The Impossible Network

Guest Overview 

Simon Wheatcroft is living proof that resilience is born from adversity, accepting that things will go wrong, not go to plan, and being prepared to embrace failure without fear. 

Having lost his sight at an early age Simon used running solo as his foundation to building an abundant life as a runner, motivational speaker, and now teacher.  

In part one Simon discusses the impact of growing up in the 80’s, in a small coal-mining town in the North of England, and the devastating social and economic impact of the coal mine closures. He then takes us through his early life and journey to where he met the founders of Haptic Technology company Wear Works.

In this episode Simon explains how he discovered the Haptic technology company Wear Works and how the combination of sensors enabled him to run races and sense people around him

We discuss the future advances using Lidar technology to create 3 depth maps of spaces and object recognition technology that will transform the lives of people with visual impairments

Simon explains the serendipitous moments that enabled him to study clinical psychology, computational neuroscience, and AI in later life and led him onto the motivational-speaking stage. 

Simon covers resilience, dealing with adversity, fear, failure, and managing pain. 

Simon discusses the appalling and enduring employment discrimination against blind or partially blind people and reveals why he is changing his career to teaching and explains his passion to provide visually impaired children with computer science skills to live an equal opportunity life.

Simon and I discuss accessibility and how web page metadata and hierarchies work.

Simon also reflects on his wife’s enduring support.  

And of course all our quick-fire questions 

I am sure you will feel uplifted, inspired and energized by the life story of Simon Wheatcroft.

Social Links 

Linkedin 

Twitter 

Website 

Links in the show 

Runkeeper

The voice of Runkeeper 

Mind Hacks Book Tom Stafford 

Lidar technology 

Ghost in the Wires

RNIB Employment Report

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guest Overview 

Simon Wheatcroft is living proof that resilience is born from adversity, accepting that things will go wrong, not go to plan, and being prepared to embrace failure without fear. 

Having lost his sight at an early age Simon used running solo as his foundation to building an abundant life as a runner, motivational speaker, and now teacher.  

In part one Simon discusses the impact of growing up in the 80’s, in a small coal-mining town in the North of England, and the devastating social and economic impact of the coal mine closures 

Simon recounts the experience of growing up suffering from a degenerative eye disorder that ultimately resulted in his loss of sight by his late teens. 

Simon discusses how this impacted his ambitions, his education but how the degeneration of his site did help him develop spatial, memory, and mental acuity skills that prepared him to confront the challenges of living without sight.

Having lived many years in a state of denial, Simon explains the pivotal point in his life when he accepted his condition and embraced running as a means of creating a new pathway in the world. 

We discuss the many challenges he faced in those early days, the value of the voice direction of the Runkeeper app, and his ability to sense what was underfoot. He discusses the daily challenge and stress of running solo without site, confronting the fear of not seeing oncoming obstacles or cars.  

We then cover his boundary-pushing attitude, that led him to the US and running 200 miles from Boston to New York to line up for his first New York marathon. 

Simon explains the serendipitous moment he met the voice of the Runkeeper app in a running store in Boston and the power her voice had in giving him the belief he could run solo. 

In part two Simon explains how he discovered the Haptic technology company Wear Works and how the combination of sensors enabled him to run races and sense people around him

We discuss the future advances using Liidar technology to create 3 depth maps of spaces and object recognition technology that will transform the lives of people with visual impairments

Simon explains the serendipitous moments in life that led him to that enabled him to study clinical psychology, computational neuroscience, and AI in later life and led him on a motivational public speaking stage. 

Simon discusses resilience, dealing with adversity, fear, failure, and managing pain. 

Simon reveals how he is changing his career to teaching and explains his passion to provide visually impaired children with computer science skills to live an equal opportunity to life.  

Simon and I discuss accessibility and how web page metadata and hierarchies work.

Simon also reflects on his wife’s enduring support.  

And of course all our quick-fire questions 

I am sure you will feel uplifted, inspired and energized by the life story of Simon Wheatcroft 

Social Links 

Linkedin 

Twitter 

Website 

Links in the show 

Runkeeper

The voice of Runkeeper 

Mind Hacks Book Tom Stafford 

Lidar technology 

Ghost in the Wires

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guest Overview

This week's guest was named as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, was featured in WIRED's Smart List and Founder of Fine Acts a global creative activist platform. Welcome Yana Buhrer Tavanier. We cover a lot of ground in this episode. 

Yana discusses the impact of being born in Communist Bulgaria, being driven at an early age to confront injustice using words and recounts the influence and inspiration of her Aunt who resisted the regime through art and humor but was tortured by the and imprisoned in a mental institution leading her to ultimately to take her own life at 37. 

