Meet the philosopher whose ideas influence political, economic and cultural reformers around the world. Today he's urging us all to embrace our clear and present connection to a future as deep, if not deeper, than the billions of years behind us. Go deeper into Roman's OMI with his book HERE
In a career spanning Ebay to Airbnb, where he’s been the Chief Ethics Officer and General Counsel, Robert Chesnut has witnessed drunkenness, fraud, harassment and racism – but he’s also seen the best that people can be – empathetic, honest, brave and kind to each other and their customers. In his book, Intentional Integrity, How Smart Companies Can Lead an Ethical Revolution, he plots a course for leaders and employees who may not be perfect, but can at least mitigate for the minefield of ambigu...
From the age of 15, Lily Cole has travelled the world for the biggest fashion brands on the planet, Alexander McQueen, Louis Vitton, Jean Paul Gaultier , Chanel, but the further she walked down the catwalk, the more she became aware of the damage we’re doing to the environment -and very soon set about doing something about, making a stand on ethical brands, backing charities, projects and causes such as Water Aid and the Environmental Justice Foundation.. Go deeper into Lily's OMI, get her book ...
Twenty-six (nearly twenty-seven) year old comedian Jack Rooke shares OMI with Richard Kilgarriff on dealing with the death of his Dad and then the sudden loss of his best friend to suicide. To get closer to Jack, his book CHEER THE FUCK UP is available HERE
Flynn Coleman works with the UN and Governments to improve social justice around the world, across a diverse range of societies and cultures. Her book is a cautious statement of hope that technology will help to define us as a species. Go deeper into Flynn Coleman's OMI with her book HERE
Fear makes us anxious, or shameful, or turns us into perfectionists. We aim for a status that’s never truly satisfying by pretending to be someone else. Sound familiar? Dr Pippa Grange deals with these problems at the highest level and shares her OMI with to Rachel Schofield about ways to tackle the demons that distract us from true success. Go deeper in Pippa's OMI - get her book HERE...
Tom Young is a performance psychologist who works with elite teams and individuals to get the most out of themselves and the people around them; how they communicate, how they handle pressure, maintain focus and respond to challenges. Go deeper into Tom Young's OMI, get his book HERE
In this episode we look at the misleading nature of numbers with Sanne Blauw, the numbers correspondent from the Dutch media organisation ‘The Correspondent’ (where historian Rutger Bregman works too)- a ground-breaking community of journalists and readers. Go deeper into the subject with Sanne's book HERE
As governments consider more funding for virtual cyber armies over real boots on the ground, Richard Kilgarriff talks to one of the world's leading experts on the impact of digital media across the political spectrum. Why and how do troll armies invade our democracies and what can we do to defend ourselves against them? Want to go deeper? Get a copy of Phil's book HERE...
In this episode we meet the man tracking the fortunes of the world’s richest man. Jeff Bezos has amassed a fortune of over $160 billion through Amazon, delivering faster and cheaper products across the planet since 1995; developing services like Alexa, cloud services and Prime video and Amazon Studios. It's a relentless flywheel of Ai, data driven technology that has pleased millions of customers but angered many who think that Amazon doesn’t pay enough tax on its profits or wages to staff worki...
In this episode Rachel Schofield talks to Vice Life's Deputy Editor about the nitty gritty of managing relationships in a hectic, ever-changing world - and the small things that make a big difference to how you feel about yourself and the people in your life. You can buy a copy of Rachel's book, The Art of Showing Up HERE ....
Meet the UK’s most prominent and influential climate-change campaigner who gives us ten years to save humankind from a risk far greater than Covid 19... Jonathon Porritt was the director of Friends of the Earth and co-chair of the Green party in the eighties, co-founded the forum for the Future in the nineties and in the noughties he received a CBE for services to environmental protection and was chair of the UK Sustainable Development Commission, advising government ministers on climate change....
Ozan Varol studied Astrophysics at Cornell University and then served on the 2003 Mars exploration project before launching a new career as a top law professor and a much sought after contributor and writer for the BBC, The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and many more. His new book, Think Like a Rocket Scientist, Simple Strategies You Can Use to Make Giant Leaps in Work and Life is Adam Grant’s no.1 pick for 2020, said to be a "must-read" by Susan Cain, "endlessly fascinating" by Dan Pink ...
