Impact in the 21st Century

By Simbi Foundation & The Goood LifeSociety & Culture Business Education Non-Profit

Impact in the 21st Century episodes

August 10EP #37: Jasper Eales - The Upcycled Human | Perfect Imperfection | Why Waste Is a Design Problem
Jasper Eales calls himself "a living upcycled human." Diagnosed with Crohn's disease and Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis as a teenager, he underwent a liver transplant in his twenties after a ten-month wait for a donor match. That experience reshaped everything: his relationship with time, with risk, and with the idea that something broken or discarded can be rebuilt into something better. A consulting project put a pile of retired yacht sails in front of him, and in 2015 he and fellow surfer Mike Schlebach co-founded Sealand Gear,handcrafting bags and apparel from upcycled sails, Bedouin stretch tents, and advertising banners. They launched at The Old Biscuit Mill in Woodstock. A decade later, Sealand has upcycled over 105 tonnes of material from landfill, holds B Corp certification, and is a member of 1% For The Planet. The brand has been featured in MR PORTER, Design Indaba, and Men's Health South Africa, and won awards including the 2019 Twyg Sustainable Fashion Award and the 2024 V&A Waterfront Our Better Nature Sustainability Award. Behind the product sits the Protect Our Paths Foundation, co-founded by Sealand and Skybound Capital, which employs previously unemployed custodians to clean shared natural spaces across Cape Town, inspired by a man named Keith Kleans who was already keeping Saunders Beach clean on his own.
In this episode, Jasper and Aaron explore:
The transplant and what came after: what it means to receive an organ from another life, to call yourself "upcycled," and how that experience became the foundation for a design philosophy built around the beauty of things that have been repaired rather than replaced
The consulting project, the sails, and the Old Biscuit Mill: how a freelance job revealed an opportunity in discarded yacht sails, what those early days looked like selling furniture from a market stall, and the leap from noticing waste to building a company around it
"Perfectly imperfect" and the stamp inside the bag: why every Sealand product carries the name of the machinist who made it, what Sealand means when they use the word "responsibility" rather than "sustainability," and how the founding WHY shapes decisions a profit-first framework would make differently
Protect Our Paths and the custodians: the story of Keith Kleans and Saunders Beach, how one man cleaning a beach on his own became a registered foundation with seven custodians across four Cape Town sites
Scaling impact when your raw material is waste: whether access to discarded sails and banners is the real constraint on growth, and what it looks like to commercialise upcycling at scale while keeping each product handmade
Freedom over funding: why Jasper is not chasing the next raise, and what the breathing room lets him focus on
The upside-down reader: how learning to read differently made him a better designer, and what it taught him about education systems that reward conformity over curiosity
Family, the ocean, and the next twenty years: how having kids changed his urgency about the planet, what flexibility means to someone whose body nearly failed him, and what he hopes the next generation does differently
This is a conversation about the gap between what we discard and what still has life in it, about a man who knows that gap in his own body and in the materials he works with every day.
Learn more about Jasper's work at sealandgear.com, and follow @sealandgear and @jaspereales on Instagram.
🎙️ What is Impact in the 21st Century? Impact in the 21st Century is a podcast that celebrates the impactful work being done around the globe and shares the stories of the inspiring individuals behind it.
👤 Who hosts the podcast? Aaron Friedland is a National Geographic Explorer, PhD Candidate in Econometrics at UBC, and Founder of the Simbi Foundation.
🦻 Who makes it sound good? Tom Foster is an Award-Winning Recording Engineer and Cinematographer, Up-and-Coming Composer, Film Scoring Graduate at Berklee College of Music, and Head of Audio & Music for the Sea Change Project.
