Transforming Tomorrow

What would you do if your antibiotics supply dried up? How would you cope if you were no longer able to get your prescription medicines? Supply chains can be fragile, and in the medical world a failure of supply chains can be fatal. Chemotherapy agents, antibiotics, ADHD drugs, and cancer treatments have all been affected by shortages in recent years. Professor Kostas Selviaridis, Chair in Operati...

Would you know if you or a colleague were being exploited at work? How would you describe decent work, and would you recognise if you weren’t in it? Labour exploitation is not always easy to identify, and we are about to discover how both workers and employers can partake in these practices without realising – and how they can stack up from underpayment or zero-hour contracts to become something m...

The software and aviation industries have similar carbon footprints globally – and that was the case even before AI became the behemoth it is now. So, we really need to know more about how software and programming can change, and what we can do about our footprints. Software engineer Annie Freeman ups the Kiwi quota on the show as she joins us to share her experiences and knowledge working in sust...

‘Conflict is costly’ – yet we see it arising around the world on a constant basis. And climate change can create the conditions for conflict and violence. So, just how many of these conflicts are related to climate change and weather shocks – and why? And what can we do to break the climate-conflict cycle? Professor Jean-François Maystadt, from UCLouvain in Belgium and Lancaster University Managem...

We cannot expect the technology of tomorrow to be better than the humans of today. So, if we want Artificial Intelligence and other tech to be better, then we need to improve as people. Dr Cornelia Walther, from our hosts the Sunway Centre for Planetary Health, joins us at the Global Tipping Points 2026 Conference at Sunway University to discuss AI’s links to tipping points, and to the future of h...

We know language is key to getting the message across on climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, and tackling global tipping points. So what do we need to talk about? Said Faisal is an advisor on disaster risk management, and the former Executive Director of the ASEAN Humanitarian Assistance Centre. He is also one of the MCs for the Global Tipping Points 2026 Conference at Sunway University....

Not all tipping points are negative – and not all of them relate to the climate. So, what are positive tipping points? And how about social tipping points as well? Dr Steve Smith, Research Fellow at the Global Systems Institute and Green Futures Solutions at the University of Exeter, knows the answers. Steve was a lead author on the 2023 and 2025 Global Tipping Points reports, and is a leader in t...

How can we build infrastructures to be climate and nature resilient? Do we sometimes focus too much on safeguarding and not enough on improvements when it comes to action? In the third part of our series from the Global Tipping Points 2026 Conference at Sunway University in Malaysia, we are joined by Professor Erik Berglöf, Director of the House of Governance and Public Policy at Stockholm School...

How does nature fit into the tipping points framework? With so much focus on the climate in debates, nature can be forgotten. In the second part of our series from the Global Tipping Points 2026 Conference at Sunway University in Malaysia, Tamara Singh, of The Nature Conservancy, joins us to talk about how business and nature fit together, where she has seen good practice in her work across many c...

What are the global tipping points? What are positive tipping points? How can the world work together to stop one and produce the other? We are at the Global Tipping Points Conference 2026 at Sunway University in Malaysia to investigate these questions and many more. In this introduction to a special mini-series produced in conjunction with conference hosts the Centre for Planetary Health at Sunwa...

As we wrap up season three of Transforming Tomorrow, we consider how the vast range of subjects out guests have brought into the studio are and attempt to tie these topics together. This brings us to issues of politics and the law, Artificial Intelligence, and the experiences of businesspeople and researchers that ties them to their subjects. Join us on a journey that takes us from courtrooms to b...

We’re not the biggest fans of Artificial Intelligence on Transforming Tomorrow, but are our minds about to be changed? We are ready to discover how AI is being used to make a positive difference in the world of sustainability. Dr Mahmoud Gad, from Lancaster University Management School, returns to the show to talk to us about his work developing an AI platform that can analyse companies’ modern sl...

It’s easy to let climate change get us down. To allow political tide of anti-sustainability rhetoric to carry you away. But while it is easy to feel despondent from time to time, it is important to feel safe when expressing your emotions. To help us, Dr Nadine Andrews, an Honorary Researcher here at the Pentland Centre, and a facilitator of climate and eco psychology processes, brings her expertis...

