The New Abnormal

Series Five  This episode of 'The New Abnormal' podcast features Cynthia Scharf, a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Future Generations, a European think tank, leading their work on Climate Interventions. Issue of trust, global equity, behavioural psychology, archetypes and narrative are key to their  work. She served as the senior strategy director for the Carnegie Climate Governance Init...

Series Five  This episode of 'The New Abnormal' podcast features Diana Stafie, founder of Future Station, the renowned strategic foresight consultancy that empowers organizations to navigate change, identify emerging trends, foster innovation, and effectively prepare for the future. Future Station specializes in guiding companies through scenarios-based strategic planning processes and e...

Series Five  This episode of The New Abnormal podcast features Velislava Petrova, Chief Programme Officer at the Centre for Future Generations.  She oversees CFG's technical and cross-cutting programs, monitoring impact, aligning with political priorities and identifying strategic directions.  Velisalva is also an ex-Senior Policy Consultant with the World Health Organization, Deputy Minister...

Series Five  This episode of 'The New Abnormal' podcast features Jonathan Barth: Founder, Think-Tanker, Brussels Expert and Author of the forthcoming book # EscapingCollapse .  His passion is to illuminate how Europe needs to respond to the geopolitical turn and make our institutions ready for a security and climate-disrupted world, with particular focus on financial, fiscal, industrial...

Series Five  This episode of 'The New Abnormal' podcast features Loes Damhof - UNESCO Chair in Futures Studies, award-winning pioneer in higher education, and TEDx speaker.  As UNESCO Chair Futures Literacy in Higher Education, she designs, facilitates and researches learning spaces that are potentially transformative, where participants explore multiple futures to see the present anew....

Series Five  This episode of 'The New Abnormal' podcast features the author, academic and consultant Nardia Haigh, who has spent nearly two decades helping people navigate uncertainty using scenario planning.  She has taught hundreds of people how to apply scenario planning methods, and advised individuals and organizations across corporate, nonprofit, and public sectors. Her work has be...

Series Five  This episode of The New Abnormal podcast features Bulent Duagi, a 'cross-pollinator' in the Romanian futurists-ecosystem.  He works with high-stakes decision makers, facilitating strategy execution and acting as a guide for organisations tackling tough challenges. He also works as a futures-skills trainer to help 'curious people stay relevant' via moderating worksh...

Series Five  This episode of The New Abnormal podcast features Jordi Serra del Pino, who is a consultant with more than 40 years experience in foresight, strategy and intelligence. As a professor, he’s participated in numerous academic programmes and currently holds several positions:Deputy Director at the Centre for Postnormal Policy & Futures Studies, Associate Professor at Blanquerna Ramon...

Series Five  This episode of The New Abnormal podcast features Andre Spicer, Dean and Professor at Bayes Business School, City St George's, University of London.  He's an expert in the fields of organisational behaviour, leadership and corporate social responsibility, and is the founding director of ETHOS: The Centre for Responsible Enterprise at Bayes.  Andre is the author of a number o...

Series Five This episode of The New Abnormal podcast features Dr Emma Louise Briant, an internationally recognised expert and professor of information warfare & propaganda. She helps policymakers, governments, business leaders, journalists and the public understand and respond to the challenge of contemporary online threats. Her research, testimony and solutions on the rapid evolution of surve...

Series Five  I’m honoured that the focus of this episode of ‘The New Abnormal’ podcast is Jim Dator, who’s had an extraordinary impact on futures-thinking.  Indeed, I believe one would struggle to find someone else who could today be genuinely given the title of “the world’s leading futurist”. Although Jim is far too self-effacing to bestow that title on himself, it’s an accolade he thoroughly des...

Series Five  This episode of The New Abnormal podcast features the famous physicist and futurist Dr Joseph Voros, who helps people and organisations think about the future in serious ways through futures-orientated intelligence and strategic foresight capability-building.  He’s been a professional futurist for over 25 years, initially as a practitioner of and lecturer in strategic foresight, but i...

