The Grand Challengers Podcast: Recent Episodes
Peter Marcus Bach
A show about inspiring individuals from science, engineering, technology and design about how they are tackling our world's 'grand challenges' of climate change, biodiversity loss, threats to quality of life and society and culture. Every episode offers nuggets of insight and advice for aspiring young professionals who want to make our world a better place.
Billions in international money poured into Sarajevo after the siege ended. What got built was a city with more shopping malls and less public green space than the one that had been destroyed. Money was never the constraint. Coordination was.
Haris Piplas is Director of Integrated Urban Solutions International at Drees & Sommer and a lecturer at ETH Zürich. He trained as a landscape architect in Sarajevo, an urban designer in Berlin, and took his doctorate in architecture in Zürich. His argument is that the way the built environment carved itself into separate professions last century has left none of them able to do the actual job. Transforming a place means understanding law, media, budgets, referenda and human psychology, and no architecture school teaches any of it.
We get into what urban regeneration should and should not be, why both neighbours in an argument about one parking space have a legitimate case, how the Commit to Green project is bringing blue-green infrastructure back into a contaminated former landfill in Milan and a landslide-prone site on the edge of Barcelona, and why the recovery of Ukrainian cities cannot wait for a perfect moment that may never arrive.
Haris also talks about the two cities that raised him. Sarajevo, which lost almost everything when the Cold War ended, and Berlin, which gained almost everything. He explains why the "smart city" buzzword is more useful than its critics allow, why architectural competitions bin most of the knowledge they generate, and why the single-name genius architect is a marketing fiction worth retiring. Plus central midfield as a theory of project management, moustaches as a theory of fashion cycles, and a childhood memory from a refugee camp that he still describes as beautiful.
Chapters:0:00 Intro
1:59 Guest Intro and The Urban Forum
4:23 Drees & Sommer & a little bit of Zurich history
9:44 The fallacy of 20th century hyperspecialization
14:37 Growing up in Sarajevo shaped Haris' drive
18:48 Urban Regeneration: what it should and shouldn't be
25:56 Geopolitics, stakeholders and scaling up urban regeneration
35:10 Baukultur, Inclusivity and the Blue-Green Infrastructure
43:15 Co-op-e-tition and horizontalizing authorship
49:54 AI and the Smart Cities Movement
54:59 A collage of Haris' project work and "bridges”
1:06:23 Heading in the right direction?
1:08:34 What excites Haris about the future?
1:10:40 Q&A Start
1:10:50 What does innovation mean to you?
1:12:45 Key Moment, Book, Person
1:17:08 Time Management
1:20:52 Favourite childhood memory
1:24:31 What would you most like to be remembered for?
1:28:17 Where can people find you?
1:29:54 Final Message
1:31:33 Outro
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
- X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
- Instagram: @petermbach87
- Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/
Most of us now use AI every day. Very few of us could explain what it is actually doing.
Anastassia Lauterbach thinks that gap is the most dangerous thing about this technology, and she has built a company to close it. She is a linguist, a trained clinical psychologist, a former senior executive at Qualcomm and Deutsche Telekom, a former non-executive director at easyJet, Dun & Bradstreet and Wirecard, and now founder and CEO of AI Edutainment in Basel.
In this episode she draws a line most companies and governments have quietly erased. AI literacy is not AI fluency. Fluency is knowing how to prompt. Literacy is understanding why every large language model hallucinates, where your data goes when you upload it, and when the honest answer is to not use AI at all. Invest only in fluency, she argues, and what you scale is mediocrity.
We work through the four principles of her Responsible AI white paper: changing the architecture itself, radical transparency about failure, literacy as understanding rather than tool training, and the fusion of STEM with the humanities. Along the way we discuss the elevation of AI into a religion complete with its own popes and heretics, why cognitive capital deserves a place next to human capital on the balance sheet, and what an "Ozempic for the brain" would even look like.
There is also a grand piano, absolute pitch, a childhood in Moscow spent hanging oranges on a Christmas tree, the collapse of Wirecard, and a ginger cat who serves as Chief Marketing Officer.
Chapters:0:00 Intro
1:59 Guest Intro, Basel and Piano
15:15 Anastassia's early journey
21:43 The Brain and critique on today's AI and society
35:49 Anastassia's Mission in AI Literacy
42:34 AI Literacy vs. AI Fluency
48:08 The cognitive challenge and appetite for understanding
51:52 Mediocrity and the need to celebrate human effort
55:18 Education reforms and re-exercising our brain
1:09:37 Reaching the four pillars of Responsible AI
1:19:17 Anastassia's Vision
1:24:05 Q&A Start
1:24:32 What does innovation mean to you?
1:27:14 Key moment, event, person
1:28:22 Time Management
1:32:49 Favourite childhood memory
1:35:16 Biggest challenge to date
1:41:34 Advice for young professionals
1:43:38 What would you most like to be remembered for?
1:43:52 Where can people find you?
1:46:39 Final Message
1:46:58 Outro
Find Anastassia at https://aiedutainment.ai and https://romyandroby.ai
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
- X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
- Instagram: @petermbach87
- Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/
What if the kitchen knife you have used your whole life was designed for a fight, not for cooking? Douglas Katz thinks we can do better. "If you designed a knife for a robot, it wouldn't look like the linear knife that we have today," he says, and that single reframe sits at the heart of this episode.
Douglas is a West Point graduate, a disabled US Army veteran and a lifelong inventor who tells his story in three acts. From the leadership lab of the military, through a long and often grim chapter in corporate America, to the workshop where he forged a new kind of blade, his journey is one of reframing what looks fixed until something better becomes possible.
After upper body injuries made an ordinary knife painful to hold, Douglas refused to give up cooking and redesigned the tool instead. The result is NULU, an adaptive kitchen knife inspired by the traditional Inuit ulu and built around a concept his team calls force transfer geometry. From there grew a bigger idea. Ability and disability, he argues, are not a switch you flip. They are task-based and they move along a curve we all travel. We will all age into disability, and designing for that reality makes life better for everyone.
Along the way Peter and Douglas get into Aikido and softness, barrier-free, universal and inclusive design, ADHD as a feature set rather than a bug, and why AI might be the infinite assistant that lets more of us think like Tony Stark. It is honest, funny and quietly profound.
Chapters:0:00 Intro
1:59 Guest Intro & Aikido
9:12 Douglas' Story in Three Acts: The Military
16:29 A precursor to the second Act - Leadership
19:39 The second Act - Corporate America
25:56 The third Act and Doug's current innovation
36:36 Reframing ability and disability and design for it
41:39 A 101 on Disability Design Theories
48:03 The NULU Knife - an example of adaptive design
51:27 Helping incubate adaptive design ideas
53:30 A discussion on "ADHD wiring”
1:02:09 Intelligence, pattern recognition and AI
1:08:20 AI in work and education
1:14:41 Doug's Future Plans
1:18:34 Q&A Start
1:18:53 What does innovation mean to you?
1:19:17 Key Moment, Event, Person
1:21:59 Time Management
1:24:43 Favourite childhood memory
1:27:02 Biggest challenge to date
1:30:41 Advice for young professionals
1:33:55 What would you most like to be remembered for?
1:35:31 Where can people find you?
1:37:07 Final Message
1:37:41 Outro
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
- X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
- Instagram: @petermbach87
- Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/
What if the system you spent four decades building turned out to not be enough?
David Gottfried is the father of the global green building movement. He founded the U.S. Green Building Council and the World Green Building Council, and helped create LEED, the rating system now used across more than 180 countries and tied to a trillion-dollar green economy. And yet he is the first to say it has not bent the curve far enough. Carbon keeps climbing. The ship is still heading for the iceberg, and we are busy bolting solar panels to the deck.
In this wide-ranging conversation, David takes Peter through the whole arc. A quick 101 on what actually makes a building green, from orientation and glazing to greywater and healthy materials. How LEED grew from a white paper into a global standard. And why he now argues we need to move from sustainability to regeneration, from human to humane, and build a new scoreboard he calls HOPE (Health On Planet Earth).
It is also a deeply personal story. A Stanford engineer who read Siddhartha every birthday and came to see himself as the ferryman. A developer who lost a building in the crash and went looking for purpose. A man who took up kung fu in his late fifties, fly fishes alone in cold creeks, and used AI as a thinking partner to turn 2,400 pages of dog-walk voice notes into his fourth book.
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
1:59 Guest Intro, Kung Fu & Fly Fishing
9:34 A 101 on Green Buildings…
16:11 ...and a 101 on the LEED System
18:45 Why study engineering?
20:40 Siddartha's Influence on David
26:43 Origins of the Green Building Movement
42:06 Green Buildings aren't enough
50:57 Pushing the needle and finding the correct metrics
1:01:37 A true Human-AI collaboration
1:10:07 David's Hope and Future Vision
1:12:14 Q&A Start
1:12:28 What does innovation mean to you?
1:15:28 Key Event, Book, Person
1:20:13 Time Management
1:24:58 Favourite childhood memory
1:27:57 Greatest Challenge to Date
1:33:04 Advice for young professionals
1:36:16 What would you most like to be remembered for?
1:37:01 Where can people find you?
1:38:42 Final Message
1:39:29 Outro
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
- X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
- Instagram: @petermbach87
- Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/
"Why is our architecture not as diverse as our culture is progressive?" That's the question Toronto-based architect Alexander Josephson keeps asking. On this episode, he doesn't pull punches.
Alex is the co-founder and creative director of PARTISANS, the studio behind the Grotto Sauna, the masterplan to resurrect Toronto's gargantuan Hearn power plant into a cultural district, and The Orbit, a radial reinvention of the Garden City for a transit-oriented future. He's also founder and CEO of Cumulus, an immersive digital memorialisation platform born from his father's brush with death during COVID. Across two decades, Alex has staked out a position that's part critique, part call to arms: that the condo towers crashing into Toronto's skyline are "spreadsheets in the sky", that greenwashed sustainability mandates have made architects pawns of capital, and that buildings should be "thousand-year worthy".
In this conversation we trace Alex's nonlinear journey into architecture (the University of Waterloo, Rome with Massimiliano Fuksas, the AA in London which he dropped out of), the founding of PARTISANS in a Toronto storage locker, his master's thesis redesigning Mecca around a singularity, the Grotto Sauna's pre-fabricated arrival by barge, the disco ball that helped ignite the Hearn's cultural revival, and what it takes to design a "complete community" amid Canada's worst real estate downturn in a century. We also wrestle with AI in design ("it's just a tool, like a pencil"), the case for interfaith architecture as a path to peace, and how personal grief gave rise to Cumulus, his "digital tomb" for the family memories trapped on our devices. A spirited, irreverent and sometimes uncomfortable episode for anyone who builds, designs, or simply lives among buildings.
Chapters:0:00 Intro
1:59 Guest Intro, Toronto & Tim Hortons
3:59 "Spreadsheets in the Sky”
9:40 A radical redesign of Mecca
15:01 Interfaith architecture for peace
17:59 Origins of the "Rebel Archtiect”
31:49 PARTISANS - the "Apple" story of Architecture?
37:25 The Grotto Sauna
38:57 Urban Regeneration - The Hearn
50:37 Building on the Garden City - The Orbit
57:15 Receptivity to radical ideas from the client's side
1:01:41 Real issues with 'sustainability' in architecture
1:12:12 Reflecting back on the why of pursuing architecture
1:19:43 The impact of AI in Architecture
1:23:04 The story of Cumulus - digital memorialization
1:43:00 Q&A Start
1:43:22 What does innovation mean to you?
1:44:24 Key event, book, person
1:47:19 Time Management
1:49:55 Favourite childhood memory
1:50:47 Biggest challenge to date
1:53:33 Advice for young professionals
1:55:19 What would you most like to be remembered for?
1:57:03 Where can people find you?
1:58:32 Final message
1:58:45 Outro
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
- X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
- Instagram: @petermbach87
- Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/
Why does profit feel a lot like breathing... necessary to stay alive, but never the actual reason you're here?
In Episode 63, entrepreneur and business expert Jean-Christian Rindoni argues that businesses, like human beings, need profit to live, but their purpose has to be more than just breathing. Recording from his new home on Portugal's Algarve coast, recently ranked among the world's best seaside destinations, Jean-Christian shares the story behind Symbiosis Infinity Group, a consultancy he founded after spending more than two decades doing business in 30+ countries. After a year of looking inwards instead of outwards, he made a career pivot in his late forties to combine his international expertise with somatic breathwork practice and a model he calls Conscious Business Growth.
We unpack his trademarked Symbiosis Infinity Loop, a four-stakeholder framework inspired by symbiotic ecosystems in nature, designed to move companies beyond ESG box-ticking into hands-on circular supply chains. The conversation goes deep on a working case study from Cameroon, where Jean-Christian and his partners are helping cocoa cooperatives turn discarded cocoa husks (roughly 70-75% of the plant's weight) into nutrient sources, sustainable packaging materials, and biofuel feedstock, opening new revenue streams for farmers stuck with unsold beans amid a market crisis.
Beyond the business, we explore the daily practices that keep Jean-Christian grounded: somatic breathwork, box breathing, Stoic philosophy, an unwavering morning routine that begins with making the bed, and the kind of stillness that lets imagination return. He shares why "innovation at source" gives companies a competitive edge no R&D lab can replicate, why scaling a purpose-driven business sometimes means saying no to clients who only want to make money, and why, as he puts it, "your inner world dictates your outer world, not the opposite."
If you're interested in conscious business, the circular economy, breathwork, or finding your calling at any age, this one is worth your full attention.
Chapters:0:00 Intro
1:59 Guest Intro, The Algarve & Breathwork
13:38 Jean-Christian's early career
19:56 Symbiosis Inifnity Group
21:59 What is Conscious Business Growth?
23:29 The supply chain of cocoa
33:28 The symbiosis infinity loop concept
40:21 Challenges for circularity and symbiosis
47:17 Learning and walking with the big players
51:57 A precautionary tale about scaling
1:00:16 Upcoming exciting projects for Jean-Christian
1:03:44 Q&A Start
1:04:03 What does innovation mean to you?
1:08:11 Key moment, book, person
1:13:08 Time Management
1:20:32 Favourite childhood memory
1:24:59 What would you most like to be remembered for?
1:26:41 Where can people find you?
1:28:30 Final Message
1:29:46 Outro
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
- X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
- Instagram: @petermbach87
- Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/
What does a horror-game-loving Italian engineer have to do with cleaning your wastewater? More than you'd think... and the journey starts in a paddy rice field.
In Episode 62 of The Grand Challengers Podcast, host Peter Marcus Bach welcomes Dr Anacleto Rizzo, Partner at IRIDRA Srl in Florence, President of Global Wetland Technology, and one of Europe's most active voices on nature-based solutions (NBS) for the water sector. They begin where two self-confessed geeks should: David Lynch films, Resident Evil vs Silent Hill, and the perils of playing first-person horror games in bed next to a sleeping spouse.
