The Freudcast: Recent Episodes
freuds
The Freudcast is the podcast from freuds, one of the UK's leading communications and public relations firms. freuds was founded by Matthew Freud in 1985, and is now the central part of The Brewery group of companies.
“Break the rules. You cannot fail. There’s no such thing as failure. Try things out and eventually it’ll all make sense.” - Will Gompertz
Shakespeare. Adele. James Bond. Ed Sheeran. Shade Adu. Idris Elba. Harry Potter. Harry Styles - the UK’s cultural creations are some of the finest in the world. Despite its global achievements, financial support for the Creative Sector continues to dwindle.
With culture creations arguably being the UK’s greatest global asset - how can we get it the support it deserves? How can agencies such as freuds continue to improve their creative work? How can we all live more creative lives?
In a wide ranging discussion, Will Gompertz - former BBC Arts Editor & Artistic Director of the Barbican Centre - sat down with freuds’ Zulum Elumogo to discuss the power of the Arts to transform and energise communities, the role creativity can play in our lives and the future of this vital industry.
Davos has been quiet the past couple of years, as the pandemic postponed the annual World Economic Forum. This year it's back, albeit in May and not the usual snowy January, and so is Goals House. This episode of The Freudcast will give you a flavour of the people who passed through our doors and the conversations they were party to.
You'll hear from Malian artist, musician and activist Inna Modja; UK Climate Action Champion Nigel Topping; model, author & entrepreneur Lily Cole; Bennett Richardson of tech publication Protocol; Rwanda-based Adiam Gafoo, COO of Arts Help; documentary maker & YouTuber Jack Harries; and CEO of WaterAid Tim Wainwright. Presented by Matt Barbet.
In 2001, a young man named Josh’s Ponte responded to a newspaper ad seeking out a Conservationist to live in Gabon with sixteen Gorillas and a handful of scientists to help the government create a network of national parks to protect more than eleven percent of the country.
Gabon is an extraordinary place. This West African nation is home to some of the world’s most precious and unique biodiversity. But perhaps most crucially, Gabon is home to the ‘Lungs of Africa’ - the planet’s most important forest ecosystem after the Amazon.
As one of the world’s few highly forested, low deforestation nations, this natural, green superpower plays a central role in the global fight against climate change.
Josh is now Creative Director of the African Conservation Development Group - a company at the heart of efforts to get this ‘Green Capital’ acknowledged and accredited on the global stage.
At COP26 in Glasgow, Josh sat down with freuds’ Zulum Elumogo to discuss his journey, Gabon’s status as a Global Carbon Superpower and the power of storytelling in conservation.
In honour of International Women’s Day, this year’s focus is on breaking the bias. In this episode, we’ll be hearing from three women who’ve worked hard to do just that.
Hosted by Laura Round, we hear from Fiona Dawson, Katie Vanneck-Smith and Dame Moya Greene.
Fiona Dawson advises famous names like Lego and Marks and Spencer after retiring from Mars last year, having risen to the position of Global President during 33 years with the company. Katie Vanneck-Smith is co-founder of groundbreaking slow news brand Tortoise Media and former President of Dow Jones. And Dame Moya Greene who made her name in mail – running Canada Post before taking up the equivalent CEO role at the Royal Mail.
They share personal insights, including who their mentors were, things they wish they’d known at the start of their careers andsome of the jaw-dropping challenges they faced during their careers.
Rebecca Sycamore is Executive Director at St Mungo's, the charity ending homelessness and rebuilding lives.
Founded in 1969 by a group of committed activists distressed by the rising number of London’s homeless, St Mungo’s is England’s largest provider of homelessness services housing over 3000 people every night and helping over 30 000 people in 2021 alone. On these cold, dark wintery nights, they are doing important work with those without a home.
For this episode of The Freudcast, Rebecca Sycamore spoke to freuds’ Zulum Elumogo on the acute effects of climate change on the homeless, the charity’s heroic efforts to house rough sleepers during the Covid lockdowns and what it will actually take to end homelessness in the UK.
A qualified lawyer with over 20 years’ experience in the financial sector, H.E. Mrs Geingos became First Lady in 2015 and has used her platform to fight poverty and inequality. Through the One Economy Foundation, the First Lady has initiated numerous programs that focus on sustainably lifting vulnerable populations in Namibia, particularly women and girls, out of poverty.
In this episode recorded in New York City, Her Excellency spoke to freuds’ Zulum Elumogo in-between appearances at the United Nations General Assembly Week.
