Create Tomorrow, The WGSN Podcast

Andy Cato is an arable and livestock farmer and co-founder of WildFarmed. In this episode we hear about Andy’s journey from grammy-nominated musician, as one half of Groove Armada, to award-winning farmer and all round trailblazer trying to establish a more restorative and sustainable food system. Not just through actually farming, but also by creating a community of fellow farmers like him and by working with schools to educate the next generation.

Tune in to hear all about WildFarmed and what Andy calls “the long road to Greggs” as he spills the beans to our Director of Food and Drink Jen Creevy.

In this episode Bethan Ryder is joined by Director of Beauty Clare Varga, Head of Food and Drink Claire Lancaster and Director of Consumer Insight Joe McDonnell to address changing consumer behaviour in the light of the cost of living crisis and what brands can do to reassure and retain consumers in the months ahead.

If you’re a WGSN subscriber you’ll find many reports covering the cost of living on our Consumer Insight platform and across all the products from fashion to food & drink.

If you want to find out how to subscribe, head over to WGSN.com to discover how you can get access to our service. We’re constantly publishing new content focussing on how we can design a brighter, better future for our industries – including food & drink, interiors, beauty, fashion and consumer tech.

This week WGSN Editorial Director Bethan Ryder is joined by Reiko Morrison WGSN's Head of CMF and Benjamin Hubert, founder of the London-based industrial design agency Layer Design.

Layer recently launched a monograph, published by Phaidon, during the London Design Festival which coincided with an exhibition which ran as part of the inaugural Material Matters fair. The book covers the various stages of Benjamin Hubert’s career and the many products he’s designed for the likes of Bang  & Olufsen, Vitra, Moroso, Cappellini, Muuto and more. 

Hubert had a design career in his sights while still at school and initially wanted to design cars, but went into product design instead and has designed a huge range of products from lighting to tech, and it’s tech in particular where Layer Design excels at creating incredibly tactile products though a combination of materials. 

The three discuss how they see the future of Consumer tech evolving with less screens and a rich sense of materiality and haptic happiness.

In anticipation of the release of WGSN’s Home Lifestyles 2025 white paper, Carla Buzasi sat down with creative director and director of interiors Lisa White to talk about the product opportunities for your business in the home of 2025 as it further evolves into a multipurpose place to work, unwind, exercise, educate the kids, entertain friends and so much more. Listening for a taster about this insightful piece of WGSN research.

This week WGSN's Director of Food and Drink Jen Creevy talks to co-founder and CEO of WhatIF Foods Chris Langwallner. WhatIF foods is a trailblazing business attempting to fix a broken food system by making daily staples like noodles and milk from nutritional, previously overlooked ingredients such as the Bambara nut. These crops are grown using regenerative practices and value chains as opposed to supply chains that also empower farmers in regions around the world.

This week Bethan Ryder talks with Beauty experts Hannah Mauser, Sienna Piccioni and Brielle Saggese about the huge trend right now for celebrity owned beauty brands. From Pharrell to Gwyneth Paltrow, Kim Kardashian to Kate Moss, and even Stella McCartney, it seems like you're not an A-Lister right now without your very own skincare range. At the time of publishing we hear Brad Pitt has also launched a genderless skincare line.

But how does this differ from the celebrity endorsements of the past? What role has social media played in the boom? And which brands do we see chiming with WGSN's trend forecasts for the future? 

Denim is a fashion category which is so intrinsically linked to lifestyle both from a practicality point of view, but also in terms of cultural and social identity - people are passionate about their jeans so when we see new trends shaking things up the impact is significant.

Denim had a tough time during the pandemic. As we all went into that first lockdown we quickly slid into slouch - the move to sweatpants was overnight and many feared the denim category wouldn’t recover, but recover it did - almost as soon as lockdowns lifted, and it’s projected to continue growing with Allied Market Research projecting it to hit $88.1bn by 2030 but the denim industry post-pandemic looks very different to the one we knew and loved.

In this episode the team discusses everything from fit cycle data, TikTok and Y2K brand influencers, to sustainability and new fabric innovation.

In this episode Bethan Ryder WGSN's Executive Editorial Director is joined by Director of Food and Drink Jen Creevy, Head of Food and Drink Claire Lancaster and WGSN Insight Strategist Brielle Saggese to discuss drinks trends across the demographics from Boomers to Gen Z. 

The conversation began by reminiscing about their favourite cocktails of the 80s and 90s and how the general mood of nostalgia that was sparked by the pandemic has trickled into the drinks market.

This week WGSN CEO Carla Buzasi is joined by travel trailblazer Robin Hutson: OBE, Chairman of The Pig hotels, sustainability champion and officially the UK's second most powerful hotelier.

If you've been lucky enough to visit any of his destinations that dot the south of England, you'll know that these boutique retreats are famous for their amazing food and gorgeous interiors, but there's a lot more to their success than just what they look like.

This week WGSN Business Development Manager Sam Boakye and Insight Strategist Mel Larsen talk to British writer, curator and broadcaster Ekow Eshun about his new exhibition "In The Black Fantastic" now showing at London’s Hayward Gallery.

Ekow has been described as a ‘cultural polymath’ by The Guardian, he is chairman of the Fourth Plinth Commissioning Group, overseeing the most prestigious public art programme in the UK, and the former Director of the ICA, London. He is the author of critically lauded books Black Gold of the Sun, Africa State of Mind, and, most recently In the Black Fantastic. 

At WGSN part of our STEPIC methodology that we use in our trend forecasting includes looking at culture and creativity, and so in that vein we invited Ekow on the show to talk about the exhibition and accompanying book. We spoke more widely about themes of The Black Fantastic vs Afrofuturism, the power of speculative film and fiction, the relevance of artists from Chris Ofili to Beyonce in expressing the Black experience and the concept of double consciousness.