Seeds

Mark Longbottom has had a career working with for purpose organisations in the UK and New Zealand.  In this interview we find out about his passion for England from a very young age, his life there working in the NFP sector and then the decision to move back to New Zealand.  We also have a great discussion about starting a podcast as he set up his last year.  Check out the links to that as well -...

Mark Bregman has had decades of experience as an innovator, worked in start-ups and venture capital investing and I interviewed him on Intellectual Capital. This was a live interview held as part of an Edmund Hillary Fellowship 'Huddle' event this week.  Big thanks to those who put the event on from EHF and the Huddles crew. The real value in a business is most often in its intellectual capital -...

Joe has just finished co-writing "Silver Linings" with David Downs about the impact of Covid on businesses and the pivots they went through as a result.  In this interview we find out about that but also dive deep into his background and hear about his childhood in England, moving to New Zealand at a young age, the work he was involved in before co-founding Nanogirl Labs and how they coped with Co...

This is a short excerpt of my conversation with Joe Davis who is a co-founder and the CEO of Nanogirl Labs.  In it he talks about the impact of Covid on Nanogirl Labs as well as the book that has resulted called "Silver Linings".  We also talk about what it is that we can learn from the experience and ask whether we go back to "normal" or we actually change the way we act in the future - "what is...

Paul has had an interesting life including a childhood in Ilam Homestead, made famous by the movie "Heavenly Creatures" and in this episode we talk about his background, his time overseas, business in the Himalayas and what he does today.  I was curious to understand from him what it is that makes a good interview and how recruiting works as he is involved in that at Sunstone.  If you enjoy this c...

Faumuina Felolini Maria Tafunai's life and journey has been fascinating - in this interview we find out about what it is like to grow up with two cultures, being born in New Zealand but with strong connections back to Samoa.  In particular we focus in on Wayfinding - this originates from "a geneology of knowledge passed down through Pacific star navigators and ocean voyagers".  She wants to use Pa...

A short excerpt of the interview with Faumuina Felolini Maria Tafunai where we talked about the ocean and long voyages and what she has learned from spending time learning from nature.   About what she does: https://www.flyinggeesepro.nz/ YouTube video of her talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y58Xf474NaQ&feature=youtu.be Wayfinding article: https://www.ehf.org/blog/swe2a87gjavk3i0brqd2buom9z1h...

Jan has had an interesting life as a citizen of the world and a co-founder of CarbonClick.  In this interview we learn about his childhood in Norway and travels since then and how he ended up - by a serendipitous encounter - living in New Zealand.  We also talk about the work of CarbonClick as well as the Edmund Hillary Fellowship which Jan is part of.  I really enjoyed this conversation and if yo...

Sacha McMeeking spoke at the 2020 Hillary Laureate Dinner to give the closing remarks.  She somehow managed to weave together so many unique threads that touched on colonisation, climate change, Te Ao Māori and some real challenges about who we are taking along with us and will lead in the future.  Sacha is Head of School of Aotahi: Māori and Indigenous Studies at the University of Canterbury.  Th...

Levi shares some of his life journey so far as a young entrepreneur who has been involved in a few start-ups already and recently co-founded Partly.  We talk about that venture which builds software solutions to solve difficult problems in the automotive parts industry.  As well as rapid growth and what he's learned raising $1.7 million in funding we also learn about his childhood and startups at...

In this very short interview we chat with Stephen Penny who was on the show pre-Covid.  He told his life story then and in this episode we catch up on the topic of looking after ourselves and our mental health - how can we do better at checking up on those around us?  LinkedIn Post we discuss: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/honorisstephenpenny_supportingeachother-askforhelp-activity-67343831454388...

I interview a lot of people but seldom get the mic turned the other way round, so this wide ranging chat with Ian Harvey from Collective Intelligence for his podcast " Stuff that Matters Now " was a lot of fun.  Harv was a guest on Seeds in 2019 and came to a session I did on how to create a podcast - so he has the same gear as me!  It was fun to appear on his show for his episode 34 and I encoura...

