In Conversation with Nathalie Nahai

Today, I speak with Cindy Gallop, founder & CEO of Make Love Not Porn, the world’s first user-generated, human-curated social sex platform which is ‘Pro-sex. Pro-porn. Pro-knowing the difference’. With over 30 years of experience in brand building, marketing and entrepreneurialism, Cindy is a brand and business innovator, consultant, coach and keynote speaker, who works with those who want to change the game in their particular sector. From brand and business innovation, leadership and advertising, to sextech, social responsibility and diversity and inclusion, Cindy has worked with some of the biggest brands across a gamut of industries, and her unique approach has seen her reach audiences around the world, with her 2009 TED talk, Make love, not porn, attracting over 2.6 million views. Summarising her style as, “I like to blow shit up. I am the Michael Bay of business,” Cindy takes a radical, innovative and transformative approach to helping clients envision and achieve their futures, whether in leadership, branding, or in creating more gender-equal, diverse and inclusive workplaces. Recorded on 15th January 2021.

Today I speak with the inimitable Brian Solis, a world-renowned digital anthropologist and futurist. An award-winning author and global keynote speaker, Brian’s research, advisory and presentations humanise the relationship between disruptive innovation and its impact on institutions, markets and societies. He not only helps audiences understand what’s happening and why, he also visualises future trends and inspires people to take leading roles in defining the future they want to see. Brian serves as Global Innovation Evangelist at Salesforce, and his work focuses on thought leadership and research that explores digital transformation, innovation and disruption, customer experience, commerce, and the cognitive enterprise. He has advised leading brands, celebrities, and startups, and his ideas and work are consistently featured in the press. A regular contributor to leading business and industry publications including Forbes, Harvard Business Review, CMO.com, Adweek and others, Brian is also an official LinkedIn Influencer. His work is followed by over 700,000 people across social media. Recorded on 24th February 2021.

Today, I have the pleasure of speaking with Barbara Kellerman – the Founding Executive Director of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Center for Public Leadership, and a member of the Kennedy School faculty for over twenty years. A world-leading authority on the subject of leadership, Barbara has held professorships at Fordham, Tufts, Fairleigh Dickinson, George Washington, Uppsala, Dartmouth, and the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, and she is the cofounder of the International Leadership Association (ILA). Having received the Wilbur M. McFeeley award by the National Management Association for her pioneering work on leadership and followership, as well as the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Leadership Association, Barbara has spoken to audiences all around the world, and has appeared on media outlets including CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, NPR, MSNBC, Reuters, and the BBC. Alongside articles for the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, and the Harvard Business Review, Barbara has authored many books including Leadership: Essential Selections on Power, Authority, and Influence (2010); Professionalizing Leadership (2018), and Leaders Who Lust: Power, Money, Sex, Success, Legitimacy, Legacy (co-authored with Todd Pittinsky). Her new book, The Enablers: How Team Trump Flunked the Pandemic and Failed America, is now out. Recorded on 19th January 2021.

In today's conversation, I speak with David Rowan – renowned technology expert and former editor-at-large of WIRED magazine’s UK edition, Conde Nast’s award-winning technology-and-innovations magazine that stays ahead of the trends transforming businesses. In his role as editor of WIRED UK, he traveled extensively to investigate the companies and entrepreneurs who are changing our world, and his insights and research are documented brilliantly in his captivating book, Non-Bullshit Innovation: Radical Ideas from the World’s Smartest Minds. As a speaker, David has given keynotes around the world on the themes of technology, business, and innovation, and he has chaired and moderated high-profile events for the UK and French governments, for Google Zeitgeist and TED Global, and for international banks, and Fortune 100 businesses. His most recent awards include Techmark Technology Journalist of the Year, DMA Editor of the Year, and British Society of Magazine Editors’ Editor of the Year. With wide newspaper experience as an editor, he has made TV films for Channel 4 News, and written regular columns in GQ, Condé Nast Traveller, The Times, and The Guardian. Recorded on 12th January 2021.

In this episode, I speak with Scott Barry Kaufman – a humanistic psychologist whose work explores the depths of human potential. Having obtained his Ph.D. in cognitive psychology at Yale University, and an M. Phil in experimental psychology from the University of Cambridge under a Gates Cambridge Scholarship, his interests lie in using his research to help all kinds of minds live a creative, fulfilling, and self-actualised life. Scott has taught courses on intelligence, creativity, and well-being at Columbia University, NYU, the University of Pennsylvania, and beyond, and in 2015 he was named one of “50 groundbreaking scientists who are changing the way we see the world” by Business Insider. He also hosts the world’s No.1 psychology podcast — The Psychology Podcast— which has received over a whopping 15 million downloads and was included in Business Insider’s list of “9 podcasts that will change how you think about human behavior.” A prolific writer, teacher, self-actualisation coach, and public speaker, Scott’s writing has appeared in a host of publications including The Atlantic, Scientific American, Psychology Today, and Harvard Business Review and his latest book, Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualization, proposes a new hierarchy of human needs for the 21st century – one that allows for the fulfilment of individual potential as well as the actualisation of transcendent purpose and peak experiences. Recorded on 12th January 2021.

