ZEITGEIST19 Curated Podcast

Episode Summary: Preventing genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity is an ongoing process that requires sustained effort over time to build the resilience of societies to atrocity crimes. In today’s episode we meet Jocelyn Getgen Kestenbaum, an Associate Professor of Clinical Law at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, to speak about her focus on human rights, public h...

Episode Summary: This February we have the honour to meet one of India's best conservation and environmental journalists Swati Thiyagarajan . Swati delves into what makes a good documentary film, tells us more about her role in the Oscar-wining documentary My Octopus Teacher and shares the most urgent pressing issues related to biodiversity loss. We merge with her to the wild and the wilderness, t...

Episode Summary: In this episode our co-founder Elizabeth speaks with Svein Tveitdal - a climate expert and activist, former UN Environmental Director and founder of Klima2020 . The conversation raises a red alert on the environmental catastrophe and encourages a better more eco-responsible future. Mr. Tveitdal shares effective and quick ways of tackling climate change and his thoughts on the stro...

Episode Summary: The current episode is co-hosted with Simon Butler, an artist, curator and founder of MigrateArt, an art charity that helps those impacted by the biggest humanitarian crisis of our time. In the current episode we meet a Myanmar-born graffiti artist Bart Was Not Here , who creates a body of work full of escapism and dry humour by mixing text and imagery from Burmese and global pop...

Episode Summary: With the start of our new season we have the pleasure to meet the legendary American experimental theatre stage director, playwright and visual artist - Robert (Bob) Wilson just after turning 80, during his directing of Shakespeare's The Tempest at Sofia's National Theatre . Wilson tell us why 'speaking' Shakespeare is different, what makes a great actor and how he merges his sens...

Episode Summary: The current episode is co-hosted with our former guest speaker Simon Butler, a curator, artist and founder of MigrateArt, a platform that helps those impacted by the biggest humanitarian crisis of our time. Together we meet Ken Nwadiogby , a Nigerian artist whose artistic research is focused on gender equality, African culture, and Black power. Ken was named by Guardian Life as on...

Episode Summary: In this episode, co-hosted with Kiana Talebpour (creative director of Md'A Design Agency ), we get a chance to chat with the most incredible Newsha Tavakolian, an Iranian photographer who has dedicated her life and career to empowering those who need to be heard by documenting the underrepresented stories. Her powerful work reflects on realism and morality, on social injustice and...

Episode Summary: Following our crucial episode “On the Art of Scars & Erased History” with the British artist and sculptor Piers Secunda , structured around the idea of art as a social vehicle that shifts conversations on diplomatic arena and Secunda’s body of work that is focusing on the iconoclastic acts of the extremist groups, we dive deeper into the topic to further discuss the questions of g...

Episode Summary: In this episode our host Elizabeth Zhivkova and co-host Kiana Talebpour (Md'A) meet the Italian visual artist Patrick Tuttofuoco. Patrick details the origin of his approach and shares about the quiet moment where visitors can experience the simple yet profound emotions that can be stirred when encountering beauty in ways by transforming the environment. He offers thoughts on how w...

Episode Summary: Today we meet the founder of The Other Art Fair , Ryan Stanier. We talk to him about the inception of his unique platform and his vision on the future of virtual and in-person art fairs in post-pandemic times. Ryan’s deliberate, still deeply intuitiveapproach of looking for 'the next big thing' is present in everythinghe does. He advocates for breaking the walls of the art market...

Episode Summary: In today's episode we meet Giovanni de Niederhäusern, a Senior Vice President of Pininfarina 's Architecture unit. Giovanni shares with us his journey from managing various projects in the fields of design and architecture to becoming one of the driving forces behind Italy's legendary design and engineering company. Giovanni decodes Pininfarina's visionary architecture equation th...

Episode Summary: On this International Women's Day, in the current global contexts of open conflicts, instability and violence, our co-founder Elizabeth has a candid conversation with security and humanitarian expert Prof. Benedetta Berti - the Head of Policy Planning in the Office of the Secretary General at NATO . After spending over a decade researching non-state armed groups, Prof. Berti speak...

