The ADDA

"We may all be refugees, but we don't live the same stories." – Olivier Nkunzurwanda

What does it mean to have control over your own story?

In this episode of #theADDA, Deepa Mirchandani chats to Olivier Nkunzurwanda, a social entrepreneur who turned displacement into action. Forced to flee the DRC, Olivier arrived in Uganda as a refugee. But instead of being defined by that label, he built something that would change lives - the Refugee Innovation Centre, a space where digital literacy, entrepreneurship, and education empower people to shape their own futures, and provides the skills to share their stories and experiences.

This conversation isn’t about survival. It’s about agency, ownership, and the power of storytelling. Who gets to tell the stories of refugees? And what happens when they tell their own?This episode is audio-only to ensure the best possible quality across limited bandwidth. We hope you enjoy it.

You can explore the transformative work of the Refugee Innovation Centre here: https://www.facebook.com/refugeeinnovationcentre/

Olivier's recommendations:

- Refugee Innovation Centre: ⁨@refugeeinnovationcentre1094⁩

- Ramawanja Rural Foundation: ⁨@rwamwanjaruralfoundationltd⁩

The ADDA is hosted by Deepa Mirchandani, a strategist, entrepreneur and curious observer of people, organisations and the world around us. Sign up for her monthly newsletter or discover upcoming Group ADDA sessions at www.deepamirchandani.com.

Music: Unreasonable World by Bernhard Schimpelsberger – www.bernhard.co.at

In this episode, Deepa Mirchandani speaks to Emily Bazalgette, a facilitator, coach, and grief tender who supports the creation of graceful endings. She’s also the author of GriefSick, a writing project that speaks to chronic illness and grief.

Emily joins Deepa to explore the quiet ongoing griefs we rarely speak of: chronic illness, endings without ceremony, and the illusion of control in a world that is constantly changing.

Their conversation delves into Emily's reflections on longing for ritual, for ways to mark the unspoken losses of daily life, and the strange aliveness of grief. They consider why disabled and chronically ill people may be the wisest guides for navigating uncertainty and collapse, and how looking at endings could be useful for organisations and funders and creating a healthy society.

This conversation invites reflection on the many ways that grief manifests in our lives and encourages us to rethink endings and reimagine what it means to tend to one another and ourselves. We hope you enjoy the conversation.

Learn more about Emily’s work:

• GriefSick: https://griefsick.substack.com
• Foregather: https://foregather.substack.com/p/welcome-to-foregather

The ADDA is hosted by Deepa Mirchandani, a strategist, entrepreneur and curious observer of people, organisations and the world around us. Sign up for her monthly newsletter or discover upcoming Group ADDA sessions at www.deepamirchandani.com.

Music: Unreasonable World by Bernhard Schimpelsberger – www.bernhard.co.at

In this episode, Deepa Mirchandani sits down with Matt Klein, cultural theorist, strategist, and Head of Global Foresight at Reddit, to explore the value of global trends and why you need to dig deep to understand what they reveal about human behavior today and in the future.

As algorithms conspire to shape our realities and quick fixes dominate our thinking, Matt and Deepa discuss the challenges of critical thought, the power of cultural foresight, and whether seeing the patterns and connections between the nodes in an era of blinders and biases can actually give us hope.

We hope you enjoy the conversation.

Explore Matt’s work:

- Zine: https://zine.kleinkleinklein.com/

- META Trends 2025: https://zine.kleinkleinklein.com/p/meta-trends-2025

The ADDA is hosted by Deepa Mirchandani, a strategist, entrepreneur and curious observer of people, organisations and the world around us. Sign up for her monthly newsletter or discover upcoming Group ADDA sessions at www.deepamirchandani.com.

Music: Unreasonable World by Bernhard Schimpelsberger – www.bernhard.co.ataybe we can grow and show up a little bit better in the world. We’re believers that good conversations lead to better perspectives and better perspectives undoubtedly lead to better decision making and action. We’re really pleased that you’re here to be part of it!

In Episode 9 Deepa Mirchandani shares a conversation with Satish Kumar, a peace pilgrim, activist, and founder of Resurgence Magazine and Schumacher College.

Satish has inspired thousands over decades to connect deeply with the land, their communities and themselves.The group session explored what it means to show up with radical love, the struggles of working in the impact and regenerative worlds and how to deal with the complexities of our time.

The multifaceted conversation covered topics like education systems, societal expectations, and challenging norms. Guiding us through this conversation, Satish offered us the chance to understand and feel into what we bring into the world and how to trust our own paths.

We hope it nurtures you as much as it did those in the circle.

The ADDA is hosted by Deepa Mirchandani, a strategist, entrepreneur and curious observer of people, organisations and the world around us. Sign up for her monthly newsletter or discover upcoming Group ADDA sessions at www.deepamirchandani.com.

Music: Unreasonable World by Bernhard Schimpelsberger – www.bernhard.co.at

Welcome to the ADDA, a space for better conversations.This Group ADDA is thrilled to have Robin Rutchik, director of Tuqtuqilal, a regenerative centre that promotes community development through artisanal production, agroecology, ecotourism and education in rural Guatemala.