Yana describes how her family conditioned her to live by values and not by the rules imposed by the state and how this led her to investigative journalism exposing social and human rights abuses, using her writing as a weapon against injustice. 

Yana explains how her work to expose the inhumane and degrading treatment in mental institutions resulted in her being nominated as a World Economic Forum Young Global leader

Yana explains why she evolved from journalism to activism. She recounts her early collaborations with artists to use art as a powerful communication tool to generate empathy. She explains how this led to her forming her activism organization Fine Acts, a non profit creative studio for social impact that leverages the power of play in the process of creating their campaigns. 

Yana describes her team fuse this with Hope-Based Communication and the shifts that are taking place in campaigning for human rights. 

Yana discusses the latest thinking and how neuroscience insights are changing the way activists operate and why they are releasing their artworks as open source. 

I ask Yana to reflect on the state of political leadership and the evolution of leadership around the world. 

We also discuss education, curiosity, creativity and procrastination before we jump into our quick-fire questions. 

There's a lot of inspiration in this episode but I was struck by how lack of experience never stopped Yana, how persistence and acceptance of failure spurred her one to achieve extraordinary impact. 

I hope you enjoy the heart, humanity and humility of Yana Tavanier.

Social Links

Instagram 

Twitter 

Facebook

Beat – her creative social experiment, exploring the ominous silence surrounding domestic violence.

Fakery – Yana’s project fighting fake news through beautiful but horribly tasting cupcakes. 

Labs - their open format bridging art and tech in support of human rights.

Spring of Hope – their campaign on hope during the pandemic, where she collaborated with 80 artists from 30 countries to create over 100 free to use and adapt uplifting illustrations.

12 Black artists / 24 protest posters – recently, in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, Yana teamed up with 12 Black typographers and lettering artists from around the world on an open pack of 24 protest posters – all free to print and share, and ready to be used in action

Surviving Blackness – our current campaign, where we collaborated with Lee Mokobe – an award-winning Black trans slam poet – on a spoken word poem on systemic racism towards Black people.

Her TED Talk on Playtivism.

Links in the show 

Time Heroes

Bulgarian Helsinki Committee

World Economic Forum 

Fine Acts 

Dr Stuart Brown 

Hope based communications Thomas Coomes 

Fulbright Scholar

Amplifier Shepard Fairy 

AfterLife Ricky Gervais 

Figuring Maria Popova 

Brainpickings

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guest Overview

This week’s guest Julia Black is at the forefront of innovation in education, designing an educational approach that unleashes the talent, and unlocks the passion and true potential of every child.  

 As the founder and CEO of Explorium, Julia’s Lights On methodology is changing the way we think about education.

Julia explains that when becoming a mother, the values of her own mother, and her first daughter starting school created an inner conflict that led her to pivot away from film-making to focus on education reform. 

She discusses how the serendipity of creating a circus as a school fund-raiser opened her eyes to the potential in children, unleashed her boldness to confront the educational status quo, research innovations in education to create a vision to disrupt educational norms. Starting with a creative learning center in a pub, Julia describers why having a clear vision enables her to thrive on risk-taking, ambiguity and trusting that events will fall into place.

Julia explains how she partnered with her father to transform her future vision into a social business reality. Julia breaks down the methodology and the impact Lights On is having on children and parents alike. Julia also reflects on why in the time of Covid parents can now witness their children’s disconnection from learning its mental health impact and why Light’s On provides the path forward for education. 

I hope you enjoy the vision, vitality and unfolding story of Julia Black.

Social Links 

Explorium 

Facebook 

Instagram 

Links in the Show 

Marie Stopes 

Channel4 

BAFTA 

Neurohacking 

Ministry of Sound

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guest Overview 

Over the course of the series, we have often asked our guests about what they would change to education to equip a generation of children with the skills they need to survive and thrive in our AI-driven future.  

This week’s guest Julia Black is at the forefront of innovation in education, designing an educational approach that unleashes the talent, and unlocks the passion and true potential of every child.  

As the founder and CEO of Explorium, Julia’s Lights On methodology is changing the way we think about education.

In part one we discuss how finding her purpose in life was always on her mind.  

Julia discusses the huge impact of her parents; her father’s influence in her seeking a life in social impact, believing anything you set your mind to was possible, and being true to your authentic self. Julia also reflects how her fathers adventurous spirit was balanced by her mother’s more cautious influence in creating a stable and secure home environment. 

Julia explains her father’s story, being written off as a dyslexic, neurodiverse child to becoming a doctor and being one of the UK’s first social entrepreneurs forming the Maria Stopes foundation for female reproductive rights.  