Episode Summary: This candid conversation with Saeed Taji Farouky, an award-winning filmmaker specialising in long-term human rights projects and social justice, made me think of Andrei Tarkovsky’s vision on cinema - an instrument of art equal to prose. Today, we discussed everything from the authenticity of the crafted narrative to the ethical decisions that Saeed had to make while filming I See...

Episode Summary: In this episode our co-founder Elizabeth Zhivkova meets innovation policy expert Padmashree Gehl Sampath, who describes technology as a 'tool of change' during their conversation on the importance of technological innovation. Living in a digitalized world, Padmashree shares her thoughts on the new reality, the strategic means for national digital development and her leading concer...

Episode Summary: In this episode we meet management science researcher Wanyi Li, with who we discuss the destruction of the natural world and dealing with the enormity of the problem. Living in times, in which our planet is facing a ghastly future of mass extinction and climate-disruption upheavals, Wanyi shares with us her vision on far-reaching changes for acknowledging and preventing the contin...

Episode Summary: Just before Christmas our co-founder Farah Piriye hosts a candid conversation with British artist and sculptor Piers Secunda , who’s intensive research based practice examines the deliberate targeting of culture in war time, by moulding damage from war zones and the sites of historic conflicts to make works. Discussing how art can be a social vehicle that shifts perceptions and co...

Episode Summary: In the aftermath of the attempted Coup at the Capitol, we start the New Year with a strong belief for a profound change, releasing an episode, where we meet Amin Husain and Nitasha Dhillon - members of the action-oriented collective Decolonize This Place. They tell us why they utilise museum spaces as a focal point for resistance, identifying modern day emergencies that drasticall...

Episode Summary: Today we are meeting with Bahia Shehab, an artist, designer and art historian. Bahia through investigating Islamic art history, creates a poetic and powerful body of work, reinterpreting contemporary Arab politics, feminist discourse and social issues. Utilising urban environments and murals to communicate her strong message, a street artist and activist, Bahia produces an ephemer...

Episode Summary: In this episode we meet American researcher and academic Sara Naomi Bleich, who speaks about one of the long lasting side effects of COVID-19 - food insecurity. A former White House Fellow and a Senior Policy Advisor to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Michelle Obama's Let’s Move initiative, Sara discusses major issues of the food supply chain and a potential future recovery...

Episode Summary: In the wake of the myriad crises of the past two decades - art helps the world to be felt - by its inhabitants - spurring thinking, engagement and even action. In this episode we meet Simon Butler, founder of Migrate Art Charity, who delves into most pressing issues of today that the media and global society are disconnected from. We talk about his latest project The Scorched Eart...

Episode Summary: They say in the past scientist were called "natural philosophers", and we are honoured to launch our Season 2.0 No Man Is An Island , having one of the leading epidemiologists, internationally recognized for scientific contributions to HIV treatment, Prof. Salim Abdool Karim, on our platform, to discuss potential COVID-19 vaccination, the hazards of 'vaccine-nationalism', the sign...

Episode Summary: In this genuine conversation with the curator and director of Foundation Art Divvy Zahra Khan, we discuss the rise of contemporary art scene in Pakistan, the significance of women’s artistic creations in the region, political and social manifestations in the work of the local artists and how foundations such as Art Divvy and Lahore Biennale breath a new life into the Pakistan’s vi...

Episode Summary: In line with the new partial lockdown in Italy, in collaboration with MdA Design Agency, in this episode we meet Marco Minoja, the Cultural Director of Comune di Milano - the Municipality of Milan. We will discuss how Milan and its cultural scene are dealing with the pandemic and what are the new ways for re-thinking the museum system in a critical moment of a transparent diagnosi...

Episode Summary: In this episode we meet Francesca Molteni - an Italian film director and design curator. We discuss the essence of design, its anti-crisis purposes and the collective work that can help us in overcoming difficult times. Analyzing the thin line between ethics and aesthetics, Francesca stresses on the capacity of creation to find new strategies for re-building the future of her belo...

Episode Summary: Released within the framework of Zeitgeist19’s participation at ASviS, Festival For Sustainable Development, this episode, co-led with the founder of Milan based studio MdA Design Agency Maddalena D’Alfonso, hosts the CEO of ToornendPartners, architect and special advisor for the ICOM working group on Sustainability, Jean Hilgersom. We meet him to talk about how the conversation a...