The Possibility Club: Recent Episodes
always possible
The Possibility Club podcast explores the future of business, culture and education. Richard Freeman talks to the people at the coalface of change.
Practical Bravery: TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP!
What can we learn from medical practice about resilience, purpose and communication that can support every line of work? If all professionals had an opportunity to reflect deeply on what matters to them before leaping into the next job, how much more likely would productivity, adaptability, and success (whatever that means) be? How can we challenge the conventional metrics of success and emphasise the importance of aligning our careers with personal values and well-being? Our guest has delivered babies in war zones with Médecins Sans Frontières and shaped global health policies with the UN. But a big leap came in 2016 when she founded a coaching and consulting practice, working with some of the worl'd highest achievers and game-changers to redefine their paths to fulfillment. This is The Possibility Club, and our special guest is author, doctor, coach, academic, Dr Amina Aitsi-Selmi
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“Public health is always trying to link up between political decision-making and making a difference to people in daily life. That is the science and art of public health.”
Dr Amina Aitsi-Selmi via LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/doctoramina/
“I was advised that it’s good to get clinical experience before going into policy or research, so people would give you respect and treat you as a ‘proper’ doctor.”
“These public health policy decisions aren’t just scientific.”
Dr Amina Aitsi-Selmi via Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/iamdoctoramina/?hl=en-gb
Dr Amina Aitsi-Selmi’s page via University College London
https://profiles.ucl.ac.uk/9680-amina-aitsiselmi
“It’s not so much about ‘understanding’ as much as about creating a sense of safety in society, through social safety nets, having political dialogue that’s wise and sensible, not polemical and inflammatory, having media that actually informs and helps people think sensibility, not in a polarised way.”
"There’s so much stress, fear and anxiety, that survival mechanisms that narrow attention and focus take over.”
“Even the idea of flying around talking about climate change started to great. It didn’t make sense.”
“Sometimes you wonder how you suspend disbelief and just do things.”
Doctor Amina website
https://www.doctoramina.com/
"A crisis is an opportunity to dig deeper, to start to question, what’s the model I’ve followed so far, what is true for me now?”
“We need more leaders who are self-aware. It’s not just the leaders, the whole eco-system needs to evolve."
“There’s a sense that we’re being hijacked, and that’s no helpful for our development.”
“A lot of people seem to resign when they work with me! Apply for a new job, or they’re offered a new job.”
Dr Amina Aitsi-Selmi’s book The Success Trap via Amazon https://www.amazon.co.uk/Success-Trap-Good-People-Break/dp/1789665647/
This episode was recorded in April 2024
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
For more visit www.alwayspossible.co.uk
The Possibility Club podcast: Practical Bravery - HAPPY FOOD!
In this episode, we’ll explore the evolving dynamics of the restaurant industry, particularly in the face of economic challenges and shifting consumer behaviours. We’ll discuss the importance of maintaining cultural authenticity in cuisine and how chefs can use their platforms to educate and inspire. Sustainability is a key theme, with a focus on locally sourced ingredients and environmental compatibility, reflecting a broader movement towards more responsible and ethical food practices.
And on a personal level, how does someone transition from a stable corporate career to the uncertainty of the culinary world? What are the keys to creating a successful food business in today’s economic climate? And how can a chef balance tradition with innovation to create a unique and compelling food story?
This is The Possibility Club, and our special guest is MasterChef 2023 Finalist, Anurag Aggarwal.
“I chose finance as my career. I was on a typical life path, wanted to make a living, raise a family. On paper I was doing great, all my boxes were checked. Then that thought started coming into my mind: what next? Something was missing. I can’t do this for the rest of my life.”
"Covid gave me a deeper insight that what we consider secure and permanent is nothing like that. Somebody sneezes on me and I could be gone in two weeks time. So that realisation gave me courage: I want to do something to follow my passion, which is cooking. So I need to do something about it."
Anurag’s biryani pie video, via the Masterchef Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1540693743124303
“Masterchef was the best experience of my life so far. It’s not about being on television, to me food is much more than just ingredients, dishes or cuisine. To be able to be on that presitigious platform, to express myself through my cooking, that was very honouring. It was a brilliant experience.”
“Masterchef gave me the inner conviction that yes, I’m on the right path.”
BBC Masterchef UK
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006t1k5
“They asked me bluntly off camera why I was diversifying into western food. Because I wanted to showcase I could do everything, other than just Indian food. They said you don’t have to. We are not judging if you are a master of all cuisines, we just want to see your original flare, your passion for food. So if you feel passionate, feel love about Indian cuisine, stick to that. That gave me a lot of conviction.”
Anurag Food Story website
https://anuragfoodstory.co.uk/
“The food aspect is at the core. But the rest is more like any other business, it’s just managing the operations, managing the process.”
"There’s no fixed formula, there’s no right or wrong but it’s important that you create a product that is desirable — but more important in a restaurant, service has to be top notch. If you don’t invest that time and money for your front-of-house staff, your product is of no use.”
“Keep it small! It will evolve over some time.”
“One thing is for sure, the current model will massively change.”
“Restaurants for the time being I’m putting on hold, but I’m working on a project to open up food productions commercial units, to cater to businesses for their food needs.”
Anurag Food Story via Facebook https://www.facebook.com/anuragfoodstory/
Instagram — @AnuragFoodStory
https://www.instagram.com/anuragfoodstory/?hl=en
Anurag Aggarwal via LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/anuragfoodstory/?originalSubdomain=uk
"Especially in hospitality, one of the biggest reasons of failure is people who are passionate about food start businesses. They have a huge command of the food but they forget that food is one product in the business, they should focus on the commercial aspect of the business."
“They should focus on the process. Always think about, what is my process? Think of your business as a process so you can objectively answer those questions.”
"One thing I’m a little concerned about, sometimes we give our priority to all these modern techniques and forget what was the point of food itself. You don’t want to forgo the nostalgia and the real stories behind food.”
This episode was recorded in April 2024
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
For more visit www.alwayspossible.co.uk
The Possibility Club podcast: Practical Bravery - RADICAL WATER!
How can innovative partnerships transform global health initiatives? What role does transparency play in building trust and driving impact in charitable organisations?
This episode delves into these questions through the lens of global organisation, charity: water.
charity: water, has revolutionised how charities operate and engage with donors. The organisation operates on a 100% model, where all public donations go directly to funding clean water projects, while private donors cover operational costs. This model ensures that every contribution has a direct impact, fostering greater trust and engagement from donors
We ask why, and how this affects the world of fundraising and accountability.
This is The Possibility Club, and our special guest is Director of charity:water UK, Hannah Bellamy.
Hannah’s page on the Business Charity Awards website
https://www.businesscharityawards.com/hannah-bellamy
Hannah Bellamy via LinkedIn
https://linkedin.com/in/hannahbellamy/
Costa Foundation board and team page
https://www.costafoundation.com/our-team/
United Way books / education charity
https://www.unitedway.org/
“Growing up in the 1990s we thought about businesses like The Body Shop for example, but they were outliers. We didn’t necessarily think about other businesses and how they behaved. So it was a whole new world to me, and that’s how I got into the charity sector.”
charity: water
https://www.charitywater.org/
“We’ve always had this different model where 100% of funds raised on our website, anyone who gives me £10, whatever it is, that will all be spent within the countries where we’re working, and then we will prove that work.”
“We put every single project on our website, you can see them, and that holds us to account.”
“charity: water founder Scott Harrison was a nightclub promoter for ten years in New York. Lots of drink, drugs, probably a lot of fun but started to be much less fun over time. He decided to give that up and volunteer. Eventually found himself on a hospital ship in Liberia.”
Scott Harrison via Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Harrison_(charity_founder)
“He realised that so many people were coming to emergency hospital with illnesses or other types of situations that came from not having any water where they were living.”
“He was talking to people who traditionally don’t give to charity. He jokes that he was talking to his drug dealer about giving and he said, well I don’t trust charities. So people who perhaps had never trusted or supported charities. He said, I guarantee you, give me your money and one hundred percent will be invested in the project and I will show you.”
“It seems huge, it is huge, it’s a massive problem but we are making progress. We do know how to fix it — and we can.”
“It’s one of the few problems in the world that we can all agree on. So we can look at it and say at the extremes, everyone still agrees that every human should have access to clean and safe drinking water.”
“If I’m fundraising, I know I’m not fundraising for my salary. It makes it more comfortable. The difficulty is, it’s really hard to scale.”
Hannah’s TEDx Winchester talk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ca0PspF85QM
"Climate change is actually all about water. It’s a drought, it’s a flood, it’s too much, it’s too little.”
UN Sustainable Development goals
https://sdgs.un.org/goals
“It impacts women and girls: when a home and a family don’t have clean water, the people having to go and collect water, usually from a dirty source and having to walk a long distance, it’s the women and girls.”
"If people want to make their maximum impact, what does that look like?”
This episode was recorded in April 2024
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
For more visit www.alwayspossible.co.uk
The Possibility Club podcast: Practical Bravery - CUTTING EDGES!
In this episode we dive into the textured world of style AND substance, where creativity meets a profound sense of purpose. How do our expressions of style reflect broader cultural, economic, and personal shifts? How does the aesthetic we choose broadcast our identities and our values to the world?
This episode takes us on a journey through the life and legacy of a creative industries pioneer who’s been shaping the public personas of icons across the globe with nothing but a pair of scissors and a flair for transformation.
From working class boy with a Bowie obssession to the style sculptor of Princess Diana, Lady Gaga, Kate Moss at their most iconic. What does social mobility look like at the very top of high fashion? And what is it like to move from creating the faces behind brands, to becoming one yourself?
This is The Possibility Club, and our special guest is the hairdresser's hairdresser, Sam McKnight MBE.
One of the most important image makers of the late 20th and early 21st century
— New York Times on Sam McKnight
“What I know is, people want their hair to look good. Having your hair looking good is an incredible mood booster. It’s a simple, relatively inexpensive way of making yourself feel better.”
Hair By Sam McKnight website
https://sammcknight.com/
“We said from the beginning we want to bring some joy into the hair care world, which we have done. And I get lots of joy from that in return.”
Sam McKnight via Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_McKnight
“That generation of the sixties is when social mobility became possible, really.”
Sam McKnight via Gagapedia (the Lady Gaga wiki)
https://ladygaga.fandom.com/wiki/Sam_McKnight
Sam McKnight on X and Instagram — @sammcknight1
“When David Bowie exploded in colour, that was the start of it for me.”
David Bowie on Top Of The Pops, 1972, via YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOKWF3IHu0I
“My friends had a hairdressing salon. I took a Saturday job there and then very quickly I’d left teacher training college and started training as a hairdresser. I didn’t want to be a teacher.”
“I’ve always taken risks and that goes back to being a teenager. I like to think that I’ve carried that through to my sixties. I’ve always been a risk taker.”
David Bailey, photographer, via Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Bailey
Twiggy (Dame Leslie Lawson), via Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twiggy
“It was pretty brave, to leave a secure job in the salon in Molton Brown, the best salon in London — before it was hand-wash it was the top London salon, in South Bolton Street — it was the shit, it was the place to be, and I left that in 1980 to be by myself, doing this thing called ‘photo shoots’ and two years later I was in New York working for American Vogue.”
Vogue (UK site)
https://www.vogue.co.uk/
Molton Brown via Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molton_Brown
“There are much more opportunities now but there are much more people going after those opportunities.”
"There needs to be a revaluation put on the values of what we bring. You have to train for years to be a good hairdresser. You can’t just turn up with a hairdryer.”
‘Hair by Sam McKnight’ 2016 retrospective exhibition at Somerset House
https://www.somersethouse.org.uk/whats-on/hair-sam-mcknight
“The exhibition gave me power in myself that I hadn’t really tapped into before. To see it all in front of me, all the people I’d met.”
“The creative industries are very attached to emotions. Not only does music, fashion and beauty bring in billions to this country, which is not recognised properly, but they reach people’s emotions. Your music, your makeup, your clothes, it sparks people’s emotions. When you’re working with people on a photoshoot, you’re touching them.”
“Usually I’m meeting people when they’re very young and forming themselves. You build very, very strong bonds with people and there’s a huge emotion attached to it. It’s a very special relationship.”
Kate Moss via Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Moss
"She doesn’t turn out of bed as ‘Kate Moss’ at six o’clock in the morning, there’s a whole process of becoming Kate Moss, becoming Princess Di, becoming Lady Gaga.”
Hair By Sam McKnight — the book, via Amazon
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hair-Sam-Mcknight-Tim-Blanks/dp/0847848787/ref=sr_1_2?crid=Q5S1J0SQNBVU&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.p64JyGeSiexU74ORtn6pFf43Ch-AXpRYp6oSR1gyDQ8.ec_4zM0pkuyQY8U4zh6-4lHtVdu1obiSrk2i8BTHkqY&dib_tag=se&keywords=sam+mcknight+book&qid=1715868587&sprefix=sam+mcknight+book%2Caps%2C90&sr=8-2
“I listened to Coldplay on the radio a couple of years ago now, it was touted as the first sustainable tour and Chris Martin was amazing, he was saying, look we’re a fifty piece troupe that’s going on big jets all over America, we’re not sustainable. But we are thinking about it, and we’re doing everything we can in the small ways to have less of a footprint. And I thought, that is really inspiring because it’s hard!”
“Now this is where the Internet is really incredible and positive, is people doing their own hair and posting the videos. There was a couple of decades when kids weren’t really doing much with their hair — and that’s completely and utterly changed. And I find that really inspiring, I love that the Internet has made that possible.”
"I’m a great collaborator but in the end it’s instinctive as well and I need to be happy with it.”
“I don’t really have to please anyone but myself.”
This episode was recorded in March 2024
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
For more visit www.alwayspossible.co.uk
The Possibility Club podcast: Practical Bravery - CONSCIOUS CO-WORKING!
In this episode we explore the transformative world of co-working spaces and the burgeoning professional communities they foster. As the traditional office evolves and the allure of flexible work arrangements grows, the importance of spaces that inspire, include, and innovate becomes increasingly clear.
Our guest is leading an initiative with established roots in Brighton and plans for nationwide expansion, where workspaces not only meet modern needs but also cultivate communities grounded in equity and sustainability. But what broader impact do these spaces hold for local economies and social dynamics? Can the environments we work in become the epicenters of innovation and social change, fostering a new kind of urban and community life?
Are fancy co-working spaces just a modern trend, or do they represent the foundational elements of future cities where collaboration is at the core?
I'm Richard Freeman, this is The Possibility Club, and my special guest this episode is Director at Projects, Alex Young.
Alex Young via LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-young-74431a135/
“I don’t think using the term ‘revolution’ is incorrect, when it comes to the power that co-working has for the future of business.”
“I love to disagree! I love to argue!”
Projects website
https://www.projectsclub.co.uk/
"You can’t expect an amazing community to form naturally. You’re much better off investing in establishing a community while you are setting up a space, and ideally before.”
“Founding members really make a space. You can have a huge impact if you hand-pick a few key people that are going to join you once your space is open.”
“We don’t just sell workspaces. Because if that’s what we did, we’d do that a lot better and we’d make a lot more money, but that’s not why we’re here.”
“We need diverse people in our spaces. We need to problem-solve together and to do that you can’t just have people who think the same way, look the same, have the same kind of lived experience.”
“I know ‘diversity and inclusion’ are buzz words, they get used way too much, for us we’re creating community spaces, not just selling office space.”
Projects — the team
https://www.projectsclub.co.uk/the-team
“We are not just running beautiful buildings, we are helping individuals that come into our space every day feel more support, feel welcome, and ensuring that they’re able to show up as their best selves, do their best work.”
“I’ve been back working at Projects for a year and I feel like I’m home again.”
“I’m very nosy, I go to co-working spaces all over the world.”
Ethos Property Management
https://ethosproperty.com/
B Corp certification
https://www.bcorporation.net/en-us/certification/
“Everybody talks about how hard becoming a B-Corp is. I don’t find it hard. It requires a lot of hours, policy changes, data gathering, you have to literally change the legal wording of what your business exists to do. Okay, it’s not straightforward, but it’s not hard. For us we were doing all these things anyway.”
freelance dot com (which acquired Coworkees) https://www.freelance.com/
Together Co
https://togetherco.org.uk/
“We’ve seen the issues that come about if people don’t come into work, and I’m not just talking financially. It’s really bad for your health. We need to be around other people.”
“When people show up every day and feel that they can contribute to their work in their best way, that’s going to make a huge impact, not just on their friends, family but their employers as well.”
Alex’s page on Favourite Positions podcast
https://www.favouritepositions.com/meet-alex
Imperial College Business School MBA
https://www.imperial.ac.uk/business-school/mba/
This episode was recorded in March 2024
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
For more visit www.alwayspossible.co.uk
The Possibility Club podcast: Practical Bravery - VOLATILE INNOVATION!
What does it mean to be a global entrepreneur today? How do new technologies help entrepreneurs tackle big challenges? And what kind of bravery does it take to lead in such dynamic times? Join us as we explore these questions with a leader who’s redefining the boundaries of business and innovation. In this episode we're diving deep into how entrepreneurship not only shapes economies and sociey worldwide but also drives the bold leadership and bravery required to address some of our biggest global challenges. From economic inequality to technological disruptions, what do we need to answer in order to pave the the way forward in a digitised future? Our guest this week is serial entrepreneur and CEO of MoreThanDigital, Benjamin Talin. ---
Benjamin Talin website
https://talin.digital/
“My first enterprise was at 13 years old, I stumbled into doing I.T. marketing stuff, building server networks. I was making good money for a small boy who got 20 Euros allowance per month, suddenly having 300 Euros per day was kind of good!”
“I got bored. Later I was burning a lot of my own capital for my startup and I literally rode it into the ground. I didn’t really get the game because no product no funding, no funding no product. So I built a digital agency. I’m good at marketing so I just built that.”
“It was just a journey of constantly: I see an opportunity and I do it, and I create an opportunity and I leverage it.”
“I traded most of the companies just out of frustration!”
MoreThanDigital
https://morethandigital.info
Ben’s page at MoreThanDigital
https://morethandigital.info/en/author/ben/
"Eastern Europe is very entrepreneurial, because they have more pain, I would say.”
“When you talk with Americans they talk about billions, but in Switzerland, Germany or Austria it’s like ‘yeah we dream about one million, or two million’ — so the type of ‘dreaming big’ is different.”
Benjamin Talin on LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/talin/recent-activity/all/
“We are doing economic development programmes. That is what I was doing for governments but they didn’t want innovation, they didn’t care about innovation. Most of the time I had people say to me, ‘ah, that’s so different from what we are doing,’ and I’m like, ‘that’s what you paid me for!’”
Most people think that innovation is like building a rocket or something. But more than eighty percent of innovation is incremental innovation. You have something, it’s an existing market, it’s an existing product, and you implement something that makes it better.
“Radical innovation, which is what people think about innovation, is actually creating a new market with a new product. And that is almost impossible.”
Benjamin Talin on Twitter/X
https://twitter.com/BTalin
Benjamin Talin on Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/t_b3n/
"First of all, we are all humans. We need to understand that besides that we wish that society would be better, and we wish that humans would be nicer, we are first and foremost always optimising our own good. That’s our own priority. If we understand that we can extrapolate it onto organisation.”
"People are starting to lose a lot of money. If you are VC-backed they always tell you, ‘invest everything! Be fast! Be fast!’ But if no money is coming up, it’s like ‘ah, you invested everything, how bad’!”
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs
“Technology will change the way people perceive money, people perceive freedom, people perceive the social structure.”
“You have an idea, you pump it up, it goes bust. Before you even launched the second t-shirt, people are already bored and there’s somebody else doing it.”
This episode was recorded in March 2024
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
For more visit www.alwayspossible.co.uk
The Possibility Club podcast: Practical Bravery - FUTURE-PROOFING WORKPLACES!
In this episode, we return to the nuanced interplay between machine learning and human ingenuity. Can machines complement our creativity, or will they eclipse the essence of human touch in professions once thought impermeable to automation? As we navigate the digital era's complexities, questions of equity, diversity, and the human experience within the technological landscape become increasingly pressing. How do we harness AI to foster inclusivity and bridge divides, rather than widen them? Amidst the relentless pace of innovation, where does the individual find their footing, and how do we cultivate resilience and adaptability in a workforce facing unprecedented shifts? Our guest this week is work futures and technology expert, Dr Naeema Pasha. ---
Dr Naeema Pasha via LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-naeema-pasha-9b23b66/?originalSubdomain=uk
Dr Naeema Pasha on Twitter/X
https://twitter.com/naeema_pasha?lang=en
Futureproof Your Career — Dr Naeema’s ebook
co-written with Shaheena Janjuha-Jivraj via Amazon
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Futureproof-Your-Career-Succeed-Changing-ebook/dp/B091Y37WZC/
“There was just a report done recently at Henley about bosses wanting people back in the workplace, having what’s called a ‘proximity bias’, I will trust you more if I can see you visibly.”
Henley Business School
https://www.henley.ac.uk/
“Research shows there are people wanting this identity of us just not being workers, that we are also doing other things, we have families, or commitments, or hobbies, or anything. People expect flexibility.”
“People are expecting to have time to take children to school, or wellbeing. All these things seem to be much more in the psyche of workers.”
“Looking at the research I did on race equity, and other people in Henley have done further study on this, is that people are biased. And what we found with the A.I. is that it could be less biased in coaching.”
“When we talk about skilling, the research I did — and this was my doctorate — is that, rather than the skills of coding and STEM and this kind of thing, what is more important is for us to start understanding ambiguity, work through uncertainty, and therefore what skills are important are how to be focused, how to go through these complexities that we have, and work out where we are and how we progress.”
Work of Work Institute
https://www.henley.ac.uk/world-of-work
Henley Business Schools’ Leading Edge podcast with Naeema
https://www.henley.ac.uk/leading-edge/future-of-work-how-to-channel-the-spirit-of-gen-z
On job hunting —
“The job hunting experience has been interesting. Having worked in graduate recruitment, where thousands of people go through processes, now myself being part of a pool.”
“The most important thing is to humanise the process.”
“The ‘ghosting’ experience is strange. A handful of big organisations are processing everyone. Your data is kept and it’s pushed through this funnel, but then you get ghosted at the end. Automated systems should allow for a rejection stage as well.”
“There’s enough intellect in organisations to be able to think, how do we manage this process? Because it’s a decent thing to do and actually it’s good for the recruitment brand as well.”
"It still feels like ‘you should be grateful’ and we’ll put you through these ridiculous amount of tests and interviews.”
“This year has been a real experience of hearing the term ‘we’re about the hustle’, ‘we’re about the hustle culture’, hearing that quite a lot with employers.”
‘Equality alone won’t help you win the war on talent’
article by Dr Naeema Pasha in The HR World
https://www.thehrworld.co.uk/culture-clash/equality-alone-wont-help-win-war-talent/
Wired article on Grindr’s demand that workers return to the office
https://www.wired.com/story/grindrs-return-to-office-ultimatum-gutted-a-uniquely-queer-space-in-tech/
“Being able to collaborate was really important, and being able to collaborate in a way that allowed for diversity to come into place.”
“We still want to feel a sense that people care for us. And we can also do the same for other people. And that was the same in physical places, as well as online.”
“Caring has come up so often in organisations that people want to know how they can make it more explicit, how they can show that a lot more. Not just to care for others and our teams, but ourselves as well.”
“We might even go to shops where it’ll say ’no A.I. used here’ because we don’t want our retinas scanned.”
“The rate of change is fast. We have to work with young people to understand you are valuable, you are brilliant, you’ve got capability, how can we understand your strengths?”
“I think equity and diversity is going to be more important and A.I. will probably enable that to work better.”
This episode was recorded in November 2023
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
For more visit www.alwayspossible.co.uk
The Possibility Club podcast: Practical Bravery - CREATIVE PARTICIPATION!
In this episode of The Possibility Club podcast, we're exploring the spaces where creativity becomes a conduit for connection, and where theatres and arts venues become the heartbeats of the communities they serve.
Our guest is the Head of Participation at Southwark Playhouse, orchestrating a symphony of projects that resonate with thousands yearly, from all ages and backgrounds. His work is about creating a mosaic of experiences that reflect south London's diversity, challenges, and aspirations. Through strategic development, he weaves the threads of local needs with the theatre's aims, securing funding to turn vision into reality and offering tangible opportunities for emerging talents.
Let's explore the conversation where art and community come together to rewrite stories, with David Workman.
David Workman via LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-workman-3ba02132/?originalSubdomain=uk
“I constantly pinch myself at how lucky I am to be doing the job I’m doing.”
“I realised all my career has been spent in the Borough of Southwark, which is totally unintentional.”
Southwark via GoogleMaps
https://www.google.com/maps/place/London+Borough+of+Southwark/@51.4652303,-0.1528077,12z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m6!3m5!1s0x48760398794427df:0x41185c626be6770!8m2!3d51.4880572!4d-0.0762838!16zL20vMG45Y3c?entry=ttu
“Some of the wards are some of the poorest in London, if not the UK. But that’s slap bang up against brand new developments.”
“No-one has to engage with us, I’ve got to reach out to them.”
“The minute we went out and ran a workshop in a community space, we had a lot more people come along. We went into their territory and said we want to be part of this community.”
Southwark Playhouse
https://southwarkplayhouse.co.uk/
Southwark Playhouse — participation pages
https://southwarkplayhouse.co.uk/participate/
“I still suffer quite regularly from imposter syndrome, thinking I got here, how did I get here? But I guess I’ve been doing it for fifteen years now, so maybe I should get over that.”
“All I’ve learnt, I’ve learnt by doing. Not necessarily through studying it per se, but doing it, getting it right, getting it wrong, learning on the job.”
“Last year we opened a second venue, so we now have two venues in Elephant & Castle, and within our new venue we have a dedicated participation space, which is all of my work. Realistically I’m not going to be able to fill that space twenty-four seven with all the work I do, but I want to make that space usable. So we’re partnering with charities working with refugees, adults with dementia, young people at risk of exclusion. They’re already doing great work — which there’s no point us trying to replicate, I’d rather support and amplify that in the community, rather than trying to muscle in.”
Bristol Old Vic
https://bristololdvic.org.uk/?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwwMqvBhCtARIsAIXsZpaWRrn75HVlHHPChA8o1USd1QqX5NVN0Ryfo7v3eAbjNnZk4HbAxkwaAhg8EALw_wcB
Theatre In Education via Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre_in_education
Shakespeare’s Globe schools team
https://www.shakespearesglobe.com/learn/
“I don’t that there’s one approach for everything you do. You have to be adaptive, you have to adapt to different communities, different demographics, one size will not fit all. But also I work with a lot of artists and if I employ someone because of what they’re going to bring to that project, their own approach, their own artistic practice. I’m not keen on imposing on a practical side how that might be.”
Elephant & Castle via Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant_and_Castle
"The community is changing. There’s very little point me not changing how I approach my work.”
“It’s a way of softly building those relationships with the community, really.”
“We’re not funded by the Arts Council and we never have been and we’ve sustained and grown that over thirty years. Our model is, in a year we’ll stage between twenty-five and thirty shows and we have spaces of different sizes. By not having money from the Arts Council it gives us more flexibility but more risk. But we get the balance right, generally.”
Operation Mincemeat via Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mincemeat_(musical)
Operation Mincemeat
https://www.operationmincemeat.com/
Little Angel Theatre
https://www.littleangeltheatre.com/
“I’m a glass half full person. I approach things with a ‘let’s see what happens’ kind of approach.”
”There’s always going to be a need, a desire, for live art. Post-pandemic it took a long time for that to come back, and I think it’s still doing that. People have to weigh up the costs of coming into London. You have to take a punt on something. But there’s lots going on and there are a lot of exciting voices coming through.”
This episode was recorded in February 2024
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
For more visit www.alwayspossible.co.uk
The Possibility Club podcast: Practical Bravery - EMPOWERED ENTERPRISE!
In this episode, we navigate the journey of a visionary whose leadership has not just built businesses but has transformed lives.
An architect of opportunity, whose blueprint for change is reshaping the landscape of social mobility.
From the foundations of financial literacy to the pillars of small business support, her mission is to elevate the underprivileged, to turn the tide of poverty through the power of enterprise. By advocating for a model that combines training, seed capital, and ongoing mentoring, she's not just changing the game; she's setting a new standard for how we approach development aid. Her vision is clear - a world where business serves as a vehicle for social mobility, where every entrepreneur, no matter their starting point, has a chance to thrive.
Joining The Possibility Club is a leader in lifting lives through enterprise, and perhaps, a guiding light for future generations of social entrepreneurs - CEO of Village Enterprise, Dianne Calvi.
Dianne Calvi via LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/diannecalvi/
Dianne Calvi via Twitter / X
https://twitter.com/DianneCalvi
“When I was child my dad told me stories about his own childhood. His mum was a single mother who struggled to just put food on the table, they were migrant workers during the summer, they would pick fruit, live in a tent, often go hungry. His life was so foreign to me. I realised that I wanted to make a difference in the lives of people like my dad.”
Village Enterprise
https://villageenterprise.org/
"When I got the opportunity to take on this role, it brought together so many things I was looking for. To take what I’d learned in organisations like Microsoft and apply it to the non-profit sector. To try to build an organisation that had significant impact.”
“If you want to solve a big problem, you have to change policies in the way governments operate. One of the ways you can do that is building a solid base of evidence for an approach.”
“We see real transformative change, not only in the women we work with but in the lives of everyone in their families. It really is an incredible change that happens in a relatively short period of time.”
"We see a whole new local economy grow out of this work.”
Dianne Calvi’s page on Village Enterprise
https://villageenterprise.org/about-us/team/dianne-calvi/
“We’re working in the very rural areas, so still today most of the businesses that we start are agriculture businesses. In many cases people transition from subsistance farming to planting crops that generate income, and generating much more income off the land because of this re-orientation.”
“We’re not providing them with a loan, we’re providing them with a cash grant.”
Dreamstart Labs — DreamSave fintech for informal community banking
https://www.dreamstartlabs.com/dreamsave.html
“When we go into a new community we target those in extreme poverty and we work with every single household that qualifies. So we’re not just cherrypicking entrepreneurs, we’re really working with the entire village. In many cases 85% of the households in an area.”
Mercy Corps
https://www.mercycorps.org/
“We create businesses for the first time but they need customers, so Mercy Corps is providing the incentives and in some cases training for the private sector actors to work together with our entrepreneurs.”
Dianne Calvi’s page on Next Billion
https://nextbillion.net/authors/dianne-calvi/
Dianne Calvi wins award at Stanford
https://news.stanford.edu/report/2023/06/05/stanford-alumni-honored-work-advancing-common-good/
“We’ve done two randomised control trials. It’s the only way you can prove attribution to a program. And we’ve found we can quantify them. We now have evidence that people’s wellbeing is increasing, their mental health, their sense of agency is increasing, and this has all been measured by a randomised control trial, so there are questions you can ask that help quantify that that is happening.”
Boconni University, Milan, MBA course
https://www.sdabocconi.it/en/mba-executive-mba?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiA84CvBhCaARIsAMkAvkKhSc7ycAO9HYa7NoCrR1rV-OrjpDfm4sdGFFbiwbeAis86VMUF6s8aAro2EALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds
Development Impact Bonds via Social Finance
https://www.socialfinance.org.uk/what-we-do/social-impact-bonds#
“For every dollar invested in the Village Enterprise program, five dollars of income are generated. So now governments are interested in adopting this, because they see that that will create economic growth."
US AID Development Innovation Ventures
https://www.usaid.gov/div
Wildlife Conservation Society
https://www.wcs.org/
African Wildlife Foundation
https://www.awf.org/
Jane Goodall Institute
https://janegoodall.org/
Abhijit V. Banerjee & Esther Dufflo — Poor Economics via Amazon
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Poor-Economics-Barefoot-Hedge-fund-Surprising/dp/0718193660/ ------
This episode was recorded in October 2023
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
For more visit www.alwayspossible.co.uk
The Possibility Club podcast: Practical Bravery - MUSICAL POLITICS!
Can artists change the world? Should they? And should it be through their art, or through their activism? In this episode we're charting the course of a journeyman whose guitar has graced stages worldwide, and whose convictions have spotlighted the corridors of change. From the euphoric highs of indie rock stardom with his band Gomez, capturing hearts and the Mercury Prize in 1998, to the critical acclaim and UK Top 40 albums, his artistry has been undeniable. But it's his transition from artist to advocate and activist that makes him stand out. Elected as the Chair of the Ivors Academy and sitting on the council of the Performing Rights Society, he's not just playing tunes; he's setting the tempo for change. And in 2024 (after we recorded this interview), he's seeking a place in the mother of all parliaments. Our guest is rockstar, campaigner and - who knows - maybe a future prime minister, Tom Gray. ----------
“I always saw myself as a side man, I was the guy stood next to the guy, I loved writing songs. I never saw myself as being a leader.”
Tom Gray via Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Gray_(activist)
Tom Gray via LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-gray-8a084328/?originalSubdomain=uk
“Actually music wasn’t my goal at all, hilariously, music was just my way of slowing down my racing brain.”
"I actually had a choice: do I get on a plane and work for a senator, which is what I wanted to do — I wanted to be a speechwriter — or do I get Madonna’s private jet? A ridiculous thing to choose between.”
Gomez the band
https://www.gomeztheband.com/
Gomez the band via Wikpedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gomez_(band)
"By the time I was twenty-four or twenty-five I felt like I was on my third thing.”
“I realised there were all kinds of problems facing my friends in music and a lot of the organisations representing them, although heartily trying, weren’t necessarily getting there.”
“I had this curious superpower which was that I understood politics, I’d grown up in politics, I knew loads of people in politics. If didn’t do something, who was?"
Featured Artists Coalition
https://thefac.org/
The Ivors Academy (formerly British Association of Songwriters and Composers)
https://ivorsacademy.com/
“I realised they didn’t have a policy unit, helped them build a policy unit, helped them develop a public affairs strategy, actually employ people to do policy, which they didn’t have. They were kind of shaking their fists in the air but not doing this stuff.”
Musicians Union
https://musiciansunion.org.uk/
“So, end of February 2020 I became a one man campaign, called Broken Record. And three months later the MU and Ivors Academy ran my more traditionally designed campaign called Fix Streaming.”
“I was the guerrilla ground offensive, and then the air attack came later.”
Broken Record campaign via Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_Record_campaign
Mixmag article on the Broken Record campaign to fix streaming
https://mixmag.net/feature/brokenrecord-music-industry-streaming-labels-artists-exploitation-equitable-renumeration
Tom Gray’s evidence via the UK Parliament
https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/10156/pdf/
Twitter/X — @MrTomGray
Instagram — https://instagram.com/automatoms
“There’s a series of levers, there’s a series of relationships, there’s a way to change the world, there’s a path and, boringly, that’s how you do it."
"We got all major labels agreeing to forgive debt of artists who’d been in debt for more than twenty years, which was huge.”
“We’ve got an industry-wide transparency agreement that is about to be signed.”
“My entire thing is, hold the industry in a headlock and force them to improve. People will say government process takes you out of that campaigning mode, it takes you out of holding their feet to the fire. That’s true but you’ve also got the institutional grip. They have to keep saying the right things, there’s no easy exit for them.”
Labour List — “Meet Labour Brighton Pavilion candidate Tom Gray as Eddie Izzard falls short”
https://labourlist.org/2023/12/brighton-pavilion-candidate-tom-gray-labour-eddie-izzard/
“Music isn’t the arts, are you mad? It’s one of our most basic forms of communication!”
Possibility Club interview with Crystal Asige
https://www.alwayspossible.co.uk/podcast-practical-bravery-crystal-asige/
Pete Wishart of Runrig via Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Wishart
"We are one of three music net exporters on the planet. We have this huge benefit of our language and our unbroken history of music learning, conservatories, the Beatles, you wouldn’t have the Beatles without the Education Act, that’s clear. Public policy changes the world. John Lennon going to art school was a profoundly important thing that needed to happen, in order for the world to experience the Beatles.”
"Resilience is 100% the lesson of being a musician, because it’s been pretty hard, the past twenty years, working in that sector. There’s always someone who’s making a buck out of everybody but for me I think these fights can be won, still. And if that’s optimism, that’s optimism.”
This episode was recorded in September 2023
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
For more visit www.alwayspossible.co.uk
The Possibility Club podcast: Practical Bravery - CLEAR-SIGHTED SOCIAL ENTERPRISE!
How is it possible to mastermind commercially earned revenue alongside philanthropy in a growing business? Nurturing a purpose-driven enterprise that is centred around social impact at scale in turbulent times...? Our guest this week has been at the forefront of transforming lives through visionary healthcare strategies, with over two decades of experience in international development. Now leading an organization that has transformed the vision of over 10 million people, she has unlocked billions in household income potential as people start to see clearly again. Where do we begin to unravel the complexities of creating global health equity and sustainable change? Enjoy our conversation with the CEO of VisionSpring, Ella Gudwin. ----------
Ella Gudwin via LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ella-r-gudwin-20-20/
Ella Gudwin via Twitter / X
@ellarain
Ella’s ‘My Working Day’ for Business Leader magazine
https://www.businessleader.co.uk/my-working-day-ella-gudwin/
“Eyeglasses are a 700 year old technology that have failed to diffuse to the low income segment. They have been remarkably stuck as a luxury item, as a product for the learned and the elite.”
“VisionSpring was established in 2001 as a social enterprise, recognising that a problem this big is too big for charity to solve alone.”
Vision Spring
https://visionspring.org/
“While the word ‘customer’ could be a capitalist word, I think there’s a really important element to the power dynamic when we stop using the word ‘beneficiary’.”
“We have to show up in a community with a product or service that is worth people’s time and it has to be worth their limited discretionary income. We have to earn trust. We need to provide products that are stylish. We have to offer the dignity of choice. The power is in the hands of the customer. First. It’s a real psychological shift.”
“There is an organisational culture of determination. We will throw ourselves at the wall again and again, until we get over it. The other one is revealing hard truths — being clear when things aren’t working. Letting the data and the evidence drive our decision-making.”
Jordan Kassalow via LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordan-kassalow-26726bb/
Ella Gudwin’s page on VisionSpring
https://visionspring.org/about-us/the-team/ella-gudwin
In some communities 30% of people think glasses make your eyesight weaker. Others don’t want their girls to be in glasses, because it will make them less marriable and might increase their dowry. And there’s just a lot of people who feel like, it makes me old!”
"We can all have a little bit of vanity about, am I going to have to wear my glasses?”
“The issues and the connections between foreign policy and international aid are ancient. The extraction mindset is real. There’s a huge push in the international development space around decolonising international aid and making sure more funding is going into community based organisations, organisations with local leaders and local founders.”
”It’s important that we use our knowhow and our evidence to catalyse collaborative action.”
UN Friends of Vision
https://www.iapb.org/advocate/eye-health-and-sdgs/un-friends-of-vision/
WHO’s World report on vision
https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789241516570
International Labour Organization
https://www.ilo.org/global/lang--en/index.htm
Myopia via Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myopia
“The world needs 500,000 points of distribution for prescription glasses, and 400,000 more points of distribution for reading glasses, in order to have durable, lasting supply. So we have to awaken the demand, get the supply in place and then we will be able to solve the problem globally.”
A.I. and digital health in global eye health, The Lancet
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/langlo/article/PIIS2214-109X(23)00323-6/fulltext
“It’s a really exciting moment for us in the eyecare space, because the level of collaboration is at new heights.”
"I’m a firm believer than one plus one equals eleven.”
This episode was recorded in July 2023
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
For more visit www.alwayspossible.co.uk
The Possibility Club podcast: Practical Bravery - EVOLVING MARKETS!
How is technology reshaping the landscape of global finance?
What role do ethics play in the evolution of digital communication platforms?
In what ways can resilience and innovation drive progress during crises?
How will emerging technologies like Bitcoin impact the future of trading and energy resources?
What lessons can leaders learn from the transformation of traditional trading floors to encrypted, digital platforms?
So many questions, so little time.
In this episode of The Possibility Club, we delve into the world of global financial services, banking, and fintech with a focus on bravery and ethics.
Our guest has carved an impressive career path, marked by courage and a commitment to ethical stewardship and good governance in financial markets. With over two decades of experience in the industry, he's earned a reputation as a true pioneer. Recognised for his exceptional leadership, he was named CEO of the Year at the 2022 Markets Choice Awards. Additionally, he has been included in the TabbFORUM 40 Top Innovators in Financial Markets list. He's not just shaping the industry; he's actively shaping the conversation around the future of technology and finance. For the first Practical Bravery interview of 2024, please meet the CEO of the rapidly growing fintech infrastructure firm, Symphony. ----------
Brad Levy via LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/brad-levy-30667851/
Brad Levy biography at Santander
https://www.santander.com/en/press-room/santander-international-banking-conference/biographies/brad-levy
Symphony
https://symphony.com/
“The industry needs a platform that is secure, ie encrypted, and then highly curated.”
“Not everybody can be on Symphony, it’s a walled garden but ultimately inside that walled garden people decide who they communicate with. So it’s very open inside, but it’s encrypted.”
Brad Levy via Symphony Leadership page
https://symphony.com/company/leadership/
“Symphony is an enabler of remote work.”
“I started with no computers really in an industry and I ended up with a Pentium chip in 1995 that was super-fast, and I just stayed with that.”
“Electronic trading in 95 didn’t exist, so it was a very physical job, you sat on trading floors, people smoked cigarettes, literally, on trading floors in the 80s and 90s. That really started to fade. Trading floors used to be raucous, and then it started to get more online and fifteen years later in 2010 you go to a trading floor, there’s a lot of people but it really is quiet.”
Goldman Sachs
https://goldmansachs.com/
Goldman Sachs via Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldman_Sachs
“There’s a lot more trading and risk activity happening now, it’s just more dispersed and diffused.”
“I’ve seen that thirty year arc and it’s just been fascinating.”
AIM (AOL) software via Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIM_(software)
“To build thing you need capital. Usually you need funding to do anything. Then you need some form of physical energy. I think of finance, tech and energy as these base areas, and then base industries that all other industries need to deal with.”
Bitcoin via Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin
“A bitcoin is code, compute, and cooling. Literally. Write code, run the computer and then cool it. That’s why Quebec is big, because it’s got a lot of hydro-power and water.”
Freedom Tower - One World Trade Center via Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_World_Trade_Center
Markit via Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markit
September 11th attacks via Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11_attacks
Sandy (Hurricane Sandy) via Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Sandy
“I’ve just seen all these things — and communication literally winds up being the thing you need at that moment. Not having your cellphone battery, or being down on text on 9/11.”
This episode was recorded in September 2023
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
For more visit www.alwayspossible.co.uk
The Possibility Club podcast: at the One Young World Summit 2023 Special Episode 3: SUSTAINABILITY! The One Young World Summit 2023 in Belfast was a significant gathering of young leaders from over 190 countries, representing a diverse array of professions and backgrounds. This annual event is renowned for its focus on accelerating social impact and empowering young leaders to address pressing global challenges. For more detailed information about the Summit, you can visit the official One Young World website here. ---------- Featuring interviews or speeches from: Nancy Iraba: From Tanzania, Nancy has shifted her career from aspiring medical doctor to marine scientist and entrepreneur, founding the Healthy Seaweed Company. She is revolutionising marine resource use and enhancing local community livelihoods, particularly women seaweed farmers. Rana Hajirasouli: With qualifications from prestigious institutions, Rana blends academic prowess with practical business sense. As founder of The Surpluss, she focuses on addressing supply-chain waste through innovative technology. Mazur Mohammed: A Sudanese delegate, Mazur founded Visit Sudan to promote tourism that benefits local communities. He aims to change perceptions of Sudan and empower young content creators. Mohammad Mashharawi: From Palestine, Mohammad's company Sunbox provides sustainable solar-powered energy solutions in Gaza, countering reliance on erratic power sources. Khalid Younis: An Iraqi Kurd focusing on sustainability challenges, through technology, in extreme environments like Iraqi Kurdistan. Ecuadorian Delegation (Luiz & Michelle): Comprising activists, students, entrepreneurs, and creatives, this diverse group from Ecuador, including indigenous peoples, attended the summit to share and learn about sustainability and leadership. ------
This episode was recorded in October 2023
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
For more visit www.alwayspossible.co.uk
The Possibility Club podcast: at the One Young World Summit 2023 Special Episode 2: LEADERSHIP! The One Young World Summit 2023 in Belfast was a significant gathering of young leaders from over 190 countries, representing a diverse array of professions and backgrounds. This annual event is renowned for its focus on accelerating social impact and empowering young leaders to address pressing global challenges. For more detailed information about the Summit, you can visit the official One Young World website here. ---------- Featuring interviews or speeches from: Crystal Asige: Crystal Asige is a Nominated Senator in Kenya and a renowned singer. Despite losing her eyesight due to glaucoma, she has made significant strides in both music and politics. Asige advocates for the rights of the youth and persons with disabilities. She was nominated to the Senate by the Orange Democratic Movement in 2022. Asige is known for her music career, including an independent album released in November 2023. For more about Crystal Asige, visit Kenyans.co.ke
Daniel Zapata Castro: Daniel is a celebrated peace-builder from Colombia and a coordinating ambassador for One Young World, focusing on social entrepreneurship in his region. More details can be found on One Young World.
Bob Geldof: Bob Geldof is an Irish singer-songwriter and political activist, best known as the lead singer of The Boomtown Rats. He co-wrote and organized the charity song "Do They Know It's Christmas?" and the Live Aid and Live 8 concerts for famine relief in Africa. Geldof is an advocate for social justice and poverty alleviation in Africa, serving as an adviser to the ONE Campaign. He was granted an honorary knighthood for his charitable efforts. For more on Bob Geldof's life and work, visit Wikipedia.
Natalie Ainsworth: Natalie represents AstraZeneca and is involved in fostering positive change. Her professional background and contributions can be explored on LinkedIn.
Geraldine Dichamp and Steve Edney: From Pernod Ricard (and Expression for Growth), they represent Pernod Ricard and focus on responsible alcohol consumption and corporate dialogue with future consumers. Geraldine's profile is available on LinkedIn.
Steffi Malina Kabre: A first-time attendee and One Young World Ambassador, Steffi works with the UN World Food Programme, focusing on women's health in Burkina Faso. Her professional details can be found on LinkedIn.
Madina Abacar: Madina is a finance professional and influential blogger from Mozambique, known for her foundation supporting young women's professional careers. More about her journey is available at Lionesses of Africa.
Anxhela Bruci: An Albanian woman trafficked as a child, Anxhela now focuses on helping others exploited by modern slavery. Her LinkedIn profile provides more insights: LinkedIn.
This episode was recorded in October 2023
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
For more visit www.alwayspossible.co.uk
The Possibility Club podcast: at the One Young World Summit 2023 Special Episode 1: PEACE! The One Young World Summit 2023 in Belfast was a significant gathering of young leaders from over 190 countries, representing a diverse array of professions and backgrounds. This annual event is renowned for its focus on accelerating social impact and empowering young leaders to address pressing global challenges. For more detailed information about the Summit, you can visit the official One Young World website here. ---------- Featuring interviews or speeches from: Ryan Murphy For more detailed information about Ryan Murphy and his role as the Lord Mayor of Belfast, you can visit the Belfast City Council's website here. HRH Queen Rania of Jordan For more detailed insights into her speech and its impact, you can refer to the articles on Queen Rania's official website here and BNN Breaking here. Mohammed Al-Othman A Jordanian entrepreneur and the North Region Youth Corner Supervisor at the Jordanian Ministry of Youth. For more details, you can visit his profile on the One Young World website. Eddy Balina A One Young World Ambassador and the Founder of the Non-Violence Project Uganda, shared his experiences at the One Young World Summit 2023. For more details about Eddy Balina's experiences and contributions, you can visit the One Young World website here. Sarah Gribben For more detailed information and suggestions for visiting Belfast, you can visit the Visit Belfast website here. Claire Regan For more information, you can visit a news article on Queen's University Belfast's website here. Rachael Toland For more details on the broader PwC delegation, you can visit the website here. Rez Gardi A notable participant at the One Young World Summit 2023, is a Co-Managing Director for Refugees Seeking Equal Access at the Table (R-SEAT). For more information about her work, you can visit the One Young World website here. Juan Manuel Santos The former President of Colombia and a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, was a key speaker at the One Young World 2023 Summit held in Belfast.For more details on Santos' participation and insights at the One Young World 2023 Summit, you can visit the official One Young World website here and Al Jazeera's coverage of his interview here. Zurich Insurance Group For an overview of the engagement between Zurich and One Young World, including stories from summit attendees, you can visit the Zurich Foundation page. Detailed information about the Zurich - One Young World Scholarship and its impact can be found on the One Young World website. To learn more about the NEXT strategy within Zurich Insurance Group, which focuses on giving a voice to new generations, you can visit the Zurich Insurance NEXT page. Maria Fernanda Ribeiro A young changemaker from Brazil, deeply involved in educational initiatives aimed at reducing inequalities in her city. She and a group of young leaders in Nova Friburgo, Rio de Janeiro, created an accessible Model United Nations (MUN) program, bridging the gap in opportunities between students in private and public schools. For more details on these initiatives, you can visit HundrED's website. Monica McWilliams & Hasina Safi You can watch the fireside chat featuring Monica McWilliams and Hasina Safi discussing the exclusion of women in peace processes on YouTube. This session provides valuable insights into the role of women in peacebuilding. The video is titled "Exclusion of women in peace processes is not an option I Monica McWilliams and Hasina Safi" and can be found here. ------
This episode was recorded in October 2023
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
For more visit www.alwayspossible.co.uk
The Possibility Club podcast: Practical Bravery - DISRUPTIVE UNIVERSITIES!
Between 2010 and 2015, our special guest for this episode served as the Director of Policy to the UK Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, during the Liberal Democrat and Conservative coalition government. Her work in government laid the foundation for her passion for equality and social justice. After government, she co-founded the Money and Mental Health charity in partnership with Martin Lewis - before going on to lead the policy and democracy think tank, Demos. As of June 2022, my guest has taken on the role of Chief Social Purpose Officer at the University of Arts London (UAL). In this position, she is championing a groundbreaking initiative—the Social Purpose Implementation Plan—a historic move for higher education in the UK. We explore how UAL's plan goes beyond teaching and research; it's a commitment to addressing the intertwined challenges of our time: climate change, social inequality, and the imperative for creativity to drive positive change. For the last Practical Bravery interview of 2023, I am delighted to bring you a fascinating chat with Polly Mackenzie. ----------
Polly MacKenzie via LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/pollymackenzie/?originalSubdomain=uk
Polly MacKenzie via Advance HE
https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/profile/polly-mackenzie
Polly on Twitter/X — @pollymackenzie
“I love creating new roles but there’s this feeling of jeopardy — I have no idea how to do this — and there isn’t a model, I can’t just follow the instructions.”
"I just learnt that I’m called a ‘third space’ professional, because I’m not an academic, and I’m not just in the professional services departments. Because I’m trying to catalyse change that goes across this whole waterfront.”
“We might be just wrong.”
University of the Arts London (UAL)
https://www.arts.ac.uk/
“Grayson Perry has described UAL as the ‘world’s largest factory for troublemakers.’”
“In academia you’re embedded in that ‘term’ structure. Parliament has this big long summer holiday, so do universities, but I feel like most normal people grew out of that! In businesses they talk about quarters, Q1, Q2, but here it’s ‘terms’. It’s ‘term’, it’s ‘recess’ and the long vacation. I like the rhythm of the year.”
“In our office sections we didn’t have any whiteboards. It’s weird. You go to the studios, it’s like creative central, you go to the offices, it’s like a third tier law firm.”
UAL appoints Polly MacKenzie
https://www.arts.ac.uk/about-ual/press-office/stories/ual-appoints-polly-mackenzie-as-chief-social-purpose-officer
“Give yourself the breathing room, the confidence to keep going, keep plodding, keep asking, keep exploring, keep writing stuff down, and you get to the point where you feel you know what to do.”
“Sometimes there’s an instinct, a sharpness. I’m a words person, I studied English literature, my deepest loves are poems, speeches and stories. It’s not that I dislike art but it’s not my medium, the visual arts. So it’s been interesting to push myself to try to think in 3D as well as in words.”
"There’s a strong sense within art school tradition of art as disruption, art as activism. It’s the making of something new, and therefore in the mindset of the people who want to do that, and the culture that is built when you gather them together, is to be agents of change. But we’ve started to talk about something that is more directional.”
"Anarchism has developed a branding problem on the left, if that makes any sense? You can’t just say ‘smash it all to pieces and see what happens’ and assume that that is a force for good.”
“I think there’s a continuum between art-as-disruption,‘burn it all down’, art-as-activism, which is more directed, or then perhaps art as an act of citizenship, of responsibility."
Nick Clegg, via Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Clegg
The Cameron-Clegg, Lib Dem / Conservative coalition, via Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cameron%E2%80%93Clegg_coalition
“Any of us who’ve ever tried to write experience writer’s block. There’s like a bag but I don’t know how to put a handle on it, I’ve just got noise in my brain. But then there comes a moment when you can write.”
taxonomy, via Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxonomy
MSE Charity Fund, via MoneySavingExpert
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/site/mse-charity-fund/
How To Win An Election podcast, via The Times
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/podcasts/how-to-win-an-election
How To Win An Election podcast via Apple Podcasts
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/how-to-win-an-election/id1712827143
“I think more and more of us are seeing the inter-connectedness of the world.”
Kate Raworth — ‘doughnut economics’ website
https://www.kateraworth.com/doughnut/
Diana Coyle, via Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diane_Coyle
“No academic wants to be told what to do by the university, but I think art school academics just like an extra little sprinkling of that sense of artistic freedom. So the question is, what can we collaborate on, where we feel a shared sense of values?”
