The Convex Conversation

It’s shocking to learn that two million plastic bags are used every minute and a truckload of plastic is dumped into our ocean every 60 seconds.

Gomi - Japanese for trash - is the name of a young design studio in Brighton who are making stunning bespoke Bluetooth speakers and portable phone chargers with second-use Lime bike batteries and so-called ‘non-recyclable’ waste ordinarily destined for landfill.

Gomi co-founder and designer Tom Meades explains how they actually create the speakers and chargers inspired by artists like Jackson Pollock and why they're collaborating with thought-provoking brands like Paul Smith and Brewdog to reduce our impact on the planet and make something meaningful that lasts a lifetime.

Merlin Hanbury-Tenison served as a British Army Major and completed three tours of Afghanistan, but had a breakdown triggered by Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from an IED explosion. His wife Lizzie, who worked with dynamic founders of brands like Green and Blacks and Charlotte Tilbury, suffered burnout and postnatal depression. 

Together they’ve created a nature-inspired relaxing space for retreats where stressed out, worn-out people – including US military personnel and exhausted nurses - can recharge and reconnect with nature.  Sound baths, somatic movement, wild water swimming, guided walks in the forest, yoga, pilates are just some of the offerings. 

Photo by John Hersey

Photo by Bex Aston

Photo by Jenna Foxton

Photo by Sophie Bolesworth

Photo by Beth Druce

Photo by Bex Aston

Frustrated by abandoned fishing nets - known as ‘ghost gear’ - dumped on their local Cornish beaches and coastline, marine biologists & keen surfers Harry Dennis and Gavin Parker searched for a sustainable solution. 

They discovered the very properties which make discarded fishing gear such a threat to the ocean & marine life - it’s abundance, strength, durability and flexibility - make it a perfect material to work with, and so risked everything to set up Waterhaul.

After much trial and error, they’re collecting the nets and end-of-life material, recycling the plastic, separating the polymers, and turning harmful waste products into stylish sunglasses and eyewear, with plans to scale their already successful business. 

Recently back from a scientific study to the South Pole, health tech entrepreneur Dr Jack Kreindler talks about his life in emergency and high-altitude medicine and how we can put more life into our years.

Jack says he thinks of health as a gift and asset born of luck, inheritance, and a wise investment strategy with its purpose to not merely extend our days but to help us live our fullest lives.

Jack has worked with stars like Alan Shearer, Robbie Savage and Davina McCall on the extreme Comic and Sport Relief challenges and, in our podcast, explores how we can all ‘kick ass’ in our 80s and 90s thanks to the latest health tech as well as embracing fundamental basics like sleep, hydration, community, good nutrition and music.  

Jack has also created WellFounded to enhance the mental and physical health of some of the most successful entrepreneurs and founders, treating them in much the same way as elite athletes, and he runs the ACT for Cancer Foundation with his wife. 

South Pole drone footage courtesy of Taavet Hinrikus 

Jude Tebbutt was on holiday in Kenya with her husband David in 2011 when she was snatched in the dead of night by Somali pirates wielding AK47s. 

Unbeknown to Jude at the time, the gunmen murdered her husband that night and held her for ransom in squalor, with barely any food, in filthy conditions for six and a half months. 

Jude explains how she developed techniques to help her survive, stay mentally strong, cope with the daily threat of being shot and make it home “without going mad” to her wonderful 25-year-old son Ollie who negotiated her eventual release.  Jude is a patron of Sir Terry Waite’s charity Hostage International – supporting kidnap victims and their families, and author of A Long Walk Home. 

Photograph courtesy of N Nastia Photography

Expert mountain guide Dawa Geljen Sherpa grew up in a big family in Lukla in Nepal – known as The Gateway to Everest.

As a young boy he worked hard tending his parents’ livestock with no access to school until he ran away from home aged ten in search of an education, funded by work he did on Everest as a kitchen porter.

After travelling the world guiding expeditions on some of the world’s most challenging mountains, Dawa founded Classrooms in the Clouds so children in the poorest, remotest parts of Nepal can learn.

The charity has so far built 70 earthquake-resistant, warm, safe classrooms and sponsored 26 female teachers as role models.

Oli France is back home in Wigan after completing the first of seven extraordinary expeditions – to travel under his own steam from the lowest to the highest point of every continent - an extreme challenge which has been five years in the planning.

He’s just cycled the equivalent of London to Moscow through Africa – facing furnace-like temperatures in Djibouti; hostilities & traffic chaos in Ethiopia; the kindness of the Masai in Kenya, as well as the knowledge he was a perfect ‘meal on wheels’ for lions! He finished on the summit of Kilimanjaro.

Oli explains what drives him to push himself to the limit, how he manages risk and builds mental resilience, as well as talks us through the expeditions ahead, including sub-zero conditions in the Antarctic, Mount Denali in Alaska, a 2,000- mile cycle across the Australian Outback and ocean row in Oceania, and Everest in Asia.

If you watched the King’s Coronation Concert, the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee music extravaganza, or were one of the millions tuned in to Prince Harry’s wedding, you’ll have heard some of choir director Mark De-Lisser’s arrangements.

Mark puts bespoke choirs together for major events, liaising with artists like Lionel Ritchie, Alicia Keys, Katie Perry and Andrea Bocelli. But he tells Helen it took years to discover his purpose in life after a series of failures in the wrong direction.

Mark gets the nation singing; leads Vicky McClure’s Dementia Choir; features in shows like Songs of Praise and The Masked Singer and is about to embark on quantifiable research to discover how singing affects our bodies and brains.  

Olly Williams and Suzi Winstanley – known simply as Olly and Suzi – have travelled the world together tracking, painting, sketching and photographing endangered species in the wild.

Their unique method of creating their art has led to powerful interactions and encounters with bears and buffalo, sharks and seals, hyenas and wild cats, and more.

They’ve trekked through jungles, deserts, the poles and remote wildernesses experiencing the natural world at its most raw and humbling and have become passionate conservationists, using their art to highlight the threats many of their subjects face.

Olly and Suzi’s work is held in private and public collections - including the Damien Hirst “Murder Me” collection and at the Natural History Museum - and Olly has just published his first poetry book, Draw of the Wild.

* Images courtesy of Greg Williams Photography and ollysuzi.com

Acclaimed Finnish conductor Dalia Stasevska opened this year’s prestigious First Night of the Proms at London’s Royal Albert Hall and went straight to Glyndebourne for a run of Benjamin Britten’s iconic A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

But in-between her high-profile musical appearances, Dalia – who was born in Ukraine - has been driving trucks into the war-torn city of Lviv, delivering generators, sleeping bags, warm clothes and essential supplies to those struggling to survive, as well as performing there. 

She tells Helen she considered giving up her career in music for a while to concentrate on volunteering full-time but has decided to use her platform to keep people informed of the ongoing atrocities and to ensure the world doesn’t tire of the plight of Ukrainian people.

Photographs by Veikko Kahkonen