Where Shall We Meet

Questions, suggestions, or feedback? Send us a message!Welcome to the Where Shall We Meet podcast. Our guest today is Dr Amanda Parkes. Amanda calls herself a fashion scientist - she has a PhD from the MIT Media Lab, where her research bridged computer science and material science, and dual Stanford degrees in mechanical engineering and art history. She has spent fifteen years trying to answer a deceptively simple question: what if we rebuilt the material world around nature's logic instead of against it?That question has taken her from algae biofuels to 3D printed couture, from developing science exhibits at the Exploratorium in San Francisco and the Science Museum here in London to running R&D at Pangaia, the company she describes as a material science company masquerading as a fashion brand. There she turned wildflowers into jacket insulation, Himalayan nettle into denim, and carbon dioxide pulled from the air to make sunglasses.She is now CTO at Mothership Materials, where she has gone even deeper - extracting the building blocks of biology from food waste to feed the next generation of bio-manufacturers.We talk about:Fashion as a material scienceDesigning clothing as part of a biological cycleHigh-tech NaturalismHow algae can transform into clothing dyeBio fabricationHumans are good at building not at breaking downUsing carbon air pollution to make inkHow banana skin can become a dressLet’s get dressed!Web: www.whereshallwemeet.xyzTwitter: @whrshallwemeetInstagram: @whrshallwemeet

Questions, suggestions, or feedback? Send us a message!Welcome to the Where Shall We Meet podcast. Our guest this week is Jimmy Wales. He is an internet entrepreneur best known as the co-founder of Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia that launched in 2001, creating a radically collaborative model that allows anyone to contribute to and edit what has become the world’s largest free encyclopedia. Born in Huntsville, Alabama, in 1966, Wales studied finance before working in Chicago as a trader.Beyond Wikipedia itself, Wales also founded the Wikimedia Foundation in 2003, the nonprofit organization that supports Wikipedia and its sister projects, and later co-founded Wikia, now known as Fandom, a commercial wiki platform built around fan communities.Over the years, he has become both an advocate and a symbol of the broader idea that knowledge can be created collaboratively and made freely accessible at global scale. His role has often been less that of a traditional executive and more that of a public steward for a radically open model of information.Wikipedia is not just a website; it is a living experiment in whether strangers can cooperate, disagree, revise one another, and still produce something of enormous public value. That question of trust is central to his 2025 book The Seven Rules of Trust, in which he reflects on how trust can be built, and sustained in institutions and communities.We talk about:His seven rules of trustTrusting people to contribute wiselyThe mechanics of WikipediaHow a crisis lead to an innovationNews shouldn’t be entertainmentHow collective knowledge negotiates truthCan we find consensus as a societyCrisis of trust in politicsLet’s search!Web: www.whereshallwemeet.xyzTwitter: @whrshallwemeetInstagram: @whrshallwemeet

Questions, suggestions, or feedback? Send us a message!Welcome to the third season of the Where Shall We Meet podcast. Quick housekeeping, in the show notes you will find a link to send us a voice note, should you feel the urge.Our guest today is Samantha Harvey who is a British novelist and a senior lecturer in creative writing at Bath Spa University. Her Phd centred on writing philosophical fiction. She has published five novels and one work of non-fiction, and her work has been shortlisted for the Women's Prize, the James Tait Black Award and the Walter Scott Prize.Her debut, The Wilderness, was narrated from inside the mind of a man with Alzheimer's and won the Betty Trask Prize. Her non-fiction book The Shapeless Unease is an account of a year of severe insomnia, exploring how prolonged sleeplessness changes the way you think, write, and experience time.Her most recent novel, Orbital, was published in 2023 and won the 2024 Booker Prize - one of the shortest novels ever to do so. Harvey wrote much of it during COVID lockdowns, watching live footage from the ISS.Her work consistently returns to questions of consciousness, perception, and attention - how we experience time, place, and the limits of what the human mind can hold.We talk about:What is readingCan we still pay attention?A love letter to planet EarthThe value of new mediaHow she got 16 sunrises and 16 sunsets into one dayIt’s the reader who finishes the novelThe humbling impact of the Overview effectHow to be an intrepid explorer from your deskLet’s go into orbit!Web: www.whereshallwemeet.xyzTwitter: @whrshallwemeetInstagram: @whrshallwemeet