“We believe that progress is driven by imagination and the practical mechanisms of bringing that imagined world to life.”
“I want Britain to be a science superpower like the government does, but I feel like they want us to be a science superpower and none of that flakey, woke soft stuff. But there’s no science without creativity.”
“We, as storytellers, have the ability to change the mindsets of other people.”
“I guess it’s called agile, isn’t it. Know where you’re going and experiment about how to get there.”
DEMOS think tank
https://demos.co.uk/
James Purnell, via Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Purnell
“The dysfunctions of politics are many and manifold. I never experienced any of the characteristics of good leadership, really, in my time in politics. And that’s sad.”
Mariana Mazzucato, via Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariana_Mazzucato
Arthur Clough, via Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Hugh_Clough
‘Say not the Struggle nought Availeth’ (1849, pub 1855)
poem by Arthur Clough, via the Poetry Foundation
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43959/say-not-the-struggle-nought-availeth
This episode was recorded in August 2023
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
For more visit www.alwayspossible.co.uk
The Possibility Club podcast: Practical Bravery - COCONUT THINKING!
In this episode, we unravel some of the threads of culture, technology, and human experience, exploring how education shapes our understanding of ourselves and our place in a rapidly evolving global society. We ponder questions central to our time: How does the digital age redefine our learning landscapes? What roles do empathy, creativity, and connection play in crafting a more inclusive and compassionate world? From the classrooms of prestigious international schools to the boardrooms of Silicon Valley, OUR guest's diverse experiences have shaped his understanding of education as a dynamic, living ecosystem. His philosophy champions a holistic approach to learning, one that nurtures not just academic prowess but also the emotional and social well-being of individuals. A warm welcome to you, and to my guest as we explore practical bravery in coconut thinking - with Dr Benjamin Freud. ----------
Possibility Club — Practical Bravery
015 Coconut Thinking — Dr Benjamin Freud
‘Irascible’ definition (via the Oxford English Dictionary)
https://www.oed.com/dictionary/irascible_adj?tl=true
Dr Benjamin Freud — the Coconut Thinking website
https://coconut-thinking.com/benjamin-freud/
Dr Bemjamin Freud via LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjaminfreud/?originalSubdomain=id
“The word ‘coconut’ is a little cheeky and frankly came off the tip of my tongue because I love coconuts. But a coconut is both a fruit and a seed, and it’s also a nut. And I like this idea of being able to be multiple things at the same time.”
Dr Benjamin Freud on Twitter / X
https://twitter.com/i/flow/login?redirect_after_login=%2FDrBenjaminFreud
Dr Benjamin Freud speaker page on the World Education Summit website
https://www.worldedsummit.com/speakers/dr-benjamin-freud/
“Education is my second career but I brought so many lessons about the way things could be from Silicon Valley — but they don’t necessarily have any anchor in what’s good for the world.”
[on Silicon Valley] “…It was indulgent, it was hedonistic, there were so many dark sides to it, but I’ll take back this rule breaking, I’ll take back these long-haired kids who just didn’t care and were going to say I’ll quit my job so I can make something for myself.”
“It was really when I had a child that I realised I get a lot of my energy from kids. I find them hilarious, I find them more interesting than many adults I meet. That’s how I got into education.”
Prem International School, Chiangmai, Thailand
https://www.ptis.ac.th/
“Why is it that you’re an outlier school if you put the needs of the students and relationships with the students first? What is more important than our relationships with each other?”
“Anything that’s a living system — this can be organisations as well, of course — exists because of the networks in which they are. There’s a certain kind of weird boundary between it and the world.”
“I do think education has to be values-driven: we layer a certain amount of values that allow us to create more conditions for life to thrive on the planet. Just like a living system grows and re-structures and re-organises.”
“It’s better to have no plan and a new vision, than a new plan with an old vision.”
Nora Bateson
https://batesoninstitute.org/nora-bateson/
“I’m a little bit nervous about words like ‘regeneration’, I’ve used it for a while but now that I see that if you type in ‘Coca Cola’ and ‘regeneration’ there’s a web page that comes up, I’m thinking there’s gonna be a whole bunch of teal-washing coming on.”
“Sustainability and regeneration are, let’s face it, issues for the global north.”
“You ask how we get policy-makers to change? Force universities and employers to require eco-literacies, just like you require math and reading and writing literacies. That would do a lot.”
This episode was recorded in June 2023
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
For more visit www.alwayspossible.co.uk
The Possibility Club podcast: Practical Bravery - BORDERLESS CONVERSATIONS!
In this episode we reflect on our role in this interconnected world. How can each of us contribute to building a more inclusive society? What does it mean to be a global citizen in an age where technology has made distances shorter, but sometimes, paradoxically, the gaps in understanding wider? Our guest is the mastermind behind Conversation Over Borders, an initiative bridging the chasm between displaced individuals and the community. Conversation Over Borders has grown from a response to a pressing need during the pandemic to a thriving community interest company. It's a story of organic growth, driven by the real-time needs of those it serves. This journey illustrates the power of grassroots movements in creating tangible social change, demonstrating the profound impact of empathy, innovation, and relentless dedication. This is The Possibility Club, where conversations are more than just words; they're bridges to a better world of practical bravery. And we would like you to meet Colette Batten-Turner. ----------
Colette Batten-Turner via LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/colette-batten-turner/?originalSubdomain=uk
Conversation Over Borders
https://www.conversationoverborders.org/
“Really, to start with, it was just me connecting people that I knew, on both sides. People who I’d worked with closely with this mental health group for about three years, and other people, who I knew through school, or uni, or whatever, who were teachers.”
Refugee Radio
https://refugeeradio.org.uk/
"I put out a call for volunteers on Facebook and had about fifty people phone up overnight. That was a sign that there was a real demand for connection, and learning English as well, but there was also a real yearning to volunteer and for people to support people at that time. All of us were isolated in one way or another.”
“The way that we have developed has remained very rooted in the community.”
Screenshare UK
https://www.screen-share.co.uk/
“People, generally, want to support other people. If you see someone fall down in the street, most people stop and see if they’re alright, or like help them up. But the difficulty is when people feel so divorced from “an issue”, or an injustice for example, that they just don’t see it as their thing — and they’re focused very much on their lives and their day-to-day problems. But when people feel part of a wider community, quite often there is more of a community spirit around supporting other people as well.”
The Hummingbird Project
https://www.hummingbirdproject.org.uk/?gclid=CjwKCAiA0syqBhBxEiwAeNx9N22upb7rGFYsEUceltW0aQEbwgo8o36I4BtLyHuU1ZjgAlOPaEknBBoCgHgQAvD_BwE
Voices In Exile
https://www.voicesinexile.org/
Caroline Lucas
https://www.carolinelucas.com/
“There is a massive divide between what our Home Office is doing and what people actually want, or feel is there for others.“
Sixty-six asylum children missing from Hove asylum hotel, via The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/mar/29/revealed-66-children-still-missing-from-just-one-uk-local-authority-after-vanishing-from-asylum-hotel
“Part of the ‘hostile environment’ policy is people who’ve been displaced are regularly moved around the country — is it exactly for this reason: so that they can’t get embedded into a community that will then look out for them, or defend them. Not my neighbours — you’re not taking them away.“
“Quite often we feel disempowered by what we see happening in the House of Commons, the House of Lords, whereas actually we can reclaim some of that power by saying okay, I don’t agree with that, that doesn’t represent me, and I obviously will continue engaging with politics but in the mean time I can live the way that represents what I believe and I can take action to support the people I know.”
“Whenever there’s a political crisis in a country, or a recession, someone gets othered, someone gets blamed for it. Whenever there’s political failings, generally a group that’s not given the space to amplify their voices gets blamed or scapegoated for what’s going on.”
This episode was recorded in June 2023
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
For more visit www.alwayspossible.co.uk
The Possibility Club podcast: Practical Bravery - DIGITAL CONSCIOUSNESS!
In this episode of The Possibility Club, we delve into the fabric of this modern narrative. The script is changing, the actors are evolving, and the stage is expanding. It’s a realm where algorithms are the new editors, and data, the ink. Yet, amidst this digital choreography, where does the human touch reside? And more so, where is it headed? Author of 'The Media Business and Artificial Intelligence,’ our guest's writings are more than just a dalliance with theories, they are a deep dive into the interplay between AI and media. His academic roles at St Hugh’s College, Oxford, the Said Business School and at the National Film and Television School, look under the bonnet of the business of arts, culture, tech and entertainment. His current roles at UNICEF UK and The Halle Orchestra symbolise a narrative that looks beyond commercial metrics, but one serious about social change. How can we all navigate the expanse of media, technology, and social impact, maintaining a useful dance between ethics and innovation, between tradition and disruption? In this episode of The Possibility Club, Richard Freeman would like you to meet Dr Alex Connock. ----------
"An AI person could probably do a facsimile of your voice, and your video, and possibly imitate you. So is any of us really ‘inimitable’ anymore, even if we aspire to be?”
Dr Alex Connock via LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexconnock/?originalSubdomain=uk
Alex Connock via IMDB
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0175252/
Twitter — @dralexconnock
"On one level you’re talking about these prosaic things, this new tool’s launched, or this bit of machine learning does this, fairly mundane software stuff, and on the other hand you’re talking about these really big philosophical issues, like what is creativity? What is copyright? What is consciousness? What is network? And to marry those two things together every day is genuinely fascinating and a privilege.”
Saïd Business School, University of Oxford page for Alex Connock
https://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/about-us/people/alex-connock
National Film and Television School
https://nfts.co.uk/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwy4KqBhD0ARIsAEbCt6hGSIYNQIiux3JamBZ5Ks78K0TuAG0xGb-jV953MvA8o9fP3i7K4OUaAulVEALw_wcB
Alex Connock’s page at the University of Exeter Business School
https://business-school.exeter.ac.uk/people/profile/index.php?web_id=Alex_Connock
“I specialise in the media business and A.I. — and what a subject it is, in 2023!”
Alex Connock — Media Management and Artificial Intelligence book via Amazon
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0BKP5CZFS/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i0
‘The Apple Metaverse - What We Know So Far’ article from XR Today
https://www.xrtoday.com/mixed-reality/the-apple-metaverse-what-we-know-so-far/
"The Great British export is probably cultural capital. It is things like AI and the creative industries. I think the government is very alive to this now. Of the value of our intellectual property.”
Royal Holloway, University of London
https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/
Pinewood Studios
https://pinewoodgroup.com/studios/pinewood-studios
“Britain cherishes its academic leadership now more than it did say twenty years ago, there’s less of this nonsense about they’re all in ivory towers and they all just wear tweed jackets and all that, I don’t see that on either side of the equation.”
"We’re good at ideation, we’re good at musicians, we’re good at AI ideas, perhaps we’re not as good as we should be about scaling them up.”
CBI
https://www.cbi.org.uk/
Scandal-hit CBI via BBC News
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-66905317
Mark Zuckerberg prank-pitches Sequoia in his pyjamas (via Business Insider)
https://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerbergs-brutal-prank-on-sequoia-2010-5?r=US&IR=T
“That’s why I always hated the TV show The Apprentice. To anyone who’s worked in business, the paradigm of success on The Apprentice is the quintessentially the opposite of what you actually have to do to succeed in business."
“For all the dystopian headlines, every day in my newsfeed, five or ten things come in where I think wow, that’s a completely new way of looking at things. In AI that’s particularly true.”
Prisoner’s dilemma via Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner%27s_dilemma
Netflix via Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netflix
Grimes AI voice software via Pitchfork
https://pitchfork.com/news/grimes-unveils-software-to-mimic-her-voice-and-announces-2-new-songs/
Editor fired over AI fake Michael Schumacher interview via The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/24/business/media/michael-schumacher-ai-fake-interview.html
“The only way to really mitigate whether people are using ChatGPT is either to sit them down in an examination hall like in the sixteenth century and make them write by hand, or actually talk to them.”
“In general academics tend to be quite student-shy and try to find lots of reasons not to talk to students, and in fact now the best way to test students is going to be a viva, like in the old school, which is great.”
This episode was recorded in May 2023
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
For more visit www.alwayspossible.co.uk
The Possibility Club podcast: Practical Bravery - HARMONIC HUMANITY!
Change can often seem like a dream, framed by moments when individuals step into the spotlight, determined to ignite transformation. And when those individuals step up, sometimes from unlikely places, we can see just how weak the system is that needs to be reformed. And we question why we haven't been angry that it wasn't changed sooner. Or by anyone else. Our guest is not just a Kenyan Senator nominated to parliament by the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party; she's a symbol of resilience and determination to many Kenyan people. Losing her sight to glaucoma in her early 20s, whilst studying in the UK, made her realise the hard way that systemic inaccessibility was going to do more damage to her quality of life, her career and livelihood than the blindness itself. Her advocacy knows no bounds. She represents people with disabilities, women, and youth, all while breaking down the pervasive stigmas still associated with disabilities, not only in Africa but across the world. She was a keynote speaker at the One Young World Summit in 2023, an event we are going to cover in some special podcast episodes soon. From Kenyan pop star to University of Bristol student to Kenyan state senator, her professional journey has seen her work with industry giants like the BBC and Disney, and now she's creating a tidal shift in the world of accessibility. In this episode of The Possibility Club, Richard Freeman meets the remarkable Crystal Asige. ----------
Senator Crystal Asige’s page on the Parliament of Kenya website
http://www.parliament.go.ke/the-senate/sen-crystal-asige
Crystal’s page in the Music Africa directory
https://www.musicinafrica.net/directory/crystal-asige
“I’m not the kind of person who’s scared to be around difference, or scared to speak out, because I’ve already been able to experience and live a life where I was able to do both.”
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/crystalasige/
“I was always smiling, I was very much of a tomboy — I think I still am.”
Mombasa, Kenya (via Wikipedia)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mombasa
Glaucoma (via Wikipedia)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glaucoma
“When I was confronted, or given the news that this is what you have, this is what it’s going to mean, I struggled for sure. I was in my second year of university, I didn’t have my family around me, so I had to go through that alone, which was quite dark and pretty painful.”
“I spiralled into doing the wrong thing with the wrong people at university, so I could escape from the reality of hey Crystal, you’re going to go blind and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
"What does compassion really mean? What does trusting somebody really mean? What does listening really entail?”
“In those formative years of the glaucoma I became twenty years older in about two years.”
Parliament of Kenya
http://www.parliament.go.ke/
“I am understanding more and more that it’s very important to let yourself be all of you. Just because I’m an artist doesn’t mean I pack it up now I’m in politics. Respectability Politics should not hinder me from being all parts of who I am.”
Nina Simone (via Wikipedia)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nina_Simone
“Through my music I try as best as I can to stamp the moment I’m in through the music, the lyrics, the feel, the texture of what I’m putting out there.”
“Visually Impaired Parliamentarian, aka VIP”
YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_oV2pGpUnPp4xnRMjmxn-g
Insta:
https://www.instagram.com/crystalasige/?hl=en
One Young World Summit
https://www.oneyoungworld.com/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwm66pBhDQARIsALIR2zANVIgcWNXydiDsk1BpUhPAVCffWW8_VfHV5i9ei7QorvNqxmW7jzwaAje_EALw_wcB
Caroline Casey
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caroline_Casey_(activist)
“Writing a bill is great, but the story around writing the bill, the reasons why the bill is important, how it’s going to change people’s lives every day, that’s I think what will connect with human beings for decades to come.”
“They might not remember my name but I hope that they remember what I was trying to put out into the world and I hope the energy is apparent in anything that I do creatively.”
This episode was recorded in June 2023
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
For more visit www.alwayspossible.co.uk
The Possibility Club podcast: Practical Bravery - ETHICAL RECRUITMENT!
In an age where AI algorithms can sort through resumes with lightning speed and precision, the opportunities are immense. We can potentially match candidates with jobs that align not just with their skills, but also their values and aspirations. Ethical recruitment means treating candidates with respect and fairness, no matter where they come from or what they look like. But, of course, with great power comes great responsibility. The risks are apparent. As algorithms become more involved in hiring decisions, there's a danger of bias creeping in. If the data used to train these algorithms carries historical biases, they could perpetuate discrimination, inadvertently or not. So, how do we harness the incredible potential of AI in recruitment while ensuring that we remain ethical and unbiased? It's a question that demands thoughtful consideration and practical bravery. In this episode of The Possibility Club, we'll unravel the extraordinary world of human-centric talent experiences. Of technology matching the right people with the right careers - and not just the obvious people, or the connected people. We're asking if there are companies being brave enough to look well beyond the spheres of their competitors and think differently about where future talent comes from. And then even braver still to invest in and develop those people as they progress. Our guest is a global adviser in recruitment marketing, a key figure on the EMEA Council of the Candidate Experience Awards and he is Senior Vice President of Marketing for Beamery, one of the world's leading tech platforms for recruitment and professional development. Meet Ben Slater. ----------
Beamery Talent Management
https://beamery.com
“We think a lot about potential. Potential for organisations but also the potential of the humans who exist within those organisations.”
“Until recently the infrastructure rarely existed within businesses to help individuals create a career path that helped them realise their own ambitions.”
“Talent is not a fixed asset.”
TalentGPT — the world’s first generative AI for HR
https://beamery.com/resources/news/beamery-announces-talentgpt-the-world-s-first-generative-ai-for-hr
"We’re in a fantastic time now, where career journeys are not seen in this totally linear format, they can be squiggly. It can be more of a jungle gym than a ladder.”
Ben Slater via LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-slater-96298367/recent-activity/all/
“There’s a lot of data out there about the skills that businesses are going to need in the future, we’ve all seen what’s happened in the last few months with ChatGPT, businesses changing quickly. Organisations are not going to be able to go to the market and recruit for the skills they need in the future, they have to build that talent internally.”
Chat GPT
https://chat.openai.com/auth/login
Chat GPT via Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ChatGPT
“When we look at the talent life cycle, it’s really easy for companies to think about someone in these really distinct phases — someone’s a candidate, a job applicant, an employee, an alumni. The reality is, they’re all people. There’s a lot of fluidity between these different stages and we’re trying to support that at Beamery.”
“AI allows business to put employees at the helm of their careers.”
“What we’re looking at here is a technological unlock, that will allow things that we’ve never done before and a new standard in terms of what we can enable for workers at each stage of their career journey.”
feature on Ben Slater in Business Leader
https://www.businessleader.co.uk/my-working-day-ben-slater/
EMEA candidate and Experience Awards
https://www.thetalentboard.org/cande-awards/
EEOC (US regulatory body)
https://www.eeoc.gov/
“We need to have standards around what is expected of AI”
https://www.tiktok.com/live
“Two years after the start of Tik Tok I saw job adverts asking for 10 years of Tik Tok experience.”
“If we’re going to keep up with the changing business headwinds, we have to adopt these processes earlier. We’re not talking about optimisation here, we’re talking about survival.”
"So often with hiring, we look at everything up until the moment the employee starts. We optimise for how can it be faster, how can it cost less, versus optimising for employee lifetime value. How can I maximise my opportunity of bringing in a high performer?”
“We’re at a time now when talent and HR is top of the CEO priority list. Making sure that their organisation has the skills needed to shepherd the business forward is essential. Our goal as a partner is to make sure they’re moving in that direction.”
This episode was recorded in June 2023
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
For more visit www.alwayspossible.co.uk
The Possibility Club podcast: Practical Bravery - WORKPLACE WELLBEING!
Increasingly, work is an integral part of living - not the work/life balance but the work/life blend. And we can often spend more time with colleagues than we do with our own families. So, in return, more people demand careers that makes them feel part of something bigger than a to-do-list. So why, in 2019, did the UK's Health and Safety Executive report that stress, depression, and anxiety accounted for over half of all work-related ill health cases. In this episode we're exploring how brave employers should be in putting wellbeing and welfare at the top of their priorities. Has it gone to far, with new generations unrealistic about what they are entitled to? Or are we still falling short, hoping that AI and automation will simply get rid of expensive and whingeing people for good? Our guest is a coach, a strategist and a facilitator with a mission. A specialist in resilience and mental toughness in leadership. With over two decades of experience in corporate giants like Harrods, IBM, and Rolls Royce, she is a champion of mental health at work - helping banks, tech firms and transport networks to get it right. Meet Anna Golawski. ----------
Anna on LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/annagolawski/?originalSubdomain=uk
Anna on Twitter / X
@AnnaGolawski
“We look for careers where we’ve got value, where we’ve got things which are aligned with our goals, our beliefs and our purpose.”
“We employ people for their brains, for their mental wellbeing.”
Stratus Coaching
https://www.stratuscoaching.com/
“Organisations are much more understanding around mental health and wellbeing, but there’s a long way to go. So many organisations are very reactive, waiting until there are high rates. I want to get across to organisations that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
Anna via Association for Coaching
https://www.associationforcoaching.com/members/?id=49243165
Anna via MHFA England
https://mhfaengland.org/public-profile/?id=dbbeb8b4-80c8-e711-811d-70106fa92171
Rolls Royce Aerospace
https://www.rolls-royce.com/products-and-services/civil-aerospace.aspx
Harrods
https://www.harrods.com/en-gb/
IBM
https://www.ibm.com/uk-en
“I’ve been exposed to all kinds of leadership styles, the good, the bad, the ugly and everything in between. That was the catalyst for me to focus on mental wellbeing, based on my own experience of burnout.”
Henley Business School (Henley Management College)
https://www.henley.ac.uk/
“People are much more clued up in terms of the culture of the organisation. We’re seeing employees asking a lot more incisive questions about the culture, leadership and wellbeing, and how they’re going to be treated.”
“One of the phrases that I like, I think it came from Mike Tyson but don’t quote me on it, is everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face.”
“We can’t avoid difficult stuff that we’re going to have to face. The important thing is to build up our coping strategies, how we can learn and grow, sometimes reframe situations.”
“What’s the purpose, what’s the identity, what’s the north star of the team?”
Microsoft brain research — people needing breaks
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/worklab/work-trend-index/brain-research
Judges’ mental fatigue impacting parole boards — via Wired magazine
https://www.wired.com/2011/04/judges-mental-fatigue/
“It’s about creating those habits. It takes two months for a new habit to become automatic in us.”
“Managers need to role-model these behaviours.”
‘healthy mind platter’ — via Dr Dan Siegel
https://drdansiegel.com/healthy-mind-platter/
Daniel H. Pink — 'When' via Amazon
https://www.amazon.co.uk/When-Scientific-Secrets-Perfect-Timing/dp/B0765D265D/ref=sr_1_1?crid=11SIKKPPA072P&keywords=Daniel+Pink+When&qid=1694691935&sprefix=daniel+pink+when%2Caps%2C97&sr=8-1
Daniel Goleman via Amazon
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Daniel-Goleman/e/B000APZC9O?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_3&qid=1694691984&sr=8-3
Charlotte Rae’s Possibility Club episode
https://thepossibiltyclub.libsyn.com/5-big-questions-dr-charlotte-rae
This episode was recorded in July 2023
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
For more visit www.alwayspossible.co.uk
The Possibility Club podcast: Practical Bravery - COMMON SENSE NEWS!
In a world hooked on extremes, where every headline screams for your outrage or your wholehearted agreement—what happens to the middle ground? You might think it's the realm of the indecisive. A wishy-washy place where no one takes a stand. But, what if today's moderate voice is actually the most radical in the room? In this episode of The Possibility Club, we're diving deep into the audacious world of common sense. Because while others are looking to divide, meet a young man who's built his mission around unity and reasonableness. Despite his youth, our guest this week is a polymath—don't let that intimidate you; it just means he's darn good at many things. He's mingled with royalty, spoken on United Nations stages, and he's been recognised by the Financial Times as a tech influencer. He's the CEO of The Common Sense Network, a news platform with the rebellious idea that we should understand both sides of a story. He founded The Apex Group for CEOs, and even The BAM Project, which dares young boys to reimagine masculinity. This is a conversation with a man who makes the ordinary, extraordinary; the sense-maker in a world gone mad - meet Micheal Omoniyi. ----------
Mike Omoniyi
https://www.mikeomoniyi.com/
“I have to be particularly disciplined because there’s a lot of context switching.”
Mike on Instagram
- @oneyoungworld
- @mikeomoniyi
- @tcsnetwork
“The golden thread that connects a lot of my work is I’m very big on bending the levers of power towards justice.”
Mike on X / Twitter:
- @MikeOmoniyiCS
- @OneYoungWorld
- @TCSNetwork
“My curiosity is just too heavy, and sometimes it’s more of a problem than an asset. As you follow your curiosity, your life tends to look a bit messy.”
- One Young World
- Mike Omoniyi
- The Common Sense Network
“On a personal level, when I go to bed at night, I think about whether I made the world somewhat brighter. Whether my unique contribution advanced things. I’m a philosophy major, I deal in big grandiose ideas. Now if there’s maybe five days, two weeks in a row where the answer to that question is no, then it’s often an indication that I need to switch things around, that maybe I’m barking up the wrong tree.”
“I used to have an afro a few years ago, it’s gone now and I’m clinging on to the last hair strands I’ve got, so I’m always asking: was this worth my afro?”
The Common Sense Network
https://www.tcsnetwork.co.uk/
“Common Sense Network was born out of that frustration of what opposite sides of the political wing would do to each-other.”
“When I say ‘common sense’, I mean the process of deciphering or working out what you believe, through logical thinking, through exploration, just being someone who is curious, who can follow that curiosity and arrive somewhere.”
Clement Attlee via Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clement_Attlee
Rory Sutherland via Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rory_Sutherland_(advertising_executive)
"We need to think about ways to redistribute power to make sure we don’t have so much of a ‘winner takes all’ political system.”
The ‘Partygate’ scandal via Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partygate
“I always used to say the mainstream media was broken, until I said it once and an older lady corrected me and said, no, it works for who it was made to work for.”
Galdem goodbye letter
https://gal-dem.com/gal-dem-goodbye-letter/
Al Jazeera UK leaves London, via The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/apr/12/al-jazeera-english-announces-plans-to-move-from-londons-shard-to-qatar
Novara Media
https://novaramedia.com/
Spiked Online
(trigger warning: homophobic disinformative content on the front page)
https://www.spiked-online.com/
“You really have to be very dynamic when you’re our size, to make it through Covid, still be employing people.”
"There’s this phrase I talk about all the time, distance creates distortion, and the further we are away from something the harder it is to ascertain its virtues, its values.”
“A company is a group of people. The ‘halo effect’ thing is a real danger in today’s social media culture.”
This episode was recorded in June 2023
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
For more visit www.alwayspossible.co.uk
The Possibility Club podcast: Practical Bravery REBEL SUPERMARKETS!
Whatever is going on, it is clear that the business models of Lidl, Aldi, Asda and Tesco are extraordinarily good if what we want as a society is cheap food, and lots and lots of it, whilst shareholders and private pension funds quietly top slice the return. Is that what we want? In this episode of The Possibility Club the spotlight is on the 21st century supermarket. And the practical bravery of a particular family who decided that the British public maybe don’t want squeezed farmers, low quality processed gunk and lots of waste, a lack of control and a net benefit to invisible billionaires. A supermarket rebel with a cause, co- founder of the Hisbe supermarket shops and The Good Business Club and a legend in the social enterprise world, who has just finished successful £100k crowdfunded to supercharge her mission further... this is our chat with Ruth Anslow. ----------
“I’ve been called mad many times. I think it’s madder to do nothing.”
Ruth Anslow via LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ruth-anslow-97ba4b3/?originalSubdomain=uk
Ruth Anslow on Twitter / X
@ruthanslow
“The goal was to turn the supermarket model on its head. We looked at how it is and asked how it should be.”
HISBE website
https://hisbe.co.uk/#home
HISBE founders’ page
https://hisbe.co.uk/about-us/our-team/
The Good Business Club
https://www.thegoodbusinessclub.com/
“I got a first-hand look at the unintended consequences that come about when you just put profit before everything, short-term profit and shareholder return. It’s resulted in an unsustainable food system and I’m worried about the future of food.”
Tesco
https://www.tesco.com/
Unilever
https://www.unilever.co.uk/
Sara Lee
https://saraleedesserts.com/
Procter & Gamble
https://www.pg.co.uk/
“Bad food has become normal. It was all just about finding projects to make everything more profitable, and a lot of that meant taking nutrition and goodness out of food, and just promoting the stuff that was high in fat and high in sugar and salt, that’s cheap for them to make and sell.”
Ruth’s TEDxBrighton talk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLCE0zGqy3Q
“There’s a lot of inequality in the pay system for supermarket workers, so our tax holds up and subsidises supermarket wage bills.”
“98% of the population shop at supermarkets and only 8% of the purchases are online, so almost everyone is in a store, shopping in a supermarket, so that’s what we know and you have to start where people are.”
“The idea was, if we could create a supermarket, and made that big enough and offered it to enough people and enough people shop there, you could change the whole system. I’m not kidding myself that’s going to happen in my lifetime, I’m probably just a baton-bearer for the next lot, who’ll do it a lot better than us. But we’ve had a go, we’ve created a model.”
“We’ve saved over a million pieces of plastic packaging from going into landfill by selling stuff loose. We’ve created £7million of income for the local economy that, if it were a Tesco, would’ve just been exported or centralised. We’ve passed 67% back to farmers. We’ve created enormous impact for the local food chain and the local economy.”
“Our goal now is to grow the Sussex chain and grow a hub of Sussex stores, to scale up the local suppliers, to amplify those impacts, so we’re an engine for creating community assets and societal value for the local economy, so that’s ready by 2030.”
“We’ve got this vision for a kind of operating system, a ‘how to HISBE’ that’s held digitally that we can licence and partner and franchise bits of, and open-source and give other bits of, so we can help create shops like ours all over the country.”
Be The Earth Foundation match-funded the crowdfunder
https://www.betheearth.foundation/
HISBE’s successful crowdfunder
https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/hisbe-more-than-a-shop
AVIVA match-funded the crowdfunder
https://www.aviva.co.uk/
“We need radical collaboration between all the people who are sowing seeds.”
Better Food, Bristol
https://betterfood.co.uk/
Planet Organic
https://www.planetorganic.com/
Caroline Lucas website
https://carolinelucas.com/
"There’s an incredible collaborative effort locally to build good policy and to challenge central policy by collaboration and consolidating efforts.”
Brighton & Hove Food Partnership
https://bhfood.org.uk/
“I want HISBE to be famous, because it’s a blueprint for how it should be. So I want the blueprint to be famous, it doesn’t matter if it’s HISBE written on the door, it’s the blueprint, it’s the operating model, it’s the way forward.”
Bejam’s supermarket, via Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bejam
“We had a go.”
This episode was recorded in May 2023
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
For more visit www.alwayspossible.co.uk
The Possibility Club podcast: Practical Bravery COMPASSIONATE HOUSING! In this episode of The Possibility Club, we're shining a light on a company that leans into the wicked problems of both care and housing. A company that takes the role of landlord, and developer - finding and maintaining housing stock. But it is housing stock for people who need care, and who want to have a high quality of life but need adjustments and understanding. What kind of business, and what sort of business mindset, develops a mission like this - in a space others run away from? Richard's guest this week has a vision for a world in which a world everyone with a learning disability has good housing and their needs met. He runs one of the largest community benefit societies in the UK, with a portfolio of over 1200 properties and over 2,000 tenants with a wide range of needs. Meet the CEO of Golden Lane Housing; John Verge. ---------- Golden Lane Housing
https://www.glh.org.uk/
“It’s got to feel like anybody’s home.”
John Verge via Golden Lane website
https://www.glh.org.uk/glhteam/john-verge/
“There’s 1.1 million adults with a learning disability and at least 350,000 people with autism. They live in everyone’s communities. Around about 150,000 of those will receive some support or funding from local government or their health authority, and that comes at a £6billion cost to Treasury. So this isn’t a small, niche part of the social care or health sector.”
“We do do ‘new build’ but the reality of commissioning in this country is very reactive. We’ve been talking with government about more strategic planning for local authorities and health authorities to better plan. But often we’re being approached to house people very quickly.”
“We have a team of really dedicated housing officers who make sure that wellbeing and safeguarding is at the forefront of our work.”
John Verge via LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnverge/?originalSubdomain=uk
Mencap
https://mencap.org.uk/
Golden Lane’s 2022 de-merger from Mencap, via Inside Housing
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/housing-association-becomes-standalone-landlord-after-de-merger-with-founder-body-74960
Golden Lane Housing via the National Autistic Society website
https://www.autism.org.uk/directory/g/golden-lane-housing
“We tend to buy existing properties but they need to be in the right location and community setting, so not isolated, often finding those properties is difficult and when we find that property we need to do major renovations."
Aftermath of the Rochdale social housing mould death news story
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-66358297
“A lot of failures are down to housing associations not taking into account the vulnerability of their tenants — and a blurring of the lines between social housing and supported housing.”
Section 21 ‘no fault eviction’ notices
https://www.gov.uk/evicting-tenants/section-21-and-section-8-notices
“Scrutiny of new tenants will be greater than now.”
Citizens’ Advice on Section 21 notices
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/housing/renting-privately/during-your-tenancy/if-you-get-a-section-21-notice/
"We created a product, a solution, where we took the lease directly from the landlord. Now we’re trying to find landlords who are prepared to do not just 12 or 24 months but a longer term arrangement.”
“The home, for anybody, is the foundations of building their lives in their communities.”
“For me this isn’t about more money, it’s about using the money we have better. Fundamentally, and we’ve been saying this for many years, it’s about more strategic planning.”
This episode was recorded in May 2023
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
For more visit www.alwayspossible.co.uk
The Possibility Club podcast: Practical Bravery CELEBRATING QUEENAGERS! The time for the maturing woman is long overdue after centuries of dismissal by society and the labour market. And as the 21st century seems to be a curious time for reappraising what we mean by gender, by generation, by age and by social capital - it is also a time when we no longer trust or believe in grand media narratives about how we are supposed to live our lives. Richard's guest's first job after university was working on a trade magazine about chemical storage, rising through the male-dominated newspaper industry to great acclaim at The Observer, The Telegraph, The Times and The Sunday Times where she was the magazine editor and the paper's editorial director. As well as being prolific campaigner on the representation and recognition of women in journalism, this episode's guest guest founded Noon in 2021 - a community for older women and Queenagers - the demographic that the media forgot. In this episode we talk to Eleanor Mills. ---------- “Everything that I’m trying to do now is to tell a different story about the later stages of women’s lives.”
Eleanor Mills via Wikipedia
Eleanor Mills on LinkedIn
Noon (founder’s welcome page)
"In the 2019 census, women over forty started earning more than women under forty, for the first time ever.”
“Although the menopause conversation is important and we’ve had a lot of that, the whole point of feminism for me is that women are not defined by their biology, so I don’t want to be put in a ‘hot flush box’ now I’m fifty-two.”
The Queenager with Eleanor Mills (Substack newsletter)
“I feel this amazing freedom of being able to say what I like to my people without having to get permission from anybody else. Honestly that feels like a miracle, every time I do it.”
Twitter —
Davina McCall — Sex, Myths and the Menopause (Channel 4 documentary)
Carolyn Harris MP via Wikipedia
Nicola Bulley story via Sky News
Daily Mail ‘legs-it’ controversy via The Guardian
“You get to a point when you’re forty-five, fifty, and you’re like, I’m just not prepared to suck up to this more senior guy, to get my ideas around him, when actually I’ve been doing this for twenty-five years, I’m really good at my job, I know what I’m doing, I can’t be bothered to do the ‘geisha’ thing anymore.”
Tiffanie Darke via LinkedIn
“At the top of those organisations the culture hasn’t shifted enough for it to be a particularly nice place to be a senior woman. And women are leaving in droves: for every woman who’s made a director, two leave. Sheryl Sandberg has dubbed it ‘the great breakup’.”
Sheryl Sandberg via Wikipedia
The 30% Club
“Even though we’ve now got a lot of women on boards, the number of women actually pulling levers is a lot less than the 40% that is a headline figure — the reality is 16%.”
“I wrote a column for 10 years at the Sunday Times, but now rather than having to do that through a bundle, which is what a newspaper is, but now you can choose your own bundle. That’s what social media has done. You don’t need dead trees and huge lorries to get it in every newsagent, everyone can find you through Substack and Twitter.”
Sunday Times
“None of them are interested in reflecting an older female demographic. It would be a sea of grey-haired blokes and then they’d bung in one picture of a model on the Top Shop catwalk to, as they say, brighten up the page.”
“Most of the female columnists that you’ll read will be attacking other women, because that’s what the newspapers want them to do.”
Susie Boniface (Fleet Street Fox)
Susie Boniface’s Possibility Club interview via Libsyn
What Jeremy Clarkson said about Megan Markle via The Independent
"It’s increasingly clickbait. If you know anything about you a story that you read about it one of the papers, you can see how it’s being spun. Often there’s absolutely nothing in it and it’s all about spinning the line the newspaper is trying to push. Increasingly, even if you’re a journalist, the best way to get your news is to put a news filter on Google or Twitter and then you’ll pick up all the stuff that’s interesting.”
“Real journalism is the stuff that someone, somewhere doesn’t want you to know, which takes a lot of skill to extract.”
Reporters San Frontières
Andrew Sullivan via Wikipedia
New York Times
New Yorker
The Economist
Financial Times
"What I like about Netflix doing Meghan and Harry is, no newspaper would’ve ever run that story from Harry about how the newspapers had treated him, because there was a kind of absolute self-censorship about you never talked about how the media worked. If anyone wrote that into an article, you’d know to take it out, it would never make it into the paper.”
“I hope that we’ll change the story we tell about how we value older women. That there will be a whole new story and sensibility around older women, and we’ll embrace all that we are and can become, at this point.”
This episode was recorded in May 2023
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
For more visit www.alwayspossible.co.uk
The Possibility Club podcast: Practical Bravery INCLUSIVE TECHNOLOGY!
Beyond the cliches of big tech, and the visible social platforms most people play with each day, does the general population really understand anything about the digital transformation happening with them, to them, for them and around them? And if we don't understand what they are doing, or even who they are, can we ever measure the impact they might be having on our lives? What happens when we switch from human to AI, labourer to robot, photograph to avatar. Academics and think tanks are trying to work it out. But what about the technologists? Do they care? In this episode of The Possibility Club, we're exploring the thought process behind creating digital realities, in everyday business and services. Richard's guest is tech entrepreneur, Farhan. ---------- Thy Reality
Thy Reality on Instagram
Thy Reality on Facebook
“Our purpose is to allow businesses to create their own reality.”
"The key element that AI relies upon is the data it is receiving. AI decision making depends on the depth of data that you have received, from multiple sources.”
Farhan on LinkedIn
“I just finished a couple of white papers and we’re going to apply for ten patents already, not to share our technology but to tell people in the world how this is done. What’s the point of my growth, if we don’t share that?”
“We chose UK out of anywhere else, living throughout the world like US, Australia, I found UK has one thing that not a single country has, which is simple decency of understanding that here there is a need.”
Alistair Brandon-Jones (via University of Bath)
Alistair Brandon-Jones on LinkedIn
“Loyalty is always earned. You cannot force your team to be with you if things are going down. As CEO, the biggest thing that I’ve done to make sure my team stays with me, you’ve got to be able to listen to them. Are they able to object to you, are they able to listen to you, are you able to listen to them?”
“We need to think as a whole world that what we are creating, it’s not just for us, we’re creating for future generations also. In the last 300 years we are failing as a whole world. We’ve done amazing feats, but what we have failed to do is think outside of a single century. Our planning, all the world’s planning is so limited, we didn’t our stuff together.”
“Think outside your generation. What you are building is not just for you!”
“When it comes to a hundred year plan for our customers, we are on a journey with them. I don’t really care about how much money we are going to get out of them. As long as they are growing, we are growing.”
"Technology is successful if you are solving a problem other than what you think is a problem.”
Musk / Zuckerberg cage fight (via The Independent)
“When I was younger I worked with certain defence people. And when I went on to give my ID in Pakistan, I wrote my full name, my Dad’s name and everything, I gave all my details. And when my ID documents came back, I only had one name! And I was told not to ask any questions, just live with it. Apparently it was a mistake and I ended up with just one name. My UK ID has Farhan Farhan on it. Cyber security is a world of fun! Like Madonna, I’m Farhan!”
“We all can be sad, or stressed, because these are depressing times. We are sitting in a world on fire, but we have to find a small corner where the fire isn’t burning, and then work out how to put out the fire.”
This episode was recorded in March 2023
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
For more visit alwayspossible.co.uk
The Possibility Club podcast: Practical Bravery REVOLUTIONARY GEOGRAPHY!
In this episode of The Possibility Club, looking at practical bravery, we will explore the role of our natural and urban environment in our lives, the need to walk and how cities could be considred as national parks. As the lines between planning, topography and health become blurred - more and more people are taking an interest in the future of offices and housing, air quality and transport, landscapes and land. The impact of a business is more rooted than ever in its footprint - metaphorical and physical - and where we're going and how we're getting there. So what if everyone just walked more? Richard's guest in this episode is a guerilla geographer, a creative explorer, and author, teacher and entreprenuer, Dan Raven-Ellison. ---------- https://danravenellison.com/
“When you’re in a tent and you’re all cosy in your sleeping bag, that sound of rain is one of the best things in the world.”
Dan’s LinkedIn page
https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielravenellison/?originalSubdomain=uk
Dan’s page on National Geographic
https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/real-world-geography-daniel-raven-ellison/
Dan’s YouTube channel UrbanEarthAdventurer
https://www.youtube.com/user/urbanearthadventure
“Geography exists at all scales at the same time, so whether it’s the guerrilla gardener pulling up a paving slab and making that a bit wilder, or whether it’s thinking about where you want to go on holiday, that’s all geography.”
“Science and history have done a very good job of creating places where people are very aware that they’re recreationally engaging in science or history. Geography, people are playing with that all the time but because of so many boring, dry textbooks, people think that it’s something that it’s not.”
Slow Ways beta website
https://beta.slowways.org/
“It’s about creating social infrastructure, so in every route that someone shares, someone is saying hello to people along the way, they’re spending some money maybe in a local post office, they’re improving their own health, their own wellbeing, creating connections to nature, to heritage, they’re creating culture. So it’s this infrastructure really for joy, health, hope, climate, saving people money. So, yes, it’s a project about walking, but it’s about all these things that walking can do for us as well.”
“Although it’s this idea that’s really a couple of million years old, it’s been made possible because of our ability to use fantastic technology and big data and collaboration across that infrastructure.”
Right To Roam
https://www.righttoroam.org.uk/
“We should have far more rights, to far more places.”
“It’s important to remember that there are some parts of the world, like swathes of North America, where access is even more limited and if you were to stray onto private land you run the risk of extreme violence.”
"What Scotland desperately needs is a far better path network.”
South Downs National Park
https://www.southdowns.gov.uk/
“When you look at the family of National Parks around the world, there are National Parks in everything from glaciers and deserts to moorlands and rain forests, everything you can imagine in terms of habitats, apart from one, which is urban areas.”
“London is home to 15,000 species of wildlife, making it one of the most species-rich regions of the UK. London has more breeding pairs peregrine falcon in London than in Yosemite National Park or the Peak District National Park.”
National Park City Foundation
https://www.nationalparkcity.org/
National Park City: London
https://www.nationalparkcity.london/?gclid=CjwKCAjwyqWkBhBMEiwAp2yUFlh88HoRyiBIACph4Zg9Mzu1tjqWgQWtpP1_NHE8Pcc5tcLeKc_KKRoCcEQQAvD_BwE
What makes a National Park City? via World Urban Parks
https://www.worldurbanparks.org/images/Documents/What-defines-a-National-Park-City-Article-4.pdf
This episode was recorded in April 2023
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
For more visit alwayspossible.co.uk
The Possibility Club podcast: Practical Bravery BREAKING TRAUMA!
In this episode of The Possibility Club, looking at practical bravery, we'll explore this idea of staring down trauma in order to create meaningful change. When my guest was 14 when she had to make her way past the mutilated bodies of her neighbours, shielding from bombs and chemical weapons attacks, leaving her home in Syria with her family. In Turkey, where she had to resettle, she broke down - and the very real trauma took its toll on her mental health in a profound way. Yet, in 2023 she is heralded around the world as a rather extraordinary entrepreneur. She taught herself to code and become one of the country's most ambitious young computer scientists. She has established one of Turkey's top free providers of online mental health and trauma support to displaced people and to survivors of natural disaster. And her impact will definitely not stop there. I'm Richard Freeman, and on this edition of the Possibility Club, it is a privilege to be talking about surviving trauma and using that to create your own measurable impact with the remarkable Jîn Dawod - Founder of Peace Therapist. “I’m a computer engineer, I’m the founder of Peace Therapist, I’m also glad to be One Young World European Commission Peace Ambassador. At the same time I’m the co-founder at Urfa Agra Women’s Co-operative. So there are a lot of things to do in life. But I also believe that we need to focus our energy mainly on one big thing, which is Peace Therapist for me.”
Peace Therapist
https://peacetherapist.com/
Jîn on LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/j%C3%AEn-dawod-%E2%98%AE%EF%B8%8F-838726141/?originalSubdomain=tr
Jîn on AskYourGirls
https://askyourgirls.com/members/jindawodgmail-com/
Speaker page on One Young World
https://www.oneyoungworld.com/speaker/jin-dawod
Leaders Who Care interview (via Youtube)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mueTjvUsz-E
Urfa Agra Women’s Co-operative (via DailySabah.com)
https://www.dailysabah.com/turkey/all-female-turkish-cooperative-startup-sells-products-countrywide/news
“I am Syrian, I was fourteen or fifteen years old when the war started in Syria. I was in Raqqa City, the city where the war started. My family suffered a lot, we were obligated to stay in the war situation for two years. It was very traumatic, even from the window of my room I saw cut-off heads and parts of human bodies on the road, because the main hospital of Raqqa was in front of our home, so that doubled the trauma I experienced.”
“At first we didn’t know the war would last. Everything was unknown.”
“The moment we crossed into Turkey, I thought now the war has ended for me, I thought everything would start to be better, but I didn’t know the war had just started inside of me. I had psychological problems, I couldn’t leave our home for one year. My siblings experienced the same thing. I was in desperate need of psychological support but I didn’t know Turkish.”
Syrian civil war (via Wikipedia)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrian_civil_war
Raqqa, Syria (vía Wikipedia)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raqqa
"I could see my family sacrifice a lot for us. My father lost everything he built in life, everything he wanted to make as an investment for us in the future, was destroyed immediately.”
“Around of me I saw a lot of refugees were still suffering from psychological problems and not all are lucky as I was, to have a supportive family, or to have a family, a lot of them lost their families.”
“I know what it is, I was there, I really wanted to do something. That was the point I started to work on Peace Therapist.”
“I know what it was like, I was there, I really wanted to do something. I started to work on Peace Therapist. In Computer Engineering, I enveloped myself in mobile application development and I started to write the code for the Peace Therapist platform by myself at that time. I found my passion. I started to go after what I can do in this field. I knew what I wanted to do in this life, at that moment.”
2023 Turkey / Syria earthquake (via Wikipedia)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Turkey%E2%80%93Syria_earthquake
2023 Şanlıurfa City floods (via Wikipedia)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Turkey_floods
Urfa City, Turkey (usually known as Şanlıurfa)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urfa
“It’s been more than two months since the big disaster and I believe people are going back to their routines. I am trying to help, especially people who lost family and friends. Me and my sister also lost friends. But we have to focus on the good things, otherwise life would not be continuing for us.”
“We move around a lot. We also stayed in the car, because the flooding is always happening at night, so people are shocked, don’t know what to do, afraid, and a lot of people are having problems sleeping, eating, going inside any building.”
“Not only refugees need psychological support, it’s everyone. Every human. It’s a right, it should not be a privilege. It’s important for every one of us. Life is not easy, we face a lot of problems at every stage of our life.”
“Technology is so important, it’s making everything easier, but we need to pay attention to how we use technology, because as it makes it easier for us to do good things, it makes it easier for us to do bad things.”
“I wanted to make them proud, I am a positive person, I wanted to develop myself and concentrate on helping others.”
“The weather is becoming better. I think this is a sign of hope, and for us to work and to concentrate on the positive things in life.”
This episode was recorded in April 2023
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
For more visit alwayspossible.co.uk
The Possibility Club podcast: Practical Bravery HYPERFAST HUMANITY!
Lives in the 21st century are now so integrated with the infrastructure of streaming technology that we've forgotten to question it. The variety, volume and speed of everything - from media to research, entertainment to sport, stock markets to multi-stakeholder conferences in 7 different simultaneous time zones - is constantly pushing the envelope of more, bigger and faster. So who is in charge of this? Consumers? Producers? Regulators? The special guest to explore this, is one of the UK's leading experts of streaming technology: Lee Radbourne - General Manager (EMEA), Aura
Lee Radbourne via LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/leeradbourne/?originalSubdomain=uk
Aura streaming
https://thisisaura.com/
Aura via Twitter
https://twitter.com/this_is_aura
Ted Lasso TV series (via Wikipedia)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Lasso
Massive Interactive (now Deltatre)
https://www.deltatre.com/massive
DAZN sports streaming platform
https://www.dazn.com/en-GB/welcome/
“There’s an element of loss of waiting, or anticipation. The Mandalorian for example, on Disney Plus, is released on a schedule now, almost like a linear show. Madness! What do you mean I can’t just binge it over a weekend, like I normally do? The instant gratification comes more from an expectation.”
The Mandalorian TV series (via Wikipedia)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mandalorian
“Our kids have no concept of what a device is, or what a video recorder is, or even within technology, what a server is. My favourite an anecdote I keep seeing is, you ever seen kids trying to describe what the ‘save’ button is? Trying to explain it was a physical three-and-a-half-inch floppy disc!”
Tik Tok fined for breaching UK data protection law (via The Guardian)
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/apr/04/tiktok-fined-uk-data-protection-law-breaches
Future Of Life Institute open letter to pause AI experiments
https://futureoflife.org/open-letter/pause-giant-ai-experiments/
“I think it’s sensible to take a pause sometimes with technology. But I think it’s just one simple thing that’s going to change the way we deliver stuff and make stuff more personalised. We already have good policy in place. GDPR is good policy, it does protect people.”
“The younger generation, they know the value of their data. So if there’s an incentive for them and it’s in their interest, they’re quite happy to share data. The reason your daughter doesn’t care is all her friends are on Tik Tok.”
“Whether we like it or not, commercialism and capitalism is the market of choice at the moment and that’s how we make our money and there is value in the data.”
“There’s a lot of dinosaurs out there who are set in their ways, and their goal is to make as much money as possible and they don’t care how they do it. There’s also people coming through who are now bursting into senior roles or executive roles, like myself, we grew up before the Internet, without smartphones, and we know what is important to us. That’s just what good business looks like now, you have to be conscious of your social impact. How are we going to give back?”
"I’d love to get to the point where we can make a carbon neutral streaming platform.”
Mobii
https://www.mobii.com/
“Unfortunately with all these things, these things take time!”
“sub one-second latency”
latency via Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latency_(engineering)
“This is game-changing for the industry and I think it’ll really make a difference to the way we consume content.”
This episode was recorded in April 2023
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
For more visit alwayspossible.co.uk
The Possibility Club podcast: Practical Bravery
REINVENTING SECURITY
In every city, town and village in the UK, the safety of people enjoying a night out is often in the hands of some of the country's 400,000 trained door supervisors, bouncers, security guards. There are more than double the number of security personnel than there are police officers. But there are two important things you should know. 90% of door supervisors are men. And their job is to protect property. So the curious place where commercial business thinking meets critical social reform is this - if 50% of door supervisors were women, and if security job descriptions were tweaked to also have a role in protecting people - what would that change? -------- Lisa Baskott on LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-baskott-116398241/
2nd Line Of Defence
https://2ndlineofdefence.com/
Lisa on Eyestorm TV
Profile in Brighton Argus
https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/23377028.hove-ceo-2nd-line-defence-lisa-baskott-changing-industry/
The murder of Sarah Everard (via Wikipedia, includes sexual violence detail)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Sarah_Everard
“I started to get that rising, sick feeling in my stomach and I thought, oh my god, they’re not going to find her alive. She’s gone.”
“Women gathered on Clapham Common and we saw the response of the Met Police. It was shocking.”
“I fell upon the night-time economy and the institution that is there to look after people. And when I looked at levels of policing that had fallen off a cliff and when you’re in trouble it’s unlikely to be a police officer coming to your rescue, it’s more likely to be one of those people working on the doors of venues.”
“There have been roughly 400,000 door supervisor licenses issued. Until recently only 10% are women. It was hovering at around 8% before the end of last year, it’s only just got to 10%. I was absolutely horrified. Then I started to think, maybe this is the problem, right?”
“We’ve got some antiquated thoughts in general at that frontline [door security] position, and we’ve got this new cohort wishing to be nothing other than their true authentic selves, and then you get this clash, right, and you get this mismatch, and nothing is being done within the industry to rectify that, to raise the awareness of people in those roles.”
"I think there’s been a massive disconnect over time about what the door security role can be, and should be.”
Jamie Klingler’s interview with The Possibility Club: 5 Big Questions (Apple podcasts)
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/5-big-questions-jamie-klingler/id1248740749?i=1000564157394
Jamie Klingler
https://www.jamieklingler.com/
“This is the industry sector that is tasked with being there for you and I, if anything goes wrong. And it’s a mess.”
“So off I went and did the Door Supervisor Training Course and I loved it, met some amazing people. But I also knew at the end of that course it wasn’t going to stop there: I had to get out on the frontline.”
