshallwemeet

Questions, suggestions, or feedback? Send us a message!We are talking about Ancestry today. Our guest is Maya Jasanoff who is the Coolidge Professor of History at Harvard University’s History Department.Maya’s teaching and research extend from the history of the British Empire to global history. She is the author of three prize-winning books. The Dawn Watch examines the dynamics of modern globalization through the life and times of the novelist Joseph Conrad. Her other books are Liberty’s Exiles: American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World and her first book,  Edge of Empire explores British expansion in India and Egypt through the lives of art collectors. She is currently working on a book about the human preoccupation with ancestry.In addition to classes on imperial history, she teaches a multidisciplinary Gen Ed course on the topic of "Ancestry: Where Do We Come From and Why Do We Care?". In 2015 Jasanoff was named a Harvard College Professor for excellence in undergraduate teaching. From 2019 to 2022, she is a part-time Visiting Professor at Ahmedabad University in India, where she has been helping launch new curricula in the liberal arts.Jasanoff has been a Guggenheim Fellow (2013), a fellow at the New York Public Library’s Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers, a Kluge Chair at the Library of Congress, and a member of the Institute for Advanced Study. She has participated in several BBC documentaries, and her essays and reviews regularly appear in publications including The New York Review of Books, The Guardian, The New Yorker and The New York Times.We will be talking about:The history of ancestryCaste systems in IndiaHerder and the Idea of a NationImmigrant nationsBards as knowledge keepersRace as a factor for resource allocationAffirmative Action university admissionGenerational privilege and dispossessionTransatlantic slave tradeLet’s go back to our roots!Web: www.whereshallwemeet.xyzTwitter: @whrshallwemeetInstagram: @whrshallwemeet

Questions, suggestions, or feedback? Send us a message!Today we managed to catch Tim Minchin on his book tour between Brighton and Piccadilly London. He is an Australian actor, writer, musician, poet, composer, and songwriter. Tim is also a piano playing comedian extraordinaire. His recent book “You Don't Have To Have A Dream: Advice for the Incrementally Ambitious” became an instant Sunday Times bestseller.He has released several albums, comedy specials, and live comedy shows that he has performed internationally. He is the composer and lyricist of the Olivier Award-winning, Tony Award-winning and Grammy Award-nominated show Matilda the Musical and the Olivier Award-winning and Tony Award-nominated show Groundhog Day The Musical. In 2013, he played rock star Atticus Fetch on Californication and in 2019 he co-wrote and starred as Lucky Flynn in the TV series Upright.Tim has been awarded several honorary Doctorates for his contribution to the arts. His “9 life lessons” acceptance speech went viral and has been viewed 10s of millions of times. He was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in the 2020 Australia Day Honours "for significant service to the performing arts, and to the community".We will talk about:Self-censoring and policing opinionFree speech absolutismLife without social mediaAssertion of tribal identityPeople just wanting a hugDecontextualising of text messagesThe sloganisation of the worlds informationGinger haired peopleBeing consumers versus creatorsBothsidesismMale Homo Sapiens are dangerous thingsLet's get into it!Web: www.whereshallwemeet.xyzTwitter: @whrshallwemeetInstagram: @whrshallwemeet

Questions, suggestions, or feedback? Send us a message!Our guest today is Tessa Clarke. She the is Co-Founder & CEO of Olio, the anti-waste app tackling the climate crisis by solving the problem of waste in our homes & local communities. Olio does this by connecting people with their neighbours so they can give away rather than throw away their spare food and other household items. It is powered by volunteers who collect unsold food from local businesses such as Tesco, Sainsburys, Asda and Holland & Barrett, and redistribute it to the community via the Olio app. Its impact has been widely recognised, most notably by the United Nations who highlighted Olio as a "beacon” for the world, and by Vivatech who awarded Olio "Next European Unicorn". Olio is also a proud B Corp, and Tessa is an Ambassador of the Better Business Act.Prior to Olio, Tessa had a 15 year corporate career as a digital Managing Director in the media, retail and financial services sectors, and she met her co-founder Saasha whilst they were studying for their MBAs at Stanford University. Tessa is passionate about the sharing economy as a solution for a sustainable world, and about ‘profit with purpose’ as the next business paradigm. Tessa’s TED talk about the power of sharing has been watched over 1 million times, and in 2023 she was awarded the Veuve Clicquot Bold Woman Award, the longest running award for female business leaders.We will talk about:That we throw away 30% of our foodAnd that the majority of this is in our homesThe truth about plastic bottlesReframing charity as sharingUgly applesEarth Overshoot DayConnecting with your neighboursThe truth about use by and sell by datesThe Circular EconomyLet’s get wasted.Web: www.whereshallwemeet.xyzTwitter: @whrshallwemeetInstagram: @whrshallwemeet

In this engaging discussion, Maria Popova, creator of The Marginalian, explores the depths of human yearning and existential questioning. She reveals how dissatisfaction can drive creativity and shape identity. Maria critiques the performative identity fostered by social media, advocating for genuine self-expression. The conversation highlights the transformative power of poetry and writing in understanding ourselves and our place in the world. She also imagines a dinner party with historical icons, celebrating the impact of their interconnectedness on intellectual thought.

Questions, suggestions, or feedback? Send us a message!In this episode we talk to Ben Macintyre. He is a columnist and Associate Editor on The Times. He is also an award winning authour and one of the most acclaimed writers of espionage history. His books Agent Zigzag A Spy Among Friends, The Spy and the Traitor, Agent Sonya: Lover, Mother, Soldier, Spy, Operation Mincemeat, Double Cross and SAS: Rogue Heroes have reached bestseller status and many have been adapted for the screen.Ben’s latest book Colditz: Prisoners of the Castle tells the astonishing true story of history’s most infamous prison and became the biggest selling history book of 2022 and a No.1 Sunday Times Bestseller. His upcoming book The Siege is about the greatest SAS hostage drama held in the Iranian Embassy London.We will talk about:The ultimate history curriculumHow reality is always stranger than fictionHistorical quantum leapsAgent versus structre theoryUncovering the hidden stories of spiesHow much of history is the story of the victorsHow much virality could change the way we tell history in the futureYou can pre-order Ben's new book "The Siege" here.Let’s travel through time!Web: www.whereshallwemeet.xyzTwitter: @whrshallwemeetInstagram: @whrshallwemeet

Questions, suggestions, or feedback? Send us a message!In this episode we speak to Dr. Roslind Watts. Dr Watts is a clinical psychologist, and a nature lover. Her work as the Clinical Lead for Imperial College London’s psilocybin trial has made her one of the most prominent voices and minds in the field of psychedelic research.Dr Watts has been named as one of the 50 Most Influential People in Psychedelics. She builds tools and structures to foster connectedness after psychedelic experiences, finding inspiration for their design from nature. She co-founded the UK's first psychedelic integration group, and in 2022 launched ACER a global online integration community.We will talk about:The difference between Macro and microdosingCategorising synthetic and natural compoundsThe Importance of post trip integrationHow psychedelics are changing approaches to therapyThe condundrum of corporate interests and democratisation useRegulationACERAppropriation of indegenous practices“Doing the work” and being a tenant of your own traumaThe Default Mode NetworkMore about Dr. Rosalind Watt's ACER framework here.Now let’s go on a trip!Web: www.whereshallwemeet.xyzTwitter: @whrshallwemeetInstagram: @whrshallwemeet