This podcast is brought to you by Simbi Foundation & The Goood Life. Proudly recorded at Waterfall Farm
1 hr 18 min
June 29EP #36: Anil Seth - Your Brain Is Lying to You | Consciousness & Controlled Hallucination | What It Means to Be You
Anil Seth has spent more than twenty-five years asking one of the most disorienting questions a scientist can ask: what is it that makes you conscious, and are you as real as you feel? A Professor of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience at the University of Sussex and Director of the Sussex Centre for Consciousness Science, Seth has published more than 200 research papers and is recognized by Web of Science as being in the top 0.1% of researchers worldwide in his field. His 2017 TED talk, "Your brain hallucinates your conscious reality," has been viewed more than 14 million times, one of the most-watched science talks in TED history. His 2021 book, Being You: A New Science of Consciousness, became an instant Sunday Times bestseller and a Book of the Year for The Economist, The Guardian, The Financial Times, The New Statesman, and Bloomberg. In 2023, he was awarded the Royal Society Michael Faraday Prize for his extraordinary contribution to public engagement with science. In 2025, he won the Berggruen Prize Essay Competition for "The Mythology of Conscious AI." And in 2026, he delivered a new main-stage TED talk: "Why AI is unlikely to become conscious."
His central argument is as simple as it is radical: we do not perceive the world as it actually is. Instead, the brain is a prediction machine, constantly generating its best guess about what's out there, using sensory signals only to correct its errors. What we experience as reality is a "controlled hallucination." And crucially, the self, the very sense of being a "you" behind your eyes, is part of that hallucination too.
In this wide-ranging and mind-bending episode, Anil unpacks the ideas at the frontier of consciousness science, exploring:
The controlled hallucination: why every perception you have, color, pain, the weight of your own body, is a construction of your brain, not a window onto objective reality, and what that means for how you move through the world
The predictive brain: how your mind is not passively receiving information but constantly generating predictions, and why the experience of surprise is actually your brain updating its model of the world
The "beast machine" theory of selfhood: why Anil believes that consciousness is not just about computation but is deeply grounded in the biological drive to stay alive, and why that matters for debates about AI
The hard problem and the real problem: why philosophers have spent decades asking why there is subjective experience at all, and why Anil thinks we've been asking the wrong question
Animal consciousness and the octopus: what creatures with radically different nervous systems reveal about the many possible ways of being conscious, and why this should expand our moral circle
Can AI be conscious? Why Anil argues, against the dominant view in Silicon Valley, that large language models are almost certainly not conscious, what we'd actually need to look for, and why anthropomorphizing AI carries real societal risk
The Dreamachine: how Anil led a groundbreaking science-art project that used stroboscopic light to induce visual hallucinations in more than 35,000 people, and what the largest ever citizen science study into perceptual diversity revealed about how differently each of us experiences the world
What the neuroscience of consciousness means for medicine: from anaesthesia and disorders of consciousness to psychedelics and mental health, how understanding the brain's generative nature opens new clinical possibilities
Free will, the self, and what's left: if the self is a controlled hallucination, does that mean we aren't really in control? And is that terrifying, or strangely liberating?
This is a deeply searching and surprisingly personal conversation about the most intimate fact of human existence: the experience of being you.
Learn more about Anil's work at anilseth.com, and find his book, Being You: A New Science of Consciousness, wherever books are sold. His TED talks are available HERE, and his 2025 Berggruen Prize essay, "The Mythology of Conscious AI," can be read at Noema Magazine.
🎙️ What is Impact in the 21st Century? Impact in the 21st Century is a podcast that celebrates the impactful work being done around the globe and shares the stories of the inspiring individuals behind it.
👤 Who hosts the podcast?
Aaron Friedland is a National Geographic Explorer, PhD Candidate in Econometrics at UBC, and Founder of the Simbi Foundation.
🦻 Who makes it sound good?
Tom Foster is an Award-Winning Recording Engineer and Cinematographer, Up-and-Coming Composer, Film Scoring Student at Berklee College of Music, and Head of Audio & Music for the Sea Change Project.
This podcast is brought to you by Simbi Foundation & The Goood Life.
Proudly recorded at Waterfall Farm
1 hr 12 min
June 11EP #35: Paul Hawken - Carbon, the Book of Life | Why We Declared War on the Wrong Thing
Paul Hawken has spent more than fifty years asking the same question in different registers: what does it look like when human commerce rejoins the community of life rather than consuming it? He was a 19-year-old press coordinator for Martin Luther King Jr.'s march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965. He cured his own lifelong asthma through food at 19, and went on to found Erewhon, one of the first natural food companies in America. He co-founded Smith & Hawken, wrote nine books translated into 30 languages across 50 countries, and co-founded Project Drawdown, which modeled the 100 most substantive solutions to reverse global warming. His most recent book, Carbon: The Book of Life, reframes carbon not as the villain of the climate story, but as the invisible thread connecting every living thing on Earth.