Get Licensed — SIA Door Supervisor Training Course
https://www.get-licensed.co.uk/door-supervisor?gclid=Cj0KCQjwgLOiBhC7ARIsAIeetVD5-x-zu_j_GC61j2g1k5iuA3eVw--P1XTCfSMx1LxgqvejFxTK4LMaAuN9EALw_wcB
]“It was about needing to understand the effect that having a woman in that position would have on people. Young people would literally say ‘knowing you are here makes me feel safe’.”
“If something bad happens to a woman in an event and she feels she can come to the person on the door, then we can potentially save that person from a great deal of heartache. What generally happens is a girl will be assaulted in a club and rather than go to a door supervisor, she’ll take that shit home with her. And that’s unacceptable, right?”
“I realised that what I was talking about was systemic change, changing the overall narrative of an industry sector.”
“I thought that ‘being heard’ was going to take a long time, and I was in it for the long haul. But the doors have opened for me. The regulator, big organisations in security, have approached me and want to hear what I have to say.”
This episode was recorded in April 2023
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
For more visit alwayspossible.co.uk
The Possibility Club podcast: Practical Bravery GOING OFF-GRID! It is easy to say that we are all climate activists now. Even the most traditional, fossil-fuel powered businesses will have their compostable coffee cups, car pool incentives and commitment to using bags for life. But, are we even close to getting real? Survey after survey shows that there is serious intention, backed-up by a serious kicking of the can down the road. The climate emergency needs both small and big change. Incremental and urgent. So - WTF do we do, to balance urgency and stability? How do we live both on and off grid? In this episode Richard Freeman meets
Tech and nature entreprenuer, speaker, writer, broadcaster and facilitator - Davde Erasmus. ------
https://www.daveerasmus.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/daveerasmus
Insta: https://www.instagram.com/daveerasmus1/?hl=en
Medium blog: https://daveerasmus.medium.com/
“Seeing this mobile, social, technology shift coming along and thought, if this is transforming society, what are the best behaviour sets we could encourage? And so I built a donation platform called Givey to try to encourage the daily habit of giving.”
https://www.givey.com/about
“If you look at the twenty apps on the front of your smartphone, it’s a nice thought to say what do they say about me? Who am I? What do I engage with every day?"
“When the VCs finally took the company off me (which is another story) I ran out of map, I ran out of direction. Internally and externally I had nowhere to turn, no-one to turn to, so I ended up finding my way into the woodland.”
"What I found there was a gentle momentum, a life beyond purpose, a way of being that was outside of goal setting and goal achievement. Kind of a life beyond narrative.”
“I found this whole other space of human being, rather than human doing.”
“I was living this hyper-local life between the woods and the pub but I had this community globally, with people sending me socks from Australia and giving me advice through my YouTube videos. This wasn’t off-grid living, there was a lot more space created for the ‘off’ but I was still benefiting from being ‘on’. This lifestyle didn’t fit in either of the worlds.”
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/daveerasmus
“I guess that is my answer to the “New York grind” story. I don’t see it as sustainable, I don’t see genius ideas coming out of that constant grind, that echo chamber.”
“I had all the options, this is what I chose to do. As it happens, I’ve probably neglected financial capital, I’ve probably optimised too long for social and intellectual capital, ie having time to learn and be with friends, and that is a constant balancing act.”
“The research all shows that earning more than £70k a year, there’s no correlation between happiness, wellbeing and money above that. We all need a certain amount not just for basics but for some luxuries and agency and choice, but above and beyond that there’s no discernible correlation.”
“Possibilities come from open awareness. From seeing the glimmers on the edge of your peripheral vision. Things that you can hear in the background. And that antenna is not up if you’re driving towards a goal. That’s not where you find new emergent possibilities. So for me, putting your foot down, then taking your foot off, being ‘on’ and then being ‘off’, and learning how to go back and forward is where we get ultimately most efficiency, although ‘efficiency’ is a reductive word for what I’m talking about.”
Wilderness Farm Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/wilderness_farm/
https://www.corcova.do/
“I’ve probably had a day’s worth of difficult conversations with smart people, which have cost me money, to invest in myself and my self narrative and find that and get that iterative process. It is hard to do on your own, you do ideally need friends or relationships that help lead you into that place because brands — and your boss — are marketing at you all the time, and they’re pretty damn good at it by this point.”
Filippo Landi — ‘Boy’ (Spotify link — from the album Upside Down)
https://open.spotify.com/track/0PbCDaKbOnJ89HtNkz526R
Dave Erasmus poetry EPs (Spotify link)
https://open.spotify.com/artist/6wCRhp6ubrLP80yMQVKuvw
“Make a name for somebody else.” — Steve Cole
Broadplace — company Dave set up at 19
https://www.broadplace.com/
“Ultimately I want to be me, I want to be original.”
“The off-grid part of life is needed more than ever at the moment, in order to recover our relationships — workplace and otherwise — to a place of creative balance with productivity, so we can make our organisations sustainable.”
New business about listening to the ocean —
https://aqoustics.com/
This episode was recorded in February 2023
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
For more visit alwayspossible.co.uk
The Possibility Club podcast: Practical Bravery RESPONSIBLE HUSTLING! New mums are worried about leaving children with other people; about juggling new responsibilities, childcare and bringing the whole self to work. They are worried about the cost of childcare and about flexibility for emergencies, illness or anything that else that means child and mum need to be together. And if your work is linked to your self-esteem and your purpose, to your motivation and identity - then time away from it and not thinking about can crash that confidence - especially given how much a business and its processes can change in a year. And then the guilt - why should any of this get in the way, when having children is a privilege and a choice? Whether you're looking through the lens of productivity or performance, culture or compliance - the HR strategy of any business, whether there are 20 of you or 2,000, should be to be an organisation in which people can be their best. There can be great positive impact in seeing maternity support as an opportunity to rally round, upskill, demonstrate collective empathy and recognising that there will be some new perspectives and priorities that could actually be helpful. You have an opportunity to genuinely transform an employee's life for the better in ways that almost certainly foster loyalty, close connection and creative thinking. It is hard for small businesses, but so is everything. Lean in and collaborate with affected staff rather than hide behind policies. How can businesses help with childcare - which is the number one barrier and concern? It could be through tax relief and salary sacrifice, or just by being flexible on work start and end times. In this episode Richard Freeman meets
Motherhood defender, entrepreneur, charity leader, agent provocateur, organiser of The March of The Mummies and author of The Motherhood Penalty: How to stop motherhood being the kiss of death for your career - Joeli Brearly ------
Pregnant Then Screwed
https://pregnantthenscrewed.com/
“We exist to end the motherhood penalty — essentially we mean the gender pay gap.”
“We all talk about the gender pay gap and often we don’t even mention motherhood but we know that the pay differential between men and women who don’t have children is absolutely tiny, and it’s as soon as you get into those childbearing years that the pay gap widens. By the time your first child is twelve years old, a woman’s hourly pay rate is 33% behind a man’s. We want to close that gap.”
Twitter: @pregnant_then_screwed
Twitter: @joeli_brearley
Joeli Brearley — The Motherhood Penalty (Simon & Schuster Ltd) (via Hive)
https://www.hive.co.uk/Product/Joeli-Brearley/The-Motherhood-Penalty--How-to-stop-motherhood-being-the-/25912501
Joeli on LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/joelibrearley/?originalSubdomain=uk
“None of this is about blaming men. If we fixed these structures and systems so they worked a bit better, we would have more equality.”
Joeli writes for Harper’s Bazaar — ‘the motherhood penalty is crippling women’
https://www.harpersbazaar.com/uk/culture/culture-news/a43118474/joeli-brearley-motherhood-penalty-childcare/
Maternity Leave by Country 2023
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/maternity-leave-by-country
Parental Leave via Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parental_leave
“Through the creation of capitalism, you needed somebody to create the next labour force. You needed somebody who was procreating, reproducing the labour force, looking after that labour force and doing the other bits of work that are required to sustain capitalism, the unpaid labour.”
"Change is slow because the whole structure is patriarchal. Really, we need to burn the whole thing down, everything needs to be burnt down and start again.”
Judith Kerr — The Tiger Who Came To Tea (via Hive)
https://www.hive.co.uk/Product/Judith-Kerr/The-Tiger-Who-Came-to-Tea/21988
Stella Creasy reprimanded for taking child into Parliament (via The Guardian)
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/nov/23/stella-creasey-baffled-after-reprimand-for-bringing-infant-into-commons
Stella Creasy on The Possibility Club (via LibSyn)
https://thepossibiltyclub.libsyn.com/after-corona-stella-creasy-on-community-power
“Sometimes we can be our own worst enemy because we just do it, and don’t question it.”
BBC admits it got it wrong with its ‘Can Women Really Have It All” headline, around Jacinda Ardern’s resignation (via The Journal)
https://www.thejournal.ie/bbc-admits-error-jacinda-ardern-headline-5974462-Jan2023/
“We know that last year we helped women secure £1.3million in terms of settlements after experiencing discrimination or in a tribunal case.”
“The campaigns we run are not little tweaks, they’re not easy things to fix: this is about radically changing the way we live and work.”
"I get my kicks from the services we run. I get messages all the time saying without you I would have fallen apart. I do get kicks out of the campaigning as well but campaign is losing, you know, campaigning is bashing your head against a brick wall.”
Early Years Alliance
https://www.eyalliance.org.uk/
“The money that the government gives to the childcare sector, they underfund those places by about £3 per child, per hour, and don’t give those nurseries opportunities to make up that shortfall, so those costs have to be passed down the chain. That’s why you have childcare professionals on minimum wage. We’ve had 20,000 nurseries close since 2015.”
“Of course we talk about it from the perspective of the mothers, and some providers don’t like that. They think that we should be talking about it in a very different way. And we think, come on guys, we’re in this together!”
“The fact of the matter is, this argument will be won off the back of parents, it won’t be won off the back of providers. Because we’re a bigger group! We’re making that noise, we’re making that point repeatedly.”
Mary Agyapong ‘felt pressured to work’ (via BBC News)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-56498978
This episode was recorded in January 2023
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
For more visit alwayspossible.co.uk
The Possibility Club podcast: Practical Bravery RESPONSIBLE HUSTLING! The worst of hustle culture is a toxic, mentally straining, alpha-bullshit race in which carnage is left in a trail behind the winner. Whatever winning is. The best of it is in the drive to continually innovate and to respond to need. It's not that strategic, but it gets things done and it moves things on. Sometimes that is exactly the energy needed to start something. My question to people in businesses and charities listening to this - what can you do to harness more of the best of it, when you're driving forward impact, whilst avoiding the negative behaviours? In this episode Richard Freeman meets serial entrepreneur, angel investor, host of the 'Back Yourself' podcast and CEO of Stakester
Tom Fairey.
Stakester https://www.stakester.com/
Tom Fairey — How Not To F*ck Up Your Startup (Amazon link) https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Not-Your-Startup- Something/dp/1472147529/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Tom+Fairey&qid=1679244457&s=audible&sr=1- 1-catcorr
The Back Yourself Show (podcast — Spotify link) https://open.spotify.com/show/0xe689AtPTEK2IxoGUQcMb?si=8e282f79b10d42a7
“I think we need to change our mindset from a survival mindset last year, to a growth mindset.”
Carol Dweck — Mindset (Amazon link) https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mindset-Updated-Changing-Fulfil- Potential/dp/B07NQLQDWN/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2GNL7JAT06BIT&keywords=carol+dweck&qid=167 9261239&sprefix=carol+dweck%2Caps%2C71&sr=8-1
"I have basically two things that I’m good at: I’m a good judge of talent and I’m a good motivator. I’m addicted to people who I think are under-nourished in their career and that tends to be where my investments go.”
Ben Horowitz — The Hard Thing About Hard Things (Amazon link) https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hard-Thing-About-Things- Building/dp/B00I0B6CQC/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=Ben+Horowitz&qid=1679261688&s=audible&sr=1 -2
Peter Thiel — Zero To One (Amazon link) https://www.amazon.co.uk/Zero-One-Notes-Start- Future/dp/0753555204/ref=sr_1_1?qid=1679261634&refinements=p_27%3APeter+Thiel+Blake+M asters&s=books&sr=1-1&text=Peter+Thiel+Blake+Masters
Andrew Chen — The Cold Start Problem (Amazon link) https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cold-Start-Problem-Network- Effects/dp/B09KW42M7V/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=andrew+chen&qid=1679261743&s=audible&spref ix=andrew+chen%2Caudible%2C74&sr=1-1
“Everyone I grew up with around me was a teacher, and they had this sense of reward.”
George Kruis, rugby player (Wikipedia) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Kruis
“I’d probably make more money as a podcast host than I would as a rugby club owner.”
“I had this physical goal last year, I wanted to run 15k in an hour. It doesn’t make me an elite runner but it is a challenge, and it is hard, and I did achieve it. I got to the end of it and I was like, uh alright, and I stopped running. Just stopped running last year. And actually I got a lot of joy from running. But the goal was frustrating for me. Setting goals is a frustrating behaviour.”
“I don’t actually believe in building goals, I believe in building habits. I think the problem with goals are, as soon as you hit them you’re not satisfied. When you build a habit, you start to learn about it as you go. Building habits leads to excellence and greater outcomes than you would’ve had initially if you’d just set yourself a goal.”
“There’s a lot of rubbish people out there, I’m not going to lie.”
“If I retired tomorrow and left the startup world, my hope is that no-one would feel the impact, they’d just carry on. And that’s not because I’m insignificant, it’s because I’ve done a good enough job of preparing people to do their jobs independently.”
The Army Reserve https://www.army.mod.uk/who-we-are/the-army-reserve/
“It sounds so obvious but people forget about it all the time: communicate for your audience. Stop talking where your audience isn’t.”
“I like hustle culture. I’d use the analogy of an athlete. Do you think anyone said to Kobe Bryant, when he was turning up in the gym at 4am before he went training, they said aw mate, you’re working too hard, you’re just training too hard. It’s bollocks, no-one’s saying to him afterwards, you’re practising too much, you’re getting too good at this. No-one says that. But the thing is, that’s his choice. No-one’s going to tell a musician how often they can play, that’s their choice. But for some reason we have a problem with people doing it in business and we have to tell people how much they can work. Fuck you. If I want to work from 5am til 10pm that’s my choice. And if I want the outcomes that I’m trying to achieve, I have to. And it may not be great for my work life balance, but it’s my choice. It’s not hustle culture, it’s hustle choice.”
“Fuckin’ high-five.”
This episode was recorded in January 2023
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
For more visit alwayspossible.co.uk
Hello This is a quick note from The Possibility Club podcast team to wish you a very merry Christmas, or holiday season, whatever you celebrate. If you've missed any of our 5 Big Questions interviews over the past 12 months, then you can find all 41 guests by searching The Possibility Club on your favourite podcast platform - or by visiting alwayspossible.co.uk/podcast I've had a lot of food for thought speaking to my guests about measuring impact, preparing for the future, skills and the future workforce, creativity and collaboration. A lot of common threads about looking beyond numbers in order to find the real stories of what is happening in the 21st century, and a sense that whatever industry people are making change in - that we must always be thinking bigger than what we sell, or what's on our job description. The 2020s demand added value, with continual improvement and a transparency about values and methodologies building stringer and more resilient communities - whether that's commercial, social or cultural. My chat with Deborah Meaden was the last for 2022, and for this series. We'll be back in the Spring, with a whole new set of questions focused more deeply on the idea of added value. What do you do, and then what do you want to be famous for? If your organisation, business or project stopped tomorrow - what is it that people would really miss? I'll be talking to leaders from across business and public life to go in depth about what added value they are creating beyond what is expected - for the world and people around them - with some very exciting guests lined up already. Until then - please do tell your friends about, and write a review if you can - this really does help people to find us. And have a wonderful festive break and start to 2023. Richard + Chris, Uschi and Molly
What is entrepreneurialism in 2022?
How do we know who to trust in business?
Why is the personality of a business important?
In this week's 5 Big Questions interview we talk to serial entreprenuer and star of BBC's Dragon's Den DEBORAH MEADEN.
Known for:
- Investor - Dragon's Den (BBC)
- Host - The Big Green Money Show podcast
- Ambassador - The Marine Conservation Society
- Member of the Council of Ambassadors - World Wildlife Fund
- Former Director - Weststar Holidays
Twitter — @DeborahMeaden
Instagram — @DeborahMeaden
The Big 5 Questions:
- How do you measure the impact of what you do?
- How should people/businesses be preparing for the future?
- How do we build the workforce we need for that future?
- How do you use creativity to solve problems?
- How do you collaborate?
Key quotes:
"I’m not hard but I’m tough. It’s different.”
“Yes I have wealth, and I’m not affected in the same way as the huge swathe of people in this country but it doesn’t mean I can’t care about other people and in fact that makes my life better — if you’re connected to your society, if you care about your society and think actually I want to help, it makes your life more worthwhile as well. Even on a purely selfish basis I don’t get people who don’t connect with society and don’t care about it.”
“I want to be the same person in business that I am outside of business and it worries me, we’re all becoming much more aware of people who are one thing in one scenario and then there’s something somewhere else — and actually I don’t trust those people.”
“I’m not a character, I am me, in that situation. What you’ve got to think about Dragon’s Den is, some of those pitches last three hours, and they’re boiled down to the essence of that pitch. Quite rightly what the editors do is say okay, the lesson in that is this, and that’s what we’re going to hone in on.”
“Your business is a personality, and it’s become even more so now, people see businesses as a personality. Think of your business as a respected friend.”
“Just remember what it is that your customers love about you, and get rid of all the other stuff. Now that takes headspace. But the power of either having a mentor who can pull you out of that, or having the discipline yourself to say, I have to remember what matters.”
"If you can’t take the time out to think about your business into the future, then there’s a big problem in your business.”
“We are all creative in some way. Some of us have a wide spectrum of creativity but I think it’s what makes us human. We yearn it. It’s in our DNA.”
“One of the fundamental attributes of a successful entrepreneur is having a good nose for things. You’ve got to be able to read when you’re not being well received as well as when you are being well received.”
“Well, The Apprentice is not so much a business programme anymore, but I’d like to think that Dragon’s Den, well it is, it’s fundamentally still a business programme.”
Useful links:
- BBC Dragons Den
- Deborah’s profile on the Dragons Den site
- BBC The Apprentice
- The Big Green Money Show (via BBC Radio 5 Live)
This episode was recorded in November 2022
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
What does employability mean in 2022?
What are the best environments for people to thrive at work?
How and why is the education system broken all over the world?
In this week's 5 Big Questions interview we talk to founding global CEO of Generation DR MONA MOURSHED.
Known for:
- Founding Global CEO, Generation
The Big 5 Questions:
- How do you measure the impact of what you do?
- How should people/businesses be preparing for the future?
- How do we build the workforce we need for that future?
- How do you use creativity to solve problems?
- How do you collaborate?
Key quotes:
“The tragic reality is that the global workforce system, or education-to-employment system is broken in many different ways. The system is broken for adult learners of all ages.”
“Generation is a global non-profit to support adult learners to achieve economic mobility through a career.”
“When they enter our programme, 90% of our learners are unemployed and half of those are long-term unemployed. Three months later we’re able to get to an outcome of 80% employed.”
“Unfortunately age is often not included, or not considered to be a part of ‘diversity’. But the reality is we live in an inter-generational workforce, so we need to hire — and have environments — that take that into account.”
“Frankly there’s a lot of shit that happens in five years! Here’s what I will say: the ability to do two things is critical when you’re in environmental flux. One is, you have to think about where the jobs are and therefore what education and training is required for those jobs. Jobs first, and then education and training required for them. Second is, how are you able to rapidly support an individual to achieve learning mastery of either a new set of skills, or to be able to transition to a new career?”
“There are absolutely critical care roles that require technical skills, behavioural skills, and a very resilient mindset and the reality is that in most parts of the world these jobs are not paid at a level commensurate with the effort and expertise required to do them. This is an endemic problem that becomes even more challenging with an ageing population. This is a very thorny issue that I have yet to see a country actually crack.”
Useful links:
- Mona Mourshed founding CEO profile at Generation
- Generation
- Mona on LinkedIn
- Mona’s profile at World Economic Forum
This episode was recorded in October 2022
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
Can a purpose-led business also be commercial?
How do you use the Pqualizer?
And what is the ‘mullet economy’?
In this week's 5 Big Questions interview we talk to writer, broadcaster and musician TIM HEALEY.
Known for:
- Founder - Shoot 4 The Moon
- Co-author - Better Business On Purpose
- Founder / Former Owner - Kooks
- DJ & Music Producer - Bennun & Healey
- Former Director - Surfer Rosa Records
The Big 5 Questions:
- How do you measure the impact of what you do?
- How should people/businesses be preparing for the future?
- How do we build the workforce we need for that future?
- How do you use creativity to solve problems?
- How do you collaborate?
Key quotes:
“My flat became our headquarters for the best part of a year, as we met as often as we could, typically on Wednesday mornings, and discussed all manner of topics. After doing that for about nine months, we were like, well okay, what are we going to do next?”
“We did have different writing styles, that was a learning as part of the process, and we did recruit an editor to help us pull it together. Essentially we just carved up the content, and said right, it’s going three ways, that’s yours, that’s yours and that’s yours. And off we went”
“Strickler called it the ‘mullet economy’, business up front and a party in the back. That’s why people are getting paid no more than twenty years ago but the shareholders are taking out more and more. It’s why the film industry has become a series of prequels and sequels and reboots. It’s also why every city in the world has shopping malls with homogenous brands in every single one.”
“The Pqualizer is a way of visualising how you — or anyone in your business — feels about how your business is doing, across seven key areas: purpose, positioning, products, people, planet, profit and platforms.”
“We’ve gone through an unusual period of business where we’ve become obsessed with technology, technology platforms, unicorn businesses, mega investment in concepts that perhaps aren’t even turning a profit, and we’re really starting to see that now. I’m feeling a really big tidal change.”
"I’ve worked with a number of founders who’ve been hugely successful in technology and in my experience they’re scared of the word ‘strategy’. Even using the word in some meetings gets people’s backs up. I’ve been told by colleagues to use words like ‘goals’ because just the word ‘strategy’ seems to stress people who don’t like applying it.”
“Setting really clear objectives, in terms of strategy, informs everything else you do. And of course, these objectives should be smart.”
“The world isn’t in a completely downward negative spiral, there are fantastic things going on all around us and we can build on them. Which is one of the major reasons why we think businesses should be more ethical. I think you’d be forgiven as a business owner to go, oh it’s just too late, what’s the point? Whereas we’re saying no, it’s never too late, we have all the possibility of making the world a better place, and every tiny bit helps.”
“I have a threshold for poor behaviour at work, and I don’t mean people that I’m directing not delivering, I mean typically people above, that disgrace themselves. I just can’t work with them, which sounds terrible, but that is something that I’ve kept I guess from my world of being hugely independent, doing music.”
Useful links:
- Shoot 4 The Moon
- Tim Healey, Nikki Gattenby, Neil Witten — Better Business On Purpose (from The Hive) (from Amazon)
- Tim Healey — ‘Why I decided to write a book’
- Nikki Gattenby — Superengaged
- Patagonia Clothing
- Yancey Strickler — This Could Be Our Future (Amazon link)
- Tony’s Chocolonely social impact report
- The Pqualizer — free downloads page
- Bill Hicks ‘got ourselves a reader’ bit (via YouTube)
- Mark Ritson’s mini MBA in Marketing
- ‘strategos’ (from the Greek, via Wikipedia)
- Politics UK Weekly episode with Ed Miliband and Just Stop Oil (via The Guardian)
- The Knepp Estate in East Sussex
- Broughton Hall Estate in Yorkshire
- John Higgs — The Future Starts Here (Amazon link)
This episode was recorded in November 2022
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
What sort of tech start-up would be founded by a network of charities?
How do you measure impact, when your core business is to enable impact?
How can dating app technology evolve for global good?
In this week's 5 Big Questions interview we talk to social entrepreneur and tech start-up CEO WAI FOONG NG.
Known for:
- CEO - Matchable
- Top 100 Asian Stars in UK Tech 2022
- Computer Weekly Women In Tech Rising Star 2021
- Co-Founder - Suits & Startups Former
- Director (Real Estate & Private Equity M&A) - PwC UK
The Big 5 Questions:
- How do you measure the impact of what you do?
- How should people/businesses be preparing for the future?
- How do we build the workforce we need for that future?
- How do you use creativity to solve problems?
- How do you collaborate?
Key quotes:
“My sales team will be very happy to hear that you compared Matchable to a dating app because that’s what I get told to say on sales pitches!”
“Matchable was an idea that came from an incubator called The Good Lab, which was a collaboration between the innovation teams at eight of the UK’s largest charities. They didn’t want to build it themselves, they have other things to do, so they put an ad out for a founder.”
“We only want to onboard projects and organisations onto our platform that are high impact and/or innovative. So, for example, instead of going out and painting a fence, someone could be working with a social enterprise helping to re-skill cocoa farmers and using blockchain to make sure they’re fairly remunerated.”
“At Matchable we are constantly with the ‘crazy feet paddling under the surface’ analogy, that’s definitely us. And we also say ‘every day is a school day’, because we try loads of things and we’re a very open team. Being willing to learn every day is very important, I think.”
“Companies are understanding more and more that this needs to be part of their fabric. And their employees are asking for it.”
“Gen Z thrive when you give them ownership of something and they can run with it, because they feel empowered to put into practice a lot of their ideas, etc. And the thing that doesn’t work well with them is just telling them what to do.”
“People only work at their best if they believe in the company, if they believe in what they are doing.”
“There is so much that companies and employees get from volunteering that is intangible but can be life-changing as an experience.”
Useful links:
- Wai Foong NG on LinkedIn
- Matchable
- The Good Lab Report (2019)
- B Corp
- B Corp certification
- Ella's Kitchen
- Mark Cuddigan (Ella’s Kitchen) '5 Big Questions’ episode
This episode was recorded in November 2022
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
What sort of tech start-up would be founded by a network of charities?
How do you measure impact, when your core business is to enable impact?
How can dating app technology evolve for global good?
In this week's 5 Big Questions interview we talk to social entrepreneur and tech start-up CEO WAI FOONG NG.
Known for:
- CEO - Matchable
- Top 100 Asian Stars in UK Tech 2022
- Computer Weekly Women In Tech Rising Star 2021
- Co-Founder - Suits & Startups Former
- Director (Real Estate & Private Equity M&A) - PwC UK
The Big 5 Questions:
- How do you measure the impact of what you do?
- How should people/businesses be preparing for the future?
- How do we build the workforce we need for that future?
- How do you use creativity to solve problems?
- How do you collaborate?
Key quotes:
“My sales team will be very happy to hear that you compared Matchable to a dating app because that’s what I get told to say on sales pitches!”
“Matchable was an idea that came from an incubator called The Good Lab, which was a collaboration between the innovation teams at eight of the UK’s largest charities. They didn’t want to build it themselves, they have other things to do, so they put an ad out for a founder.”
“We only want to onboard projects and organisations onto our platform that are high impact and/or innovative. So, for example, instead of going out and painting a fence, someone could be working with a social enterprise helping to re-skill cocoa farmers and using blockchain to make sure they’re fairly remunerated.”
“At Matchable we are constantly with the ‘crazy feet paddling under the surface’ analogy, that’s definitely us. And we also say ‘every day is a school day’, because we try loads of things and we’re a very open team. Being willing to learn every day is very important, I think.”
“Companies are understanding more and more that this needs to be part of their fabric. And their employees are asking for it.”
“Gen Z thrive when you give them ownership of something and they can run with it, because they feel empowered to put into practice a lot of their ideas, etc. And the thing that doesn’t work well with them is just telling them what to do.”
“People only work at their best if they believe in the company, if they believe in what they are doing.”
“There is so much that companies and employees get from volunteering that is intangible but can be life-changing as an experience.”
Useful links:
- Wai Foong NG on LinkedIn
- Matchable
- The Good Lab Report (2019)
- B Corp
- B Corp certification
- Ella's Kitchen
- Mark Cuddigan (Ella’s Kitchen) '5 Big Questions’ episode
This episode was recorded in November 2022
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
How does Sheffield compare with Silicon Valley?
What if we reimagined degrees for the 21st century?
How do you feel about driving a computer with wheels?
In this week's 5 Big Questions interview we talk to British Silicon Valley entrepreneur and technology executive DAVID RICHARDS MBE.
Known for:
- Chairman, President & CEO - WANDisco
- Trustee - The David & Jane Richards Family Foundation
- Founder - EyUp
- Co-Founder - LaptopsForKids
- Non-Executive Director - TechNation
- Former Vice President - Netmanage, Inc
- Former Chairman & CEO - Librados, Inc
- Former CEO - Insevo
The Big 5 Questions:
- How do you measure the impact of what you do?
- How should people/businesses be preparing for the future?
- How do we build the workforce we need for that future?
- How do you use creativity to solve problems?
- How do you collaborate?
Key quotes:
“He’s probably a genius. As a summer intern at IBM they filed three patents based on his work, as an intern. That doesn’t happen every day.”
“We have probably the only usable implementation of Paxos in the world.”
"What we’d actually built a product using massive scale data and actually everybody said how come your revenues aren’t through the roof? And it was because the data sets weren’t there yet. Then along came 5G.”
“I was at a conference where Jaguar LandRover said that their passion and focus was their products and customers, but their monetisation was data.”
“The competition is going to be the power of your algorithms and the data sets that you have, which is why Tesla have been so successful. Our technology now is being used to move these colossal data sets, some as large as an exabyte, growing at fifty percent per year. So our technology turns out to be very important with the advent of 5G and we’re sat in a very good place right now.”
“The beautiful thing with our business is we’re licensing intellectual property, we’re not selling services or shipping goods. When it hits, scaling a business like ours isn’t actually complicated. It’s like that old Mousetrap game, you build it, and then you watch the ball go around. Structurally our operating margins, even on ten times current sales and revenue, the incremental cost increase would be small.”
“Social impact is critical for this business. We will not do deals with social media companies and gambling companies because they can’t be trusted.”
“My personal viewpoint is that the regulation on the gambling industry in the UK is just an absolute travesty. Why do we let these guys get away with it? And now when they’re using data science techniques they can figure out the level at which they can maximise their revenue from an individual. In the same way, the tricks that Facebook have played on us in the past are not good for society.”
"We sourced 15,000 laptops in less than six months and that had a huge positive impact on the business because the local economy and people in our locale can trust us.”
“We have to find a way as a nation to provide free, safe and secure Internet for those who need it the most. It’s not just giving them free Internet, it’s empowering the community. But the most critical thing then is that you measure the impact — independently — and publish the research. Then you can go to government and say ‘you should nationalise OpenReach because the socio-economic impact is going to be this.’ You can solve digital poverty very quickly if you adopt this strategy.”
“I’m just appalled at the UK’s education system, I have to be honest. It was designed by Victorians and the class system was very important. I think it’s indicative of a huge weakness in our economy and society.”
“The dirty little secret we have in this country, is we can’t hire fresh graduates and put them straight into our company. We have a shortage of hundreds of thousands of software engineers in the UK. But the good news is the solution is incredibly simple.”
“Philosophy is a brilliant lead-up to computing. You can do philosophy and then go on to do something else. You can have a brilliant education but you need to do the bit at the end where you train someone with the skills for a job.”
“Every one of our offices has on the wall the Einstein quote, ‘imagination is more important than knowledge, for knowledge is limited whereas imagination embraces the entire world.’”
Useful links:
- David Richards MBE on LinkedIn
- Derwent Edge (via Wikipedia)
- WANdisco PLC
- WANdisco (via Wikipedia)
- Dr Yeturu Aahlad (profile via Crunchbase)
- Sun Microsystems (via Wikipedia)
- Paxos (via Wikipedia)
- Leslie Lamport (via Wikipedia)
- Tesla
- Geoffrey A. Moore — Crossing The Chasm (via hive.co.uk)
- Geoffrey A. Moore — Inside The Tornado (via hive.co.uk)
- Dr Charlotte Rae’s 5 Big Questions interview
- Dryden Estate, Southey Green in Sheffield cheap broadband pilot (via Sheffield The Star)
- David and Jane Richards Family Foundation
- Eyup Coding Academy
- Sheffield Hallam University
- AMRC
This episode was recorded in November 2022
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
Will English wine ever be taken seriously around the world?
How can traditional wine making be a 21st century force for good?
What is the key to grow from 'cottage industry' to major brand?
In this week's 5 Big Questions interview we talk to the multi award-winning CEO of Ridgeview Wine Estate, TAMARA ROBERTS.
Known for:
- CEO - Ridgeview
- President - International Wine & Spirit Competition 2020
- Sussex Businessperson of the Year 2019
- Sussex Business Woman of the Year 2017
The Big 5 Questions:
- How do you measure the impact of what you do?
- How should people/businesses be preparing for the future?
- How do we build the workforce we need for that future?
- How do you use creativity to solve problems?
- How do you collaborate?
Key quotes:
“The intention was always to do traditional method sparkling from the beginning, from day one, and also to elevate the position of English wine, from farmers’ markets where it was found mainly back in the nineties to the top end retailers and restaurants, which is where you’ll find quite a lot of English wines these days, particularly the sparkling wines.”
“When I talk about quality, it isn’t just quality of the end product, it’s of the entire process. All I’ve done is taken those values that were brought to the business by our parents and found ways in which to embed those into the business, and to free people or enable people to make decisions based on those values. People are empowered, provided they have a framework.”
“We’ve had to build confidence with lots and lots of stakeholders.”
“It switched quite dramatically in recent years from being very ‘cottage industry’, bumbling along, until actually now we’re being asked to sit on strategic boards for tourism because they’ve realised how important wine tourism is becoming for the region.”
“We are from a place. We grow our grapes here, so we’re very rooted where we are.”
“I don’t envy any business leader, it’s incredibly difficult at the moment to prioritise, there are so many competing demands and expectations. When the pandemic came along for me it was a really good time to think. I’m going to value that.”
"We are working on successions now. We have kids and lovely if they come in, but the gap between us and them is too big to bridge at this stage — and too stifling for them to be told, this is your destiny!”
“Your innovation seems to take a long time, sometimes.”
Useful links:
- Ridgeview
- Tamara Roberts on LinkedIn
- Ridgeview CEO Tamara Roberts wins Sussex Business Woman Of The Year
- Tamara Roberts profile on The English Wine Collection
- Decanter World Wine Awards
- Visit Ditchling
- Denbies wine estate
- Tinwood wine estate
- B Corp certification
- Viticulture BSc at Plumpton College
This episode was recorded in October 2022
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
What is the psychology of a brand’s colours?
What is the secret of consultancy?
What is your Ikigai, and how do you know?
In this week's 5 Big Questions interview we talk to brand consultant, copywriter and creative director, BILL WALLSGROVE.
Instagram — @bill_chig
Known for:
- Independent Brand Consultant
- Brand Consultant & BRITE Xpert - Plus X Innovation Hubs
- Brand Specialist - Poet
- Director - Brandad UK
- Brand Director - Neujuice
- Creative Mentor & Brand Consultant - Studio BLUP
- Former Director - BrandVoice Marketing Group
- Former Vice President - European Brand & Packaging Design Association
The Big 5 Questions:
- How do you measure the impact of what you do?
- How should people/businesses be preparing for the future?
- How do we build the workforce we need for that future?
- How do you use creativity to solve problems?
- How do you collaborate?
Key quotes:
“I speak to very mature companies who still think branding is a logo. Jeff Bezos said a brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.”
“The whole thing about colours is that they are an instinctive thing and we forget that as humans we are the most successful animals but as animals we have an instinctive reaction to colours, for danger, for poison, for desirability.”
“More and more, particularly with young companies that I’m working with now, they all want to give something back, they want to do things which are sustainable, inclusive, not using cheap labour, being ethical, all these things are becoming more and more important to the next generation of consumers and I think the next generation of businesses.”
“I hate to see big businesses doing the greenwashing that they do. I’m not going to name names but there are lots of companies out there who claim they’re digging wells in Africa, when they’re dumping plastic bottles in the sea at a rate of knots!”
“Sometimes when people start going on a brand journey, they try to do everything all at once.”
“You’ve got to encourage people with experience to go back and tell apprentices, students, graduates about the commercial realities and contexts. It’s changing all the time.”
“Part of what I do is the helicopter view: I can fly overhead and see a bit more because I’m not immersed in it. I joke that sometimes a consultant’s role is to steal a watch and tell you the time. There’s truth in that joke because usually the answer lies in your clients, it’s just you help them get there.”
“Design doesn’t mean creativity, design means problem solving.”
“You can’t predict the future. But you can gamble.”
Useful links:
- Bill Wallsgrove LinkedIn Profile
- Bill Wallsgrove at Neujuice
- Tesco wine tasting notes — in The Grocer (from 2014)
- Martin Kihn — House Of Lies: How Management Consultants Steal Your Watch and Then Tell You The Time (via GoodReads)
- ‘Ikigai’ (Japanese philosophy of a motivating force, via Wikipedia)
- Plus X Innovation Hub, Brighton
- John Alexander - Citizens
This episode was recorded in October 2022
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
Why are Gen Z so valuable to solving current problems?
What is wrong with so many social mobility initiatives?
How do you collaborate when you’re an introvert?
In this week's 5 Big Questions interview we talk to playwright, novelist and broadcaster, BONNIE GREER OBE FRSL
Known for:
- Vice-President - The Shaw Society
- Former Deputy Chair - British Museum
- Former Trustee - Royal Opera House
- Former Trustee - London Film School
- Former Chancellor - Kingston University
- Author - Langston Hughes: The Value of Contradiction
- Author - Obama Music
- Librettist - Yes
- Author - Hanging By Her Teeth
The Big 5 Questions:
- How do you measure the impact of what you do?
- How should people/businesses be preparing for the future?
- How do we build the workforce we need for that future?
- How do you use creativity to solve problems?
- How do you collaborate?
Key quotes:
“I like people, even though I’m actually quite shy. I don’t go out in public. I stopped going to dinner parties because I couldn’t stand the small talk. I don’t really go anywhere.”
“I don’t know my phone number, on purpose.”
“I’m really excited about Gen Z and all those generations afterwards, who are going to be making new consciousness for us, so that’s who I want to talk to and who I want to try to dialogue with.”
“The metaverse is a complex conglomeration of different IT systems that create another reality.”
“We have to get rid of elitist education, we can’t keep doing that. You know, Stormzy talking about sending kids to Oxford, that makes me vomit! What is he doing? Why doesn’t he build some schools? I mean, Oxford isn’t a great place for a black kid to go to, is he crazy? Well, he’s a capitalist, it’s a commodity thing.”
“If we make education as long as it is, it should really be of use, not only academic, for intellect but also the community. Kids should be sent out to just stack shelves. I don’t care what kind of degree you’re getting, encounter ordinary people in the aisles at Tesco.”
“We’ve got, in the Conservative Party, a cohort of people in their forties who’ve had no encounter with human beings. And it’s a bad, bad thing.”
“We’re going to have to get off this planet, just to let people breathe. These are questions your children are going to grapple with.”
"The last pay-check I ever had was when they found John Belushi dead at the Marmont hotel.”
“We need each other in order to expand our brain, so I’m always up for working with other people.”
“We’re in an era where people are open about their trauma. We carry institutional trauma, we carry inter-generational trauma, I think we’re trying to reclaim, not the trauma but our sense of survival and transcendence.”
“We are a survivor species and we’ve survived because we co-operated with each-other. And the other way we survived is that the women moved out. We moved around quite a bit.”
Useful links:
- Bonnie Greer OBE FRSL (Wikipedia)
- Bonnie Greer writer profile in The Guardian
- Cuban Missile Crisis (Wikipedia)
- Premiership of Liz Truss (Wikipedia)
- Metaverse (Wikipedia)
- Bonnie Greer takes on Nick Griffin (BNP) on BBC Question Time (via YouTube)
- Jean-François Champollion, lexicographer (Wikipedia)
- Stormzy Scholarships (BBC News)
- John Belushi death (Wikipedia)
- British Museum — Bonnie Greer: The Era Of Reclamation
- The Little Boy and the Robot: A Tale of Our Time - Bonnie Greer TEDx talk (YouTube)
This episode was recorded in October 2022
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
Why are Gen Z so valuable to solving current problems?
What is wrong with so many social mobility initiatives?
How do you collaborate when you’re an introvert?
In this week's 5 Big Questions interview we talk to playwright, novelist and broadcaster, BONNIE GREER OBE FRSL
Known for:
- Vice-President - The Shaw Society
- Former Deputy Chair - British Museum
- Former Trustee - Royal Opera House
- Former Trustee - London Film School
- Former Chancellor - Kingston University
- Author - Langston Hughes: The Value of Contradiction
- Author - Obama Music
- Librettist - Yes
- Author - Hanging By Her Teeth
The Big 5 Questions:
- How do you measure the impact of what you do?
- How should people/businesses be preparing for the future?
- How do we build the workforce we need for that future?
- How do you use creativity to solve problems?
- How do you collaborate?
Key quotes:
“I like people, even though I’m actually quite shy. I don’t go out in public. I stopped going to dinner parties because I couldn’t stand the small talk. I don’t really go anywhere.”
“I don’t know my phone number, on purpose.”
“I’m really excited about Gen Z and all those generations afterwards, who are going to be making new consciousness for us, so that’s who I want to talk to and who I want to try to dialogue with.”
“The metaverse is a complex conglomeration of different IT systems that create another reality.”
“We have to get rid of elitist education, we can’t keep doing that. You know, Stormzy talking about sending kids to Oxford, that makes me vomit! What is he doing? Why doesn’t he build some schools? I mean, Oxford isn’t a great place for a black kid to go to, is he crazy? Well, he’s a capitalist, it’s a commodity thing.”
“If we make education as long as it is, it should really be of use, not only academic, for intellect but also the community. Kids should be sent out to just stack shelves. I don’t care what kind of degree you’re getting, encounter ordinary people in the aisles at Tesco.”
“We’ve got, in the Conservative Party, a cohort of people in their forties who’ve had no encounter with human beings. And it’s a bad, bad thing.”
“We’re going to have to get off this planet, just to let people breathe. These are questions your children are going to grapple with.”
"The last pay-check I ever had was when they found John Belushi dead at the Marmont hotel.”
“We need each other in order to expand our brain, so I’m always up for working with other people.”
“We’re in an era where people are open about their trauma. We carry institutional trauma, we carry inter-generational trauma, I think we’re trying to reclaim, not the trauma but our sense of survival and transcendence.”
“We are a survivor species and we’ve survived because we co-operated with each-other. And the other way we survived is that the women moved out. We moved around quite a bit.”
Useful links:
- Bonnie Greer OBE FRSL (Wikipedia)
- Bonnie Greer writer profile in The Guardian
- Cuban Missile Crisis (Wikipedia)
- Premiership of Liz Truss (Wikipedia)
- Metaverse (Wikipedia)
- Bonnie Greer takes on Nick Griffin (BNP) on BBC Question Time (via YouTube)
- Jean-François Champollion, lexicographer (Wikipedia)
- Stormzy Scholarships (BBC News)
- John Belushi death (Wikipedia)
- British Museum — Bonnie Greer: The Era Of Reclamation
- The Little Boy and the Robot: A Tale of Our Time - Bonnie Greer TEDx talk (YouTube)
This episode was recorded in October 2022
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
How do we accept that change takes time?
Can small systems changes have any impact?
What does mass digitisation mean for society?
In this week's 5 Big Questions interview we talk to author, strategist and social entrepreneur NEIL GIBB.
Known for:
- Author - The Participation Revolution
- Founder - The South Lanes Project
- Founder - 21st Century Leadership Project
The Big 5 Questions:
- How do you measure the impact of what you do?
- How should people/businesses be preparing for the future?
- How do we build the workforce we need for that future?
- How do you use creativity to solve problems?
- How do you collaborate?
Key quotes:
“The problem with words is, they’ve all been in someone else’s mouth.” — Dennis Potter.
“A lot of people have become disillusioned with the consequences of technology. It’s difficult to remember that once upon a time Google’s slogan was ‘do no evil’ and everyone thought they were wonderful and now it’s like, oh my god are they the new Big Brother? That’s the challenge.”
“Sometimes we feel like we have to be almost like Jesus Christ to make a difference, whereas actually if everybody mobilised and did something small and impactful where they are, that would have a huge roll up. You feel empowered.”
“Organisations deep down are there to deliver on their business model. So it’s always a productivity conversation.”
“A lot of people are dealing with important but secondary issues, when they’re looking at engagement, around employee wellbeing, things like meditation, all stuff like that, really important things, but they are secondary. Engagement really is about how you engage people in the business of the business.”
"What digital technology has done is connect everyone up, and what it’s also done is create a distance between people.”
“One of my concerns about the word ‘culture’ is how it’s been co-opted by the high arts. In Bradford a lot of the culture is about rugby league and South Asian cuisine, it isn’t about theatre.”
“The root of the word ‘home’ isn’t ‘house’, it’s ‘village’. It was in the old English word ‘ham’, and when there wasn’t a big society, the village was the place you felt safe. We need to have communities that we feel held in. And that’s at odds with individualism.”
Useful links:
- Neil Gibb on LinkedIn
- Neil Gibb - The Participation Revolution (Hive link) / (Amazon link)
- Neil Gibb bio at Shape-Education
- Neil Gibb at publisher Eye Books
- Dennis Potter (Wikipedia)
- Bradford City Of Culture 2025
- Carlos Tevez (Wikipedia)
- Dan Pink
- The Beatles: Get Back (Wikipedia) / (Disney+)
- Sapiens International Corporation (Wikipedia)
- Agile At Scale (via Harvard Business Review)
- Fillets Fish and Chips
This episode was recorded in September 2022
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
Can the internet ever be safe for children?
What is the impact of digital exclusion on the UK economy?
Why is our digital life usually demanding more and more from us?
In this week’s 5 Big Questions interview we talk to digital inclusion and online safeguarding expert AMY O'DONNELL.
Known for:
- Senior Programme Manager (Social Impact) - Nominet
- Project Leader - Digital Youth Index
- Co-district Commissioner (Oxford) - Girlguiding
- Former Digital Programme Manager - Oxfam
The Big 5 Questions:
- How do you measure the impact of what you do?
- How should people/businesses be preparing for the future?
- How do we build the workforce we need for that future?
- How do you use creativity to solve problems?
- How do you collaborate?
Key quotes:
"We can’t underestimate the learning that we need to do as a sector around power, around bias.”
“The only thing that we can do is have a quest for knowledge. Setting out with a mindset not to put ‘impact’ on this big pedestal, but rather the slower, more agile, pieces of the puzzle.”
“Over half of young people are teaching themselves digital skills.”
“We have to go beyond the idea of counting numbers, really think about feedback, qualitative insight into our learning, helping us see the world through a different lens, from a different perspective.”
“Organisations will only ever be as relevant as their ability to relate to individuals in their audiences. Putting people first, in human-centred design processes and in true processes of diversity.”
“The attention that digital platforms are demanding of us daily is having a huge impact on our mental health and the mental health of young people.”
“We know that 870,000 technology and digital jobs are open at the moment in the UK economy. This is presenting a huge risk to the digital economy because there are jobs not being done, but also wouldn’t it be cool if we made a strategy that made for a really diverse workforce, which allowed us to plug that gap with people with a diverse range of lived experience that could create those solutions for the future.”
Useful links:
// Amy O’Donnell (LinkedIn) // https://www.linkedin.com/in/amy-o-donnell-17751518/?originalSubdomain=uk
// Twitter // @amy_odonnell
// Nominet UK // https://www.nominet.uk/
// Girl Guiding UK // https://www.girlguiding.org.uk/
// Online Safety Bill UK // https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3137
Online Safety Bill government fact sheet
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/online-safety-bill-supporting-documents/online-safety-bill-factsheet
// Tony’s Chocolonely social impact reports // https://tonyschocolonely.com/us/en/annual-fair-reports/
// Good Things Foundation https://www.goodthingsfoundation.org/
// Nominet and Barnardos ‘Project Backpack // https://www.nominet.uk/barnardos-to-help-professionals-keep-children-safe-online-in-new-programme-funded-by-nominet/
// Nominet’s Digital Youth Index // https://digitalyouthindex.uk/
// The Scouts’ Digital Citizenship Badge // https://www.scouts.org.uk/staged-badges/digital-citizen/
// Microbit // https://microbit.org/
This episode was recorded in July 2022
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
What happens when tech innovation meets education?
What can the military teach us about social mobility?
What is the real legacy of the Olympic Park in Stratford?
In this week’s 5 Big Questions interview we talk to former RAF Commander, government social policy adviser and innovation space creator, GAVIN POOLE
Known for:
- CEO - Here East
- Non-Executive Director - Plexal
- Former Trustee - Scope
- Former Trustee - The Legacy List
- Former Executive Director - The Centre For Social Justice
- Former Private Secretary - Ministry of Defence (UK)
- Former Commanding Officer - Royal Air Force
The Big 5 Questions:
- How do you measure the impact of what you do?
- How should people/businesses be preparing for the future?
- How do we build the workforce we need for that future?
- How do you use creativity to solve problems?
- How do you collaborate?
Key quotes:
“Before you know it, our little piece of policy work suddenly became the Modern Day Slavery Act. We did that, that makes huge change.”
On Here East:
“We can be a social change agent, using the power of commercial real estate to change people’s lives.”
“This is a vehicle for social change. A vehicle where we could probably test some of the policy ideas we’ve been working on for the last four-and-a-half years at the CSJ and roll them out into a wider local community around Olympic Park.”
“We’re always looking five years out. That necessitated us to be quite lean from the get-go. In December 2014, whilst we were building these huge buildings on Olympic Park, there were three of us and that was it. But we needed, in 2015, to stand up the organisation because we were going to operationalise part of Here East. So that year we went from three to just under 40. Keep things lean!”
“How were we hedging energy in advance of the Ukraine crisis kicking off? It’s probably a bi-product of my military background. You know it’s the old adage of great plans don’t survive first contact with the enemy. When you join the military they spend over a year just training you on leadership.”
Useful links:
// Twitter — @GavinJPoole
// Instagram — @GavinJPoole
// LinkedIn — Gavin Poole, CEO Here East // https://www.linkedin.com/in/gavinpoole/?originalSubdomain=uk
// Here East // https://hereeast.com/
// Gavin Poole profile on Centre For London // https://www.centreforlondon.org/person/gavin-poole/
// Gavin Poole profile on New London Architecture // https://nla.london/contributors/gavin-poole
// Royal Air Force apprenticeships // https://recruitment.raf.mod.uk/apprenticeships?gclid=Cj0KCQjwhY-aBhCUARIsALNIC05R6e5a5dYr8ITEOsL8SgwQvl_n3YBS30PUVp1TnsJqipNX7VqlJnwaAgX0EALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds
// Centre For Social Justice // https://www.centreforsocialjustice.org.uk/
// Iain Duncan Smith (Wiki) // https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iain_Duncan_Smith
// Philippa Stroud (Wiki) // https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippa_Stroud,_Baroness_Stroud
// Centre For Social Justice — Modern Slavery // https://www.centreforsocialjustice.org.uk/about/the-five-pathways/modern-slavery
// Modern Slavery Act 2015 (Wiki) // https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_Slavery_Act_2015
// Modern Slavery at the University of Sussex // https://blogs.sussex.ac.uk/global/2019/03/11/examining-the-relevance-of-the-modern-slavery-and-human-trafficking-discourse/
// Oxford Economics // https://www.oxfordeconomics.com/
// Loughborough University // https://www.lboro.ac.uk/
// Gartner [curve] Hype Cycle (Wiki) // https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner_hype_cycle
// UCL // https://www.ucl.ac.uk/
// Bartlett School of Architecture // https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/architecture/bartlett-school-architecture
// LMA // https://lma.ac.uk/
// Ken Robinson // https://www.sirkenrobinson.com/
This episode was recorded in August 2022
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
We're taking a summer break to recharge, retune and record some more extraordinary interviews.
Thank you so much for listening so far! Do revisit some of the episodes since January (or further back, with the After Corona? series which has proved to be a fascinating record of a terrible period).
We'll be back at some point in the autumn with a new bunch of 5 Big Question conversations.
Richard, Chris, Uschi and The Possibility Club team
We're taking a summer break to recharge, retune and record some more extraordinary interviews.
Thank you so much for listening so far! Do revisit some of the episodes since January (or further back, with the After Corona? series which has proved to be a fascinating record of a terrible period).
We'll be back at some point in the autumn with a new bunch of 5 Big Question conversations.
Richard, Chris, Uschi and The Possibility Club team
Is quitting on principle the right thing to do?
Is the UK education system fit for purpose?
How fast is change?
In this week’s 5 Big Questions interview we talk to entrepreneur, innovator and equality campaigner MIKE ADAMS OBE
Known for:
- CEO - We Are Purple
- Executive Director - CareTech
- Former CEO - Essex Coalition of Disabled People
- Former Non-Executive Director - Mid Essex Hospitals NHS Trust
- Former Director of Delivery, Learning and Leadership - Disability Rights Commission
The Big 5 Questions:
- How do you measure the impact of what you do?
- How should people/businesses be preparing for the future?
- How do we build the workforce we need for that future?
- How do you use creativity to solve problems?
- How do you collaborate?
Key quotes:
“It’s been an interesting journey for me because from day dot, I was born with a disability, I have been defined as ‘vulnerable’ and I have raged against the machine about being labelled this ‘vulnerable’ individual because I happened to have a disability. Then as you go on your Chief Executive, leadership journey, they start telling you that the more vulnerable you are, as a leader, the more impact you can have. The irony has not been lost on me!”
“The ‘purple pound’, the consumer spending power of disabled people and their families equates to £274billion per year and it’s rising at 14% per annum.”
