In Conversation with Nathalie Nahai

With the deepest night of the year upon us, today’s rather special conversation comes as a celebration of solstice and the turning of the year, as a joint offering from The Hive, Accidental Gods, and the Upstream Podcast. We wanted to take a moment to reflect on the challenges we’ve faced and what they’ve taught us, share some the inspiring gifts that have gotten us through, and offer our visions...

In today’s episode, I speak with Alex Edmans, the professor of Finance at London Business School. He has a PhD from MIT as a Fulbright Scholar, and was previously a tenured professor at Wharton and an investment banker at Morgan Stanley. Alex has spoken at the World Economic Forum in Davos, testified in the UK Parliament, and given the TED talk What to Trust in a Post-Truth World and the TEDx talk...

In this opening episode of season five, I had the pleasure of speaking with Alan Watson Featherstone, an ecologist, nature photographer and inspirational public speaker. The founder of Trees for Life, an award-winning Scottish conservation charity for which he was executive director for almost 30 years, Alan's pioneering work to restore the Caledonian Forest in Scotland and the 10,000 acre Dundreg...

In this final episode of the season, I had the pleasure of speaking with the wonderful Caroline Webb - an executive coach, international speaker, and author of the best-selling book, How To Have A Good Day: Harness the Power of Behavioural Science to Transform Your Working Life. A Senior Advisor to McKinsey, where she was previously a Partner, Caroline specialises in teaching people how to apply b...

On today’s show, I have the privilege of speaking with Jennifer Morgan, the International Executive Director of Greenpeace International. Jennifer is the former Global Director of the Climate Program at the World Resources Institute (WRI), Global Climate Change Director at Third Generation Environmentalism (E3G) and she also led the Global Climate Change Program of the Worldwide Fund for Nature (W...

This episode, I speak with Geoff White, an investigative tech journalist and author, whose book "Crime Dot Com: From Viruses to Vote Rigging, How Hacking Went Global", is due out on the 10th of August this year. Geoff has covered technology for BBC News, Channel 4 News, Audible, Forbes online and many others, and his exclusives reveal tech’s impact on our lives: from the controversial police use o...

This episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Gemma Milne, a science and technology writer whose book, Smoke & Mirrors: How Hype Obscures the Future and How to See Past It, just recently came out. Her work explores science, tech and the broad cultural issues surrounding their advancements, and she has a particular interest in deep tech, including biotech, agriculture, energy, space, health, qu...

In today’s show, I’m doing something a bit different. This week I was invited by Manda Scott to join her in conversation on her podcast, Accidental Gods, and we decided it would be lovely to share it with all our listeners, across both of our platforms. We explore what it means to be human under the lockdown, and how we might grasp this moment in ways that will leave all of us better when it’s ove...

In today’s conversation, I had the pleasure of speaking with Dr Gillian Isaacs Russell - an author, Psychoanalyst, Psychotherapist, and a member of the British Psychoanalytic Council, the American Psychoanalytic Association and the International Psychoanalytical Association. Having served on the Editorial Board as Book Reviews Editor, Gillian is currently on the Reviewing Panel for the British Jou...

In this episode, I had the treat of speaking with a beloved friend, Blanche Ellis. An artist, musician and poet, Blanche works with events and conferences using live-scribing and graphic facilitation techniques to capture content and the flow of ideas. She helps businesses find beautiful ways to convey their message on long term projects, and has worked with the BBC, Kings College London, CISCO, t...

In today’s show, I had the pleasure of speaking with Joshua Macht, the Executive Vice President and Chief Product and Innovation Officer at Harvard Business Publishing. An American journalist and media commentator. He joined HBR from TIME magazine where he worked as the Editor and General Manager of TIME.com, as well as the magazine's Technology Editor. Before that, he was a journalist at Inc. mag...

This episode, I talk with Carl Miller, the Research Director of the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media (CASM) at Demos, the first UK think tank institute dedicated to studying the digital world. We explore how digital tools are being harnessed during this time of physical distancing - from their potential impact on our social and business lives, to their implications for personal privacy and...

