World Changing Ideas

We're looking back on our conversation with Convoy's Head of Sustainability Jennifer Wong about the company's efficiency methods and decarbonizing the supply chain.

Rewind to our chat with Jason Ballard, CEO and co-founder of ICON, a digital construction company that 3D-prints houses... that might end up on the moon someday.

Rewind to Season 1 when we chatted with ofbyfor about an alternative way to structure democracy from elections to lotteries.

We’ve looked at a whole bunch of amazing ideas this season. We’ve met people tackling global problems, including rising temperatures, water shortages, rainforest destruction, and greenhouse-gas emissions. But one environmental challenge we can’t skip over is rising sea levels. Global warming has caused unprecedented levels of ice and glacier melt over the last few decades. No matter how much we re...

This week, we're taking a look at the brain and a world-changing idea that could overhaul how we approach brain surgery. A company called Synchron is investigating how you restore, treat, and map the electrical activities of the human brain. And they’ve developed the first brain-computer-interface implant in the United States. It’s called a Stentrode, and when the device gets implanted, it can all...

We spend our whole lives living in human bodies, but even in 2023, there is so much that science doesn’t understand about how our body works, how it’s programmed, how it heals itself . . . or doesn’t. Despite all of our technological innovation, human life expectancy seems to have plateaued. In the U.S alone, it’s actually gone down for the past 2 years. Biohackers around the world are making it t...

Protecting our most important resources is becoming a global problem that affects all of us. The impact of climate change and the demands of urban living are threatening so many of our essential sources of life. Water is one of the most precious commodities available to us. But we'll have to find some innovative approaches to collecting it. That's where fog catching comes into play. We also found...

Despite a dip in carbon emissions during the pandemic, the U.S is still the world’s second largest polluter. The country produced 5.6 bn metric tons of CO2 in 2022, and that’s up from last year. So who’s got some world-changing ideas when it comes to decarbonization? We’ve found three pretty cool characters this week. And each one of them has gone all in on the power of plants. Adam Taylor, CEO of...

There are lots of different definitions of what the Metaverse is or could be. At the moment, the whole thing is looking quite fragmented. You get all these buzzwords being thrown around like immersive, virtual reality, avatars and headsets, but it’s not really clear yet how this new virtual space will change the way we interact with each other. On today's episode, we chatted with two people who ar...

 In 2022, roughly 3 billion people, or one in every three people in the world, regularly played computer games, either on their phone, computer, or some kind of gaming console. Analysts predict that the video game market will bring in over $200 billion in 2024. If you think about it, people are wired to play games, it’s actually something that’s helped us evolve as a species. The Arsht Rockefeller...

We have a recap of one of our favorite episodes from last year and what better way to kick off 2023 than talking about toilets? Enjoy!

Amelia Hemphill, KC Ifeanyi, and Kate Davis discuss the biggest stories at Fast Company this past year and share their favorite moments from Fast Company podcasts. Amelia explains some of the most innovative approaches to sustainability, including a toilet that incinerates your bowel movement under water. KC reviews some of the biggest trends in the creator economy. Kate highlights The New Way We...

Addressing the problems around climate change requires collective action and big ideas. But we also need to learn how to listen and how to change our perspective. This week, we speak to some leading environmental activists about storytelling and how to craft a message that sparks behavioral change. Kate Tellers - director at The Moth, a storytelling collective and nonprofit in New York City. She’s...

Farming is one of our most ancient practices. We can’t support human life on this planet without the food we grow from the soil. But the soil itself is also a living organism—and a crucial resource that desperately needs our global attention. December 5 is the UN’s annual World Soil Day—to bring awareness of the importance of healthy soil and ecosystems. So, let’s dig in here. . . . Apricot Lane F...

Reducing emissions was a hot topic at COP27, and a lot of the emissions burden is going to fall on cities and local governments. So what kind of world-changing ideas are we seeing in this space? Volksentscheid Autofrei is posing the philosophical question of how to optimize our urban spaces and taking it to the streets, literally. The movement wants to significantly reduce Berlin’s car traffic by...

Kate Davis talks with Dorie Clark about how to future proof your career (as much as possible). Dorie has been a guest on the show before, she’s also a contributor to Fast Company, Harvard Business Review and others and has been named the #1 Communication Coach and one of the Top 50 Business Thinkers in the World. She teaches at both Duke and Columbia Business Schools, and she is the author of seve...

It’s Thanksgiving tomorrow and what better way to spend it than examining how our food is produced? While we can’t live without food, we also can’t afford to have the current agricultural industries, which grow and produce our food, continue contributing to climate change at such a rapid pace. The global population is larger than ever before, but in order for industrial agriculture to provide for...

In this episode, we're taking a look at how one company and a nonprofit are working together to capture carbon. Their partnership also addresses the question of how we can make climate innovation a successful business strategy. CLIMATE VAULT Climate Vault has come up with a new way of addressing how companies can be held accountable for their carbon emissions. The nonprofit uses compliance markets...

From Queens, New York over to West Africa down to Southwest Florida and up to Europe, we're jumping from soil to sky in our exploration of how solar energy could power our world. Contributing WCI reporter Blake Odom investigates how you can set up solar power for your home. He looks into the installation costs, the time needed, and the potential savings. Energicity is hooking up West African count...

We’ve talked a lot about sustainable and plant-based foods before—and on today’s show, you may get a little deja-vu. You’ll remember last year we did a live taste-test of the Beyond Burger 3.0 with Beyond Meat’s CEO, Ethan Brown. We welcomed Ethan back to chat about the latest iteration—the 4.0 Burger. Interview Highlights: Brown discusses the reiteration process and the company's ethos of relentl...

Most societies have a complex relationship with human poop. It brings up all kinds of emotions: disgust, fascination, shame, happiness, relief, and even pride. It’s something we can all relate to though. Everyone poops! Visit Mr. Toilet House in Suwon, South Korea where visitors from all over the world come to learn about the history of human waste. Dr. Shannon Yee is taking on Thomas Crapper for...

In this special podcast episode, hear the latest on what’s taking place in edge computing and hybrid cloud from a top industry executive at AWS. Also learn how these innovations can ultimately help you transform your business.

Climate change isn’t going away, so we have to find ways to adapt. Last week, we took a look at some of the ways that cities, businesses and NGOs are trying to combat extreme heat and rising temperatures - a growing threat to people and communities all over the world. It’s all very well looking at macro solutions, but what can we as individuals do? This week we rounded up our World Changing Ideas...

Welcome back for Season 2! Here we are in October 2022. The seasons are changing. We’re all getting used to a new kind of normal. For those of us in the northern hemisphere, this past summer was uncomfortably hot…and as the scientists keep telling us: this is just the beginning.  To find out how we can tackle future extreme heat events, we spoke with Global Chief Heat Officer Eleni Myrivili. Then...

This season we’ll be traveling around the globe to find the best, the boldest and the strangest ideas that could transform life as we know it. From the US, Europe, the Middle East and the global South, we’re going to hear from the dreamers, the experts and the activists who all have one thing in common: a desire to change the world for the better.  Join Amelia Hemphill, a solutions journalist and...