Robin’s lived there for over a decade, bringing her learning in permaculture and green building design to the organisation’s philosophy of earth care, people care and fair share.

When it comes to designing “village projects” or regenerative land programmes, the environmental intentions are often noble and get much consideration, but the engagement, involvement and permission of the local, host communities are often side-lined or ignored altogether. What does it take to really place the local community at the heart not only of the programme, but in the design of the organisation itself? We explored this and more in our conversation.

Find out more about Tuqtuqilal here: https://www.tuqtuquilal.com/en

The ADDA is hosted by Deepa Mirchandani, a strategist, entrepreneur and curious observer of people, organisations and the world around us. Sign up for her monthly newsletter or discover upcoming Group ADDA sessions at www.deepamirchandani.com.

Music: Unreasonable World by Bernhard Schimpelsberger – www.bernhard.co.at

In episode 7, Deepa is in conversation with Elyes Mkacher. Elyes is a regenerative farmer, a holistic thinker, a professional permaculture designer and educator. He’s the founder of Dar Emmima, a permaculture education center based in Chebba, Tunisia.

In this conversation, Deepa and Elyes look at ideas of self-sufficiency as an act of rebellion and an alternative to the capitalist, consumption and individualistic way we're encouraged to live. They get into understanding permaculture as a practice and philosophy rather than just a way of tending land and why it's thinking is important, now more than ever - even if you don't have any land.

I hope you enjoy our conversation!

You can find more of Elyes's work here:

Dar Emmima Course in partnership with the Design School for Regenerating Earth Elyes' TedX talk - "Dare to be Free"

The ADDA is hosted by Deepa Mirchandani, a strategist, entrepreneur and curious observer of people, organisations and the world around us. Sign up for her monthly newsletter or discover upcoming Group ADDA sessions at www.deepamirchandani.com.

Music: Unreasonable World by Bernhard Schimpelsberger – www.bernhard.co.at

In this Group ADDA episode, Deepa Mirchandani is in conversations with Gemma Drake, a designer, systems thinker and coach for social change. Together they explore the challenges and differences between systems thinking and design, what that means for those of us that work in social change and how we hold spaces for multi-stakeholder systems design, particularly when they all don’t always necessarily agree.

The rest of the conversation was held in confidence for participants to be able to share and learn together freely. Hope you enjoy it!

The ADDA is hosted by Deepa Mirchandani, a strategist, entrepreneur and curious observer of people, organisations and the world around us. Sign up for her monthly newsletter or discover upcoming Group ADDA sessions at www.deepamirchandani.com.

Music: Unreasonable World by Bernhard Schimpelsberger – www.bernhard.co.at

Deepa and Dr. Ester McGeeney have been friends for over 20 years so this was a special Group ADDA session. Ester is the co-author of the manual Great Relationships and Sex Education which provides educators with over 200 activities to guide working with young people on topics as wide ranging from consent, to navigating relationships, and of course, understanding the heteronormal.

In this conversation, we talk about what heteronormativity is, why it’s important and how what the “norm” is has been predetermined by history and a set of values that are not only antiquated, but offensive. We cover the significance of gender neutral toilets and why they matter, and explore the ridiculousness of the series of questions that straight people never get asked but people from the LGBTQI+ face every day.

The rest of the conversation was held in confidence for participants to be able to share and learn together freely.

The ADDA is hosted by Deepa Mirchandani, a strategist, entrepreneur and curious observer of people, organisations and the world around us. Sign up for her monthly newsletter or discover upcoming Group ADDA sessions at www.deepamirchandani.com.

Music: Unreasonable World by Bernhard Schimpelsberger – www.bernhard.co.at

Dominika Noworolska is a Transcontextual researcher & facilitator. In this Group ADDA session, Deepa and Dominika explore the complexities of the use of metaphors and how it’s damaging to always be “at war” on things like drugs, terror, cancer..well, you name it.

Not only does the use of such tropes mean that we’re constantly in a state of anxiety, it shapes how we are able to respond to the challenges, both individually and collectively.

The rest of the conversation was held in confidence for participants to be able to share and learn together freely. Hope you enjoy it!

The ADDA is hosted by Deepa Mirchandani, a strategist, entrepreneur and curious observer of people, organisations and the world around us. Sign up for her monthly newsletter or discover upcoming Group ADDA sessions at www.deepamirchandani.com.

Music: Unreasonable World by Bernhard Schimpelsberger – www.bernhard.co.at

In this episode Deepa is in conversation with Meera Dattani, Senior Editor of Adventure.com and travel and culture journalist.

Together they explore the intrinsic biases and the lazy decision making that still exist in the media’s portrayal, both in writing and in visual representations of communities. She shares examples of how the “colonial lens” is nuanced but permeates throughout mainstream media to perpetuate and exploit stereotypes and how that harms our societies. This was a Group ADDA session so the rest of the conversation was held in confidence for participants to be able to share and learn together freely.

Hope you enjoy it!

The ADDA is hosted by Deepa Mirchandani, a strategist, entrepreneur and curious observer of people, organisations and the world around us. Sign up for her monthly newsletter or discover upcoming Group ADDA sessions at www.deepamirchandani.com.

Music: Unreasonable World by Bernhard Schimpelsberger – www.bernhard.co.at