Episode 5 is an extra long wonderful one (it honestly could've been a days worth of chatter) with the incredible Laura Wellington, Director of The Wunderkind Group. 

The Wunderkind Group is a group of businesses including: In Good Company, Duke Street, Duke Makes, Test Bed Leeds and Sheaf St. Laura and James founded these fantastic companies supporting creativity and positive progress. 

In this episode Laura shares her story and how she became the self confessed Positive Disruptor and Optimistic Rebel that she is. We speak about the need to treat people with kindness and spread love through creativity and in work and play. We also discuss the hugely successful project #PostersforthePeople which brought together collectives of artists to produce work thanking our key workers during the pandemic and raising money, through sales of banners and prints, for Frontline 19 - an organisation supporting the mental health of key workers. There's so much good stuff! 

There was so much to talk about and it was a real pleasure. Thank you Laura. 

I hope you enjoy our conversation and thank you for listening.

For more on Laura and her businesses please visit:

@laurawelli - all her businesses are linked in her bio.

For more on Posters for the People:

@ingoodcompanyleeds

Buy Posters for the People here:

https://ingoodcompany.webshop.fyi/

Episode 4 is a lovely interview with Alice, one of the co-founders of Origin Africa.

Origin Africa is the UK's first 100% not for profit fashion brand selling sustainable clothing to fund social impact projects in Africa.

Tom and Alice founded the business in 2018. They are committed, along with their network of support and project leaders in Africa, to break the cycle of poverty by raising funds for humanitarian development projects through the sale of ethically produced clothing. 

In this episode Alice shares their business journey and love for Africa as well as how important it is to look at creating a business that is ethical from start to finish. We discuss the fair production of clothing with consideration of both people and the planet and we chat about how making just a small difference matters too. 

I hope you enjoy our conversation and thank you for listening.

For more on Origin please visit:

https://www.originafrica.co.uk/

@origin_africa

Book recommendation:

Building Social Business: The New Kind of Capitalism that Serves Humanity's Most Pressing Needs - Muhammad Yunus 

Episode 3 is a great conversation with Ocean, founder of Ocean's Therapy. 

Ocean studied a Bsc in clinical psychology at Royal Holloway and a MSc in mental health studies at King’s College. In January she launched her Instagram platform Ocean’s Therapy where she focuses on enhancing the normality of mental health struggles and wants de-stigmatise problems which we all face or might face at some point in our lives. 

She hosts regular IG lives with known guests such as Mo Gawdat and John Sanei and lesser known guests covering a range of topics including how to deal with anxiety, stress, relationship issues, eating disorders, depression and more. Through her page and interviews she shares inspiring ways of thinking as well as coping mechanisms.

In this episode we discuss Ocean’s passion for sharing how to look after our ever evolving minds. We discuss how her mother & brother overcoming their own difficulties has given her strength and motivation. We importantly touch upon the anxiety related to us coming out of lockdown and some tips for handling this and we lastly touch upon the ever important notion that we should all learn more about mental health and treat it with the same importance we give to our psychical health and how it needs to be part of the school curriculum. 

I hope you enjoy our conversation and thank you for listening.

@oceanstherapy

Episode 2  is a wonderful conversation with Antonia and Jonny the founders of Nursem Skincare. It was such a pleasure to interview two wonderful souls. Antonia and Jonny set up Nursem, a caring hand cream brand, from the start to have purpose built into the business. We chat about the business and the time it's taken to get it started, the impact that they would like to have with Nursem and their outlook on the world (which is such a beautiful one.) We share a mutual love from companies that have purpose at the heart of what they do (Tom's and Patagonia) and talk about self-worth, perspective and the power of a smile too.

Find out more about their entrepreneurial journey from the start, who and what makes their world go round. Huge thank you to Antonia and Jonny for their time. 

https://www.nursem.co.uk/

@nursemskincare

Welcome to series two of This Circular Life. This series kicks off with a brilliant conversation with Lynsey, founder of Little Box of Books. I feel really lucky to have had a long chat with Lynsey a founder, force for change and fellow lover of literature. Little Box of Books is a children's book company selling inclusive and diverse books, making sure children's bookshelves are representing the true world around them. They sell books that promise gender equality, diversity in culture, race, family and disability representation and really great story telling. 