In this rich and wide-ranging episode, Paul unpacks the ideas behind Carbon, exploring:
The first breath: how a ten-day rice and tea fast at 19 cured an asthma that three doctors and a lifetime of medication never could, and what that taught him about the difference between fixing a symptom and restoring a relationship
Why he now says Project Drawdown failed by his own measure, what's wrong with "Net Zero" as a target, and the difference between stabilizing the overflow and draining the tub
Carbon as "the currency of abundance, the central bank of evolutionary growth, and the most socially adept entrepreneur in the pantheon of life," and what it means that this is not the language of a pollutant
The naming problem: how the Enlightenment turned forests into cellulose, soil into dirt, and animals into objects, and why our climate response keeps failing because it uses the same framework that created the crisis
What it means that humans are 0.01% of living biomass, and what the other 99.99% knows about running stable carbon cycles for hundreds of millions of years without summits, frameworks, or pledges
The economics of a whale, valued at over two million dollars alive versus forty thousand dead, and whether pricing nature protects it or just folds it into the logic that nearly destroyed it
The hidden world beneath our feet: mycorrhizal networks connecting 90% of land plants, 2,500 gigatons of carbon stored in soil, and why losing just 8% of it would dwarf current fossil fuel emissions
Why cooperation, not competition, is the actual operating principle of the living world, and what that says about the economic system we've built on top of it
Awe versus optimism: why Paul says he isn't optimistic, but is in awe of the people making a true difference, and what that distinction means in practice
This is a deeply personal and quietly radical conversation about commerce, the body, and what it might mean to stop fighting carbon and start rejoining the community of life that has been regulating it all along.
Learn more about Paul's work at paulhawken.com, and find his latest book, Carbon: The Book of Life, wherever books are sold.
🎙️ What is Impact in the 21st Century?
Impact in the 21st Century is a podcast that celebrates the impactful work being done around the globe and shares the stories of the inspiring individuals behind it.
👤 Who hosts the podcast?
Aaron Friedland is a National Geographic Explorer, PhD Candidate in Econometrics at UBC, and Founder of the Simbi Foundation.
🦻 Who makes it sound good?
Tom Foster is an Award-Winning Recording Engineer and Cinematographer, Up-and-Coming Composer, Film Scoring Student at Berklee College of Music, and Head of Audio & Music for the Sea Change Project.
This podcast is brought to you by Simbi Foundation & The Goood Life.
1 hr 36 min
April 15EP #34: David Abram - The Spell of the Sensuous | Perception, Language, and the Living Earth
David Abram is an ecologist, philosopher, and sleight-of-hand magician whose work sits at the intersection of phenomenology, linguistics, and our embodied relationship with the more-than-human world. Author of The Spell of the Sensuous and Becoming Animal, David is one of the most original and necessary voices asking what we lose when language severs us from the living land and what it takes to find our way back.
In this rich and unhurried conversation, David and Aaron explore:
Why tracking, reading wind, footprint, and silence, is humanity's original literacy, and what alphabetic writing cost us when it displaced that older way of knowing
How oral, place-based cultures encode intelligence in the landscape itself, and why that wisdom cannot survive transplantation into a book
The phenomenology of perception: how breath, texture, and animal encounter invite a kind of participation with the world that abstract thinking actively forecloses
The animism underlying Indigenous cosmologies, not as superstition, but as a precise description of how attention actually works
What it means to be a body among bodies, and why the ecological crisis is, at its root, a crisis of the senses
How the alphabet quietly re-routed human attention away from the living world and toward a self-enclosed human conversation
The rise of AI and what it means when the dominant intelligence shaping our language, perception, and knowledge is no longer rooted in a body, a place, or the breathing earth
Practical, grounded ways to reawaken sensory presence, and why this is not a romantic retreat from modernity, but its most urgent frontier
This is a conversation about the oldest question: what does it mean to be fully alive and fully here? And it arrives at exactly the right moment.
Learn more about David's work at davidabram.org
🎙️ What is Impact in the 21st Century? Impact in the 21st Century is a podcast that celebrates the impactful work being done around the globe and shares the stories of the inspiring individuals behind it.
