The Impossible Network

Guest Overview Born and raised in Nigeria to a family of five high achieving siblings, educated in the US, recipients of the prestigious King Baudouin African Development Prize for social entrepreneurship are this week's guests, sister Bilikiss Adebiyi Abiola and brother Wale Adebiyi We discuss how their parents commitment to excellence in education and the sacrifices they made to send t...

Guest Overview  Jeremy Heimans - a child activist, a McKinsey strategist, founder of social movement agency Purpose, TED speaker, and co-author of NY Times bestseller New Power is this week’s guest  We start with Australian born Jeremy reflecting on how the combination of his immigrant parent's backstory and his voracious interest in politics led him to become a globe-trotting child...

Guest Overview   In Part two of this interview with Carmen D'Alessio, the New York nightlife legend, impresario and co-founder of what is often referred to as the greatest club of all time; Studio 54, we explore the untold story of the nightclub’s formation.  We start the interview with Carmen recounting her second marriage and leaving Italy and working for Valentino in Rome to return to...

Last week I had the immense pleasure of sitting feet from the greatness of Don McCullin. I managed to ask the final question of the evening. http://www.howardgreenberg.com/exhibitions/don-mccullin Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guest Overview Born to Peruvian father, and Chilean mother, but grew up to become a legend of New York nightlife, impresario co-founder of Studio 54, and to this day not only continues to reinvent herself but also entertainment experiences, is this week’s guest Carmen D'Alessio.   We recorded this interview in Carmen’s apartment back in July 2019. With windows open the sounds of the Manh...

  Guest Overview  Futurist and humanist Caroline Chubb Calderon thinks a lot about what it will mean to be human in the age of intelligent machines. This child of the world that grew up speaking five languages and learned what it meant to be human at an early age from a mentally-ill mother and an inspirational father, gives us a glimpse into how we might just reimagine the future of huma...

Guest Overview  Futurist and humanist Caroline Chubb Calderon thinks a lot about what it will mean to be human in the age of intelligent machines. This child of the world that grew up speaking five languages and learned what it meant to be human at an early age from a mentally-ill mother and an inspirational father, gives us a glimpse into how we might just reimagine the future of humanity.&n...

Guest Overview  Massachusetts born, a psychiatrist father and minister mother, drove his ambition to be a priest, but evolved to be an actor, musician, author and expert on the ethics of Artificial Intelligence is this week’s guest John C Havens. oh he’s also a wicked harmonica player - John is currently the Executive Director of The IEEE Global Initiative on Ethics of Autonomous and Intellig...

Guest Overview  Massachusetts born, a psychiatrist father and minister mother, drove his ambition to be a priest, but evolved to being an actor, musician, author and expert on the ethics of Artificial Intelligence is this week’s guest John C Havens. oh he’s also a wicked harmonic player - John is currently the Executive Director of The IEEE Global Initiative on Ethics of Autonomous and I...

Guest Overview Russian born, New York raised, corporate lawyer, turned Facilitator, Speaker and entrepreneur with a mission to empower people and organizations to flourish through science-backed behavioral solutions - is this week's guest Elina Teboul.  Graduating with a Bachelor's degree in Economics from New York University and a J.D. from Columbia Law School, Elina became a corporate lawye...

Guest Overview Russian born, New York raised, corporate lawyer, turned Facilitator, Speaker and entrepreneur with a mission to empower people and organizations to flourish through science-backed behavioral solutions - is this week's guest Elina Teboul.  Graduating with a Bachelor's degree in Economics from New York University and a J.D. from Columbia Law School, Elina became a corporate lawye...

Guest Overview Born in Spain, raised in Newark, a rebel against his catholic education,  a Punk rock band tour manager, before building his stellar career, life and reputation in the art world, is this week’s guest, internationally renowned gallerists and owner of New York’s Team Gallery, Jose Freire.  In the raw and candid interview Jose discusses the impact of his abusive upbringing.&n...

