The ADDA

What does it take to build a market for something people don't yet know they need?  Albana Meta returned to Tirana after 12 years abroad and built Albania's first contemporary art café and pottery studio — not just a business, but a genuinely new idea about what people deserve access to. In this episode, Deepa and Albana get into the real work of cultural entrepreneurship: convincing people to sho...

Boundaries - real or imagined? What does it take to consciously cross borders, navigate different cultures, languages, and ways of living? What does it take to do that responsibly and respectfully? In this episode, Deepa talks to Laura Payette about navigating nomadic life as a family. This conversation looks not just at the joys that travel brings but also speaks to some of the loneliness and iso...

Can you transform institutions from the inside without them transforming you first? What happens when consciousness work meets UN bureaucracy? And how do you harness inner transformation without killing what makes it transformative? In this episode, Deepa talks to Thomas Legrand, author of Politics of Being and lead of the United Nations Development Programme's Conscious Food Systems Alliance. The...

What comes first, the regenerative venture or the systems change? Is it about the modality to venture design, funding and execution that makes the difference? Or does it actually come down to how well an entrepreneur knows themself? In this episode, Deepa talks to multi-award winning entrepreneur Neelam Chhiber, founder of Industree Foundation. They explore whether designers have the secret sauce...

Is it morally corrupt to need an incentive to show up for your local community or is it just the reality of today’s modern age? In this episode you get a glimpse into a recently held Group ADDA session where Deepa was in session with Lauren Scott-Harris, founder of the platform Earnt,  and an incredible group of leaders all working at engaging people to show up and take action in response to diffe...

What happens when we look at our relationship with nature from a moral lens? It turns out, everything becomes far less complicated.  In this episode Deepa speaks with Alastair Driver, veteran conservationist and rewilder extraordinaire. Ali’s been in the nature business for close to 50 years and has been an advisor and inspiration for local communities, regional and national governments at home an...

Ever wonder about the tone of your own voice towards yourself? We are our own harshest critics and more often than not it’s because there’s a disconnect in understanding what we need and an inability to ask for it. That leads to conflict with those around us; at home, at work, in the community. In this episode, Deepa chats to Nathan Ardaiz, a non-violent and compassionate communication facilitator...

What if we could not just appreciate nature, but be nature? Things would get a lot better, fast. In this episode, Deepa speaks to Melina Angel about Biomimicry, from its practical application in design to its many values as a practice and a relationship with becoming nature, not just emulating it. As a practitioner, academic and systems poet, Melina uses biomimicry to understand, work with and shi...

What if we could not just appreciate nature, but be nature? Things would get a lot better, fast. In this episode, Deepa speaks to Melina Angel about Biomimicry, from its practical application in design to its many values as a practice and a relationship with becoming nature, not just emulating it. As a practitioner, academic and systems poet, Melina uses biomimicry to understand, work with and shi...

What if trauma carries a hidden gift; biological adaptability for future generations? Join host Deepa Mirchandani and guest Dr. Rana Dajani as they unpack a ground‑breaking epigenetic study on three generations of Syrian women and discuss why decolonising science starts with decolonising our own minds. This conversation is from one of our Group ADDA sessions and in it we share Deepa’s conversation...

What if trauma carries a hidden gift; biological adaptability for future generations? Join host Deepa Mirchandani and guest Dr. Rana Dajani as they unpack a ground‑breaking epigenetic study on three generations of Syrian women and discuss why decolonising science starts with decolonising our own minds. This conversation is from one of our Group ADDA sessions and in it we share Deepa’s conversation...

In this episode, Deepa Mirchandani speaks to Emily Bazalgette, a facilitator, coach, and grief tender who supports the creation of graceful endings. She’s also the author of GriefSick, a writing project that speaks to chronic illness and grief. Emily joins Deepa to explore the quiet ongoing griefs we rarely speak of: chronic illness, endings without ceremony, and the illusion of control in a world...