👤 Who hosts the podcast? Aaron Friedland is a National Geographic Explorer, PhD Candidate in Econometrics at UBC, and Founder of the Simbi Foundation.
🦻 Who makes it sound good? Tom Foster is an Award-Winning Recording Engineer and Cinematographer, Up-and-Coming Composer, Film Scoring Student at Berklee College of Music, and Head of Audio & Music for the Sea Change Project.
This podcast is brought to you by Simbi Foundation & The Goood Life.
1 hr 42 min
March 11EP #33: Valdemar Danry - Your Brain on ChatGPT & Cognitive Debt | AI Exoskeletons | The Future of Critical Thinking
Valdemar Danry is a PhD researcher in the Fluid Interfaces group at the MIT Media Lab, a 2025 Google PhD Fellow in Human-Computer Interaction, and one of the most important voices at the intersection of artificial intelligence, neuroscience, and philosophy of mind. His landmark study, Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI Assistant for an Essay-Writing Task, sparked a global conversation about what happens to human cognition when we delegate our thinking to machines.
In this rich and urgent episode, Valdemar unpacks the science behind AI's effect on the brain, exploring:
The difference between cognitive offloading and cognitive debt, and the moment one quietly becomes the other
What EEG brain data revealed when people wrote essays with versus without ChatGPT, and why the sequence of tool use matters enormously
Why AI systems that hand us answers rather than ask us questions may be slowly eroding our capacity for independent thought
"Desirable difficulties," the intentional friction that makes learning stick, and two simple habits that keep AI as a thinking aid rather than a thinking replacement
Whether the reasoning traces and thinking steps now visible in tools like Claude, Grok, and Gemini genuinely help people reason, or simply create a more sophisticated illusion of understanding
A plain-English glossary of key terms: cognitive offloading, cognitive debt, transactive memory, extended cognition, epistemic hygiene, and more
Three possible futures, Assistive Renaissance, Dependency Drift, and Captured Cognition, and what determines which path we take
What Orwell and Huxley each got right about the world we're now living in
This is an honest, grounded, and deeply important conversation about one of the defining questions of our time: as AI gets smarter, do we get sharper, or do we quietly outsource the very faculty that makes us human?
Learn more about Valdemar's research at valdemardanry.com.
🎙️ What is Impact in the 21st Century?
Impact in the 21st Century is a podcast that celebrates the impactful work being done around the globe and shares the stories of the inspiring individuals behind it.
👤 Who hosts the podcast?
Aaron Friedland is a National Geographic Explorer, PhD Candidate in Econometrics at UBC, and Founder of the Simbi Foundation.
🦻 Who makes it sound good?
Tom Foster is an Award-Winning Recording Engineer and Cinematographer, Up-and-Coming Composer, Film Scoring Student at Berklee College of Music, and Head of Audio & Music for the Sea Change Project.
This podcast is brought to you by Simbi Foundation & The Goood Life.
1 hr 29 min
January 20EP #32: Frank Solomon - Riding Giants | Facing Fear | Protecting the Ocean
Frank Solomon is a world-renowned big wave surfer, ocean adventurer, and the founder of Sentinel Ocean Alliance. Raised on the rugged coastline of South Africa, Frank has ridden some of the most dangerous waves on Earth, from Mavericks in California to the legendary Dungeons in Hout Bay. But beyond pushing the limits of human courage, he has dedicated his life to protecting the ocean and empowering coastal communities through education, safety, and conservation.
In this powerful and grounded episode, Frank takes us deep into the world of big wave surfing and ocean stewardship, exploring:
What it takes mentally, physically, and emotionally, to ride waves over 50 feet tall
The unique danger and beauty of Dungeons, one of the world’s most feared big wave surf breaks
How fear becomes a tool rather than an obstacle in extreme environments
Why the ocean is not just a playground, but a living system under real threat
How Sentinel Ocean Alliance is transforming coastal communities through ocean education, safety training, and conservation initiatives
What everyday people can do to reconnect with, respect, and protect the sea, even if they never surf
This is a raw, reflective, and inspiring conversation about courage, humility, and responsibility, where adventure meets advocacy, and where loving the ocean means standing up for it.
🎙️ What is Impact in the 21st Century?
Impact in the 21st Century is a podcast that celebrates the impactful work being done around the globe and shares the stories of the inspiring individuals behind it.