Find out more about her entrepreneurial journey from the start, who and what makes her world go round. Big thanks to Lynsey for her time. 

https://littleboxofbooks.co.uk/

@littleboxofbooks

Episode 4 is an interview with Alice Forrest a marine biologist and and wildlife guide, researcher, divemaster, freediver and brilliant being. 

Alice and I talk about the world beneath the surface of the ocean and how it impacts every part of our lives, plastic pollution and mirco plastics, small changes, tiny houses and the power in community.

What a pleasure to talk to such a vibrant mind full of so much knowledge. Big thanks to Alice for her time, check out the links below for tonnes of information on all that she does. 

Below find links for more information:

https://www.aliceforrest.com/ 

https://www.instagram.com/aliceforrest/?hl=en

Episode 3 is an interview with Anna Brightman Co-Founder of Up Circle Beauty. Up Circle Beauty is an innovative, forward thinking beauty brand sourcing and rescuing by-products from other industries – the food and drink industry in particular - to make their products. Their ultimate mission is to leave the world better than they found it by transforming ingredients that would otherwise be discarded into natural, organic beauty products – better for you, better for the world.

Anna and I talk about starting your own business, family and your support networks, making good products more accessible through pricing, confidence and building care into a company. 

It was a lovely morning chat with an inspiring entrepreneur. I hope you enjoy our thoughts and conversation. Thanks to Anna for speaking with me! 

Below find links for more information on Up Circle and to buy their products:

https://upcirclebeauty.com/

https://acircleback.com/collections/up-circle 

Episode 2 is an interview with Des Bowden, a Kenyan based founder of Kuruwitu Conservation and Welfare Association and the Ocean's Alive Trust. Kuruwitu is the first locally managed marine area in Kenya. Des works to protect and enhance Kenya's oceans by strengthening coastal communities through education, conservation and entrepreneurship.

Des and I talk about the importance of locally led community conservation, empowering communities through education and the reality that socio-economic well being is dependent on the health of the environment. Des talks about the importance of passion and support when following a path you love and changing career. Asante-sana to Des for sharing his story and his time. 

Links to the organisation websites can be found below:  

Kuruwitu - http://kuruwitukenya.org/
Instagram - @kuruwitu_conservation

Oceans Alive - https://oceansalivekenya.org/
Instagram - @oceans_alive_kenya

More information - contact Melissa: [email protected]

www.acircleback.com

This Circular Life is a new podcast that spends time talking about subjects and to people with ethical, environmental change and social impact at their core. Join me, Melissa Bowden, for interesting conversations highlighting people who are making a positive impact on our planet and the people in it.

Episode 1 is an interview with Gyorgyi Galik, a London based innovation designer, design strategist and environmental advocate.  She is currently finishing her PhD in Innovation Design Engineering from The School of Design at The Royal College of Art, London and is the Lead Advisor of the Cities Programme at the Design Council in London.  She joins me to discuss what makes her world go round, her inner & wider circles and the social and economic impact of sustainable change as well as so much more.

Huge thanks to Gyorgyi for sharing her time and insights as well as parts of her personal journey. It was a real pleasure to talk to her and learn from her.

Further references from our discussion can be found below:

1) The Politics of Invisibility: Public Knowledge about Radiation Health Effects, a book by Olga Kuchinskaya: <https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/politics-invisibility>

2) Climate Lecture by Professor Kevin Anderson https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jt5bobk5wpQ

Website of Professor Kevin Anderson http://kevinanderson.info/blog/home-2/

3) Chancel, Lucas & Piketty, Thomas (2015). Carbon and inequality: from Kyoto to Parishttp://piketty.pse.ens.fr/files/ChancelPiketty2015.pdf

4) Oswald, Yannick & Owen, Anne & Steinberger, Julia. (2020). Large inequality in international and intranational energy footprints between income groups and across consumption categories. Nature Energy. 5. 231–239(2020) https://www.nature.com/articles/s41560-020-0579-8#citeas

5) Design Council: https://www.designcouncil.org.uk/

6) Innovation Design Engineering, School of Design, Royal College of Art: https://www.rca.ac.uk/schools/school-of-design/innovation-design-engineering/

7) Gyorgyi Galik

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gyorgyi-galik-79a63b49/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/GyGalik
Medium: https://medium.com/@GyorgyiGalik
Website: http://gyorgyigalik.com/