Hello, and a warm welcome to this special extended season of The Hive Podcast, featuring the interviews from my new book, "Business Unusual: Values, Uncertainty and the Psychology of Brand Resilience". Join me, as I dive into the conversations behind the quotes, and hear from the world’s leading experts, psychologists and business leaders, whose insights and ideas are transforming how we work, rest and play. I’ll be releasing a new episode here, each week, but if you’d like to download everything at once and access additional resources and recommended reading, I’ve made all of this available to readers over at https://www.businessunusualthebook.com/. And if you’re tempted to discover more about your motivations and the principles that drive you, you can even check out the values map.com, a platform I’ve designed in collaboration with Dr Kiki Leutner of Goldsmiths University, to help you identify, develop and communicate the psychological values you or your business represents. In today’s conversation, I speak with Amy C. Edmondson – the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at Harvard Business School, whose most recent book, The Fearless Organization, examines the powerful role of psychological safety in teamwork and innovation. Based upon almost 30 years of research, Amy’s work explores what it takes for groups of people to perform at a high level, and the dynamic forms of collaboration that are needed in environments characterised by uncertainty and ambiguity. Before her academic career, Amy was Director of Research at Pecos River Learning Centers, where she worked with founder and CEO Larry Wilson to design change programs in large companies. In the early 1980s, she worked as Chief Engineer for architect/inventor Buckminster Fuller, and innovation in the built environment remains an area of enduring interest and passion. Recorded on 6th February 2021.

In the final episode of the season, I speak with Professor Manfred Spitzer - a German psychiatrist, psychologist and neuroscientist, whose research and talks have been translated the world over. Medical Director of the Psychiatric University Hospital in Ulm, Germany, Professor Spitzer is also the founder of the Transfer Center for Neurosciences and Learning, and has worked at Heidelberg, Harvard, and the University of Oregon. In this conversation, we discuss everything from the perils of digitalising classrooms and reliance on our devices, to the exciting new interventions science might offer us as to how we build resilience from the lessons we have learned.

Today I speak with Carl Miller, co-rounder and Research Director of the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media at Demos, the UK’s first think tank institute dedicated to studying the digital world. From ‘Fake news’, digital democracy and information warfare, to cybercrime, Internet governance and automated decision-making, Carl’s work explores how social media and technology is changing society, and his research aims to shed light upon how we might make better, more informed choices towards a more democratic society. His debut book, The Death of the Gods: The New Global Power Grab was published in 2018 by Penguin RandomHouse, and won the 2019 Transmission Prize. He presents programmes for the BBC's flagship technology show, Click and has written for Wired, New Scientist, the Sunday Times, the Telegraph and the Guardian. He’s a writer and thinker who’s work I greatly admire, and it was a pleasure and privilege speaking with him today.

Today I have the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Naeema Pasha, the Director of Henley Careers and Professional Development, Director of Diversity & Inclusion, and the Founder of the World of Work at Henley Business School. Naeema’s research on the Future of Work spans the territory of AI, ethics, climate change, diversity and inclusion and more, and her doctoral research on managing careers in uncertainty, explored key factors that enable people to take a positive pro-active stance to build successfully against the backdrop of technological change. Her new book, Futureproof Your Career: How to Lead and Succeed in a Changing World is co-authored by Shaheena Janjuha-Jivraj, and comes out in December this year. We covered a lot of ground in this conversation, from themes around diversity and inclusion, to the future of work and her new paper, The Equity Effect. I do hope you enjoy the conversation.

This episode I speak with Dr Tom Chatfield, a best-selling author and philosopher of technology, whose new book, How to Think, explores the habits and practices that are fundamental to clear thinking and effective study. From the ethics of AI, and tech in deep time, to the philosophy of fake news and what it means to think well, Tom’s work explores how we might improve our experiences and understanding of ourselves, of one another and of technology. His non-fiction books exploring digital culture, including How To Thrive in the Digital Age (Pan Macmillan) and Live This Book! (Penguin), have appeared in over thirty languages, and his critical thinking textbooks and online courses, developed in partnership with SAGE Publishing, are used in schools and universities across the world. I’ve had the pleasure of sharing several stages over the years with Tom, and with each event, I’ve come away feeling inspired and awed at his ability both to understand and to vividly convey the complex and nuanced ways in which we might more richly engage with the world.