In June 1989, a biology student at Peking University walked out onto Changan Avenue and into history. Thirty-five years later, he is building the future of food — and still fighting for democracy.

In this TBLI Radical Truth episode, Robert Rubinstein sits down with Shen Tong — Chinese dissident, Newsweek Person of the Year 1989, exiled student leader of the Tiananmen Square democracy movement, and serial impact investor with more than 200 investments across regenerative agriculture, healthy food, health and wellness, Web3, and deep tech ventures. WikipediaAfter imprisonment and exile, Shen rebuilt himself as an entrepreneur and investor in the United States — and never stopped asking the harder questions about China, democracy, and the food systems that feed the world. His radical truth: the struggle for people's democracy and the struggle for a regenerative food system are the same struggle. Both are about who holds power, and who pays the price.

In this episode:

• What Shen witnessed on Changan Avenue on June 4, 1989 — and what exile taught him about power, resilience, and long-term change
• What China's political trajectory since 1989 reveals about the prospects for democracy — and what the West consistently gets wrong about the country
• Whether people's democracy is still possible in China — and what conditions could make it so
• What Food-X, FoodFutureCo, and TheFutureCo are building — and why he has focused his investment lens on regenerative agriculture, healthy food, and food system transformationWikipedia- What the most promising innovations in food technology actually are — and which ones are hype
• What the connection is between political freedom, food sovereignty, and impact investing

The key insight: Shen Tong founded the Democracy for China Fund in 1990, emphasising building international solidarity for civil society development and rule-of-law reforms rather than direct confrontation. GrokipediaDecades later, his approach to food systems reflects the same philosophy: work at the roots, build coalitions, invest in what is regenerative rather than extractive. From Tiananmen to the food supply chain — the principles do not change.

⏱️ Episode Guide:

• 0:00 — June 4, 1989: what Shen saw and what it cost him
• 0:X:XX — Exile, reinvention, and the Democracy for China Fund
• 0:X:XX — China today: politics, power, and prospects for democracy
• 0:X:XX — Why food became his arena for impact
• 0:X:XX — Food-X, FoodFutureCo, and the future of food systems
• 0:X:XX — What regenerative food investment actually looks like

👤 About Shen TongShen Tong completed his undergraduate degree at Brandeis University after exile and went on to study PhD programmes at Boston University and Harvard University. He became a serial entrepreneur in the 1990s, co-founding B&B Media and VFinity, before founding Food-X in 2014 and FoodFutureCo in 2015. H ACG Globale appeared in the 2019 PBS/BBC documentary Tiananmen: The People Versus the Party and in The Exiles, which won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance 2022. H Wikipediae is a board member of Food Tank and author of the memoir Almost a Revolution.

For anyone who wants to understand where China is heading — and where our food systems must go — this episode is essential listening.

TBLI Group is the world's leading ESG and impact investing network — educating, advising, and connecting investors for 25 years.🌐 tbligroup.com

#ShenTong #Tiananmen #ChinaDemocracy #FoodFutureCo #FoodX #ImpactInvesting #TBLI #TBLIRadicalTruth #RegenerativeAgriculture #FoodTech #FoodSystems #ChineseDissident #Democracy #FoodTank #RadicalTruth

What if the green energy revolution is not saving the planet — but just replacing one form of destruction with another? And what if the people saying so are lifelong environmentalists?

In this special panel episode of TBLI Radical Truth, Robert Rubinstein convenes an expert discussion around Planet of the Humans — the incendiary documentary directed by Jeff Gibbs and executive produced by Michael Moore. The film takes a critical look at the mainstream environmental movement, questioning its leaders' decision to partner with billionaires and corporations, and challenges the idea that renewable energy technology is the solution to climate change. WikipediaIt claims the carbon footprint of renewable energy is comparable to fossil fuels when taking into account all stages of production — and argues that "less must be the new more" if humankind is to survive. WikipediaThe film has been praised by some, condemned by climate scientists as dangerously misleading, and watched by millions. Our panel is here to go further than the controversy — and ask what is actually true.

