Tech Can't Save Us

In this episode, Phil McParlane, founder and CEO of 4dayworkweek.io , shares his insightful take on the four-day work week and why it’s a far more valuable practice than people give it credit for.  “If you worked five hours in a row, the fifth hour would definitely be less productive than the first,” he explains. “It’s the same logic with the traditional work week; stuff just doesn’t get done on F...

How do we use virtual reality (VR) to train the workforce of the future? Professor Adam Ganz is doing the work to answer that important question. As one of the leaders of StoryFutures Academy at Royal Holloway University of London, Ganz is placing innovative storytelling at the heart of next-generation immersive technologies like augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR), and virtual reality. Pro...

Human resources (HR) often gets a bad rap. Whether it’s forcing people back into the office after a pandemic or mismanagement of legitimate employee grievances around issues related to identity (race and gender, for example), it seems like someone always has a bone to pick with HR. Joseph Ifiegbu is out to change that. Leveraging next-gen HR analytics, Joseph and his team at Eqtble are helping com...

“Two things that were clear from how people spent their time during the pandemic – they were doing a lot of drinking and wanking." Heather Morrison doesn’t mince words. As the Co-Founder and CEO of Bump’n, Morrison and her team have pioneered the world’s first accessible sex toy. The Bump’n Joystick is a flexible bed buddy with gender fluid design that users can hug and attach their favorite sex t...

Charlotte Cramer gets healthtech. She and her team at Plastic Studio leverage their backgrounds in applied neuroscience and behavioural psychology to bring a human-centered and trauma-informed approach to user research and design in healthcare. That’s why we brought her on the pod to discuss identity-focused healthtech startups (like Him & Hers and Folx), her work with Children’s Hospital Los...

This week on Tech Can't Save Us, we welcomed Dr. Giulia Barbareschi, disability innovation researcher, who holds a PhD from University College London and previously worked for the World Health Organization providing assistive technology to the Global South.  Dr. Barbareschi is currently a Research Fellow at the Keio School of Media Design in Yokohama, Japan where she leads a project called “Artist...

Welcome to Season 2 of Tech Can't Save Us! In this episode, we welcome Chris Sisserian, Head of Intelligence @ Sifted. His team is responsible for putting out weekly briefings that cover the early-stage tech ecosystem in Europe. Their most recent briefings have covered hot topics like femtech, last mile delivery, and online groceries. We kick off the episode discussing tech for good headlines such...

Have you ever thought about the environmental impact of the websites you visit daily?  How about the carbon output of your Netflix queue? Tom Greenwood sure has. He's even written a book on issues like digital pollution, website efficiency, and sustainable web design.  We talked to Tom about his agency's efforts to make web design and development a bit greener, as well as how he's helping to raise...

How do tech for good funders decide where to invest? Where do they place their bets and why? We dug into that big fat question with Paul Miller, Managing Partner and CEO at Bethnal Green Ventures, one of Europe's leading tech for good funders. During our chat we discussed the contours of the tech for good landscape, its explosive growth, and how funders like Bethnal Green Ventures are staying nimb...

Shiti watched her grandmother struggle with symptoms of diabetes and dementia. Some of those symptoms included declining mobility and mental health. Naturally, her next move was to build Breathe Happy, an AI platform for posture correction. Breathe Happy includes multiple different products, one of which is a longevity platform that helps older adults move, breathe, and connect. In partnership wit...

The digitisation of fashion is upon us. Being locked down with all their possessions for the past year, people have begun to reconsider their relationship with their wardrobes. At the same time, there's a huge push for the fashion industry to behave more sustainably. Enter Little Black Door. A social wardrobe app that helps people see what they own while sharing and styling their wardrobes with fr...

What are "digital rights" and how do we secure them in our modern era? Arda Awais and Savena Surana are at the forefront of answering this critical question through their organization Identity 2.0, a creative studio working at the intersection of digital rights, technology, and identity.  In this episode, we discuss their efforts to use provocative and progressive art exhibits to push forward conv...

In this episode of Tech Can’t Save Us, CEO and Co-Founder of Literal Humans Paul David talks to Katie Boody-Adorno, Founder of LEANLAB Education , a Kansas City-based nonprofit that builds communities and launches transformational innovations into K-12 schools. Katie is a former teacher with deep expertise in education who always finds herself in the startup phase of organizations. She founded LEA...

