On The Edge

In today’s episode I speak with James Taplin, Lead Technologist for Urban Living at Innovate UK, about the benefits of a place-specific verses a place-agnostic approach in addressing the transition to net zero, and in particular about a £60m government programme called Net Zero Living working with 52 places to collaborate and accelerate the transition to net zero.  James was previously a Sustainab...

In today’s episode I spoke with Dan Thompson who is the Founder of the Running Out of Time Climate Relay. He has a background as a successful founder and entrepreneur in several start up companies in the media industry including the likes of Renegade Software , he also has experience as an investor in companies including Gamesys and  Graze . He is also a lifelong runner and his involvement in runn...

In this episode I spoke with Hannah Scott who is the co-founder of the Climate Tech Supercluster and also CEO of business network Oxfordshire Greentech, which aims to grow and support the county’s low-carbon economy. She is also an edie 30 Under 30 Class of 2023 winner, an initiative that aims to spotlight and support top UK sustainability professionals aged under 30.  In this conversation we talk...

Alyssa Gilbert is Director of Undaunted which is a community of creative, proactive people exploring how innovation can help humans tackle climate change. She is also the Director of Innovation at the Grantham Institute which was established in 2007 to provide a vital global centre of excellence for research and education on climate change. Today, the Grantham Institute is established as a leading...

Welcome to On The Edge, a podcast and now also a book, about making unexpected connections everywhere and anywhere. Why should you embrace uncertainty as an opportunity not a threat? How can you connect people and ideas to engineer serendipity? Where should you start when embarking on a transition to something new? On The Edge will be your guide to navigating uncertainty based upon the experiences...

Welcome to On The Edge, a podcast and now also a book, about making unexpected connections everywhere and anywhere. Why should you embrace uncertainty as an opportunity not a threat? How can you connect people and ideas to engineer serendipity? Where should you start when embarking on a transition to something new? On The Edge will be your guide to navigating uncertainty based upon the experiences...

Welcome to On The Edge, a podcast and now also a book, about making unexpected connections everywhere and anywhere. Why should you embrace uncertainty as an opportunity not a threat? How can you connect people and ideas to engineer serendipity? Where should you start when embarking on a transition to something new? On The Edge will be your guide to navigating uncertainty based upon the experiences...

Welcome to On The Edge, a podcast and now also a book, about making unexpected connections everywhere and anywhere.  Why should you embrace uncertainty as an opportunity not a threat?  How can you connect people and ideas to engineer serendipity?  Where should you start when embarking on a transition to something new?  On The Edge will be your guide to navigating uncertainty ba...

Welcome to On The Edge, a podcast and now also a book, about making unexpected connections everywhere and anywhere.  Why should you embrace uncertainty as an opportunity not a threat?  How can you connect people and ideas to engineer serendipity?  Where should you start when embarking on a transition to something new?  On The Edge will be your guide to navigating uncertainty ba...

In this conversation I connected with Ella Goldner. Ella is a co-founder of Zinc - a fund that backs entrepreneurs, pre-team and pre-idea, to build new tech-enabled & mission-driven commercial ventures. She is also the co-founder of Alma Angels, a network that brings together new and existing angel investors who are committed to actively supporting female founders. In this conversation we talked a...

“How do you change the system to take longer term decisions without forcing people and using a government to do that, and the answer is you set up cooperatives and mutuals.” Shiv Malik In this conversation I connected with Shiv Malik who is a technologist, broadcaster, author, former Guardian investigative journalist and co-founder of the Intergenerational Foundation think tank. He is also author...

In this conversation I connected with Sonja Blignaut.  Originally a meteorologist, Sonja now partners with people who need to navigate, make sense of, and lead in uncertainty. She spans the boundaries of leadership, organisational development & change, strategy, risk, innovation, and marketing. In short, she works wherever there is complexity, which nowadays is more or less everywhere.&nb...

In this conversation I connected with Nick Hare, founder of Aleph Insights - an analytics consultancy that specialises in supporting strategic decision-making for both business and government in defence, security, intelligence and international affairs. Prior to establishing Aleph Insights, he worked in various roles across the Ministry of Defence, the Cabinet Office and the intelligence comm...