In this episode:

• What Planet of the Humans gets right — and what it gets dangerously wrong
• Whether the lifecycle carbon footprint of wind, solar, and nuclear is truly comparable to fossil fuels — and what the science actually showsNiskanen Center- Whether infinite economic growth on a finite planet is possible — and whether degrowth is a realistic policy framework or a fantasy
• What the film's treatment of biomass, corporate greenwashing, and Big Green reveals that mainstream environmentalism still refuses to confront
• Whether wind and solar, combined with storage, can realistically replace fossil fuels at scale — and what the honest timeline looks like
• What the film's reception reveals about how the climate movement handles uncomfortable internal criticism
• What humanity's actual options are — and which uncomfortable truths the panel believes we can no longer afford to avoid

The key insight: Planet of the Humans rightly argues that infinite growth on a finite planet is "suicide" — but its bogus claims about renewable energy risk overshadowing that message. The ConversationThe film's greatest service may not be its specific arguments — many of which rely on outdated data — but its provocation: that the environmental movement has become too comfortable, too corporate, and too reluctant to question its own sacred cows. That conversation is long overdue.

⏱️ Episode Guide:

• 0:00 — What Planet of the Humans actually argues
• 0:X:XX — What the science says about renewable energy's carbon footprint
• 0:X:XX — Growth, degrowth, and the limits of the planet
• 0:X:XX — Corporate capture of the environmental movement
• 0:X:XX — What wind, solar, and storage can and cannot deliver
• 0:X:XX — What humanity must do — and what it will actually do

👤 About Jeff GibbsJeff Gibbs is the director, writer, and producer of Planet of the Humans, born in Flint, Michigan. A long-time collaborator with Michael Moore, he co-produced Fahrenheit 9/11 — the largest box-office documentary of all time — and has been, since then, singularly focused on the fate of the Earth and humanity. * LastborninthewildernessPlanet of the Humans* has been viewed over eight million times on YouTube.

For anyone who cares about the future of the planet — and is willing to sit with uncomfortable questions — this episode is essential listening.

TBLI Group is the world's leading ESG and impact investing network — educating, advising, and connecting investors for 25 years.🌐 tbligroup.com

#PlanetOfTheHumans #JeffGibbs #MichaelMoore #RenewableEnergy #ClimateChange #TBLI #TBLIRadicalTruth #Degrowth #Sustainability #ClimateDebate #SolarEnergy #WindEnergy #ESG #GreenEconomy #RadicalTruth

🎙️ SPOTIFY / APPLE PODCASTS DESCRIPTION

What if the most radical thing a business could do is refuse to grow? What if hacking a company's security systems and hacking the logic of venture capitalism require exactly the same mindset?

In this TBLI Radical Truth episode, Robert Rubinstein sits down with Dr. Melanie Rieback — professional hacker, cybersecurity pioneer, and one of the most provocative social entrepreneurs in Europe. She is CEO and co-founder of Radically Open Security, the world's first not-for-profit cybersecurity company, and of Nonprofit Ventures, a Post Growth startup incubator. She teaches Post Growth Entrepreneurship at the University of Amsterdam Business School and is a Fellow of the Post Growth Institute. SingularityRadically Open Security donates 90% of its profits to NLnet — a foundation supporting open internet and digital rights — and has donated over one million euros to date. SURFHer radical truth: business is one of the most effective forms of activism. And the Silicon Valley model is not a feature — it is a bug.

In this episode:

• Why after 15 years building privacy-enhancing technologies, Melanie concluded she was "building technological band-aids for business model problems" — and decided to fight business models with business modelsSecurityinnovationstories- What is fundamentally broken about the Silicon Valley exponential growth model — and who it actually serves
• What Post Growth Entrepreneurship is — and how Doughnut Economics, Degrowth, and Steward Ownership provide the framework for a different kind of company
• How Radically Open Security serves Google, Mozilla, and the Dutch government while also working at cost-price for Greenpeace, Oxfam, and free-speech organisations for refugees of authoritarian countriesSecurityinnovationstories- What it means to treat business as art — and what it would take for more founders to make that leap

The key insight: When Melanie told a venture capitalist she would donate 90% of profits to charity, he said: "Either you are crazy or you are a genius." SURFTen years later, the company is thriving — a preferred vendor to governments and global NGOs, built without a single euro of venture capital and without ever compromising its mission. The Silicon Valley model is not the only model. It is just the one with the best marketing.