The First Lady begins by discussing the purpose and origins of her One Economy Foundation.
John Prendergast is a human rights activist, New York Times Best-selling author and Co-Founder of The Sentry alongside George Clooney.
As activism goes, John Prendergast has been wholly committed for most of his life. Human rights has been Johns focus, being part of peace processes in Burundi, Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo and helping to broker an end of war between Ethiopia and Eritrea.
This conversation, recorded at Goals House which congregated on the fringes of the UN General Assembly, covered John's life of activism, improving human rights for the people of Africa and where the drive came from to embark on a career of making a positive impact.
"The world we want tomorrow starts with how we does business today.” This is the purpose that drives more than 135,000 Associates at Mars, Incorporated, the $40 billion family-owned business known for its beloved food, confectionary and petcare brands like Snickers, M&Ms, Extra, Pedigree, Whiskas and Ben’s Original, among many others.
In this episode, we are joined by Mars' Vice President Corporate Affairs and Sustainability, Andy Pharoah, who sits down with Laura Round to discuss how, as a purpose-and principles-led business with well over 100 years of experience, Mars is tackling today’s challenges while focusing on the future and how the next generations will be impacted.
AB InBev are the world’s leading brewer, with 500 brands including the likes of Stella Artois, Corona & Budweiser under its banner, they are a company that believes in the power of bringing people together.
For this episode, Matt was joined by Elaine McCrimmon, AB InBev’s Global Head of Reputation and External Engagement and the host of their podcast Talking on Tap to discuss her career, what the last 18 months have been like, what the future looks like for the world’s leading brewer and of course a love of beer.
In this episode, freuds' Laura Round speaks to Paul Rose, an explorer, adventurer and broadcaster. Paul is a man at the frontline of exploration and one of the world’s most experienced divers, field science and polar experts. He helps scientists unlock and communicate global mysteries in the most remote and challenging regions of the planet.
They discuss the power of exploration, the UN decade of Action, COP26 and how we can meet our goal of protecting nature and biodiversity. They also talk about the important role purposeful partnerships can play.
Dr Tim Gordon is a marine biologist who knows a thing or two about the importance of coral reefs and an exciting plan to regrow damaged ones. Working for Mars, Tim has been heavily involved in brand Sheba's Hope Reef project, restoring coral off the coast of Indonesia - the largest undertaking of its kind anywhere in the world. Not only is the work vital, in spelling out "hope" in the coral itself, it carries an incredibly important message.
For this episode, freuds' James Mercer spoke to Dr Tim Gordon about the importance of Hope Reef, while you can find out more by going to www.ShebaHopeGrows.com and The Channel That Grows Coral on YouTube.
Knowing what you need to know is not always easy. Former US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld famously talked of known knowns, known unknowns, and unknown unknowns. Even if you could figure out what on earth he meant, it doesn’t do much for anyone’s interest in politics.
This is where Need To Know comes in. Friends and founders Warren Nettleford and Seth Goolnik are a broadcast journalist and former Snapchat executive. They know how to make politics more interesting and relevant to young audience, and their hunch has delivered millions of weekly viewers as well as a Royal Television Society award that big players like the BBC would love to win.
For this episode, Warren and Seth chatted to Matt Barbet about their views on better use of social media and the broader, constantly-evolving news landscape.
The figures around food waste can be eyewatering - producing what we eat contributes to climate change, yet we still throw away huge amounts of it. Oddbox was founded to tackle this perverse contradiction. With supermarkets around the world often discarding perfectly decent fruit and veg just because of what it looks like, the company launched to address this by making this perfectly edible produce available. freuds Lilian Maingi spoke to founder Emilie Vanpoperinghe.
As giant leaps go, JJ Chalmers has made more than most – and literally too. As a lance corporal serving in the Royal Marines in the Afghan war, JJ was caught in an explosion that killed other soldiers and left him with life-changing injuries. Despite struggling to cope for years afterwards, JJ’s involvement with the Invictus Games led to working for Channel 4 on their coverage of the Paralympics. Most recently, that literal leap, when JJ swapped the green beret for shiny sequins to compete on Strictly Come Dancing. For The Freudcast, JJ spoke to freuds’ own former soldier Ed Lane Fox.
When times are difficult, it’s easy to get lost in the here and now, and not see the bigger picture. With the pandemic continuing to dominate our lives, the discussion about black lives may feel like it’s fallen down the agenda.
