The Impossible Network

Guest Overview  We live at the moment when technology has connected the world, yet many people experience a rising sense of disconnection, and research confirms feelings of isolation are increasing. This week's guest Susan McPherson provides an antidote.  As the author of the Lost Art of Connecting, Susan's book provides a valuable methodology for connecting and building more meaningful...

A Pulitzer Prize for Drama, two Tony awards, and a Grammy for a best musical theater album are just some of the accomplishments of this week's guest - New York-based musician, composer, conductor, and orchestrator, Tom Kitt. Born and raised in New York State, Tom’s musical talent was recognized by a music teacher at age four. Lovingly Raised, his mother and father guided and encouraged him, and wh...

John Farnam lives every single day, in all his interactions focusing on making what seems impossible possible, viewing everything through the lens of yes.  His life values, principles and work ethic were developed from growing up in a loving family environment in Helena Montana, USA. Given up for adoption by his fourteen year old birth mother, John was blessed with deeply caring adoptive pare...

Guest overview  There is no simple explanation for this week's guest. I have struggled with how to do justice to her incredible journey. Romany Romany - aka ‘Romany The Diva of Magic’ is living evidence that when one sets their mind to something and takes action, anything is possible..in time...for there is no overnight success where skill is required. Especially magic, where countless h...

Guest overview  This week's guest Maryam Banikarim does not see barriers, obstacles, or problems other than to seek out ways to remove or overcome or solve them. Born in Iran but raised in the US Maryam’s innately curious and inquisitive mind has enabled her to navigate every challenge that life has dealt her and set her on a diverse path of career success.  Regularly Acknowledged in the...

Guest Overview  Imagine being assigned female at birth, growing up feeling isolated at school, having your sexuality weaponized against you at age 12, by so-called friends, and coming out and identifying as pan-sexual at age 19, well this was the beginning of this week’s guest, Sav Rodgers’ life.    We cover a lot of ground in this episode as Sav recounts the challenges he’s faced a...

Guest Overview  Imagine being born with Cerebral Palsy, to Palestinian immigrant parents, growing up being the only disabled Muslim in a Christian New Jersey town.  Yet, blessed with her father's comic genes, her mother’s driving ambition, hard work ethic, and large family support network, Maysoon Zayid is an inspiring example of what is possible when self-limiting beliefs are cast asund...

Okay folks this week, it's just a solo episode. I'm often asked about why I started this podcast and what it takes to keep going. We have to week, month after month now, two and a half years into this, I thought I would take some time just to step back and reflect on it and answer those questions as to what led to starting this podcast and carrying on. For most of my life, I've worked in advertisi...

Guest Overview  Alan Digweed aka Tweedy The Clown is this week's guest.  In this fascinating interview, we discuss Alan’s early life and the serendipitous moment he announced to his parents his intention to build his career in clowning. Alan explains the appeal of clowning, the influence, and inspiration of clowning genius du Laurel and Hardy, as well as the great like Harold Lloyd, Bust...

Sarah A. Abdallah, polymath, innovator, and founder of New York-based bespoke Architecture & Design Studio - Functional Creative Design, is this week's guest. In part two we deep dive into Sarah’s journey prior to starting her design studio Functional Creative Design, working with Rockwell Group, Tony Chi & Associates, Perkins and Eastman, and Grand Hotels, and her vision and focus which l...

Sarah A. Abdallah, polymath, innovator, and founder of New York-based bespoke Architecture & Design Studio - Functional Creative Design, is this week's guest. In this two-parter we spend the first hour exploring Sarah’s experience of being born a bi-racial child to Egyptian immigrant parents, growing up in New York, with two younger siblings.   Immersing her in a culture that nurture...

Guest Overview  This week we welcome Mother and daughter team Barbara Anderson and Jackie Graham's, Founders of Art on the Ave, a New York based social impact initiative that spotlights the work of under-represented artists and turns storefronts into exhibition spaces and streets into open air galleries.  In the first part of this interview we ask Barbara about Jackie as a child and...

Guest Overview This week's guest is Kellie Lauth - a woman on a mission to re-engineer education and prepare children for the world of 2030, and mobilize a workforce  capable of tackling the complex problems we are sure to face when the calendar turns to 2030. In this extended episode, we cover Kellie’s upbringing, developing a hard work ethic at an early age, the guiding influence of her mot...