In this conversation I connected with Jon Alexander who is the author of a new book called Citizens.  Jon started his career working in the advertising industry, selling some of the world's biggest brands, and winning plenty of awards along the way. Then he realised he was caught up in a story he didn't believe in: The Consumer Story. So in 2014, Jon co-founded the  New Citizenship Proje...

In this conversation I connected with Anab Jain who is a designer, futurist, filmmaker and educator. As Co-founder and Director of Superflux - the multi-award winning design agency - they translate future uncertainty into present day choices Over the last 15 years, Anab has gained international recognition for her work and commentary on design, innovation, emerging technologies and complex futures...

In this conversation I connected with Dilbagh Gill who is CEO of the Mahindra Formula E Racing team since the sports inaugural season in 2014. Formula E is the is a single-seater motorsport championship for electric cars. As one of ten founding teams – and the only Indian team – Dilbagh has built his team from the ground up which has led to multiple race victories and podiums. He’s always been a m...

"What gives me hope is that people are getting involved with climate action, not just politicians and businesses. There is a strong show of human demand for change and that’s what we’ve always needed." Gurjit Singh Lalli In this conversation I connected with Gurjit Singh Lalli, who is one of the best connected people in Glasgow, and with the eyes of the world on the City due to the United Nations...

In this conversation I connected with Dr Sue Black who is now a Prof of Computer Science at Durham. She is perhaps best known for her instrumental role in helping to save Bletchley Park, the once the top-secret home of the World War Two Codebreakers, including Alan Turing and 1,000’s others, half of whom were women, that allegedly shortened WW2 by 2-3 years and saved over 20 million lives. With br...

In this conversation I connected with Michael Garfield who is a real renaissance man. A talented musician, artist and illustrator, podcaster, palaeontologist! What is the point of polymaths? He is the host of the Future Fossils Podcast and the Complexity Podcast for the Santa Fe Institute. Previously he has been as a Community Manager for Long Now Foundation, an In-House Philosopher The Crypto Cre...

In this conversation I connected with Sharath Jeevan who is an expert on how to practically re-ignite the inner-drive (or intrinsic motivation) in our lives. He is the Executive Chairman of Intrinsic Labs, which supports organisations all around the world to solve deep motivational challenges. Previously Sharath founded and led STiR Education to re-ignite the motivation of 200,000 teachers, 35,000...

In this conversation I connected with Jeremy Lent who describes himself as an author and integrator and “one of the greatest thinkers of our age”, according to George Monbiot. Born in the UK and based for many years in the US, and now lives Berkeley California. His previous book The Patterning Instinct was about deeper patterns of political and cultural developments.  This conversation was based u...

In this conversation I connected with Geoffrey West who is a British theoretical physicist and former president and distinguished professor of the Santa Fe Institute the Santa Fe Institute is the world's leading research center for complex systems science.  He is one of the leading scientists working on a scientific model of cities. Among other things, his work states that with...

In this conversation I connected with Gemma Mortensen who is a social entrepreneur, who recently launched New Constellations to help people imagine and create a better, more beautiful future. Prior to that she was Chief Global Officer at Change.org - a platform where over 200 million people from around the world have start a petition for change Prior to that CEO of Crisis Action - which works to p...

“The capacity of uncertainty to power change, you only really capture if at least you start, not because you know you can do it, but because you simply can’t bear the idea of not trying” Margaret Heffernan In this conversation, I connected with Margaret Heffernan around the question of how uncertainty can power change.  Margaret is an entrepreneur, CEO, writer and keynote speaker. She is currently...

In this conversation, I connected with Jack Du Rose who is cofounder of Colony, a decentralised autonomous organisation (DOA) which provides a platform for building organisations for the internet. Previously, he was a self-taught jewellery designer, including producing Damien Hirst’s diamond-encrusted skull, For The Love of God. I first connected with Jack a few years ago when I was running a comp...