Visual Artist Àsìkò has a unique perspective on this. He has a British and a Nigerian background; he answers to two names; he’s lived unaware of his skin colour, and all too aware of it. The Freudcast caught up with Àsìkò to reflect on the previous twelve months where he portrayed the world-changing events we’ve all lived through.
At the time of writing, many across the UK are scrambling to find turkeys during a pre-Christmas shortage. In Japan, no such concerns as the festive tradition there involves millions eating Kentucky Fried Chicken on the big day. It's a sign of how embedded in global culture KFC has become, while back in the UK the company's progressive approach to communications has provided a template for how to deal with whatever challenges it comes up against. Paula MacKenzie is General Manager of KFC in the UK and Ireland, and talked to The Freudcast about her route to the top.
Shopping streets across the World were already changing, even before the events of 2020. The rush to buy online has only accelerated because of the global pandemic, so how can physical stores survive? Ross Bailey who founded Appear Here has many of the answers and spoke to the Freudcast outside one of the businesses he's already helped in East London.
"There's definitely a different energy in this Black History Month" according to one of our guests in this episode of The Freudcast. In fact, the energy of 2020 has been like no other, and that's not just been because of the pandemic. The killing of George Floyd prompted soul-searching around the world about the lives of black people. Now, the relevance and impact of Black History Month's is also up for discussion, as this episode reveals, led by freuds' Tosin Aiyeyomi.
freuds is proud to be a B Corp, alongside many other like-minded businesses that recognise - in simple terms - the importance of balancing profit with purpose. There's a lot more to it than that, of course, so to find out more and here where the whole idea came from to certify companies in this way, freuds' Laura Round caught up with B Lab co-founder, Andrew Kassoy.
What do you need to do to create a better internet? One person who's sought to answer that question is Damian Bradfield, and he's in a good position to try. It's the subtitle of his book, and when he's not writing, Damian is the Chief Creative Officer of file-sharing behemoth WeTransfer, which he co-founded. The Freudcast caught up with Damian to discuss how our online behaviour can evolve and effect positive change.
Melissa Hemsley is best known, along with her sister Jasmine, for writing about food. Her latest book Eat Green has also done really well, but it turns out that the recipe behind Melissa’s success has featured a significant measure of mental health issues, including grief and imposter syndrome. Now, Melissa’s journey from being a chef to an author and social media influencer has taken her in another interesting and more campaigning direction, as she explained to Matt Barbet in this episode.
Follow freuds on Instagram at @insidefreuds and search for us on LinkedIn.
Has there ever been more appreciation of the people who really make the UK’s National Health Service work? Now, to mark its 72nd anniversary, a dozen NHS frontline workers will see themselves up on billboards across the country, in images shot by esteemed photographer Rankin. freuds was privileged to work on the campaign, and for this episode, our head of health tech Lauren Thomson caught up with Rankin, as well as London GP Dr Farzana Hussain who was one of those chosen to feature.
You wouldn't imagine that performing in a famous boyband would be a good grounding for running a farm, but that's exactly what JB Gill has done. Not only did he go from being in multi-million selling JLS to rearing turkeys and pigs in rural Kent, JB is also blazing a trail for young Black Britons by working the land. For this episode, he discussed his life in music, agriculture, faith and identity with freuds' Tosin Aiyeyomi.
Mark Thompson has run not one, but two of the world’s best known media organisations in the BBC and, currently, The New York Times. Given the choppy waters both famous brands navigate, the steadiest of hands is often necessary to chart their paths. Being the person at the top is not a job you take if you want an easy life. For this episode of The Freudcast, Mark sat down during the pandemic for a virtual chat with freuds’ Director, Sam Smith.
It can be easy to forget that many problems existed before the global pandemic - and now it is making them worse. Issues like starvation are now much more of a reality for many more people, unfortunately. To discuss this, The Freudcast spoke to the UN's World Food Programme, and in particular, Corinne Woods, who is the organisation's highly experienced director of communications and advocacy.
The coronavirus isn't just a threat to people's physical wellbeing, but according to the UN and the World Health Organisation we're facing a global mental health crisis due to the pandemic. For Mental Health Awareness Week, the Freudcast spoke to Nadine Dorries MP, the Minister responsible for mental health in England. We discuss changes in attitudes to mental health, how rapidly-evolving technology may be having a negative impact on us and also how she is still feeling the mental and physical effects of COVID-19 herself.
