Global Development Institute podcast

In this latest episode from the Sustainable Forest Transition Project, Prof Johan Oldekop (GDI) speaks to Sarah Castle (University of Wisconsin-Madison) and Matt Fagan (University of Maryland Baltimore County). 

Johan, Sarah and Matt talk about their research and how data can shape forest landscapes and the way we interact with them. 

More from Sarah: 

Article in One Earth

Bringing Satellites Down to Earth

Politics of Pixels

Robust Evaluation of Carbon Credits

CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance

FAIR Principles for data stewardship

More from Matt: 

Matt's Paper in Nature Ecology and Evolution

AlphaEarth Foundations Model and it’s relatives

“Planting at all costs: Can trees save the planet? (In French)”

Rhett Butler's (Mongabay Editor) Blog

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Welcome to a new mini-pod series from the Global Development Institute’s Research for Transformation Lab. Based at the University of Manchester, the Lab is an initiative where we explore all things research impact. 

This episode was recorded in November 2025 during Transformation Lab week, a series of face to face sessions designed to initiate a critically engaged conversation around research impact and the idea of research for transformation. 

In this episode, our GDI colleague Uma Kothari, Professor of migration and postcolonial studies, explores the role of stories and storytelling in research and research impact.  

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In this episode, we catch up with two of GDI's second-year PhD students, Blanche de Moidrey and Kalani Foster, to discuss how their research projects relate to the broad themes of indigeneity and knowledge production. We touch on topics including how to grapple with one's positionality as a researcher, the complex political dimensions of indigeneity as a concept, and the ways in which their projects overlap and diverge. 

We also discussed Blanche's motivations for setting up a website for her writing, which you can find here: Blanche de Moidrey/ Stewards of the Land

You can also read Blanche's latest article on the GDI blog: Origins of the Human-Nature Separation in Western Thought - Global Development Institute Blog

Find out more about the project with which Kalani is involved - Just Earth Observation for Conservation - on the project website: About the Just Earth Observation for Conservation project

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Listen to a discussion between Dr Osman Ouattara and two of our current PhD researchers, Mahtab Uddin and Matilda Kabutey-Ongor.

In this episode they discuss their own research and the new pathway for development economics at GDI.

Learn more here: https://blog.gdi.manchester.ac.uk/gdi...
Or here: https://www.gdi.manchester.ac.uk/stud...

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In this episode, Dr Natalie Cunningham, Senior Lecturer in Leadership for Development at GDI, speaks to three UoM alumni about their experiences navigating the contemporary development and humanitarian landscape. Contributors include Stephanie Lord (Head of Global Emergency at the Danish Refugee Council), Shamilah Perumal (Minister for Economic Affairs in the High Commission of Malaysia in New Delhi), and Anna Spethman (Lecturer and Volunteer Manager at the University of Nebraska, Omaha). 

This episode is published as part of our initiative exploring the ways in which global crises are impacting the GDI alumni community. If you're a former GDI student keen to share your story, we'd love to hear from you. Get in touch with [email protected] for further information. 

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A conversation with Gindo Tampubolon, GDI's Reader in Global Health, to discuss his research on global healthy ageing and his work as a lead expert for the World Health Organization's Life Course & Healthy Ageing expert group as part of the UN's Decade of Healthy Ageing Initiative.

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In this episode, we speak to GDI alumnus and research fellow Luis Eduardo Pérez Murcia about his recent open access book, A Long Journey Home: Losing and Remaking Home Following Conflict and Displacement. The book examines the experiences of those whose sense of home has been disrupted by decades of conflict and violence, highlighting the profound feelings of loss and the enduring struggle of living without a home. Luis Eduardo discusses his findings in depth, including various ways in which home is conceptualised, lost, and remade in the lives of displaced people. 

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In this episode, Rory Horner speaks with Elisa Gambino about her latest paper 'Flexible embeddedness: how Chinese lead firms internationalise in Africa' with Costanza Franceschini.

The ‘rise of the South’, and particularly that of China, has promoted lively debates around the centrality of Southern firms in shaping the contours of twenty first century economic globalisation. This paper contributes to these debates by examining the internationalisation of Chinese lead firms. 

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Dr Elisa Gambino (GDI) interviews Dr Fidèle Beletchei Ebia, a postdoctoral researcher with Duke Africa Initiative, about her recent paper analysing how the rise of South-South value chains disrupts the trade of African print textiles.

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In this episode, we speak to PhD researcher Anuradha Ganapathy about her recent think piece 'Beyond Digital Platforms: Unpacking Disinformation Through a Feminist Commodity Chain Approach'.

Anuradha discusses alternative approaches to analysing disinformation, moving away from platform centricity and toward an understanding of gendered commodity chains and unpaid labour. 

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