Michael went on many expeditions with Sir Edmund Hillary and was a friend of his for 50 years and has written an in-depth biography of his life.  In this interview we find out about how they first met and what going on several expeditions with him all around the world was like.  We also learn about his memories of Sir Ed and the key points in his life and how they influenced him and what his chara...

Dr Angela Lim is one of the co-founders of Clearhead, and in this interview we find out about her childhood and life growing up in Malaysia and studying in Singapore before she moved to New Zealand.  We talk about identity, how she ended up studying medicine and mental health in New Zealand - why do we have such poor rates?  We also discuss how Clearhead works and what it is aimed at - an online p...

Mitchell shares his life journey in this episode with a focus on autonomous vehicles.  As the founder of Autonomous Consulting and the co-author with me of a paper on driverless cars I think you'll find this conversation interesting.  We start talking about the lunar landing of the 1960s, pursuing a career in the Law, moving to New Zealand and how he got into autonomous vehicles.  If you enjoy thi...

Remember Captain Planet?  This cartoon celebrates its 30th anniversary this year.  This is an audio version of an article I wrote for The Spinoff.  The full text is here https://thespinoff.co.nz/tv/18-11-2020/remembering-captain-planet-30-years-on/ If you enjoy this then consider sharing with someone else who might remember the show? For more content visit www.theseeds.nz   

Jeanette founded Power Pause to help raise awareness about Menopause.   For episode 233 we find out about her life growing up in Liverpool, transformative OE experiences, her career in Human Resources and what it was like for her going through Menopause - and why she then founded Power Pause. Website with resources: https://powerpause.co.nz/ Jeanette comments: "My aim is to provide lots of resourc...

Menopause is still something of a taboo subject - we need to change that and in this short excerpt of the much longer conversation with Jeanette Kehoe-Perkinson on this topic we talk about this.  Be watching out for the hour long interview with her that has more detail as well.  In this short episode Jeanette shares some of her experiences with Menopause and offers some thoughts on why these conve...

This live seeds panel discussion was held on 27 November 2020 and brought together a variety of experts to discuss some practical case studies on impact investing. It ties in with the release of this paper which provides an overview on the state of Impact Investing in New Zealand.  Those on the panel sharing their practical experiences from different perspectives were: Liam Sheridan - CFO of Found...

Scott Pearson has developed the Calm Pipe and in this interview we find out what that is and how it works.  We start by talking about his childhood, his career, travels overseas, what he learned from that and how a forest fire caused him to come up with the idea for Calm Pipe.  If you enjoy this then check out some of the 230+ other episodes in the back catalogue.   Website: https://calmpipe.co.nz...

Nada co-founded Again Again and in this interview we find out all about the reusable coffee cup sharing system.  We start by hearing about her journey of entrepreneurship as this is the third business venture she had been involved in.  We end up talking about working in ski resorts, working as a physiotherapist, starting a clothing label and lots of reflection on reuse and waste.  If you enjoy thi...

Matt is the Sustainability Advisor at the University of Canterbury.  In this interview we learn about the upcoming Aotearoa SDG Summit Series as well as finding out about his life and the book he has coming out soon - "Common Ground".  I really enjoyed my conversation with Matt and am sure you will as well - if you do check out some of the other 228 other episodes in the back catalogue.   Email: m...

This is a short excerpt of the conversation with Matt Morris where we talk about his book on gardens coming out shortly called "Common Ground: Garden Histories of Aotearoa".  If you enjoy this then check out the full interview with Matt which will be out in a few days time.   Book: https://www.otago.ac.nz/press/otago739185.pdf Aotearoa SDG Summit Series: https://www.facebook.com/AotearoaSDGsSummit...

This is the full 7 hours of audio from the Conference held on 4 November 2020 called "Responding to COVID-19 – how might we #buildbackbetter?". The 2020 Charity Law, Accounting, and Regulation Conference was the third annual conference which brings together perspectives from professionals, charities, and government on key issues relating to the charities sector, covered the following topics with t...

This is the audio of a session which I facilitated at the Charity Law, Accounting and Regulation conference held online on 4 November 2020.  In it Scott Moran, Craig Fisher and I discuss the practical aspects of when it is time for an organisation to wind up - with a particular focus on charities (but the principles will apply to other types of organisation as well).  We also consider the other op...