“We buck convention. How do you make an issue inclusive? How do you make an issue relevant to non-disabled people, so they become part of the journey and transform the lives of disabled people? The way that we did it was to focus on the economics.”
“If there is a legacy of Covid it will be the greater influence of social impact on investors, businesses, customers and staff. I think we’re starting to see it talked about much more than just a tokenistic tick-box.”
“In this decade, organisations that get disability, inclusion, diversity, will absolutely thrive. Those that don’t will struggle to survive and I really believe that.”
“What kind of society, neighbourhoods, workplaces, do we really want in the end? If you look at it in terms of what you’re trying to shift, change and create in the end, it helps you to think through a much longer-term thought process on what the right skills would be and knowledge would be.”
"I would say to all your listeners: go on your work website, unplug your mouse, and see how well you can navigate. It’s a really good barometer about how accessible you are.”
"I would say to all your listeners: go on your work website, unplug your mouse, and see how well you can navigate. It’s a really good barometer about how accessible you are.”
“Digital development has exploded a lot of the myths around the ‘built environment’ and lifts and ramps and all of those kind of things. It’s strange: organisations are being pushed and forced into places that will benefit them enormously.”
Useful links:
Follow Mike Adams on LinkedIn for his hugely popular regular posts // linkedin.com/in/mike-adams-purple/?originalSubdomain=uk
CareTech Foundation trustees page // caretechfoundation.org.uk/trustees/mike-adams-obe/
Purple // wearepurple.org.uk/
Purple on Twitter — @wearepurpleorg
Purple — Mike Adams on the About Us pag // wearepurple.org.uk/about-us/meet-the-team/mike-adams-obe/
The Body Shop — Wikipedia entry // en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Body_Shop
Purple Tuesday (next one: 1st November, 2022) // purpletuesday.co/
Purple Tuesday on Twitter - @purpletuesdaynov
Purple Tuesday business advice via VisitBritain // visitbritain.org/business-advice/purple-tuesday
Enable All — inclusive e-commerce // enableall.com/
This episode was recorded in June 2022
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
Is quitting on principle the right thing to do?
Is the UK education system fit for purpose?
How fast is change?
In this week’s 5 Big Questions interview we talk to social entrepreneur, trainer and former head teacher KIT MESSENGER
Known for:
- Co-director - Changing Chances
- Former Headteacher - Manor Field Primary School
- Teaching Fellow - University of Sussex (UK)
The Big 5 Questions:
- How do you measure the impact of what you do?
- How should people/businesses be preparing for the future?
- How do we build the workforce we need for that future?
- How do you use creativity to solve problems?
- How do you collaborate?
Key quotes:
“A person can shift their thinking and then they can shift in terms of their skills and behaviour. Then they can start operating differently with a child, speaking to them differently, supporting them differently. But the impact for the child won’t be straight away, because they’ve got to embed. Neural pathways take time to build and strengthen.”
“Some people can work outside their principles for a long time and seem to survive, and some people can’t.”
“I had this naive belief that it could create this momentum and things might change.”
“When they know that you’re doing something because you really, truly love it and you’ve got their children’s best interests truly at heart, you get a different value system going through a community, going through an organisation.”
“What kind of society, neighbourhoods, workplaces, do we really want in the end? If you look at it in terms of what you’re trying to shift, change and create in the end, it helps you to think through a much longer-term thought process on what the right skills would be and knowledge would be.”
Useful links:
Kit Messenger LinkedIn // https://www.linkedin.com/in/kit-messenger-186a8579/?originalSubdomain=uk
Changing Chances // https://www.changingchances.co.uk/
‘Headteacher quits…’ — Evening Standard // https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/headteacher-quits-amid-claims-schools-are-factory-farming-children-in-heartfelt-letter-a3229066.html
‘Kit Messenger Quits Manor Field Primary’ — Brighton Argus // https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/14438811.kit-messenger-quits-manor-field-primary-school-over-academy-plans/
Kit Messenger profile in The Mirror // https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/headteacher-who-resigned-over-academy-7913854
This episode was recorded in May 2022
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
What are the best questions to ask, and when?
How can we be more curious?
And why should we still heed advice from Socrates?
In this week’s 5 Big Questions interview we talk to data-storyteller, experimental psychologist and marketing man DR SAM KNOWLES
Twitter: @SamKnowles
Known for:
- Founder/Director - Insight Agents
- Host - Small Data Forum podcast
- Former Group Director (Strategic Planning) - WCG Europe
- Former UK Managing Director - Echo Research
- Author - Narrative By Numbers
- Author - How To Be Insightful
- Author - Asking Smarter Questions
The Big 5 Questions:
- How do you measure the impact of what you do?
- How should people/businesses be preparing for the future?
- How do we build the workforce we need for that future?
- How do you use creativity to solve problems?
- How do you collaborate?
Key quotes:
“We are rewarded by answering. We live in an analytical culture and we are rewarded by providing answers — and I wanted to subvert that.”
“I’ve stopped, by the way, this is the last book. Four is a list and two isn’t enough but three is ‘friends, Romans’, countrymen’, the power of three.”
“Asking questions, start from a position that Socrates took: ‘all that I know is that I know nothing’. You start from a position of ignorance and you park your assumptions and your biases and prejudices at the door.”
“The most satisfying projects tend to be those that have the most chance of having impact.”
"If you can tell people convincingly in an evidence-based way, the impact that you have had, then you’ll get more money!”
“By the time they are five, children have asked something like 40,000 ‘why’ type questions and then progressively school and the world of work, and university, will beat that out of them and will say ‘we need answers, give us answers!’”
"There are some organisations — commercial and non-commercial — that are getting better at harnessing and socialising the institutional memory.”
“I’m not a failure fetishist.”
"Actively rewarding questioning is important. It’s about curiosity for all time, rather than just curiosity for the thing we’re working on today.”
“Be more foxy and less hedgehog-y”
“To move from ‘so what’ to ‘now what’ you need to ‘fill the hopper’ — between all of our ears, the world’s most brilliant bottom-up, top-down supercomputer exists, but the engine does need fuel.”
Useful links:
Insight Agents — meet the agents page // insightagents.co.uk/meet-the-agents/
Sam Knowles — Narrative By Numbers (Amazon link) // amazon.co.uk/Narrative-Numbers-Sam-Knowles/dp/0815353146/ref=sr_1_1?crid=DRW1OAQWB95C&keywords=Sam+Knowles&qid=1657752300&sprefix=sam+knowles%2Caps%2C63&sr=8-1
Sam Knowles — How To Be Insightful (Amazon link) // amazon.co.uk/How-Insightful-Unlocking-Superpower-Innovation/dp/0367261707/ref=sr_1_4?crid=DRW1OAQWB95C&keywords=Sam+Knowles&qid=1657752402&sprefix=sam+knowles%2Caps%2C63&sr=8-4
Sam Knowles — Asking Smarter Questions (Amazon link) // amazon.co.uk/Asking-Smarter-Questions-Insight-Better/dp/1032111151/ref=sr_1_2?crid=DRW1OAQWB95C&keywords=Sam+Knowles&qid=1657752402&sprefix=sam+knowles%2Caps%2C63&sr=8-2
Socrates — Wikipedia // wikipedia.org/wiki/Socrates
Financial Times / McKinsey’s Business Book of the Year Awards // mckinsey.com/about-us/new-at-mckinsey-blog/2021-business-book-of-the-year-award
Dan Pink — To Sell Is Human (Amazon link) // amazon.co.uk/Sell-Human-Surprising-Persuading-Influencing/dp/B00BCMHG5W/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=dan+pink+to+sell+is+human&qid=1657752976&sprefix=Dan+Pink+to+sell%2Caps%2C68&sr=8-1
‘Doughnut’ economic model // wikipedia.org/wiki/Doughnut_(economic_model)
Ben & Jerry’s Flavor Graveyard // benjerry.com/flavors/flavor-graveyard
Isaiah Berlin’s ‘The Hedgehog And The Fox’ essay, written in response to Tolstoy’s View of History (Wikipedia) // wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hedgehog_and_the_Fox
and the full Berlin essay free-to-read online — // blogs.hss.ed.ac.uk/crag/files/2016/06/the_hedgehog_and_the_fox-berlin.pdf
Simon Baron-Cohen (Wikipedia) // en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Baron-Cohen
This episode was recorded in May 2022
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
Do charities ever truly know what impact they have?
How does a human-centred support service adapt to the digital age?
What underpins good leadership, in the charity sector?
In this week’s 5 Big Questions interview we talk to long-standing charity chief, community-builder and moderniser ANGELA MCCONVILLE
Twitter: @angelamcconvill | @NCTcharity
Known for:
- CEO - National Childbirth Trust (NCT)
- Former Trustee - London Transport Museum
- Former CEO - Old Naval College, Greenwich
- Former CEO - Westway Trust
- Former CEO - Vital Regeneration
- Former Director - The London Apprenticeship Company
The Big 5 Questions:
- How do you measure the impact of what you do?
- How should people/businesses be preparing for the future?
- How do we build the workforce we need for that future?
- How do you use creativity to solve problems?
- How do you collaborate?
Key quotes:
“I’ve tended to lead organisations that don’t pursue more traditional fundraising routes but actually trade in socially motivated businesses.”
“The search for impact is the Holy Grail for charity leaders. It ought to be at our fingertips but it’s an elusive thing.”
“The role of digital and digital services for parents is extremely motivating for us. The challenge of digital is both exciting and you have to have a curious skepticism about the limits of it. But parents have engaged with digital services in all sorts of ways throughout the pandemic and I think that’s demonstrated to us what some of the potential is.”
“I’m building a community at NCT which is about high levels of trust and autonomy. Lots of forming and re-forming of teams in response to initiatives or challenges, pop-up teams around specific opportunities. And that’s worked really well and the feedback that I get is we’ve moved away from traditional siloes towards point-to-point contact.”
Useful links:
Angela McConville via LinkedIn // linkedin.com/in/angelamcconville/?originalSubdomain=uk
NCT (National Childbirth Trust) // nct.org.uk/
NCT appoints Angela McConville as Chief Executive // nct.org.uk/about-us/media/news/nct-appoints-angela-mcconville-chief-executive
NHS X incubator lab (now integrated into the Transformation Directorate at NHS England) // nhsx.nhs.uk/
NCT Walk & Talk groups // nct.org.uk/about-us/media/news/ncts-new-walk-and-talk-groups-are-boosting-parents-wellbeing
ACEVO // www.acevo.org.uk/
This episode was recorded in May 2022
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
What makes a good CEO?
Can a food company be the voice of its end users?
How do you measure the ripple effect that you effect in your work?
In this week’s 5 Big Questions interview we talk to business leader and social entrepreneur MARK CUDDIGAN
Twitter: @CuddiganMark
Known for:
- CEO - Ella's Kitchen
- Head of Sustainability & Marketing - Hain Celestial Europe
- Trustee - B Lab
- Non-Executive Director - Three Point Zero
The Big 5 Questions:
- How do you measure the impact of what you do?
- How should people/businesses be preparing for the future?
- How do we build the workforce we need for that future?
- How do you use creativity to solve problems?
- How do you collaborate?
Key quotes:
“There are occasions in your life, if you’re lucky, when you meet someone who changes your viewpoint on life, or business, forever. I met Paul Lindley who set up Ella’s Kitchen sixteen years ago and he was one of those people.”
“My phone cover is an Ella’s Kitchen phone cover and I’m on the tube and often people stop me and say, where did you get that phone cover, can I have one of those? And then we’ll get talking about Ella’s Kitchen and they genuinely come alive. We are able to connect with parents on a really deep level. Because of that, I would say we have a responsibility to lead the company in such a way that other companies will follow us.”
“I’ve never met a CEO that hasn’t claimed they’re saving the world, yet the world isn’t being saved. So we all believe we work in these amazing companies. My question to CEOs when I meet them is: prove it.”
“I’m gonna use a corny quote from Spiderman: with great power comes great responsibility.”
“In two years’ time over half of all of our partners will be B Corporations. It’s a bit like a Ponzi scheme, but the only two things that benefit are the people and the environment.”
“A CEO’s role is now not simply to the company that they are running. Their responsibilities go much, much wider. If you take Net Zero. There’s no point us achieving Net Zero, which we’ve committed to do by 2030, if no-one else does. Everyone needs to do it. Those that say they’re doing this already, my challenge to them is, how are you bringing other people along with it?”
“In any of the supermarkets now, you could pretty much just shop B Corps now, if you wanted to.”
“Leaders need to get onboard. So you don’t want to certify as a B Corp you could support the Better Business Act. That’s free, it’ll take you two seconds to sign up, we’re trying to change a section of the Companies Act.”
“We want to be the voice of the under-fives. That is our aim because we feel we have that responsibility.”
Useful links:
Profile on Mark at Greenhouse // greenhouse.agency/blog/beyond-net-zero-hero-mark-cuddigan-ceo-of-ellas-kitchen/
Paul Lindley (Wikipedia biography) // wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Lindley
Ella’s Kitchen // ellaskitchen.co.uk/
Ella’s Kitchen (Wikipedia) // wikipedia.org/wiki/Ella%27s_Kitchen
B Corporation certification (Wikipedia) // wikipedia.org/wiki/B_Corporation_(certification)
B-Corp (UK) // bcorporation.uk/?gclid=CjwKCAjwk_WVBhBZEiwAUHQCme7QGKrM5eDDSb7P9iYlIyirRcGz2gIQUcP0snZubCdQoPawermegRoCWpYQAvD_BwE
The Better Business Act // betterbusinessact.org/act-now/
Sir Ken Robinson TED talk on creativity in education (via YouTube) // youtu.be/iG9CE55wbtY
Mark on Change Makers podcast // changemakers.works/podcasts/we-all-have-an-impact-on-the-planet-our-question-is-what-we-are-going-to-do-about-it-ellas-kitchen-ceo-mark-cuddigan-on-putting-people-the-planet-and-profit-on-an-equal-footing/
Flexible Packaging Consortium (via Circular magazine) // circularonline.co.uk/news/leading-uk-brands-partner-to-tackle-flexible-packaging-recycling/
Flexible Packaging Consortium (via Food And Drink Technology magazine) // foodanddrinktechnology.com/news/37215/leading-household-brands-join-forces-to-tackle-flexible-packaging-recycling-in-the-uk/
This episode was recorded in June 2022
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
Why will intentionality change the world?
How do we challenge word of mouth book recommendations?
And what is the difference between not-racism and anti-racism?
In this week’s 5 Big Questions interview we talk to book shop owner, festival organiser and professional bubble-burster CAROLYNN BAIN
Twitter: @carolynnbain
Known for:
- Founder - Afrori Books
- Founder - Brighton Book Festival
The Big 5 Questions:
- How do you measure the impact of what you do?
- How should people/businesses be preparing for the future?
- How do we build the workforce we need for that future?
- How do you use creativity to solve problems?
- How do you collaborate?
Key quotes:
"I get bored of whinging and not doing anything about it. I usually whinge for a bit and then think stuff it, I’ll do it myself.”
"When people ask me what I do, I say I’m a professional bubble burster. Most people’s book shelf sits in a bubble.”
“The publishing industry is so far behind almost every other industry. The publishing industry decides what they think people want to read and then looks for authors who tick their boxes. They very rarely even talk to booksellers.”
“When I opened the bookshop I said to my children ‘this isn’t an inheritance, I don’t want you to inherit the bookshop, because I want it to die with me — I don’t want it to need to exist.’ Maybe I’m being over-optimistic.”
“When we first started we wrote to the five major publishing houses and asked them to send us a list of their black authors. Just really simply, it’ll help us stock the shop. I wasn’t even think of anything political. Four out of five said ‘no’ and the fifth said ‘er, we wouldn’t know how to,’ and the four that said ‘no’ said: ‘we don’t keep a record of the race, or culture, of our authors.’ Now I’ll be a skeptic here and say that the reason you don’t is cos if you did we’d all see that it’s less than one percent of your roster. And that’s shameful.”
“It’d be great if we could address it from the top down and get more people in big positions in publishing. But do I sit around and wait for that to happen? No, I’m an activist so I’ll push it from the ground up, as much as I can. I’ll look for traction wherever I can get it.”
“We’ve got a panel looking at masculinity and it’s three black guys. Now there’s not a book festival in the country that has that. We actually got to a couple of weeks ago and realised there were no white men on any of the panels. We had to go — we’re not being diverse, we have to find a white man! Create new norms!”
Useful links:
Afrori Books // afroribooks.co.uk/
Afrori Books opening on ITV News // itv.com/news/meridian/2021-09-29/mum-to-open-brightons-first-bookshop-showcasing-black-authors
Yellow Pages ‘J.R. Hartley’ advert from the 1980s (via YouTube) // youtube.com/watch?v=Zh8iXc2d71U
Backlast after Bernadine Evaristo shares the Booker Prize (via The Guardian) // theguardian.com/books/2019/oct/15/bernardine-evaristo-margaret-atwood-share-booker-prize-award
Brighton Book Festival // brightonbookfestival.co.uk/
Brighton Book Festival event on masculinity // eventbrite.com/e/masculinities-tickets-322054382327
This episode was recorded in May 2022
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
Why have economists got things so wrong?
What is 'guessonomics'??
And what are the dangers of groupthink?
In this week’s 5 Big Questions interview we talk to Ivy League professor, global economics expert and former Bank of England adviser PROFESSOR DAVID G "DANNY" BLANCHFLOWER CBE
Twitter: @D_Blanchflower
Known for:
- Bruce V Rauner Professor of Economics - Dartmouth College, New Hampshire (USA)
- Research Associate - National Bureau of Economic Research (USA)
- Contributing Editor - Bloomberg TV
- Former Member of the Monetary Policy Committee - Bank of England
- Author - The Wage Curve
The Big 5 Questions:
- How do you measure the impact of what you do?
- How should people/businesses be preparing for the future?
- How do we build the workforce we need for that future?
- How do you use creativity to solve problems?
- How do you collaborate?
Key quotes:
“Try and think about the wellbeing of ordinary people. What would benefit ordinary people? And oftentimes that runs in contrast to what central bankers and others are doing. Very often they represent the interest of banks and hedge funds.”
“Great, I thought your job was to not cause recessions!”
“Often all they’re doing is just making it up. This is all about ‘guessonomics’. If you’re going to forecast the weather, the reason you can do that is you’ve got past data on weather patterns that tell you what’s coming. We’re in a situation where we’ve got no data points. Basically we’re running blind.”
"When ideas are complicated and the situation is uncertain, you probably should worry if you hear everyone at both the Bank of England and at the Fed in the United States saying the same thing, that sounds awfully like groupthink.”
“Write papers that address real world practical problems. If you can’t characterise that it’s better off doing something else. In many cases the economist would’ve been better off delivering pizza than writing these silly papers. I said that once and somebody said to me, no that would be a really bad idea. If we gave economists the pizza delivery job, they’d just deliver it to the wrong house.”
Useful links:
David Blanchflower bio (Wikipedia) // wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Blanchflower
website // davidblanchflower.com/
Professor profile page at Dartmouth // economics.dartmouth.edu/people/david-graham-blanchflower
Writing in The Guardian // theguardian.com/profile/davidblanchflower
Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) // bankofengland.co.uk/about/people/monetary-policy-committee
The National Institute for Economic and Social Research (NIESR) // niesr.ac.uk/
David G. Blanchflower — Not Working - Where Have All The Good Jobs Gone? (via Hive) // hive.co.uk/Product/David-G-Blanchflower/Not-Working--Where-Have-All-the-Good-Jobs-Gone/25343911https://www.hive.co.uk/Product/David-G-Blanchflower/Not-Working--Where-Have-All-the-Good-Jobs-Gone/25343911
David G. Blanchflower — Not Working - Where Have All The Good Jobs Gone? (via Amazon) // amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08KKZ4P6J/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i0
This episode was recorded in May 2022
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
Why has the tech sector been so slow to be inclusive?
Can you be both privilged and under-represented?
Who, and how should we be, demanding more?
In this week’s 5 Big Questions interview we talk to global tech leader, diversity and inclusion specialist and author SHEREE ATCHESON
Twitter: @nirushika
Known for:
- Global Director (Diversity, Equity & Inclusion) - Peakon
- Global Ambassador - Women Who Code
- Author - Demanding More: Why Diversity and Inclusion Don't Happen and What You Can Do About It
- Former Head of Diversity & Inclusion - Monzo
- Former Consulting Inclusion Lead - Deloitte
- Most Influential Women in UK Tech (Computer Weekly)
- Queen's University Belfast Graduate of the Year (2019)
- Top 100 BAME Leaders influencing the Tech (Financial Times)
The Big 5 Questions:
- How do you measure the impact of what you do?
- How should people/businesses be preparing for the future?
- How do we build the workforce we need for that future?
- How do you use creativity to solve problems?
- How do you collaborate?
Key quotes:
“Always start with listening, before you make any assumptions.”
“Often in diversity and inclusion work, people create huge lofty goals to try and change everything overnight. That tends to mean you don’t fix anything, you end up very stressed and your passion runs out. Never just rush in. Choose just one to two things per quarter, to do incredibly well.”
“Privilege is very nuanced. One of the reasons I wrote Demanding More is people view privilege very often as ones and zeroes. Yes to this and no to that, but it’s so much more than that. For me the real impact is to get people to recognise that nuance.”
“Representation will not change overnight. But processes can, broadly, change much quicker.”
“I want people to be vulnerable about what it means to exist in the world and how it’s easier for some versus others. I want people to have empathy. So often leaders talk about empathy being the biggest skill that we need, yet they seem to very much not have it themselves. Recognise the impact of your decisions on other people before you make the decision.”
Useful links:
website // shereeatcheson.com/
Sheree Atcheson bio (Wikipedia) // wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheree_Atcheson
Sheree Atcheson — Demanding More (direct purchase link) // koganpage.com/product/demanding-more-9781398600447
Sheree Atcheson — Demanding More (Amazon link) // amazon.co.uk/Demanding-More-Diversity-Inclusion-Happen/dp/139860044X/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1617476224&sr=8-1
Sheree’s writing in Forbes // forbes.com/sites/shereeatcheson/
Women Who Code // womenwhocode.com/
TedxBelfast talk //https://youtu.be/MMhDu5vBTYk
This episode was recorded in May 2022
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
This episode was recorded in May 2022
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
Who decides what makes places or spaces beautiful?
What are key principles behind design?
And what do Northerners really think of 'that there London'?
In this week’s 5 Big Questions interview we talk to designer, entrepreneur and masterplanner WAYNE HEMINGWAY MBE
Twitter: @HemingwayDesign
Known for:
- Co-founder - Red Or Dead
- Partner & Co-founder - HemingwayDesign
- Trustee - The Design Council
- Professor of The Built Environment - Northumbria University
- Fellow - Blackburn College
- Senior Fellow - Regent's University London
- Author - The Vintage Fashion Bible: The Complete Guide to Buying and Styling Vintage Fashion from the 1920s to 1990s
- Author - Just Above The Mantelpiece: Mass-Market Masterpieces
- Author - Kitsch
The Big 5 Questions:
- How do you measure the impact of what you do?
- How should people/businesses be preparing for the future?
- How do we build the workforce we need for that future?
- How do you use creativity to solve problems?
- How do you collaborate?
Key quotes:
“We should be mobile, we should feel good wherever we are — and we don’t get that by placing people against each-other.”
“When we go into towns we unearth a whole series of masterplans that might have been done ten years ago, five years ago, or two years ago even, and they’re all full of great ideas from great architects and urban designers but they’ve sat in a drawer. Nothing has happened, you find absolutely diddley-squat has been delivered.”
“We believe even if the smallest things happen, it creates momentum. So we work on lots of small ideas that might seem inconsequential or lacking in substance to some people, but we know that once you get started the community comes along and ultimately real change happens when people make it happen.”
"I think people have got to be absolutely clear about why they’re doing something.”
“We built cities, we built energy systems, transport systems, all of them without the knowledge of what new generations have to deal with. That’s why design, creativity, is so important to the world right now. Well, it’s always been important.”
Useful links:
Wayne Hemingway bio (Wikipedia) // wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayne_Hemingway
Hemingway Design // hemingwaydesign.co.uk/
Red or Dead (Wikipedia) // wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_or_Dead
Dreamland, Margate (Wikipedia) // wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamland_Margate
This episode was recorded in May 2022
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
IMPORTANT NOTE: this episode contains references to sexual violence that some people may find upsetting.
How does someone become an accidental activist?
What do men really need to do, in order to make the world safer for women?
And what's the best way to turn anger into action?
In this week’s 5 Big Questions interview we talk to women's safety campaigner, accidental activist and global movement-maker JAMIE KLINGLER
Twitter: @jamieklingler
Instagram: @photogirluk
Known for:
- Organiser - Sarah Everard Vigil, London + around the world
- Co-founder - Reclaim These Streets
- Founder - Creative Influence Alliance
- Former Head of Publishing - ShortList Magazine
The Big 5 Questions:
- How do you measure the impact of what you do?
- How should people/businesses be preparing for the future?
- How do we build the workforce we need for that future?
- How do you use creativity to solve problems?
- How do you collaborate?
Key quotes:
"Everyone says you can’t give oxygen if you’re not getting any yourself — and I tend to not listen. Burnout is a big thing and we all have to be careful and cognisant of it.”
“I’m a girl from Philly, the idea that I was ending up in High Court was crazy!”
“Had they just let us go ahead, we would’ve had six hundred women have a moment of silence and then on Sunday we would’ve gone back to our lives. That fact that they antagonised and poured oil on it — and then their behaviour at the actual vigil — is what ballooned it into what it became."
“I thought: is this my legacy, being drunk with my dog? If I came out of the first lockdown drunker, heavier, more depressed and more dependant on booze, then I’d wasted this — horrible opportunity — but this opportunity. That’s why I called time on it.”
“It took me six months of full-time twenty hour days before I called myself an ‘activist’ because I didn’t think I had my chops, because I didn’t think I’d done enough.”
“We have been threatened and harassed enough times, so you giving us three more minutes to cross the street and a wider berth, is just the right thing to do. Think about it from our point of view.”
Useful links:
Reclaim These Streets // reclaimthesestreets.com/
Jamie Klingler on LinkedIn // linkedin.com/in/photogirluk/?originalSubdomain=uk
Jamie Klingler’s TEDxKingston talk (link via YouTube)
‘The Moment That Changed Me’ — Guardian article // theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/may/04/a-moment-that-changed-me-party-host-puppy-mcnulty-king-charles-spaniel
Reclaim These Streets fundraiser via CrowdJustice // crowdjustice.com/case/defending-our-right-to-protest/
Jamie on Ctrl Alt Delete podcast // shows.acast.com/ctrlaltdelete/episodes/382-jamie-klingler-a-year-of-intense-transformation-part-1
This episode was recorded in May 2022
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
What does disruption really mean in business?
In this week’s 5 Big Questions interview we talk to business leader, football club owner and professional contrarian JEFF DEWING
Twitter: @jpdewing
Known for:
- CEO & Co-founder - Cloud FM
- Former Owner - Clacton FC
- Author - Doing the Opposite
- Host - Doing the Opposite: Business Disruptors podcast
The Big 5 Questions:
- How do you measure the impact of what you do?
- How should people/businesses be preparing for the future?
- How do we build the workforce we need for that future?
- How do you use creativity to solve problems?
- How do you collaborate?
Key quotes:
“I was disruptive by nature, which meant I couldn’t hold a job down for more than eighteen months. In the end I decided that the only way to have an impact was to start a business myself and do things where I had no fear of disruption, I had no fear of consequences.”
“It’s not been easy, but if it was easy it would be boring, right? And everybody would’ve done it.”
“Money is the bi-product. You need to make a profit to be sustainable, clearly, but it shouldn’t be about the money, it shouldn’t be about the profit, it should be about what is it you’re gonna do to enrich other people’s lives.”
“We have a philosophy of saying: it has to be a win, win, win. The client has to win, the provider has to win and the supply chain has to win. If any of those is not true then it’s not sustainable and why are you even getting out of bed to do it?”
Useful links:
website // jeffdewing.co.uk/
Cloud FM // cloudfmgroup.com/
Cloud FM // cloudfmgroup.com/team/jeff-dewing-mbifm/
Jeff Dewing — Doing The Opposite (Amazon) // amazon.co.uk/Doing-Opposite-Lessons-Building-Success/dp/B08ZDN2G4X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=14RL5OL086Z78&keywords=Jeff+Dewing&qid=1652985116&sprefix=jeff+dewing%2Caps%2C63&sr=8-1
Doing The Opposite: Business Disruptors podcast (Audible link) // audible.co.uk/pd/Podcast/B08K5ZWFYY
This episode was recorded in March 2022
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
What do you do with burnout? And are awkward conversations about mental health OK? In this week’s 5 Big Questions interview we talk to entrepreneur, business leader, mental health champion and author MICHELLE MORGAN
Twitter: @MichelleMorgan
Known for: * Co-founder - Livity * Founder - Pjoys * Author - Own Your Awkward: How to have better and braver conversations about our mental health * Winner - EY Entrepreneur of the Year * Winner - Queens Award for Innovation * Fellow - Society of Leadership * Ambassador - Mental Health First Aid England
The Big 5 Questions: 1. How do you measure the impact of what you do? 2. How should people/businesses be preparing for the future? 3. How do we build the workforce we need for that future? 4. How do you use creativity to solve problems? 5. How do you collaborate?
Key quotes: “In Livity, we always had to measure the impact financially but we also and always placed an equal importance on measuring and delivering our social impact.”
“Our ‘fight, flight, freeze’ response often kicks in now, in a way that’s disproportionate to the actual threat in front of us. If I’m telling you about my mental health, I’m fearful what you might think about me. And if I’m asking you about yours, I’m fearful that I might ask in the wrong way, that might make things worse.”
“When we own our ‘awkward’, it helps the other person own theirs. I have created deeper, more meaningful relationships as a result.”
“As I progress through life, I become much more aware of what my skill-sets are.”
“I think that really talking has become a little bit of a lost art, which is quite scary. When so much of how we communicate is online, by typing and texting, or even visually, with pictures. We’re not having conversation.”
“The greatest gift we can give someone, when they’re talking about their mental health, is simply to listen.”
Useful links: Profile on the PJoys website // pjoys.co.uk/pages/michelle-morgan
Livity //livity.co.uk
Pjoys // pjoys.co.uk/
Michelle Morgan — ‘Own Your Awkward: How to have Better and Braver Conversations About our Mental Health’ // hive.co.uk/Product/Michelle-Morgan/Own-Your-Awkward--How-to-Have-Better-and-Braver-Conversat/25770562
Michelle Morgan — ‘Own Your Awkward: How to have Better and Braver Conversations About our Mental Health’ // amazon.co.uk/Own-Your-Awkward-Uncomfortable-Comfortable/dp/1801290059/ref=sr_1_1?crid=34USAZHSOQLQU&keywords=Michelle+Morgan+own+your+awkward&qid=1652381402&sprefix=michelle+morgan+own+your+awkward%2Caps%2C61&sr=8-1
Mental Health Awareness Week (right now, May 2022) // mentalhealth.org.uk/campaigns/mental-health-awareness-week
This episode was recorded in April 2022
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
How do you let others have the good ideas? Should you give up smoking if you're going to read to children? Are you bad busy or good busy?
In this week’s 5 Big Questions interview we talk to poet, playwright, broadcaster and campaigner LEMN SISSAY OBE
Twitter: @lemnsissay
Known for: * Chancellor - University of Manchester (UK) * Trustee - Foundling Museum * Official Poet - London 2012 Olympic Games * Winner - PEN Pinter Prize (2019) * Guest Artistic Director - Brighton Festival 2020 & 2021 * Author - My Name Is Why * Author - The Emperor's Watchmaker * Playwright - Why I Don't Hate White People * Playwright - Refugee Boy
The Big 5 Questions: 1. How do you measure the impact of what you do? 2. How should people/businesses be preparing for the future? 3. How do we build the workforce we need for that future? 4. How do you use creativity to solve problems? 5. How do you collaborate?
Key quotes: “I tried to take the word ‘busy’ out of my dictionary some years ago, because I’m doing what I love.”
"Art refuses to disappear because human beings refuse to disappear.”
“I’ve come to realise later in life that you’ve got to give it away to keep it. It’s the strangest thing but if you need help, try helping someone else.”
“I went from smoking thirty a day to none, on the tenth January. I’d been stinky most of my adult life.”
“I am proud to be a creative and artist and writer and I think that creativity is not only the monopoly of artists.”
“I’m learning to be quiet and to listen — and to listen beyond just the first idea. It’s a much more fulfilling way to work, with a group who are looking how to make an idea happen.”
“Teamwork isn’t just people that I choose.”
Useful links: website: // www.lemnsissay.com/
Wikipedia: // wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemn_Sissay
Brighton Festival Director legacy page: // brightonfestival.org/about-the-festival/past-guest-directors/20202021-lemn-sissay-mbe/
Lemn Sissay — Don’t Ask The Dragon (children’s book) // hive.co.uk/Product/Lemn-Sissay/Dont-Ask-the-Dragon/26765413
Allen Carr’s Easy Way To Stop Smoking (Amazon link) // amazon.co.uk/Allen-Carrs-Easy-Stop-Smoking/dp/1405923318/
Jude Kelly (Wikipedia) // wikipedia.org/wiki/Jude_Kelly
Extinction Rebellion // extinctionrebellion.uk/
Sex Pistols — Never Mind The Bollocks (Spotify link) // spotify.com/album/6ggO3YVhyonYuFWUPBRyIv?si=CGb49HRcT_Wk3s7SpWqhpA
Lawrence Ferlinghetti (Wikipedia) // wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Ferlinghetti
Leftfield — Leftism 22 (Spotify link) // spotify.com/album/60ZB7LXiHfzipDY4EME38o?si=6SwMMSw8S_-QwHCqiIfqOQ
City Lights books // citylights.com/
Lemn Sissay — My Name Is Why (memoir) // hive.co.uk/Product/Lemn-Sissay/My-Name-Is-Why/24742388
Lemn Sissay — Something Dark (memoir / theatre script) // hive.co.uk/Product/Lemn-Author-Sissay/Something-Dark/21234053
Lemn Sissay — Morning Breaks In The Elevator (poetry) // hive.co.uk/Product/Lemn-Sissay/Morning-Breaks-In-The-Elevator/2568872
This episode was recorded in April 2022
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
What is the point of print media in the digital age?
Did the Leveson report do what it intended?
And can just anyone be a journalist?
In this week’s 5 Big Questions interview we talk to journalist, free press campaigner and broadcaster SUSIE BONIFACE
Twitter: @fleetstreetfox
Known for: * Columnist - The Daily Mirror * Host - 'The News Agenda' podcast * Author - The Diaries Of A Fleet Street Fox * Author - Bluffer's Guide To Social Media * Author - Bluffer's Guide To Journalism * Visiting Lecturer in Journalism - City University, London (UK)
The Big 5 Questions: 1. How do you measure the impact of what you do? 2. How should people/businesses be preparing for the future? 3. How do we build the workforce we need for that future? 4. How do you use creativity to solve problems? 5. How do you collaborate?
Key quotes: “I’m a hackneyed Lois Lane tribute act. I don’t wanna go to school anymore, I’m going to write things and save the world… and then on my first day I crashed the pool car on my local paper - day one.”
“If you constantly worry that you’re not being good enough, it does make you work harder.”
“The traditional concept of journalism is that it was stuff that was printed by unpopular people, living in a slum, sold to the everyman in the street, and that pissed off the authorities. From the invention of printing. It’s unwelcome stuff by unwelcome people that guarantees all our freedoms.”
“Along with the emergency services, journalists are the people who run towards danger.”
— Mark Austin
“Leveson made people frightened to do some types of journalism and Leveson cost a lot of money to a lot of newspaper groups, which meant journalists got sacked. And these were journalists who didn’t do anything wrong.”
“You’ve got be the kind of person who picks at scabs. You’ve got to be tough enough to walk up someone’s front step and bang on the door and know you’re going to ruin their Sunday afternoon.”
“Journalism has survived every despot that’s ever existed.”
Useful links: Susie Boniface / Fleet Street Fox (Wikipedia) // wikipedia.org/wiki/Susie_Boniface
SusieBoniface.com
'The Damned’ — The Mirror special report on historic nuclear testing // mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/news-agenda-facebook-live-mirror-24138610
The News Agenda podcast (Spotify link) // open.spotify.com/show/24Zk96YnQqKCb4n6NYGG0y?si=650f39aefd3d42ac
This episode was recorded in February 2022
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
Is an art history degree or the market stall the best route into dealing and valuing art and antiques?
How important are trends, fads and new fashions in art?
And NFTs: are they worth the paper they are not written on?
In this week’s 5 Big Questions interview we talk to art dealer, auctioneer and TV antiques expert MICHAEL HOGBEN
Twitter: @MichaelHogben | @westenhanger
Known for:
- Director - Westenhanger Auction Galleries
- Presenter - Auction Man (BBC)
- Guest expert - Bargain Hunt (BBC)
- Guest expert - Dickinson's Real Deal (ITV)
- Author - A-Z of Antiques and Auctions
- Author - 101 Antiques of the Future
- Author - Collecting Under the Radar
The Big 5 Questions:
- How do you measure the impact of what you do?
- How should people/businesses be preparing for the future?
- How do we build the workforce we need for that future?
- How do you use creativity to solve problems?
- How do you collaborate?
Key quotes:
“I left school when I was fifteen, had my first company when I was seventeen and I’ve only ever worked for myself. I’ve always said if I’d had an education I’d be dangerous. I ended up with eight boutiques and fifty staff and I was nineteen years old. People used to come in the shop and say, can I speak to your Dad?”
“You can’t predict what’s going to be fashionable, all you can do is enjoy what you’ve got. You might not be able to upgrade, so stick with it.”
“There’s a lot of people who are learning at the grass roots, learning their trade, they’re the ones who do the antique fairs, they go around early in the morning and do the boot fairs, and everyone thinks they’ve got something worth a fortune.”
“When we moved out of the Metropole Hotel, we moved right above the beach and then we went completely modern, we started collecting Gordon Russell, Eames, Patrick Caulfield, Tracey Emins and all stuff like that. You sort of sit with how your house should be looking at you.”
“I said to my client, do not go anywhere near [NFTs] it’s just going to be a major con. If you’ve got a bitcoin, where do you spend it? You can’t go to Tesco’s and say here’s a quarter of a bitcoin. It’s just one of those pyramid sales, I think. I would move with the times if I thought I could get a pound note at the end of it!”
“I wake up happy, go to sleep happy, and that’s about it really. What more do you want in life?”
Useful links:
Michael Hogben biog (Wikipedia) // wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Hogben
Westhanger Auctioneers website // www.westenhangerauctioneers.com/
Bargain Hunt (BBC) // bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006nb9z
Dickinson’s Real Deal (ITV) // itv.com/beontv/articles/dickinsonsrealdeal
Auction Man (IMDB page) // .imdb.com/title/tt0383741/
A-Z of Antiques and Auctions (Amazon link) // amazon.co.uk/Z-Antiques-Auctions-Michael-Hogben/dp/1845374975/ref=sr_1_1?crid=ZH0VYHWRW2Y3&keywords=A-Z+of+Antiques+and+Auctions&qid=1650552687&sprefix=a-z+of+antiques+and+auctions%2Caps%2C70&sr=8-1
101 Antiques of the Future (Amazon link) // amazon.co.uk/101-Antiques-Future-Michael-Hogben/dp/1845377338/ref=sr_1_2?crid=3K1S6DJ8TFIML&keywords=Michael+Hogben&qid=1650552601&sprefix=michael+hogben%2Caps%2C78&sr=8-2
Collecting Under The Radar (with Linda Abrams) (Amazon link) // amazon.co.uk/Collecting-Under-Radar-Michael-Hogben-ebook/dp/B007NZLSJC/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3K1S6DJ8TFIML&keywords=Michael+Hogben&qid=1650552546&sprefix=michael+hogben%2Caps%2C78&sr=8-1
This episode was recorded in January 2022
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
Why is car insurance a way to help people experiencing domestic abuse?
What makes women different leaders to men?
And why is business a better vehicle for social reform than politics?
In this week’s 5 Big Questions interview we talk to Freedom Group / Stella Insurance CEO, and Northern Power Woman, SAM WHITE
Twitter: @SamWhiteCEO
Known for:
- CEO - The Freedom Group
- Host - Human Business podcast
- Regular Contributor - Wake Up To Money (BBC)
- Regular Contributor - Business Live: With Ian King (Sky)
The Big 5 Questions:
- How do you measure the impact of what you do?
- How should people/businesses be preparing for the future?
- How do we build the workforce we need for that future?
- How do you use creativity to solve problems?
- How do you collaborate?
Key quotes:
“Insurance is probably one of the worst marketed business entities in the history of the universe.”
“At its core, insurance really does have the power to change the world, because what is it? Well it’s a group of individuals all saying, hey you know what, we’re all going to put money in because something awful might happen to one of us and if that does occur, then the collective can step in and support. Which is a really phenomenal concept and ideology — and actually something that people should emotionally connect with.”
“We give five dollars from every policy sold to Women and Girls Emergency Centre. One of the causes that we’re really passionate about as a team is helping women that have been victims of domestic violence, which unfortunately has increased massively due to the lockdown.”
“For me what’s really encouraging is when I start to see more young female leaders coming into the sector and having a voice and not being afraid to use it. You’ll get that personal connection where they’ll message you, or come up to you.”
“We’re currently building a ‘crisis insurance’ product, which will be included as part of the motor insurance premium, just sat in the product, that if somebody is unfortunate enough to be a victim of domestic violence we can get funds to them quickly enough to get out of that situation.”
“How can we build products that have real value for a real problem that we are trying to support? And how do we then embed that into the community that we are wanting to support, so that everybody is on the same page?”
“I believe that the only way we are going to survive as a species and really make the world work, will be through the right kind of businesses.”
“I like Andy Burnham, he’s a nice guy but my general view with politics is it’s a complete waste of time. I’ve had people say to me: you’re very opinionated, why don’t you get into politics? Blah blah blah. Absolutely not. Categorically not. Because the system’s screwed. It’s a dysfunctional, rotten to the core system. Dismantle all the world governments and let the people sort themselves out.”
“We question so much more now than we used to, and we have so much more information at our fingertips.”
Useful links:
Freedom Services Group // freedomservicesgroup.co.uk/
FSC’s ‘About Sam White’ page // freedomservicesgroup.co.uk/sam-white/all-about-sam-white
Profile in The Mirror // mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/i-spent-years-washing-cars-26010470
Stella Insurance (Australia) // stellainsurance.com.au/
Women and Girls Emergency Centre (Australia) // wagec.org.au/
Sam White (LinkedIn) // linkedin.com/in/sam-white-093b9b22/?originalSubdomain=uk
Human Business podcast (Apple podcasts) // podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/human-business-with-sam-white/id1476366810
Human Business podcast (Spotify) // open.spotify.com/show/40I1TsoteuWGDcd0vO9GA9?si=dbc3753eb8f3442b
Northern Power Women circle // northernpowerwomen.com/
Moving to Employee Ownership (government guidance) // assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/210450/bis-13-949-moving-to-employee-ownership-guidance-on-model-documentation.pdf
Employee Ownership Association // employeeownership.co.uk/what-is-employee-ownership/
This episode was recorded in February 2022
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
Why is design important? What is the story about the bears, the telegraph poles and the honey?
And are we using the word 'purpose' properly?
In this week’s 5 Big Questions interview we talk to design expert and business leader DOM BAILEY
Twitter: @baxterandbailey | @bom_dailey
Known for: * Co-founder & Strategic Director - Baxter & Bailey * Former Deputy Chair - Theatre for a Change * Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts * Member of the Chartered Society of Designers * Member of the Design Business Association * Member of the International Society of Typographic Designers
The Big 5 Questions: 1. How do you measure the impact of what you do? 2. How should people/businesses be preparing for the future? 3. How do we build the workforce we need for that future? 4. How do you use creativity to solve problems? 5. How do you collaborate?
Key quotes: “We’re not there to tell businesses what to do, in terms of their long term strategy. But without that in place, it makes our work very difficult, trying to breathe into something that doesn’t exist. Any good business, charity or organisation does need that plan.”
“We have this little mechanism, something that I’ve really carried forward in our working life. We call it the Three ‘Rs’, it’s Revenue, Recognition and Reward. Revenue is, yeah, we’re a business, we need to make profit. But the other two ‘R’s are really important: will it build the reputation of our agency, creatively, and does it feel good to work on? Does it enrich our team? You can’t always have all three ‘R’s in everything you do but I would argue that if you make the core priority revenue — and revenue alone — I think that’s a hiding to nowhere.”
“It’s very important not to shout down creativity as it’s happening. We call it a kind of ‘divergent thinking’, we go wide, we create choice and once you’ve got choice your ability to make good choices is vastly improved.”
“When we talk about ‘purpose’, the way in which you collaborate will be improved if you have a shared sense of purpose. It’s not rocket science to say that but if you stop and think, does that client have purpose? Does this project have a purpose we can share? That will fuel the drive for better collaboration.”
“We’ve worked with businesses that have gone from two people to fifteen-hundred people in eighteen months. Incredibly hard to keep up with, with a small team.”
Useful links: Brighton Chamber web page // brightonchamber.co.uk/bipc-brighton-hove
BIPC national network // bl.uk/business-and-ip-centre/national-network
Baxter & Bailey ‘about us’ // baxterandbailey.co.uk/about-us/
LinkedIn // linkedin.com/in/dombailey/
Goldsmiths University student recruitment // gold.ac.uk/schools-and-colleges/
Howard Luck Gossage (Wikipedia) // wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Gossage
Steve Harrison — ‘Changing The World Is The Only Fit Work For A Grown Man’ (Amazon link) // amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0957151500/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i2
The snow-covered telephone lines and the honey pots for bears… // dtinblack.github.io/creative-solutions/
This episode was recorded in November 2021
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
What drives someone to pursue justice at great personal cost?
How should we value refugees?
And why should we burn self help books?
In this week’s 5 Big Questions interview we talk to campaigner, businesswoman and author GINA MILLER
Twitter: @thatginamiller | @VoteTrueAndFair
Known for: * Founder - True and Fair Party * Founder - True and Fair Campaign * Founder - Best for Britain Campaign * Claimant - R (Miller) v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union * Claimant - R (Miller) v The Prime Minister
The Big 5 Questions: 1. How do you measure the impact of what you do? 2. How should people/businesses be preparing for the future? 3. How do we build the workforce we need for that future? 4. How do you use creativity to solve problems? 5. How do you collaborate?
Key quotes: “It took me thirty years to pop up from nowhere.”
“We got a little bit lazy and comfortable. It’s a terrible thing to say to people: we forgot to look out for each-other. We sort of got quite comfortable, enjoying all the capitalist freedoms we had and also the things, the gadgets. We started thinking about things, rather than people.”
“I do think we are capable of coming out of this better than we went into it.”
“My successes didn’t lead to Parliamentarians standing up and doing their job, in my view. After the second case, the prorogation case, the next day it was like a fish market! Having gone through everything to defend them, it was extremely frustrating.”
“If you look at our educational curriculum, I personally don’t think it’s fit for the future.”
“If we lose creativity then we become an imprisoned society.”
“I’m very mindful as a woman of colour that there aren’t many role-models out there. In the City and in the legal profession, we don’t have parity yet.”
Useful links: Gina Miller BBC news profile, 2019 // bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-37861888
Gina Miller (Wikipedia) // wikipedia.org/wiki/Gina_Miller
Gina’s father, Doodnaught Singh, former Attorney General of Guyana (Wikipedia) // wikipedia.org/wiki/Doodnauth_Singh
Gina Miller — ‘Rise’ (hive.co.uk) // hive.co.uk/Product/Gina-Miller/Rise--Life-Lessons-in-Speaking-Out-Standing-Tall--Leading-the-Way/23210820
Tutu Foundation // tutufoundationuk.org/
True And Fair Party // trueandfairparty.uk/
1066 (Wikipedia) // wikipedia.org/wiki/1066
The (Second) Boer War (Wikipedia) // wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Boer_War
Sinclair C5 electric bike (Wikipedia) // wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_C5
This episode was recorded in March 2022
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
Who would do the graft needed to be a Head Chef in the 21st century?
Did the Covid-19 pandemic change the restaurant industry forever?
And what is it like to have a Michelin star?
In this week’s 5 Big Questions interview we talk to Executive Chef of Akoko THEO CLENCH
Instagram: @cheftheoclench | @akokorestaurant
Twitter: @akokorestaurant
Known for:
- Executive Chef - Akoko
- Brand Ambassador - Krug
- Former Head Chef - The Portland Restaurant (one Michelin star)
- Former Head Chef - Bonhams Restaurant (one Michelin star)
The Big 5 Questions:
- How do you measure the impact of what you do?
- How should people/businesses be preparing for the future?
- How do we build the workforce we need for that future?
- How do you use creativity to solve problems?
- How do you collaborate?
Key quotes:
“It was twelve, thirteen years of climbing the ladder. Starting at the bottom every time.”
“I think every restaurant has little photos of all the critics in the cloakroom somewhere, that you see before you go into the kitchen every morning.”
“My friends who are now at Head Chef level - we don’t run our kitchens like they were run when we were junior. You’ve got to get the best out of people and screaming and shouting at them all the time is not the way to do it. You’ve got to build up their confidence, build up their skills. As clichéd as it is, you are only as good as your team.”
“Brexit has decimated our industry and many industries, especially combined with Covid. People have gone home and can’t come back.”
“Trying to get the next generation in is the only way that we’re going to be able to fix this, in the long term. But trying to entice them into an industry that’s had some bad press before, all the long hours, it’s tough. It takes a certain type of person to want to put the work in. I’ve done years of hundred hour weeks.”
“Everyone spent a year at home and you couldn’t go out. So people were cooking a lot more at home and becoming very good home cooks. I think that may be the death of the chains and the casual restaurants. Why would you go out and drop thirty quid when you can make a nice meal at home?”
Useful links:
‘Chef To Watch’ profile of Theo in The Staff Canteen // thestaffcanteen.com/Britain-s-Got-Talent/chef-to-watch-theo-clench-executive-chef-akoko#/
Akoko restaurant, Fitzrovia // akoko.co.uk/
Theo Clench appointed executive chef at Akoko (The Caterer) // thecaterer.com/news/theo-clench-appointed-executive-chef-akoko
Jimi Famurewa reviews Akoko in the Evening Standard: // standard.co.uk/reveller/restaurants/akoko-restaurant-review-jimi-famurewa-b942139.html
Trinity restaurant // trinityrestaurant.co.uk/
Portland restaurant // portlandrestaurant.co.uk/
This episode was recorded in November 2021
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
How can workers shape the future of work? What role do trade unions play in the 21st century? And why is simply talking usually the answer? In this week’s 5 Big Questions interview we talk to trade unionist, policy expert and employment rights advocate KATE BELL
Twitter: @kategobell | @The_TUC
Known for: * Head of Rights, International, Social & Economics - Trade Union Congress * Member - Low Pay Commission * Former Policy Advisor, Work & Pensions - The Labour Party * Former Director of Policy Advice & Communications - Gingerbread
The Big 5 Questions: 1. How do you measure the impact of what you do? 2. How should people/businesses be preparing for the future? 3. How do we build the workforce we need for that future? 4. How do you use creativity to solve problems? 5. How do you collaborate?
Key quotes:
“Trade Union membership has been growing for the last four years. I think in the pandemic many people have thought, actually I need someone to stick up for me in the workplace, I’m genuinely worried not just about whether I’m being paid fairly but is it actually going to be safe for me to go to my place of work.”
“We are a democratic organisation. One of the reasons I really enjoy working for the trade union movement is you have got that very direct feedback. That’s not always comfortable, it can be difficult and people can have very different views. But it’s a very good feedback mechanism. It’s a real advantage of working in a democratic movement.”
“We’ve also been calling for better sick pay. Have we got the change we wanted? Absolutely we have not. The government has not budged. The level of sick pay has not gone up beyond the rate of inflation and there’s still two million people who are excluded. So when I try to assess: my team have been absolutely amazing in the work they’ve done. Have we made a difference? No we haven’t.”
“We share history and values with the Labour Party but we’re not affiliated to anybody.”
“We can shape the future of work.”
“The first thing I would advise any business to do is talk to your workers about the future of work they want. Where they see the possibilities for innovation and what that means for their working lives. There’s loads of evidence that talking to your employees not only makes them happier but also makes your business more productive.”
Useful links: Kate Bell’s page on the TUC website // tuc.org.uk/person/kate-bell
Trades Union Congress // https://www.tuc.org.uk/
Francis Fukuyama — ‘The End of History and The Last Man’
(Amazon audiobook) // amazon.co.uk/End-History-Last-Man/dp/B07GFMH58F/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=Francis+Fukuyama&qid=1647535174&s=audible&sr=1-3
(The Hive eBook) // www.hive.co.uk/Product/Francis-Fukuyama/The-End-of-History-and-the-Last-Man/11400026
Musicians Union // musiciansunion.org.uk/
BECTU // bectu.org.uk/
Equity (the actors union) // equity.org.uk/
Four Day Week campaign // fourdayweek.co.uk/
This episode was recorded in January 2022
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
How do make maths less icky?
How do you maximise your new celebrity to try and push education reform?
How could you logic someone to death?
In this week’s 5 Big Questions interview we talk to mathematician, teacher and quiz show legend BOBBY SEAGULL
Twitter: @Bobby_Seagull | @theanswertrap
Insta - @bobby_seagull
Known for:
- Mathematician & Teacher
- Presenter - Monkman & Seagull’s Genius Guide to Britain (BBC)
- Presenter - Monkman & Seagull's Genius Adventures (BBC)
- Presenter - Monkman & Seagull's Polymathematical Adventure (BBC)
- Series Regular - The Answer Trap (Channel 4)
- Author - The Life-Changing Magic of Numbers
- Columnist - The Financial Times
- Honorary Fellow - Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals
- Former Trader - Lehman Brothers
The Big 5 Questions:
- How do you measure the impact of what you do?
