In Conversation with Nathalie Nahai

For the first episode of the series, I have the pleasure of speaking with Erinch Sahan, the business and enterprise lead at the Doughnut Economics Action Lab (DEAL). A term coined by the pioneering economist Kate Raworth, the aim of Doughnut Economics is to create 21st century economies that are regenerative and distributive by design, so that they can meet the needs of all people within the means of the living planet – a theme which we will be exploring in our conversation today. Erinch is a board member of the Social Enterprise World Forum, he was recently the chief executive of the World Fair Trade Organization and he previously spent 7 years at Oxfam leading campaign initiatives, where he also founded Oxfam’s Future of Business Initiative. With degrees in finance and law, and an honorary doctorate from Oxford Brookes University, Erinch teaches sustainable value chains at Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, and he has also worked for Australia's aid programme. In the course of his career, he’s even established a furniture business, and in his earlier years, he worked at Procter & Gamble as a market strategy manager, a story I’ll be asking him about shortly. Recorded on 3rd Oct 2022.

In this final episode of the season, I speak with Tracey Follows - a futurist and author of The Future of You: Can Your Identity Survive 21st-Century Technology?  The CEO of Futuremade, a futures consultancy advising global brands and applying foresight to boost business, Tracey has appeared on BBC Business Matters, Radio 4, Talk Radio, and on the Megyn Kelly show in the US. A contributor to the FT, Guardian, and the Daily Mail, she has her own contributor column in Forbes, and hosts The Future of You podcast. Tracey has spoken at UN HQ, keynoted at events such as the Financial Times Tech Live and Think With Google, and spoken alongside Silicon Valley CEOs at the FT's Global Boardroom, as well as UK Government and Parliamentarians at Think Digital Identity, delivering her Tedx at the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office. She has covered topics as diverse as the future of luxury, retail, media, cities, gender, work, defense, justice, entertainment, and AI ethics, decoding what future trends mean for businesses, brands and organisations. Recorded on 9th June 2022.

Today, I have a rather unusual guest… Following a sudden non-dual experience one morning in February 2016, Jessica Corneille decided to change the course of her life by quitting her career in the arts and cultural heritage preservation, to play her part, instead, in helping to de-stigmatise, de-pathologise and raise awareness around spiritual awakening, enlightenment, and non-dual experiences within mainstream psychology. She graduated with Distinction from a Masters Degree in Psychology from the University of Greenwich, where she focused her studies on “exceptional human experiences” (including transpersonal, anomalistic and parapsychology), and is now a qualified research psychologist, focussing predominantly on awakening experiences of a spontaneous nature. Jessica has presented her work at a number of academic conferences, including with the British Psychological Society, and she is the Communications Coordinator for the Scientific and Medical Network. She is also a collaborator of the Emergent Phenomenology Research Consortium and Spiritual Crisis Network, and runs support-groups for people undergoing spiritually transformative experiences. With a desire to challenge the default pathologisation of awakening experiences, Jessica’s research aims to inform and encourage mainstream psychology to look beyond the current designated spectrum of ‘normality’, to encompass the transpersonal as something that is intrinsic to the human experience, and in helping individuals come to the realisation of their highest human potential. Recorded on 30th May 2022.

In this conversation, I speak with Mark Gallagher - author, conference speaker and Managing Director of Performance Insights, an organisation that provides corporate clients with deep-dive insights and executive coaching from the world of Formula One. His book, "The Business of Winning: Insights in Transformation from F1 to the Boardroom", is a compelling insider's account of nearly 40 years in the Formula One industry, in which he explores what it takes to succeed in a competitive business with high technology, high finance and immensely high stakes. Having joined the world of Formula One back in 1983, Mark’s career includes more than a decade on the management board of the highly successful, race winning Jordan Grand Prix team, running the world famous Cosworth engine business, and establishing the commercial arm of Red Bull Racing which went on to become 4-times World Champions. During his career he has worked with many of the sport’s leading drivers, including former World Champions Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher and Jenson Button. Today he works closely with a number of the sport’s major stars including David Coulthard, Mika Hakkinen and Jacques Villeneuve. Mark may not seem like the most obvious guest to have on the show, but what has consistently struck me in our various conversations together, is the power and potential that his industry holds, in helping us to innovate, collaborate and imagine our way out of some of the most pressing issues of our time - most crucially, how we can unhook ourselves from reliance on fossil fuels, and decarbonise our energy industries. Recorded on 18th May 2022.

Today I have the pleasure of speaking with Yanniek Schoonhoven, a regenerative farmer, co-founder of the Regeneration Academy, coordinator of the Re-Generation Festival, and trainer for the regenerative agriculture research program in Murcia, Southern Spain. Holding a master degree in Environmental Sciences, Yanniek has worked with farmers throughout Southern Spain for several years as part of Commonland and AlVelAl, two projects that aim to initiate, catalyse and enable large-scale and long-term restoration initiatives. With a shared mission to transform degraded landscapes into thriving ecosystems and communities, these projects take a practical, holistic approach to developing viable solutions based on social and ecological needs, science and entrepreneurship. The folks at Commonland have been working tirelessly since 2013 to build a universal proof of concept that brings farmers, landowners, entrepreneurs, communities, nature organisations and legislators together to create real returns on investment per hectare. Called 4 Returns, this framework is capable of initiating, organising and following through on large-scale and long-term restoration initiatives that integrate ecology, land use and business - a framework we’ll be exploring in greater depth a bit later. I’m really delighted to be having this particular conversation today, not least because I’ve seen the work they’re doing on the farm, and experienced their passion, determination and open-heartedness first-hand. I’m also excited to be sharing this with you, because it offers a practical example of the transformation we can achieve, at a large scale, when we’re able to envision a different, more regenerative path forward, and work collaboratively with others to make it happen. Recorded on 5th May 2022.