From there, the conversation winds through Anacleto's serendipitous journey into engineering, a randomly chosen civil degree at Politecnico di Torino that ended, unexpectedly, in a PhD on methane emissions from paddy rice fields. He explains why Italy's rice country in Piedmont is a methane hotspot (with a vivid biological analogy you won't forget), and how a single review paper on treatment wetland modelling, read at the right moment, redirected his career toward nature-based wastewater treatment.
Treatment wetlands are the through-line of this episode: a quietly revolutionary technology that's been working for 30+ years, treats up to tens of thousands of population equivalent, and remains chronically misunderstood. We unpack what they actually are, why a few "Wild West" early failures in Italy still haunt the field.
The deeper thread is the academic-practitioner bridge. Treatment wetlands matured because practitioners went out and monitored real, full-scale systems, generating the unglamorous journal papers that lab-scale studies could never produce. He shares why "throwing your heart beyond the fence" (a wonderful Italian idiom for taking calculated risks) is the only way to escape the technological-readiness-level trap.
Recommended for anyone, whether engineer, researcher or nature enthusiast, curious about how nature does the dirty work better than concrete ever did.
Chapters:0:00 Intro
1:59 Guest Intro, Cult Movies & Horror Games
7:47 Why Civil Engineering?
10:16 A PhD on "rice flatulence”
14:48 Adding treatment wetlands to the mix
19:06 A 101 on Treatment Wetlands
37:17 The terminology discussion and IRIDRA
51:42 IRIDRA's Projects & Global Wetland Technology
56:46 General receptivity of NbS in Italy
1:03:08 Some exciting things Anacleto is embarking on
1:07:15 Q&A Start
1:07:26 What does innovation mean to you?
1:08:30 Key event, book, person
1:09:51 Time Management
1:12:46 Favourite childhood memory
1:13:45 Greatest challenge to date
1:15:25 Advice for young professionals
1:18:03 What would you most like to be remembered for?
1:20:11 Where can people find you?
1:20:58 Final message
1:21:19 Outro
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
- X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
- Instagram: @petermbach87
- Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/
What happens to your rubbish when you live on an island with nowhere to ship it? On Grand Cayman, the answer is a 90-foot mountain of waste the locals call "Mount Trashmore" and it is not alone. Most of the world's 57 Small Island Developing States (SIDS) face the same closed-loop reality, where every bottle, bag and broken appliance has to go somewhere, and "somewhere" is usually the ground beneath your feet.
In this episode, we are joined by Richard C. Tyson environmental consultant, entrepreneur, speaker and Founder of Eco Systems for a global conversation about circular economy, waste management and the business case for sustainability. Richard's career has taken him from the Caribbean to the UK and now Bangkok, Thailand, and his perspective carries the practical clarity of someone who has worked inside government, the private sector and international consulting.
The episode traces Richard's journey from Cayman's coral reefs to roles in environmental health, solid waste management and sustainable tourism within the Cayman Islands Government, and finally to founding his own consultancy. It digs into why SIDS are both the most vulnerable to climate change and among the most innovative incubators for circular thinking, why waste is better understood as "resources in the wrong place," how the circular economy evolved into today's corporate strategy, and what it actually takes to shift a business from linear to circular.
Richard also demystifies the world of sustainability certifications, explaining why a standardised, audited approach beats well-intentioned recycling programs every time, how certifications act as a shield against greenwashing, and why educating businesses is often more important than certifying them. How do you build an environmental consultancy from scratch and why does Richard believe that sustainability and technology are the only two real frontiers of innovation today? Tune in for a grounded, globally-minded conversation about the future of resources, small islands and sustainable business.
Chapters:0:00 Intro
1:59 Guest Intro & Life Across Continents
5:13 The Cayman Islands
10:05 A 101 on Small Island Developing States (SIDS)
15:59 The waste management challenge
19:39 Circular Economy
23:05 Richard's jump from Cayman to Thailand
27:41 Richard's Business Eco Systems
32:51 Environmental certifications - worth it?
41:00 Reflecting on Entrepreneurship
43:54 Overcoming the dangers of 'greenwashing’
48:47 Near-future plans for EcoSystems and Richard
50:55 Q&A Start
51:15 What does innovation mean to you?
52:08 Key Moment, Person, Event
52:54 Time Management
55:14 Favourite childhood memory
56:26 Greatest challenge to date
1:00:27 Advice for young professionals
1:02:14 What would you most like to be rememered for?
1:03:00 Where can people find you?
1:04:01 Final Message
1:04:31 Outro
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
- X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
- Instagram: @petermbach87
- Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/
Why do some cities grind to a halt during storms while others recover quickly? The answer often lies in what happens when water, energy and transport fail at the same time, and whether the people managing them are actually talking to each other.
In Episode 60, Dr Maryam Imani, Associate Professor of Water Systems Engineering at Anglia Ruskin University, takes us into the hidden interdependencies of urban critical infrastructure. Drawing on her RV-DSS (Resilience and Vulnerability-informed Decision Support System), Maryam reveals how a single flood can trigger chain reactions across water networks, power substations and railways and why "shared interventions" between operators could dramatically improve recovery.
Maryam's story goes beyond infrastructure models. From childhood Lego building in Iran to a black belt in taekwondo, from running her own engineering firm to finding her calling in water research at Exeter's Centre for Water Systems, her journey is one of exploration, setbacks and reinvention. After losing her brother in a motorcycle accident, she found liberation by facing that fear... a personal resilience story that mirrors the engineering resilience she studies.
The conversation expands into nature-based solutions and sustainable drainage systems (SuDS), and how they can strengthen urban resilience. Maryam shares insights from Brazil, India and the UK, comparing how the Global North and South approach climate adaptation and drainage planning. She argues that while SuDS are increasingly recognised as critical infrastructure, we lack evidence about their long-term performance and her SuDS Health Monitoring research aims to change that.
Chapters:0:00 Intro
1:59 Guest Intro & Action Hobbies
12:47 Lego inspired a start in structural engineering
19:00 From structure to water, from CEO to researcher
25:27 Unpacking Resilience & Interdependency and the RVDSS
35:52 What is infrastructure resilience?
45:02 The NbS Terminology discussion
47:25 Maryam's international NbS Research
56:29 NbS as Critical Infrastructure - what about resilience?
1:00:12 UK, Brazil, India comparison in terms of NbS
1:05:02 The key lesson for Global North-South learning
1:06:33 Maryam's future plans
1:09:05 Q&A Start
1:09:24 What does innovation mean to you?
1:11:32 Key event, book person
1:13:57 Time Management
1:17:23 Favourite childhood memory
1:18:30 Biggest challenge to date
1:21:19 Advice for young professionals
1:23:24 What would you most like to be remembered for?
1:24:36 Where can people find you?
1:25:04 Final message
1:27:41 Outro
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
- X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
- Instagram: @petermbach87
- Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/
In a world racing toward automation and AI-driven efficiency, what happens to the humans inside the machine? With nearly a billion people worldwide living with a mental health disorder, youth burnout rates climbing, and a loneliness epidemic affecting 50% of adults in the US alone, the question is no longer theoretical, it is URGENT! On this episode, human and organizational development expert Galina Yordanova argues that human consciousness is the most valuable business asset of the AI age and shares her mission to awaken the corporate world from the inside out.
Galina is the Founder and Chief Awakening Officer at Awakenomy. Holding an MBA in Digital Transformations and certifications as an Agile Coach and trained facilitator, she brings over 15 years of experience in executive HR leadership, learning and development, and cross-cultural organizational work spanning Bulgaria, USA, Austria, and Switzerland. Her thesis is deceptively simple: 42 hours per week of your life at work, those hours should support your growth as a human, not just your output as an employee.
We discuss the scientific and spiritual, covering the neuroscience of consciousness, the biology of bliss molecules like anandamide, the concept of spiritual AI, simulation theory, quantum entanglement, implications for human connectedness, and practical approaches like breathwork, meditation, and single-tasking. We explore why Gen Z is burning out in environments of abundance, why the education system is failing to prepare the next generation, and why only 3% of companies currently operate at a higher consciousness level.
Whether you are a business leader, a young professional navigating burnout, or simply curious about what it means to be truly present in an increasingly automated world, here's a rare blend of the practical, philosophical and deeply human.
(Disclaimer: References to mental health statistics and global suicide rates.)
Chapters:00:00 Intro
1:59 Guest Intro & the blindfold experiment
10:11 What is consciousness and Galina's own discovery
21:59 The urgency of 'Awakening’
31:27 Galina's background and discussing the impact of 'abundance’
40:07 How will AI help or worsen our current society?
44:51 Spiritual AI, Ghost in the Shell and The Matrix
54:35 Galina's Startup Awakenomy
1:08:41 Current progress and how to get involved
1:11:18 Making sense of today's discussion - a tangible piece of advice
1:11:59 Q&A Start
1:12:13 What does innovation mean to you?
1:14:19 Key Moment, Book, Person
1:18:31 Time Management
1:22:11 Favourite Childhood Memory
1:22:37 Biggest challenge to date
1:26:14 Advice for young professionals
1:26:53 Something you'll regret not doing?
1:27:45 What would you most like to be remembered for?
1:28:39 Where can people find you?
1:30:57 Final Message
1:31:26 Outro
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
- X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
- Instagram: @petermbach87
- Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/
We train AI systems to optimize for metrics — but what if the real alignment problem isn't in the machine? What if it starts with us?
Juan Pablo Carbajal is a physicist, interdisciplinary researcher, and educator at the Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences (OST). Originally from Argentina, his career spans physics, robotics, biomechanics, agronomy, machine learning, and water research — driven not by any single discipline but by a deep need to understand the systems underlying everything he encounters.
In Episode 58 of The Grand Challengers Podcast, Juan Pablo joins host Peter Marcus Bach to reframe the AI alignment debate as fundamentally a human one. He argues that the same narrow, single-metric optimization we apply to AI — rewarding output over understanding — is already distorting science, education, and society. From the "publish or perish" crisis in academia to how we evaluate students with one-dimensional scores, the pattern is the same: pressure systems to hit a number, and unintended behaviours emerge.
The conversation traces Juan Pablo's journey from collecting tadpoles in an Argentine river (with a memorable food-chain disaster) to studying embodied AI at the University of Zurich's AI Lab under Rolf Pfeifer, where intelligence is inseparable from its physical body. Along the way, he shares lessons from plant biology — how nitrogen-fixing bacteria and their "cheater" free-riders coexist through tolerance rather than punishment — and explains why physics-informed AI may be the antidote to purely data-driven approaches that mistake local patterns for universal truths.
Topics include: the limits of data-driven machine learning, Gestalt psychology and machine vision, why the word "robot" means slave, complex systems and emergence, the role of culture as humanity's alignment mechanism, and why understanding history is our best defence against repeating its mistakes.
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
1:59 Guest Intro & Yerba Mate
6:47 JP's Secret Mate Recipe
11:13 Summarizing JP's passions into a keyword
13:08 The Tadpole Story
17:24 JP's dilemma of what to study and his lifelong mentor
22:57 Versatility of a physicist and the Sokal affair
25:58 Critique of the current education systems
31:23 From physics to magnetic flux leakage detection
36:51 A life lesson on tolerance from bacteria
46:12 Embodied AI, Robotics and Studying Intelligence
54:07 Physics-informed AI
59:21 The challenge with prior knowledge - example from Gestalt Psychology
1:05:08 The Real Alignment Problem
1:22:49 JP's current exciting next steps
1:26:12 Q&A Start
1:26:43 What does innovation mean to you?
1:28:38 Key moment, book, person
1:31:10 Time Management
1:33:32 Favourite childhood memory
1:33:56 Biggest challenge to date
1:35:58 Advice for young professionals
1:36:35 What would you most like to be remembered for?
1:37:28 Where can people find you?
1:39:02 Final Message
1:39:40 Outro
Check out the full episode on The Grand Challengers Podcast including show notes over at https://www.petermbach.com/podcast
Also available on:
- Here on my YouTube Channel
- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1eEkeORODMVkt5MzzoKZdQ
- Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-grand-challengers-podcast/id1665680816
Join the Podcast Community over at LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
- X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
- Instagram: @petermbach87
- Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/
Every machine that lifts, digs, or hauls relies on hydraulics — a technology that hasn't changed in over 50 years. But what if you could replace that leaky, energy-wasting oil with a belt-and-pulley system that's three times faster, three times more efficient, and three times more durable, with zero emissions?
That's what Hiten Sonpal and his team at RISE Robotics are doing. In Episode 57, Hiten joins Peter Marcus Bach to explore his full robotics journey, from a childhood fascination with LEGO Technic in India to building bomb-disposal robots for Iraq and Afghanistan at iRobot, designing the Roomba lawnmower, and now leading RISE Robotics as CEO, where their patented Beltdraulic™ technology is disrupting the $600 billion hydraulics industry.
Hiten takes us inside the world of robotics: what counts as a robot, why humanoid robots are far from ready, and how AI is augmenting rather than replacing skilled workers. He explains why hydraulic systems waste 70% of their energy as heat, why electrifying heavy machinery has been prohibitively expensive, and how Beltdraulic solves both problems by replacing fluid with precision-engineered belts and sealed bearings.
The results speak for themselves. RISE's Guinness World Record-holding robotic arm lifts over 7,000 lbs fluid-free. Their military crane dropped from 1,800 lbs to 300. And their commercial liftgate saves delivery fleets $300–$1,200 per truck per day.
Hiten also shares the personal story of spending five years building a robot lawnmower at iRobot, only to have it cancelled by COVID, and how that adversity became the catalyst for his entrepreneurial career leading three companies as CEO.
🔗 Show notes: https://petermbach.com/index.php/podcast/057-hiten-sonpal/ 🔗 RISE Robotics: https://www.riserobotics.com
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
1:59 Guest Intro and the Drumming Passion
5:04 Early inspiration for robotics - Lego
9:15 Moving beyond Lego
11:29 The Chess Playing Robot
18:55 From Chess to iRobot - seeing real-world value
23:27 The rise and diversity of the robotics industry
30:21 Generative AI's impact on robotics
32:36 The electric sheep and an unfortunate timing
37:56 Being smarter about design for sustainability - RISE Robotics
45:15 Examples of RISE's applications
51:44 RISE Robotic's Future Plans
58:17 Hiten's reflections from advisory and leadership positions
1:01:43 Q&A Start
1:02:04 What does innovation mean to you?
1:03:28 Key Moment, Book, Person
1:05:18 Favourite childhood memory
1:07:03 Biggest challenge to date
1:13:18 Advice for young professionals
1:14:18 What would you most like to be remembered for?
1:15:32 Where can people find you?
1:15:58 Final Message
1:16:43 Outro
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
- X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
- Instagram: @petermbach87
- Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/
Fred Jordan, scientist, entrepreneur and co-founder of AlpVision and FinalSpark in Vevey, Switzerland reveals the power of mathematics to us and how he thinks differently when it comes to computing. We dive deep into how he has combined industrial processing and digital watermarking to create anti-counterfeiting technology and uncover the mystery of "Organoid Intelligence", also known as biocomputing - using "the real thing" to compute. What was previously only written in science fiction novels (e.g., "wetware" from William Gibson's Neuromancer) is now becoming a reality! Tune into the longest episode on the podcast to date to hear about how Fred's love for science, technology and scifi has inspired him to make real disruptive change and how biocomputing could be the complement to our rapidly advancing semiconductor and AI industries.
Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Starsky by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW)
Chapters:0:00 Intro
1:59 Guest Intro & the City of Vevey
3:16 Talking Science Fiction
10:25 An early opportunity to use a supercomputer
15:49 The power of mathematics
21:57 The story and principles behind AlpVision - anti-counterfeiting
38:19 Why start FinalSpark? Thinking DIFFERENT
42:00 Speech recognition in a bucket?
49:10 Reservoir computing and using the real thing
57:55 Early history and fundamentals of biocomputing
1:17:51 A discussion on terminology
1:20:33 The energy consumption debate
1:29:38 The Neural Platform and the eventual application
1:38:57 Future Plans for FinalSpark & Fred
1:43:30 How to learn more about biocomputing?
1:46:41 Q&A Start
1:47:13 What does Innovation mean to you?
1:48:37 Key event, book, person
1:50:29 Time Management
1:52:39 Favourite childhood memory
1:55:21 Biggest challenge to date
1:57:02 Advice for young professionals
1:58:17 What would you most like to be remembered for?
2:00:32 Where can people find you?
2:02:11 Final Message
2:02:45 Outro
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
- X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
- Instagram: @petermbach87
- Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/
Welcome to this Mini-Series on The Grand Challengers Podcast! The topic of generative artificial intelligence (AI) has been in all our minds over the past few years and is gaining even more momentum with rapid advancements in text, audio and video. Google's NotebookLM is a powerful research-support AI that can generate not only summaries of sources that we feed it, but also entire podcast episodes. This Mini-Series will explore the power of NotebookLM, our live reactions to its outputs... and a deep dive into some of the topics that we have covered on the show. We feature previous guests, who are here to join in on the fun!
Episode #10 is the final episode of this mini-series and we conclude by using the mini-series itself as the source for two other types of audio overviews that NotebookLM can generate: the Debate and Critical Discussion. Furthermore, I do this as a solo human, but converse with Martha and Stuart, the hosts of our deep dive discussions across the mini-series by using the "Interactive Mode". Will they be able to answer some challenging and existential questions and reflect upon the critique of their performance? Or will everything go awry? Find out in this spectacular finale and also learn about how you can get started with building AI literacy yourself.
Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Funky Fortune by Danny Shields (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7vRFEGMyTTfeCtc8qiUB82?si=dygdqu9IQLSFYNvVzPNu5w)
Chapters:0:00 Intro
1:39 Introduction and the theme of the final episode
4:29 My own experience with AI
15:14 Tips for getting started with GenAI
17:49 Experiments in the final episode
20:19 A bit of banter before we start
22:28 A deep dive of the Mini-Series - Live Reaction
28:10 The Debate - Live Reaction
34:30 The Critique - Live Reaction
40:30 Post discussion with Martha & Stuart
44:12 Discussions on the future with Martha & Stuart
49:51 Wrapping up the Mini-Series
53:19 Outro
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
- X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
- Instagram: @petermbach87
- Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/
Julia K. Dietmar, co-founder and CEO of OpenWardrobe in Redwood City, California USA sheds some light on the sustainability of the fashion industry, the issue with overproduction, its environmental impact and how we can shift towards circular economy. Julia has over 20 years of experience in retail tech, having been Chieft Product Officer at Vue.ai and worked in Walmart eCommerce, thredUP and Yahoo. We discuss how she is harnessing the power of AI to create digital wardrobes, promote conscious dressing and ensure that every garment is worn the magic number of 30 times. Join us to learn more about dressing well, dressing consciously and all the human psychology behind it.
Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Starsky by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW)
Chapters:00:00 Intro
1:59 Style Blueprint Offer
2:46 Guest Intro & Cozy California Cabins
4:37 You are what you wear - clothing makes people
6:39 The decision fatigue of choosing what to wear
10:22 From an IT study into the fashion industry
17:12 Sustainability issues in the fashion industry
33:06 What is Open Wardrobe?
39:57 Data Driven Fashion for sustainability
44:14 Getting started with the Open Wardrobe App
46:52 The power of GenAI and Lola AI
51:28 Julia's next steps with OpenWardrobe
57:57 Q&A Start
58:08 What does innovation mean to you?
59:36 Key moment, book, event, person
1:04:12 Time Management
1:07:04 Favourite Childhood Memory
1:08:17 Biggest Challenge to date
1:10:14 Advice for young professionals
1:11:13 What would you most like to be remembered for
1:11:46 Style Blueprint Offer
1:12:39 Where can people find you?
1:13:51 Final Message
1:14:13 Outro
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
- X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
- Instagram: @petermbach87
- Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/
Welcome to this Mini-Series on The Grand Challengers Podcast! The topic of generative artificial intelligence (AI) has been in all our minds over the past few years and is gaining even more momentum with rapid advancements in text, audio and video. Google's NotebookLM is a powerful research-support AI that can generate not only summaries of sources that we feed it, but also entire podcast episodes. This Mini-Series will explore the power of NotebookLM, our live reactions to its outputs... and a deep dive into some of the topics that we have covered on the show. We feature previous guests, who are here to join in on the fun!
Episode #9 attempts to explain a study on metal-doped microplastics in three ways, for experts, for the general public and for children - Denise Mitrano (ep34) reacts to how NotebookLM produces a deep dive discussion at three levels of complexity on her scientific article in Nature Nanotechnology. Will NotebookLM be able to capture the essence across all levels? Or will it lose the meaning and nuance in its simplification?
Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Funky Fortune by Danny Shields (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7vRFEGMyTTfeCtc8qiUB82?si=dygdqu9IQLSFYNvVzPNu5w)
Chapters:0:00 Intro
1:26 Guest Intro & Catchup in a new city
3:35 What this mini-series is about
5:29 Guest's prior experience with AI
8:24 How this experiment works
10:33 The human summary & expectations
15:03 Live Reaction on Version 1 - Experts
28:43 Live Reaction on Version 2 - General Public
40:29 Live Reaction on Version 3 - Children
52:58 Post-discussion
56:15 Thoughts and wishes on the future of AI
57:04 Wrap up
57:32 Outro
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
- X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
- Instagram: @petermbach87
- Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/
Mats Larsson, Founder of the Global Energy Transformation (GET) Institute, based in southern Sweden, discusses what it takes to transition to global electrification using sustainable energy. We delve deep into how we can change our oil & gas mobility to more electric vehicles in light of the EU's impending ban on diesel and petrol cars and that it takes more than just technology to create a major paradigm shift. It's not the first time we've embarked on such major transformations in human society, but we need to harness the lessons from the past and act yesterday to be prepared for major changes and uncertainties of the future. The episode is also sprinkled with fun anecdotes around Swedish life and culture (not to mention crime novels).
Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Starsky by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW)
Chapters:0:00 Intro
1:59 Guest Intro & some Swedish culture
6:27 The GET Institute and its mission
7:42 The origin of Mats interest in energy
14:57 How do alternatives to EVs compare?
16:53 Planning stepwise for a societal shift - Parallels to Apollo
20:50 Is there a way to speed up adoption of EVs?
23:06 A question of cities?
25:32 Is increased battery life an answer to greater adoption?
27:28 An insight into Mats' projects at the GET Institute
37:00 Scaling up sustainable electrification
41:09 Transition starts by simply starting
44:10 What about AI?
47:07 Q&A Start
47:27 What does innovation mean to you?
49:10 Key Moment, Event, Book
51:15 Time Management
54:51 Favourite Childhood Memory
55:48 Greatest challenge to date
58:22 Advice for young professionals
1:00:15 What would you most like to be remembered for?
1:01:52 Where can people find you?
1:03:45 Final Message
1:03:59 Outro
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
- X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
- Instagram: @petermbach87
- Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/
Alma Schellart, Senior Lecturer in Water and Engineering at the University of Sheffield, England dives into the world of urban drainage, models and uncertainty and shows us how models and data can can make or break trust in the general public and why we need to be careful and meticulous with our use and communication of these. We discuss types of uncertainty that are encountered in infrastruture decisions, the importance and volatility of open data as well as the age-old challenge of managing urban drainage systems, something that has remained a challenge for over 100 years. We also trace Alma's steps from her early interest in water and growing up in the Netherlands to the literary landscapes of England and how her hobbies are gaining a resurgence in the younger generations and present an opportunity for engagement in all things water and sustainability.
Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Starsky by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW)
Chapters:0:00 Intro
1.59 Guest Intro and Alma's Knitting Hobby
8:21 From an obsession with fish to urban drainage
14:32 Getting to Sheffield for the PhD
20:40 Setting the scene - models and urban sewers
24:59 A 101 on Uncertainties
30:20 Considering uncertainties in design
35:03 Managing CSOs - the common urban drainage dilemma
42:09 Modelling vs. Monitoring - what do we and the media trust?
56:45 Building the trust and the CoUDLabs Project
1:01:15 Reaching the newer generations and broader communities
1:02:34 Alma's next big project in sewers - heat recovery
1:09:19 Q&A Start
1:09:37 What does innovation mean to you?
1:11:05 Key Moment, Event, Person
1:15:01 Time Management
1:18:32 Favourite childhood memory
1:21:40 Greatest challenge to date
1:26:20 Advice for young professionals
1:27:30 What would you most like to be remembered for?
1:32:02 Where can people find you?
1:32:58 Final Message
1:33:17 Outro
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
- X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
- Instagram: @petermbach87
- Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/
Makoto Kern, Founder and Principal Design Consultant at iiimpact in Austin Texas USA dives deep into the world of UX (User Experience) Design and shows us how a user-centric approach to software is essential, especially in the disruptive AI landscape. We hear about how he and iiimpact have supported the environmental, resources and healthcare industries, future concerns about cybersecurity and how to navigate the highly disruptive AI landscape, live with AI technology and value the human connection above all others.
Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Starsky by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW)
Chapters:0:00 Intro
1:59 Guest Intro and Studio Background Design Talk
4:49 How an electrical engineer got into UX
12:36 The basics of UX vs. UI
21:00 The steps to founding iiimpact
30:21 The domains iiimpact has worked in
36:47 The AI Competence Mirage and Cybersecurity
43:37 Tips for Entrepreneurs - the importance of the team
49:49 Talking AI
59:42 Make an iiimpact Podcast
1:04:33 Q&A Start
1:04:58 What does innovation mean to you?
1:06:17 Key moment, event, book, person
1:08:46 Time management
1:09:48 Favourite childhood memory
1:12:09 Biggest challenge to date
1:13:33 Advice for young professionals
1:14:32 What would you most like to be remembered for?
1:15:17 Where can people find you?
1:16:22 Final message
1:16:43 Outro
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
- X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
- Instagram: @petermbach87
- Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/
Rob Wreglesworth, Associate Ecologist and Innovation Lead at The Environment Bank, Co-Founder of No Longer Known and Host of the Innovate Eco Podcast, based in the UK, goes deep on biodiversity and conservation from both the economic and social lenses. We discuss topics like biodiversity net gain and nature credits, eDNA, current issues with conservation and how Rob is now targeting scarcity mindset with his new startup No Longer Known, a culture reboot, in a sense. T-shirts factor into this discussion and may be a solution to engaging the general public on conservation issues. We also look into how Rob has combined the variety and diversity of skill sets he has gained over his career to create real-world impact.
Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Starsky by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW)
Chapters:0:00 Intro
1:59 Guest Intro and a conversation between two audiophiles
5:50 Rob's Motivation for Ecology & Environmental Sciences
13:03 The issue with species conservation (Newts and bats)
18:29 Unpacking nature credits, biodiversity and environment banks
23:38 Diving deeper into biodiversity net gain and biodiversity metrics
28:30 Soil biodiversity in comparison to animal biodiversity
29:55 eDNA for understanding the underground
33:45 Gaining compliance in biodiversity net gain
40:42 Rob's diversity of projects at The Environment Bank
43:20 Arming yourself with interdisciplinary knowledge
45:16 The Innovate Eco Podcast
52:08 The cultural reboot for conservation with No Longer Known
1:15:20 Q&A Start
1:15:50 What does innovation mean to you?
1:17:47 Key event, book, person
1:21:57 Time Management
1:25:03 Favourite childhood memory
1:27:00 Biggest challenge to date
1:29:29 Advice to young professionals
1:32:44 What would you most like to be remembered for?
1:34:22 Where can people find you?
1:36:00 Final Message
1:36:58 Outro
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
- X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
- Instagram: @petermbach87
- Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/
To celebrate 50 episodes of The Grand Challengers Podcast (main series), we return with another "Tables Turned" episode, this time featuring 26 questions from guests as early as Episode 2. Guests from across the show got to ask me a question of their choosing and I have compiled them into a special episode titled "Tables Turned". In this episode, I reflect on Switzerland, the importance of music in my life, academia and where I am heading in my recent decision to start my own company. Join me in this beautiful moment of looking back on my own journey once again and to learn more about me!
Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Astral Dance by Jimit (Check out more of Jimit's tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0hc1IxPxpmUgEIZGGUGrvm?si=z_uif82xQoqAqUy8KpB7JQ)
Chapters:0:00 Preamble & Intro
1:33 Introducing the special episode
3:36 The Old New Year’s Resolution (Jon Hathaway)
5:53 The house plant saga (Daniele la Cecilia)
7:42 Favourite places around the world (Bill Hunt)
9:45 The Matrix of different worlds (Patri Cuervo)
12:34 Hiking in Switzerland (Jon Hathaway)
15:32 The Swiss Train System? (Alexa Delbosc)
17:10 Zurich vs. Melbourne (Jarrod Luxton)
19:51 Switzerland vs. Singapore (João P. Leitão)
22:43 The next big physical challenge (Denise Mitrano)
24:44 Collaboration vs. competition in academia (Katrin Pakizer)
28:20 Different academic challenges (Luis Sañudo)
32:59 Unlimited Research Resources (Megan Farrelly)
35:14 The 5 to 10-year plan (Liah Coggins & Nadja Kunz)
41:30 Bridging differences in collaboration (Scott Lloyd)
43:13 What nature is to me (Lucas Gobatti)
45:13 Favourite BGI (Danielle Dagenais)
47:02 WSUD vs. Sponge Cities (Tobias Baur)
48:44 Synergies between mining and BGI (Mohan Yellishetty)
50:56 How is the industry progressing with circularity? (Don Weatherbee)
53:16 Changing the world with technology (Yannick Back)
55:32 Modelling and software bugs (Peter Vanrolleghem)
57:27 A tribute to Anas Ghadouani
1:02:21 The importance of music in my life (Françoise Bichai)
1:07:52 Sounds of intimacy (Sofia Boarino)
1:12:45 Keeping a positive mindset (Wei-Shan Chen)
1:17:45 Wrap up
1:18:20 Outro
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
- X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
- Instagram: @petermbach87
- Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/
Nadja Kunz, Associate Professor at the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, University of British Columbia (UBC), Canada shares her insights on the role of water in mining and the importance of critical minerals for the sustainable energy transition. Most notably, we gain insights into the complexity of the mining industry and its diverse and often forgotten stakeholders. What is required for us to make mining more sustainable, equitable, safe and future-proof?
Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Starsky by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW)
Chapters:0:00 Intro
1:59 Guest Intro, traditional owners, mountains and beaches
6:00 Nadja, the network queen
7:51 Water in the mining sector - Nadja's PhD
10:04 From double degree to industry and PhD
16:54 Working in Switzerland and Monglia
21:51 Moving to UBC Vancouver, Canada
24:08 Comparing the Australian and Canadian mining landscapes
25:53 The significance of water management in mining
31:41 Trying to solve water management holistically in mining
35:52 From water management to water stewardship
38:03 Pressing issues in Canada's mining? Critical Minerals
48:24 Quantified evidence - the example of tailings dams
59:09 Nadja's Future Plans
1:01:59 Q&A Start
1:02:24 What does innovation mean to you?
1:04:03 Key person book event
1:05:27 Time Management
1:07:29 Favourite childhood memory
1:08:09 Biggest challenge to date
1:11:08 Advice for young professionals
1:12:33 What would you most like to be remembered for?
1:14:13 Final Message
1:15:15 Outro
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
- X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
- Instagram: @petermbach87
- Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/
Christoph Ort, Group Leader and Head of the Urban Water Maangement Department at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology dives into the world of wastewater surveillance or wastewater-based epidemiology, techniques, intricacies, use-cases and the broader societal implications. We trace his journey in leading a "band" of disciplines in supporting society during a crisis moment, namely the COVID pandemic, with valuable information on the spread of infections - all by just holding a "magnifying glass" into our sewer systems.
Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Starsky by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW)
Chapters:0:00 Intro
1:59 Guest Intro and a discussion around two props
8:37 Getting into Christoph's story - culture engineering
12:07 The PhD - Dynamics of sewers and micropollutants
19:48 Introducing wastewater based epidemiology or surveillance
21:21 Terminology around WWBE and sewer sociology
23:44 Detecting illicit drugs in sewer systems
26:57 Briefly - how to detect using analytical chemistry methods
32:17 Surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 during the pandemic
39:30 The MS2Field - A mobile lab in a trailer
41:30 His vision, the institutional context and where is Christoph heading
45:25 The future of wastewater-based surveillance
46:48 Syndromic surveillance - the indirect but powerful alternative
51:26 Rock n' Roll?
56:08 Q&A Start
56:25 What does innovation mean to you?
58:56 Key event, person, book
1:00:42 Time Management
1:03:20 Favourite Childhood Memory
1:04:33 Biggest challenge in career to date
1:05:55 Advice for young researchers
1:07:39 What would you most like to be remembered for?
1:08:30 Where can people find you?
1:09:19 Final Message
1:09:38 Outro
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
- X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
- Instagram: @petermbach87
- Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/
Welcome to this Mini-Series on The Grand Challengers Podcast! The topic of generative artificial intelligence (AI) has been in all our minds over the past few years and is gaining even more momentum with rapid advancements in text, audio and video. Google recently released NotebookLM, a powerful research-support AI that can generate not only summaries of sources that we feed it, but also entire podcast episodes. This Mini-Series will explore the power of NotebookLM, our live reactions to its outputs... and a deep dive into some of the topics that we have covered on the show. We feature previous guests, who are here to join in on the fun!
Episode #8 tests whether NotebookLM can play "Broken Telephone". We generate an audio overview of a paper and use it as the basis to generate a new audio overview - rinse and repeat 20 times! What about across languages? Mashael Yazdanie (ep42) and I react to the final result. Will NotebookLM go off the rails or will it manage to keep the core message of the key research paper we used as a basis? Listen in to find out so that you do not have to test it yourself!
Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Funky Fortune by Danny Shields (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7vRFEGMyTTfeCtc8qiUB82?si=dygdqu9IQLSFYNvVzPNu5w)
Chapters:0:00 Intro
1:26 Guest Intro & Welcome Back
4:25 Mashael's Prior experience with AI
5:51 The children's game of "Broken Telephone”
8:19 The human summary
13:29 How this experiment works and expectations
18:12 Live Reaction Original Summary
30:27 Impressions of Original Summary
36:14 Live Reaction - Version 20
50:18 Impressions of Version 20
52:08 Explaining the next Broken Telephone experiment
53:49 Live Reaction - Multilingual Version 20
1:02:42 Post-discussion
1:10:40 What is the future for AI?
1:14:43 Wrap up
1:15:22 Outro
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
- X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
- Instagram: @petermbach87
- Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/
Wei Shan Chen, also known as "Momo", Assistant Professor at Wageningen University shares his journey from Materials Engineering into the environment, from Taiwan to The Netherlands and from the Carbon Cycle to the Water Cycle. We discuss the issue of food waste and its broader implications among other approaches he has taken to recover carbon and close the loop. We also hear about Momo's foray into Blue-Green Infrastructure planning and how stakeholder engagement has changed his perspective on doing impactful research and implementing the knowledge in the form of usable tools.
Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Starsky by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW)
Chapters:0:00 Intro
1:59 Guest Intro and the mystery behind the name Momo
5:21 Tracing Momo's steps from materials in Taiwan to Wageningen
11:29 Closing the carbon cycle with microbial fuel cells
15:28 Momo's work in reducing fossil fuel use - it gets technical
17:21 Retrieving carbon from waste
21:20 Valuing and closing the loop on food waste
32:04 How to deal with the composition of food waste?
35:21 The Bin2Bean Project in Amsterdam
38:38 Going into the Water cycle for Carbon and Food
42:28 Momo's venture into BGI Tools
49:04 Modelling the planning for biodiversity
56:09 Carbon and Water, what next?
58:23 Q&A Start
58:37 What does innovation mean to you?
1:01:16 Key event, book, person
1:03:11 Time Management
1:05:27 Favourite childhood memory
1:08:58 Biggest challenge to date
1:10:57 Advice for young researchers
1:12:38 What would you most like to be remembered for?
1:14:11 Where can people find you?
1:15:06 Final Message
1:15:46 Outro
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
- X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
- Instagram: @petermbach87
- Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/
Welcome to this Mini-Series on The Grand Challengers Podcast! The topic of generative artificial intelligence (AI) has been in all our minds over the past few years and is gaining even more momentum with rapid advancements in text, audio and video. Google recently released NotebookLM, a powerful research-support AI that can generate not only summaries of sources that we feed it, but also entire podcast episodes. This Mini-Series will explore the power of NotebookLM, our live reactions to its outputs... and a deep dive into some of the topics that we have covered on the show. We feature previous guests, who are here to join in on the fun!
Episode #7 attempts to create a connected story on the topic of headwater streams - Belinda Hatt (ep20) reacts to how NotebookLM produces a deep dive discussion some of her ongoing work on headwater streams, using a whopping 22 sources, from Water Acts to Strategy Documents, journal papers, design documents and documentation of data sets. Will NotebookLM be able to focus on the key topic or will it go off on endless tangents? What about its infamous analogies?
Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Funky Fortune by Danny Shields (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7vRFEGMyTTfeCtc8qiUB82?si=dygdqu9IQLSFYNvVzPNu5w)
Chapters:0:00 Intro
1:27 Guest Intro - Reflections on the first podcast
3:00 Introducing the broad topic area
4:46 Guest's prior experience with AI
8:37 How this experiment works
14:09 The prompt and human's summary and expectation
18:20 Live Reaction
55:58 Post-discussion
1:02:59 Thoughts and wishes for the future of AI
1:06:11 Wrap up
1:07:40 Outro
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
- X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
- Instagram: @petermbach87
- Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/
Mark Swinnerton, CEO of Green Gravity, shares his journey from metallurgy to mining operations and currently gravitational storage technology to support the energy transition. We get an in-depth look into how he is transforming the renewable energy storage industry and giving old mine shafts a new lease on life, an insight into the technology and logistics and how businesses are evolving in this new digital age. Tune in for some amazing advice from someone with decades of global experience in a major industry and influences so many aspects of our daily lives!
Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Starsky by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW)
Chapters:00:00 Intro
1:59 Guest Intro and Wollongong, Australia
3:52 Mark's infamous selfie-stick - communicating authenticity
9:10 Mark's journey from metallurgy to mining
15:17 Reflecting on Mark's 9 years in Singapore
18:16 Handling large responsibilities
20:19 The challenge of mining legacy issues
23:01 Mark's own perception of mining legacy issues
24:26 What is Green Gravity? - the concept of gravitational storage
32:30 VIsualizing the scale of mines
35:30 Increasing importance of energy storage
38:31 Building up Partnerships in preparation for technology readiness
42:00 Multiple benefits of Green Gravity’s technology
46:02 What is Mark most excited about?
47:42 Relationship between mines and urban areas - the Ballarat example
52:29 The changing world of business - from corporation to startup
1:00:48 Q&A Start
1:01:09 What does innovation mean to you?
1:03:42 Key moment, book, person
1:09:26 Time Management
1:11:39 Favourite childhood memory
1:14:15 Biggest challenge in career to date
1:16:39 What would you most like to be remembered for?
1:17:57 Where can people find you?
1:18:38 Final Message
1:19:04 Outro
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
- X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
- Instagram: @petermbach87
- Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/
Welcome to this Mini-Series on The Grand Challengers Podcast! The topic of generative artificial intelligence (AI) has been in all our minds over the past few years and is gaining even more momentum with rapid advancements in text, audio and video. Google recently released NotebookLM, a powerful research-support AI that can generate not only summaries of sources that we feed it, but also entire podcast episodes. This Mini-Series will explore the power of NotebookLM, our live reactions to its outputs... and a deep dive into some of the topics that we have covered on the show. We feature previous guests, who are here to join in on the fun!
Episode #6 attempts to create a biographical piece - Lena Mutzner (ep45) reacts to how NotebookLM produces a deep dive discussion about her, using all her available publications, her PhD Thesis and up-to-date CV as sources. Will NotebookLM be able to capture the essence of her work and career to date?
Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Funky Fortune by Danny Shields (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7vRFEGMyTTfeCtc8qiUB82?si=dygdqu9IQLSFYNvVzPNu5w)
Chapters:0:00 Intro
1:26 Guest Intro and AI Impressions
3:12 Guest prior experience with AI
8:49 AI for Graphic Design in Research & Communication
9:59 How this experiment works
12:16 The human summary - or setting expectations
13:47 Live Reaction
41:39 Post-discussion
47:23 Evaluating the analogies
49:29 Discussing the accuracy and inner workings
52:53 Wrap Up
54:46 Outro
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
- X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
- Instagram: @petermbach87
- Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/
Lena Mutzner, Group Leader in the Urban Water Management Department at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science & Technology discusses the intricacies of stormwater quality monitoring. We learn a bit about how water quality is sampled, different pollutant types that she has focussed on and the ongoing challenge around contaminants of emerging concern. We also discuss the apparent paradox of repeating research cycles despite having done similar work 40 years ago, the importance of a holistic approach to stormwater management and how she is developing her research career into the uncertain future.
Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Starsky by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW)
Chapters:0:00 Intro
1:59 Guest Intro & Meditative Activities
4:16 Nordic Countries vs. Switzerland
7:36 Lena's Mission in Water Quality
10:53 How it all started - engineering or psychiatry?
13:18 Contaminants of emerging concern
16:48 Studying Water Quality 101
26:28 Which contaminants does Lena focus on?
29:28 Tyre wear leachate and 6PPD-Quinone
33:01 Data issues towards building water quality understanding
36:45 Different types of common micropollutants
40:55 Interplay of Modelling and Water Quality Data Collection
46:18 Effect-based measurements
48:19 The holistic view - integration as a the way forward
51:05 Mitigation of pollution through Blue-Green Infrastructures
54:00 Lena's Future Research Trajectory
56:49 Q&A Start
57:24 What does innovation mean to you?
1:00:30 Key Moment, Person, Event
1:03:52 Women in STEM - Lena's drive to be a role model
1:06:40 Time Management
1:10:24 Favourite childhood memory
1:12:55 Biggest challenge to date
1:18:17 Advice for young researchers
1:20:00 What would you most like to be remembered for?
1:21:15 Where can people find you?
1:21:57 Final Message
1:22:15 Outro
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
- X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
- Instagram: @petermbach87
- Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/
Welcome to this Mini-Series on The Grand Challengers Podcast! The topic of generative artificial intelligence (AI) has been in all our minds over the past few years and is gaining even more momentum with rapid advancements in text, audio and video. Google recently released NotebookLM, a powerful research-support AI that can generate not only summaries of sources that we feed it, but also entire podcast episodes. This Mini-Series will explore the power of NotebookLM, our live reactions to its outputs... and a deep dive into some of the topics that we have covered on the show. We feature previous guests, who are here to join in on the fun!
Episode #5 delves into the links between water, energy and heat - Yannick Back (ep35) reacts to how NotebookLM produces a deep dive discussion (in English) of eight of his publications, all written in German and with different foci. This is the first experiment on this mini-series, which uses multiple sources.
The 8 Papers were published from 2019 to 2024. Full details can be found in the show notes. Their German titles are:
- 2019: Einsatzmöglichkeiten von Geoinformationssystemen in der Siedlungswasserwirtschaft am Beispiel Einbindung dezentraler Entwässerungssysteme zur Entlastung des städtischen Abwassernetzes
- 2019: Untersuchung und Optimierung der Einbindung dezentraler Entwässerungssysteme zur Entlastung des städtischen Abwassernetzes und Minderung urbaner Hitzeinseln
- 2020: Dezentrale Regenwasserbehandlung zur Entlastung der Kanalisation und Minderung urbaner Hitzeinseln
- 2020: Urbanen Hitzeinseln und überlasteten Entwässerungsnetzen entgegenwirken
- 2021: Latente Wärme vs. Sensible Wärme
- 2021: Rolle der Energie- und Wasserflüsse im Stadtsystem: Steigerung der Resilienz unserer Städte zur Anpassung an die Auswirkungen des Klimawandels
- 2023: Chancen und Herausforderungen bei der Gestaltung klimaresistenter dichter städtischer Gebiete mit Blaugrüner Infrastruktur
- 2024: Die Rolle der Bewässerung städtischer Grünflächen während gleichzeitiger Trocken- und Hitzeperioden
Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Funky Fortune by Danny Shields (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7vRFEGMyTTfeCtc8qiUB82?si=dygdqu9IQLSFYNvVzPNu5w)
Chapters:0:00 Intro
1:27 Guest Intro, Vibe Coding and Catch up
3:20 Guest's prior experience with AI
5:02 How this experiment works
6:32 The human summary
11:19 Live Reaction
54:11 Post-discussion
59:03 Potential Future of AI
1:00:29 Wrap up
1:01:10 Outro
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
- X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
- Instagram: @petermbach87
- Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/
Jarrod Luxton, Senior Lead at the Finnish Innovation Fund (Sitra), Board Member of Finland's Sustainable Investment Forum (finsif) and Founder of First Arrow discusses what a best-practice sustainability strategy looks like in 2025! The key player? Nature! We delve into the topic of valuing nature-based solutions and compare and contrast between Australian and Nordic contexts, especially Finland's priorities and motivations for the practice. Jarrod and I also reflect upon our times in Australia and the transition to Europe.
Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Starsky by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW)
Chapters:0:00 Intro
1:59 Guest Intro & Nordic Summers and reconnecting via Podcast
4:36 Missing Australian Rules Football ("Footy")
6:14 Jarrod's own podcast creation journey
7:29 Jarrod's interest in ESG
12:58 NBS and Terminology
17:13 Valuation of NBS, Sitra and Jarrod's perspective
34:41 Finland's Adoption of NBS - current status
37:25 Green gentrification and being equitable with NbS
39:55 The role of spatial data
41:36 What does a best practice sustainability strategy look like in 2025
48:22 Unpacking the importance and thinking of circular economy
51:00 The TNFD-LEAP Framework for financing
55:01 Jarrod's current endeavours
56:34 Investing in nature - are nature credits a thing?
58:24 The importance of communication and Jarrod's new company
1:02:18 Q&A Start
1:02:39 What does innovation mean to you?
1:05:28 Key event, person, book
1:08:20 Time Management
1:10:43 Favourite childhood memory
1:11:39 Biggest Challenge to Date
1:14:02 Advice for young professionals
1:15:56 What would you most like to be remembered for?
1:17:35 Where can people reach you?
1:18:31 Final Message
1:18:46 Outro
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
- X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
- Instagram: @petermbach87
- Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/
Welcome to this Mini-Series on The Grand Challengers Podcast! The topic of generative artificial intelligence (AI) has been in all our minds over the past few years and is gaining even more momentum with rapid advancements in text, audio and video. Google recently released NotebookLM, a powerful research-support AI that can generate not only summaries of sources that we feed it, but also entire podcast episodes. This Mini-Series will explore the power of NotebookLM, our live reactions to its outputs... and a deep dive into some of the topics that we have covered on the show. We feature previous guests, who are here to join in on the fun!
Episode #4 delves into "Water sensitive urban design as part of the urban form" - Martijn Kuller (ep3) first reacts to how NotebookLM produces a heavily prompted deep dive discussion (my work of art) of an older review we co-authored, highlighting the ease with which prompting can get dangerous and misleading if not in the right hands. We then both react to an Audio Overview of the same review produced by Google Gemini 2.5 Pro, the LLM upon which NotebookLM is based - shorter and more concise.
Full Reference to the Paper: Kuller, M., Bach, P.M., Ramirez-Lovering, D. and Deletic, A., 2017. Framing water sensitive urban design as part of the urban form: A critical review of tools for best planning practice. Environmental modelling & software, 96, pp.265-282. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2017.07.003
Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Funky Fortune by Danny Shields (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7vRFEGMyTTfeCtc8qiUB82?si=dygdqu9IQLSFYNvVzPNu5w)
Chapters:0:00 Intro
1:26 Guest Intro and what's happened since Episode 3
4:39 How this experiment works
5:44 Guest's prior experience with AI
9:59 Martijn's critique of current thoughts so far
12:25 The Experiment Structure
13:07 The human summary
16:43 Live Reaction - Prompted NotebookLM
31:52 Post-Discussion - Prompted NotebookLM
36:57 Live Reaction - Gemini Audio Overview
52:01 Post-Discussion - Gemini Audio Overview
55:16 Thoughts on the future of AI
57:50 Wrap-up
59:10 Outro
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
- X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
- Instagram: @petermbach87
- Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/
Thomas Young, Associate and Blue-Green Infrastructure Specialist at The Environment Partnership (TEP) in the UK shows us his journey from the technical side of green roofs to the more holistic broader planning of sustainability and blue-green infrastructure. His incredible journey is supported by many seemingly unrelated topics, travels and passions that have all contributed to the impact he is creating in the UK. Find out how beer, mushrooms, cowboys and community among many others are linked to this intricate story!
Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Starsky by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW)
Chapters:0:00 Intro
1:59 Guest Intro and a house tour
4:09 Origins of Tom's Ecology Inspiration
7:13 Sheffield and Tom's PhD side project
12:59 Green Roofs 101
22:30 Fungi to help Green Infrastructure
28:12 Writing the British Standards for green roofs
32:20 Blue-Green or Green-Blue Infrastructure? Return of Terminology
35:10 Venturing into Sports Turfs
41:56 Joining TEP and thinking about golf courses
53:08 The Nuffield Farming Scholarship and Tom's world travels
1:03:52 Learning for the UK's future cities and sustainability
1:07:40 Tom's current endeavours
1:12:47 Q&A Start
1:13:14 What does “innovation” mean to you?
1:13:53 Key event book person
1:14:43 Time Management
1:16:56 Favourite childhood memory
1:17:36 Biggest Challenge to date
1:18:37 Advice for young professionals
1:19:42 What would you most like to be remembered for?
1:20:27 Where can people find you?
1:21:08 Final Message
1:21:36 Outro
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
- X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
- Instagram: @petermbach87
- Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/
Mashael Yazdanie, Group Leader, Scientist and Lecturer at the Urban Energy Systems Lab at the Swiss Federal Institute of Materials Science & Technology (Empa) traces her journey across the renewable energies towards more holistic thinking around energy, sustainability, society and sufficiency. We cover her projects in both the global north and south, key concepts such as planetary boundaries, sufficiency, efficiency and doughnut economics as well as the need to learn, unlearn and relearn if we want to become more adaptive and resilience in the face of the climate crisis.
Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Starsky by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW)
Chapters:0:00 Intro
1:59 Guest Intro and Solar Racing
5:58 Nature and energy?
9:50 Sufficiency, planetary boundaries and doughnut economics
20:31 Mashael's early renewables journey - Biogas Energy in Pakistan
29:58 Mashael's early renewables journey - Wind Energy
33:37 Mashael's early renewables journey - Tidal energy and the rest
36:35 Is there a favourite renewable?
38:01 Energy grid centralization vs. decentralization
42:30 Planning-support modelling & optimization
44:48 Understanding the breadth of modelling tools
46:49 Energy in West Africa - The Measures Project
54:28 The concept of 'Regret' in decision-making
1:01:56 Coming full circle to sufficiency
1:04:06 Learning, unlearning and relearning for the climate crisis
1:10:06 Mashael's future trajectory
1:14:30 Q&A Start
1:14:50 What does "innovation" mean to you?
1:16:00 Time management
1:20:34 Favourite childhood memory
1:21:26 Biggest challenge to date
1:23:45 Advice for young researchers
1:27:57 What would you most like to be rememnbered for?
1:30:16 Where can people find you?
1:30:58 Final message
1:33:06 Outro
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
- X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
- Instagram: @petermbach87
- Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/
Welcome to this Mini-Series on The Grand Challengers Podcast! The topic of generative artificial intelligence (AI) has been in all our minds over the past few years and is gaining even more momentum with rapid advancements in text, audio and video. Google recently released NotebookLM, a powerful research-support AI that can generate not only summaries of sources that we feed it, but also entire podcast episodes. This Mini-Series will explore the power of NotebookLM, our live reactions to its outputs... and a deep dive into some of the topics that we have covered on the show. We feature previous guests, who are here to join in on the fun!
Episode #3 delves into "Different perspectives on urban nature-based solutions" - Veljko Prodanovic (ep13) and I react to how NotebookLM produces a deep dive discussion on an opinion piece around human, ecological and AI perspectives of urban nature based solutions, this time guided by a focus prompt.
Full Reference to the Paper: Prodanovic, V., Bach, P.M. and Stojkovic, M., 2024. Urban nature-based solutions planning for biodiversity outcomes: human, ecological, and artificial intelligence perspectives. Urban Ecosystems, 27(5), pp.1795-1806. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-024-01558-6
Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Funky Fortune by Danny Shields (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7vRFEGMyTTfeCtc8qiUB82?si=dygdqu9IQLSFYNvVzPNu5w)
Chapters:0:00 Intro
1:26 Guest Intro and callback to main series
3:31 How this experiment works
4:31 Guest's prior experience with AI
9:50 The human summary
11:20 Live Reaction
49:18 Post-discussion
53:40 Potential Future of AI
55:54 Wrap up
57:21 Outro
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
- X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
- Instagram: @petermbach87
- Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/
Welcome to this Mini-Series on The Grand Challengers Podcast! The topic of generative artificial intelligence (AI) has been in all our minds over the past few years and is gaining even more momentum with rapid advancements in text, audio and video. Google recently released NotebookLM, a powerful research-support AI that can generate not only summaries of sources that we feed it, but also entire podcast episodes. This Mini-Series will explore the power of NotebookLM, our live reactions to its outputs... and a deep dive into some of the topics that we have covered on the show. We feature previous guests, who are here to join in on the fun!
Episode #2 delves into "Tools for urban heat mitigation" - João Paulo Leitão (ep1, ep40) and I react to how NotebookLM produces a deep dive discussion of a fairly long and comprehensive literature review paper that we co-authored along with colleagues.
Full Reference to the Paper: Probst, N., Bach, P.M., Cook, L.M., Maurer, M. and Leitão, J.P., 2022. Blue Green Systems for urban heat mitigation: mechanisms, effectiveness and research directions. Blue-Green Systems, 4(2), pp.348-376. https://doi.org/10.2166/bgs.2022.028
Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Funky Fortune by Danny Shields (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7vRFEGMyTTfeCtc8qiUB82?si=dygdqu9IQLSFYNvVzPNu5w)
Chapters:00:00 Intro
1:25 Guest Intro
1:57 Guest’s prior experience with AI
4:06 How this experiment works
5:17 Live Reaction
49:22 Post-discussion
52:12 Thoughts on the future of AI
53:49 Final remarks
54:39 Outro
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
- X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
- Instagram: @petermbach87
- Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/
Don Weatherbee, CEO of Regenx Tech Corp in Alberta, Canada shows us how you can scale up metals recycling (or regeneration as he calls it) sustainably. We discuss his journey from studying accounting to joining the mining and resources industry and how he is now leveraging opportunities to close the loop and create the circular economy around critical metals worldwide, in particular, the opportunity of aligning chemistry, process and supply chains around catalytic converts and Platinum Group Metals.
Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Starsky by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW)
Chapters:0:00 Intro
1:59 Guest Intro, Snowy Canada and Units
3:25 Unraveling the broader power of accounting
7:19 Dealing with post-mine closures challenges
11:35 Regeneration vs. Recycling of Metals
13:51 From junior exploration to catalytic converters
18:46 Catalytic Converters 101
22:59 Hydrometallurgy for regenerating metals
25:17 Scaling up from lab to pilot to plant
30:51 Challenges with eWaste Recycling
34:03 Long-term trends for Platinum and Palladium
38:48 Thought experiment on the market size
40:39 Limitations of mining requires more recycling
42:25 What's in store for RegenX?
45:08 Q&A Start
45:43 What is innovation?
47:57 Key moment, book, event
50:46 Time management
53:50 Favourite childhood memory
56:06 Biggest challenge to date
59:11 Advice for young professionals
1:01:02 What would you like to be remembered for
1:02:07 Where can people find you?
1:02:58 Final Message
1:03:20 Outro
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
- X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
- Instagram: @petermbach87
- Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/
Welcome to this Mini-Series on The Grand Challengers Podcast! The topic of generative artificial intelligence (AI) has been in all our minds over the past few years and is gaining even more momentum with rapid advancements in text, audio and video. Google recently released NotebookLM, a powerful research-support AI that can generate not only summaries of sources that we feed it, but also entire podcast episodes. This Mini-Series will explore the power of NotebookLM, our live reactions to its outputs... and a deep dive into some of the topics that we have covered on the show. We feature previous guests, who are here to join in on the fun!
Episode #1 delves into "Cooling Establishment Time" - Lucas Gobatti (ep39) and I run this research paper through NotebookLM and record our reaction to the deep dive discussion it produces.
Full Reference to the Paper: Gobatti, L., Bach, P.M., Scheidegger, A. and Leitão, J.P., 2023. Using satellite imagery to investigate Blue-Green Infrastructure establishment time for urban cooling. Sustainable Cities and Society, 97, p.104768. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2023.104768
Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Funky Fortune by Danny Shields (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7vRFEGMyTTfeCtc8qiUB82?si=dygdqu9IQLSFYNvVzPNu5w)
Chapters:0:00 Intro
1:26 Guest Intro
2:30 How this experiment works
3:49 Guest prior experience with AI
4:41 The human summary
5:55 Live Reaction
54:37 Post-Discussion
59:54 Thoughts on the future of AI
1:01:27 Final remarks
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
- X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
- Instagram: @petermbach87
- Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/
João P. Leitão, Senior Researcher at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science & Technology (Eawag), Professor at ETH Zurich and the first guest of this podcast returns for a Part 2 to reflect on the podcast 40 episodes later, more fun topics about Portugal and major research topics that we did not cover on the first episode including urban drainage asset management, urban heat mitigation and the central role that water plays in adapting cities to climate change and an uncertain future. As a newly promoted Professor, we also look at what Joao's research plans are with his team going forward into a rapidly changing world.
Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Starsky by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW)
Chapters:0:00 Intro
2:04 Guest Intro and Reflections on the podcast
4:45 The return of salted cod (Bacalhau)
7:02 Portuguese Wine and Cork
9:23 A curious case of inheritance
13:30 Getting into the science
14:58 Updates in the world of flood models
16:42 Rainfall intensities & flood volumes
19:12 Balancing model complexity and insight
22:54 Joao's preferred term for BGI
24:29 Urban drainage asset management
29:03 Encouraging more data exchange and joint learning
31:05 Speaking a different language in disciplines
33:11 Leveraging time zones for research productivity
37:34 Beginning our journey on urban heat together
42:12 Uchimizu
49:03 Is GIS becoming more relevant?
52:21 The next stage of Joao's research
54:32 Q&A Start
54:59 If you had a magic wand?
58:29 What do you define as innovation?
1:00:51 Favourite childhood memory
1:03:58 What would you like to be remembered for?
1:04:53 Easter Egg: A not German joke
1:06:57 Final Message
1:07:57 Outro
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
- X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
- Instagram: @petermbach87
- Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/
Lucas Gobatti, PhD research at ETH Zurich and the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag) goes deep into how Albert Einstein, Benedictus de Spinoza and Karl Marx have shaped his worldview and connection to cities and nature. As a trained architect, civil engineer and urban planner, we discuss how he balances science and spirituality in his research on urban heat and stormwater management and how we can improve the liveability of cities in the global north and south, particularly in Switzerland and Brazil.
Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Starsky by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW)
Chapters:0:00 Intro
1:59 Guest Intro & Books
6:38 Einstein, Spinoza, Spirituality and the Laws of Nature
13:20 Karl Marx, spatial inequalities and cities
17:28 Late Marx, Kohei Saito and the three displacements
21:19 Microsimulation and agents as Lucas' entry point
24:17 From Altruism to Green Roofs and Stormwater
27:23 Brazil's Nature-based solutions Trajectory
30:13 Shedding light on a different planning landscape
35:08 Lucas' Urban Heat Research - Cooling establishment time
39:48 Lucas' Urban Heat Research - Role of water and irrigation
43:31 Experimenting with microclimate models
46:03 The Brasilandia District Project
50:10 Next steps in Lucas' Research
52:10 Q&A Start
52:26 What do you define as innovation?