The future may be unknowable but one thing's for sure; we are all living longer. How do we make the most of this long life without getting too sick to enjoy it or running out money? Lynda Gratton is Professor of Management Practice at the London Business School where she directs The Future of Work course - she’s also a fellow of the World Economic Forum. Andrew J Scott is Professor of Economics at The London Business School and has taught at Harvard, LSE and Oxford University and advises governm...
Richard Kilgarriff talks to Sir Bob Geldof about his remarkable career in music and philanthropy; looking at the world through a lens of lyrics and songs that capture significant moments of personal, cultural and political upheaval over forty-four years in and out of the spotlight. You can get a copy of Tales of Boomtown Glory with a bookplate signed by Sir Bob from our independent bookshop partner HERE....
In this episode we meet the criminal scientist who wants us to re-think the concept of Evil, to speak of the unspeakable and accept that we are all capable of extreme cruelty and bad behaviour, even if it's all in our head. Get your copy of the book HERE...
With a bold re-interpretation of humanity, Rutger Bregman is changing our perception of the past in order to re-invent the future. Videos of him taking on the elite of Davos and US talk shows, have been viewed over 24 million times and his recent article, uncovering the "real Lord of the Flies" sparked a bidding war in Hollywood. Fans and admirers include Stephen Fry and Yuval Harari and his new book is being hailed as the "Sapiens of 2020." Humankind: A Hopeful History, challenges the belief lo...
The rules of work and relationships may be changing, but we will always respond to power (or lack of it) in others and our self. Social psychologist and Stanford professor Deb Gruenfeld wants us to re-examine what power means to the individual and the group, to leaders and followers and to challenge un-helpful notions of authenticity that prevent us from playing the roles we have chosen to act. Get your copy of Acting with Power HERE...
How does elite military training prepare you for an unseen enemy like Covid-19? Dean Stott had a distinguished career in the army and Special Forces, serving alongside Prince Harry in Afghanistan for a while, before a horrific parachuting accident landed him in a new life with new challenges, such as evacuating an embassy and breaking a world record on a bike (not at the same time). You can get a copy of Dean's book Relentless, From SBS to Work Record Breaker - HERE...
Paolo Giordano has a PHD in theoretical physics, but he’s also an award-winning novelist whose first book – The Solitude of Prime Numbers - sold over a million copies world-wide. A true polymath, he’s the creator of a new HBO TV series - We Are Who We Are - coming to our screens later this year. In February 2020 , worried that his fellow Italians weren’t taking the threat of Covid-19 seriously enough, Paolo wrote a series of articles for Italian newspapers which were read by over four million pe...
Are we born with our personal values or do we learn them through experience, environment and culture? Dr Mandeep Rai travelled the world to find out why people change their mindset across borders, and how a global pandemic might create a new set of values for the world to follow. Get your copy of The Values Compass HERE...
A new, incurable disease has changed the world, forcing us into physical and social isolation. Every nation is dealing with the crisis in its own way, but everywhere the human problem remains the same. So how can we learn from the history of medicine, when all hope seems lost? Can our mental health make us more (or less) immune to Covid-19 and other life-threatening illness? Richard Kilgarriff talks to psychiatrist Dr Jeff Rediger and looks at the past, present and future through the lens of his...
Top epidemiologist Adam Kucharski talks to Richard Kilgarriff in this special Big Thinking episode; How contagion and ideas spread (and stop) and how numbers, timescale and social factors influence outbreaks across the world. Get a copy of Adam's book, The Rules of Contagion HERE.
Rahul Jandial is a leading neurosurgeon/scientist and author of Life Lessons From a Brain Surgeon; The New Science and Stories of The Brain. In this episode he chooses Daniel Levitin's The Changing Mind: A Neuroscientist's Guide to Ageing Well as his Most Wanted new book and shares his OMI on making life or death decisions on a daily basis. YOU CAN BUY BOTH BOOKS HERE: Life Lessons From a Brain Surgeon; The New Science and Stories of The Brain. The Changing Mind: A Neuroscientist's Guide to Agei...
What better way to kick off a new podcast series than with a lifelong friend who happens to be a top podcaster? In this episode, BBC broadcaster and co-host of the Fortunately podcast, Fi Glover picks New York Times writer Kate Murphy's "You're Not Listening - What You're Missing And Why it Matters" from Bookomi's Most Wanted list of new non-fiction in January 2020. This sparks a conversation about Fi's pioneering work on The Listening Project, the effect of technology on relationships, the bold...