So, for the first of these episodes, I wanted to dive into the big questions and thought who better to invite back on the show, than my beloved friend, the wonderful author and psychotherapist, Dr Aaron Balick. In this opening conversation, Aaron and I explore some of the layers of human response to crises beyond our control - from how we deal with uncertainty, to ways in which to cope with the an...

Today’s guest is Christopher Timmermann who hails from Santiago, Chile, where he obtained a BSc in Psychology prior to undertaking a Neuroscience MSc in Bologna, Italy. We explore the comparative effects of DMT, LSD and psilocybin on brain function, our need and capacity for transformation, and the potential for altered states to offer us experiences from which new and creative ways of thinking ma...

This episode, I speak with Sophia Rokhlin, an author, speaker and nonprofit organiser whose work with engaged botany and ecology bridges the worlds of indigenous ecological knowledge and Western science. We discuss the popularisation of Ayahuasca, the importance of integration and harm reduction, and some of the economic, social, political, cultural and environmental impacts that Ayahuasca use is...

In today’s show, I’m excited to be speaking with Bruce Parry, an award-winning documentarian, indigenous rights advocate, author, explorer, trek leader and former Royal Marines commando officer. Our conversation explores everything from the kinds of narratives we currently inhabit and the use of sound in traditional healing rituals, to what the non-hierarchical social dynamics within a particular...

This episode, I’m delighted to be speaking with Manda Scott, a best-selling author, columnist and teacher, whose new platform Accidental Gods explores how we might to transform ourselves and evolve our conscious engagement with the world. Our conversation spans from consciousness, resilience and the evolution and interconnectedness of complex systems, to shamanic practice, trust, and the courage r...

In this conversation, I’m really delighted to be speaking with a dear friend of mine, Dr Kiki Leutner, a Business Psychologist and Data Scientist, who combines psychological theory with machine learning methodology. We explore, from a personality-based perspective, what creates a sense of self and identity, and how this relates to our feeling of connectedness and belonging. Join in the conversatio...

In today’s conversation, I speak with Dr. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, Professor of Business Psychology at University College London and Columbia University, and an international authority in psychological profiling, talent management, leadership development, and people analytics. We explore the role of leadership, gender and (in)competence, and some of the psychological factors that have led to the c...

This episode, I have the pleasure of speaking with Sam Gandy, an ecologist and researcher whose interests in nature, wildlife and psychedelics have led him far afield from Kefalonia, Almeria and Texas, to the Peruvian Amazon, Vietnam and Ethiopia. We discuss everything from ecological restoration and resilience, to psilocybin research, eco-anxiety and the importance of actively working to heal the...

In today's show, I talk with Professor Sue Thomas, an author, researcher and academic whose work sits at the intersection of humanity, nature and technology. We explore the relationship and distinctions we draw between ourselves, the living world and the technology we create, what it means to be technobiophilic, and how our search for meaning, awe and transcendence can lead us to unexpected places...

This episode, I have the pleasure of speaking with Dr Andy Letcher, a senior lecturer in ecology and spirituality at Schumacher College, whose background and research includes everything from Druidry and Neo-shamanism, to environmental activism and psychedelic spiritualities. We talk about what it means to experience the world as alive, agentic and meaningfully interconnected, the nature of the pe...

For our first episode of the third season, I’m excited to be talking with Mike Albert – an academic, activist and Zen Buddhist trying to discover a balance between radical activism and spiritual acceptance, between struggling for a better world and finding love and acceptance amidst a world in the throes of collapse. In today’s show, we explore everything from the complexity of human systems and o...

In times of trouble, austerity and uncertainty, we so readily abandon the arts in the belief that they are somehow auxiliary to our survival. Yet in our moments of greatest need, it is often the arts that we turn to for refuge, hope and courage to keep going. For our final episode in the season, I’m delighted to be talking with Dan Hillier, one of my favourite artists, who works with composite ima...

In this episode, I have the pleasure of speaking with Sarah Corbett, an award-winning speaker, professional activist, author and the founder of Craftivist Collective, a social enterprise which uses the technique of craftivism (combining craft and activism) to engage people in social justice issues. Her TED talk, Activism Needs Introverts, was featured on TED’s homepage in November 2017 and has sin...