- How should people/businesses be preparing for the future?
- How do we build the workforce we need for that future?
- How do you use creativity to solve problems?
- How do you collaborate?
Key quotes:
“I genuinely thought the pinnacle would be I’d get to brag about it in school. Oh, Mr Seagull, he went on a TV quiz show!”
“I always steer the conversation from University Challenge towards education.”
“What would I like to be on my gravestone? I’d like it to say: ‘Mr Seagull made maths a little bit less icky.’”
“My initial touch point is, I still teach real students and I have to tell them off.”
“Part of the way the charity operates is high profile ambassadors. Through my media and celebrity interactions, I’ve become friends with Katya Jones from Strictly, Peter Sorkins the Bake Off champion, and I’ve recruited them to become numeracy champions. I’m always trying to use my new connections.”
“With maths the nature of it is quite binary, so you’re right or wrong, whereas with writing and the arts you can get a graded feedback.”
“Whatever society is offering you, try to dabble in as many things as you can. You don’t quite know where your strengths lie, or where society will take you. Take advantage of all the different opportunities.”
“You can’t have scientists sitting in one separate part of the world and the arts, the creative people, separately, you need them to be collaborating.”
“You can’t logic someone to death. You still need to appeal to people’s sense of humanity.”
“Collaboration happens when people like other people.”
Useful links:
Bobby Seagull // http://bobbyseagull.com
The Answer Trap // channel4.com/programmes/the-answer-trap
University Challenge YouTube supercut // youtu.be/CipbwKL4LE4
Lehman Brothers (Wikipedia) // wikipedia.org/wiki/Lehman_Brothers
Johnny Ball (Wikipedia) // wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Ball
Johnny Ball - Think Of A Number (YouTube) // youtu.be/UHGPJVw1u1I
National Numeracy charity // nationalnumeracy.org.uk
The Real Dirty Dancing // channel4.com/programmes/the-real-dirty-dancing
Industrial Revolution (Wikipedia) // wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution
Moore’s Law (Wikipedia) // wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore's_law
Quantum computing (Wikipedia)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum\_computing
The Uncanny Valley (Wikipedia) // wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley
C.P. Snow - ‘The Two Cultures’ lecture // wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Two_Cultures (Wikipedia)
‘The Two Cultures’ book (Amazon) // amazon.co.uk/Two-Cultures-Canto-Classics/dp/1107606144
This episode was recorded in February 2022
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
How do you build a multi-million pound business out of colourful tea? When does a leader learn to let go?
And do your values change as the business gets bigger?
In this week’s 5 Big Questions interview we talk to the multi-award winning entrepreneur, KRISI SMITH
Twitter: @KrisiSmithTea | @BirdandBlendTea
Insta: @KrisiSmithTeaMixologist
Known for:
- Co-founder & Creative Director - Bird & Blend Tea Co.
- Author - World Atlas of Tea: From the leaf to the cup, the world's teas explored and enjoyed
The Big 5 Questions:
- How do you measure the impact of what you do?
- How should people/businesses be preparing for the future?
- How do we build the workforce we need for that future?
- How do you use creativity to solve problems?
- How do you collaborate?
Key quotes:
“Our original mission statement wasn’t anything about tea, it was to prove you could build a successful business based on people as well as profits.”
“Can we build a business where people are happy on both sides of our counter?”
“I know the world out there is mad but to grow a business like this, to be in business generally, you have to have a level of resilience and you have to be a little bit excited by dealing with this constant change and growth and learning.”
“Our retail side doesn’t make us a lot of profit on our P&L but it’s always been a part of our journey because that’s where the human connections are happening, that’s where you smell the tea, that’s where the brand comes to life.”
“Although the high street may be changing, the human desire to find spaces to hang out with other humans is not going anywhere. If brands like us can continue to provide spaces where you get humans talking, we actually become even more attractive in ‘retail 2.0’ or whatever you want to call it.”
“It’s usually those people who don’t know what they’re doing, don’t know if uni is right for them, who jump in and absorb everything like a sponge.”
“This is the hardest environment we’ve ever been in, to find recruits. We’re a tea company, maybe people don’t think it’s an exciting place to be bringing their tech skills. So we definitely are experiencing struggles with getting the visibility out there to the people.”
Useful links:
- Bird and Blend Tea // birdandblendtea.com/
-
Beer collaboration with Basement in Bristol // birdandblendtea.com/products/cabana-cooler-tea-infused-beer
-
Beer collaboration with Unbarred in Brighton // birdandblendtea.com/blogs/news-from-the-nest/bird-blend-tea-co-x-unbarred-introduce-our-raspberry-tea-sour
- Tea infused chocolate collaboration with Only Coco // only-coco.co.uk/collections/tea-collecti
This episode was recorded in February 2022
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
Do politicians actually change anything?
What does the future of UK democracy look like?
And how does being a soldier prepare you for Westminster?
In this week’s 5 Big Questions interview we talk to decorated army veteran and free-thinking parliamentarian, JOHNNY MERCER MP
Twitter: @JohnnyMercerUK @VeteransGovUK
Known for:
- MP for Plymouth Moor View (Conservative)
- Former Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence People and Veterans
- Former Captain - 29th Commando Regiment Royal Artillery
- Holder - The Operational Service Medal for Afghanistan Holder - The Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal
The Big 5 Questions:
- How do you measure the impact of what you do?
- How should people/businesses be preparing for the future?
- How do we build the workforce we need for that future?
- How do you use creativity to solve problems?
- How do you collaborate?
Key quotes:
“Really, since 2015 you’ve had thirty years of politics crashed into six.”
“Clearly I’ve had a pretty rough ride, sometimes it’s gone in my favour, sometimes it hasn’t. But I have delivered in a number of areas — and that’s the kind of thing I hold on to.”
“What we’ve seen during the pandemic is, I think people have realised for the first time how much they can do, working in dispersed locations.”
“Two things will dominate the next 10-15 years. One is the climate emergency. And the other is tech and the way tech has changed everything we do. Governments need to be in front of that, and in my experience they’re 20-30 years behind. Companies are far more agile and able.”
“The quality line in politics is extremely low. You look at the skill sets of some of our cabinet ministers who are running departments and you quite reasonably ask yourself, what would you be doing if you weren’t a Member of Parliament, and come up with some quite interesting options.”
Useful links:
- website // johnnymercer.co.uk/
- Facebook page // facebook.com/JohnnyForPlymouth
- Johnny Mercer (Wikipedia) // wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Mercer_(politician)
- Celebrity Hunted (Channel 4) // channel4.com/programmes/celebrity-hunted (Johnny appears on season 2)
- UK Office for Veterans’ Affairs //
gov.uk/government/organisations/office-for-veterans-affairs - Plymouth City Council // plymouth.gov.uk/
- British Army // army.mod.uk/
This episode was recorded in November 2021
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
Can science prove the benefits of a 4-day week?
Does science and creativity ever truly work in harmony?
And do we take our brains for granted?
In this week’s 5 Big Questions interview we talk to neuroscientist and biological psychologist, DR CHARLOTTE RAE
Twitter: @NeuroRae
Known for:
- Lecturer in Psychology & Cognitive Neuroscience - University of Sussex (UK)
- Chair, Sustainability & Environmental Action Group - Organisation for Human Brain Mapping
- Former Research Fellow - Brighton & Sussex Medical School
The Big 5 Questions:
- How do you measure the impact of what you do?
- How should people/businesses be preparing for the future?
- How do we build the workforce we need for that future?
- How do you use creativity to solve problems?
- How do you collaborate?
Key quotes:
“Measuring impact is a challenge. In my field we build up a picture of how the brain works quite gradually, experiment by experiment.”
"It’s not a one-dimensional output that businesses are looking for, when we consider alternative ways of working.”
“The four day working week has these potential difference flavours and different benefits, for different scenarios. It’s very flexible in its implementation.”
“Fundamentally, all human behaviour is generated by that one kilo or so of material inside your skull.”
“The human brain is exquisitely placed to adapt and change our behaviour for new situations. That’s how we’ve become the dominant primate on Planet Earth.”
“Our brain needs to be operating in what I would call a ‘goldilocks zone’, a happy biological state where things are in balanced. The brain is a human organ, it’s a piece of our physiology, it’s not a machine.”
Useful links:
- University of Sussex profile // profiles.sussex.ac.uk/p220408-charlotte-rae
- Four day working week — Iceland study (BBC news) // www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-57724779
- Andrew Barnes // 4DayWeek.com
- Andrew Barnes’ TEDxAuckland talk // tedxauckland.com/people/andrew-barnes/
- Brighton & Hove Chamber of Commerce blog post on the Sussex 4 day week study // brightonchamber.co.uk/blog/benefits-of-a-4-day-week
- University of Sussex School of Psychology // sussex.ac.uk/schools/psychology/
- Neuroscience (Wikipedia) // wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuroscience
- The ‘Goldilocks Zone’ (in space science, Wikipedia) // wikipedia.org/wiki/Circumstellar_habitable_zone
- MRI scanning (Wikipedia) // wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_resonance_imaging
This episode was recorded in January 2022
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
What does collaboration in business mean in the 21st century? Where are the transformative ideas of our age coming from? What role does education play in the future economy? And will tech save us? In this week’s 5 Big Questions interview we talk to futurist, author and CEO of Fast Future ROHIT TALWAR
- Twitter: @fastfuture
Known for: * CEO - Fast Future * Author - The Future of Business * Author - Beyond Genuine Stupidity: Ensuring AI Serves Humanity * Author - The Future Reinvented: Reimagining Life, Society & Business * Author - A Very Human Future: Enriching Humanity in a Digitized World
The Big 5 Questions: 1. How do you measure the impact of what you do? 2. How should people/businesses be preparing for the future? 3. How do we build the workforce we need for that future? 4. How do you use creativity to solve problems? 5. How do you collaborate?
Key quotes:
“Let’s identify some of the forces, the ideas, the very weak signals we’re seeing of things that might change, and let’s explore how they might come together.”
“We’re trying to take them on a journey to stimulate their thinking about how we prepare for a range of possibilities, where might the gaps and opportunities be.”
“Workforces aren’t stupid, they understand the world is changing, they understand technology is going to transform jobs, they just want their employers to be straight with them.”
“Schools and universities aren’t used much in the evenings. There are an awful lot of people who’d like to do their learning between 8pm and 8am. The facilities are almost empty then, unused. We also have a lot of people in society who have the skills, the knowhow, the practical experience to do the delivery of that training.”
“There’s no greater priority in society than government fully funding education to create the workforce of the future and therefore to create the revenue streams back into government through taxation.”
”We need [an] eco-system of partners that can be our radar.”
Useful links: * Fast Future Publishing // fastfuture.com * Rohit Talwar at Fast Future // fastfuture.com/team/rohit-talwar/ * Aftershocks And Opportunities 2: Navigating The Next Horizon collaborative book (Amazon link) // amazon.co.uk/Aftershocks-Opportunities-Navigating-Next-Horizon/dp/1838195505
This episode was recorded in January 2022
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
DR JULIA GRACE PATTERSON on The NHS, the future of healthcare and taking on the government.
Full show notes, links, credits and further reading can be found at alwayspossible.co.uk/podcast/juli-grace-patterson
ANDY BURNHAM on politics, poetry and pulling no punches.
Full show notes, links, credits and further reading can be found at alwayspossible.co.uk/podcast/Andy-Burnham
RACHEL KELLEY on making food, being green and scaling a values-led business
Full show notes, links, credits and further reading can be found at alwayspossible.co.uk/podcast/Rachel-Kelley/
PROFESSOR SIR DAVID SPIEGELHALTER on data, counting beans and public trust in numbers - Full show notes, links, credits and further reading can be found at alwayspossible.co.uk/podcast/David-Spiegelhalter/
DR HEATHER ALLANSDOTTIR Full show notes, links, credits and further reading can be found at alwayspossible.co.uk/podcast/heather-allansdottir/
In the finale of the After Corona? series, host Richard Freeman is in the interview chair this time.
Chris Thorpe-Tracey asks Richard about what he has learned from the huge number of contributors to the podcast since July 2020, and what he has concluded about what life, business and society might hold in the post-pandemic world.
What are the emerging themes? What changed in the way people were speaking about change, risk and their industries? Why has the process led to 5 new big questions - and where will Richard be seeking the answers?
Guest: Richard Freeman - CEO, always possible
Producer/Interviewer: Chris Thorpe-Tracey - Lo Fi Arts
The subject that we have explored, possibly more than any other, in the past year of The Possibility Club podcast has been the impact of the pandemic on the music industry.
We’ve heard perspectives on festivals and clubs from Norman Cook as well as the plight of venues from Mark Davyd and the Music Venue Trust. We spoke to songwriter Fiona Bevan and opera singer Meeta Raval about lockdown through an artists’ lens.
Why? It has been the microcosm of the macrocosm - an industry that was already under significant strain, learning the hard way that the 21st century is turning out to be very very different from the one before. Also the music industry is, at once, the jewel in the UK’s economic crown punching above its weight around the world - and also an increasingly hostile place for new and emerging performers, writers or venues that people to take a few risks. Pre-COVID-19, all was not well - but the opportunities were huge. Afterwards, it will be similar - but potentially in different ways.
In this episode, we return to music, and all of its diverse slipstreams, one last time.
Our special contributors, thinking hard about what comes next, are:
-
Rachael Perrin, a musician, social entrepreneur and creative industries coach - known by many for being the co-founder and co-director of community music facilitators, Soundcastle.
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Thom Milner-Smith is a music and live events promoter based in Worthing on the south coast. His company, atom presents, produces different scale gigs and shows - and had to make some big decisions over the past 18 months.
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And Laura Vane is known as ’the little lady with the big voice’, a singer of her own volition collaborating closely with acts such as The Streets, Gnarls Barkley and MJ Cole - and also the frontwoman Anglo-Dutch funk band The Vipertones.
Each of these guests are speaking in a personal capacity, and from the heart, from different stages in the pandemic - from right back at the start when lockdown was a novelty, to more recently in Spring 2021 with the UK cautiously opening up.
--- Useful links: https://www.atompresents.co.uk/ https://soundcastle.co.uk/ https://lauravane.com/ --- If you’ve not yet signed up to Richard's free weekly love letter to society, Finding Chances, then you can for free at www.findingchances.substack.com. He writes about the people he meet, the lessons he's learning and the extraordinary organisations powering change in business, culture and education.
You’re also very welcome to join The Possibility Club network - it’s a safe space to think aloud, where thinkers, do-ers and curious folk test ideas and discuss topics of interest and importance. You’ll enjoy it, I promise. Join for free at www.thepossibilityclub.org
In this episode our focus is the future of Further Education. Richard's special guest was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s birthday honours in 2021, and she will also be taking up the post of FE Commissioner this autumn - the government’s most senior advisor on Further Education standards, leading a team of 18 experts to boost leadership and governance across England’s post-16 technical education system. Shelagh Legrave is currently the CEO of the Chichester College Group - one of the UK’s most successful education partnerships, consisting of two large FE colleges, an agricultural college and two sixth form colleges as well as a programme of education for residents of the Falkland Islands. Under Shelagh’s leadership, the institution has been ranked Ofsted’s highest grade of ‘Outstanding’ since 2014. We caught up with Shelagh at the end of April, and we talked about leadership and reform, the new FE white paper and the role of technical education and college groups in the post covid-19 landscape. --- Useful links: https://www.chigroup.ac.uk/ https://www.tes.com/news/new-fe-commissioner-who-shelagh-legrave https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/further-education-commissioner --- If you’ve not yet signed up to Richard's free weekly love letter to society, Finding Chances, then you can for free at www.findingchances.substack.com. He writes about the people he meet, the lessons he's learning and the extraordinary organisations powering change in business, culture and education.
You’re also very welcome to join The Possibility Club network - it’s a safe space to think aloud, where thinkers, do-ers and curious folk test ideas and discuss topics of interest and importance. You’ll enjoy it, I promise. Join for free at www.thepossibilityclub.org
Of all of the business sectors floored by the COVID-19 pandemic, then surely the events sector has to be one the hardest hit. From corporate hospitality to car rallies, children’s parades to sporting tournaments - for nearly two years the license to gather together in big crowds has been mothballed. We record this as the Tennis at Wimbledon and the Euros at Wembley gradually climbed to full capacity crowds, but the Olympic athletes in Tokyo are literally surrounded by tens of thousands of empty seats. Test events in Liverpool and London have required revelers to declare their vaccine or lateral flow test status before they can enter, something being teased as a mandated fixture in nightclubs from September for the foreseeable. For however long, we’re in a two-tiered society with many anxious to get back in huddles and others anxious at the very thought of queuing for the toilets again. What is clear is the solidarity and community within the events sector, which has come to the fore - with venues bathed in red, with giant projected letters #WeMakeEvents and #LightItInRed as a way to share the pain. In this episode of The Possibility Club After Corona? series, we’re looking at the events sector with a magnifying glass. Our special contributors, who were all asked the same questions, are: Janice Moth, founder of The Glamour Club a regular 1940s-style tea dance which acts as a lifeline for older people and people with dementia to socialize and be treated like royalty Hollie White, amongst many other talents, helps to manage farmland in the Somerset countryside including an exclusive wedding venue that would usually be booked up right through the summer months Dan Flanagan is the founder of Tot Rockin’ Beats and Dad La Soul - a programme of daylight family raves and structured playdates for dads who find it a challenge to make new friends in later life and Rifa Thorpe-Tracey is a well known-figure in the digital sector as a coach and events manager and advocate of women in tech; organiser of She Says Brighton and the Spring Forward Festival, Rifa is also currently Head of Events & Marketing at Wired Sussex. Each of these guests are speaking in a personal capacity, and from the heart, from different stages in the pandemic - from right back at the start when lockdown were a novelty, to more recently in Spring 2021 with the UK cautiously opening up. —- Useful links: http://splottsmoor.blogspot.com/ https://www.dadlasoul.com/ https://www.wespringforward.com/ https://rifa.co.uk/ https://www.theglamourclub.co.uk/ --- If you’ve not yet signed up to Richard's free weekly love letter to society, Finding Chances, then you can for free at www.findingchances.substack.com. He writes about the people he meet, the lessons he's learning and the extraordinary organisations powering change in business, culture and education. You’re also very welcome to join The Possibility Club network - it’s a safe space to think aloud, where thinkers, do-ers and curious folk test ideas and discuss topics of interest and importance. You’ll enjoy it, I promise. Join for free at www.thepossibilityclub.org
There are lies, damn lies and statistics. In this past 18 months most people have become data nerds, looking at dashboards of figures showing infection, hospitalisation, hope, recovery, vaccination, death, ups and downs. Other people have decided it's a conspiracy, and that numbers are being used to manipulate us, and to take away our freedoms. Regardless - we’ve all become closer to numbers as a story, trying to make sense of what is going and what to expect is around the corner. In this episode of After Corona? from The Possibility Club podcast we're inviting you in to our curious spreadsheet as we explore our new relationship with statistics. And our special guest this week has probably done more to demystify and simplify the world of stats and data than almost anyone else in the UK media, and it was a pleasure to chat with him a few weeks ago. Tim Harford OBE is the Financial Times’ 'Undercover Economist’, and amongst many other programmes has been the presenter of 'More Or Less' on BBC Radio 4 for nearly 14 years. Tim is a Visiting Fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford and an honorary Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society and has won countless awards for his economic journalism and ability to make the complex accessible. We say countless awards, but, of course, Tim would point out that they can absolutely be counted. Tim’s acclaimed books and podcasts include ’50 Things That Made The Modern Economy’ ‘How To Make The World Add Up: Ten Rules For Thinking Differently About Numbers’ and the optimistic and brilliant series we all have needed in these past few months, ‘How To Vaccinate The World’. We spoke to Tim about why statistics are coming into their own in the data age, but also why most people still struggle to really understand whether what they read is at all reliable. ---- Useful links: https://timharford.com/ https://timharford.com/books/worldaddup/ https://timharford.com/books/50things/ https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000py6s https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qshd ---- For more information on how you can get involved with The Possibility Club – an inclusive community of professionals working out what’s next, have a look here > www.thepossibilityclub.org You can also receive Finding Chances, a free weekly letter from Richard Freeman, looking behind-the-scenes at business, culture, community and education by signing-up at www.findingchances.substack.com/ We’d love to know what you think of this podcast. Please review and share your responses to this podcast on your favourite podcast platform. This is an always possible podcast. The interviewer was Richard Freeman for always possible and the producer was Chris Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.
Wherever you are, what is around you? And who is around you? Who is your tribe, and has that changed in the past year? In every single episode of this After Corona? series of podcasts, contributors have spoken of a change to their sense of community. There are clichés of the Blitz Spirit, or more nuanced takes on business being more in tune with food banks; teachers and parents having a more shared understanding about how learning works; politicians acknowledging the power of grassroots togetherness around topics that matter. We don’t know what your experience of the pandemic has been, but chances are you’ve had to look at your communities in a new light. Friends you’ve missed, local businesses you’ve tried out for the first time, studying the data on how your area is doing and what is being said about. Richard Freeman, always possible's CEO, has over the last year been collecting audio testimony from people across the UK. These podcasts are a moment in time of how people, in the thick of it, all have been feeling at different points in lockdown, and what they think the future is going to look like. In this episode, we are simply looking at community. Two faith leaders, just 70 miles apart. Father Oliver Coss, from All Saints Church in Northampton and Dr Catherine Okoronkwo from All Saints & St Barnabas Church in Swindon. The director of a public, private partnership looking at the economy, regeneration and skills in Coastal West Sussex, Caroline Wood. Ryan Huttley, a youth worker in Essex - and Ben Clench an old friend of mine and past podcast interviewee, also a speaker and writer on his past decade recovering from a traumatic brain injury and relying on the NHS. Some of these contributions are from a year ago, some six months, some more recent - painting a picture of what was surprising, and what wasn’t, about the way people rallied around one another at different stages of the pandemic. What aspects of our new approaches to community to we want to keep? --- Useful links: - http://www.allsaintsnorthampton.co.uk/ - http://allsaintsstbarnabas.org.uk/ - https://youth.essex.gov.uk/ - https://coastalwestsussex.org.uk/ - https://www.benclench.co.uk/ --- For more information on how you can get involved with The Possibility Club – an inclusive community of professionals working out what’s next, have a look here > www.thepossibilityclub.org You can also receive Finding Chances, a free weekly letter from Richard Freeman, looking behind-the-scenes at business, culture, community and education by signing-up at www.findingchances.substack.com/ We’d love to know what you think of this podcast. Please review and share your responses to this podcast on your favourite podcast platform. This is an always possible podcast. The interviewer was Richard Freeman for always possible and the producer was Chris Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.
Welcome to the third in a new series of The Possibility Club podcasts looking in depth at the subject of Ageing Well.
Each of the four special episodes will feature discussions between researchers, community practitioners, health specialists and more, busting some of the myths that persist about ageing as well as looking at how our understanding of how to live long and happy lives is changing.
From technology to the care system, innovation in product and service design to narratives about ageing - we will be exploring how to turn the problem of getting older into an opportunity for a life well lived.
This series has been developed by always possible in collaboration with the University of Sussex and in each episode, a member of the always possible team will be in conversation with an expert from the University of Sussex plus special guests.
To find out more about the whole programme, the free online events and The Possibility Club discussion circle - where people with an interest in the topic can share ideas and connect - visit www.alwayspossible.co.uk/ageing-well
In this third episode, always possible Associate Lucy Paine discusses digital inclusion and inclusive design with Dr Ralitsa Hiteva from the University of Sussex's Science, Policy and research unit and Social Entrepreneur, Eric Kihlstrom – with a special guest appearance from Oscar the dog!
To have future Ageing Well conversations download automatically to your smartphone or tablet hit the subscribe button on your favourite podcast app.
--- Useful links:
https://the-possibility-club.mn.co/groups/3992209/feed
https://www.aging2.com/about/
http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/97148/
Ageing Well is an always possible podcast, created in collaboration with the University of Sussex with support from the Economic & Social Research Council. It is produced and edited by Chris Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.
Mike Fairclough is not an ordinary primary school headteacher.
It may be an unassuming state school for 7-11 year olds, at the back of an Eastbourne housing estate - but West Rise Junior, is nationally famous for its focus on risk and resilience, teaching children to use fire, knives and guns, to care for dangerous animals and to be candid about how they are feeling, embracing tricky conversations as a part of life.
In this After Corona episode of The Possibility Club podcast, we look at the decisions and perspectives of a primary education leader during the biggest challenge to the delivery of education in the UK since the second world war.
Mike Fairclough’s two books on education and learning ‘Playing With Fire’ and ‘Wild Thing’ focus on the innate creativity and curiosity of children, and how it is the adults that don’t know how to cope when presented with challenges with our playfulness and ability to learn through risk eroded as we get older and more buttoned-up.
We recorded this conversation with Mike in March 2021, in order to get the view from the frontline of how this pandemic has affected children, families and school communities.
If the curriculum at West Rise Junior is so cleverly focused on personal capacity to deal with change and uncertainty, how has it benefited students at a time like this?
We talked about the decisions to close schools to all but key worker and vulnerable children, remote learning, inequality and opportunity and the hope for a better understanding of children’s wellbeing and resilience from all of society.
--- Useful links:
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http://mikefairclough.squarespace.com/
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https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/19042914.covid-19-sussex-headmaster-teaches-outdoors-says-children-coping-better-adults/
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https://www.eastbourneherald.co.uk/whats-on/arts-and-entertainment/what-makes-most-children-so-happy-most-time-3094890
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https://www.waterstones.com/book/wild-thing/mike-fairclough/9781788176286
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https://www.waterstones.com/book/playing-with-fire/mike-fairclough/9781911382072
For more information on how you can get involved with The Possibility Club – an inclusive community of professionals working out what’s next, have a look here > www.thepossibilityclub.org
You can also receive Finding Chances, a free weekly letter from Richard Freeman, looking behind-the-scenes at business, culture, community and education by signing-up at www.findingchances.substack.com/
We’d love to know what you think of this podcast. Please review and share your responses to this podcast on your favourite podcast platform.
This is an always possible podcast. The interviewer was Richard Freeman for always possible and the producer was Chris Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.
Blue skies, clean air, birdsong, wild animals in town centres, falling back in love with gardens and open spaces - for a moment, the conversation in 2020 was that there are positives to public health lockdowns. Things we might want to keep. And in 2021, the libertarian-leaning, free-market driven, friend of industry UK Conservative government will be hosting one of the most important UN climate change conferences in history - at COP26. The United States are back on board. China say they are on board. And the UK can legitimately declare that it is halfway to reaching carbon net zero in 2050, with emissions down 51% from 1990 levels. But is it even remotely enough? Are there still people who don’t get it? And should we be worried that when restrictions are all over for COVID-19, we’ll have all forgotten how much better our environment was in such a short time? In this episode of the After Corona? series, we’re looking at sustainability. Steve Creed is a Canadian sustainability expert, living in the UK a former director of the UK Waste & Resources Action Programme and now advising on circular economy mechanisms and community land trust development. Robert Jones-Mantle has been involved in running the Magpie recycling co-operative in Brighton for over 25 years, launching one the UK’s first ever kerbside recycling collection services in 1996. Leo Barasi is a writer, TV and radio broadcaster, climate change consultant, an expert on public opinion around sustainability and author of the 2017 book ’The Climate Majority: From Apathy to Action’. Ben Miller is co-founder of Latitude Social Design, an agency using cognitive diversity, design thinking and problem-solving to enable people from across society and business to have a shared approach to tackling big challenges. We asked the same seven questions of these four special contributors, who are all giving personal testimony about their pandemic experiences and what it has meant for their professional mission. ---- Useful links: https://magpie.coop/ https://ethicalshop.org/the-climate-majority-by-leo-barasi-8360.html https://podcasts.apple.com/pa/podcast/making-eh-happen/id1554340195?l=en https://latitudesocialdesign.com/ --- For more information on how you can get involved with The Possibility Club – an inclusive community of professionals working out what’s next, have a look here > www.thepossibilityclub.org You can also receive Finding Chances, a free weekly letter from Richard Freeman, looking behind-the-scenes at business, culture, community and education by signing-up at www.findingchances.substack.com/ We’d love to know what you think of this podcast. Please review and share your responses to this podcast on your favourite podcast platform. This is an always possible podcast. The interviewer was Richard Freeman for always possible and the producer was Chris Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.
Just before Christmas 2020, on the 10th December, a rather heated meeting of Handforth Parish Council Planning and Environment Committee took place remotely on Zoom video conferencing software. A few weeks later, in January, an edited highlights package of the meeting started gaining some traction on social media. What is this strange pantomime, of parochial public officials tearing strips off one another over the internet? The video largely concerned a bad-tempered committee chair at loggerheads with a guest mediator who had been brought in to try and restore order to a dysfunctional group. The factions were clear, and the battle lines were drawn. Council meetings in this part of the UK were notorious for bullying and tensions - if you had reason to be aware of them. On YouTube, the video was racking up thousands and then hundreds of thousands of views, spawning catchphrases, musical theatre tributes, merchandise, parody sketches - suddenly an unassuming meeting from a small town in Cheshire was a global news story. The Washington Post described it as being "like an absurdist British play”. The undeniable star was the only real grown-up in the room, a professional local government officer and clerk by the name of Jackie Weaver who had been parachuted in to challenge intimidating behaviour. Her calm and assertive manner was recognised and praised - and she became a big star overnight. The UK government are looking at making live streaming of all parish council meetings mandatory due the 'Jackie Weaver phenomenon’ - and Jackie has used her new found fame to lead discussions about young people and politics, the role of local government, sexism and bullying and the messy world of democracy. We spent some time with Jackie at the start of March 2021, and discussed all of these things and more. When the dust settles on the pandemic and on Handforth - what does the future hold for local politics - and, of course, for Jackie Weaver herself. --- Useful links: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsBBGVi2MCw https://www.handforth.org.uk/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzfaZqmImLU https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/jackie-weaver-interview-handforth-parish-council-b1838725.html https://www.lgcplus.com/politics/governance-and-structure/exclusive-jackie-weaver-the-handforth-legacy-and-her-message-to-jenrick-18-02-2021/ https://speakerpolitics.co.uk/vote-2021/2786-handforth-parish-council-sensation-jackie-weaver-encourages-young-people-to-take-ownership-o --- For more information on how you can get involved with The Possibility Club – an inclusive community of professionals working out what’s next, have a look here > www.thepossibilityclub.org You can also receive Finding Chances, a free weekly letter from Richard Freeman, looking behind-the-scenes at business, culture, community and education by signing-up at www.findingchances.substack.com/ We’d love to know what you think of this podcast. Please review and share your responses to this podcast on your favourite podcast platform. This is an always possible podcast (www.alwayspossible.co.uk) Produced by Lo Fi Arts (https://christt.com/consultancy/)
There were 241 music festivals planned for 2020, but in the end fewer than 5% actually took place. We are a festival-loving country - from vintage car rallies, to the entire book world descending on the tiny village Hay-on-Wye, community carnivals and colourful civil rights celebrations to big multi-disciplinary months of culture like the festivals in Edinburgh and Brighton - the British know how to party. And here we are in 2021. We know that Glastonbury is out, but Reading and Leeds are in. Festivals might be only accessible to the vaccinated, but that’s presuming people will want to get up close and personal at all, after a year of learning how not to. And it is not just the organisers, the venues, the contributors and technical crew impacted - but festivals are a clear marker of place and of identity. For some more remote places, like Shepton Mallett and Lulworth Castle, the annual calvacade of resellers might be welcomed through sometimes gritted teeth - but festivals are not just huge economic drivers for these beauty spots, but they connect tens of thousands of people with landscapes and parts of England they might not otherwise see. And they leave with good memories. Our desire to gather and collectively revel in shared interests will never die - but the economics of risk, and the sheer logistical apparatus of convening mass events have been rocked. Festivals cost a huge amount of money and take months and months of planning. What we understand festivals to be, may not actually be for some time. In this After Corona? episode, we’re looking at the impact on UK festivals, how people have responded and what comes next. The special guests you'll hear recorded their contributions at different points over the past year - and I wanted to get a sense of mood and response to the changing landscape. Andrew Comben is the Chief Executive of both Brighton Dome and Brighton Festival, and 2020 would have been his 12th festival - working with guest Director Lemn Sissay. As I speak the 2021 festival is now launched - as a hybrid of digital, physical, outdoor and spectacle - but back in spring last year, when Andrew spoke to us, absolutely nothing was certain. Ros Green is the Director of the Essex Book Festival - a key cultural landmark every March in the East of England. I was working closely with Ros last year when the festival was curtailed whilst in full swing - yet innovation led to some surprising new ways of working. Joanna Hedges - who has since got married and changed her name to Goodey - is part of the always possible team as well as an extraordinary festival producer and events management expert with lots of hats on. She reflects here on what happens to a grassroots community when its big annual get-together is pulled. And Marion Leeper, is joining us from the East Anglian Story-telling Festival. And whilst the planned events of last year needed to change last minute, our need to share stories was not diminished one bit - so, perhaps, we just find new ways... --- Useful links: https://essexbookfestival.org.uk/ https://brightonfestival.org/ https://southwestfest.org.uk/ http://www.eastanglianstorytellingfestival.co.uk/ --- For more information on how you can get involved with The Possibility Club – an inclusive community of professionals working out what’s next, have a look here > www.thepossibilityclub.org You can also receive Finding Chances, a free weekly letter from Richard Freeman, looking behind-the-scenes at business, culture, community and education by signing-up at www.findingchances.substack.com/ We’d love to know what you think of this podcast. Please review and share your responses to this podcast on your favourite podcast platform. This is an always possible podcast (www.alwayspossible.co.uk) Produced by Lo Fi Arts (https://christt.com/consultancy/)
This is the first in a new series of The Possibility Club podcasts looking in depth at the subject of Ageing Well. Each of the four special episodes will feature discussions between researchers, community practitioners, health specialists and more, busting some of the myths that persist about ageing as well as looking at how our understanding of how to live long and happy lives is changing. From technology to the care system, innovation product and service design to narratives about ageing - we will be exploring how to turn the problem of getting older into an opportunity for a life well lived. This series has been developed by always possible in collaboration with the University of Sussex and in each episode, a member of the always possible team will be in conversation with an expert from the University of Sussex plus special guests. To find out more about the whole programme, the free online events and The Possibility Club discussion circle - where people with an interest in the topic can share ideas and connect - visit www.alwayspossible.co.uk/ageing-well --- In this first episode, always possible Chief Executive Richard Freeman speaks to Dr Henglien Lisa Chen, the University of Sussex's Deputy Director for Social Work Innovation & Research and Charlotte Evans, also known as the Story Chaplain. They discuss the definition of 'old'; who is consulted when policies are made, and who is really at the heart of product and service design for older people? They look at the role of technology, when considering elder care and connection - but it is not a panacea. If there is one thing we have learned during the COVID-19 pandemic, it is that there is such a thing as 'touch deprivation’. --- To have future Ageing Well conversations download automatically to your smartphone or tablet hit the subscribe button on your favourite podcast app. You will also receive other episodes from The Possibility Club including the After Corona? series in which we look ahead at society and business beyond the Covid-19 pandemic, and a series about how we eradicate slavery in the 21st century - another collaboration between always possible and the University of Sussex. Useful links: https://the-possibility-club.mn.co/groups/3992209/feed https://www.storychaplain.com/ Co-creating connected and intelligent care homes for people with dementia https://blogs.sussex.ac.uk/policy-engagement/files/2020/05/research-brief-EK-2020-final.pdf Staying together recovering together: Covid-19 research report https://www.befriending.co.uk/resources/25014-staying-together-recovering-together-covid-19-research-report --- Ageing Well is an always possible podcast, created in collaboration with the University of Sussex with support from the Economic & Social Research Council. It is produced and edited by Chris Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.
Michael Rosen, or Dr Michael Rosen due to his own PhD and the numerous honarary degrees bestowed upon him, is one of the world’s best loved children’s writers - with over 150 books, spanning 40 years in publishing. As a poet, broadcaster, performer, teacher, academic, polemicist he has been a consistent ambassador for literacy and imagination, and the value of education - and the spoken word - as a tool for social justice and civil progress. Michael was appointed the Children’s Laureate from 2007 to 2009. Michael Rosen hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons in spring 2020, when he became one of the first high profile figures to become seriously unwell with Covid-19. As a man in his 70s, taken ill as the pathology of the virus was only starting to be understood, people and the media started thinking the unthinkable and it became a waiting game - with his family patiently asking for space whilst they cared for him. Michael spent 47 days in intensive care at Whittington Hospital in north London. In June, he was able to begin his long recovery at home and the world was grinning again when Michael was able to start writing again, and talking about what had happened. We spoke to Michael about his new book, ‘Many Different Kinds of Love: A Story of Life, Death and the NHS’. This series of poems, letters and conversations charting his recovery and the people who have been helping him recover is his most emotionally raw book since writing about the death of his son Eddie to meningitis in 1999. We also chatted about the education and health systems, and Michael’s anger at decisions made in the early stages of the pandemic - and what comes next, when he is fully recovered and the world is able to emerge from this collective trauma. —- Useful links: - https://www.michaelrosen.co.uk/ - https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/mar/13/michael-rosen-this-book-is-about-what-it-feels-like-to-nearly-die - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1wOZJ1B77M - https://www.waterstones.com/book/many-different-kinds-of-love/michael-rosen/2928377051471 ---- For more information on how you can get involved with The Possibility Club – an inclusive community of professionals working out what’s next, have a look here > www.thepossibilityclub.org You can also receive Finding Chances, a free weekly letter from Richard Freeman, looking behind-the-scenes at business, culture, community and education by signing-up at www.findingchances.substack.com/ We’d love to know what you think of this podcast. Please review and share your responses to this podcast on your favourite podcast platform. This is an always possible podcast. The interviewer was Richard Freeman for always possible and the producer was Chris Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.
In a wide conversation at the end of January 2021, we spoke to our special guest, The Baroness Morgan of Cotes about politics and policy, technology, data and accountability in the post-Brexit world. Before being appointed to the House of Lords, Lady Morgan was MP for Loughborough between 2010 and 2019 - and a senior member of Conservative-led government for most of the 2010s, mainly under David Cameron and Boris Johnson’s premierships. Positions held include Economic and Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Secretary of State for Education, Minister for Women and Equalities and Secretary of State for Culture, Media & Sport. With experience as a former solicitor and corporate lawyer, Lady Morgan was a prominent Remain campaigner during the Brexit debate and describes herself as a One Nation Conservative. But with a short window to chat in January 2021, we wanted to explore current thinking on data and big tech, following a speech exactly a year before in which she declared that the UK should be unashamedly pro-tech. What does that mean and what are the risks? And has that changed since the world’s digital transformation has so unexpectedly accelerated? --- Useful links: https://www.gov.uk/government/people/nicky-morgan https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/baroness-morgan-speaking-on-how-we-can-make-technology-work-for-everyone https://www.verdict.co.uk/nicky-morgan-uk-tech/ https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/nicky-morgan-bett-show-2016 https://enterpriseadviser.careersandenterprise.co.uk/ ---- For more information on how you can get involved with The Possibility Club – an inclusive community of professionals working out what’s next, have a look here > www.thepossibilityclub.org You can also receive Finding Chances, a free weekly letter from Richard Freeman, looking behind-the-scenes at business, culture, community and education by signing-up at www.findingchances.substack.com/ We’d love to know what you think of this podcast. Please review and share your responses to this podcast on your favourite podcast platform. This is an always possible podcast (www.alwayspossible.co.uk) Produced by Lo Fi Arts (https://christt.com/consultancy/) For more information on how you can get involved with The Possibility Club – an inclusive community of professionals working out what’s next, have a look here > www.thepossibilityclub.org You can also receive Finding Chances, a free weekly letter from Richard Freeman, looking behind-the-scenes at business, culture, community and education by signing-up at www.findingchances.substack.com/ We’d love to know what you think of this podcast. Please review and share your responses to this podcast on your favourite podcast platform. This is an always possible podcast (www.alwayspossible.co.uk) Produced by Lo Fi Arts (https://christt.com/consultancy/)
The unemployment forecasts are yo-yoing a bit at the moment, but what we do know is that the conservative estimate of 6% of UK adults being unemployed following the Covid-19 pandemic will disproportionately impact those at the start of their career as well as the over 50s, mainly women. Boris Johnson has announced a pledge of life-long learning for all, as well as cash incentives for employers to take on apprentices, trainees and young people through the kickstart scheme. But Further Education and careers education seems to have been the bête noire of the last few governments. Over 50% of adults enrol in vocational or technical education at some point, most employers rely on it to measure their staff’s knowledge of specific subjects, and it is a lifeline for many of the people who need bespoke support (eg. the niche skill professions, people with additional needs, the elderly, the unemployed, the imprisoned and on). So why has it been so drastically underfunded for decades, and so scoffed at as the scruffy relation to a university education (which is undertaken by c. 32% of adults)? In this After Corona episode, we’ve got a few personal reflections from people on a mission to help people find meaningful learning pathways to work, and for that work to be accessible to everyone - not just the well-heeled or well-connected. It is a subject that we're particularly invested in, at always possible, and have spent years trying to navigate as the system is so very messy. Our guests are speaking on behalf of themselves not their organisations, but have a breadth and depth of knowledge on this issue and are speaking from the heart about their own lockdown experiences and what they think is going to happen in the world around them. Contributions have been collected from across the past 10 months. Elizabeth Bailey is Head of Careers and Widening Participation with Medic Mentor - a non-profit organisation trying to open up careers in medicine and veterinary surgery to people who would not normally consider it. Sam Rhodes is the Employability and Skills Project Coordinator for East Sussex County Council, following his time as Head of the Careers Service at the University of Brighton. Debbie Bennett is the manager of the Essex and Suffolk Children’s Universities which aim to raise aspiration from a young age in the East of England. And Nick Fenn is the Principal of Aldridge Adult Learning, with two decades in further education in the UK and as an English language teacher in many other countries. We wanted to know what they thought the pandemic had done for their work and what might come next for people looking for work. But first, as ever, we asked them who they are and how they are feeling right now. --- Useful links: https://www.childrensuniversity.co.uk/universities/essex-childrens-university/ https://aldridgeadultlearning.com/ https://careerseastsussex.co.uk/ https://medicmentor.co.uk/ — For more information on how you can get involved with The Possibility Club – an inclusive community of professionals working out what’s next, have a look here > www.thepossibilityclub.org You can also receive Finding Chances, a free weekly letter from Richard Freeman, looking behind-the-scenes at business, culture, community and education by signing-up at www.findingchances.substack.com/ We’d love to know what you think of this podcast. Please review and share your responses to this podcast on your favourite podcast platform. This is an always possible podcast (www.alwayspossible.co.uk) Produced by Lo Fi Arts (https://christt.com/consultancy/)
In this After Corona episode, we’re returning to look at the music industry, which has had an incredibly tumultuous year, and building on our past conversations with Norman Cook, Amy Lamé and Fiona Bevan who all referred to the work of the man you are about to hear. Mark Davyd is the founder and CEO of Music Venue Trust, the charity that represents hundreds of small and medium-sized venues in the UK. He is the co-owner of Tunbridge Wells Forum, a venue he founded in a toilet over 20 years ago and was the former CEO of Rhythmix, for two decades the multi-award winning music and mental health organisation that worked with young people in challenging circumstances. Mark’s past commercial music career has also seen him work as an artist manager, label owner and promoter. There is very little about the music industry that is not understood by my guest this episode. Mark, and the Music Venues Trust, have been hailed as heroes by many in the UK for running some very hard-hitting campaigns that put small and medium pubs and gig venues at the forefront of cultural recovery funding. Veteran radio DJ Steve Lamacq is just one of the voices calling for Mark Davyd and his team to receive an official honour - because since March 2020, an estimated £1.2million has been raised, preventing 556 music venues from having to close. We spoke to Mark shortly before Christmas 2020 - about the campaign and the forensic approach by the Music Venues Trust, and what elements of their approach worked and why, what more is to be done, and whether the music industry will be scarred forever by the near death experience of so many of its grassroots venues. Useful links: http://musicvenuetrust.com/ https://saveourvenues.co.uk/ https://www.musicweek.com/opinion/read/viewpoint-mark-davyd-on-the-battle-to-reopen-every-venue-safely/081590 https://www.nme.com/news/music/steve-lamacq-calls-for-music-venue-trust-boss-mark-davyd-to-get-a-knighthood-2750953 — For more information on how you can get involved with The Possibility Club – an inclusive community of professionals working out what’s next, have a look here > www.thepossibilityclub.org You can also receive Finding Chances, a free weekly letter from Richard Freeman, looking behind-the-scenes at business, culture, community and education by signing-up at www.findingchances.substack.com/ We’d love to know what you think of this podcast. Please review and share your responses to this podcast on your favourite podcast platform.
Since July 2020 we’ve been speaking to people who’s work and livelihoods have been impacted by the coronavirus pandemic - some of them in devastating ways, leading to moving testimony about radical change, challenge and renewal needed in the coming months and years. And other people who have had more of a calm, philosophical moment of peace in any otherwise chaotic ratrace - with the forced disruption actually giving them permission to do things they think they should have done long ago. In this episode, we’re shining a light on the media, publishing and broadcasting industries and lifting the bonnet on what the pandemic has meant for them. Demand for high quality content, as we all seem to be calling it, has gone through the roof over this past year - with a lot of people stuck at home getting good value for their Netflix and Disney+ subscriptions whilst learning how to crochet. But what is the reality for the creatives and the - in a sense - architects of the content we consume? With TV and film sets shut down for most of the year and print media in freefall - have we been changing any of our habits or expectations around what we want to watch, listen to or read? I get the sense that this has been a fantastic time for podcast hosts and radio makers, YouTubers and amateur bloggers - but who is paying for this, and how do we know what’s good? Our special guests answering the same personal and bigger picture questions are: - the brilliantly acerbic TV and radio broadcaster, novelist, comedian and script-writer David Quantick - leading technology journalist and magazine editor Chris Middleton; - TV and film production manager Greg Harris - audio producer and presenter and Director of Chelmsford Community Radio, Michelle Durant. Contributions to this episode were made from various points in the pandemic since April 2020. We wanted to know - both then and now - how they are feeling about all of this, and what happens next. --------- Useful links: https://davidquantick.com/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Quantick https://chrismiddleton.company/ http://www.chelmsfordcommunityradio.com/ --- For more information on how you can get involved with The Possibility Club – an inclusive community of professionals working out what’s next, have a look here > www.thepossibilityclub.org You can also receive Finding Chances, a free weekly letter from Richard Freeman, looking behind-the-scenes at business, culture, community and education by signing-up at findingchances.substack.com/ We’d love to know what you think of this podcast. Please review and share your responses to this podcast on your favourite podcast platform. This is an always possible podcast. The interviewer was Richard Freeman for always possible and the producer was Chris Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.
Since July 2020 Richard Freeman has been speaking to people who’s work and livelihoods have been impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. Some of them in devastating ways, leading to moving testimony about radical change, challenge and renewal needed in the coming months and years. And other people who have had more of a calm, philosophical moment of peace in any otherwise chaotic ratrace - with the forced disruption actually giving them permission to do things they think they should have done long ago. In this episode of The Possibility Club: After Corona?, we're delighted to bring you a conversation from the end of November 2020. On the face of it, Jimi Famurewa lives the life that any 30-something man in 21st century Britain would give a kidney for. Jimi is one of the UK’s most revered lifestyle journalists, with a writing and editing CV covering everything from The Guardian to Empire Magazine, Grazia to Time Out and Wired. He is a cultural polymath, writing knowledgeably on film, music, parenthood, travel, literature, black British identity, emerging technology and much more. There are few A list stars that Jimi hasn’t interviewed for different publications and - of course - he is making waves as a podcast host - with popular shows on music and food. Jimi has written books on London life for young families as well as receiving acclaim for his short fiction, with a novel in the works too. At the time of our conversation, Jimi had been the Food Critic for ES Magazine and had just recently won the prestigious Restaurant Writing Award from the British Guild of Food Writers. Jimi often appears as a guest critic on BBC’s MasterChef. A week after our chat, and of course it was top secret at the time, Jimi was announced as the new Chief Restaurant Critic across all the Evening Standard print and digital titles taking over from Fay Maschler who has been in the role for 48 years. There are arguably no bigger boots to fill in food writing than these. And it should be irrelevant, but it isn’t - whilst south London courses through Jimi Famurewa’s veins like blood, he is the first black restaurant critic on any major UK newspaper and his childhood filled with Nigerian cooking and culture bring something to the British food establishment that needs to be celebrated. What I really wanted to know is how does a restaurant critic ply his trade when all the restaurants are closed - and what were his hopes and fears for the hospitality industry when all this is over. --------- Useful links: https://www.standard.co.uk/reveller/restaurants/jimi-famurewa-standard-new-critic-b720875.html https://www.standard.co.uk/author/jimi-famurewa https://www.hot-dinners.com/2020120910119/Gastroblog/Latest-news/jimi-famurewa-restaurant-critic-evening-standard-fay-maschler-leaving https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000pbx9/sign/masterchef-the-professionals-series-13-episode-3 --- For more information on how you can get involved with The Possibility Club – an inclusive community of professionals working out what’s next, have a look here > www.thepossibilityclub.org You can also receive Finding Chances, a free weekly letter from Richard Freeman, looking behind-the-scenes at business, culture, community and education by signing-up at findingchances.substack.com/ We’d love to know what you think of this podcast. Please review and share your responses to this podcast on your favourite podcast platform. This is an always possible podcast. The interviewer was Richard Freeman for always possible and the producer was Chris Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.
Like or loathe it - everyone’s digital transformation plans got put into warp speed in 2020 and it isn’t slowing down anytime soon. Time will tell what impact a life lived online like this is having on our identity and concentration spans. In this episode we're interested in the impact on the smaller tech and digital businesses in the UK, and whether demand hit the roof or whether the technological need has actually been very specific, benefiting just a few strands of the sector. Our special guests are: Declan Cassidy, Chief Executive of Into Games Tim Robinson, Chief Operating Officer of Tech East Ben Collier, Co-founder of Ocasta Antonia Forster, XR Specialist at Unity Technologies Alex Holliman, Managing Director of Climbing Trees. Between them, these generous and curious folk bring experience from the games industry, tech business networks, mobile software development, virtual and augmented reality design and digital and search marketing. They all answered the same questions - but with personal and heartfelt reflections spanning the period from April 2020 through to January 2021. --- Useful links: https://intogames.org/ https://techeast.com/ https://unity.com/ https://antoniaforster.com/ https://ocasta.com/ https://www.climbingtrees.com/ --- For more information on how you can get involved with The Possibility Club – an inclusive community of professionals working out what’s next, have a look here > www.thepossibilityclub.org You can also receive Finding Chances, a free weekly letter from Richard Freeman, looking behind-the-scenes at business, culture, community and education by signing-up at www.findingchances.substack.com/ We’d love to know what you think of this podcast. Please review and share your responses to this podcast on your favourite podcast platform. This is an always possible podcast. The interviewer was Richard Freeman for always possible and the producer was Chris Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.
As you know, we’re exploring the impact of Covid-19 and other 21st century traumas on UK life - particularly the worlds of business, culture and education - talking to those working at the coalface. A special area of focus, over a number of episodes, is the music industry. Already a sector facing radical adaptation in a digital age, always treading a fine line between a public devoted to live music, festivals and championing their favourite artists and unsustainable business models, the death of record sales and a fragile future for many grassroots music venues. Throw in a global pandemic, and even the most fundamental recording, touring, creating and performing becomes a minefield. We’ve spoken to Norman Cook about club and festival survival, Meeta Raval about the state of opera and Amy Lamé about London’s night-time economy in lockdown - with many more expert voices still to come, who will help to unpick this complex and valuable world. In this podcast episode, our special guest is Fiona Bevan. East Anglian Fiona is both a singer-songwriter of her own folk-inspired music and one of the UK’s most prolific pop and rock songwriters for global acts as diverse as Kylie Minogue, Steps, Nick Mulvey, Lewis Capaldi, Aurora, Ed Harcourt and The Backstreet Boys to name just a handful. A contributor to a clutch of top 40 hit singles and albums, and an acclaimed performer of her own work, Fiona is still best known by many for co-writing the song 'Little Things' with Ed Sheeran. The song was released by One Direction in 2012, getting to number one in 13 countries with platinum certified sales in the UK, USA, Australia, Norway, Mexico and Canada, winning a coveted BMI award for the song-writing. Richard spoke to Fiona about the real lows of being a performer when you are banned from performing, the highs of having a dizzyingly upbeat track included on one of the biggest selling albums of 2020 - and what she thinks needs to change as the industry recovers from this unprecedented crisis. --- Useful links: https://fionabevan.co.uk/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiona_Bevan http://www.navigatorrecords.co.uk/artists/fiona-bevan/ https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/kylie-minogue-songwriter-fiona-bevan-paid-only-100-in-streaming-royalties-for-album-work-xbdl0cxcs https://www.songwritingmagazine.co.uk/how-i-wrote/one-direction-little-things-fiona-bevan --- For more information on how you can get involved with The Possibility Club – an inclusive community of professionals working out what’s next, have a look here > www.thepossibilityclub.org You can also receive Finding Chances, a free weekly letter from Richard Freeman, looking behind-the-scenes at business, culture, community and education by signing-up at findingchances.substack.com/ We’d love to know what you think of this podcast. Please review and share your responses to this podcast on your favourite podcast platform. This is an always possible podcast. The interviewer was Richard Freeman for always possible and the producer was Chris Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.