👤 Who hosts the podcast?
Aaron Friedland is a National Geographic Explorer, PhD Candidate in Econometrics at UBC, and Founder of the Simbi Foundation.
🦻 Who makes it sound good?
Tom Foster is an Award-Winning Recording Engineer and Cinematographer, Up-and-Coming Composer, Film Scoring Student at Berklee College of Music, and Head of Audio & Music for the Sea Change Project.
This podcast is brought to you by Simbi Foundation & The Goood Life.
38 min
December 19, 2025EP #31: Nelson Dellis - Unlocking Superhuman Memory | Building Memory Palaces | Remembering Everyone's Name
Nelson Dellis is a six-time USA Memory Champion, Grandmaster of Memory, and one of the world’s foremost experts on training the mind. Driven by his grandmother’s struggle with Alzheimer’s, he turned an average memory into a world-class superpower using ancient techniques and now teaches others to do the same. As founder of Climb For Memory, he scales the planet’s highest peaks, including multiple Everest expeditions, to fund Alzheimer’s research and prove that mental and physical resilience go hand in hand.
In this mind-expanding episode, Nelson reveals how anyone can transform their memory from forgetful to unforgettable, including:
The ancient origins of the memory palace and why these techniques powered civilizations long before writing existed
Step-by-step guidance on building your first memory palace and mastering the Major System for numbers
Instant hacks for remembering names, speeches, grocery lists and a live demo that will blow your mind
Why memory training builds focus, presence, and creativity in an age of endless digital distraction
The future of human memory as AI takes over storage and how keeping this skill sharp could define our humanity
This is a thrilling, practical conversation for anyone ready to reclaim their mind, boost daily performance, and discover that superhuman memory isn’t a gift. It’s a skill waiting to be unlocked.
🎙️ What is Impact in the 21st Century?
Impact in the 21st Century is a podcast that celebrates the impactful work being done around the globe and shares the stories of the inspiring individuals who are behind it.
👤 Who hosts the podcast?
Aaron Friedland is a National Geographic Explorer, PhD Candidate in Econometrics at UBC, and Founder of Simbi Foundation.
🦻 Who Makes It Sound Good?
Tom Foster is an Award-Winning Recording Engineer and Cinematographer, Up-and-Coming Composer, Film Scoring Student at Berklee College of Music, and Head of Audio & Music for the Sea Change Project.
This podcast is brought to you by Simbi Foundation & The Goood Life.
51 min
December 02, 2025EP #30: Dr. Raoul Goldberg - Integrative Medicine & Empowering Health
Dr. Raoul Goldberg is a renowned integrative medicine practitioner with decades of experience blending conventional medical expertise with holistic approaches to empower individuals toward optimal health. As a leader in integrative health practices, he has inspired countless people through his innovative methods, combining physical, emotional, and spiritual dimensions of healing. His work emphasizes patient empowerment, preventive care, and the transformative potential of addressing the root causes of illness.
In this enlightening episode, Dr. Goldberg shares his insights on revolutionizing health and wellness, including:
The principles of integrative medicine and how they bridge conventional and holistic approaches
How the PATH method helps break free from addictive behaviors by addressing underlying emotional and psychological patterns
The role of nutrition, lifestyle, and emotional well-being in preventing and healing chronic conditions
Practical tools for fostering resilience and vitality in the modern world
The future of healthcare in integrating holistic practices with cutting-edge medical advancements
This is an inspiring conversation for anyone curious about the future of medicine, the power of holistic health, and the path to a vibrant, balanced life.
🎙️ What is Impact in the 21st Century?
Impact in the 21st Century is a podcast that celebrates the impactful work being done around the globe and shares the stories of the inspiring individuals who are behind it.
👤 Who hosts the podcast?
Aaron Friedland is a National Geographic Explorer, PhD Candidate in Econometrics at UBC, and Founder of Simbi Foundation.
🦻 Who Makes It Sound Good?
Tom Foster is an Award-Winning Recording Engineer and Cinematographer, Up-and-Coming Composer, Film Scoring Student at Berklee College of Music, and Head of Audio & Music for the Sea Change Project.
This podcast is brought to you by Simbi Foundation & The Goood Life.