Series Five  In this episode of The New Abnormal podcast, I interview Neil Shearing, the Group Chief Economist at Capital Economics, where he leads a world-class team of economists and oversees the firm’s global research agenda.  A trusted voice in international finance, Neil is known for his clear, insightful analysis of the global economy - insights that regularly feature in the Financial Times...

Series Five This episode of The New Abnormal podcast features Gergely Nemeth, former Head of Strategic Foresight at NATO and now CEO of Hungary’s Defence Innovation Research Institute (VIKI), who reflects on a career ‘impacted by coincidence’ but marked by increasing responsibility in defence planning, policy, and foresight.  Beginning as an intelligence analyst, he moved through roles in Hungary’...

Series Five This episode of The New Abnormal features Lourdes Rodriguez, a Strategic Foresight Consultant with the European Commission and Co Exec Director at Teach the Future.  With a background in Psychology, her work has been focused on trends research and foresight for more than 15 years, and she's therefore deeply experienced in discovering new signal of change and seeds of the future in...

Series Five This episode of The New Abnormal podcast features Marie Stafford, Global Director (Intelligence) at VML. She's a strategic foresight consultant skilled in creating inspiring future narratives, transforming futures insights and trends into commercial opportunity across a top tier multinational client portfolio.  Specialised in foresight at the intersection of consumers, culture and...

Series Five This episode of The New Abnormal podcast features Peter Cunliffe-Jones, visiting researcher at the University of Westminster and Director of Facts Matter Research, a misinformation research and strategy consultancy, where he advises organisations in effective ways to both counter the harmful consequences of misinformation and protect wider freedom of speech.  Peter started his career a...

Series Five This episode of The New Abnormal podcast features Faris Yakob, co-founder of Genius Steals, who began his career as a strategist during the first dot com explosion, before moving into agency world.  He worked for some dynamic agencies inc Naked Communications (as their 20th employee) before moving on to be EVP Chief Tech Strat at McCann Erickson NYC. He subsequently went to MDC Partner...

Series Five This episode of The New Abnormal features Gareth Kay, Partner at The Intangibles 'the transformation consultancy for the intangible world'. He's spent over two decades working in, and learning from, some of the best creative companies in the world.  In that time, Gareth realized there is no ‘one way’ to shape and deliver valuable brands that create sustainable demand, bu...

Series Five  This episode of The New Abnormal podcast features Epaminondas Christophilopoulos, who is a Foresight, Strategy, Innovation and long-term planning advisor to government, private corporations and NGOs.  A highly experienced foresight researcher with an extensive track-record on international projects and sound academic credentials, he's an expert on internationalization and researc...

Series Four  This episode of The New Abnormal podcast features Jan Berger, the Founder & CEO of Themis Foresight.  Based in Berlin, his company anticipates economic, technological, social and political drivers of future change. He and his team are driven by the conviction that outstanding futures research is key for the strategic direction of Europe's business and entrepreneurial elite. ...

Series Four In this episode of 'The New Abnormal' I interview Nils Muller, CEO & Founder of TrendONE - a specialist agency that's a market leader in identifying key trends in fast moving branches of business.  In our discussion, Nils discusses their methodologies and approach to working for clients such as BMW and Airbus, his viewpoints on developing 'Brand Germany' an...

Series Four In this episode of The New Abnormal, I interview Chris Arning, Founder of the boutique consultancy Creative Semiotics Ltd, co-founder of Semiofest, and course leader of 'How to do semiotics in seven weeks'.  He works with best-in-class virtual teams to analyse brands in order to make them more coherent and true to themselves, more distinctive within their category and sector,...

Series Four This episode of The New Abnormal podcast features Michael Beverland, Professor of Brand Strategy, Strategy & Marketing, at the University of Sussex Business School. He's an innovator in marketplace authenticity and strategic design research, as well as cultural marketing insights. Michael is also the author of 'Building Brand Authenticity: Seven Habits of Iconic Brands&ap...

Series Four This episode of 'The New Abnormal' podcast features Phil Balagtas, author of the superb new book 'Making Futures Work'. Phil is also a former Design Director at McKinsey Design and General Electric (Digital & Aviation) with over 20yrs of experience as a Digital Interaction Designer and Design Leader working across sectors inc aviation, aerospace, airlines, adver...