In 2018 James Harding founded Tortoise, the largest journalism project ever to be launched on Kickstarter. Even though he'd had an impressive career as Editor of The Times and Director of BBC News, it was by no means certain to be a success. His hunch that it was time for a different type of newsroom, one designed for slower and wiser news, paid off with thousands lending their support. IN this episode, James talks to us about working for Rupert Murdoch and the BBC, the challenge of launching a new media offering and what impact the pandemic is having on journalism.
For more than thirty years, The River Cafe has served some of the best Italian food available anywhere in the World - and that includes Italy. At the time of writing, like many restaurants, it is closed because of the coronavirus lockdown, but just before, Matt Barbet sat down with chef and co-founder Ruth Rogers to discuss those things that have made it so special and contributed to its longevity - authenticity, genuine passion and sustainability.
Charlie Mackesy has created one of the most successful debut books this century - which he never really set out to do. The Boy, The Mole, The Fox & The Horse has gone on to sell hundreds of thousands of copies since its release in late 2019, and has topped bestseller lists on both sides of the Atlantic. On World Book Day, Charlie invited Matt Barbet into the studio at his south London home to exclusively tell the story behind his life-affirming book.
Ed Amory has worked for some impressive, and very different, bosses in his time. He began in the Conservative Party, at the tail-end of Margaret Thatcher's time as Prime Minister. From there, Ed moved to be a journalist at the Daily Mail under Paul Dacre, whose leadership of the powerhouse paper has arguably been as influential, and as divisive, as Mrs Thatcher's. More recently, Ed was Managing Partner at freuds, the agency founded by Matthew Freud 35 years ago. Before social distancing was in common parlance, Ed headed out on a walk with Matt Barbet to talk about the lessons learned in those three distinct, but related, areas of politics, journalism and communications.
Finding out the results of British General Elections used to be an up-all-night affair. More recently, people have been going to bed on Election Day at a reasonable hour with a much better idea of what has happened. Why? It's down to the improved reliability of the exit polls. The man who knows more about them than most is the stalwart of BBC coverage, Professor Sir John Curtice. The Freudcast sat down with him to discuss the method amongst the madness, and his reluctant rise to becoming a bit of a celebrity.
In 1985, Matthew Freud started a public relations agency in his flat near Baker Street. He came armed with a few lessons he learnt as a teaboy at a big London record company, and managed to grow his business into one of the biggest of its kind in the UK.
Now it’s 2020, and freuds sits at the heart of a family of businesses called The Brewery with clients around the World. For this extended episode of the Freudcast, Matt Barbet met Matthew at his home in North London, to talk about the last four decades as they strolled to the current headquarters in the West End. His dog Vincent came along for the walk too.
While the National Lottery has made quite a few millionaires since it began twenty-five years ago, hundreds of thousands more have benefitted from the good causes it has supported in that time. freuds worked with the National Lottery to celebrate that fact, and the freudcast caught up with famous names like Sir Tony Robinson, Scarlett Moffatt and Nicola Adams who were helping to mark the big occasion too.
Technological advances have seeped into every area of our lives, but it is in health where they could have the biggest impact of all. We could all live better for longer, thanks to rapid progress in the likes of artificial intelligence and genomics. They're not without issue though, and in this episode, Matt Barbet discusses where healthtech is taking us with three UK-based experts on the subject. He also experiences first-hand a new and impressive example from Israel, that shows just how much the country is leading the charge.
What does it take to be a leader in the 21st Century? It's not an easy question to answer, and these days, being a CEO is probably harder than it ever was. Even so, we tried to find answers with the help of The Forward Institute for our latest journal, Unfollow: Redefining leadership in a changing world. You can hear from some of the fascinating contributors in this episode of The Freudcast, which is presented by Matt Barbet.
For this episode, The Freudcast headed to Dakar in Senegal to hear about several fascinating new innovations aimed at improving life in the Muslim world and beyond. The Transformers Summit is supported by the Islamic Development Bank, and a handful of people are picked to attend from thousands of entrants. We spoke to some of them, as well as Dr Hayat Sindi from IsDB.
Young voters in the UK caused what was described as a "youthquake" during the General Election of 2017. In 2019, they had the potential to make an even bigger difference, with hundreds of thousands more registering to have their say. So, where did Gen Z put their X, as freuds asked at the time? We put that question to a selected panel at an event we hosted during election week, and The Freudcast was also there to talk to them.