Julia recounts how her father pushed her to confront fear, live outside her comfort zone, and embrace failure and its enduring value. 

We also cover her own educational experience, seeking out her purpose in early life. Discovering the power of storytelling to create a social impact during a year in South America, returning to the UK, persisting in pitching ideas to the UK broadcast Channel 4 that led her to become an award-winning documentary filmmaker. 

In part two we focus on Julia discovering her true purpose in her 40’s, her immersion in education reform, creating her Lights On platform, serendipity, and how the pandemic is providing the opportunity to scale the platform globally.  

I hope you enjoy the vision, vitality and unfolding story of Julia Black.

Social Links 

Explorium 

Facebook 

Instagram 

Links in the Show 

Marie Stopes 

Channel4 

BAFTA 

Neurohacking 

Ministry of Sound

Dr Tim Black

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guest Overview

Last week I caught up with our guest from Episode No 56, the deep thinking, mathematician and musician, Marcus G Miller 

Marcus has written some thought provoking and expansive reflections on Covid19, about the death of George Floyd and the impact on the Black Lives Matter movement.  

As one of the most well read and thoughtful guests we have had I was keen to hear Marcus’s perspective on our current world reality and how the future might play out. 

I seek Marcus’s advice on what white folk can do to support the drive for racial justice. We discuss his perspective on the need for moral consciousness, and imagination. Marcus reflects on the media’s reporting of the death of black men by the police and the broader underreported killings across the country, the media’s handling of this and how the left and right react. Marcus recommends the books we should read to build our insight and knowledge on the nature of racism. Toward the end of the discussion I seek Marcus’s perspective on meditation and the unifying principle of physics as he shares the latest thinking on the topic. 

I hope you enjoy the thoughts, reflections and expansive imagination of Marcus G Miller.  

Links to Social

Website

Instagram

Spotify 

Facebook

Links in the Show 

Toni Morrison 

Wolfram Theory of Everything 

Zero Point Field 

Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle 

James Baldwin 

Robin Diangelo 

Sam Harris 

Trevor Noah

Dr Philip Atiba Goff Center For Policing Equity

Insight Timer 

The Shack 

Three Body Problem 

Crispr

Dr Merrit Moore 

Jean Baptiste

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guest Overview

As a football fan since a boy and a believer that sport and football have the power to create social impact, I am so privileged to have the opportunity to interview this week’s guest Jürgen Griesbeck, Co-Founder of the game-changing organization Common Goal.

Thank you, Ben Miller for the connection.

In part two, we dive deep into Common Goal, and the incredible work Jürgen and his team are doing to inject social impact into the DNA of football.

Jurgen explains the incubation of Common Goal. Leaving aside the CSR model, believing that it would never create sustainable and systemic impact, Jurgen and his team set up Common Goal as a movement where players commit 1% of their earnings to Common Goal's central fund. Together, they allocate and fund high-impact social organizations that harness football's power to advance the United Nations Global Goals.

Beginning with Juan Mata from Manchester United and Spain, Common Goal now has over 150 players including, Mats Hummels, Megan Rapinoe, Alex Morgan, Shinji Kagawa, Giorgio Chiellini, and Liverpool F.C. manager Jurgen Klopp. 

Jürgen explains his long term vision for Common Goal, and the potential impact it can as an enabling force for good.  

Based on an ambition to build a culture where a better person is a better player, and that every person's contribution counts, Common Goal is now being adopted by younger players, managers, clubs, businesses and even supporters.

Jürgen also discusses the organization's role in supporting the UN's Global Goals and using football to galvanize the global population around the goals.

And Jürgen also answers our quick-fire questions.

There is a lot to take out of this episode; the importance of avoiding the easy option, the value of collective responsibility, the power of teamwork, being prepared to take risks and trust in your gut and imagination.

I hope you enjoy the wit, wisdom, and social impact of Jürgen Griesbeck.

 Social Links

Linkedin 

Instagram 

Twitter 

Facebook 

YouTube

Links In the Show

Common Goal 

Street Football World 

Andres Escobar 

Pablo Escobar 

Medellin 

Ashoka

FIFA 

UEFA 

Glasgow Celtic

UNICEF 

Juan Mata

Manchester United 

Megan Rapinoe

Alex Morgan 

Jurgen Klopp

FC Northyallan

Money Heist 

Handmaids Tale 

Between The World and Me

Mandela Long Walk to Freedom  

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guest Overview

As a football fan since a boy and a believer that sport and football have the power to create social impact, I am so privileged to have the opportunity to interview this week's guest Jürgen Griesbeck. Co-Founder of the game-changing organization Common Goal. 