Questions, suggestions, or feedback? Send us a message!Our guest this week is Joscha Bach. He is a German cognitive scientist, artificial-intelligence researcher and philosopher of mind who consistently bridges the gap between what human intelligence is and what machines could become. He has an MA in computer science and a PhD in cognitive science. Over the course of his career he has held research positions at institutions such as the MIT Media Lab and the Harvard Program for Evolutionary Dynamics.Bach is best known for his work on computational models of human-like cognition: he developed the cognitive architecture called “MicroPsi”, exploring how perception, motivation, emotion and decision-making interact in autonomous agents. He is the author of Principles of Synthetic Intelligence. In addition to his academic output, he has taken roles in applied AI research and strategy, bringing theoretical insight into real-world settings.What sets his approach apart is his deeply integrative mindset: he treats intelligence not just as surface behaviour or pattern-recognition, but as the emergent result of rich internal models of the world and self. His philosophical lens brings questions of consciousness, free will and meaning into the technical domain, framing AI and cognition as part of a broader inquiry into what it means to think, feel and act.We talk about:We live in a story not in the physical worldConsciousness does not depend on the substrateCan you learn reality by just watching YTAlternative approaches to building AIIntuition is the part of your mind you cannot yet reflectThe constraint to becoming superhuman only applies to humansThere is no obligation to unite your many selvesThis episode will require your full focus. We recommend you put on headphones and turn off all your other devices.Web: www.whereshallwemeet.xyzTwitter: @whrshallwemeetInstagram: @whrshallwemeet

Questions, suggestions, or feedback? Send us a message!Our guest this week is Natalie Batalha. Natalie is professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz where received her PhD. Previously, she was a research astronomer in the Space Sciences Division of NASA Ames Research Center. She held the position of Science Team Lead on the Kepler Mission, the first mission capable of finding Earth-size planets around other stars. This mission revolutionised our understanding of planetary systems.The Kepler Mission discovered thousands of exoplanets revealing that planets are common in the galaxy, not rare and many even lie in the habitable zone.Natalie is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and was listed as one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2017.We talk about:Where is everyone AKA the Fermi ParadoxWhat is an exoplanetThe Drake equation in simple termsThe revelation that planets like ours are more common than ever imaginedWhat was the Kepler mission and what did it achieve?Who owns space?Will our alien friends be receptive?Can we be trusted to become multi-planetary?Unfortunately, we had a couple of technical issues on this recording but have done our very best to iron them out.Let’s look through the telescope!Web: www.whereshallwemeet.xyzTwitter: @whrshallwemeetInstagram: @whrshallwemeet

Questions, suggestions, or feedback? Send us a message!Our guest this week is Jacinda Ardern. She became the world's youngest female head of government at age 37. Ardern served as Prime Minister of New Zealand from 2017 to 2023, earning global admiration for her empathetic and decisive leadership through crises like the Christchurch attacks and the COVID-19 pandemic. Her trademark “be kind” approach redefined what modern political leadership could look like.In 2025, she released her memoir A Different Kind of Power, reflecting on how empathy can drive real progress. It’s more than a political memoir, it’s a profound insight into how it feels to lead.Since leaving office, Ardern has turned her focus to global initiatives on climate action, online safety, and compassionate leadership. She’s a Senior Fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School, a Distinguished Fellow of Oxford University's Blavatnik School of Government and a Trustee of Prince William’s Earthshot Prize, continuing her work to inspire change on the world stage.She was recently made a Dame Grand Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit — a fitting recognition for a leader whose grace and humanity have left a lasting mark far beyond her time in office.We talk about:A kinder definition of leadershipMedia’s new incentivesChanging the culture of engagementTaking the money out of politicsThe dangerous loss of nuanceCaring is more important than caring about politicsAllowing politicians to change their mindBuying back guns from civiliansLet’s do this!Web: www.whereshallwemeet.xyzTwitter: @whrshallwemeetInstagram: @whrshallwemeet