⏱️ Episode Guide:

• 0:00 — "We need to fight business models with business models"
• 0:X:XX — What is broken about the exponential growth curve
• 0:X:XX — How Radically Open Security was built — and why it works
• 0:X:XX — Post Growth Entrepreneurship: the framework
• 0:X:XX — Business as activism. Business as art.

👤 About Dr. Melanie RiebackDr. Melanie Rieback is a former Assistant Professor at the Free University of Amsterdam, where she developed the RFID Virus and RFID Guardian, winning IEEE Percom Best Paper and USENIX Lisa Best Paper awards. She previously led ING Bank's Cyber Crime Expertise and Response Team. S SafetyDetectiveshe was named Most Innovative IT Leader of the Netherlands by CIO Magazine in 2017, and one of the 9 Most Innovative Women in the European Union in 2019.

SingularityFor anyone who suspects that the problem with capitalism is its business model — this episode is essential listening.

TBLI Group is the world's leading ESG and impact investing network — educating, advising, and connecting investors for 25 years.🌐 tbligroup.com

#MelanieRieback #RadicallyOpenSecurity #PostGrowth #SocialEntrepreneurship #TBLI #TBLIRadicalTruth #DegrowthEconomics #StewardOwnership #DoughnutEconomics #BusinessActivism #Cybersecurity #NonprofitVentures #SiliconValley #ImpactInvesting #RadicalTruth

The financial system is the most powerful force on Earth. It can accelerate the climate crisis — or fund the solutions. It can entrench poverty and inequality — or dismantle them. The question is not whether finance shapes the world. The question is: who decides how?

TBLI Radical Truth is the podcast that cuts through the noise, the greenwash, and the comfortable half-truths of mainstream finance. Hosted by Robert Rubinstein — founder of TBLI Group, the world's leading ESG and impact investing network — this show brings together the thinkers, investors, activists, scientists, entrepreneurs, and whistleblowers who are asking the questions that the financial sector would rather not answer.

TBLI Group is a renowned global network dedicated to sustainable finance and investment, empowering investors to achieve financial returns while making a positive social and environmental impact. TBLI Group Founded in Amsterdam in 1998, TBLI has spent over 25 years mobilising capital for ESG and impact investing — advising the European Commission, organising the world's leading responsible investment conference, and building a global community of investors who believe that a truly sound investment provides not just financial rewards, but social and environmental ones too. Wikipedia

In each episode, Robert sits down with thought leaders — some famous, some not yet — for honest, unscripted conversations about the real state of sustainable finance. No promotional fluff. No comfortable consensus. Just radical truth.

What we cover:

• What ESG and Impact Investing actually are — and what they are not
• Why tens of trillions in sustainable capital have not yet bent the curve on climate, inequality, or biodiversity loss
• How to integrate sustainability into asset management, portfolio construction, and fiduciary duty
• How climate change is already repricing assets — and what investors are still ignoring
• The voices challenging growth, extractive capitalism, and the financial status quo
• The innovators building the new financial architecture: regenerative investment, steward ownership, community currencies, post-growth entrepreneurship, and more
• Human rights, criminal justice, food systems, cybersecurity, geopolitics — because the 'S' in ESG is not optional

The big question we keep returning to: Can we create an economy based on wellbeing — not just wealth? Can the financial system be made to work for all people, all species, and all future generations?

TBLI puts forward the notion that a truly sound investment is one that provides not just financial rewards, but social and environmental ones too. Speakers Academy After 25 years of building that case, Robert Rubinstein is still not done making it — because the stakes have never been higher.

Subscribe. Share. And if something in this podcast makes you uncomfortable — good. That means it's working.

🌐 tbligroup.com

#TBLI #TBLIRadicalTruth #ESG #ImpactInvesting #SustainableFinance #ResponsibleInvesting #ClimateFinance #RobertRubinstein #GreenBonds #Degrowth #RegenerativeInvesting #TripleBottomLine #WellbeingEconomy #SystemsChange #RadicalTruth