Phenomena

From fashion brands to Silicon Valley giants, virtually every company is trying to make algorithms work for their business. But many algorithms are built on questionable assumptions about the way people think and live. To unpack this further, Eliot speaks to Maria Cury and Brendan Muha, partners at ReD, along with Eleonora Maria Mazzoli, a researcher in the Department of Media and Communications a...

Post-lockdown, there is renewed enthusiasm and excitement around cities. Urban development and innovation, however, often feel chaotic and atomised and miss the mark on how people actually experience the city. Eliot and his guests Ian Dull, a partner at ReD, and Jeff Risom, chief innovation officer at Gehl Architects, discuss the high stakes for businesses to get the future of the city right. What...

How are the algorithms in our lives holding us back? What are the new priorities of urban residents that businesses can help resolve? What can other sectors learn from how the luxury industry is getting sustainability right? These are some of the questions we unpack in season two of the Phenomena podcast by ReD Associates, which explores how a deep understanding of human behaviour can shape better...

The COVID-19 pandemic has unleashed a tidal wave of interest around best practices in remote collaboration. But the problems emerging from the crisis are testing team problem-solving on a whole new plane. The problems will require highly complex interdisciplinary collaboration. Scientists and technologists across fields are collaborating on urgently needed innovations in diagnostics and therapy. A...

How can we know we’re getting at the truth, when we inevitably come at the world with various biases? Eliot Salandy Brown and David Zax explore the phenomenon of “selection bias” by visiting with two people who hold very different views of the world: a conspiracy theory debunker, and a 9/11 conspiracy theorist. Can ReD help the debunker better understand the people whose minds he’s trying to chang...

In the first episode of Phenomena, the team at ReD Associates asks: What is a generation, anyway? And how do companies successfully study and understand cultural signifiers in order to capture the spirit of a generation? Eliot Salandy Brown and Sandra Cariglio discuss what Greta Thunberg's followers teach us about Gen Z, why the Ford Mustang has staying power through generations, and how we go abo...