Guest Overview  This week we interviewed the co-hosts of the podcast The Furious Curious - Charlie Quirk and Britton Rice. In the first 20 minutes of the interview, Chas and Brit explore the impact of their parents and upbringing on their values, cultivating curiosity and the life attributes that have prepared them for their life in advertising and for hosting a show that describes...

Guest Overview  This week we interview our first musician, Glasgow-based, Irish born, Fiddle player, teacher, and composer, Rowan C Leslie. ( shout out to Scott Duncan for recommending)  Rowan began playing the fiddle when his mother joined him in learning to play at age seven.  Rowan recounts the experience of growing up in a small village of Broughshane, Northern Ireland, his...

Guest Overview  This week I welcome two guests - NYC-based Clinical Psychologist Dr. Tara Emrani and Corporate Lawyer Mehdi Ansari. Tara and Mehdi were born and raised in Tehran, Iran, before moving to the US.  Given the time challenges of having two guests, we didn’t spend much time on their backstories or upbringing.   Meeting while both studying at UC Berkeley, Tar...

Guest Overview  This week's guest is Sydney-born, New York-based Ben Hartley – Executive Director of The National Arts Club – what he describes as a 122-year-old startup. Ben recently invited us into the spectacular Gramercy Square location to record this fascinating interview. Ben recounts his early years and his parents' positive influence, his adventurous and analytical father, and his str...

Our host Mark Fallows was recently invited to be a guest on another podcast, the entertaining and educational - The Furious Curious. Hosts, Charlie Quirk and Britton Rice asked Mark to join them and discuss the urban regeneration project, Back The Neighborhood that he, Elaine Castillo Keller, and Vanessa Barboni Hallik are working on, as well as the genesis of The Impossible Network and Fabrica Co...

Guest OverView  This week's guest is meteorologist, Scottish Highlander, Gaelic speaker, and bag-piper Scott Duncan. Now London-based Scott grew up in the wilds of northern Scotland. Inspired by Scotland's dramatic natural habitat he developed a love for nature and especially climate. That led him to study meteorology at Reading Uni and Oklahoma University and propelled him to be one of...

Guest Overview Human rights are inextricably linked to identity. We all strive for our basic inalienable rights as human beings, regardless of race, religion, language, ethnicity or gender. This week we welcome one of the most vital thinkers in academia and advocates for LGBT human rights, Graeme Reid.  Graeme is the Director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights Program at Hu...

Guest Overview  What does it take to walk away from a successful career in Investment banking to form a woman's sustainable fashion startup, committed from the outset to sourcing responsibly grown, ethically manufactured materials, blending classic design with leading edge technologies, while building a platform for education, and advocacy?  Well, by confronting fear, embracing uncertain...

Guest Overview  This week's guests are Graham MacIndoe and Susan Stellin.   Graham, a photographer and associate professor at Parsons School of Design in New York City, has been in recovery from addiction since 2010.  Graham and his wife Susan -- a writer, researcher, and adjunct professor at The New School -- have been open about Graham's past struggle with drugs, his ten-year...

GUEST OVERVIEW This week's guest, biologist, TV producer, presenter, public speaker, voiceover artist, writer, and mother, Gillian Burke, is second generation Kenyan, has lived a life transition - or as she refers to as a state of liminality.  In this broad-ranging interview, Gillian deconstructs the complexity of her racially ambiguous 'creole' identity. Part West Indian, part SriLankan Gill...

Due to a guest rescheduling, this week we are republishing part two of last year's interview with New York nightlife legend Carmen D'Alessio. We loved this show not just for the incredible stories she tells, but for what she represents. Carmen is living proof that that reinvention is ageless, energy is infectious, and a reminder of the power of a large network. If you’ve not heard Carmen, buckle u...

Guest Overview This week we welcome back our previous guest, Robert Marchetti the New York-based, Australian hospitality veteran.  Robert recently launched his own podcast The Raw Hospitality Show, where he interviews industry icons and what he describes as boots on the ground 'hospo peeps' (that an Aussie term) those unseen folk whose voices are seldom heard.   Robert’s aim with th...