In Conversation with Nathalie Nahai

In today’s episode, I speak with Alex Edmans, the professor of Finance at London Business School. He has a PhD from MIT as a Fulbright Scholar, and was previously a tenured professor at Wharton and an investment banker at Morgan Stanley. Alex has spoken at the World Economic Forum in Davos, testified in the UK Parliament, and given the TED talk What to Trust in a Post-Truth World and the TEDx talk The Social Responsibility of Business with a combined 2 million views. He serves as Mercers School Memorial Professor of Business at Gresham College, giving a series of lectures to the public, and on Royal London Asset Management’s Responsible Investment Advisory Committee. His book, Grow the Pie: How Great Companies Deliver Both Purpose and Profit, headed the Financial Times list of Business Books of the Month for March 2020 and was featured in the FT’s Summer Books of 2020. He has been named to Poets and Quants Best 40 Professors Under 40 and Thinkers50 Radar. In this conversation, we dismantle some of the misconceptions about purpose-driven businesses, and explore how enterprises of any size can begin to connect more deeply with their values to meaningfully contribute to society. From how we define purpose, to focussing on what is in our hands to change, Alex offers a refreshing and accessible way of re-appraising what we can offer to the world. Join in the conversation #hivepodcast, and find out more at www.nathalienahai.com/the-hive-podcast/ Recorded on 19th October 2020.

In this opening episode of season five, I had the pleasure of speaking with Alan Watson Featherstone, an ecologist, nature photographer and inspirational public speaker. The founder of Trees for Life, an award-winning Scottish conservation charity for which he was executive director for almost 30 years, Alan's pioneering work to restore the Caledonian Forest in Scotland and the 10,000 acre Dundreggan Estate in Glenmoriston, has become a flagship project for native woodland recovery. Alan's photographs have appeared in publications such as Time magazine and Encyclopedia Britannica, and he has given lectures at events and conferences in more than 20 countries worldwide. His pioneering work has been recognised through a number of awards, from the UK Conservation Project of the Year awarded to Trees For Life in 1991, to the Schumacher Award in 2001, the Spirit of Scotland Environment Award in 2012 and the RSPB Nature of Scotland Outstanding Contribution Award in 2013. In this conversation, we explore some of the unexpected paths that can lead us towards regenerating the natural world, and what can be achieved even in the absence of any physical resources. From finding ways to harness our inner power, to the journey of transformation within our personal lives, we explore how we can start to create the kind of worlds our hearts can believe in - from the inside out. Join in the conversation #hivepodcast, and find out more at www.nathalienahai.com/the-hive-podcast/ Recorded on 30th October 2020.

In this final episode of the season, I had the pleasure of speaking with the wonderful Caroline Webb - an executive coach, international speaker, and author of the best-selling book, How To Have A Good Day: Harness the Power of Behavioural Science to Transform Your Working Life. A Senior Advisor to McKinsey, where she was previously a Partner, Caroline specialises in teaching people how to apply behavioural science insights to improve their professional lives. She’s worked with hundreds of organisations to help their employees become more productive, energised, and successful, first as a Partner at McKinsey, where she continues to serve as a Senior Advisor, and now as CEO of her own firm, Sevenshift. Her book has been published in 14 languages in over 60 countries so far, and has been hailed by Forbes as one of their “must-read business books,” and described by Fortune as one of their top “self-improvement through data” books. From managing uncertainty by reconnecting with those things of which we can be sure, to working with self-compassion and conscious attention, we discuss what it might look like to regain a sense of control and competence in uncertain times, and how through noticing moments fo aliveness, joy and energy, we can start to tune into what gives us a greater sense of depth and meaning in our lives. Join in the conversation #hivepodcast, and find out more at www.nathalienahai.com/the-hive-podcast/

On today’s show, I have the privilege of speaking with Jennifer Morgan, the International Executive Director of Greenpeace International. Jennifer is the former Global Director of the Climate Program at the World Resources Institute (WRI), Global Climate Change Director at Third Generation Environmentalism (E3G) and she also led the Global Climate Change Program of the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF). She has published widely on international climate policy issues, and Jennifer recently addressed the 2020 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, calling upon global leaders to recognise this moment, as we recover from the impacts of the pandemic, as an unmissable chance to put people and the planet first. In our conversation, we explore what actions, large and small, we can take to come together and create a future we want to inhabit. We look at how the interpersonal values of compassion, courage, cooperation and kindness, can be used as a basis upon which to redesign the world in which we live, and we consider the choice we have of using wellbeing as the primary lens through which we make our decisions, both now, and as we emerge into the next chapter. Join in the conversation #hivepodcast, and find out more at www.nathalienahai.com/the-hive-podcast/

This episode, I speak with Geoff White, an investigative tech journalist and author, whose book "Crime Dot Com: From Viruses to Vote Rigging, How Hacking Went Global", is due out on the 10th of August this year. Geoff has covered technology for BBC News, Channel 4 News, Audible, Forbes online and many others, and his exclusives reveal tech’s impact on our lives: from the controversial police use of facial recognition and the failure of artificial intelligence therapy apps, to hi-tech call centre scams and fraud in the internet dating industry.