1 hr 10 min
November 13, 2025EP #29: Jonathan Lowenhar - Great Founder ≠ Great CEO | The Leap That Saves 90% of Missions | Staying Curious Over Toxic Certainty
Most world-changing startups don’t die from lack of money or market fit. They die because the founder never becomes the CEO the mission needs.
Jonathan Lowenhar has spent 10 years helping hundreds of founders make that leap before it’s too late.
In this episode he gives you the exact tools that decide whether your mission lives or dies:
The critical difference between being a great founder and a great CEO
Why 90 % of startups fail, and the day-one patterns that predict it
Venture funding vs. philanthropic capital: how to choose the model that protects your mission
The live 5-minute exercise Jonathan used to stress-test Aaron’s own clarity and blind spots
Staying Curious Over Toxic Certainty: the mindset that turns conflict into alignment
Aligning leadership, systems, and purpose from day one
The daily ritual Jonathan has kept for twelve years that prevents burnout
Real examples of founders who recovered after hitting hidden failure modes
Want to make the leap yourself? Jonathan just opened CEO Bootcamps built exactly for this moment: → (December 2 & 3, 2025): https://enjoythework.com/a-new-kind-of-ceo-bootcamp/
Required pre-reading (5 minutes that will change everything): From Founder to Master Operator – the blog post that started it all https://enjoythework.com/blog/from-founder-to-master-operator
If you’re building something that has to outlive you, this episode + bootcamp combo is the fastest way to guarantee it does.
🎙️ What is Impact in the 21st Century?
Impact in the 21st Century is a podcast that celebrates the impactful work being done around the globe and shares the stories of the inspiring individuals who are behind it.
👤 Who hosts the podcast?
Aaron Friedland is a National Geographic Explorer, PhD Candidate in Econometrics at UBC, and Founder of Simbi Foundation.
🦻 Who Makes It Sound Good?
Tom Foster is an Award-Winning Recording Engineer and Cinematographer, Up-and-Coming Composer, Film Scoring Student at Berklee College of Music, and Head of Audio & Music for the Sea Change Project.
This podcast is brought to you by Simbi Foundation & The Goood Life.
1 hr 37 min
October 20, 2025EP #28: Jamie Brooker - Revolutionizing Learning with Kahoot! | Crafting Tech for Global Good | Igniting Purpose with Project Align
Jamie Brooker is the co-founder of Kahoot!, the game-based learning platform that has transformed education for over 70 million users worldwide, and the visionary behind We Are Human, a collective dedicated to building values-driven tech for social good. Now, with his latest venture, Project Align, Jamie is helping organizations realign teams and leaders around transformative, purpose-led goals. His innovative approach to behavioral design and habit formation has sparked positive change across education, health, and beyond.
In this inspiring episode, Jamie dives into the power of intentional tech design, sharing:
How Kahoot! revolutionized learning by blending fun with lasting behavioral change
Lessons from Nir Eyal’s Hook Model and building “tech for good” that fosters positive habits
The mission of We Are Human and its focus on values-based solutions for global challenges
The mission of We Are Human and its focus on values-based solutions for global challenges
How Project Align empowers organizations to reconnect with their core purpose
The magic of working with the same trusted team across Kahoot!, We Are Human, and Align
This is a must-listen for anyone curious about using technology to drive meaningful impact, align teams, and create a better world through purposeful innovation.

🎙️ What is Impact in the 21st Century?
Impact in the 21st Century is a podcast that celebrates the impactful work being done around the globe and shares the stories of the inspiring individuals who are behind it.
👤 Who hosts the podcast?
Aaron Friedland is a National Geographic Explorer, PhD Candidate in Econometrics at UBC, and Founder of Simbi Foundation.
🦻 Who Makes It Sound Good?
Tom Foster is an Award-Winning Recording Engineer and Cinematographer, Up-and-Coming Composer, Film Scoring Student at Berklee College of Music, and Head of Audio & Music for the Sea Change Project.
This podcast is brought to you by Simbi Foundation & The Goood Life.
1 hr 41 min

About Impact in the 21st Century

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Welcome to Impact in the 21st Century.
This is a show about innovators, entrepreneurs, founders, and authors, and the positive impact they create.

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Impact in the 21st Century

Impact in the 21st Century episodes

About Impact in the 21st Century