In these After Corona? podcasts, we're asking people how their lockdown experiences have shaped their thinking, and what they have learned about their industries and communities. We're curious about post-traumatic growth, and whether this sudden and painful disruption may go down in history as a watershed moment for meaningful change. We're not expecting authoritative answers - just personal testimony, and some honest ideas. In this episode: transport. For the past couple of decades we have been demanding a lot more from our transport systems. Cleaner, greener and more sustainable fuels. More efficiency, better service and justifications for high prices. Public transport and mass transit has to be a core part of our future, but we’ve never really figured out who is accountable for it. And then in 2020, over 80% of us stopped using it because it simply isn’t safe to bunch up with strangers in a confined space. With the backbone infrastructure of the developed world on life support, and tens of thousands of jobs at risk - what will this mean for the long term? Our special guests today are Freddie - a commercial airline pilot; Dan - a Material Controller for Bombardier Transportation; Martin - who works in global airline sales; and Chris - a train driver. All of these reflections are from the first lockdown in spring 2020. Some names have been changed. As always, we start with the important questions - who are you, and how are you feeling? --- Useful links: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/the-williams-rail-review https://www.bombardier.com/en/home.html For more information on how you can get involved with The Possibility Club – an inclusive community of professionals working out what’s next, have a look here > www.thepossibilityclub.org You can also receive Finding Chances, a free weekly letter from Richard Freeman, looking behind-the-scenes at business, culture, community and education by signing-up at www.findingchances.substack.com/ We’d love to know what you think of this podcast. Please review and share your responses to this podcast on your favourite podcast platform. This is an always possible podcast. The interviewer was Richard Freeman for always possible and the producer was Chris Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.
To kick off the new year, we’re going to zoom in on politics - most specifically on power and action, and where it comes from when it seems like big, era-defining decisions are needing to be made everyday. Our special guest is Stella Creasy, MP for Walthamstow in north east London since 2010. Early on in her parliamentary career, Stella gained recognition for her successful campaigning on payday loan companies, leading to better regulation of exploitative interest rates - even winning accolades from the conservative press and the then Conservative chancellor George Osborne. As a politician, Stella Creasy is known for direct and detailed interrogation of social injustices, with attention given to the abortion rights of women in Northern Ireland, and the consideration of misogyny as a hate crime. She has sat on the Labour front-benches as shadow ministers for business and crime prevention. Following the birth of her daughter just over a year ago, Stella has worked to improve maternity rights for female MPs, including employing the first ever locum MP to cover some of her constituency work when needing to care for her daughter. Prior to being elected to Westminster, Stella worked for thinktanks and political movements, as a parliamentary researcher and Head of Public Affairs for The Scouts. We spoke to Stella towards the end of November 2020 about power, community, social mobility and what the hell it is like being a British MP through a decade of austerity, Brexit and a global pandemic. --- Useful links: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stella_Creasy https://twitter.com/stellacreasy https://working4walthamstow.co.uk/ --- For more information on how you can get involved with The Possibility Club – an inclusive community of professionals working out what’s next, have a look here > www.thepossibilityclub.org You can also receive Finding Chances, a free weekly letter from Richard Freeman, looking behind-the-scenes at business, culture, community and education by signing-up at https://findingchances.substack.com/ We’d also love to know what you think about the interviews. Please review and share your responses to this podcast on your favourite podcast platform. This is an always possible podcast. The interviewer was Richard Freeman for always possible and the producer was Chris Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.
The Covid-19 pandemic has been the weirdest and least planned-for social experiment in our lifetimes, and it has exposed what is broken about many of our systems and sectors - as well as what is possible when you allow new ideas to be tested. In this episode, we’re looking at the night-time economy. And our very special guest is Amy Lamé. Amy is co-founder of the Olivier Award-winning arts company and club night Duckie, and has been an active campaigner to preserve and protect London’s LGBT pubs and clubs for many years. She served as Mayoress of Camden in 2010/11 and spent her year highlighting the history and culture of live music and nightlife in the borough. Amy is broadcaster, writer and cultural commentator, and her debut book, From Prejudice to Pride: A History of the LGBT+ Movement – was the first LGBT+ history book for children – and was published in 2017. in 2016, Amy was appointed as London’s first ever Night Czar. Working closely with Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, her responsibility is to promote London’s varied nightlife both in the UK and internationally, including safeguarding venues across the city. We spoke with Amy at the end of September 2020, seven months into the global coronavirus pandemic - and at a time when the hospitality, tourism and culture scenes across the whole UK were shell-shocked from the disruption. I wanted to know about a city like London - a city that never sleeps, and is built upon a vibrant life after dark - is this moment of fear and social distancing just going to be a blip for this resilient metropolis - or is there an existential crisis with real challenges for the future? --- Useful links: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy_Lamé https://www.london.gov.uk/people/mayoral/amy-lame https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/plea-live-music-scene-venues-report-london-s-lost-earnings-b71044.html —-- For more information on how you can get involved with The Possibility Club – an inclusive community of professionals working out what’s next, have a look here > www.thepossibilityclub.org We’d also love to know what you think. Please review and share your responses to this podcast on your favourite podcast platform. This is an always possible podcast. The interviewer was Richard Freeman for always possible and the producer was Chris Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.
In this episode, to accompany our other interrogations of the creative industries such as theatre and music under pressure, we’re looking at visual arts. Some might assume the visual arts world has fared OK in lockdown, nothing like the industry of performance and festivals reliant on people gathering together. We've read commentary on why crises are good inspiration for painters and makers, especially when critical theory always likes to consider movements and scenes in historical contexts - aligned with big moments in the human experience. But with galleries disrupted, art fairs shut and everything trying to replicate itself online - have artists actually struggled to make sense of this, have they been unable to show their work and engage with audiences? When the visual arts is often the barometer of what people are thinking, feeling and raging against at any particular time - what will contemporary artworks say about the year 2020 when we have the luxury of looking back? Answering our questions are three special guests - Dan Thompson is one of the UK’s leading community artists, writers and social activists based in Margate; Hayley Dixon is Deputy Director of Focal Point Gallery in Southend-on-Sea and Anna Dumitriu is a multi award-winning visual artist, writer and researcher working at the cutting edge of BioArt and the exploration of infectious disease and synthetic biology through sculpture and digital media. -- Useful links: https://mrdanthompson.wordpress.com/ https://bridgepointrye.com/artists/dan-thompson/ https://www.fpg.org.uk/ https://annadumitriu.co.uk/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Dumitriu — For more information on how you can get involved with The Possibility Club – an inclusive community of professionals working out what’s next, have a look here. We’d also love to know what you think. Please review and share your responses to this podcast on your favourite podcast platform. This is an always possible podcast. The interviewer was Richard Freeman for always possible and the producer was Chris Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.
These conversations are through the lens of Post-traumatic growth - and seeing if there can be such a thing in UK society, culture and business. The Covid-19 pandemic has been the weirdest and least planned-for social experiment in our lifetimes, and it has exposed what is broken about many of our systems and sectors - as well as what is possible when you allow new ideas to be tested. In this episode, the topic is the UK’s clubs, festivals and night-time music culture. And our very special guest is Norman Cook. Norman Cook has had a unique and prolific music career since 1985 when he joined indiepop band The Housemartins, before experimenting with new sounds in hip-hop, house music and big beat as a producer, remixer and artist - going on to become one of the most globally recognised superstar DJs in the mid-90s under his alias Fatboy Slim. Norman holds the Guinness World Record for having the most top 40 hits under different names and aliases - from Beats International and Freak Power to Mighty Dub Katz and Pizzaman. He is a regular staple on the summer festival circuits, headlining stages all over the world and closing stages at Coachella, Glastonbury the New Orleans Voodoo Music Experience and Bestival amongst many others; and his legendary one-off shows include performances at World Cups, in the House of Commons, at the London 2012 Olympics Closing Ceremony and to over 100,000 people on Brighton Beach. We spoke to Norman in September 2020, just as the second wave of coronavirus was starting to become apparent in Europe - and we talked about the impact of the pandemic on the world of dance music, festivals and clubs - and whether there can be anything positive taken from a time in which the experiences he is famous for creating have been forbidden and unsafe. --- Useful links: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatboy_Slim https://www.fatboyslim.net/ https://www.mixcloud.com/FatboySlim/fatboy-slim-lockdown-mixtape/ —-- For more information on how you can get involved with The Possibility Club – an inclusive community of professionals working out what’s next, have a look here. We’d also love to know what you think. Please review and share your responses to this podcast on your favourite podcast platform. This is an always possible podcast. The interviewer was Richard Freeman for always possible and the producer was Chris Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.
If we step back and look at the economic winners and losers during COVID-19, in particular the industries who have managed to weather the storm and those which have partially collapsed - it is fair to say that construction has done, on the whole, OK. In many ways the last industry to shut down and the first to re-open, the building trades are better suited to working in a pandemic than many- with experience of working outside, in full PPE, and often with options to socially distance. Investment in big commercial capital developments may have been stalled, but domestic projects - as people turn their homes into offices, or get the loft converted with the unspent family holiday budget, some construction companies and architects are busier than ever. But is this an accurate picture of the sector’s health. What was happening before - and is this moment a chance to fully embrace and invest in a high-skilled, greener, more tech savvy, more consumer friendly part of the UK economy? Answering our questions in this episode are Scott - who runs an electrical company; Ian - the sales manager of an technical installation company and Sarra - the co-founder of an accredited building contractor. What next for the construction sector, and has it all been as rosy as many make out? ---- Related links: https://www.gmmonk.co.uk/ http://www.ashdownav.com/ https://www.hawesbuilding.co.uk/ --- Thank you to everyone who generously contributed their thoughts and expertise on this episode. We’ll be debating the issues raised at www.thepossibilityclub.org - and we really want to know what you think. Please like, subscribe and write a review if you get a second! The Possibility Club is an always possible podcast, produced by Chris Thorpe Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.
In this episode, the topic is children’s media. This conversation had nothing to do with public health pandemics, and was recorded in January 2020 - about a month before the news really set-in that an incurable and highly infectious virus was moving across Asia and deep into Europe and beyond. But the reason that we’ve included it, in this series is because the discussions on the value of creativity, information and education are incredibly pertinent. With screen-time going through the roof and homeschooling meaning different things to different people, children’s television and radio has had a huge part to play this year, especially on the BBC - but is it good enough? Who writes it? And can entertainment ever really be where learning happens? Our very special guest is Chris Jarvis. Chris’ career in the public eye spans nearly 30 years, making him one of the most recognisable figures in children’s arts and media. From the infamous ‘Broom Cupboard’ in the early 1990s and magazine programmes such as The Friday Zone and Fully Booked, Chris has become best known for his work for pre-school children on CBeebies. Chris has co-presented the programme Show Me, Show Me for over 10 years, alongside extensive work on children's pantomime and translating subjects such as space science and orchestral music into special broadcasts for young children. We talk about the way TV and radio for children is created, and whether this has changed through Chris’ career - and where he thinks it might go next. --- Useful links: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Jarvis_(presenter) https://www.littleradio.co.uk/ https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/shows/show-me-show-me https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMdl2pFnTIA https://www.childrensarts.org.uk/ —-- For more information on how you can get involved with The Possibility Club – an inclusive community of professionals working out what’s next, have a look here. We’d also love to know what you think. Please review and share your responses to this podcast on your favourite podcast platform. This is an always possible podcast. The interviewer was Richard Freeman for always possible and the producer was Chris Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.
In this episode, the topic is the the future of UK theatre and theatre spaces. And our very special guest is Lyn Gardner. Lyn is one of the UK’s most well-known theatre critics and reviewers, working at The Guardian newspaper for over 20 years, but more latterly as Associate Editor of The Stage. Lyn is one of the UK’s most well-known theatre critics and reviewers, working at The Guardian newspaper for over 20 years, but more latterly as Associate Editor of The Stage. Lyn is recognised as a champion of alternative and experimental arts as well as more mainstream productions - writing about 100s of productions each year, with a deep insight into the technical mechanics as well as the emotional heart of live story-telling in different places and spaces. As we have discussed in other podcasts in this series, the UK arts sector has been disproportionately hit by restrictions from social distancing and lockdown rules - with many professionals falling foul of the jobs retention schemes due to the complex nature of pay and employment in performing arts. Richard spoke with Lyn in early September 2020, at a time when many arts venues were declaring themselves unable to open in winter, with many planning to stay closed until March of April 2021. I was keen to know what she thought the industry might look like after corona - and is there any hope at all. --- Useful links: http://www.lyngardner.com/ https://www.thestage.co.uk/author-lyn-gardner https://stagedoorapp.com/lyn-gardner/?i=2 —-- For more information on how you can get involved with The Possibility Club – an inclusive community of professionals working out what’s next, have a look here. We’d also love to know what you think. Please review and share your responses to this podcast on your favourite podcast platform. This is an always possible podcast. The interviewer was Richard Freeman for always possible and the producer was Chris Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.
In each episode we hear personal testimony from people who are worried or hopeful or both about what the future means for them and their work. All contributors are speaking in a personal capacity, and from the heart. They reflect on their own experiences of life in 2020 - all recorded at different points over the past six months - but all thinking more widely about the implications for the future. Some names have been changed. In this episode, I’ve reached out to people who know quite a lot about jobs and money. If the worst-case scenarios come true, After Corona, Britain will have an extra 2 million unemployed people and an extra £370bn of public debt. There are raging debates on whether offices are thing of the past, as businesses have surprised themselves working from home. It seems that half the country has used the money saved from commuting to pay off the credit cards, whilst the other half faces month after month of no income. What are the implications of this on the labour market, the types of jobs we value, the type of lives we want to lead, and the skilled professionals who were in good jobs but now find themselves cut loose? Answering my questions in this episode are Lisa - a careers coach for adults needing make a change; Emma - the director of a recruitment company specialising in flexible work; Roy - a financial advisor and host of The Retirement Gym podcast; and Dan - who balances life in the banking sector but is also known as social media influencer, Career Dad. How has lockdown been for them, and what are their expectations for life after corona? ---- Related links: Flexibility Matters - https://www.flexibilitymatters.co.uk/ The Retirement Gym - https://www.carpenterbox.com/retirementgym/ Career Avengers - https://careeravengers.com/ Career Dad - https://www.careerdad.co.uk/ --- Thank you to everyone who generously contributed their thoughts and expertise on this episode. We’ll be debating the issues raised at www.thepossibilityclub.org - and we really want to know what you think. Please like, subscribe and write a review if you get a second! The Possibility Club is an always possible podcast, produced by Chris Thorpe Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.
In this episode, we’re re-visiting the unprecedented impact of social distancing on the arts, with a specific focus on opera. Our very special guest is one of the UK’s leading sopranos, whose credits include major roles at the Welsh National Opera, Glyndebourne, the Royal Opera House and Opera North - Meeta Raval. In her 20s, Meeta was the inaugural prize-winner of the Basil Turner Prize for her work with British Youth Opera, later going on to receive the first Royal Academy of Music's Pavarotti Prize. She was also the recipient of the Independent Opera Award and was awarded The Sybill Tutton Opera Award by the Musician’s Benevolent Fund. In 2012, Meeta was named Patron of the Wells Cathedral Chorister Trust and her voice has been heard many times on BBC 2 and Radio 3 in recent years. Richard spoke to Meeta in August 2020, about the limbo that many artists find themselves in with the global lockdown easing but with theatres still closed. They talk about the future of opera and whether this is an opportunity to do things differently - particularly the way performers and technical staffing the UK arts sector have the most complex and misunderstood payment systems that have left them more exposed than most at this time. --- Useful links: Meeta's Royal Opera House profile - http://www.roh.org.uk/people/meeta-raval Meeta on Twitter - https://twitter.com/meetarology Daily Telegraph: New Faces - https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/opera/9694409/Meeta-Raval-New-Faces.html --- We’ll be debating the issues raised at www.thepossibilityclub.org, a free network of professionals with something to say and ideas to test - and we really want to know what you think. Don’t forget to join right now, for free. The Possibility Club is an always possible podcast, produced by Chris Thorpe Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.
In each episode we focus on a different part of our society - a business sector or public service - and hear personal testimony from people who are worried or hopeful or both about what the future means for them and their work. Everyone you’re about to hear is speaking in a personal capacity, and from the heart. They reflect on their own experiences of life in 2020, as well as thinking more widely about the implications for the future. Some names have been changed. In this episode, we’re taking another look at education. Unless you were a child of a designated key worker, or you yourself were vulnerable, then you will have missed between 6 and 16 weeks of your education this year - from early years nurseries right through to higher education and adult learning. And whilst the confusion and noise around exams, remote learning and guidance for teachers is tangible right now, we won’t know the true impact of such a massive emergency situation for years to come. Answering my questions in this episode are professors, lecturers, pre-school experts, learning mentors and education and youth work researchers. What value with the education systems have after coronavirus, what needs changing, and what, ultimately, have been the biggest things we’ve all learned? --- For more information on how you can get involved with The Possibility Club – an inclusive community of professionals working out what’s next, have a look at www.thepossibilityclub.org We’d also love to know what you think. Please review and share your responses to this podcast on your favourite podcast platform. This is an always possible podcast. The interviewer was Richard Freeman for always possible and the producer was Chris Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.
We’re asking questions about what next, and whether life after the national anguish of austerity, Brexit and Covid-19 will set progress back on things we care about or will accelerate the growth of ideas and new ways of working. ---- In this episode, we focus on business stories, marketing and brand value as a result of the pandemic. Answering our questions are a Nikki, an entrepreneur, author, consultant and former marketing agency leader; Sam a data story-teller, author and brand consultant; and Steph, an experienced graphic designer. All are speaking in a personal capacity about their own experiences, observations, questions, hopes and fears. You should never let a good crisis go to waste, right? But rather than exploiting the moment to create vast wealth for shareholders - is 2020 the moment in which social value, purpose and business ethics are dominating the corporate conversation? Some people have enjoyed a quiet lockdown, saving money on commuting and holidays, looking to spend money online. Others have seen their livelihoods or their health fall apart, with misery compounded by insensitive adverts, airlines refusing refunds and greedy loan companies. How are businesses acknowledging this unequal disruption when the make decisions about their own values, and how they communicate them? Is this time putting small businesses back decades as they fight for survival - or is it the making of them, with a surge in localism and praise for the small businesses showing innovation and community spirit? Have a listen. See if you agree. ---- Related links: Insight Agents - https://insightagents.co.uk/ How To Be Insightful - https://howtobeinsightful.com Say Design UK - https://www.saydesign.com/ Menopoised - https://www.menopoised.co.uk/ Superengaged - https://superengaged.co.uk/ --- Thank you to everyone who generously contributed their thoughts and expertise on this episode. We’ll be debating the issues raised at www.thepossibilityclub.org - and we really want to know what you think. Please like, subscribe and write a review if you get a second! The Possibility Club is an always possible podcast, produced by Chris Thorpe Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.
This interview was recorded in late autumn 2019 - before the general election, before the UK formally left the EU and when no one in the world had plans for a era-defining global pandemic. However, the ideas and theories discussed resonate more than ever, with a bigger urgency about the way society learns, makes decisions, collaborates and adapts. In this episode, we’re focusing on democracy, social policy and community decision-making. Our very special guest is a sociologist, public intellectual, broadcaster and political adviser - Matthew Taylor CBE. Matthew first rose to prominence as one of the architects of Tony Blair’s historical election victory in 1997, as Campaign Coordinator and Director of Policy. Following a five year stint as Director of the Institute of Public Policy Research, Matthew returned to Downing Street as the head of Blair’s Policy Unit and author of the successful 2005 Labour Party manifesto. For the past 14 years, Matthew has been Chief Executive at The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, - an apolitical think tank with a global fellowship of nearly 30,000 social reformers, educators and cultural activists. Matthew is a regular broadcaster, including The Moral Maze on BBC radio 4, Agree To Differ and The Fix. And, in 2017 he wrote the Good Work report for Theresa May’s government on the future of employment conditions in the UK. Richard met Matthew in his London office to ask him about whether society does really learn in a time of crisis and whether democracy and civic participation is the answer --- Useful links: Matthew on Wikipedia / https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Taylor_(political_strategist) Matthew's blog / https://www.thersa.org/discover/publications-and-articles/matthew-taylor-blog The RSA / https://www.thersa.org/ Good work: the Taylor review of modern working practices / https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/good-work-the-taylor-review-of-modern-working-practices Matthew's lecture on 'An Age Of Insecurity' / https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-AlFZnJHC8 'Leadership After Covid-19' / https://medium.com/bridges-to-the-future/leadership-after-covid-19-12746d8fa2f5 The RSA: 'Bridges To The Future' podcast on change after corona / https://www.thersa.org/coronavirus/podcast --- We’ll be debating the issues raised at www.thepossibilityclub.org, a free network of professionals with something to say and ideas to test - and we really want to know what you think. Don’t forget to join right now, for free. The Possibility Club is an always possible podcast, produced by Chris Thorpe Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.
Is there any chance of post-traumatic growth, whereby bad habits and broken systems no longer need to be accepted or protected? Can industries or public services become stronger with new learning about what really matters and with new energy to close inequality gaps and failed economic structures? In this episode of The Possibility Club, we focus on British theatre. As Peter Brook once sort-of said, all a performer needs in order to tell a story is an empty space and an audience. Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, these are the two things that have been denied, unless done remotely. More people went to the theatre in 2019 than attended a football match, but there is the perception that theatre is for tourists or for the rich. The literati and well-heeled. So, when when lockdown affects all businesses, all jobs and the government has to make tough choices - surely theatre is not our priority? Answering our questions in this episode are four people who rightly disagree. Claire, the drama teacher; Naomi, the director; Louise, the producer and Alastair - whose touring company plays in over 60 UK and USA venues per year. Why is theatre important? Have the digital broadcasts and online productions shown innovation or diluted the artform? Without theatre, what do we miss most? The UK arts is in a critical and dangerous m place at the moment, and whilst these recordings were made before the government pledged to save our ‘cultural treasures’, the future of the regional, grassroots and developmental theatre that is the pipeline for writers, actors, directors and designers is very uncertain. --- Useful links: Brighton People's Theatre / www.brightonpeoplestheatre.org The Original Theatre Company / https://originaltheatreonline.com/ Stagecoach (Wokingham) / https://www.stagecoach.co.uk/wokingham Louise Blackwell / https://www.louiseb.co.uk/ Slung Low / https://www.slunglow.org/ GIFT Festival / https://www.giftfestival.co.uk/ Company 3 / https://www.company3.com/ ----- Thank you to everyone who generously contributed their thoughts and expertise on this episode. We’ll be debating the issues raised at www.thepossibilityclub.org - and we really want to know what you think. Please like, subscribe and write a review if you get a second! The Possibility Club is an always possible podcast, produced by Chris Thorpe Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.
In this episode of The Possibility Club, we focus on the charity sector. UK charities are thought to have lost over £4bn in income between March and June in 2020, with over half directly impacted. One report has suggested that 1 in 10 charities now face bankruptcy. But why do we have charities? To fill the gaps where the state has failed, or to provide the costly specialist services - that would make no money in the private sector - with a depth and expertise that cannot be provided by more general services? Either, or maybe both, you’ll hear in this podcast just how much demand has risen with people turning to compassionate experts to help with the darkest of lockdown challenges. What we do then - at a time of greatest need and diminishing resource? Is it time to re-assess what charities we need, or time to be bolder in how we invest in all of them. Answering our questions in this episode are four people from across the UK who know the value of frontline charitable services, and spend their time navigating complex and broken systems just to deliver fundamental support to those how need it most. Directors, impact evaluators and key workers - these voices delve into the reality of keeping the wheels turning in difficult times, when the consequences of not doing so are unthinkable. ---- Related links: Groundwork East - https://www.groundwork.org.uk/hubs/east/ Together Co - https://togetherco.org.uk/ ----- Thank you to everyone who generously contributed their thoughts and expertise on this episode. We’ll be debating the issues raised at www.thepossibilityclub.org - and we really want to know what you think. Please like, subscribe and write a review if you get a second! The Possibility Club is an always possible podcast, produced by Chris Thorpe Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.
"Everybody needs to be a bit braver - about standing up to inspectorates. They are they are to serve our children; as we are there to serve children and families. When our instincts and the data show that in many cases the education system is doing more harm than good, we have to braver. We have to say no - we’re doing it a different way, and you need to adapt with us." In this episode of the podcast, we focus on education, and homeschooling in particular. Our very special guest is musician, actress, activist, mum and educator - Charlotte Church. Charlotte has been in the media spotlight since she was 11, rapidly becoming one of the most famous classical musicians in the world with a series of multi-million selling albums, world tours and performances for queens, Popes and presidents. Following a second-wave career more in pop-music, acting and TV presenting, Charlotte has more recently turned her attention to social justice and political activism. Still only in her early 30s, Charlotte is an influential voice on vital issues such as gender disparity in the music industry, press intrusion and media regulation, austerity, and fossil fuel drilling in the arctic. It is about education that Richard and Charlotte focussed the chat, drawing on Charlotte’s own unconventional childhood, her experience as a mum and home educator and the school she established at her home in Wales in 2019. Known as The Awen Project, Charlotte’s school draws together different models of self-managed learning, democratic schooling and discovery-led education. Dismissal and challenge by the education establishment has not deterred her so far, but does a project like this have more resonance with parents who have been forced to homeschool during the Covid-19 lockdown - and what is her vision is for the future of education? --- Useful links: https://www.theawenproject.com/ http://democraticeducation.org/ https://alternativestoschool.com/ https://www.wired.com/insights/2013/12/rethinking-education-self-directed-learning-fits-the-digital-age/ --- We’ll be debating the issues raised at www.thepossibilityclub.org, a free network of professionals with something to say and ideas to test - and we really want to know what you think. Don’t forget to join right now, for free. The Possibility Club is an always possible podcast, produced by Chris Thorpe Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.
We’re asking questions about what next, and whether life after the national anguish of austerity, Brexit and covid 19 will set progress back on things we care about or will accelerate the growth of ideas and new ways of working. ---- In this episode, we focus on business support - and business behaviours. Answering our questions are a Zac, Sandra, Yaron and Tony - a collection of experienced business consultants, mentors and coaches. They reflect on the sort of economic world that has led up to this pandemic, and what the damage might be as we struggle to come out of it. They have opinions on whether this is a time to reset, or a time to panic. We hear what they think about ethics, risk, resilience, compassion, sustainability and leadership - and whether we what have had is what we need next. Have a listen. See if you agree. Related links: Upbeat Performance - https://www.upbeatperformance.com/ Business Doctors - https://www.businessdoctors.co.uk/ Tony Dillon on Re-connecting With Nature - https://www.tigerspirit.co.uk/tony-dillon-re-connecting-nature-ccv0302-%C2%A6-creative-conversations-podcast/ Zac Toumazi on Twitter - https://twitter.com/zac_toumazi --- Thank you to everyone who generously contributed their thoughts and expertise on this episode. We’ll be debating the issues raised at www.thepossibilityclub.org - and we really want to know what you think. Please like, subscribe and write a review if you get a second! The Possibility Club is an always possible podcast, produced by Chris Thorpe Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.
In this series of The Possibility Club podcast, we’re asking questions about what next, and whether life after the national anguish of austerity, Brexit and covid 19 will set progress back on things we care about or will accelerate the growth of ideas and new ways of working. Will we grow? Growth is not purely economic. Post-traumatic growth can be social, cultural, moral, technological - about the expansion of ideas and of access to opportunity for more people. In each episode we focus on a different part of our society - a business sector or public service - and hear personal testimony from people who are worried or hopeful or both about what the future means for them and their work. Everyone you’re about to hear is speaking in a personal capacity, and from the heart. They reflect on their own experiences of life in 2020, as well as thinking more widely about the implications for the future. Some names have been changed. ---- In this episode, we focus on health. Answering our questions are a GP, a dental hygienist, an NHS Manager, and a menopause expert. The whole world has effectively been shut down for the sake of our collective health, and out of fear on what uncontrolled viral infections will do for our healthcare systems. So, is this the beginning of a better funded and better resourced UK health system, and a wake up call about the scale of what we need to do to care properly for society’s most vulnerable and to value the role of healthcare workers? Or has this been proof that politics, social inequality and unsustainable economics mean that our attitudes to health leave us destined to keep patching up a system unfit for purpose? Related links: Simply Hormones - https://simplyhormones.com/ Dental Health Spa - https://dentalhealthspa.com/ --- Thank you to everyone who generously contributed their thoughts and expertise on this episode. We’ll be debating the issues raised at www.thepossibilityclub.org - and we really want to know what you think. Please like, subscribe and write a review if you get a second! The Possibility Club is an always possible podcast, produced by Chris Thorpe Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.
"Virtual reality is almost the perfect metaphor for psychosis. You know you’re in the room but what you’re seeing and believing is so different.” This week's guest on The Possibility Club is technology and health pioneer Sarah Ticho. Sarah Ticho has spent her career working across the interdisciplinary arts, academia, healthcare and technology as a producer, curator, artist and researcher. She graduated from the University of Kent with a First Class Honours BSc in Anthropology, with a year in Japan . Following her degree, she worked with the NHS before moving into contemporary art, worked with organisations including Fabrica Gallery and Lighthouse, Brighton. In 2016 she moved to Australia where she worked with The School of Life, TEDxSydney. It was here she began working in VR and joined The Big Anxiety Festival as a Researcher, VR Curator and “Awkward Conversationalist”. In 2017 she moved to the US and became a research assistant at Stanford University, California, investigating the cross-cultural sensory experience of communicating with God. She moved back to the UK and founded Hatsumi in May 2018. Alongside her role with Hatsumi, she is the producer on Deep, a meditative VR experience controlled by breathing, and is the healthcare lead for Immerse UK. Richard Freeman and Sarah spoke in June 2019 about her career and lived experiences, the role of tech in the future of health diagnosis and whether virtual reality really is the 'empathy machine'. --- Useful links: Preston Park Rose Garden https://www.mybrightonandhove.org.uk/places/placepark/preston-park/preston-park-21 Hatsumi VR https://www.hatsumivr.com/ Hatsumi presents Noosphere at TomTech’s VR Lab, 2018 https://www.vrfocus.com/2018/08/hatsumi-vr-presents-noosphere-mindfulness-in-a-hyper-connected-world-at-the-brighton-digital-festival/ Sarah talks Immerse UK on Knowledge Transfer Network https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8b19zEoM_Ik Fabrica Gallery https://www.fabrica.org.uk/ Lighthouse, Brighton http://www.lighthouse.org.uk/ TEDx Sydney https://tedxsydney.com/ The Big Anxiety Festival, Australia https://www.thebiganxiety.org/ Sarah on StoryHackXR podcast, spring 2019 https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/6-myra-appannah-somnai-sarah-ticho-hatsumi-vr/id1435531214?i=1000424884756 Deep VR http://www.exploredeep.com/ The Verge on Oculus Quest https://www.theverge.com/2019/9/27/20885082/oculus-quest-home-headset-lineup-oc6
"I think the painter lies in us all. There’s something that lies unfulfilled. We’re put in boxes and we live our lives in these boxes and what I’m really after is getting out of our box" Persia West was born and raised in Liverpool in the aftermath of world war two, attending the local boy’s school - but from an early age knowing that the outward identity seen by others did not fit with how she felt about herself. 70 years on, and Persia is an international transgender and LGBT activist, speaker on human rights and diversity, a meditation teacher, and writer and speaker on gender, identity, and power. Her personal experiences of shifting gender has deepened her insights into the limitations of created female and male identity. Persia’s books on kindness and spirituality have won her fans around the world and today Persia’s podcast ’the masks of gender’, as well as her many talks and presentations with the Royal Society of Arts, continue to explore the future of inclusion and gender identity in the 21st century. Useful links: The Masks Of Gender podcast (available on Apple Podcasts) http://themasksofgender.com Reference in 19 LGBT Hindu Gods (from The Advocate) https://www.advocate.com/religion/2016/9/06/19-lgbt-hindu-gods Persia West – Just Be Kind (Amazon) https://www.amazon.co.uk/Just-Be-Kind-Persia-West/dp/0957277512/ref=sr_1_1?qid=1569855022&refinements=p_27%3APersia+West&s=books&sr=1-1&text=Persia+West Persia West – The Choice (Amazon) https://www.amazon.co.uk/Choice-Persia-West/dp/0957277504/ref=sr_1_3?qid=1569855069&refinements=p_27%3APersia+West&s=books&sr=1-3&text=Persia+West Persia West – I Am Alessia (Amazon) https://www.amazon.co.uk/I-am-Alessia-Persia-West/dp/0957277520/ref=sr_1_2?qid=1569855045&refinements=p_27%3APersia+West&s=books&sr=1-2&text=Persia+West Caster Semenya (Wikipedia) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caster_Semenya Paul Gaugain (Wikipedia) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Gauguin ‘The Eye In The Mask’ episode - a reading from The Choice https://themasksofgender.com/the-eye-in-the-mask-reading-from-the-choice/ ---- What do you think about gender identity in the 21st century? Is LGBT equality within our grasp, or is society still only able to accept a particular presentation of homosexuality or transgender lives? Come and join the debate by joining The Possibility Club for free, find a community of thinkers and find out about our monthly events. You can also find lots of commentary, expertise and other interviews on the theme of The Future Of Education, Work and Health - at thepossibilityclub.org
“What design thinking does - is it creates space for failure.” Lucy Griffiths is an award-winning educator, editor, marketer, designer, and writer. She is co-founder of sortyourfuture.com, founder of design-led agency We Are Lucky, and author of the Island Friends children's book series. Her career has spanned roles within academia, entrepreneurship and teaching - all centre around the philosophy of design as a tool for changing the way people learn and behave. She is passionate about encouraging enterprise and enhancing the life chances of young people through education that inspires and motivates them to achieve their own definition of success. Lucy’s 2016 TED talk, asked if there was a conceivable way to address some of the most complex and difficult problems in the education system when knowledge is cheap and young people accept that the future is completely unknowable. In her talk, she demonstrates how, by bringing designers into the equation, and connecting them with educators and young people, we can tackle the problems both teachers and learners face, and develop tools and techniques that support them to transform their own learning. As a Trustee of the Royal Society of Arts, Lucy is also helping to think about policy and research at a national level - and the interplay between education, business and design. Richard and Lucy spoke in January 2019, about the role and principles of design-thinking in education and what we need to think about when we tackle future challenges. --- Useful links: Sort Your Future http://sortyourfuture.com – online tool for young people to help make decisions about their future We Are Lucky design agency http://wearelucky.org 'Island Friends' book series http://wildlifefriends.club (about a community of birds off the Pembrokeshire coast) Lucy Griffiths at TEDxSwansea https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXvby4h7oGg The Donaldson Review in Wales, 2015 https://gweddill.gov.wales/docs/dcells/publications/150225-successful-futures-en.pdf Royal Society of Arts https://www.thersa.org/ --- Did you agree? Is design-led thinking a way to create systems from best practice rather than just what is easy or expedient? Come and join the debate by joining The Possibility Club for free, find a community of thinkers and find out about our monthly events. You can also find lots of commentary, expertise and other interviews on the theme of The Future Of Education, Work and Health - at www.thepossibilityclub.org
“All schools need to be resourced to provide an inclusive environment and all schools needed to be required to do that, so that it doesn’t all fall to some specific schools.” Loic Menzies is the Founder and Chief Executive of LKMco, an education and youth ‘think and action-tank’ that believes society should ensure all children and young people receive the support they need to make a fulfilling transition to adulthood. Loic began working as an ambassador for young people as a teenager himself, when he was a youth worker for Cambridge City Council and a Young Advocate for the charity Changemakers. Shortly after his time at university, he transferred his knowledge of youth work practice into teaching, joining the senior leadership team of St. George’s Roman Catholic School in North West London and becoming Head of History and Social Sciences. Loic was part of a period of significant transformation for the school which had unfortunately become of the UK’s most notorious following the stabbing of its headteacher Philip Lawrence by a pupil in 1995. Following this incident, the school’s struggle with the effects of gang culture, persistence absence and constant vandalism meant it was put into special measures by inspectors and was documented in the film Ahead of The Class, starring Julie Walters. However, by 2010 St. George’s was recognised as one the most improved schools in the country and received a coveted Outstanding grade from Ofsted. On leaving teaching, Loic was inspired to use his experience to help shape the future of education and set up LKMco to draw together the different areas of the education and youth sector by linking practical work on the ground to high quality research and policy advocacy. Since then he has worked with organisations ranging from universities to alternative training providers, large corporates to start-up social enterprises and from academics to policy makers. Richard and Loic spoke in early April 2019, about the pressures in the education system, the difference between youth work and teaching and whether we will ever have a learning system in the UK that meets the needs of all children. --- Useful links: Loic’s own company LKM Co https://www.lkmco.org/ Twitter @LKMCoHQ Cambridge City Council – Young People https://www.cambridge.gov.uk/children-and-young-people Teach First https://www.teachfirst.org.uk/ The murder of Philip Lawrence (Wiki) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Philip_Lawrence St George’s Catholic School, Maida Vale https://www.stgeorgesrc.org/ Article about St George’s 10 years after Philip Lawrence's murder, The Independent https://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/schools/class-of-2009-can-st-georges-ever-live-down-the-murder-of-its-headteacher-1796936.html Adam Muirhead’s Possibility Club interview https://soundcloud.com/thepossibilityclub/adam-muirhead Mary Warnock obituary (The Guardian) https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/mar/21/lady-warnock-obituary --- If you are inspired by the conversation, please like, share and review. Did you agree? Do you think we should scrap the whole system and start again? Are the problems in education overhyped? Come and join the debate by joining The Possibility Club for free, find a community of thinkers and find out about our events and debates. You can also find lots of commentary, expertise and other interviews on the theme of The Future Of Education, Work and Health - at www.thepossibilityclub.org
“We are part of the perception of not what manufacturing should be but what it actually is” Made in Britain first began as the Made in Britain campaign in 2011 and was established by Stoves – a Prescot-based cooker manufacturer. After receiving support from the Labour Party and with over 600 members on board, a new Made in Britain marque was commissioned in May 2013 with a new design finalised in June 2013. Made in Britain was officially launched as an independent, non-profit organisation in December 2013. The marque now represents a standard of quality and unity for the British manufacturing sector within the UK and around the world. It is only accredited to businesses that sell goods that have been manufactured or have undergone a final substantial change in Britain before sale. It wasn’t until 2015, that the organisation appointed John Pearce as Chief Executive after his success with GREAT - the UK government's overseas business, tourism and education initiative. John’s prior experience is as an executive in clothing and textiles exports and as a Director of shopping TV channel QVC. This interview is from a series of events, blogs and discussions exploring The Future of Enterprise - you can find loads more stuff added each week on these themes at www.thepossibilityclub.org. Richard Freeman recorded this conversation with John in April 2019, between the original Brexit deadlines. They talk heritage, confidence, the north/south divide, technology and British design. --- Useful links: http://madeinbritain.org Stoves – the Prescot-based cooker manufacturer that instigated Made In Britain https://www.stoves.co.uk/contact/ Product labelling – the law (UK gov) https://www.gov.uk/product-labelling-the-law Wren Kitchens https://www.wrenkitchens.com/ Paxman Scalp Cooling https://paxmanscalpcooling.com/scalp-cooling Tratos Group – copper cable manufacturers https://tratosgroup.com/ --- What do you think about the local vs global debate? Does it matter where we make and buy our goods from? Has Britain got to build its manufacturing base again Come and join the debate by joining The Possibility Club for free, find a community of thinkers and find out about our monthly events. You can also find lots of commentary, expertise and other interviews on the future of business, education and culture - at www.thepossibilityclub.org
"Young teenagers will be having some of their most formative experiences at a big festival in a field somewhere in the UK. And they deserve to be able to see themselves on one of those stages, whichever gender, background or ethnicity they might come from" Since joining the Performing Rights Society’s charitable foundation as Chief Executive in 2008, Vanessa Reed has repositioned the organisation as the UK’s most pioneering and effective funder of new music and talent development, significantly increasing support available to diverse, talented UK songwriters and composers at critical stages in their careers. She has launched an array of transformational funding programmes including the Momentum Music Fund, Women Make Music and the New Music Biennial which help music creators of all backgrounds to realise their potential. Vanessa is also founder of the international Keychange initiative which invests in female talent and raises awareness of the gender gap in the UK and across the world. Vanessa is Chair of Sound UK Arts and on the Board of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic where she Chairs the organisation’s diversity group. Before joining the Foundation, Vanessa worked in various funding, arts and music development roles in Amsterdam, Brussels and London. In 2016 Vanessa won the music category in the Hospital Club’s 100 Awards for UK creative industry influencers. In 2017 Vanessa was awarded a Fellowship by Leeds College of Music and accepted Music Week’s Outstanding Contribution to Charity Award on behalf of the Foundation’s team and Board. In 2018, Vanessa was recognised on the BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour Power List as the 3rd most influential woman in the global music industry after Beyonce and Taylor Swift. This interview is from a series of events, blogs and discussions exploring both The Future of Work and The Future of Gender - you can find loads more stuff added each week on these themes at www.thepossibilityclub.org. Richard recorded this conversation with Vanessa in February 2019, a few weeks before she announced that from August she will be leaving the UK to run New Music USA - further cementing her world-wide influence on the future of the music industry. They talk leadership, power, investment, creativity and why gender equality is so core to her mission in music. --- Useful links: Performing Right Society https://www.prsformusic.com/ PRS Foundation https://prsfoundation.com/ Woman’s Hour Woman In Music Power List 2018 https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3WWSL8B88gS1sCRYrgC1ZTy/power-list-2018-top-40 Momentum Music Fund https://prsfoundation.com/funding-support/funding-music-creators/next-steps/momentum-music-fund/ Keychange https://keychange.eu/ and the Keychange manifesto (PDF link) https://keychange.eu/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/1052-keychange-A5-v15-web.pdf Independent Venue Week (UK venues) https://www.independentvenueweek.com/official-venues/ --- What do you think? Do you agree with Vanessa's mission for the music industry? Come and join the debate by joining The Possibility Club for free, find a community of thinkers and find out about our monthly events. You can also find lots of commentary, expertise and other interviews on the theme of The Future Of Work - at www.thepossibilityclub.org
This interview is from a series of events, blogs and discussions around the theme of The Future Of Health - you can find loads more stuff added each week on this theme at thepossibilityclub.org. You should especially check out the podcast special, presented by CJ Thorpe-Tracey, that features exclusive interviews with musicians SK Shlomo and The Last Skeptik and Hollyoaks actress Anna Passey, amongst many others, speaking candidly about mental health, social media and public perception. So what is 21st century pressure? Why is now different from any other time in history? In this podcast, we have a chat with dietician, food and health expert Jess English, about rising anxiety levels around what we eat, how we eat it, what our bodies look like and how we should manage our lifestyle choices - and what it is like to run a business specialising in helping others to navigate through the noise. Jess is a dietician, accredited by the Health & Care Professions Council, who set-up her own consultancy and private practice - Level Up Nutrition - following a period as clinical NHS dietician, specialising in public health. Jess’ approach is stringently evidence-based, and she supports people to manage their health and self-care through food - and relationship with food - without focusing too much on weight. Jess’ popular blog and masterclasses busts myths around dieting, nutrition and food scares and we talk about how much pressure she thinks people are under to subscribe to a popular food fad when this is usually completely inappropriate - even harmful. Richard and Jess spoke in early March 2019, and enjoyed a meandering conversation about the western relationship with food, the language of dieting and body-image and how Jess has managed to build her business as a health entrepreneur. --- Useful links: Level Up Nutrition https://www.levelupnutrition.co.uk/ Level Up on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/level.up.nutrition/?hl=en Dietitian, Nutritionist, Nutritional Therapist or Diet Expert? https://www.bda.uk.com/publications/dietitian_nutritionist.pdf Health & Care Professionals Council https://www.hcpc-uk.org/ The Rooted Project https://www.therootedproject.co.uk/ Dietetically Speaking https://dieteticallyspeaking.com/ NatWest Entrepreneur Accelerator https://www.business.natwest.com/business/business-banking/services/entrepreneur-accelerator.html Bulletproof coffee: is adding butter to your brew a step too far? https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2014/nov/25/bulletproof-coffee-is-adding-butter-to-your-morning-coffee-a-step-too-far --- What did you think of her views on nutrition and 21st century health? Come and join the debate by joining The Possibility Club for free, find a community of thinkers and find out about our monthly events. You can also find lots of commentary, expertise and other interviews on the theme of 21st Century Pressure - at www.thepossibilityclub.org
PODCAST SPECIAL 21st CENTURY PRESSURE We’re thinking about the turbulence of existence in the 21st century. With more consciousness, longer living, rising populations; immersive technologies; competition for resources and disconnect between the fantasy of the lives we feel we want with the reality of being who we are - how do we cope? In this podcast special, Chris Thorpe-Tracey draws on some of Richard Freeman's past interviews with extraordinary people at the coalface of change - exploring the impact of modern life on the way we look after ourselves and the hope for a less stressful vision for what comes next. In this podcast you'll hear from: Fiona Broadfoot - campaigner, activist, former prostitute and founder of The Build A Girl Project The Last Skeptik - producer, DJ, songwriter SK Shlomo - beatboxer, producer, singer-songwriter and mental health campaigner Jodie McNally - Northern Hub Leader for the EY Foundation; Northern Women Power List award-winner 2018 Anna Passey - actress; 'Sienna Blake' in Channel 4's Hollyoaks Topics covered include: Mental illness Gender Music Grooming Exploitation Young people Social media Geographical inequality Recovery and support Addiction Suicide Asking for help Connections Employment TV + film Self-care Creativity Potential triggers: none of the topics are discussed in graphic detail, but there are personal reflections on mental illness and depression as well as broader insights on social exclusion/exploitation. ------ What did you think of our guests and what they had to say? Come and join the debate by joining The Possibility Club for free, find a community of thinkers and find out about our monthly events. You can also find a whole range of articles, podcasts, blogs and discussions about 21st Century Pressure - at www.thepossibilityclub.org The full interviews with everyone featured can be found at www.thepossibilityclub.org/podcast The interviewer was Richard Freeman. This podcast was presented, produced and edited by CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.
“The EU as a project has always had those two elements; a kind of ideological element but also the hard-edged mercantile element” This interview is from a series of events, blogs and discussions around the theme of Local or Global. We’re thinking about localism and globalism in a 21st century context, about the role of the United Kingdom in the world following Brexit, about our identity and what we consider to be our community, and about the way new power, technology and communication structures are changing the way we think about manufacturing, culture and nationality amongst others. In this podcast, RIchard Freeman has a chat with Dr Richard Lang about law, economics and politics through an international prism, and whether the three can ever sit comfortably together. They discuss European law vs British law and the reputation of the UK in international circles, following the decision to leave the European Union in 2016. Dr Richard Lang is a Senior Lecturer in international law and a member of the EU Committee of the Law Society of England & Wales, following a legal career at a number of Brussels-based law firms. Richard is recognised as an expert in EU fundamental rights by the European Parliament, but has recently been focusing on European criminal law more broadly and the legal implications of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU - on which subject he has been invited to give evidence to parliamentary select committees, particularly around the issue of the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland. The Richards spoke in early April 2019, a few days after the original planned Brexit withdrawal day, with breaking news about extensions and new approaches happening as they talk. --- Useful links: Dr Richard Lang – University of Brighton https://research.brighton.ac.uk/en/persons/richard-lang trying not to mix up: The ECJ https://europa.eu/european-union/about-eu/institutions-bodies/court-justice_en and The European Court of Human Rights https://ijrcenter.org/european-court-of-human-rights/ Amnesty’s explanation of the "Henry 8th powers" https://www.amnesty.org.uk/henry-8th-brexit Legal Perspectives On Brexit shortform book series, published by Routledge https://www.routledge.com/Legal-Perspectives-on-Brexit/book-series/BREXIT --- What did you think of his take on Britain’s legal reputation and of the relationships between domestic and global law-making? Come and join the debate by joining The Possibility Club for free, find a community of thinkers and find out about our monthly events. You can also find lots of commentary, expertise and other interviews on the theme of Global or Local - at www.thepossibilityclub.org Richard Freeman was the interviewer, and this podcast is produced and edited by CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.
This interview is from a series of events, blogs and discussions around the theme of Local or Global. We’re thinking about localism and globalism in a 21st century context, about the role of the United Kingdom in the world following Brexit, about our identity and what we consider to be our community, and about the way new power, technology and communication structures are changing the way we think about manufacturing, culture and nationality amongst others. In this podcast, Richard has a chat with James Pitkeathly about his decision to start a business in Uganda and what he has learnt about being a British traveller, teacher - and now chocolate entrepreneur - in lands very far from home. Following a degree in English from Cambridge University, James Pitkeathly became an expert teacher of English as a foreign language, working around the world both independently and with the British Council as a Teacher Trainer in English. A few years ago, James settled in Kampala, Uganda, and was appointed the social responsibility manager for a large cocoa exporter. Tasked with establishing a community library in Bundibugyo District, James began to see the power of new locally-run enterprises in building community resilience and supporting sustainable regeneration - but also the disconnect between the raw materials abundant and free-flowing from the area - such as cocoa - and the manufacture of an end product that can be sold for the benefit of the same communities. James and his wife Denise founded Moonbean Chocolate in 2017, thought to be one of Africa’s first ever bean-to-bar chocolate makers - enabling farmers to work directly with manufacturers, to celebrate Uganda’s role in the story of a global product such as chocolate and opening up new opportunities for education and community work. Richard has known James for 23 years, but this is the first time that we have spoken about his world adventures, when we caught up in March 2019. The line from Kampala is not brilliant, and was glitchy at times, but stick with it if you can. --- Useful links: Kampala, Uganda (Googlemaps) https://www.google.com/maps?q=kampala+uganda&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjI-ciPwdfhAhWO-aQKHbCdD10Q_AUIDigB Books For Africa https://www.booksforafrica.org/ Moonbean Chocolate Facebook https://b-m.facebook.com/moonbeanchocolate/ Moonbean Chocolate website http://www.moonbeanchocolate.com/ Moonbean Chocolate on God & Wanderlust https://www.godandwanderlust.com/blog/moonbean-chocolate-uganda Moonbean’s original Kickstarter (crowdfunding) page https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sleepingwolfdog/moonbean-chocolate “I have a bit of difficulty with those terms ‘artisanal’ and ‘craft’ when they’re applied to things like bread, because artisanal bakers used to be just called bakers, right?" Co-working, Uganda – Tribe, Kampala https://tribekampala.com/ Design Hub, Kampala https://designhubkampala.com/ James’ learnings about chocolate – Choco Museo, Peru (free open chocolate museum) https://www.chocomuseo.com/ El Quetzal De Mindo chocolate, Ecuador http://www.elquetzaldemindo.com/ Chocolate Alchemy on the art/science of cracking and winnowing cocoa beans http://chocolatealchemy.com/cocoa-bean-cracking-and-winnowing --- Come and join the debate by joining The Possibility Club for free, find a community of thinkers and find out about our monthly events. You can also find lots of commentary, expertise and other interviews on the theme of Global or Local - at thepossibilityclub.org The host was Richard Freeman, and this podcast is produced and edited by CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts. Thanks for listening. Take care. See you soon.
“Currently all of my projects are based on results and output, what I deliver, rather than the hours I work, which is great but I do think, how can that translate into every industry? I have no idea but it is the way we are going." This interview is from a series of events, blogs and discussions around The Future of Work. We’re thinking about what work is, and what we need it to be; how business and enterprise will be continue to be re-structured in the digital age; about a realignment of power and decision-making in employment; and how people are thinking differently about the purpose and placement of work in their lives. In this podcast, Richard Freeman has a chat with Samantha Harland about the changing sands of self-employment; of women and leadership and of attitudes towards flexible working. Samantha Harland is a specialist in business development and growth, with experience that spans corporate brands, cutting-edge technology and coaching for micro-businesses and start-ups from all sectors. Sam is a passionate advocate about rethinking the future of work and helping organisations to innovate, supporting individuals as well as businesses to turn their ideas into tangible business plans. She holds a degree in Organisational Development started her career in accounts, innovations and insights management at global organisations such as Diageo, Unilever and Tesco. More recently, Sam ran an Entrepreneur Start-Up Accelerator on behalf of NatWest and is now a business advisor, workshop facilitator and coach, working on technological and structural innovation with utility companies, the built environment and on the UK's first 5G business accelerator programme in partnership with the Digital Catapult - amongst others. Richard and Sam spoke at the end of March 2019 about the starting points for businesses who want to do things differently in the 21st century, the life of a freelancer and whether Brexit is holding people back. --- Useful links: Samantha Harland Twitter @SamanthaHarland The Hoxby Collective https://hoxby.com/ @hoxbycollective Entrepreneurial Spark https://www.entrepreneurial-spark.com/ The Future Of Work event (run by Samantha in March 2019) https://www.facebook.com/events/68-middle-st/the-future-of-work-part-of-the-spring-forward-festival/364873624344757/ Digital Catapult (5G testbed) https://www.digicatapult.org.uk/ Wired Sussex https://www.wiredsussex.com/ --- What did you think of Sam's perspective on female entrepreneurs, on flexible working and on business mindset? Come and join the debate by joining The Possibility Club for free, find a community of thinkers and find out about our monthly events. You can also find lots of commentary, expertise and other interviews about The Future of Work - at www.thepossibilityclub.org This was presented by Richard Freeman, and this podcast is produced and edited by CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.