 He has written and presented two major podcast series for Audible - "Artificial Intelligence: Friend or Foe?" and "The Dark Web", and also runs his own series, "Cybercrime Investigations", an inside look into the world of an investigative journalist, detailing the twists and turns as the story unfolds. If you’ve been following this podcast since it started, you’ll have heard us in conversation in episode 5, where we explored the murky world of the dark web and the manipulative power of fake news. I wanted to bring him back on the show in this moment to help us dig deeper into the ways in which misinformation flows so quickly from one person to the next, and what we can do to become more resilient against content that is designed to alarm and persuade. Join in the conversation #hivepodcast, and find out more at www.nathalienahai.com/the-hive-podcast/

This episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Gemma Milne, a science and technology writer whose book, Smoke & Mirrors: How Hype Obscures the Future and How to See Past It, just recently came out. Her work explores science, tech and the broad cultural issues surrounding their advancements, and she has a particular interest in deep tech, including biotech, agriculture, energy, space, health, quantum computing, AI. Gemma is also a deep tech advisor to governments, investors and other organisations working in these spaces, and she’s the Co-Founder of Science: Disrupt, a media organisation that connects and showcases innovators and entrepreneurs creating change in science. In this rich conversation, we talk about everything from hype, advertising and fake news, to simplified narratives and emotion-laden messaging, and how all of these things can influence our perception of the world and the situations around us. We explore why there’s such a great need for robust critical thinking, especially in this moment, and why it might serve us better not to think so much in terms of fixing broken systems, but assessing them according to the values on which they were built, so that we might more consciously choose the values on which to redesign them. Join in the conversation #hivepodcast, and find out more at www.nathalienahai.com/the-hive-podcast/

In today’s show, I’m doing something a bit different. This week I was invited by Manda Scott to join her in conversation on her podcast, Accidental Gods, and we decided it would be lovely to share it with all our listeners, across both of our platforms. We explore what it means to be human under the lockdown, and how we might grasp this moment in ways that will leave all of us better when it’s over, without feeling guilt-tripped or (even more) exhausted on the other side. Join in the conversation #hivepodcast, and find out more at www.nathalienahai.com/the-hive-podcast/

In today’s conversation, I had the pleasure of speaking with Dr Gillian Isaacs Russell - an author, Psychoanalyst, Psychotherapist, and a member of the British Psychoanalytic Council, the American Psychoanalytic Association and the International Psychoanalytical Association. Having served on the Editorial Board as Book Reviews Editor, Gillian is currently on the Reviewing Panel for the British Journal for Psychotherapy, and was recently co-opted to the Covid-19 Advisory Team for the American Psychoanalytic Association. With each of us living different experiences of what it means to be under lockdown during a pandemic, we explore how denial, grief, loss and fear can show up, what personal adaptation and transition might look like, and how we might begin to give ourselves permission to experience and integrate what we’re living through, however that may be. We also discuss the role of eye gaze and embodied presence, how increased screen time may bring both losses and gains, and what we may come to value as we move through this time together. Gillian also mentions several fascinating studies which I’ll link to in the show notes page if you fancy diving in deeper. Join in the conversation #hivepodcast, and find out more at www.nathalienahai.com/the-hive-podcast/

In this episode, I had the treat of speaking with a beloved friend, Blanche Ellis. An artist, musician and poet, Blanche works with events and conferences using live-scribing and graphic facilitation techniques to capture content and the flow of ideas. She helps businesses find beautiful ways to convey their message on long term projects, and has worked with the BBC, Kings College London, CISCO, the NHS, The British Council and Roshe as well as some great social movements including WOW (Women of the World) Festival and Drivers for Change at The Southbank Centre and Rising Global Peace Forum. Within her artistic practice, Blanche has worked on projects and shown her art in galleries in London, Norwich, New Orleans and Barcelona, and in the past few years she has been studying more traditional techniques of oil painting and charcoal at the Barcelona Academy of Art, which is where we met. In this conversation, I wanted to uncover how any and each of us can engage in creative processes in our everyday lives, from exploring and absorbing what comes to us, to integrating our experiences and finding ways to echo it back. Far from creativity being a gift to the chosen few, we talk about how it can be used by anyone as a means of understanding and transforming how we experience the world and ourselves, whether through movement, mark-making, music or the weaving of stories. Join in the conversation #hivepodcast, and find out more at www.nathalienahai.com/the-hive-podcast/

In today’s show, I had the pleasure of speaking with Joshua Macht, the Executive Vice President and Chief Product and Innovation Officer at Harvard Business Publishing. An American journalist and media commentator. He joined HBR from TIME magazine where he worked as the Editor and General Manager of TIME.com, as well as the magazine's Technology Editor. Before that, he was a journalist at Inc. magazine, where he became the editor and co-founder of Inc.com. For most of us, the current crisis has put a halt to ‘business as usual’, and with companies and workplaces having to adapt quickly to the new landscape, we ask how going virtual may be changing the ways in which we do business, both in the short term, and in the future. We talk about the values and qualities that leaders will need to cultivate during this crisis, and how this may influence everything from the management of remote workers, to the ways in which companies fulfil their social responsibilities. Join in the conversation #hivepodcast, and find out more at www.nathalienahai.com/the-hive-podcast/