Today I have the pleasure of speaking with Octavia Raheem, beloved author, mother, activist, yoga teacher and practitioner, whose books - Gather, and Pause, Rest, Be: Stillness Practices for Courage in Times of Change - offer revolutionarily gentle, powerful ideas and practices to restore the body, mind and spirit.  Having received national attention for her work training yoga teachers and diversifying the yoga and wellness industry, Octavia’s work as a yoga professional focuses on practical tools to teach individuals how to manage stress, anxiety, and fatigue through yoga and meditation in a way that is accessible to all levels and abilities, and restorative to the nervous system. Her work has been featured in Yoga Journal, Mantra magazine, Well + Good, CNN, WXIA, and Atlanta Magazine, and she is one of the most vibrant and inspiring voices I have come across in the re-imagining of what it means to reclaim our rest. If you’re searching for a way to come home to yourself, or to transform ethnic or race-based stress and trauma, Octavia’s teachings offer a path towards refuge, and her voice is a powerful guide to surviving, healing and thriving in difficult times. Recorded on 15th April 2022.

In this conversation, I speak with Indra Adnan - an author, psycho-social therapist and political entrepreneur, and a global consultant on soft power. The Founder and Co-initiator (together with Pat Kane) of “The Alternative UK political platform”, Indra has been writing, consulting, network-building and event-organising on the themes of future politics, conflict transformation, the role of the arts and integral thinking, for the past 20 years. The Co-Lead in Bounce Beyond, a social enterprise network doing transformative work to cohere and connect the next global economies, Indra is also the author of the fascinating book, The Politics of Waking Up: Power & Possibility In The Fractal Age. She has consulted to the World Economic Forum, NATO and a variety of governments, and she runs community collaboratories around the UK, building Citizen Action Networks (CANs) to reconnect people to cosmo-local eco-systems of solutions that are available. Central to her vision of an Alternative politics is the interdependency of the complex individual, the community and the planet: I, We, World - which is just one of the many themes we’ll be exploring in our conversation today. Recorded on 13th April 2022.

Today I speak with Dr. Ruth Gotian - author of the recently published book, The Success Factor, a fascinating read that explores how we might understand and learn from the mindset and skill set of peak performers, from Nobel Prize winners and astronauts to Olympic champions and political change-makers. The Chief Learning Officer and Assistant Professor of Education in Anesthesiology, and former Assistant Dean of Mentoring and Executive Director of the Mentoring Academy at Weill Cornell Medicine, Ruth has made her name in management thinking and was hailed by the journal Nature and Columbia University as an expert in mentorship and leadership development. Selected as one of 30 people worldwide to be named to the Thinkers50 Radar List in 2021, Ruth was also a semi-finalist for the Forbes 50 Over 50 list, and recently won the Thinkers50 Distinguished Achievement, Radar Award given to a “thinker with the potential to change the world of theory and practice”. A regular contributor to Forbes, Psychology Today and Harvard Business Review, Ruth’s work has been widely published in academic journals, and her take on what pro-social success can look like in a rapidly changing world is what drew me to speak with her on the show today. Recorded 9th February 2022.

In this conversation, I speak with the brilliant Rob Hopkins - cofounder of the Transition Network and Transition Town Totnes, and author of several wonderful books: From What Is to What If? (one of my personal favourites), The Power of Just Doing Stuff, The Transition Handbook, and The Transition Companion. Voted one of the Independent's top 100 environmentalists in 2012, and named among Nesta and the Observer's list of Britain's 50 New Radicals, Rob has appeared on BBC Radio 4's Four Thought and A Good Read, and was featured in the French film phenomenon Demain and its sequel Après Demain. An Ashoka Fellow, Rob has spoken at TEDGlobal and three TEDx events, and holds a doctorate degree from the University of Plymouth and two honorary doctorates from the University of the West of England and the University of Namur. A keen gardener, Rob is a founder of New Lion Brewery in Totnes, and a director of Totnes Community Development Society, the group behind Atmos Totnes, an ambitious, community-led development project. He’s also an artist whose beautiful lino prints you can check out at robhopkins.net, and his podcast, From What If to What Next is really worth a listen if you’re looking for inspiration as to how we can unleash our collective imaginations to create a more resilient world. Recorded on 28th January 2022.

In today’s conversation, I have the treat of speaking with Anthea Lawson - a campaigner and writer, whose powerful book, The Entangled Activist is essential reading for anyone interested in how we might change the world in a more meaningful, integrative way. Having trained and worked as a reporter at The Times, and studied history at Cambridge, her work as an activist has seen Anthea campaign to shut down tax havens, control the arms trade and prevent banks from facilitating corruption and environmental devastation. While working at Global Witness, a human rights and environmental organisation, Anthea also launched a campaign that succeeded in changing the rules on secret company ownership, resulting in new laws being passed in dozens of countries around the world. She’s a rare gem whose rich experience, brilliant mind and grounded presence make for an inspiring and refreshing guide to the hardest challenges we face. I came across Anthea’s work through the renegade economist, Della Duncan, to whom I am grateful for the introduction - and I have to say that while I don’t consider myself an activist per se, this book is one of the most deeply affecting, empowering and illuminating that I have read in a long while. From mapping out the self-righteous, saviour-complex dynamics that arise from our unmet needs, to challenging the extractivist, power-over patterns inherited from our colonial pasts, The Entangled Activist reveals how we can end up re-creating the very problems we seek to fix - and how we might rise to the challenge differently. Recorded on 9th February 2022.