PODCAST SPECIAL THE FUTURE OF WORK We’re thinking about what work is, and whether noise about automation, migration and four day weeks - trade wars, skills gaps and the fourth industrial revolution - is hot air or genuinely changing our lives for ever. In this podcast special, Chris Thorpe-Tracey draws on a range of past interviews, conducted by Richard Freeman and Cat Rose, about the thinking that is driving the future structures of employment, skills, service and manufacturing. In this podcast you'll hear from: Chris Middleton - technology journalist and writer; former Editor of The Internet of Business, Computing, Child Internet Safety and The Strategist magazines Professor Martin Doel CBE OBE - FETL Professor of Leadership in Further Education and Skills at the UCL Institute of Education Erica Neve - Director of Learning & Impact at Freeformers Nikki Gatenby - Managing Director of Propellernet; author of 'Superengaged: How To Transform Business Performance By Putting People And Purpose First' Steve Wells - Futurist; Director of Operations at Fast Future Publishing Topics covered include: Skills Robotics Artifical Intelligence Technical Education Automation Workforce development Leadership Futurism Tackling wicked problems Behaviours at work Mindset Apprenticeships Global demographics Economics Autonomous vehicles Safeguards against the rise of the machines Ethics Making life better ------ What did you think of our guests and what they had to say? Come and join the debate by joining The Possibility Club for free, find a community of thinkers and find out about our monthly events. You can also subscribe to our monthly digital journal - which this month is all about The Future of Work - at www.thepossibilityclub.org The interviewers were Richard Freeman and Cat Rose. This podcast was presented, produced and edited by CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.
This interview is from a series of events, blogs and discussions around The Future of Work. We’re thinking about what work is, and whether noise about automation, migration and four day weeks - trade wars, skills gaps and the fourth industrial revolution - is hot air or genuinely changing our lives for ever. In this podcast, Richard has a chat with Dr Peter Kyle MP about politics, policy, Brexit and where the future workforce is coming from. Peter Kyle has been the Labour Member of Parliament for Hove and Portslade since 2015, a marginal constituency of which only 12 out of the last 69 years has not had a Conservative incumbent. In the 2017 election, Peter unexpectedly turned a majority of just over a thousand into one of nearly 19,000. Peter Kyle’s has often talked openly about his challenges managing acute dyslexia and being an openly gay teenager in a small conservative Sussex town, to completing a doctorate in Community Development, and becoming a special adviser on social exclusion to Tony Blair’s government in 2006. Following his position as Deputy Chief Executive of the charity leaders’ network ACEVO, Peter was appointed the inaugural CEO of Working For Youth, a national youth employment and work mentoring charity. In parliament, Peter has been a strong proponent of apprenticeships, workforce reform, and technical education, sitting on the Business & Industrial Strategy Select Committee. We spoke in March 2019 about education and the future workforce, but that week some of his closest friends and colleagues had quit the Labour party to form a new independent group and Peter was making international headlines himself with his compromise amendment to push the government towards a second people’s vote on Brexit - and that is where we started. --- Useful links: https://www.peterkyle.co.uk/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Kyle https://twitter.com/peterkyle https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-latest-second-referendum-peter-kyle-phil-wilson-amendment-labour-jeremy-corbyn-a8804971.html --- What did you think of Peter's views on democracy and policy, education and where our focus should be? Come and join the debate by joining The Possibility Club for free, find a community of thinkers and find out about our monthly events. You can also subscribe to our monthly digital journal - which this month is all about The Future of Work - at www.thepossibilityclub.org --- This podcast was hosted by Richard Freeman and produced/edited by CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.
Richard Freeman's special guest this week SK Shlomo. Simon Shlomo Kahn, better known as Shlomo or SK Shlomo, is one of the world’s most celebrated vocal performers and a pioneer of the art of human beatboxing. Already a prodigious jazz drummer from the age of eight, SK Shlomo made a name for himself in his late teens and early 20s as a world champion beatboxer, collaborating with Björk on the theme song for the opening of the 2004 Athens Olympic Games - which she performed, with Shlomo’s vocal instrumentation, to an audience of 3.9 billion people. For the following decade, SK Shlomo’s influence on British music was profound - and his establishment of The Vocal Orchestra, the concert series Music Through Unconventional Means and the London Beatbox Academy saw him creating music for theatre, major music festivals, film and digital music resources for education and inclusion programmes. In 2007, SK Shlomo was appointed Artist-In-Residence at London’s Southbank Centre, and his wide-ranging collaborations include artists as diverse as Damon Albarn, Ed Sheehan, Lily Allen, Imogen Heap and The Mighty Boost and charities such as Cape Farewell and Medecins Sans Frontier. His award and accolades include Guinness World Records, commendations for his work as a composer and recognition for his advancement of loop station technology - something now regularly used by mainstream artists in live performance. Richard first met SK Shlomo when developing creative learning projects with young people in North London around 11 years ago, and Shlomo had been commissioned to create a huge and inclusive beatbox choir. They caught up just before Christmas 2018, and talked about his career and his music ideas - but we mostly focused on the reasons why he suddenly withdrew from public life, why all of this drive and success came at a price and how that experience is now shaping a new and very different musical journey. --- Useful links: http://skshlomo.com/ https://twitter.com/SKShlomo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shlomo_(beatboxing_artist) https://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/sk-shlomo-surrender https://youngminds.org.uk/ https://anchor.fm/sk-shlomo https://www.bac.org.uk/content/44921/whats_on/whats_on/shows/frankenstein https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/131330-shlomos-beatbox-adventure-kids-2019 --- If you have enjoyed the conversation, then please share the love and post a review on iTunes and tell your friends. You can find out more about The Possibility Club and listen to a treasure trove of interviews at www.thepossibilityclub.org And if you want to keep up-to-date with trends, big ideas and change-making in business, culture and education - then visit www.alwayspossible.co.uk and sign up to our newsletter. Thanks again for joining us, and I wish you a lovely week. Join Richard Freeman back here again soon for more curious chatter. This podcast was edited and produced by CJ Thorpe-Tracey at Lo Fi Arts for always possible.
The tables are turned for this Possibility Club special, and regular host Richard Freeman is instead the interviewee. CJ Thorpe-Tracey from Lo Fi Arts is asking the questions. Following a 15 year career in education, small business, the arts and local government - in 2014, Richard founded unusual development consultancy, always possible. With a diverse team that deliberately works across sector, geography and scale of project, always possible is fast gaining the reputation as the company that 'makes things happen' and connects strategic policy makers with grass-roots entrepreneurs, artists and community innovators. Richard and CJ got together just before Christmas 2018 and discuss the genesis of the business, Richard's childhood and early creative ambitions, the power of networks and the motivation behind The Possibility Club interviews. Useful links: www.alwayspossible.co.uk www.thepossibilityclub.org https://thisisnewpower.com/
Richard Freeman's podcast guest this week is someone who is building a head of steam through his decisions to tackle waste - and the conversations about waste - within the system where arguably it will have the biggest impact of all; education Nathan Atkinson is known from his regular TV appearances for the innovative work he has done throughout his headship of three schools. Named in the top 50 in the 2017 Global Teacher Awards Nathan is building a worldwide profile for his community led action. His most recent award-winning project is called Fuel for School. This is an initiative that provides schools with access to food that otherwise would have been thrown away, with three key objectives: remove hunger as a barrier to learning. Improve well being outcomes for children, highlight the global issue of food waste. From starting the project in his own school there are now 60 schools with access to food and the project is spreading across the country and beyond. We spoke to Nathan in November 2018 about his mission to change the conversation about sustainability in a way that puts most box-ticking policies to shame. The sound connection is patchy in places, but bear with it if you can. --- Useful links: Fuel For School https://fuelforschool.info/ 'Headteacher’s fight against hunger in schools applauded by health professionals' - https://www.hospitalityandcateringnews.com/2017/04/headteachers-fight-hunger-schools-applauded-health-professionals/ Nathan's speaker page https://www.schoolspeakers.co.uk/speaker-listings/nathan-atkinson-speaker aeroponics – Wiki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeroponics Steven Ritz / The Green Bronx Machine https://greenbronxmachine.org/ Greggs Foundation https://www.greggsfoundation.org.uk/ --- Do check out our past interviews with change-makers in business, culture and education at thepossibilityclub.org and if you like them please subscribe, write a review, tell your friends - and contact us via social media if you have an idea for a future guest. The Possibility Club is powered by always possible - and we run transformational workshops for small and medium businesses who want to make better decisions or unlock some practical thinking around a noisy or seemingly unsolvable problem. These are fun, serious, practical and slightly mind-blowing workshops that will guarantee will get your ideas moving again. What’s more, for every workshop you book, we will donate an expert business mentoring session to a charity or social enterprise of your choice. Amazing. Find out more at alwayspossible.co.uk Richard Freeman appeared for always possible and this podcast is produced and edited by CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.
Richard's podcast guest this week is Pete Heat. Pete was nicknamed 'The Rock N Roll Magician' by NME and his close-Up magic skills have led to him being one of the most sought after magicians in the UK. His Sky TV series’, Secrets Of The Brain and Around The World in 80 Tricks introduced his work to new audiences, alongside his acclaimed - and very funny - Edinburgh Fringe shows and London variety nights. Pete’s clients include Elle McPherson, Carey Mulligan and Jude Law - for whom Pete is a regular magic consultant on film roles. Richard has known Pete for over 15 years, and they caught up in November 2018 to discuss the life of a magician, the challenge of keeping secrets in the Internet age and what skills magicians have that should be employed everywhere. --- Useful links: Pete's website http://www.peteheat.co.uk/ Pete on Twitter https://twitter.com/peteheat Around The World In 80 Tricks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCpBNByYU7M Secrets Of The Brain https://www.davincikids.tv/shows/secrets-of-the-brain/ --- Check out our vast vault of interviews with change-makers in business, culture and education at alwayspossible.co.uk/podcast and if you like them please subscribe, write a review, tell your friends - and contact us via social media if you have an idea for a future guest. The Possibility Club is powered by always possible - and we run transformational workshops for small and medium businesses who want to make better decisions or unlock some practical thinking around a noisy or seemingly unsolvable problem. These are fun, serious, practical and slightly mind-blowing workshops that will guarantee will get your ideas moving again. What’s more, for every workshop you book, we will donate an expert business mentoring session to a charity or social enterprise of your choice. Amazing. Find out more at www.alwayspossible.co.uk Richard Freeman appeared for always possible and this podcast is produced and edited by CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.
Richard Freeman's special guest on the podcast this week is Shona Davison. Shona knows more about autism than most people we've come across and is doing more to demystify the lived experience of autistic adults than many. Following a successful career as a banking consultant, Shona is now a mother to two autistic children, a home educator, autism educator and autistic advocate. She regularly writes about autism for print and online news media and is soon to publish a book on autistic parenthood. Shone was diagnosed with autism herself at the age of 38, which became a catalyst and mission to better understand and inform about the condition, resulting in the completion of an MA in Autism at Sheffield Hallam University and a range of pioneering research on the experiences of autistic parents, home education for autistic children and wider autistic well-being. We spoke in Autumn 2018 about the understanding, language and treatment for autism - and why we get it so wrong so much of the time. --- Useful links: Shona's website https://shonadavison.co.uk/ Does ABA Harm Autistic People? https://autisticuk.org/does-aba-harm-autistic-people/ Thinking Person's Guide To Autism http://www.thinkingautismguide.com/ Shona on Twitter https://twitter.com/shonadav RCOG Women's Network https://www.rcog.org.uk/en/patients/rcog-womens-network/ Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) - Wiki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applied_behavior_analysis --- Do check out our vast vault of interviews with change-makers in business, culture and education at www.alwayspossible.co.uk/podcast and if you like them please subscribe, write a review, tell your friends - and contact us via social media if you have an idea for a future guest. The Possibility Club is powered by always possible - and we run transformational workshops for small and medium businesses who want to make better decisions or unlock some practical thinking around a noisy or seemingly unsolvable problem. These are fun, serious, practical and slightly mind-blowing workshops that will guarantee will get your ideas moving again. What’s more, for every workshop you book, we will donate an expert business mentoring session to a charity or social enterprise of your choice. Amazing. Find out more at www.alwayspossible.co.uk
IF YOU HAVE TO TEACH SOMEONE SOMETHING YOU HAVE TO LEARN IT REALLY WELL YOURSELF Richard Freeman's special guest this week is Pete Jenkins. Pete Jenkins is an international speaker, adviser and trainer in Gamification, topping the world rankings of Gamification influencers in 2016. Pete founded his company GAMIFICATION+ in 2000, although it was a far more straight-forward IT company to begin with. He has since advised and trained companies of all sizes, both in the UK and internationally, on the use of Gamification. Pete is Chair of the International Gamification Confederation and has been Entrepreneur in Residence at the University of Brighton for 8 years. As well as researching gamification for HR at CROME (the University's Centre for Research on Management and Employment), he lectures on gamification and entrepreneurship at undergraduate and post-graduate levels. Pete is also Practice Director (Gamification) at Intelestream Inc. in Chicago, a strategic advisory company in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and digital product development. We spoke in November 2018 about the fundamentals of games, the ethics of play as way to drive the behaviours of others and why everyone should spend a bit more time using Lego. --- Useful links: GAMIFICATION + https://gamificationplus.uk/ Pete's website http://petejenkins.com/ Lego Serious Play methodology (Wiki) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lego_Serious_Play Richard Thaler (Wiki) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Thaler https://qz.com/1098078/behavioral-economics-the-flaws-that-economics-nobel-prize-winner-richard-thaler-wants-you-to-know-about-yourself/ (Quartz, 2017) Michael Lewis – The Undoing Project, 2016 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Undoing-Project-Friendship-Changed-World/dp/0241254736 (Amazon) Ideas Street – Gamification for the Public Good at the DWP https://www.theguardian.com/government-computing-network/2011/jun/27/gamification-principles-public-services-dwp (The Guardian, 2011) Official Minecraft wiki https://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Minecraft_Wiki Grend Theft Auto wiki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Theft_Auto Fortnite wiki https://fortnite.gamepedia.com/Fortnite_Wiki Lego video games wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Lego_video_games Pokemon Go wiki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pok%C3%A9mon_Go Superbetter gamified app https://www.superbetter.com/ Gamification Europe https://gamification-europe.com/ --- If you were inspired by Pete, then do join The Possibility Club for free and pick up some of the ideas with like minded people in business, culture and education - find out more at www.thepossibilityclub.org And do check out our vast vault of interviews with change-makers in business, culture and education at www.alwayspossible.co.uk/podcast and if you like them please subscribe, write a review, tell your friends - and contact us via social media if you have an idea for a future guest. The Possibility Club is powered by always possible - and we run transformational workshops for small and medium businesses who want to make better decisions or unlock some practical thinking around a noisy or seemingly unsolvable problem. These are fun, serious, practical and slightly mind-blowing workshops that will guarantee will get your ideas moving again. What’s more, for every workshop you book, we will donate an expert business mentoring session to a charity or social enterprise of your choice. Amazing. Find out more at www.alwayspossible.co.uk Richard Freeman appeared for always possible and this podcast is produced and edited by CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.
Richard Freeman's special guest this week is Laura McInerney On Laura’s website, she recounts in depth and with humor her early years growing up in Cheshire, the long shifts at McDonalds and the government trying to shut down her college whilst she was in the middle of her A Levels. It was her forthright campaigning that kept it open - very much a sign of things to come. Despite many odds, Laura was accepted to study at Oxford, and then as a graduate joined an on-the-job teacher training programme, finding her calling as a secondary school teacher in London. In 2008, she won the TeachFirst award for Outstanding Teaching. After six years in the classroom, Laura’s sharp rise as one the most informed, well-respected and sometimes controversial commentators on education - and now an EdTech entrepreneur - has been rapid. As well as a stint as Editor of the investigative newspaper Schools Week, Laura has been a columnist for many national broadsheet papers and is regularly featured on BBC Radio, LBC and Sky News. She has written books on the failures of Free Schools and runs an online database about every UK education secretary in history. In 2017, Laura launched TeacherTapp, a new research tool that gives a new voice for teachers, collecting real-time data with which better decisions might be made on working conditions, policy and training. We spoke in autumn 2018 about her decisions, motivations and mission for education and what we need to do to ensure our schools are fit for purpose. --- Useful links: Laura's website https://www.lauramcinerney.com/ Laura's on Twitter https://twitter.com/miss_mcinerney Teacher Tapp http://teachertapp.co.uk/ School's Week https://schoolsweek.co.uk/ RSA: The Ideal School Exhibition report https://www.thersa.org/discover/publications-and-articles/reports/the-ideal-school-exhibition RSA Big Education Conversation: Life-Readiness https://www.thersa.org/events/fellowship-events/2018/11/rsa-innovative-education-network-promoting-life-readiness --- You can find links to everything we spoke about in the notes to this podcast and on our website. Check out our vast vault of interviews with change-makers in business, culture and education at www.alwayspossible.co.uk/podcast and if you like them please subscribe, write a review, tell your friends - and contact us via social media if you have an idea for a future guest. The Possibility Club is powered by always possible - and we run transformational workshops for small and medium businesses who want to make better decisions or unlock some practical thinking around a noisy or seemingly unsolvable problem. These are fun, serious, practical and slightly mind-blowing workshops that will guarantee will get your ideas moving again. What’s more, for every workshop you book, we will donate an expert business mentoring session to a charity or social enterprise of your choice. Amazing. Find out more at https://www.alwayspossible.co.uk/how-we-do-it/workshops-and-events/ Richard Freeman was the interviewer, for always possible, and this podcast is produced and edited by CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.
Richard Freeman's guest this week is Fiona Broadfoot. Fiona is a survivor of child sexual exploitation, having been forced into prostitution at the age of 15. Fiona spent 11 years entrenched in the violent world of the sex trade and since escaping has worked to raise awareness of the harm it causes to young people and their families. 1998, Fiona was the recipient of the first Emma Humphreys Memorial Prize for her work founding EXIT, supporting young women to leave the sex trade which led to research work at the UK Home Office. In March 2016, Fiona was accepted into the School for Social Entrepreneurs, where she began to develop her idea for the Build a Girl Project, a survivor-led social enterprise working with young women to help them build a strong sense of self, make safe and informed choices, and form healthy relationships. She won the NWG Unsung Hero Diamond Award for her work in 2017 and in March 2018, Fiona and two other women won a landmark legal case to no longer have to disclose their convictions for soliciting - a potentially life-changing decision that will give infinitely more opportunity for women leaving sex work. However, the government appealed, and we discuss this case in our conversation. Fiona has spoken all over the world, including the UN in New York and in September 2018, she was named as one of NESTA and The Observer’s New Radicals - the UK’s radical thinking individuals and organisations that are genuinely changing our world for the better. --- Useful links: Build A Girl Project crowdfunder https://uk.gofundme.com/build-a-girl-summer-school The Guardian on Fiona's courtcase https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/mar/02/former-prostitutes-win-legal-challenge-against-uk-government Fiona on Sky News https://news.sky.com/story/abused-and-pimped-out-as-a-teen-so-why-i-am-the-one-with-a-criminal-record-11210483 Fiona on Twitter https://twitter.com/fiona_broadfoot Fiona, the New Radical https://www.nesta.org.uk/feature/new-radicals-2018/fiona-broadfoot/ --- Check out our vast vault of interviews with change-makers in business, culture and education at alwayspossible.co.uk/podcast and if you like them please subscribe, write a review, tell your friends - and contact us via social media if you have an idea for a future guest. The Possibility Club is powered by always possible - and we run transformational workshops for small and medium businesses who want to make better decisions or unlock some practical thinking around a noisy or seemingly unsolvable problem. These are fun, serious, practical and slightly mind-blowing workshops that will guarantee will get your ideas moving again. What’s more, for every workshop you book, we will donate an expert business mentoring session to a charity or social enterprise of your choice. Amazing. Find out more at alwayspossible.co.uk/workshop Richard Freeman appeared for always possible and this podcast is produced and edited by CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.
Richard Freeman's special guest this week is Amanda Chetwynd-Cowieson By some definitions Amanda is a millennial, by others she is Gen Z - labels that have become meaningless - but she is certainly doing more than most to advocate for young people’s rights, autonomy and recognition. Amanda is co-founder and director of For Our Futures Sake, a youth-led anti-Brexit campaign group that is currently advocating for a second referendum on leaving the EU. Following a degree at Falmouth University, where she was a President of the Students’ Union, Amanda was elected to the board of both the National Union of Students and British Youth Council. In 2018, Amanda became Chair of the British Youth Council, cementing her position as one of the most influential advocates for young people in the UK. We spoke in September 2018 about activism and youth politics, leadership, risk and where Amanda’s decision-making comes from. --- Useful links: FFS https://ffsakes.uk/ On the campaign trail https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIdmrulFPzc Amanda on Sky News https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTWcPtkAKks British Youth Council https://www.byc.org.uk/ Amanda on Twitter https://twitter.com/amandacc92?lang=en-gb People's Vote Campaign https://www.peoples-vote.uk/ NUS https://www.nus.org.uk/ --- Check out our vast vault of interviews with change-makers in business, culture and education at www.alwayspossible.co.uk/podcast and if you like them please subscribe, write a review, tell your friends - and contact us via social media if you have an idea for a future guest. The Possibility Club is powered by always possible - and we run transformational workshops for small and medium businesses who want to make better decisions or unlock some practical thinking around a noisy or seemingly unsolvable problem. These are fun, serious, practical and slightly mind-blowing workshops that will guarantee will get your ideas moving again. What’s more, for every workshop you book, we will donate an expert business mentoring session to a charity or social enterprise of your choice. Amazing. Find out more at https://always-possible.myshopify.com/ Richard Freeman hosted on behalf of always possible and this podcast is produced and edited by CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.
Richard Freeman's special guest this week is Steve Wells. Steve is a global futurist, keynote speaker, and the Chief Operating Officer of Fast Future Publishing. His interest is in helping people to anticipate and respond to the disruptive bursts of the 'technological possibility' that are shaping the emerging future. Steve is a contributor to many books including 'The Future Reinvented—Reimagining Life, Society, and Business', and he is a co-editor of 'Technology vs. Humanity', as well as the forthcoming 'Unleashing Human Potential — The Future of A.I in Business' As an independent consultant Steve conducts research and analysis and 'what if' scenario development for multi-national corporates and government agencies who want to know how disruptive technologies might make or break their future decision-making. We spoke to Steve in late July 2018, a few months after a business debate about the future of skills in which Richard was chairing and Steve was a panelist. In this informal chat, we talk about what futurism actually is, whether we’re getting too hung up on technology as the great shaper of our age and what we can be doing - both professionally and personally - to get ready for whatever is coming around the corner. Useful links: Leadership Skills For The Future (Video) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JV_VVtFlu1E Fast Future Publishing http://fastfuturepublishing.com Steve on Twitter @informingchoice Steve on LinkedIn https://uk.linkedin.com/in/wellssteve A Very Human Future https://www.amazon.co.uk/Very-Human-Future-Enriching-Digitized/dp/1999931130/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1540747469&sr=1-1 The Future Re-invented https://www.amazon.co.uk/Future-Reinvented-Reimagining-Society-Business/dp/0993295894/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1540747469&sr=1-3 --- Check out our vast vault of interviews with change-makers in business, culture and education at www.alwayspossible.co.uk/podcast and if you like them please subscribe, write a review, tell your friends - and contact us via social media if you have an idea for a future guest. The Possibility Club is powered by always possible - and we run transformational workshops for small and medium businesses who want to make better decisions or unlock some practical thinking around a noisy or seemingly unsolvable problem. These are fun, serious, practical and slightly mind-blowing workshops that will guarantee will get your ideas moving again. What’s more, for every workshop you book, we will donate an expert business mentoring session to a charity or social enterprise of your choice. Amazing. Find out more at www.always-possible.myshopify.com This podcast was hosted by Richard Freeman for always possible and produced and edited by CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.
Richard Freeman's special guest this week is Vic Goddard. Vic has been described as ‘the most famous headteacher in the UK’, following his decision to work with Channel 4 on the groundbreaking documentary series, ‘Educating Essex’. The BAFTA-winning programme looked under the bonnet of life at Passmores Academy, a modern comprehensive secondary school in Harlow, and the relationships and learning that happens in such a complex ecosystem. Vic’s whole life and mission has been in education and it is something about which he is outspoken and unafraid to defend - particularly when the spotlight is bright and the scrutiny intense. Vic’s 2014 book ‘The Best Job In The World’ is a call to arms for more people to join the teaching profession, especially to aspire to school leadership positions. We spoke in early autumn 2018, about TV, education policy, dealing with having a high profile and what the mission education school be. --- Useful links: Vic Goddard on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Best-Job-World-Vic-Goddard/dp/1781351104 On inspiring teachers (The Guardian) - https://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/apr/29/vic-goddard-educating-essex-how-to-guide-heads 'Educating Essex' clips - https://www.channel4.com/programmes/educating-essex/videos/all/mr-goddard-head-teacher-interview/2828742166001 --- Have you checked out all of other interviews? - there are now over 60 past podcasts available on iTunes, Soundcloud are wherever you accessed this one. Please tell us about your favorites and share with others. --- The Possibility Club is powered by always possible - and we run transformational workshops for small and medium businesses who want to make better decisions or unlock some practical thinking around a noisy or seemingly unsolvable problem. These are fun, serious, practical and slightly mind-blowing workshops that will guarantee will get your ideas moving again. What’s more, for every workshop you book, we will donate an expert business mentoring session to a charity or social enterprise of your choice. Amazing. Find out more at alwayspossible.co.uk/workshop Richard Freeman appeared for always possible and this podcast is produced and edited by CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.
Richard Freeman's special guest this week is Abigail Tarttelin. In 2013, Abigail was placed on the Evening Standard’s Evening Standard's watchlist of "25 people under 25”, for her second novel ‘Golden Boy’, but even by then she had appeared in a number of films and was being lauded as one of the rising British stars of independent cinema. In May 2018, Abigail’s third book ‘Dead Girls’ was published - a taut feminist thriller, exploring themes of girlhood and domestic violence in the 1990s. We spoke to Abigail in late June, and discussed the subjects she tackles in her novels such as intersex rights and modern adolescence, and what it means to be a self-labelled feminist in a time in which the very nature of what gender is, should be, and means is more under the spotlight than ever. --- Useful links: Abigail Tarttelin on Amazon https://www.amazon.co.uk/Abigail-Tarttelin/e/B0054IDWU8/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1539547130&sr=8-1 Emily Bronte – Wuthering Heights on Amazon https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wuthering-Heights-Wordsworth-Classics-Bront%C3%AB/dp/1853260010/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1539547254&sr=1-1&keywords=wuthering+heights Hanne Gabu Odiele (intersex model and activist) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanne_Gaby_Odiele Harvey Milk asks everyone to come out (Huffpost retrospective) https://www.huffingtonpost.com/jennifer-knapp/how-harvey-milks-challeng_b_5960258.html David Tarttelin on Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Tarttelin USA Family Separation Policy in Time Magazine http://time.com/5314769/family-separation-policy-donald-trump/ --- Have you checked out all of other interviews - there are now over 60 past podcasts available on iTunes, Soundcloud are wherever you accessed this one. Please tell us about your favorites and share with others. --- The Possibility Club is also an online platform for like-minded people and a monthly event to ask the big questions in business. culture and education? If you want to get help powering your ideas - visit www.thepossibilityclub.org Richard Freeman appeared for always possible and this podcast is produced and edited by CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.
This week’s podcast is a bit different to usual, as we put a spotlight on an event, rather than on an individual change-maker. On Friday 12th October 2018, it will be the annual Brighton Summit, a large gathering of business minds on the south coast convened by the Brighton & Hove Chamber of Commerce. We explore the purpose and passions that drive The Summit, and why it is genuinely different to other business conferences. This year's theme is 'Look Up'. Put down your phone for a minute. Imagine something. Think a big bigger than you are. What if your world connected with someone else? Can businesses lead change beyond simple profit and loss reports? --- Richard spoke to two of Brighton’s key figures, who both represent a very different side of the complex city eco-system. Both will be speaking and sharing ideas at The Summit, embodying the range of business thinking at the event. Andy Winter moved to the UK from South Africa because he would not serve in the army during apartheid, a principle indicative of a future career in practical social change and improving public services. Andy has worked for Brighton Housing Trust for 33 years, becoming Chief Executive in 2003. We talk about the role of the Housing Trust in Brighton’s fabric, and what place it has at a business conference. The second guest is Felicity Beckett, the person in charge of the video content for Picturehouse Cinemas. As she will explain, Felicity’s deep love of film led her to a 15 year career at Brighton’s Duke of York’s - the oldest cinema in Britain in the city that gave us the first moving image photography. Felicity is the compere and host of the Brighton Summit, something she always relishes. --- For more information and links to everything discussed in the podcast, please visit www.alwayspossible.co.uk Have you checked out all of other interviews - there are now nearly 60 podcasts available on iTunes, Soundcloud are wherever you accessed this one. Please tell us about your favorites and share with others. The Possibility Club is also an online platform for like-minded people and a monthly event to ask the big questions in business. culture and education? If you want to get help powering your ideas - visit www.thepossibilityclub.org I’ve been Richard Freeman for always possible and this podcast is produced and edited by CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.
Richard Freeman's special guest this week is Athena Stevens. Athena Stevens is a playwright, performer and director, an award-winning stand up comedian and a human rights activist. She has campaigned for fair housing, education and small business accessibility, and is an advisor to Transport for London and the London Underground on the experiences they provide for disabled commuters. Athena's written work often explores issues surrounding autonomy, self determination and independence and her most recent play ‘Schism’ directly challenges historical ideas about disability and sexuality. Her own experience of being an American in the UK and having been born with athetoid cerebral palsy does not define what she is or isn’t capable of, but certainly gives her a powerful perspective on life in modern Britain. Richard and Athena spoke on the phone in early August 2018, but being both in noisy places the sound is not always clear - but bear with it, it gets a bit better as it goes along. They talk about Athena’s writing, activism, politics and ambitions and what sort of world she is striving to create. ---- Useful links: MLK letter from a Birmingham jail https://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html Athena’s website https://www.athenastevens.com/ Athena’s YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19n4WJoBVA4 Athena talking about ‘Schism’ on BBC R4 https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b39v3n The Guardian article on Athena suing British Airways https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/may/08/playwright-ba-london-city-airport-wheelchair-athena-stevens Athena on Twitter https://twitter.com/athenastevens --- Have you checked out all of other interviews - there are now over 55 past podcasts available on iTunes, Soundcloud are wherever you accessed this one. Please tell us about your favorites and share with others. --- The Possibility Club is also an online platform for like-minded people and a monthly event to ask the big questions in business. culture and education? If you want to get help powering your ideas - visit www.thepossibilityclub.org Richard Freeman appeared for always possible and this podcast is produced and edited by CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.
Richard Freeman's special guest this week is Chris Middleton Chris one of the UK’s leading business and technology journalists and the author, editor or contributor to more than 50 books on everything from sound design to robotics. In recent years, Chris has specialised in robotics and artificial intelligence, contributing to the BBC, ITV, The Guardian, The Times among many others on the impact and implications of emerging technologies. Chris is currently editor of InternetofBusiness.com, and a contributing editor to diginomica and Computing. Richard first met Chris about 5 years ago, when he trained him to become a mentor for young people - and they have remained friends and professional colleagues ever since. They recorded this chat in Chris' seaside flat in July 2018 and chatted about technology and skills, automation and artificial Intelligence - and whether we really should all expect to be unemployed soon. And, of course, Chris' pet robot Stanley who is far more famous than him. --- For extensive links and further reading, visit https://www.alwayspossible.co.uk/interview-chris-middleton/
LOOKING AT OURSELVES AS ADULTS, A LOT OF MEN ARE UNPACKING WHAT WE'VE BEEN TAUGHT BY THE MEDIA. WE'RE TAKING OFF OUR ARMOUR. --- Richard Freeman's special guest is Alain Clapham. Alain is more commonly known as Fusion, and is one of the most connected figureheads of London’s creative industries. The self-professed ‘Creative Storyteller’ has presented shows for MTV and Sky, hosted events at Wembley Arena, interviewed Beyoncé, Dr Dre and Stan Lee among others, and has delivered one of the must-see TED talks. Alain’s focus is on creative transformation, in business thinking - but more immediately in young people - and his agency Industry In The Streets is committed to supporting the promotion of ethics, education and innovation in the entrepreneurialism and wider understanding of youth-led enterprise. We caught up with Alain in late July 2018, and amongst other things, Richard chats with him about BMT – a new live experience to celebrate the ‘awesome everyday’ stories of black men - and why he feels that it is time to stop framing black male adult role models as either exceptional or criminal, but as something more wonderfully ordinary. --- Useful links: http://alainclapham.co.uk/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=089lmVyNyhA http://www.industryinthestreets.co.uk/ https://www.instagram.com/bmtstories/ https://soundcloud.com/alwayspossible/the-last-skeptik https://twitter.com/iitsfusion https://twitter.com/IITSnews —- Have you checked out all of other interviews - there are now over 55 past podcasts available on iTunes, Soundcloud are wherever you accessed this one. Please tell us about your favorites and share with others. The Possibility Club is also an online platform for like-minded people and a monthly event to ask the big questions in business. culture and education? If you want to get help powering your ideas - visit www.thepossibilityclub.org Richard Freeman is the host of this podcast for always possible, with production and editing by CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.
Richard Freeman's special guest this week is James Turnbull For nearly 20 years, James has been a leading arts executive and producer, working with story-tellers, performers and directors at every level to create meaningful experiences for audiences around the UK. His award-winning career has always seen him pushing boundaries on what is possible in theatre, whether touring, creating new festival spaces or co-designing events with young people. In recent years, James’ focus has been on TOMTech a vehicle through which to test how emerging technologies like virtual and augmented reality can enhance live performance. We talk about this and the reasons why theatre has failed to reach many parts of society, despite its power to solve problems and connect ideas. Perhaps the technology of immersion and a more prolonged personal experience can be the support that is needed to get more people attending. Useful links: http://theoldmarket.com/tomtech/ https://brightondigitalfestival.co.uk/ https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/case-studies/tomtech-new-creative-reality --- Did you know that The Possibility Club is also an online platform for like-minded people and a monthly event to ask the big questions in business. culture and education? If you want to get help powering your ideas - visit www.thepossibilityclub.org Richard Freeman was interviewing for always possible and this podcast is produced and edited by CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.
Richard Freeman's special guest this week is Mark Illis. For over a decade Mark was a senior writer on TV soap Emmerdale, scripting over 100 episodes and a spin-off DVD. He has also written the prize-winning screenplay for zombie film 'Before Dawn'. But his real love has always been writing prose fiction, with three books published by Bloomsbury when he was in his 20s, Mark has now returned to the form in his 40s and 50s, most recently specialising in young adult fiction - or YA, as it is known by those devoted to it. His award-winning series, The Impossible, is about mutating teenagers coming to terms with relationships and physical transformation. Legendary YA novelist Melvin Burgess describes Mark Illis’ books as amongst the weirdest he has ever read - and this is definitely a complement. Richard spoke with Mark towards the end of June 2018, exploring the world of young adult fiction and the impact that literature has on formative minds hungry to make sense of an uncertain world. They talk about how - and which - children and young people are reading and accessing new writing in the 21st century with so much competition for their attention - and whether the rise of mental health challenges at a younger and younger age in the UK has any affect on the themes tackled in his books. --- Useful links: http://markillis.co.uk/ https://www.firststory.org.uk/ https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mark-Illis/e/B004ULV0DG --- Did you know that The Possibility Club is also an online platform for like-minded people and a monthly event to ask the big questions in business. culture and education? If you want to get help powering your ideas - visit www.thepossibilityclub.org Richard Freeman was the host for always possible and this podcast is produced and edited by CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.
Hello and welcome to The Possibility Club, stripping away the story behind decisions and instinct from society’s change-makers Richard Freeman's special guest this week is Patrice Camille Stephens Patrice is our youngest podcast subject to date - a 24 year old entrepreneur who is blazing a trail in the business of communications for black millennials in London. Following a number of internships, marketing jobs and a degree in advertising and PR, Patrice founded Pink Ship - a digital marketing agency that gets under the skin of urban youth culture in the UKs big cities. Within a short time, Patrice had built a team and a growing a client-base in the world of cosmetics, retail, fashion and music. Richard first met Patrice when she was 15 and attended a youth club in north west London, at which he was a youth worker developing a number of projects in film, music, theatre and heritage. This is the first time they’ve spoken in about nine years, and they explore her journey into business, the opportunities and challenges for young entrepreneurs and the rapidly changing landscape of mass communication in the Internet age. --- Useful links: https://www.mypinkship.com/ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCC5VLmogaqZTAjNBInxAzuw --- The Possibility Club is more than a podcast, but a network of creative people forging a path for good in the world. Why don’t you join us for free at www.thepossibilityclub.org Richard Freeman was hosting for always possible and this podcast is produced and edited by CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.
The Possibility Club podcast provides bite-sized audio glimpses into the minds of the people changing the world. Richard Freeman's special guest this week is Greg Day. For 20 years, Greg was a man of the stage, an acclaimed playwright and radio dramatist whose dark comedies and studies on sexuality and power were a feature of London’s growing fringe scene. At the same time, he was building his craft as a publicist and PR man in television, with senior communications roles at - the then new - Channel 4 and Channel 5 UK TV networks. More recently, Greg’s has trained as a psychotherapist and broadened his PR work to help high profile entertainers to tell their stories - from illusionist Derren Brown to Hollywood hardman Michael Madsen. In 2006, Greg joined the board of Frightfest, the UK’s largest international genre film festival and one of the world’s biggest celebrations of horror and fantasy cinema - taking place every August bank holiday weekend in London. Richard spoke to Greg in Spring 2018, and they explored the enormous impact and growth of FrightFest and the unending appeal of horror as a lens for story-telling and spectacle. They talk about who it’s for, why people love it so much and who decides if something is just too scary for the festival to screen. --- Useful links: http://www.frightfest.co.uk/ http://cloutcom.co.uk/ --- The Possibility Club listenership is growing every week, but if you liked the conversation, we need your help in spreading the word, sharing and recommending to friends. Thank you so much. We are also more than a podcast - if you have a burning idea, project or business and want to get critical support from new friends - join for free at www.thepossibilityclub.org Richard Freeman was hosting on behalf of always possible and this podcast is produced and edited by CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.
Welcome to The Possibility Club, a movement to unlock bold thinking in business, culture and education. Richard Freeman's special guest this week is Dr Caspar Chater. Caspar is a leading light in the world of plant science and stomatal biology, whose research is producing new thinking on our understanding of how plants evolve, adapt and survive. Caspar’s academic career began at the University of Sheffield in the UK, but he can now be found heading up a team of researchers at UNAM in Mexico City. Caspar is on the line from Mexico when this conversation was recorded on the phone in May 2018. Richard has known Caspar for over 20 years, and they explore where his interest in ecology comes from, what the implications of his research are and what influence research scientists have in 2018 when our politicians are denouncing the role of experts. They also discuss funding, ethics and independence in biological research, especially in Caspar’s field of plant science which is asking fundamental questions about what we grow, what we eat and how we choose to live. --- Useful links: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=t0L9f2QAAAAJ&hl=en https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Caspar_Chater -- The Possibility Club is more than a podcast, but a peer network for adventurers who want to continue learning and developing the capacity and agency to make big changes in the world. If you have a burning idea, project or business and want to get critical support from new friends - join for free at www.thepossibilityclub.org Th interviewer was Richard Freeman for always possible and this podcast is produced and edited by CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.llll
Welcome to The Possibility Club, a moment to explore the people following their instincts to make change in the world. Richard Freeman's special guest this week is Dr Heather Katherine McRobie. Heather is a perpetual student and polymath of the humanities, who continually explores the relationships between conflict, politics, art, religion and health on a global stage. Heather was an award-winning novelist by the age of 23, followed by the publication of an acclaimed academic study on literature and democracy. Her journalism has been published, read, shared and debated around the world in The Guardian, Telegraph, New Statesman, al Jazeera and the Globe & Mail amongst many others. For many years, Heather was an editor of politics website, OpenDemocracy. Heather has studied and taught at the highest level in Oxford, Moscow, Bologna, Sarajevo, Srebrenica, Montreal, Massachusetts and Tel Aviv - and holds degrees in politics, Islamic Studies and human rights law - and in 2014 she was awarded a doctorate by Oxford University for her research on the Arab Spring. Richard first met Heather in 2006, when they both had short stories published in an anthology of student literature, edited by Jeanette Winterson. This chat is the first time they’ve spoken for many years, and took place in May 2018 - with Richard in the UK and Heather in Australia, where she is now living and exploring new adventures in healthcare and medicine. They explore where she gets her energy and ideas from, and what so much travel and study does for her perspective on humanity and culture. They chat about the change she would like to see and where she thinks it will come from. --- Useful links: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heather_McRobie http://heather-mcrobie.tumblr.com/ http://www.zero-books.net/authors/heather-katharine-mcrobie https://www.amazon.co.uk/Heather-McRobie/e/B002662RVQ https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p045vhhb --- The Possibility Club is more than a podcast, but a peer network for adventurers who want to continue learning and developing the capacity and agency to make big changes in the world. If you have a burning idea, project or business and want to get critical support from new friends - join for free at www.thepossibilityclub.org Richard Freeman was host for always possible and this podcast is produced and edited by CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.
always possible RoundTables are informal conversations between a group of invited subject specialists and friends from across The Possibility Club and always possible networks. This RoundTable took place in early May 2018. In this session, we’re exploring why modern businesses always talk about story-telling, what this means, how it works, who it is for and what it achieves. We look at brand and authenticity, individual and collective identity, social media - and what business leaders are learning from traditional story-telling formats like animation, fiction and folk-tales. Joining Richard Freeman are animator and brand story-teller John Davison; technologist Hesan Yousif and poet, educator and writer Leah K Stewart. --- Useful links: http://www.studiosyrup.com/ https://www.zazaraconsulting.co.uk/ http://leahkstewart.com/ --- If you enjoyed the conversation it would mean the world to us if you’d subscribe, share an leave a review on iTunes. Even better, join our movement for peer-led progressive power in business, culture and education and thepossibilityclub.org This podcast was presented by Richard Freeman for always possible and produced and edited by CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.
The Possibility Club podcast looks behind the curtain at who is driving change in business, culture and education. Richard Freeman's special guest this week is Anna Passey. Anna is best known for her role as Sienna Blake in the British Channel 4 soap opera, Hollyoaks - a part she has played on screen since 2012. Initially appearing for a one-off story line, Anna’s portrayal of Sienna has evolved into an increasingly complex study of action and reaction, femininity, abuse, sympathy and villainy. Anna has won awards for her work in the series, with nominations for Best Actress at the last two British Soap Awards. Hollyoaks is mainly aimed at teenagers and young adults, and Richard and Anna talk about the responsibility of the show when it tackles challenging life themes, such as cancer, kidknap and domestic violence. They also consider Anna’s many roles - as private Anna, Anna the soapstar with 400,000 Twitter and Instagram followers, and as Sienna Blake who will seem utterly real to loyal Hollyoaks viewers. They also explore whether Anna feels that her celebrity means that she now has a platform upon which to affect change she might want to see in the world, or whether it is a slippery path full of people trying to trip her up. This conversation was recorded at the end of March, so Anna understandably does not mention that her character is about to be killed off - but then resurrected - as this would have spoiled the fun. --- Useful links > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Passey > https://www.ok.co.uk/celebrity-feature/1348758/hollyoaks-sienna-blake-anna-passey-channel-4-soap-co-star-romance-nick-rhys > http://www.digitalspy.com/soaps/hollyoaks/news/a857791/hollyoaks-star-anna-passey-hits-back-claims-soaps-too-dark/ --- We hope you enjoy it. If you do, please let us know by leaving a review on SoundCloud or iTunes. This podcast was presented by Richard Freeman for always possible It was edited and produced by CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts Do you want to make change in business, culture & education? Join us. www.thepossibilityclub.org
The Possibility Club is a place for conversations about big ideas with the people behind change in business, culture and education Richard Freeman's special guest this week is Professor Martin Doel CBE. Martin has been one of the most influential voices in British military training and then the wider further education system for decades. For 28 years, Air Commander Doel rose through the ranks of the RAF before becoming the Director of Training for the three armed serviced and the civilian Ministry of Defence staff - and was then appointed Chief Executive of the Association of Colleges in 2008. His tenure at the AoC saw Martin representing over 300 education institutions and over 2 million students during some of the biggest infrastructural, financial and policy challenges that the post-16 and adult education sector has ever seen. He has been awarded an OBE and CBE in recognition of both his frontline military career and services to education. In 2016, Martin became the first Chair of Further Education & Skills at the UCL Institute of Education, a professorship funded by the Further Education Trust for Leadership. Richard and Martin spoke in late April 2018, and explore what further education actually means, the changing relationship between business and education and whether the conversation we’re having about skills and life-long learning is the right one. --- Useful links: http://fetl.org.uk/inspiration-thinking/chair-in-fe-leadership/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqnJF4CqdPw https://soundcloud.com/ioelondon/defining-further-education-does-it-matter --- The Possibility Club is more than a podcast, but a peer network for adventurers who want to continue learning and developing the capacity and agency to make big changes in the world. If you have a burning idea, project or business and want to get critical support from new friends - join for free at www.thepossibilityclub.org The interviewer was Richard Freeman for always possible and this podcast is produced and edited by CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.
The Possibility Club is a peek under the bonnet of business, culture and education, chatting with the change-makers and rebels. Richard Freeman's special guest this week is Vincent Kamp. Vincent is a figurative painter, comic book writer and sculptor. The website Creative Boom describes him as ‘one of Britain’s most evocative and exciting new artists’ whose paintings are rooted in a ‘world of urban subculture’ that ‘delves beneath the surface of social class’. As much influenced by cinematography as the master painters, Vincent’s canvasses depict lifelike characters from the underworld of crime and sport - as if Rembrandt was documenting the Kray twins - getting under the skin of gangsters, boxers, poker players in the shadows of East London and elsewhere. Vincent is self-taught, yet is setting the art world alight, winning the TAF Artist of the Year Award in 2017 and with high profile exhibitions represented by London’s Clarendon Fine Art Gallery. Vincent has painted a number of household names in sport and music, from Paula Radcliffe and Sir Chris Hoy to Sam Smith and pianist Ruben James and has many works in the collection of Italian cycling legend Francesco Moser. We spoke in mid-April 2018 about creativity and productivity, audiences and criticism - and Vincent’s own mission to tell visual stories in new ways. --- Useful links: http://vincekamp.com/ http://www.clarendonfineart.com/artist_biography/vincent-kamp https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrkmaQ3z_CU --- The Possibility Club is a place for creative thinkers to navigate the world together. If you want to join like-minded explorers - join for free at www.thepossibilityclub.org The interviewer was Richard Freeman for always possible and this podcast is produced and edited by CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.
The Possibility Club is a movement to connect adventurers in business, culture and education. Richard Freeman's special guest this week is Stella Duffy OBE. Stella is many things. A multi-award winning author of 16 novels, spanning both literary and crime fiction, over 60 short stories and 10 plays, which have been performed at The Bush Theatre, Battersea Arts Centre, and Lyric Hammersmith amongst many others. She is a comedy improviser, theatre director, screen actress and documentary film-maker. In 2016, Stella as awarded an OBE for services to the arts. For the past 4 years, Stella has been one of the driving forces behind Fun Palaces, a massive UK-wide celebration of culture, making, science, heritage and community that takes place every October. Richard and Stella spoke in mid May 2018, chatting about what makes a Fun Palace work, childhood, inclusion, class, opportunity, risk and creativity. Useful links http://funpalaces.co.uk/ https://stelladuffy.wordpress.com/ https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2014/jul/18/fun-palaces-joan-littlewood-dream-realised-100-years-birth https://www.devotedanddisgruntled.com/ --- The Possibility Club is more than a podcast, but a peer network for adventurers who want to create, lead or innovate in the world. If you have a burning idea, project or business and want to get critical support from new friends - join for free at www.thepossibilityclub.org Richard Freeman is the host for always possible and this podcast is produced and edited by CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.
Richard's special guest this week is Jodie McNally. Jodie has been supporting young people into meaningful career opportunities for over 12 years, particularly those with significant barriers to progression in the mainstream. Following roles in colleges, education businesses partnerships and the national football charity Street League, Jodie was appointed as the Northern Hub Leader for the EY Foundation in 2017. Jodie’s role is to inspire and engage young people who are at a disadvantage in the jobs market and help them to fulfil their potential for work. In 2018, as a recognition for her growing influence and reach as a powerful role model for vulnerable young women in and around Manchester, Jodie was included on the coveted Northern Power Women Future List. This conversation took place in April 2018, and Richard and Jodie talk about skills and gender, the future of work and the challenges and opportunities faced by young people today - as well as Jodie's status as a garlanded role model and what that means for her personal mission. -- Useful links: https://www.northernpowerwomen.com/portfolio/jodie-mcnally/ https://twitter.com/jodiemcnally_ey https://www.ey.com/uk/en/about-us/corporate-responsibility/ey-foundation --- The Possibility Club is more than a podcast, but a peer network for adventurers who want to create, lead or innovate in the world. If you have a burning idea, project or business and want to get critical support from new friends - join for free at www.thepossibilityclub.org The host was Richard Freeman for always possible and this podcast is produced and edited by CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.
This is a RoundTable podcast; a little bit different to our usual weekly bite-sized interviews. always possible RoundTables are informal conversations between a group of invited subject specialists and friends from across The Possibility Club and always possible networks. This RoundTable took place during a blizzard in March 2018, as part of our residency at Colonnade House, the creative hub, gallery and workspace near the beach in Worthing, West Sussex. In this session, we’re exploring why, in times of economic uncertainty and fiscal demands on public service like health and education, we should still be publicly funding arts and culture. We consider a society without a creative life for all its citizens, the future challenge and opportunities for arts funding and who should decide what is and what isn’t culturally valuable. Joining Richard Freeman are musician, broadcaster and producer Chris Thorpe-Tracey; creative learning expert and former arts fundraiser Sam Hawkins; and long-time creative project manager, participatory artist and now manager of Worthing's Colonnade House hub, Clare Halstead. --- Useful links: https://www.artsprofessional.co.uk/magazine/article/will-policy-trend-spell-end-arts-funding https://www.artsprofessional.co.uk/news/arts-council-outlines-priorities-next-two-years https://www.thestage.co.uk/news/2018/gps-offer-arts-prescription-report-claims/ https://colonnadehouse.co.uk/ https://christt.com/ -- If you enjoyed the conversation it would mean the world to us if you’d leave a review on iTunes. If you want some advice and support on fundraising for your project, then email TPC@alwayspossible.co.uk to book a free and confidential chat. This RoundTable was chaired Richard Freeman for always possible and produced and edited by CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.
The Possibility Club podcasts are a window into the minds of people testing big ideas in business, culture and education. Richard Freeman's special guest this week is Sam Knowles. Sam combines long and varied careers in both public relations and analytics. Whilst he has more than 25 years in corporate and consumer communications for global clients, his real passion is in unearthing and telling the stories that can be found in the numbers around us. Before founding story-telling consultancy Insight Agents, Sam was Group Director, Strategic Planning at advertising agency WCG Europe, and before that the UK Managing Director of Echo Research. Sam has a doctorate in Experimental Psychology, a source of both his understanding of human motivation and behaviour and his love of telling stories with data. His new book, published by Routledge, is called 'Narrative by Numbers: How to Tell Powerful and Purposeful Stories with Data'. Richard and Sam first met at a business breakfast event in late 2017, but it was in mid-April 2018 when this conversation was recorded at Sam’s house in East Sussex. They talk about the growing role of analytics in story-telling and education and the art of using numbers to move people - even when it is known the numbers are unreliable. Useful links: http://insightagents.co.uk/ http://www.narrativebynumbers.com/ http://senseaboutscience.org/ http://callingbullshit.org/ https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sell-Human-Daniel-H-Pink/dp/0857867202 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mind-Works-Penguin-Press-Science/dp/0140244913 --- If you’ve got a suggestion for a change-maker, revolutionary or big thinker that you would like Richard to interview, then email The Possibility Club at TPC@alwayspossible.co.uk This podcast is presented by Richard Freeman for always possible and produced and edited by CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.
The Possibility Club podcast is a weekly peek at the decisions and motivations of the people leading change in business, culture and education. Richard Freeman's special guest this week is Frank Cottrell-Boyce. Frank is one of the UK’s most beloved novelists for children as well as an accomplished screenwriter - known for his collaborations with directors Michael Winterbottom and Danny Boyle. In 2012, Frank was appointed the inaugural Professor of Reading at Liverpool Hope University. His first novel, Millions, also a successful stage play and film, won the 2004 Carnegie Medal and was voted by British librarians as that year’s best book for children. Frank’s other books have won or been nominated for numerous awards, including the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, and the Whitbread Children's Book Award. Frank is a prolific screenwriter, with a career spanning much-loved TV from Brookside and Coronation Street to Dr Who, and films as varied as 24 Hour Party People, Goodbye Christopher Robin and the Oscar-nominated Hilary & Jackie. This conversation was recorded in March 2018, talking about the discipline of writing, the imperative creativity of reading and Frank’s role in creating the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics - an event seen by many as a generation-defining celebration of British culture and identity. --- If you are an adventurer in the arts, education or business - then join our gang at www.thepossibilityclub.org This podcast was presented by Richard Freeman for always possible and was produced and edited by CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.
