Radio PURE: Insights from Open House

Culture isn’t nostalgia. It’s infrastructure — and it might be our most powerful tool for regeneration. Manvendra Singh Shekhawat explores how heritage, hospitality and community can work together to restore land, livelihoods and meaning at scale. Drawing on Rajasthan’s cultural intelligence and future-facing design, Manvendra challenges us to stop waiting for change — and start making it happen....

Ruy walked away with PURE’s prestigious Change Maker Award in 2025. Having swapped blueprints for riverboats long ago, and found his purpose deep in the Negro River basin, he explains the philosophy behind his work and how ecotourism can strengthen communities without sanitising their lived realities. Listen to his takes on pride, education, women-led change, and what happens when travellers meet...

Writer and advocate Jaz O’Hara and her foster brother Mez Bereket join Radio PURE for one of the most moving conversations of the series. Mez crossed deserts, war zones and the Mediterranean before finding safety — and family — in the UK. Together, they share what displacement really looks like, why choice is the biggest myth in the asylum debate, and how travel’s own narratives can (and must) bec...

Brand strategist, design obsessive and former Glasto DJ Anant Sharma joins Radio PURE to explore why the most memorable travel experiences rarely add up on a spreadsheet. From getting kicked out of schools and straddling Indian and English cultures to building luxury brands at Matter Of Form, he unpacks why irrationality drives commercial success, how the founder spirit should guide heritage brand...

Sophie Morgan is a barrier-smashing broadcaster, writer and activist who’s made it her mission to prove that ‘accessible’ should never mean ‘second best.’ Paralysed from the chest down after a car crash at eighteen, she’s since fronted Paralympic coverage for major networks, written the best-selling memoir Driving Forwards, and launched Rights on Flights for disabled passengers. Get her perspectiv...

Intrepid Travel CEO James Thornton knows what purpose-led leadership actually looks like when the world won’t sit still. He talks about swapping the City of London for a then-tiny adventure operator, steering Intrepid towards a billion in revenue while keeping its B Corp backbone intact, and why banning elephant rides changed both his brand and the wider industry. We also discuss keeping your head...

Penny Rafferty brings rebel grace to Radio PURE. From post-apartheid South Africa to the red earth of the Barossa Valley, she’s spent a lifetime proving that travel lands deepest when it’s rooted in culture, community and care. Penny reflects on why Australia’s most extraordinary lodges thrive through collaboration and how embedded sustainability is unstoppable — everything that made her a finalis...

Data storyteller and “delightful nerd” Edmund Morris joins Radio PURE to decode the turbulence ahead — from viral panini shops and disappearing authenticity to Asia’s tidal wave of outbound travellers. He reveals why 2030 will be more crowded, volatile and full of possibility than we expect, and how the smartest leaders will use curiosity, rigorous insight and a little rebellion to stay ahead.  St...