54:46 Key event, book, person
59:49 Time Management
1:07:54 Favourite childhood memory
1:09:49 Biggest challenge in career to date
1:13:14 Advice for young professionals
1:15:37 What would you like to be remembered for?
1:23:35 Where can people find you?
1:24:35 Final Message
1:25:31 Outro
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
- X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
- Instagram: @petermbach87
- Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/
Patricia Cuervo Uría, Regional Delivery Manager at Binnies in the UK, Chartered Planner and fellow member of the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM) discusses her experience in planning for flood risk and discussing the impending challenge of mental health in relation to climate change. With over 18 years of experience in delivering local government services and implementation, we reflect on some large-scale infrastructure and small scale sustainable drainage projects across London and delve deep into the limits to planning and the power of stakeholder engagement.
Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Starsky by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW)
Chapters:0:00 Intro
1:59 Guest Intro and a London Walk
5:07 From Biology to Planning
13:37 London's Water in Context
15:46 Flooding and Flood Risk in London
23:26 The Thames Tideway Tunnels
29:46 Stakeholder Involvement in Planning
36:30 From city council to consulting - a change of hats
39:37 What about SuDS?
47:48 Empowerment from the Grenfell Tower Fire
56:15 Mental health and climate change
1:00:09 Patri's current endeavours
1:04:06 Q&A Start
1:04:54 What is innovation?
1:06:32 Key Event, Book person
1:09:22 If you had a magic wand?
1:10:50 Time management
1:12:44 Favourite childhood memory
1:14:43 Advice for young professionals
1:16:48 What would you like to be remembered for?
1:19:21 Where can people reach you?
1:20:05 Final Message
1:20:39 Outro
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
- X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
- Instagram: @petermbach87
- Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/
Brett Ferrin, Vice President of Sales North America at Traffic Logix discusses the evolving and more complex nature of traffic safety management and gives insight into the many ways we can ensure safety on our roads for vehicle operators and other users. We discuss the implications of rapidly exploding amounts of data and the potential of artificial intelligence to revolutionize and upheave safety planning including driverless cars, generating new insights from data and changing human behaviour in general. Brett also reflects on his career and how several career changes have helped him gain a rich body of knowledge around traffic safety, planning and management.
Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Starsky by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW)
Chapters:0:00 Intro
1:59 Guest Intro and Languages
7:10 Getting into traffic and Traffic Logix
10:23 The complexities of traffic
12:42 Vision Zero
16:38 Design with human behaviour in mind
23:43 Leveraging real-time data insights
25:03 NIMBY and the complexity of urban planning
30:49 Traffic Calming Measures
41:31 Future Challenges for Traffic Calming
43:35 Influence of AI on the transport system
49:21 A question of human control and freedom
52:25 When nothing changes, nothing changes
54:12 Brett's Future Trajectory
56:48 Q&A Start
57:15 What inspires you?
58:27 Key moment, book, event
1:02:49 If you had a magic wand?
1:04:34 Biggest challenge to date
1:07:57 Time Management
1:10:38 Advice for young professionals
1:12:31 Where can people find you?
1:13:48 Final Message
1:14:29 Outro
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
- X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
- Instagram: @petermbach87
- Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/
To finish off 2024 and reflect on the 35 episodes of The Grand Challengers Podcast so far, here is a very special episode. Guests from across the show got to ask me a question of their choosing and I have compiled them into a special episode titled "Tables Turned". In this episode, we look into 22 questions relating to the origin story and plans for the podcast, what it has taught me, my life and career choices, me answering my own questions and advice I can offer. Join me in this beautiful moment of looking back on the past two years of the show and hear about the challenges and fun times that I have experienced!
The podcast will return in 2025 with brand new episodes, brand new guests and even some familiar faces! Until then, I hope you enjoyed the listening experience so far and that this episode perhaps awakens your curiosity to check out the collection of existing stories offered by many inspiring individuals across broad ranges of topics.
Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Astral Dance by Jimit (Check out more of Jimit's tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0hc1IxPxpmUgEIZGGUGrvm?si=z_uif82xQoqAqUy8KpB7JQ)
Chapters:0:00 Preamble
0:21 Intro
1:36 Introducing the special episode
3:34 Why the podcast
5:28 The Ivory Tower
8:05 How long
9:37 Bloopers or not
11:54 A guest wishlist
15:41 An expanded guest wishlist
19:03 Effect of the podcast on oneself
21:24 How the podcast gives me hope
23:17 How have things changed across the production
26:41 Life and languages
28:43 Why Engineering, what else
37:22 Moving countries
41:18 Home is where the heart is
42:34 Staying in Switzerland
45:35 More general life advice
49:39 From my own PhD supervisor
51:25 My questions thrown back at me
51:45 If you had a magic wand?
54:09 Advice for young professionals
1:00:37 Wrap up - support the show
1:02:20 Outro
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
- X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
- Instagram: @petermbach87
- Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/
Yannick Back, Research Fellow at the Unit of Environmental Engineering, Innsbruck University shares an alternative way of looking at planning for urban heat mitigation, which is the intrinsic link between water and energy fluxes. We discuss how Yannick has harnessed the power of remote sensing (both aerial and satellite data sets) and geographic information systems to develop new ways of assessing and mitigating urban heat in cities. We also hear Yannick's take on what is needed for alpine areas and the world to adapt to the challenges of climate change.
Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Starsky by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW)
Chapters:0:00 Intro
1:59 Guest Intro and Ice Hockey
5:16 Austria, not to be confused with Australia
11:46 Getting into urban heat
18:33 How a geographer integrates with engineers
26:41 The rapid fine-scale approach and thermal comfort
35:20 Adding computational fluid dynamics
38:59 Surface energy fluxes - an alternative perspective to heat
45:27 Is there a “magic” number for urban heat mitigation?
50:31 The essential ink between water and energy
54:07 Key future challenges for alpine regions
55:58 The global data availability question
58:37 Yannick’s future research plans
1:00:34 Urban climate models vs. data ubiquity
1:02:51 Q&A Start
1:03:13 What inspires you?
1:05:18 Key event, person, book
1:07:57 If you had a magic wand?
1:11:04 Biggest challenge in career to date
1:14:59 Time management
1:17:08 Advice for young researchers
1:17:52 Where can people reach you?
1:18:58 Final Message
1:21:39 Outro
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
- X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
- Instagram: @petermbach87
- Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/
Denise Mitrano, Assistant Professor in the Environmental System Science Department at ETH Zurich sheds some light into the topic of plastics pollution, from macro and micro to nano. Trained as an analytical chemist, we hear how Denise is using her skills to better understand how we can quantify, replace and reduce the sources for better environmental and human health protection. We also reflect on the role that science needs to play in future legislation around environmental protection and some tips on being an academic in a very dynamic discipline.
Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Starsky by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW)
Chapters:0:00 Intro
1:59 Guest Intro and getting out of your comfort zone
6:25 Discovering environmental chemistry and nanomaterials
13:17 Contaminants of emerging concern
16:16 Denise’s journey to Switzerland
18:00 Plastics 101
24:53 Two historical examples of plastics management
27:23 Can we create a plastic-free world?
30:36 Denise’s Research Pillar 1 - Analytical
34:40 Denise’s Research Pillar 2 - Transport and Fate
41:23 Metal-doped Microplastics
47:39 Denise’s Research Pillar 3 - Policy and Regulation
51:43 Denise’s Future Research Trajectory
57:43 Q&A Start
58:00 What inspires you?
58:56 If you had a magic wand?
1:01:16 Key event, person, book
1:02:59 Time management
1:05:07 Biggest challenge in career to date
1:07:44 Advice for young researchers
1:08:44 Where can people reach you?
1:09:07 Final Message
1:09:45 Outro
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
- X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
- Instagram: @petermbach87
- Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/
Bill Hunt, Professor and Extension specialist at North Caroline State University, USA shares with us his journey from a love of hydrology to creating major impact in America's stormwater management. We cover his achievements in the field of stormwater green infrastructure, his current activities in ancient Roman engineering and hear his wisdom on life lessons he has learnt along the way and our vital connection to water. Life is a journey and Bill's incredible advice can help you find our own path to walk.
Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Starsky by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW)
Chapters:0:00 Intro
1:59 Guest Intro and Hurricane Season
4:43 Our first meeting
6:26 The engineering or economic studies debate
12:31 Your interest as a child foretells your future
18:58 What is an Extension Specialist?
23:25 Humility led to insights on mosquitos in stormwater wetlands
28:56 The growing to do list around water quality
32:41 How diverse is stormwater management in the US?
38:01 The versatility of bioretention systems
42:10 Tips on maintenance of stormwater green infrastructure
46:41 Bill's PhD bioretention system after 20 years
48:42 Bill's recent book on stormwater green infrastructure
51:16 From stormwater to ancient Roman water management
56:43 Our connection to water
1:01:22 Finding your calling
1:03:58 Tackling inequalities in cities
1:09:15 Q&A Start
1:09:36 What inspires you?
1:12:12 Key event, person, book
1:14:47 If you had a magic wand?
1:17:50 Biggest challenge in career to date
1:26:03 Time management
1:28:52 Advice for young researchers
1:30:24 Where can people reach you?
1:31:41 Final Message
1:34:15 Outro
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
- X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
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Luis Angel Sañudo Fontaneda, Associate Professor at the University of Oviedo, Spain, brings us on a journey through Spain's history in adopting Sustainable Drainage Systems and how its dynamic policies have shifted towards climate adaptation and sustainability. We look into the marvel of pervious pavements and swale systems, an engineering-focussed start to the Blue-Green Infrastructure journey and reflect on the challenges of being an academic trying to change the world.
Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Starsky by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW)
Chapters:0:00 Intro
2:00 Guest Intro and Academic Conferencing
7:26 A series of fun coincidences and an announcement
9:27 Spain, Cantabria, Geography and Climate
12:52 Spain's History in SuDS and Luis' entry
21:30 Pervious Pavements 101
36:18 Getting into Swales
41:41 Receptivity towards SuDS in Spain
47:04 Luis' next SuDS endeavour
49:43 Q&A Start
50:06 What inspires you?
51:42 Key event, person, book
58:28 If you had a magic wand?
1:07:19 Time management
1:11:14 Advice for young researchers
1:12:43 Where can people reach you?
1:13:27 Final Message
1:14:34 Outro
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
- X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
- Instagram: @petermbach87
- Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/
Neil Armitage, Emeritus Professor from the University of Cape Town reflects on his journey from engineering through to academia and the human side of sustainable drainage systems. We reflect on South Africa's integrated urban water management challenges and have fun picking at terminology around SuDS, WSUD, LIDs and the like. We see what Neil is up to at the moment and look back at the major lessons he has learnt.
Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Starsky by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW)
Chapters:0:00 Intro
1:59 Guest Intro and the Canoe Chute Story
9:05 Choosing Water Engineering by elimination
12:42 From Zimbabwe to Cape Town
14:44 The PhD and a more impactful side project
19:49 Neil’s greywater and sanitation chapter
23:45 Terminology around sustainable drainage
30:58 The Future Water Research Institute at Uni Cape Town
33:13 Cape Town Day Zero Drought
39:18 Stormwater harvesting for drought-proofing?
41:54 Creating change in South Africa with community
48:41 Summarizing the concept of SuDS
49:32 A stormwater engineer’s greatest ally
51:40 Gravity sucks
56:15 Neil’s current endeavours
1:05:07 Q&A Start
1:05:19 What inspires you?
1:07:34 Key moment, book, person
1:11:18 If you had a magic wand?
1:12:39 Time management
1:18:28 Advice for young researchers
1:20:00 Where can people reach you?
1:20:45 Final Message
1:22:07 Outro
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
- X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
- Instagram: @petermbach87
- Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/
Tobias Baur, Professor in Landscape Architecture at the Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences (OST), Rapperswil and former partner at Studio Ramboll-Dreiseitl, sheds some light on Singapore's Active, Beautiful and Clean Waters Program, the country's journey in water management, and how sponge cities have evolved from stormwater to climate adaptation in recent years in Asia and Europe. We discuss the important role that interdisciplinary and multi-sectoral collaboration played in ensuring a successful renaturalisation of an urban stream in the flagship Bishan Ang Mo Kio Park project and the challenges going forward.
Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Starsky by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW)
Chapters:0:00 Intro
1:59 Guest Intro and Reflections on Singapore
5:04 Early inspiration for water in landscape design
9:00 Singapore's early water management leadership
12:15 The ABC Waters Programme
15:46 The Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park Project
27:20 Tobias' other projects around Singapore
31:58 Back in Europe and comparisons with the tropics
36:14 Sponge Cities in Switzerland
40:06 The role of the landscape architect and designer
42:34 Q&A Start
42:54 What inspires you?
44:10 Key event, person, book
44:40 If you had a magic wand?
46:16 Biggest challenge in career to date
48:20 Time management
50:00 Advice for young researchers
51:05 Where can people reach you?
51:36 Final Message
52:02 Outro
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
- X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
- Instagram: @petermbach87
- Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/
Katrin Pakizer, Research Associate from the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) and the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science & Technology (Eawag) joins us to discuss how to create transformative change and to transition cities towards more sustainable natural resources management from the lenses of water infrastructure, biodiversity and all the many infrastructures and resources beneath our feet. We look at the challenges that we are likely to face in future in these areas due to climate change and what changes have to happen in institutions if we want to succeed in being more sustainable.
Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Starsky by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW)
Chapters:0:00 Intro
1:59 Guest Intro and fascination with Lichen
5:58 What came first, social sciences or nature
7:55 Katrin's journey to decentralized water systems
14:42 Creating transformative change 1: Grassroots movements
20:28 A 101 on housing cooperatives in Switzerland
23:17 Creating transformative change 2: Policy instrument mixes
28:41 Creating transformative change 3: Timing and sequencing
40:39 Katrin's current endeavours in biodiversity
45:16 Underground resources governance
52:35 The road ahead for Katrin
54:10 Q&A Start
54:30 What inspires you
56:55 If you had a magic wand
59:22 Key moment, book, person
1:01:24 Biggest challenge to date
1:07:23 Time management
1:12:10 Advice for young researchers
1:14;32 Where can people find you
1:15:00 Final message
1:15:22 Outro
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
- X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
- Instagram: @petermbach87
- Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/
Alexa Delbosc, Associate Professor at the Monash University Institute of Transport Studies, Australia demonstrates how social psychology concepts and thinking can be applied to transport planning. We explore a variety of topics including dehumanization of cyclists, changing lifestyles of millennials, the impact of the pandemic on transport, work from home culture, the built environment considerations, egocentric anchoring in planning and new ways of thinking about the city, especially with the uptake of micromobility.
Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Starsky by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW)
Chapters:00:00 Intro
1:59 Guest Intro and Ornithology
4:53 From animal behaviour to human behaviour
7:56 Cars vs. Cyclists
10:03 The Dehumanization Scale
12:00 Addressing the contested road space
16:25 Millennials and changing perceptions of the city
23:54 The pandemic and its impact
26:53 Work from home culture and transport
29:46 Impact of the built environment and the third space
31:32 Egocentric anchoring and other key social psychology concepts
35:07 New ways of thinking about cities
36:42 Is collective design the solution?
40:00 New challenges in micromobility
43:39 Where is transport planning heading to?
46:47 Diversification of transport
50:26 Q&A Start
50:43 What inspires you?
52:52 Key event, person, book
53:31 If you had a magic wand?
55:42 Biggest challenge in career to date
57:30 Time management
1:00:21 Advice for young researchers
1:01:50 Easter Egg: Alexa’s D&D Campaign
1:03:28 Where can people find you?
1:04:06 Final Message
1:04:30 Outro
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
- X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
- Instagram: @petermbach87
- Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/
Darcy Molnar, Senior Program Coordinator at the Leopold-Bachmann Foundation and the Masters in Advanced Studies (MAS) in Water Resources Program Coordinator at ETH Zurich reflects on three major initiatives she has undertaken to foster better knowledge exchange on solving global crises, bridging global north and south and providing more opportunities for women in STEM. Having grown up in West Africa herself, we learn a bit about how we can use some African culture can and "joie de vivre" to tinker with our own daily lives and personal missions.
Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Starsky by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW)
Chapters:0:00 Intro
1:59 Guest Intro and her Egyptian Experience
7:29 From Physics to Engineering and Development
14:12 The Sanaga River
17:15 Getting to Switzerland
20:39 How to teach nature-based solutions?
35:07 Network for Water and Life (NEWAL)
44:42 500 Women Scientists
48:30 The Kangaroo Math Competition
1:00:30 Darcy’s New Adventure
1:01:51 Q&A Start
1:02:17 Key event, book person
1:04:33 If you had a magic wand?
1:05:23 Biggest challenge in career to date
1:08:27 Time Management
1:11:19 Advice for young scientists
1:12:02 Where can people find you?
1:12:20 Final Message
1:13:24 Outro
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
- X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
- Instagram: @petermbach87
- Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/
Manuel Fischer, Professor at the Institute of Political Science, University of Bern, group leader in Policy Analysis and Environmental Governance and head of the Environmental Social Sciences Institute at the Eawag, Switzerland shares some insights on the social dynamics between major actors in the political arena during times of stability and times of crisis and the importance of delving deeper into these dynamics for better social-ecological systems. We also discuss the harsh reality of whether science can impact policy.
Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Starsky by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW)
Chapters:0:00 Intro
1:59 Guest Intro, Interview Skills and Social Processes
7:01 Manuel for President!
9:14 A 101 on Swiss Politics
13:03 Manuel’s academic journey to date
17:14 Actors, the social scientist and the theatre piece
19:27 The good guys, the bad guys and the ‘devil shift’
28:18 The ‘devil’s advocate’?
31:06 Decision-making in times of crises - Fukushima
36:09 Social networks
40:27 Social-Ecological Networks for Biodiversity
48:02 The role of scientists going forward
49:39 Manuel’s approach to the future
50:45 Q&A Start
51:08 Key event, person, book
53:20 If you had a magic wand?
54:04 Biggest challenge to date
55:59 Time management
58:14 Advice to young social scientists
1:00:44 The ivory tower of academia
1:02:10 Where can people find you?
1:02:49 Final message
1:03:05 Outro
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
- X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
- Instagram: @petermbach87
- Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/
Shubber Ali, CEO of Garden for Wildlife, a spin-out from the National Wildlife Federation in the US, reflects on the journey from helping companies improve their innovation to how people can contribute to improving biodiversity in their own gardens through the use of native plants. We also discuss the twin crises of climate change and artificial intelligence (in particular, Generative AI) and look at both the positives and negatives around major societal changes we are likely to experience in future.
Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Starsky by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW)
Chapters:0:00 Intro
1:59 Guest Intro and Gardening
6:48 Innovation a love-hate relationship
13:43 Shubber's Origin Story
16:16 Nature's best hope
18:46 Founding Garden for Wildlife
24:35 Nature and human health
27:10 Native vs. Non-native
30:30 Green justice the Field of Dreams Hypothesis
34:10 American fascination with lawns
36:36 Reducing friction for change
39:08 The IKEA for Biodiversity?
41:26 Deal with it at source - cost of poor quality problem
43:15 Current successes of Garden for Wildlife
45:18 What's next for Garden for Wildlife
50:51 Coming to Europe?
52:08 Climate Conference COP27
55:04 We have too much information
58:01 Artificial Intelligence and the dawn of Generative AI
1:02:09 Potential downsides of AI
1:08:55 Crisis breeds action
1:10:53 What is the root cause problem?
1:13:59 Q&A Start
1:14:17 If you had a magic wand?
1:18:25 What inspires you?
1:22:55 Key book event person
1:30:55 Biggest challenge to date
1:34:55 Time Management
1:40:50 Where can people find you?
1:41:37 Final Message
1:41:59 Outro
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
- X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
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- Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/
Jon Hathaway, Associate Professor at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Tennessee Knoxville sheds light on the origins and practice of green infrastructure for stormwater management in the US, the impact climate change will have, needs for better asset management and maintenance and how we can operate these systems in a smarter way. We also compare notes and terminology in this field across the globe and discuss the challenges of academics working at the interface with practice.
Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Starsky by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW)
Chapters:0:00 Intro
1:59 Guest Intro, US Travel and Mountainbiking
5:33 Jon’s interest in natural systems
8:18 Exposure to green stormwater infrastructure
12:04 Green infrastructure terminology
17:11 Early work on swine lagoon seepage treatment
19:50 Bioretention - the “Swiss Army Knife”
22:19 Indicator bacteria, pathogens and other pollutants
27:14 Interdisciplinary collaboration
30:26 Backyard GI and stormwater asset maintenance
36:39 Origins of GI? and implications for other places
39:37 Bioretention, rain gardens, or biofiltration
42:00 Regulations in the US around stormwater
48:05 Impact of climate change on GI
54:53 Monitoring and control of GI
1:03:28 Q&A Start
1:03:43 What inspires you?
1:06:18 Key event, person, book
1:07:36 Biggest challenge in career to date
1:10:47 If you had a magic wand?
1:13:15 Time management
1:14:44 Advice for young researchers
1:16:58 Where can people reach you?
1:17:35 Final Message
1:19:01 Outro
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
- X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
- Instagram: @petermbach87
- Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/
Markus Vogl, Professor at the University of Stuttgart, senior partner at Studio Urban Strategies and former "Walter Gropius Chair" at the Faculty of Architecture, Design and Urbanism at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina reflects on the power of social collaboration for urban transformation by retelling the story of perhaps the most impactful project in his career to date, the Biblioteca Popular La Carcova and Parque Educativo. We also discuss what the role of architecture and urbanism should look like to tackle the grand challenges that we face.
Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Starsky by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW)
Chapters:0:00 Intro
1:59 Guest introduction and AM radio signals
3:36 Buenos Aires, stereotypes and Tango
8:20 The Clubes de Barrio
11:54 Early interest in Architecture and Urbanism
15:27 “Städtebau” or citymaking as interdisciplinarity
21:00 From TU Munich to TU Delft
24:11 Getting to Buenos Aires
28:07 Society, globalization and confronting reality
34:13 Biblioteca La Carcova: Prologue: The Walter Gropius Chair
39: 49 Biblioteca La Carcova: Part 1 - The Canvas
42:23 Biblioteca La Carcova: Part 2 - A book means freedom
45:14 Biblioteca La Carcova: Part 3 - Building a place of encounter
47:11 Biblioteca La Carcova: Part 4 - Gauchito Gil
49:00 Biblioteca La Carcova: Part 5 - Enter Markus
51:18 Biblioteca La Carcova: Part 6 - Parque Educativo
53:17 Biblioteca La Carcova: Part 7 - 3000 Euros and the Pandemic
56:38 Biblioteca La Carcova: Part 8 - The Obelisco
1:01:30 The role of the architect
1:02:41 The next steps for the Parque Educativo
1:07:05 Q&A Start
1:07:33 What inspires you?
1:08:28 Key event, person, book
1:10:24 If you had a magic wand?
1:12:18 Biggest challenge in career to date
1:17:30 Time management
1:19:22 Advice for young architects
1:20:42 Where can people reach you?
1:21:50 Final Message
1:22:31 Outro
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
- X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
- Instagram: @petermbach87
- Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/
Françoise Bichai, Associate Professor from Polytechnique Montreal discusses the complexity, challenge and necessity of interdisciplinary collaboration and how we should adapt our centralised water infrastructure to support growing cities and adapt to climate change. We also delve into her current work on supporting the planning of green infrastructure.
Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Starsky by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW)
Chapters:0:00 Intro
1:59 Guest intro and musical talent
6:14 Travels with NGOs to Costa Rica
8:32 Françoise’s experience in Peru
12:05 What it means to be an engineer
15:10 God-like, Medieval and Paleolithic
19:00 The T-Shaped Professional
19:44 Interdisciplinarity as surfing and diving
23:39 Interdisciplinarity as a symphony orchestra
28:57 What are we facing in terms of water security?
30:53 Françoise’s time in Australia
33:30 Harnessing alternative water supply sources
36:40 We need a paradigm shift from centralised systems
40:58 Satellite treatment plants or hybrid options
43:15 Fantasia - The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
46:16 Green Infrastructure is multidisciplinary
49:37 Terminology and GI for active mobility
56:00 Green Infrastructure in Winter
1:02:46 Linking GI, heat and drinking water temperature
1:07:42 Bringing all the GI work together
1:10:43 Q&A Start
1:11:09 Key event, person, book
1:13:45 What inspires you?
1:15:32 If you had a magic wand?
1:17:18 Time management
1:20:59 Advice for young researchers
1:22:40 Where can people reach you?
1:23:59 Final Message
1:25:23 Outro
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
- X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
- Instagram: @petermbach87
- Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/
Danielle Dagenais, Professor in Urban Planning and Landscape Architecture at the University of Montreal discusses her interdisciplinary journey from garden design to all things plants and how she is now tackling green infrastructure solutions for stormwater management and improving urban biodiversity in snowy Canada. Our conversation also unravels the paradox of nature and many myths surrounding the use of vegetation for providing stormwater management among other benefits.
Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Starsky by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW)
Chapters:00:00 Intro
01:59 Guest Intro and Montreal
3:11 The Garden of Movement
7:25 The Paradox of Nature
10:17 Attraction to disciplines of intervention
14:06 Danielle’s early journey in the 80s and 90s
19:09 Coming back to the PhD
21:18 Design language, social sciences and interdisciplinary mediation
24:14 Green infrastructure terminology
28:42 Planning green infrastructure for stormwater management in Quebec
34:22 From mapping to technologies and debunking design myths
34:44 Hypothesis 1: Vegetated better than unvegetated
39:16 Hypothesis 2: Plant species matter
42:51 Hypothesis 3: Native species are better than exotic species
46:34 Hypothesis 4: Mono-cultures are worse than multi-cultures
49:21 Designing green infrastructure for snow
55:28 Is guidance on track, behind or ahead of research?
58:03 Encouragement to practitioners: experiment!
1:00:32 Q&A Start
1:01:00 What inspiration drives you forward?
1:01:27 If you had a magic wand?
1:02:58 Key event, person, book
1:05:11 Biggest challenge in career to date
1:07:37 Time management
1:09:32 Advice for young researchers
1:10:53 Where can people reach you?
1:11:30 Final Message
1:11:47 Outro
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
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Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
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Belinda Hatt, waterways and wetlands research specialist at Melbourne Water and University of Melbourne, Australia, reflects on her journey through academia and practice around creating healthy waterways and her work on stormwater control measures or Water Sensitive Urban Design, in particular, rain gardens for water quality management.
Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Breaking Sweat by Balloon Planet (Check out more of their tunes over at Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/balloon-planet)
Chapters:0:00 Intro
1:12 Guest Intro and ‘Battleship’
3:57 Preferred term for Blue-Green Infrastructure and Raingardens
5:57 From words to environmental sciences and camping
9:09 The impact of urbanization on waterways
13:49 The Millennium Drought
15:14 Stormwater harvesting and constructed wetlands
17:50 Scalable technology? What are raingardens?
19:47 10,000 Raingardens - an operation and maintenance challenge
21:13 Stormwater quality management in Melbourne today
23:01 Multiple benefits of raingardens and other nature-based solutions
23:54 How to… Stormwater harvesting - collection, treatment, storage
24:53 More about the considerations for stormwater storage
28:00 Pollutant removal in raingardens
31:36 Plant selection for raingardens
33:23 The Adoption Guidelines for Stormwater Biofiltration
35:55 Challenges in raingarden planning and design
36:40 The journey after leaving academia
39:59 An interdisciplinary approach needed nowadays
41:51 Coming back into academia and merging pathways
44:13 Melbourne Water’s healthy waterways strategy
47:19 A post-pandemic city and the role of green spaces
49:43 Q&A Start
50:00 Belinda’s affection for Karate
53:48 Key event, person, book
55:11 Biggest challenge in career to date
58:08 If you had a magic wand?
58:42 Time management
1:00:35 Advice for young researchers
1:02:59 Where can people reach you?
1:03:50 Final Message
1:04:15 Outro
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
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Anna Lintern, senior lecturer and head of the water group at te Department of Civil Engineering, Monash University, Australia, discusses how she has combined her passion for water, rivers and history in some 'forensic-esque' research using sediment core and other historical data sets. We also discuss the impact that such diverse and creative methods can have in supporting further environmental policymaking.
Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Breaking Sweat by Balloon Planet (Check out more of their tunes over at Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/balloon-planet)
Chapters:00:00 Intro
01:11 Random banter on cat myths
02:38 Guest welcome and forensics TV shows
04:04 Our backstory, Japan and divergent paths
07:17 Anna’s interest and journey in history
11:08 The evolution of Australian history education
13:43 Technical disciplines learning from history
14:18 How Anna decided on civil engineering
17:49 Anna’s research portfolio on river water quality
18:40 Paleolimnology and Quaternary Science
21:29 Piecing together history from sediment cores
25:03 Piecing together Melbourne’s water quality history
27:08 Three main areas of application for Anna’s sediment core research
28:31 The process and methods of sediment core research
35:58 Key findings from Anna’s sediment core research
40:50 Anna’s work on modelling spatial-temporal water quality
43:28 Best management practices for managing river water quality
45:41 Anna’s future research directions
47:51 Dungeons & Dragons
53:19 Q&A Start
53:45 If you had a magic wand?
57:14 Key event, person, book
58:36 Biggest challenge in career to date
1:00:51 Time management
1:02:55 Advice for young researchers
1:05:50 Where can people reach you?