How can marginalised people find a new identity through entrepreneurship? How do women help their families survive in foreign lands by undertaking new endeavours? And all of this when ‘most of all, they just want to go home’. Dr Sophie Alkhaled, Director of the Academy for Gender Equality and Social Justice Research in Organisations in Lancaster University Management School, joins us to talk about...

There are always humanitarian crises somewhere in the world. We just don’t know about all of them. Lancaster University’s Dr Nonhlanhla Dube, an ‘accidental humanitarian’ turned expert humanitarian logistician, joins us to fill in the gaps in our knowledge on the humanitarian sector, particularly on refugees.   We think about how we learn of humanitarian crises around the world, how our knowledge...

Step into the Transforming Tomorrow time machine, as we head back to look at the work between Lancaster University and Lake District Farmers on working towards net-zero meat production. Dr Laura Giles – now studying for another doctorate at the University of Dundee – brings us up to date on the final outcomes of a partnership that looked at carbon stocks in farm soil and carbon accounting across s...

How much waste is produced then your clothes are manufactured? And it there anything that can be done to reduce that? The Pentland Centre’s Dr Madiha Ahmad joins us to talk about her PhD research at Heriot-Watt University, in Edinburgh, which involved looking at sew-free techniques that dramatically reduce fabric wastage. Madiha tells us about textiles in her Pakistan homeland, where it is an $18b...

What do the public think about climate change? How do they think governments should act? These are the people who will often be most affected by policy and action, so how do we find out their views? This answer may lie in citizens’ assemblies. Dr Andy Yuille, is an interdisciplinary qualitative social scientist (!) from the University of Manchester. He takes us through citizens’ assemblies and the...

How can businesses – and business schools – have a positive effect on their regions? And do we need to reconsider the connections between us all? Ellie Hamilton is Professor Emerita at Lancaster University Management School, with a lengthy background in entrepreneurship and working with businesses. She is also the co-author of a new book, Rethinking Entrepreneurship and Regional Development , with...

How can healthcare achieve net zero? Where do sustainability considerations stand in the long list of priorities for England’s National Health Service? And could your anaesthetic be better for the planet? Dr Cliff Shelton, a consultant and professor in anaesthesia and perioperative medicine in the NHS and at Lancaster University Medical School; and Dr Fanny Burrows, Senior Lead on Net Zero Researc...

What can companies do to better look after their workers? What makes an ethical employer? And how can businesses do more to care for their communities? These are all things we consider as we welcome Brett Mendell, Managing Director of Thomas Kneale & Co Ltd. Brett leads a company that pays the Real Living Wage, that is employee owned, and that takes its responsibilities to decent work and sust...

Health is not just about us as individuals. It’s about the whole planet. It’s time we think about health on a worldwide scale. Professor Jemilah Mahmood is Executive Director of the Sunway Centre for Planetary Health at our old friends Sunway University, in Malaysia. As a medical professional who has helped deliver 15,000 babies(!), she knows healthcare from the personal level. But she also has de...

At a time when employment rights in the UK are evolving all the time, we look at how and why. Alice Martin, Head of Research at the Work Foundation thinktank at Lancaster University, joins us to talk about the Employment Rights Act of 2025, and why it is important for you if you are in a job, seeking a job or looking to employ someone. We look at the key issues around job insecurity, how this ties...

Can you be a scientist and an activist at the same time? Where do you draw the line between being a detached expert and stepping on the front lines of climate change protests? Dr Samuel Finnerty, from Lancaster University’s Department of Psychology, joins us to discuss individual and group climate change activism from social and psychological perspectives. Sam explains how his background in anthro...

Why would a global company take a public stance on racial equality? Why would your favourite ice cream brand be vocal on climate change? Lewis Nicholas is a PhD researcher in Lancaster University Management School, and he is here to talk to us about how and why businesses take a stand on contentious socio-political issues. We find out how corporate political activism first emerged, what makes for...