Thank you Ben Miller for the connection.

In Part One we cover Jurgen’s early path to purpose. 

German-born, Jurgen’s journey began in the Black Forest. Growing up in Stuttgart with a mother who worked as a lawyer's assistant and a football-playing hospital administrator father Jurgen’s childhood provided little evidence that a life of social impact lay ahead. 

Studying sports science, travels through Mexico and Costa Rica, developing a love of Latin America and meeting his now wife all contributed to him taking a scholarship in Medellin Colombia three months after the death of drug cartel leader Carlos Escobar. 

In this dangerous and unpredictable environment, Jurgen witnessed first hand how football had the power to create unity when he saw two rival gangs set aside their weapons and participate in a football match. 

In this serendipitous moment, his idea for Football for Peace was born. Engaging the gang leaders he designed a novel accessible approach to football match rules that helped players develop conflict resolution skills, empathy, respect for women, and collective responsibility. 

The transformative impact in the city led to him being invited back to replicate the model to help address extremism in unified Germany and create Street Football for Tolerance.

Soon he recognized the need and the opportunity to create a platform where resources and experiences could be shared. His Street Football World now has a presence in 135 countries, a network of social impact community organizations using football as a mechanism to address social inequity for underserved youth. 

Jurgen ends part one discussing why the global and regional football organizations like Fifa and Uefa have not embraced social impact at the core of their work.

In part two we dive deep into Common Goal and incredible work Jurgen and his team are doing to inject social impact into the DNA of football. 

This episode is evidence that finding one's purpose is not a linear path. It takes time, trust, and faith that circumstances and life events have a unique value in the process of discovering one's purpose in life. 

I hope you enjoy the wit, wisdom, and social impact of Jürgen Griesbeck.

Social Links

Linkedin 

Instagram 

Twitter 

Facebook 

YouTube

Links In the Show

Common Goal 

Street Football World 

Andres Escobar 

Pablo Escobar 

Medellin 

Ashoka

FIFA 

UEFA 

Glasgow Celtic 

UNICEF 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guest Overview

Bill Dowzer is a Principal of Australian Architectural practice BVN; he has been involved in the design and direction of numerous award-winning projects ranging from public, educational and cultural buildings to commercial work environments. 

Re-ply is his latest endeavor, the idea from Re-Ply came as NYC communities have experienced a spring of discontent. 

The COVID-19 virus, the murder of George Floyd, the resulting protests and then mass looting resulted in thousands of plywood panels being put in place to protect businesses. Soon they were covered in Graffiti and then street are. 

Now coming down, they would ordinarily have ended up in landfills—an unfortunate waste of resources. But Bill has assembled a team to Up-cycle the plywood barricades into a street furniture kits. He will help local restaurants recover after COVID-19 with part of the proceeds are being donated to Children of Promise a NY charity to support children of incarcerated parents & empower them to break the cycle of intergenerational involvement in the criminal justice system.

We discuss the crisis, his social enterprise, and his expectations of how work and society will change coming out of this crisis.

Social Links

Website

Instagram

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week's guests Keith Kirkland, and Kevin Yoo, are co-founders of Wearable tech start up Wear Works.

In part one we covered the challenges they both overcame growing up and their journey to entrepreneurship.  

In part two we discuss the evolution of Wear Works. Keith explains how his interests in design, movement, and technology led him to a realization that he could use technology to teach movement. As a Matrix lover he asked himself the question, ‘can I create a suit that teaches me Kung Fu’. To answer this question he and Kevin set out to create a new language based on touch. Called Haptic technology, their first experiment in this technology was to create a haptic device that could assist a blind runner to complete the New York Marathon unaided. Kevin explains the journey and the wave they are riding in building this new language and the complex interdependencies. 

We also discuss the reality of funding that most startups face, the challenges of finding the right investors, Keith discusses the importance of impact, purpose, sustainability and why they created the company to be remote from the start.

He also discusses their roadmap and how their technology will evolve. Kevin unpacks the importance of inclusive design and the value of incorporating that with touch and the power of touch as an educational or instructional tool and where this goes when it intersects with Augmented reality. 

They also explain their guiding principles and their relationship as founders.  

I think this episode provides much insight into the reality of what running a startup involves, dealing with failure, uncertainty, persistence, and the importance of character and relationships.  

I hope you enjoy the vision, candor, and resilience of Kevin and Keith.

Social links

Kevin’s Linkedin 

Keith’s Linkedin 

Instagram

Links in the show

Wear Works

FIT 

Pratt

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.