"We may all be refugees, but we don't live the same stories." – Olivier NkunzurwandaWhat does it mean to have control over your own story? In this episode of #theADDA, Deepa Mirchandani chats to Olivier Nkunzurwanda, a social entrepreneur who turned displacement into action. Forced to flee the DRC, Olivier arrived in Uganda as a refugee. But instead of being defined by that label, he built somethi...

In this episode, Deepa Mirchandani sits down with Matt Klein, cultural theorist, strategist, and Head of Global Foresight at Reddit, to explore the value of global trends and why you need to dig deep to understand what they reveal about human behavior today and in the future. As algorithms conspire to shape our realities and quick fixes dominate our thinking, Matt and Deepa discuss the challenges...

In this episode, Deepa Mirchandani shares a conversation with Rajni Bakshi, an award-winning journalist and author known for her work on social, political, and economic issues. Her celebrated book, Bazaars, Conversations and Freedom, reimagines value, exchange, and monetary systems driven by equity. Rajni also hosts Ahimsa Conversations, a channel exploring the modern relevance of non-violence. Th...

In Episode 9 Deepa Mirchandani shares a conversation with Satish Kumar, a peace pilgrim, activist, and founder of Resurgence Magazine and Schumacher College . Satish has inspired thousands over decades to connect deeply with the land, their communities and themselves. The group session explored what it means to show up with radical love, the struggles of working in the impact and regenerative worl...

Welcome to the ADDA, a space for better conversations. This Group ADDA is thrilled to have Robin Rutchik, director of Tuqtuqilal, a regenerative centre that promotes community development through artisanal production, agroecology, ecotourism and education in rural Guatemala. Robin’s lived there for over a decade, bringing her learning in permaculture and green building design to the organisation’s...

In episode 7, we are thrilled to be in conversation with Elyes Mkacher. Elyes is a regenerative farmer, a holistic thinker, a professional permaculture designer and educator. He’s the founder of Dar Emmima, a permaculture education center based in Chebba, Tunisia, you can find the link to Dar Emmima and Elyes’ in the show notes below. I hope you enjoy our conversation! You can find more of Elyes's...

This is a snapshot of one of our group conversations with Gemma Drake, a designer, systems thinker and coach for social change. In this conversation we explore the challenges and differences between systems thinking and design, what that means for those of us that work in social change and how we hold spaces for multi-stakeholder systems design, particularly when they all don’t always necessarily...

This is a snapshot of one of our group conversations with the phenomenal Dr. Ester McGeeney who has been a friend for over 20 years. Ester is also the co-author of the manual Great Relationships and Sex Education which provides educators with over 200 activities to guide working with young people on topics as wide ranging from consent, to navigating relationships, and of course, heteronormal. In t...

This is a snapshot of one of our group conversations with Dominika Noworolska, who is a Transcontextual researcher & facilitator. In this conversation, Dominika explores the complexities of the use of metaphors and how it’s damaging to always be “at war” on things like drugs, terror, cancer..well, you name it. Not only does the use of such tropes mean that we’re constantly in a state of anxiet...

This is a snapshot of one of our group conversations with Meera Dattani who is the Senior Editor of Adventure.com and a travel and culture journalist. In this conversation, Meera explores the intrinsic biases and the lazy decision making that still exist in the media’s portrayal, both in writing and in visual representations of communities. She shares examples of how the “colonial lens” is nuanced...

This is a snapshot of one of our group conversations with Siddharth Sthalekar, an old friend who is the founder of the Neighbourhoods Foundation, which creates digital social spaces that enhance social coordination, sense-making, and community self-determination. In this conversation Sid talks about how his experience in finance has helped him rethink what our economic systems could and should be...

This is a snapshot of one of our group conversations with Joshua Isaac Smith, who is the Leadership Fellow and Co-Facilitator of the Society of Leadership Fellows. In this conversation, we explore what racial trauma is and how this permeates intergenerationally and influences the very DNA of those that experience and live with it. We explored everything from the impact of microaggressions to syste...