In this episode of Tech Can't Save Us, CEO and Co-Founder of Literal Humans Paul David talks to Sophia "Puff" Story, Co-Founder of 3 Sided Cube, a tech consultancy that builds digital products for tech for good brands. At 3 Sided Cube, Puff helps tech for good founders create products like mobile apps and web apps during the earlier stages of their founding journeys. When founders are looking for...

In this episode of Tech Can't Save Us, CEO and Co-Founder of Literal Humans Paul David talks to Prateek Agarwal, Founder of Calgee, a new startup on a mission to create the world's most sustainable and high-quality health supplements. Prateek talked about his personal health journey and how it led him to develop Calgee's first product, a vegan Omega-3 nutritional supplement. The short story: Prate...

In this episode of Tech Can't Save Us, CEO and Co-Founder of Literal Humans Paul David talks to Milosz Falinski, Founder of Luminous, a consultancy working with emerging tech leaders on a mission. Milosz helps tech founders create products and services that customers can't live without. He provides mentorship and part-time Chief Product Officer (CPO) services to multiple companies. Milosz also off...

In this episode of Tech Can't Save Us, CEO and Co-Founder of Literal Humans Paul David talks to Tiernan Mines, Co-Founder of Hello Lamp Post, an innovative tech for good product that brings cities and their citizens closer together.  Hello Lamp Post allows people to have two-way 'chats' with their surroundings, providing people with key local information, while gathering important perceptions, opi...

In this episode of Tech Can't Save Us, CEO and Co-Founder of Literal Humans Paul David talks to Rima Patel, Co-Founder of Impactful, a social innovation agency that is revolutionizing corporate social responsibility by unlocking the social impact in commercially driven businesses. Impactful's bold mission is to transform the role of businesses in society. Rima and Paul discussed companies' varying...

In this episode of Tech Can't Save Us, CEO and Co-Founder of Literal Humans Paul David talks to Ash Read, Head of Content at Buffer, a prominent social media management tool that helps users drive authentic engagement. Ash and Paul discussed the growth of empathy on social media in light of recent events. They talk about monitoring and supporting the health of social media managers, an often overl...

In this episode of Tech Can't Save Us, CEO and Co-Founder of Literal Humans Paul David talks to James McMillan, the Founder of myNexus, a new platform that is creating the UK’s leading Entrepreneurial Ecosystem which uses technology to smart-match entrepreneurs and investors, increasing and accelerating investment in early-stage business. James and Paul talk about building a healthier funding ecos...

In this episode of Tech Can't Save Us, CEO and Co-Founder of Literal Humans Paul David talks to Jordan Jackson, the Founder of Black Men's Book Club, a newsletter and app that offers hacked audio summaries of popular books with a focus on the Black community. Jordan currently works full-time as a developer with Quicken Loans in Detroit. His journey into tech was extremely unorthodox--he dropped ou...

In this episode of Tech Can't Save Us, CEO and Co-Founder of Literal Humans Paul David talks to Kajal Sanghrajka, the Founder and Director of Growth Hub Global which helps businesses, entrepreneurs and universities in Europe to grow globally. Kajal started her career in the corporate world working on Wall Street and in London before going back to business school in New York and using this as a lau...

In the second episode of Tech Can't Save Us Paul David, the Co-Founder and CEO of Literal Humans, talks to Carmela Resume from FLYTE who calls in from Hawaii. Carmela is the Executive Director of FLYTE, a non-profit organisation which empowers youth through travel by working with young people from underserved communities across the United States to give them the opportunity to go abroad, in many c...

In the first episode of Tech Can't Save Us Paul David, Co-Founder and CEO of Literal Humans, speaks to Krys Burnette. Krys is currently working for a global sportswear brand and she speaks about what they did to use tech for good when the pandemic first hit, and the overall responsibility that big companies have to leverage tech to connect people in different ways as a result of the pandemic.  Kry...

Tech Can't Save Us is a tech for good podcast from Literal Humans, a creative marketing agency. Hosted by Paul David, the Co-Founder of Literal Humans, Tech Can't Save Us is all about the good, the bad and the ugly of the tech for good sector. Paul will invite guests on to every podcast episode to talk about how tech makes us better people and how it can enhance life on earth for all creatures - b...