Having heard the diverse stories from our season one guests, I've reflected on curiosity, mental health, and serendipity. However, in this final reflection, I want to focus on something that weaves through all three previous musings. Time; its value, it's scarcity and power.  We recently interviewed Carmen D'Alessio, Impresario behind Studio 54 and one of our first guests in Season 2.&nb...

The science fiction novels, comic book, and movies of the past are full of technologies from the imaginations of writers that have since been transformed to science fact and reality by someone who believed, what most considered impossible, to be possible. I’m old enough to remember the phone-like device from Star Trek that only a few years later ended up in my hands branded Startac by Motorola&nbs...

Last week I watched the Netflix Doc The Great Hack. It made me consider on how our minds and decisions are increasingly being manipulated, not just with elections. I fear we are surrendering our curiosity, questioning and decision making capacity to machines that increasingly learn how understand us, affect us and direct us. This made me reflect on the imperative for curiosity. Does this seem...

This week I want to reflect on mental wellness, technology, and sleep. During this first season we didn't set out to explore mental wellness but it became apparent that in the arc of their stories that mental fortitude, resilience, and strength were crucial to the achievements of our guests, even those that had experienced mental health challenges in their lives. Reflecting on these many interview...

I’m going to start these reflections with serendipity. It’s the underlying theme of this series, a word that’s often used but as a concept somewhat misunderstood.  Let’s start with its origins. The origins of words always make for fascinating reading. But ‘serendipity’ has a particularly interesting origin story. The word ‘serendipity’ was invented on 28 January 1754 in a...

Welcome to The Impossible Network. This is just a short episode to say we reached our 30th episode last week and with that event, we ended Season One of The Impossible Network.  Over the next 5 weeks until the next season starts we will be posting our reflections, questions, and perspectives on some of the big themes from season one:  The impact of parental support  The damage of ab...

Guest Overview One of the most influential voices in design, led the re-design of over 200 global brands, is Co-founder of the Masters in Branding program at New York’s School of Visual Arts and creator, author of six books, and host of one of the most popular and longest running podcasts, Design Matters, is this week’s guest Debbie Millman.  As a guest on countless podcasts, we avoid going o...

 Guest Overview Born in Iran, raised in Germany, a social anthropologist, an executive coach, organizational trainer and international speaker, founder of contemplative science focused Neural Beings, and long term resident of New York is this week’s guest, Anahita Moghaddam. In this episode, Anahita tells the story of her troubled, anger-fueled and rebellious early years, the impact...

A change maker inside NBC, the instigator of Hulu, a driver of innovation and the first female vice chair of GE, best selling author of Imagine It Forward, is this week’s guest, Beth Comstock. In this expansive episode, we discuss the impact of her upbringing on her propensity to embrace ambiguity, be a accelerate digital transformation inside traditional organizational structures and inspire...

Born from Scottish and Irish parents, serendipity opened the door into a career in sports publishing and broadcasting until his desire for social justice led him to Common Goal; the social impact movement in global football. Welcome, this week’s guest Ben W.S. Miller.  In this episode, we explore the role of Ben’s upbringing in driving down his early career path in publishing and sport. ...

Guest Overview UK Journalist, bestselling author, social media content creator for Comic Relief and Sports Relief, and recent founder of social impact film company, Really Good Films is this week’s guest, Mark Woods  The youngest in a family of seven siblings, Mark recounts the impact of his family upbringing and early home life on his attitude to life and risk talking as well as the seminal...

Guest overview She graduated from St Martin’s in London, spent five years developing her unique freestyle artistic expression in Tokyo, before moving to New York to further her ambitious and expansive artistic exploration of identity and the self, welcome this weeks’ guest live visual artist Shantell Martin In this episode we discuss the impact of her upbringing in a racially fueled district of Lo...

A former BBC International Correspondent and Anchor, reporting from over 60 countries and hostile environments on some of the most significant stories of recent times, honored in the Asian Woman of Achievement Awards, Chief of Communications for the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates and most recently founder of Content company Miran Media, is this week’s guest Navdip Dhariwal. In this extended...