Questions, suggestions, or feedback? Send us a message!Our guest this week is Kim Stanley Robinson, also know as Stan. He is an American science fiction writer best known for his Mars trilogy of novels. Over his career he has published over 20 books. Many of his novels and stories have ecological, and political themes, featuring scientists as heroes.Robinson has won numerous awards, including the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award for Best Novel, as well as the World Fantasy Award.The Atlantic magazine has called Robinson's work "the gold standard of realistic, and highly literary, science-fiction writing." According to an article in The New Yorker magazine, Robinson is "generally acknowledged as one of the greatest living science-fiction writers." Time magazine named him “the hero of the environment” for his optimistic focus on future possibilities.His most recent novel “The Ministry for the Future” presents a vision for how humanity might unite together to overcome the climate crisis.We talk about:What is science fiction The difference between Utopia and Optopia Being optimistic whilst remaining vigilant Predicting the future What the hell is terraforming Finance as a tool for changing civilisation The current state of American politics Championing scientists If anything is possible, is nothing interesting?If you want to support the podcast please follow us on your favourite podcast apps, rate the show and share it with your friends.You can now message us with feedback and ideas following the link at the top of the episode description.Let’s talk about the future!Web: www.whereshallwemeet.xyzTwitter: @whrshallwemeetInstagram: @whrshallwemeet

Questions, suggestions, or feedback? Send us a message!Our guest this week is Alain de Botton. Alain is a London based writer and psychotherapist. His first book, Essays in Love was published when he was 23 years old and went on to sell two million copies. His books emphasise philosophy's relevance to everyday life. Other bestsellers include How Proust Can Change Your Life (1997), Status Anxiety (2004), and The Architecture of Happiness (2006).He’s written 15 books under his name and many more under The School of Life imprint, which have become bestsellers in 30 countries. He is not just a writer, but also an organizer of ideas and institutions.He founded The School Of Life in 2008, which is dedicated to help people lead more emotionally intelligent lives – through classes, books, games, therapy, films, articles, their app, and their podcast. Their website says, everything they do supports self-knowledge, better relationships, and brings calm to modern life.His public profile emphasises his desire to bridge intellectual ideas into a lived experience.We talk about:2 and a half friends is plenty A more rigorous approach to friendshipDifferent types of friends - from the teasing to the mirco Platonic sleepoversOne way friends Enemies of friendship The bravery of being weird Good substitutes for friendsLet’s make friends!Web: www.whereshallwemeet.xyzTwitter: @whrshallwemeetInstagram: @whrshallwemeet

Rutger Bregman, a Dutch historian and bestselling author known for 'Humankind,' dives into the concept of moral ambition. He advocates for blending utopian visions with practical tactics to drive real change. The conversation explores individual versus societal responsibilities, emphasizing that mere decency isn’t enough. Rutger shares insights on the value of tough love in recruitment and how to create winning coalitions for activism. He also discusses accessible pathways for anyone to engage morally ambitious work, like Moral Ambition Circles and free curricula.

Questions, suggestions, or feedback? Send us a message!Our guest this week is Howard Covington. Howard is a Cambridge graduate in physics and maths. He has been a banker, a co-founder and chief executive of New Star Asset Management, and a trustee of the Science Museum. He’s also been and chair of the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences at the University of Cambridge, The Alan Turing Institute, ClientEarth, and the Scotia Group.He is the incoming chair of the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at the University of Oxford. Howard is a fellow of the Institute of Physics and an honorary fellow of the Isaac Newton Institute and The Alan Turing Institute.We want to a talk Howard gave recently and were very amazed about how many of his predictions have come to pass and therefore left comforted by his positive predictions of the future.We talk about:A quick history of 540 million yearsLiving in the midst of the third Intelligence ExplosionPrinting meat to eatDark factoriesAre robots part of evolutionHow capitalism drives the race to net zeroThe restoration of the planetLet’s gaze into the future!Web: www.whereshallwemeet.xyzTwitter: @whrshallwemeetInstagram: @whrshallwemeet