1:06:25 Final Message
1:06:46 Outro
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
- X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
- Instagram: @petermbach87
- Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/
Fritz Kleinschroth, senior research scientist at the Ecosystem Management Group of ETH Zurich reflects on various examples where human infrastructure and nature have collided, from the tropics to his own backyard in Zurich, Switzerland. We discuss the importance of reconciliation ecology going forward and how infrastructure can be planned to be more integrated with natural ecosystems.
Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Breaking Sweat by Balloon Planet (Check out more of their tunes over at Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/balloon-planet)
Chapters:00:00 Intro
01:11 Guest introduction and beavers as crowd pleasers
05:45 Fritz’s unsatisfiable curiosity and interest for visualization
07:12 Nicaragua’s forest reserve - the prologue
09:09 Did Fritz actually go into forestry?
11:51 Logging roads through forests
17:04 Spotting roads from a satellite image
18:50 Fritz’s collaboration with the forest certification body
19:28 Certification system for logging practice
24:50 Holistic vs dynamic way of seeing ecology
25:40 Fritz’s move to Zurich
26:57 Linking satellite observations with floating plant invasions
31:27 Reasons for working in the tropics
32:38 Living on an island for a year
35:15 Moving the research into the urban space
38:34 Nature-based solutions
40:11 COVID19 and the importance of green spaces
43:51 Reconciliation Ecology - Win Win Ecology
48:19 Drone imagery as a tool for visualization
49:56 Fritz’s drone adventure
53:58 Getting a different perspective of landscapes with drones
58:20 Coming full circle to urban, where to next?
1:00:50 Q&A Start
1:01:11 If you had a magic wand?
1:02:40 Key event, person, book
1:05:43 Biggest challenge in career to date
1:08:43 Time management
1:10:29 Advice for young researchers
1:11:50 Where can people reach you?
1:12:40 Final Message
1:13:10 Outro
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
- X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
- Instagram: @petermbach87
- Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/
Mohan Yellishetty from Resources Engineering at Monash University, Australia sheds light on the importance of minerals extraction and how we can undertake this sustainably. From fascination with Australia-India relations around cricket to growing up in the countryside in India, we discuss the life cycle of mines and the potential of 're-mining', rehabilitation and repurposing after their closure as a way to combat climate change and support the global economy.
Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Breaking Sweat by Balloon Planet (Check out more of their tunes over at Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/balloon-planet)
Chapters:00:00 Intro
1:12 Guest Introduction and the world of mining
4:37 AI (not artificial intelligence) and Cricket
9:00 Why engineering and not cricket stardom?
12:25 Life in the rice paddies
16:25 Why tulips led to Australia
19:26 Life cycle assessment involves cradle to cradle
21:48 The importance of minerals
24:20 Electric vs. internal combustion engines
26:22 Open vs. Closed Loop Recycling
30:05 How far has Life Cycle Assessment progressed?
33:18 Steps in conducting a mining operation
39:33 Identifying economic ‘fairways’ for mining
44:05 Combining industries for producing artificial topsoil
49:13 Mine rehabilitation and the issue of tailings
52:47 Interest in critical minerals
57:26 Repurposing options for abandoned mines
1:04:50 The cities of today are the mines of tomorrow
1:06:23 Impacting policy and governments
1:09:59 Is the bad reputation of mining changing?
1:11:15 Q&A Start
1:11:36 What inspires you?
1:12:22 If you had a magic wand?
1:13:40 Key event, person, book
1:15:06 Biggest challenge in career to date
1:18:01 Time management
1:19:36 Advice for young researchers
1:21:08 Where can people reach you?
1:21:35 Final Message
1:23:07 Outro
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and don’t forget to leave us a review!) on Spotify, Apple Music, Google Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast from.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
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Mattheos Santamouris, the Anita Lawrence Professor of High Performance Architecture at the University of New South Wales, Australia, discusses the impending overheating crisis due to global climatic change that we are facing, his outlook and perhaps the most urgent strategy for counteracting and adapting to it.
Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Breaking Sweat by Balloon Planet (Check out more of their tunes over at Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/balloon-planet)
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
1:11 Guest Introduction
1:35 Greece Travel Tips
3:47 Mat’s passion for travelling
4:52 Different environments for character shaping
7:00 Mat’s experience in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
7:58 Direct transfer of technology is suicide
8:36 Long-term implications of urbanization and climate change
11:16 The housing crisis and decarbonization
13:32 Economic impacts of urban overheating
16:23 Health impacts of urban overheating
17:18 Environmental impacts of urban overheating
18:23 It’s a financial and economic problem, not technological
20:04 Bigger problem in the global south
25:54 What is high-performance architecture?
27:57 Decarbonizing sustainably
33:43 From physicist to high-performance architecture
36:17 Energy poverty
39:57 The journey of research implementation
43:50 An important principle for research integrity
44:57 The role of markets and green investments
53:17 Cool materials
1:00:45 Integrating mitigation tech in cities
1:04:17 How cool materials were initially implemented?
1:10:30 Q&A Start
1:10:43 If you had a magic wand?
1:11:35 Key event, person, book
1:13:51 Biggest challenge in career to date
1:17:22 Time management
1:18:50 Advice for young researchers
1:24:19 Where can people reach you?
1:25:03 Final Message
1:25:35 Outro
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and don’t forget to leave us a review!) on Spotify, Apple Music, Google Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast from.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
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Juan Pablo Rodríguez Sánchez, Associate Professor at Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia shares how data scarcity is not a limitation, but rather, an opportunity for innovation in both the wastewater system and his current topic, nature-based solutions. We explore his passion for his country Colombia and career-long passion case study, Bogotá.
Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Breaking Sweat by Balloon Planet (Check out more of their tunes over at Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/balloon-planet)
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and don’t forget to leave us a review!) on Spotify, Apple Music, Google Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast from.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
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Janine Bolliger, senior researcher at the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) and lecturer at the University of Zurich discusses the deeper subtleties behind the term 'biodiversity' and her recent work on how light pollution affects non-humans, namely bats and insects. We also delve deeper into what needs to be done to make cities more ecologically sustainable in light of global biodiversity loss.
Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Breaking Sweat by Balloon Planet (Check out more of their tunes over at Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/balloon-planet)
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and don’t forget to leave us a review!) on Spotify, Apple Music, Google Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast from.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
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Veljko Prodanovic, a senior researcher at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Australia, discusses the intricacies of designing sustainable vertical greenery, which are thirsty, but, ironically, more beneficial in dry climates. We also touch upon how to design blue-green infrastructure to be 'culturally-inclusive' in order to build community ownership and stewardship as a way to drive uptake and implementation of new research outcomes in this field.
Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Breaking Sweat by Balloon Planet (Check out more of their tunes over at Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/balloon-planet)
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and don’t forget to leave us a review!) on Spotify, Apple Music, Google Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast from.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
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Dr. Liah Coggins, an environmental engineer from the University of Western Australia shares how she has created impact in the water industry with a simple piece of technology and the growing complexity that engineering research and education need to embrace if we want to create innovative solutions. Under the mentorship of our guest from Episode 11 and through her own experiences over the last decade, Liah has forged her own approach and career path that diverges from stereotypical academic to a cake- and fun-loving engineer and educator.
Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Breaking Sweat by Balloon Planet (Check out more of their tunes over at Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/balloon-planet)
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and don’t forget to leave us a review!) on Spotify, Apple Music, Google Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast from.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
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Anas Ghadouani, professor in environmental engineering at the University of Western Australia, limnologist and overall advocate for collaborative learning and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals paints a picture of how he is constantly learning and embedding fun, entertainment and learning into his research and teaching work. We delve into a connected story around a range of topics from water quality in lakes to multidisciplinary work, teaching, ChatGPT and, of course, food!
Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Breaking Sweat by Balloon Planet (Check out more of their tunes over at Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/balloon-planet)
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and don’t forget to leave us a review!) on Spotify, Apple Music, Google Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast from.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
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Daniele la Cecilia, a Maria Skłodowska-Curie Actions postdoctoral resresearch fellow from the University of Padova, Italy recounts his journey, combining his passions for water and food towards technological progress in agriculture. We cover the topic of plant protection products and new potential future pathways for agriculture, in particular the role of greenhouses that Daniele is now tackling as part of his ongoing research and with the interdisciplinary skill sets he has acquired along his research journey.
Podcast Intro/Outro Song: bucolia by Birocratic (http://birocratic.lnk.to/allYL) - check out more of his awesome music over at Bandcamp: https://birocratic.bandcamp.com/
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and don’t forget to leave us a review!) on Spotify, Apple Music, Google Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast from.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
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Ana Deletic, professor in urban stormwater and Executive Dean of Engineering at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) shares her remarkable journey from former Yugoslavia to Australia in urban stormwater management, water sensitive urban design and urban nature-based solution technologies, good modelling practices, women in engineering and mentorship of young and aspiring researchers. Join me as I reconnect with my former PhD supervisor and relive some of the fun quirks of my own early research journey.
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and don’t forget to leave us a review!) on Spotify, Apple Music, Google Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast from.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
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Podcast Intro/Outro Song: bucolia by Birocratic (http://birocratic.lnk.to/allYL) - check out more of his awesome music over at Bandcamp: https://birocratic.bandcamp.com/
Associate Professor Megan A. Farrelly, a human geography and the Associate Dean of Graduate Research from the Faculty of Arts, Monash University Australia, discusses her transition from the physical to the social sciences and 15 years of experience in urban water governance research. We delve deep into the institutional challenges that have surrounded the story and journey towards Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD), the Australian term for nature-based solutions in Melbourne Australia. Megan also provides a gentle introduction into the art of qualitative research and some early comparisons with the energy sector.
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and don’t forget to leave us a review!) on Spotify, Apple Music, Google Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast from.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
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Podcast Intro/Outro Song: bucolia by Birocratic (http://birocratic.lnk.to/allYL) - check out more of his awesome music over at Bandcamp: https://birocratic.bandcamp.com/
Dr. Abishek Narayan, research scientist at the Department of Sanitation, Water and Solid Waste for Development (SANDEC) at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science & Technology (Eawag) shares his journey through the rapidly evolving field of urban sanitation planning in the global south. From humble beginnings in engineering and rowing in his river in Chennai India to current uptake of the Citywide Inclusive Sanitation (CWIS) philosophy, Abishek reflects on how and what kinds of integrated approaches are necessary if we want to ensure clean water for the future. He also enforces how there are no 'silver bullets' or one-size-fits-all solutions to our global challenges and how his own journey has helped him embrace this.
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and don’t forget to leave us a review!) on Spotify, Apple Music, Google Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast from.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
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Podcast Intro/Outro Song: bucolia by Birocratic (http://birocratic.lnk.to/allYL) - check out more of his awesome music over at Bandcamp: https://birocratic.bandcamp.com/
Arya Arabshahi, an architect and territorial strategist discusses his take on the idea of citymaking - what we define as a city, what constitutes a city and how we should plan a city. We delve into the issue of a master plan and how learning from the past and thinking about future scenarios can lead to a palette of solutions rather than a set course for urban and territorial development. Based on his territorial projects that he has embarked on during his journey from Iran to London and, now, Brussels, we also ponder the link between humans and nature as well as what future education in this space should look like.
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and don’t forget to leave us a review!) on Spotify, Apple Music, Google Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast from.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
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Podcast Intro/Outro Song: bucolia by Birocratic (http://birocratic.lnk.to/allYL) - check out more of his awesome music over at Bandcamp: https://birocratic.bandcamp.com/
Peter A. Vanrolleghem, professor in bio-engineering, environmental technology and urban water quality reflects on his journey from chocolate and spaghetti among others disciplines into the water sector. We explore how urban wastewater treatment is evolving to embrace resource recovery and digitalization and learn about the challenges of its planning, control and operation. Peter also offers some gems of wisdom from his incredible career to date including topics of mentorship, serendipity and the importance to walking the research path together.
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and don’t forget to leave us a review!) on Spotify, Apple Music, Google Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast from.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
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Podcast Intro/Outro Song: bucolia by Birocratic (http://birocratic.lnk.to/allYL) - check out more of his awesome music over at Bandcamp: https://birocratic.bandcamp.com/
Sofia Boarino, an architect and musician specializing in urban soundscapes shares how she has been exploring the importance and necessity of acoustic design for our visually dominated society. We discuss four key projects that have shaped Sofia’s career to date, touching upon the sound design from a landscape, nature, technological and human perspective and some of her own personal experiences with the visual and auditory senses.
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and don’t forget to leave us a review!) on Spotify, Apple Music, Google Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast from.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
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Podcast Intro/Outro Song: bucolia by Birocratic (http://birocratic.lnk.to/allYL) - check out more of his awesome music over at Bandcamp: https://birocratic.bandcamp.com/
Martijn Kuller, an interdisciplinary researcher and tennis enthusiast discusses his journey across the world in pursuit of better tools to support not only the planning of nature-based solutions in cities, but also early flood warning systems, the subtleties of coffee and enjoyments of travel. On this episode, we uncover the role of values, gut feelings and rationality in decision-making and how quantitative tools should be design to better support stakeholders in both the global north and south.
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast
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Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
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Podcast Intro/Outro Song: bucolia by Birocratic (http://birocratic.lnk.to/allYL) - check out more of his awesome music over at Bandcamp: https://birocratic.bandcamp.com/
Scott Lloyd, an architect and founding member of TEN Studio in Zurich Switzerland has been exploring emerging themes in architecture and urban design through projects he has led and participated in across the globe. On this episode, we hear about Scott’s journey into architecture and his experience in designing housing to cope with rapid urbanization. Notably, we discuss the trending topic of ‘cohabitation’, which revisits the myth that humans are preeminent on the planet and should therefore be the centrepiece of design.
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast
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Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
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Podcast Intro/Outro Song: bucolia by Birocratic (http://birocratic.lnk.to/allYL) - check out more of his awesome music over at Bandcamp: https://birocratic.bandcamp.com/
João Paulo Leitão is a researcher at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science & Technology (Eawag) and lecturer at ETH Zurich working on data-driven flood models and urban water asset management. On this inaugural episode of the Grand Challengers Podcast, we discuss how João's Portuguese heritage has influenced his work and how he is using models and unconventional data sources to improve the way we understand historical urban development and potential future flood hazards in our cities.
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast
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Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
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Podcast Intro/Outro Song: bucolia by Birocratic (http://birocratic.lnk.to/allYL) - check out more of his awesome music over at Bandcamp: https://birocratic.bandcamp.com/
The Grand Challengers Podcast is a show about inspiring individuals who are stepping up to a variety of global challenges such as climate change, rapid urbanization, biodiversity loss and many more. Each episode centres around a guest from the cutting edges of the natural and social sciences, engineering, technology and design, who offers not only insight into their own passion and work, but also advice and nuggets of wisdom about their own personal journey.
Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast
Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and don’t forget to leave us a review!) on Spotify, Apple Music, Google Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast from.
Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:
- Twitter: @petermbach
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- Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/
Podcast Intro/Outro Song: bucolia by Birocratic (http://birocratic.lnk.to/allYL) - check out more of his awesome music over at Bandcamp: https://birocratic.bandcamp.com/