Welcome to The Possibility Club, a space to delve into the ideas and decisions that seek to improve and repair systems in business, culture and education. Richard Freeman's special guest this week is Catherine Weetman. Catherine helps organisations in the UK to get ready for the inevitable future of manufacturing. As one of the UK’s leading voices in understanding the circular economy, Catherine’s focus is on sustainable materials and logistics in the goods we make and consume and the services we rely on. She challenges big and small businesses alike to reduce and reuse waste and to develop a much smarter relationship with the resources we take for granted. Catherine is a Visiting Fellow at the University of Huddersfield and the Vice-Chair of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport’s Environment and Sustainability Forum. Her book, 'A Circular Economy Handbook for Business and Supply Chains’, was published by Kogan Page in 2016. Richard and Catherine spoke on the phone towards the end of March 2018 after being introduced by a mutual contact. They talk about local, national and global sustainability and whether the current consciousness on the lifecycle of plastics and textiles is the tipping point we need or just a flash in the pan. Useful links: > http://www.circulareconomyclub.com/ > https://lessplastic.co.uk/ > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ju_2NuK5O-E > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faweESvAzC8&feature=youtu.be > http://futurefitbusiness.org/ > http://www.re-think.me.uk/ > https://www.koganpage.com/product/supply-chains-for-a-circular-economy-9780749476755 > http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09w0g0b --- If you’re a social entrepreneur with world-changing ideas, then visit www.thepossibilityclub.org This podcast was presented by Richard Freeman for always possible and produced and edited by CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.
It’s another podcast from The Possibility Club, so thank you for choosing to join us wherever you are and whatever you’re doing. This week we have the first of a few podcasts in which we are putting a particular place and set of communities under the magnifying glass - that place in question being the seaside town of Worthing in West Sussex. Worthing has been identified in a number of recent reports as being one of the most at-risk towns in England once the UK leaves the European Union, mainly because of its small and micro-business economy, its elderly population and seemingly that it has not received the major public investment of other equivalent places in recent years. This RoundTable conversation is about creativity in Worthing, and towns like Worthing. Where does creativity come from and who owns it? What opportunity does creative thinking bring, and how can it build the identity, purpose and character that any place needs if it is to be a place in which people are proud to live and work. This conversation was recorded in March 2018, when always possible and The Possibility Club took up a pop-up residency in the Colonnade House creative hub, just a 100 meters or so from Worthing’s much-admired beachfront. At the start of the conversation, you'll hear always possible CEO Richard Freeman; former media lawyer and TV executive Tony Dillon; artist and film-maker Adam Seaman; graphic designer Roger Harrison and technology consultant Hesan Yousif - and then part-way through, we are joined by illustrator Richard Manders from Colonnade House. We may be light on females - which was definitely not by design - but we are certainly not short on ideas. Useful links: https://colonnadehouse.co.uk/ https://www.asdescribed.net/ https://www.zazaraconsulting.co.uk/ https://discoverworthing.uk/creative-worthing/ --- Our big thanks to Colonnade House for hosting us, and to Tony, Adam, Roger, Hesan and Richard for their wisdom and debate. We are building a community of creative thinkers, do-ers and adventurers at The Possibility Club, and we have big ambitions about how to galvanise big ideas. If you’d like to join in, then visit www.thepossibilityclub.org and sign-up today. The presenter was Richard Freeman for always possible and this podcast is produced and edited by CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.
Richard Freeman's special guest this week is Andrew Comben. Following a distinguished career in classical music, with both senior artistic and executive management credits, in 2008 Andrew was appointed Chief Executive of both the Brighton Dome arts complex and the Brighton International Festival. The Festival is now only second to the Brighton Fringe as the largest arts festival in England and brings an eclectic programme of dance, film, comedy, cabaret, music, theatre and visual arts to the south coast each May. Andrew is widely acknowledged to be one of the most influential cultural leaders in the UK, and he spoke to The Possibility Club podcast a few days before the opening of the 2018 festival to have a chat about his vision for the arts and place-making in these uncertain times. We talk about the evolution of the festival since its inception in 1967 and how every year Andrew programmes alongside a guest director - in the past this has included Anish Kapoor, Ali Smith, Brian Eno and Kate Tempest. We talk about the Dome and Corn Exchange as changing spaces for performance and community - and I reflect a little in my personal affinity with these hallowed halls. But then we then put this in the wider context of the identity of a city like Brighton & Hove. Can a place squashed between the sea and the South Downs, so defined by its mythology of music, politics and fashions every really live up to the hype - and what role does someone like Andrew have in steering the conversation? --- Useful links www.brightonfestival.org/ www.brightondome.org/ --- Please tell us what you thought of the interview on our iTunes and Soundcloud pages. If you’re an artist creating work for festivals and want to be better connected, then visit thepossibilityclub.org now. The presenter was Richard Freeman for always possible and this podcast is produced and edited by CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.
Our special guest this week is Sam Conniff Allende. Sam is known for many things. He is co-founder and former CEO of Livity, Don’t Panic and Live Magazine and has mentored thousands of young entrepreneurs around the world. He is an acclaimed public speaker, an advocate of - what he calls - ‘business as unusual’ through which he has helped brands such as Red Bull, Unilever and PlayStation develop radical approaches to social impact and ethical practice. His international awards and prizes include EY’s Entrepreneur Of The Year and he has been named a Global CSR Leader. In 2017, shortly before standing down having been at the helm of Livity for 17 years, Sam and his team won the British Interactive Media Association's prestigious Grand Prix for its values-led reinvention of the marketing agency model - one that many have copied since. Sam talks to Richard Freeman, who first came across him at Livity 5 or 6 years ago, when he won the contract to help deliver their Big Lottery funded ‘somewhere to’ project across South East England. The aim of that project was to unlock unused space in owns and cities for young people to use for creative and enterprise pursuits. They didn’t meet, but Richard saw that Sam's stamp was very clear on the design and message of the programme. Sam’s book Be More Pirate, or How To Take On The World and Win, is published by Penguin Random House this month and is a manifesto for each of us to create the sort of Good Trouble the world needs. We recorded this conversation in early March 2018 in a rare moment when diaries allowed for it. There are a few technical issues at the start, but stick with it and it gets a bit better. Amongst many other things, Sam and Richard talk about his intriguing claim that pirates were misunderstood agents of change, leadership and social innovation - and why he is so certain that today’s young people can - and should - follow suit and disrupt everything. And why this idea makes him so happy. Useful links: https://www.bemorepirate.com/ https://www.samconniff.com/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOLeQg-DN10 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Be-More-Pirate-Take-World/dp/0241307880 --- If you think you’re a bit pirate, and want to get support in turning your radical ideas into sustainable business, then visit thepossibilityclub.org now. This podcast is presented by Richard Freeman for always possible and produced and edited by CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts.
The Possibility Club podcast VICTORIA GREEN For over 20 years, Victoria Green was a textiles designer, working for some of the most popular names on the British high street. In 2014, at the age of 45, she not only had her second child but decided to take a giant leap of faith and set up her own beauty bag design and manufacturing company. Passionate about functional design, she saw a gap in the market and set her sights on creating a range of designs, making day-to-day life more organised. Victoria Green bags are now sold in their 1000s via Debenhams, Amazon and specialist retailers, with a brand new collection launching at Marks & Spencers in 2018. In 2017, Victoria was anointed Small Business Entrepreneur Of The Year at the NatWest Great British Entrepreneur Awards and is overseeing the rapid rise of a new and exciting UK fashion brand for women. Victoria is sincere about purpose and is on a mission to eliminate PVC from her products by 2020, as well as to build a unique culture of trust and customer responsiveness as her enterprise grows. In this informal interview, she talks about decision-making, mentoring, failure, mindset, the blurred line between brand name and human person, and the relentless pursuit of the perfect idea. This podcast was presented by Richard Freeman for always possible It was edited and produced by CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts Useful links: https://www.victoriagreen.co.uk/ http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/15552227.Victoria_on_shortlist_for_entrepreneur_title/ We hope you enjoy it. If you do, please let us know by leaving a review on SoundCloud or iTunes. www.thepossibilityclub.org
In this podcast, Cat Rose talks to Gerry Thompson about the creative process, problem-solving, spontaneity and being funny. As a child in Ireland, Gerry Thompson was painfully shy and terrified of being ridiculed. What he realised from a young age is that if he made people laugh, then maybe it wouldn’t be so hard. Gerry quit a burgeoning career in architecture to become a stand-up comedian, trainer, coach, international speaker and best-selling author with half a million books sold worldwide in many languages. His workshops and training sessions are revered for demonstrating how just a little bit of creativity, self-awareness and spontaneity can solve pretty much any professional challenge. --- Useful links: www.positivecomedy.com You will find more ideas and discussion about critical decision-making on topics as wide-ranging as big data, music, pre-school education, virtual reality and international aid at alwayspossible.co.uk/podcasts always possible has a range of services to help power brilliant decision-making in business, culture and education. Tools for designing the best products and services, processes for evaluating impact and techniques to help you increase your customer-base. To book your free, no-obligation consultation, visit www.alwayspossible.co.uk
In this podcast, always possible chief exec Richard Freeman, talks to Chris Wootton about his career in arts leadership and running some the UKs most iconic theatre organisations, before suddenly quitting in 2017 to become a train driver. Until recently, Chris was a producer and theatre industry executive, initially working for over five years with the National Student Drama Festival before taking on senior roles at the Little Angel Theatre in north London. Well-respected in his sector, an executive director by his late 20s, working with some of the most talented artists and performers in his field. His job was secure, high-profile and it paid the bills. So what prompted such an unexpected move from this into a career of high responsibility, yet virtual anonymity, on Britain’s much-maligned railways? Why does Chris want to challenge himself to work differently, more like a machine that has to make critical decisions than a creative who juggles complex ideas? What does mindfulness have to do with it, and won’t train drivers be a thing of the past when the robots take over? What is the decision-making process for someone with a good degree from Oxford and from a family of city financiers and lawyers, to switch career and to retrain from scratch? This recording took place in a noisy pub, so apologies for some of the louder-than-usual background sounds. --- Useful links: www.littleangeltheatre.com www.nsdf.org.uk
In this podcast , always possible chief exec Richard Freeman, talks to Jo-Anne Godden about social entrepreneurship, ethics in the fashion and design industries and the rise of social enterprises in the 21st century. What exactly is the triple bottom line? Where will the change come from to stop the clothes industry from polluting the world - consumers or manufacturers? And how can a small UK retailer like RubyMoon claim to be helping to both clean up plastic in the sea and get developing world women out of poverty? Jo-Anne Godden had a successful career in the fashion and textiles sector, working around the world in swimwear and lingerie merchandising and product development for brands such as Victoria’s Secret, Gap and Marks & Spencers. In 2011, following an eye-opening trip to China’s garment factories, she quit, frustrated that this global industry was willfully ignoring its own impact on the environment, sustainability and dependent communities - and directed her energy into a new social enterprise: RubyMoon. RubyMoon is now an award-winning community interest company that designs and manufactures top of the range swimwear & fitness clothing, but only uses recycled plastics recovered from the sea. The company directors use all profits to support female entrepreneurs in 12 developing countries, through micro-finance and investment programmes. Over 200 loans have been made to date. For the past 7 years, Jo-Anne has been a champion of ethical business around the world, and is often seen judging awards, mentoring young people and campaigning about a more sustainable approach to fashion. --- Useful links: http://rubymoon.org.uk https://www.lendwithcare.org/ --- If you enjoyed the conversation it would mean the world to us if you’d leave a review on which ever platform you accessed it. You will find more ideas and discussion about critical decision-making on topics as wide-ranging as big data, music, pre-school education, virtual reality and international aid at www.alwayspossible.co.uk/podcasts always possible has a range of services to help power brilliant decision-making in business, culture and education. Tools for designing the best products and services, processes for evaluating impact and techniques to help you increase your customer-base. To book your free, no-obligation consultation, visit www.alwayspossible.co.uk
Thanks for downloading this podcast from always possible. always possible help people make brilliant decisions - in business, culture, education and community. Listen to the end of this podcast to hear how we can increase your confidence and clarity as you grow your business, charity or project. —- This is our first RoundTable podcast; a little bit different to our usual weekly bite-sized interviews or thematic specials. always possible RoundTables are informal conversations between group of invited subject specialists and entrepreneurs ad artists from across the always possible member network. In this session, Cat Rose chairs a conversation about how to run a values-led business (without wearing your heart on your sleeve) and what that actually means. How do small businesses retain their values as they get bigger - or bought out by larger firms? Does shouting about your values give you a competitive edge, or make you appear pompous? Are core values the driver for progressive organisations wherever you go, or are cities with large numbers of social enterprises and values-led campaigns - like Brighton and Bristol - operating in a liberal bubble that the rest of the country simply doesn’t care about? Are values political? And are they absolutely critical or just nice to have? Joining Cat are Tracey Allen, founder and director of Sea PR - a communications agency specialising in socially-driven businesses; Lisa Westbury, a leadership development coach who mainly focuses on helping female entrepreneurs and executives break through the glass ceiling; Hesan Yousif, founder of Zazara Consulting - an IT support business with a very strong community agenda; and Sarah Nicolls - a musician, academic and inventor. --- Useful links: http://www.brilliantminds.co.uk/news/the-scarf-model http://www.sea-pr.com/ http://www.lisawestbury.com/ http://www.zazaraconsulting.co.uk/ --- If you enjoyed the conversation it would mean the world to us if you’d leave a review on iTunes. If you would like to be a part of the next always possible RoundTable event, you can register at always possible.co.uk/events always possible has a range of services to help power brilliant decision-making in business, culture and education. Tools for designing the best products and services, processes for evaluating impact and techniques to help you increase your customer-base. To book your free, no-obligation consultation, visit alwayspossible.co.uk
YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE A CONSPIRACY THEORIST TO WONDER WHY THE ARTS ARE SUFFERING AND WHY SOME PEOPLE WANT US DIVIDED. In this chat, always possible chief exec Richard Freeman, talks to Nick Corston about ArtConnects, a radical new festival in London - running between 23rd and 24th February 2018 - that brings together schools, parents, politicians, businesses, technologists and the media for 100s of free practical workshops, films and talks. The festival has one aim, and that is to shout loud the message that creativity belongs in education and needs to be celebrated. Nick Corston is an engineer by training, but had a long career in marketing before founding STEAM Co. in 2011. It started as a project with two other parents who were dismayed by the government’s policy to reduce children’s access to art, design and technology learning at school. STEAM Co. is now one of the UK’s leading education social enterprises, reaching communities across the country with pop-up events and workshops on everything from making rockets to large public art projects. Nick is a self-proclaimed loud mouth, with a reputation as a disrupter and an instigator, creating events that challenge the status quo and enable new collaborations. --- Useful links: http://www.steamco.org.uk/scokxc/ http://www.sethgodin.com/sg/ https://www.mltsfilm.org --- If you enjoyed the conversation it would mean the world to us if you’d leave a review on iTunes. You will find more ideas and discussion about critical decision-making on topics as wide-ranging as big data, music, pre-school education, virtual reality and international aid at www.alwayspossible.co.uk/podcasts always possible has a range of services to help power brilliant decision-making in business, culture and education. Tools for designing the best products and services, processes for evaluating impact and techniques to help you increase your customer-base. To book your free, no-obligation consultation, visit www.alwayspossible.co.uk
Thanks for downloading this podcast special from always possible. If you are not familiar with always possible’s work, we help businesses, cultural organisations, education providers and public services tackle strategic and operational challenges - enabling clearer decision-making, more joined-up thinking and practical plans for the future. These podcast specials each explore a different theme, bringing in the multiple perspectives and experiences from some of our past podcast guests. Richard Freeman, the Chief Exec of always possible, is your guide as we think about the critical issue of values. Can a business have values? Surely people have values, and businesses are collections of people, but cannot have values in and of itself. A business is a legal body, literally the incorporation - from the Latin corpus and to become a body - but not a mind - it does not think and is not moral. Hear from fascinating people discussing their perceptions of personal and professional values - with contributions from Erica Neve, Jenni Lloyd, Rachael Perrin, Jo Hockley and Dale Roberts.
Thanks for downloading this podcast from always possible. If you are not familiar with always possible’s work, we are a progressive consultancy, helping businesses, cultural organisations, education providers and public services tackle strategic and operational challenges - enabling clearer decision-making, more joined-up thinking and practical plans for the future. Our member network also helps entrepreneurs, community leaders and freelancers get access to affordable personal development and mentoring. Book your free consultation at www.alwayspossible.co.uk —- These weekly podcast interviews are an informal glimpse into the life and decision-making processes of someone who is changing the world. From the arts to academia, corporate technology to community wellbeing, radical business to local politics, we are continually exploring the motivations and behaviours of people who are following their instinct to improve a system. In this chat, always possible chief exec Richard Freeman, talks to Dave Shelton about the process of writing and illustrating books for children and what decisions and risks an author needs to make in order to create something for such a critical audience. Richard and Dave discuss where his ideas come from, and his journey from maths whizz with some basic drawing skills to an award-winning illustrator and prose writer, acclaimed for the inventiveness, wit and nostalgic melancholy that thread through his novels. They talk about what sort of living a writer might make in 2017 as well as whether it gets easier or quicker as confidence grows or actually higher expectations and pressure hamper the creative process. Dave Shelton is a writer and illustrator. He is the creator of the comic strip Good Dog, Bad Dog, published in The DFC, The Guardian and The Phoenix, as well as published as a book. His debut children’s novel, A Boy and a Bear in a Boat, won the 2013 Branford Boase Award and was shortlisted for the Carnegie medal and the Costa prize. It was also adapted for the stage, both in the UK and Germany. Dave’s next book was 2014’s Thirteen Chairs, a collection of linked ghost stories and coming in April 2018 is the The Book Case – an Emily Lime Mystery. --- Useful links: http://www.daveshelton.com/ https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dave-Shelton/e/B0034OXG96 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thornhill-Pam-Smy/dp/1910200611 --- If you enjoyed the conversation it would mean the world to us if you’d leave a review on iTunes. You will find more ideas and discussion about critical decision-making on topics as wide-ranging as big data, music, pre-school education, virtual reality and international aid at www.alwayspossible.co.uk/podcasts
In this chat, always possible chief exec Richard Freeman, talks to Professor Guy Standing about the fallout of globalism and the rise of the precariat - the new social class defined by its insecurity - as well as the idea of a basic universal income, once mocked for being an unworkable socialist pipe-dream but now fast becoming a mainstream social policy idea. Richard and Guy discuss whether we are entering a post-capitalist economics, and if the fact that wealth is created by owning things rather than making things means what we have can never truly be described as free market. They discuss Guy’s 30-year campaign for a basic universal income and why something for which he was previously derided is now being taken very seriously across the world. But this controversial policy - challenged by thinkers and politicians on both the left and right surely has massive risks - is this not an incentive for worklessness, to spend money on more insecurity and for landlords to exploit these new sources of payments? Dr Guy Standing is one of the world’s leading social economists, working on issues of distributive justice, social security and citizenship for over 40 years. He is Professor of Development Studies at the School of African & Oriental Studies at the University of London and the co-founder of the Basic Income Earth Network. His most well-known books include The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class, The Corruption of Capitalism: Why Rentiers Thrive and Work Does Not Pay and 2017’s Basic Income: And How We Can Make It Happen.
These weekly podcast interviews are an informal glimpse into the life and decision-making processes of someone who is changing the world. From the arts to academia, corporate technology to community wellbeing, radical business to local politics, we are continually exploring the motivations and behaviours of people who are following their instinct to improve a system. In this chat, always possible chief exec Richard Freeman, talks to Dale Roberts about big data, eavesdropping on customers and the ambition of some technologists to make customer service and sales less about process and automation and more about listening to what people actually need. Richard asks about whether corporate surveillance of our social media chatter can ever be a good thing and who owns the ethical code behind this, if indeed there is one? The implications for this technology are overwhelming, with already demonstrably positive applications in improving cultural understanding and software that translates emotion and subtext rather than just words. Dale Roberts is Vice President of Professional Services for global software and analytics company Clarabridge. A well-known author, commentator, columnist and speaker, Dale is a critical adviser to some of the world’s biggest companies on how to improve the customer experience using social and digital insights. Prior to this role, he was co-founder of Artesian Solutions, a pioneering tech business focused on social customer relationship management - and a Director of Services for business intelligence giant Cognos. Dale’s first book, Decision Sourcing, is a commentary on the impact of social media on corporate decision making and his most recent, World of Workcraft, is a study on engagement, motivation and digital humanism in the workplace. Dale has been identified as one of the most influential thinkers in big data and analytics by Analytics Week, and often contributes his ideas to business and technology publications including Wired and ClickZ. --- Useful links: - www.clarabridge.com - www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6EjBwrdHgE --- You will find more ideas and discussion about critical decision-making on topics as wide-ranging as economics, music, pre-school education, virtual reality and international aid at www.alwayspossible.co.uk/podcasts
Thanks for downloading this podcast special from always possible. If you are not familiar with always possible’s work, we help businesses, cultural organisations, education providers and public services tackle strategic and operational challenges - enabling clearer decision-making, more joined-up thinking and practical plans for the future. These podcast specials each explore a different theme, bringing in the multiple perspectives and experiences from some of our past podcast guests. Richard Freeman, the Chief Exec of always possible, is your guide as we think about the critical issue of space. Not somuch the final frontier and boldly going where no x-wing fighter has gone before - but in the perception of - and actual need for - functional physical and digital space. Space in which to work, to create, to play, to feel safe. Hear from fascinating people discussing their perceptions of space in business, aid, the creative process and community - with contributions from Darren Abrahams, Nikki Gatenby, Fiona Anderson, Paul Hutchings, Paul Levy and The Last Skeptik.
In this podcast always possible Chief Executive, Richard Freeman, has a conversation with Bobby Barry and Emily Mary Barnett about making music that is experimental, challenging, interesting and unusual - with a new take on the original musical Avant-Garde of the 1940s and 1950s. Richard asks Bobby and Emily whether this music is more of an experience than something to be listened to on its own and whether cynics who dismiss experimentalism as pretentious and craftless have opinions that should be respected. Is making an electronic soundscape so different from writing a pop-song? Could anyone do it? And are genres and scenes important when pushing music into new directions? When working together, Bobby Barry and Emily Mary Barnett are better known as music duo Far Rainbow and as founders of the Zero Wave club nights, home of one of London’s most acclaimed experimental music scenes. Bobby is a composer, producer, teacher and writer, who had top 40 chart success as creator of indie-pop girl group The Pipettes in 2003. His solo act Monster Bobby has developed a following in the electronic music scene, and many other new music devotees regularly read his criticism in The Quietus, The Wire and Art Review. Bobby’s book ‘The Music Of The Future’ was published in 2017. Emily Mary Barnett is an artist, photographer and drummer. Her work has always combined physical visual art, layered from unusual materials, with live performance and events. Her most well-known curations are The Shindig Club in Brighton and the No events in East London. Emily was recently artist-in-residence with Theatre Deli and her 3D paintings were exhibited at London’s ASC Gallery and the Dronica Festival in 2017. Useful links: https://farrainbow.bandcamp.com/ http://zerowavemusic.tumblr.com/ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC21azIUS9lOwnz1E0TyosEw --- If you enjoyed the conversation, please like, subscribe and review - and share with colleagues. always possible supports business, community, cultural and education leaders to make critical decisions, test ideas, create impact and be found by new audiences. To join in, visit www.alwayspossible.co.uk
In this podcast Richard Freeman has a conversation with Mandy Johnson about the challenges and opportunities for the UKs smallest charities, and the tens of thousands of people who work and volunteer to support local communities when the public and private sector falls short. Richard asks Mandy how small charities can be sustainable, when they are often so invisible and what positive or negative effect policy decisions like devolution has had for locally focused charities. Is there any need for so many small charities and why don’t more of them merge? What role is technology having in helping small charities reach more people? And, who is speaking on their behalf at a national level? Mandy Johnson is Chief Executive of the Small Charities Coalition, a national network and advocacy organisation for over 7,000 charities with annual income of less than one million pounds. Mandy is a national figurehead in the UK voluntary sector, having held senior roles at Second Gift, change.org, Cancer Research Uk and Marie Curie. She is a serial volunteer with War on Want and Charity Women amongst others as well as being Chair of the Institute of Fundraising’s London Network. In 2016, Mandy was voted one of the country’s top ten most influential fundraisers and in 2018 Mandy will be a judge for the UK Charity Awards. Mandy’s mission to create a more resilient charity sector follows her first career as a tax consultant and banker for Deloitte and NatWest. --- Useful links: http://www.smallcharities.org.uk/ --- You're listening to always possible conversations and that was Richard Freeman talking to Mandy Johnson. If you enjoyed the conversation, please like, subscribe and review - and share with colleagues. always possible supports business, community, cultural and education leaders to make critical decisions, test ideas, create impact and be found by new audiences. To join in, visit www.alwayspossible.co.uk
In this podcast always possible Chief Executive, Richard Freeman, has a conversation with Dr Mick Taylor about the behaviour of money and the role of mathematics in the systems of human interaction. Richard and Mick explore why we always talk about what money does rather than what it is and - why over-efficiency caused the financial crash and whether this is a risk for every business or system. Do we need more than one way to create money to have a resilient economy and if money is simply a claim on goods and services, why is it only the banks can create it and not communities or local councils? And, why does Dr Mick have so much respect for Michael Gove? Dr Mick Taylor is a mathematician, teacher and social entrepreneur with a PhD in network science and mathematical epidemiology. Following a career as a secondary school maths teacher, Mick has followed his passion to understand how technology can empower people to collaborate for mutual benefit. Mick’s 2013 TED talk, ‘the dynamics of modern money’ has been watched by tens of thousands of people online and his popular Nerd Nite events are where academia meets popular science culture and cake. Mick is a Director of Goodmoney, a pioneering social enterprise, whose mission is to make systems of money work better for local communities. --- Useful links: https://www.goodmoney.co.uk/ https://youtu.be/KveTVWCY4xQ --- If you enjoyed the conversation, please like, subscribe and review - and share with colleagues. always possible supports business, community, cultural and education leaders to make critical decisions, test ideas, create impact and to tell their story to new audiences. To join in, visit www.alwayspossible.co.uk
These podcasts let you eavesdrop in on informal conversations taking place on the phone or in the coffeeshop, In every chat, we are exploring the motivations and behaviours behind key decisions - with curious people who have trusted their instinct to make change in the world. In this podcast Richard Freeman has a conversation with Paul Hutchings about the middle-East refugee crisis in Europe and why he quit his job to try and rethink the way aid was distributed in the chaotic makeshift camps in France and Greece. Richard asks Paul about who these refugees are and what future they are seeking - and why a comfortable, but modest middle class market researcher with a family and mortgage, decided that he could bring dignity to some of the world’s most vulnerable people where others had failed. How does Paul handle the emotional toll? What does success look like in a situation so desperate? Does his work get hindered by an increasingly loud and hostile populist politics? Richard Freeman is Chief Executive of always possible. Paul Hutchings has had a 25 year career in market research and customer analytics, working with some of the largest IT, telecoms and marketing agencies in the world before setting up Kindle Research in 2005. In 2016, during the height of the Syrian civil war and the development of the so-called Jungle refugee camp in Calais and others in Greece, Italy and Turkey - Paul decided to help in the small way he could and pack a van full of coats and drop them off to those who needed them. Within 12 months, everything had changed - and Paul had established the charity Refugee Support Europe, raised quarter of a million pounds and mobilised over 400 volunteers. As a result of Paul and his team, these camps have been able to create community-led shops, kitchens, letter-writing schemes, children’s playgrounds and cafes - all rooted in the principle that people, always and in every circumstance, deserve dignity. --- Useful links: http://www.refugeesupport.eu/ --- If you enjoyed the conversation, please like, subscribe and review - and share with colleagues. always possible supports business, community, cultural and education leaders to make critical decisions, test ideas, create impact and to tell their story to new audiences. To join in, visit www.alwayspossible.co.uk
At always possible, we help people make brilliant decisions - in business, culture, community and education. These podcasts let you eavesdrop in on informal conversations taking place on the phone or in the coffeeshop, In every chat, we are exploring the motivations and behaviours behind key decisions - with curious people who have trusted their instinct to make change in the world. In this podcast Richard Freeman has a conversation with Neil Mullarkey about improvisation, what stand-up comedy can teach us about human interaction and the performative elements of effective leadership. Richard asks Neil about his career as both a comedian and a business coach and trainer, and what qualities underpin the skills of being persuasive, in-tune with an audience and charismatic. What are the rules of improvisation - and how can using our imagination to create stories on the spot actually make us better listeners? Richard Freeman is Chief Executive of always possible. Neil Mullarkey has been a leading name in British comedy since his days as President of the Cambridge University Footlights and his double-act shows with Nick Hancock, Mike Myers and Tony Hawks. Neil’s writing and acting credits include children’s TV show The Wide-Awake Club and the Austin Powers films as well as appearances on many popular panel shows such as Whose Line Is It Anyway, QI and Have I Got News For You. In 1985, Neil co-founded The Comedy Store Players, now one of the world’s longest running and most successful improvised comedy troupes. His fellow players for over 30 years include Paul Merton and Josie Lawrence, with the likes of Eddie Izzard, Jeremy Hardy and Sandi Toksvig having been past members or guest performers. To many, Neil is also known as a successful business coach and keynote speaker, working with organisations all over the world on communication and leadership behaviours. Neil’s most recent book, published in September 2017, is called ‘Seven Steps To Improve Your People Skills’. Useful links: www.neilmullarkey.com www.allthatmullarkey.com www.amazon.co.uk/Seven-Steps-Improve-People-Skills/dp/0993501125 www.emmanuelgobillot.com/ https://herminiaibarra.com/ --- If you enjoyed the conversation, please like, subscribe and review - and share with colleagues. always possible supports business, community, cultural and education leaders to make better decisions, test ideas, improve strategy and engage with customers on a new level. To join in, visit alwayspossible.co.uk
In this podcast Richard Freeman has a conversation with Paul Levy about digital addiction and whether technology is actually at its most beautiful when we know how to switch it off. Richard asks Paul if any fear of technological reliance is really just fear of progress and if liveness - in life, art or storytelling - will inevitably become less important. Will future generations be less critical? Is technology inherently unequal and what questions should we ask ourselves when deciding on what sort of digital life we want at home or in business? Richard Freeman is Chief Executive of always possible. Paul Levy is an author, facilitator, playwright and philosopher - and Senior Researcher in Innovation Management at the University of Brighton. His books include ‘Technosophy’, ‘E-Quality’ and 2014’s ‘The Digital Inferno: Using Technology Consciously In Your Life And Work’. Paul also released a poetry anthology in 2015 exploring the human experience of change and transformation informed by his academic research. In 1999, Paul founded the award-winning theatre company Rational Madness, taking provocative and reflective stories into workplaces, community spaces and festivals. Paul is also the founder of FringeReview, a UK-wide print and digital platform for high quality theatre criticism - with a readership of over 130,000. Useful links: https://thedigitaldeepdive.wordpress.com https://rationalmadnesstheatre.wordpress.com/letting-you-go-joe/ https://rationalmadnesstheatre.wordpress.com https://www.amazon.co.uk/Digital-Inferno-Technology-Consciously-Hyperconnected/dp/1905570740 --- If you enjoyed the conversation, please like, subscribe and review - and share with colleagues. always possible supports business, community, cultural and education leaders to test ideas, improve strategy, communicate their vision and engage with customers on a new level. To join in, visit www.alwayspossible.co.uk
These podcasts let you eavesdrop in on informal conversations taking place on the phone or in the coffeeshop, In every chat, we are exploring the motivations and behaviours behind key decisions - with curious people who have trusted their instinct to make change in the world. In this podcast Richard Freeman has a conversation with Isilda Almeida-Harvey about the relevance of heritage and archives in the 21st century, how museums and record offices are managing in the digital revolution and how communities can use the past to make sense of the present - and even the future. Isilda Almeida-Harvey has been a heritage specialist for over 16 years, working with leading institutions in Portugal and the UK such as the Gulbenkian Foundation, the London Docklands Museum and the Victoria & Albert Museum. Isilda currently oversees a range of community learning programmes at the The Keep, the £19 million world-class Sussex public archive centre opened in 2013. In 2017, Isilda was announced as Founding Chair of the National Heritage Network with the Royal Society of Arts, following the publication of The Heritage Index - an enormous crowdsourced database of every historical asset in the UK from monuments and ruins, to ancient trees, local traditions, shipwrecks and old food recipes. Isilda’s role will be to hold big conversations across the country about how to maximise the use of this index in the evolving discussions around who we are and who we want to be. Useful links: https://www.thersa.org/discover/publications-and-articles/rsa-blogs/2017/06/launching-the-rsa-heritage-network https://www.thersa.org/action-and-research/rsa-projects/public-services-and-communities-folder/heritage-and-place --- If you enjoyed the conversation, please like, subscribe and review - and share with colleagues. always possible supports business, community, cultural and education leaders to test ideas, improve strategy, communicate their vision and engage with customers on a new level. For join in, visit www.alwayspossible.co.uk
In this podcast Richard Freeman has a conversation with Kate Peach about the current politics and policy of childcare in the UK and her career both caring for children and campaigning for a more resilient - and more child-centred - nursery and pre-school system. Kate Peach is a multi-award winning childcare expert, having recently been named one of the five most inspirational people in the sector by the national trade press and her own day nursery, Each Peach Childcare, voted one of the top three in the country by parents. Kate is a champion of discovery-led early years experiences, in which children develop their potential through socialisation, play and access to highly skilled and supported staff. Kate’s long career as a nursery practitioner, manager, business executive, entrepreneur and consultant has given her a national profile - with which she lobbied ministers and challenged the education regulator Ofsted, to better understand the needs of those who rely on the sector, especially children. Useful links: eachpeachchildcare.co.uk facebook.com/groups/ChampagneNurseries -- If you enjoyed the conversation, please like, subscribe and review - and share with colleagues. always possible supports business, community, cultural and education leaders to test ideas, improve strategy, communicate their vision and engage with customers on a new level. To join in, visit alwayspossible.co.uk
In this podcast Richard Freeman has a conversation with Corin Douieb, AKA The Last Skeptik. They discuss the modern music industry and the rise of bedroom artists, musical cultural identity and whether the traditional concepts of scenes and fans are still relevant - and Corin’s openness about his challenges with mental health and how this shapes his writing and production. The Last Skeptik is a DJ, songwriter, producer, performer, podcast host and entrepreneur from London, who is fast becoming one of the UK’s most heralded urban artists. His critically acclaimed solo albums, EPs and remixes have resulted in collaborations or tours with Damon Albarn, Charli XCX, Wu Tang Clan, Dream McClean and Jordan Stephens amongst many others. The Last Skeptik’s music has been used on Adidas and Reebok adverts as well as a BAFTA nominated film and the BBC coverage of the 2012 London Olympics. His latest album, ‘This Is Where It Gets Good’, was released in September 2017 and is a frank exploration of obsessive behaviours, extreme anxiety and the death of a close friend - yet he describes the work as his most mature, hopeful and optimistic yet, moving away from his more youthful sarcasm of the past. Useful links: http://www.thelastskeptik.com https://open.spotify.com/artist/31LnFifS3x9FTENleAl6Eq?si=5NMtih8z --- If you enjoyed the conversation, please like, subscribe and review - and share with colleagues. always possible supports artists and organisations to build meaningful projects, festivals and training programmes that use creativity as a tool for health and wellbeing. If you would like to find out how we could help power your ideas, visit www.alwayspossible.co.uk
In this podcast Richard Freeman has a conversation with Fiona Anderson about the opportunities and challenges for entrepreneurs in 2017, the role of start-up business incubators and whether the era of ever-expanding big corporates has come to an end. Fiona Anderson is Entrepreneurial Development Manager at NatWest bank, a new role created when the bank announced a multi-million pound partnership with Entrepreneurial Spark - the social enterprise founded in Scotland in 2012 with the aim of developing a new mindset and resilience in people starting their own businesses. Fiona has worked in banking with the RBS group for over 14 years, following roles in human resources in her native South Africa. Fiona’s work with Entrepreneurial Spark on the south coast has helped 300 businesses secure over £7m in investment since August 2015, in an area in which on average only 13% of new businesses tend to survive the first year. Useful links: www.entrepreneurial-spark.com www.rbs.com/rbs/news/2017/02/18-months-of-entrepreneurial-spark-hatchery-in-brighton-.html --- If you enjoyed the conversation, please like, subscribe and review - and share with colleagues. The always possible member network supports ambitious and ethical start-up businesses with 1:1 mentoring, free training, introductions and critical friendship. If you would like to find out how we could help power your ideas, visit www.alwayspossible.co.uk/membership
In this podcast Richard Freeman has a conversation with Tony Dillon about the world of entertainment law and the life of a media executive, being made to sing live on Channel 4 and of the critical need for good careers advice and mentoring in schools. For 20 years, Tony Dillon was one of the most influential lawyers and executives working in British media. Starting as the Production Lawyer on groundbreaking 90s TV programmes The Word and The Big Breakfast, Tony went on to become Head of Legal Affairs for many departments at the BBC and BBC Worldwide, including children’s entertainment, radio and music. Tony oversaw one the media industry’s biggest joint distribution ventures between the BBC and Woolworths before becoming Director of Legal and Business Affairs at Pact, the trade association for the independent TV, film and animation sectors. Now, alongside working as an executive coach, Tony spends his time volunteering with schools, teachers and young people as an acclaimed careers mentor - building strategic approaches to employability education with local authorities and the government-backed Careers & Enterprise Company. Useful links: www.careersandenterprise.co.uk/enterprise-adviser-network --- If you enjoyed the conversation, please like, subscribe and review - and share with colleagues. always possible create opportunities for people like Tony to use their skills and experience to transform education and community projects. If you would like to find out how we could help power your ideas, visit www.alwayspossible.co.uk
These interviews and conversations give a glimpse into some of the people we have been working with at always possible, some of the brilliant organisations we have been championing and some of the latest thinking in leadership, creativity and learning. In this podcast Richard Freeman has a conversation with Fionna Smyth about humanitarianism in the 21st century, the role of non-governmental organisations in responding effectively to global crises and from which people - and with what behaviours - genuine and lasting change will come. Fionna Smyth is Head of Humanitarian Advocacy, Policy & Campaigns at Oxfam, one of the biggest and most renowned global human rights organisations fighting to alleviate poverty and hunger and to promote the right and capacity for the world’s most disadvantaged communities to be positive agents of change. Over the past 15 years, Fionna Smyth has become one of the UK’s leading development and human rights campaigners with senior leadership roles at Oxfam, Amnesty International and the United Nations. During her career she has worked in advocacy and campaigning to address impunity for Sexual violence in The Democratic Republic of Congo and worked as the Director of the Middle East Gender Hub. This delivered programming on gender-based violence, women’s access to Justice and women’s political participation in Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, Yemen and Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. From 2015-2017, Fionna was a Trustee of the Keeping Children Safe Coalition, developing international standards to ensure all organisations safeguard children from exploitation and abuse. Useful links: www.oxfam.org.uk/ www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/
In this podcast Cat Rose has a conversation with Rachael Perrin about the power of music as a communication aid in business, communities, with society’s marginalised and with ourselves. They also discuss the dynamics of running social enterprise and why the arts can sometimes be too busy looking backwards to be innovative. Rachel Perrin is a founding director of Soundcastle, an award-winning social enterprise that connects communities through creative music-making. Founded in 2011, the company has been built on a passion for advancing the field of creative music facilitation and the drive to develop a socially responsible arts organisation. High profile collaborations with CBeebies and The British Museum and many others have put Soundcastle on the cultural map. Rachael is an accomplished musician and facilitator, and was recently appointed Professor of Enterprise & Creative Entrepreneurship at London's Guildhall School of Speech & Drama. Rachael was the co-authored of a piece of research entitled 'A Manifesto and Framework for Participatory Musicking’, which she presented with her Soundcastle co-directors at the International Society of Music Educators Conference in Glasgow in 2016. --- If you enjoyed the conversation, please like, subscribe and review - and share with colleagues. Soundcastle are just one of the many inspiring organisations that always possible has supported through introductions, brokerage and fundraising. If you would like to find out how we could help power your ideas, visit www.alwayspossible.co.uk/membership --- Useful links: www.soundcastle.co.uk www.myentrepreneurmagazine.com/rachael-perrin-start-social-enterprise
These interviews and conversations give a glimpse into some of the people we have been working with at always possible, some of the brilliant organisations we have been championing and some of the latest thinking in leadership, creativity and learning. In this podcast Richard Freeman has a conversation with Brett Griffin about his transition from secondary school Assistant Principal to entrepreneur, his mission to reduce teachers' workloads and the lessons he has learned about building a new EdTech business. Brett Griffin is the Founder and Chief Executive of Pupil Progress, a software system that helps teachers track, monitor and analyse the progress and attainment of individual and groups of students. Brett started as PE teacher in Kent before embracing the challenge of education in inner-city London and working in one of the UK's first academies. Before long he was Director of Sport and Assistant Principal, overseeing an Outstanding sports provision and healthy school agenda. Brett further specialised in educational leadership and change management at the Institute for Education before leaving the school staff room behind to launch his new business venture full-time. In 2016, Brett joined the UK Entrepreneurial Spark business incubator programme, funded by NatWest, KPMG, Dell and Pinsent Masons - and secured his first round of investor funding shortly after. --- If you enjoyed the conversation, please like, subscribe and review - and share with colleagues. The always possible member network supports educators and entrepreneurs to collaborate and problem-solve, with a range of events, training and 1:1 mentoring. To find out more, visit alwayspossible.co.uk/membership --- Useful links: https://www.pupil-progress.co.uk/
These interviews and conversations give a glimpse into some of the people we have been working with at always possible, some of the brilliant organisations we have been championing and some of the latest thinking in leadership, creativity and learning. In this podcast Richard Freeman has a conversation with Erica Neve about the role of technology in mindset, skills and behavioural transformation - in both the corporate sector and in education - as well as how mentoring for a new world of work is something that both junior apprentices and chief executives need in order to thrive. Erica Neve is Director of Learning & Academies at Freeformers, a digital transformation agency with a ground-breaking model of youth training, mentoring and digital consultancy. There are a handful of UK organisations developing pioneering models of creative and digital learning and workforce development, and Erica has held senior roles with many of them, including Livity, We Are Dot Dot Dot, The Royal Artillery Centre and The Polygon School. Erica is described as a T-shaped practitioner, with both vertical expertise in designing effective learning, skills and education programmes and a horizontal deep knowledge of user-centred digital design, marketing and emerging technologies. --- Useful links: www.freeformers.com --- If you enjoyed the conversation, please like, subscribe and review - and share with colleagues. always possible work at the heart of the UK apprenticeships and skills sector. We support businesses, colleges and training providers to navigate policy, design and quality. To find out more, visit us at www.alwayspossible.co.uk
This is a podcast special, profiling an individual who has demonstrated a particular mindset and determination to turn a devastating situation into one of curiosity, learning and hope. In this podcast Richard Freeman has a conversation with Ben Clench about his book, Ben Again, which chronicles his 7 year recovery from a life-changing traumatic brain injury. Ben and his girlfriend Jazz were successful international aid development specialists in their late 20s, working with governments and NGOs throughout the third world. On September 18th 2010, whilst walking on a busy street in the Dominican Republic, Ben and Jazz were hit by a speeding car as it came around the corner and mounted the curb. Ben’s journey since that day has been a complex and fascinating one, full of sadness but mainly of sheer strength that has astonished the medical profession. Despite living with the effects of a significant brain injury, Ben has completed a second Masters degree, designed courses for teachers and written this gripping book. For details on how you could win a signed copy, plus some limited edition artwork, stay tuned to the end of the podcast. --- If you enjoyed the conversation, please like, subscribe and review - and share with colleagues. To be in with a chance of winning your own signed paperback copy of Ben Again, plus limited edition cover design artwork, visit www.alwayspossible.co.uk/benagain and enter your details. The competition ends on Friday 29th September with a winner announced shortly after. --- Useful links: www.alwayspossible.co.uk/benagain www.ben-again.org
These interviews and conversations give a glimpse into some of the people we have been working with at always possible, some of the brilliant organisations we have been championing and some of the latest thinking in leadership, creativity and learning. In this podcast Cat Rose has a conversation with always possible associate Jenni Lloyd about purpose in business, the future of work, understanding motivation and the need for us to value universal human flourishing over the endless pursuit of economic growth. Jenni Lloyd has had a 30 year career in digital product design and development, strategy and coaching with global creative and digital business as well as being an experienced consultant for corporate industry, universities, social enterprises, charities and arts organisations. Jenni now runs PurposeLab following six years as a director of acclaimed marketing agency NixonMcInnes with whom she founded the annual Meaning Conference. Jenni is a Trustee of the Brighton Royal Pavilion Foundation and a non-executive director of Wired Sussex. In 2017, Jenni was announced as the new Chair of Brighton Digital Festival - the UK’s largest celebration of digital culture. --- If you enjoyed the conversation, please like, subscribe and review - and share with colleagues. Jenni is one of always possible’s expert associates, informing the work we do to power brilliant business. Our company of thinkers, do-ers and problem-solvers is made of specialists in a number of fields, from communications to governance, project management to strategy and planning. If you have want to find out how we help you be brilliant, drop us a line at www.alwayspossible.co.uk --- Useful links: www.thepurposelab.uk www.brighton.meaningconference.co.uk www.brightondigitalfestival.co.uk Dan Pink - DRIVE www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc www.peterkoenig.typepad.com www.donellameadows.org
A regular series of interviews and conversations that give a glimpse into some of the people we have been working with at always possible, some of the brilliant organisations we have been championing and some of the latest thinking in leadership, creativity and learning. Leaders from business, tech, the arts, community, education and academia talk about the ways in which they are shifting perceptions and challenging the status quo. --- In this podcast Richard Freeman has a conversation with George Heyworth and Livvy Morris, better known as Georgeois Bourgeois & Maurice Maurice, on the importance of fluid opinions, whether artists should consider their branding and what impact a decade of political turmoil and their own aging has had on their world view. Bourgeois & Maurice are a multi award-winning neo-cabaret, comedy-musical duo who have toured the world with their acerbic and absurdist commentaries on modern life. 2017 marks their 10th anniversary and a retrospective show at London’s Soho Theatre from 15th-26th August, looking back at the decade of politics and social change that they have chronicled in four studio albums and hundreds of riotous performances. Their unique brand of satire, glamour and grotesquery is underpinned by a sharp story-telling and musical talent that has earned them a big following in the UK, Europe and USA. Useful links: www.bourgeoisandmaurice.co.uk www.youtube.com/user/bourgeoisandmaurice www.open.spotify.com/artist/7q5Ha1yddYuaR4skKWbBan --- The team at always possible work with artists, story-tellers and creatives to reach bigger audiences and to build the business behind their art. You can find out more at alwayspossible.co.uk If you enjoyed the conversation, please like, subscribe and review - and share with colleagues. If your business would benefit from critical friends with expertise on growing big ideas that make the world better, drop us a line at alwayspossible.co.uk/membership
These interviews and conversations give a glimpse into some of the people we have been working with at always possible, some of the brilliant organisations we have been championing and some of the latest thinking in leadership, creativity and learning. In this podcast Richard Freeman has a conversation with Adam Muirhead about the concept of youth work in 2017, the role of young people in politics and policy and the complex world of youth identity. Adam Muirhead has been a professional youth worker for the entirety of his adult life and teaches the subject at the University of Brighton. Adam is also the Chair of the national Institute for Youth Work - an organisation run by youth workers to drive forward the quality, security and understanding of the profession. In 2015, Adam was voted one of the happiest people in Brighton & Hove as part of the city's 'Happy List', which recognises community and business leaders whose actions create a happier, better adjusted and more selfless place. Useful link: www.iyw.org.uk If you enjoyed the conversation, please like, subscribe and review - and share with colleagues. always possible power organisations, like the institute for youth work, to test ideas and create ambitious action plans for the future. If you have want to find out how we help you be brilliant, drop us a line at alwayspossible.co.uk
These interviews and conversations give a glimpse into some of the people we have been working with at always possible, some of the brilliant organisations we have been championing and some of the latest thinking in leadership, creativity and learning. In this podcast Cat Rose has a conversation with Nikki Gatenby about how dreams are the backbone to her business and how 21st century companies should be engaging staff on a level of commitment and passion so deep that it no longer feels like work Nikki Gatenby is the Managing Director of Propellernet, a digital marketing agency that has been consistently ranked one of the top 10 places to work in the UK and Europe for the last 5 years as well as UK and European Search Agency of the Year. Nikki’s unorthodox approach to employee engagement has led to her being an internationally-renowned speaker on the philosophy of ‘making life better’ - built on the principle that if you create a brilliant place to work, then you'll create brilliant experiences for your customers. Nikki has worked in the marketing industry for 20 years, in London, Paris and now Brighton, resulting in many awards an accolades - most recently Digital Woman of the Year at the Business Women Excellence Awards. USEFUL LINKS: www.propellernet.co.uk www.coveragebook.com --- The team at always possible support entrepreneurs and creative leaders to build their businesses and make change in the world. From research and consultation to developing organisational purpose and cultures. You can find out more at alwayspossible.co.uk If you enjoyed the conversation, please like, subscribe and review - and share with colleagues. always possible is building the UK’s best network for creative leaders and ambitious business. It takes 2 minutes to apply at alwayspossible.co.uk - and you could get 1:1 business support and access to a network of pioneering thinkers.
These interviews and conversations give a glimpse into some of the people we have been working with at always possible, some of the brilliant organisations we have been championing and some of the latest thinking in leadership, creativity and learning. In this podcast Richard Freeman has a conversation with Darren Abrahams about opera singing, trauma therapy, guerrilla education and building a leisure centre. Darren Abrahams is a coach, therapist, trainer and edupreneur and is the creator of many programmes designed to expand the potential of individuals and groups. He works internationally as a facilitator and project leader in the fields of creativity, music and trauma, arts and community, social entrepreneurship and personal development. He is a qualified trauma therapist, a Certified High Performance Coach and a professional singer. He is co-founder of The Starr Trust a charity which supports young people to fulfil potential, and Crisis Classroom, a social enterprise which trains volunteer and professional teachers to work in crisis situations. -- The team at always possible support entrepreneurs and creative leaders to build their businesses and make change in the world. You can read about our work with Starboard children’s theatre festival and our programmes to develop new thinking in education leadership at alwayspossible.co.uk/casestudies If you enjoyed the conversation, please like, subscribe and review - and share with colleagues. always possible is building the UK’s best network for creative leaders and ambitious business. It takes 2 minutes to apply at alwayspossible.co.uk - and if you use the code PODCAST you will get 3 months free
These interviews and conversations give a glimpse into some of the people we have been working with at always possible, some of the brilliant organisations we have been championing and some of the latest thinking in leadership, creativity and learning. In this podcast Cat Rose has a conversation with Katherine Swift about matcha green tea and how some devastating news lead to the development of an award-winning business as well as new research into the effects of ageing and biological health. Katherine Swift had a successful career in media sales, promotions and event management having worked for The Guardian Media Group, Capital Radio Group and BT amongst others, when one day her mother revealed a diagnosis for stage 3 breast cancer. Rather than be crushed by this, the situation became a catalyst for Katherine to help her mother fight the disease, to devote her life to the study of age relate decline, and significantly to the manufacture and promotion of matcha green tea - a powdered form of green tea from Japan that clinical trials have proven to have profound positive effects on health, wellbeing and the effects of ageing, if properly prepared. The fact that Katherine’s mother battled the illness and won is thought to be in no small part to this unusual and complex drink. Katherine went on to become founder and CEO of Naturem and OMGTeas, a small ethical business that sells matcha green tea across the UK and Europe as well as establishing the Healthy Life Foundation, a charity which funds genetic and cell biology research into age-related illness. The business is rapidly growing, with endorsements from leading health professionals and sportspeople alike.
Richard Freeman has a conversation with Rod Natkiel. They chat about what good work experience looks like for young people, the language barriers between education and business and the ups and downs of leading a charity in the 21st century. Until recently, Rod Natkiel was most renowned for his senior-level career in TV and radio, as a multi-award and BAFTA-winning executive producer, director and writer at both the BBC and in corporate media production. Among many other programmes throughout the 1990s, Rod had creative and financial responsibility for Top Gear, Dangerfield and The Archers as Head of Network at BBC Birmingham. From 1999-1997 Rod was a Board Member for Arts Council England and was Visiting Professor of Television at Birmingham City University for over 6 years. In 2016, Rod took his executive leadership experience to a completely different sector when he was appointed Chief Executive of Fair Train, the UK’s national charity for promoting high quality work experience. As the owner of the work experience quality standard, Fair Train enables education providers, businesses and institutions of all sizes to ensure that work experience is valuable, meaningful and safe.
Peter Maddalena - on virtual reality and the future of technology for small business by always possible
An interview with JO HOCKLEY, founder and CEO of Toddlebike. Jo discusses how she invented the Toddlebike, now one of the UK's most beloved children's pre-balance bikes; navigating the complex world of retail and being an 'accidental entrepreneur'. always possible is a company that builds the power of ambitious business and creative leaders through a unique member network, organisational development projects and strategic consultancy. We believe that different sectors and businesses can better learn how to thrive from each other. These interviews and conversations give a glimpse into some of the people we've been working with at always possible, some of the brilliant organisations we have been championing and some of the latest thinking in leadership, creativity and learning.
always possible is a company that builds the power of ambitious business and creative leaders through a unique member network, organisational development projects and strategic consultancy. We believe that different sectors and businesses can better learn how to thrive from each other. These interviews and conversations give a glimpse into some of the people we've been working with at always possible, some of the brilliant organisations we have been championing and some of the latest thinking in leadership, creativity and learning.