Where Shall We Meet

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Our guest today is Tessa Clarke. She the is Co-Founder & CEO of Olio, the anti-waste app tackling the climate crisis by solving the problem of waste in our homes & local communities. Olio does this by connecting people with their neighbours so they can give away rather than throw away their spare food and other household items. It is powered by volunteers who collect unsold food from local businesses such as Tesco, Sainsburys, Asda and Holland & Barrett, and redistribute it to the community via the Olio app. Its impact has been widely recognised, most notably by the United Nations who highlighted Olio as a "beacon” for the world, and by Vivatech who awarded Olio "Next European Unicorn". Olio is also a proud B Corp, and Tessa is an Ambassador of the Better Business Act.

Prior to Olio, Tessa had a 15 year corporate career as a digital Managing Director in the media, retail and financial services sectors, and she met her co-founder Saasha whilst they were studying for their MBAs at Stanford University. Tessa is passionate about the sharing economy as a solution for a sustainable world, and about ‘profit with purpose’ as the next business paradigm. Tessa’s TED talk about the power of sharing has been watched over 1 million times, and in 2023 she was awarded the Veuve Clicquot Bold Woman Award, the longest running award for female business leaders.

We will talk about:

• That we throw away 30% of our food
• And that the majority of this is in our homes
• The truth about plastic bottles
• Reframing charity as sharing
• Ugly apples
• Earth Overshoot Day
• Connecting with your neighbours
• The truth about use by and sell by dates
• The Circular Economy

Let’s get wasted.

Web: www.whereshallwemeet.xyz
Twitter: @whrshallwemeet
Instagram: @whrshallwemeet

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Our guest today is Maria Popova, who thinks and writes about our search for meaning — sometimes through science and philosophy, sometimes through poetry and children's books, always through the lens of wonder. She is the creator of The Marginalian (born in 2006 under the name Brain Pickings), an online publication, which she has fought to keep free and advertisement free. It features her writing on books, art, science, philosophy and poetry. It is included in the Library of Congress permanent digital archive of culturally valuable materials. She’s also the author of Figuring, and maker of the live show “The Universe in Verse” — a charitable celebration of the wonder of reality through stories of science winged with poetry, which is now also a book.

In addition to her writing and related speaking engagements, she has served as an MIT Futures of Entertainment Fellow, as the editorial director at the higher education social network Lore, and has written for The New York Times, The Atlantic, Wired UK, and other publications.

We will talk about:

• Dissatisfaction as propulsive force
• Productivity as a band aid
• Performative Identity versus Soul
• Instagram Wisdom
• Everyone is a living question - the question is what is the question
• Poetry as a side door to consciousness
• Writing as a clarifying force
• Resisting Dinner Parties
• The Price of consciousness is awareness of mortality
• ”The Republic of Letters”

Now let’s search for meaning.

Web: www.whereshallwemeet.xyz
Twitter: @whrshallwemeet
Instagram: @whrshallwemeet

Questions, suggestions, or feedback? Send us a message!

In this episode we talk to Ben Macintyre. He is a columnist and Associate Editor on The Times. He is also an award winning authour and one of the most acclaimed writers of espionage history. His books Agent Zigzag A Spy Among Friends, The Spy and the Traitor, Agent Sonya: Lover, Mother, Soldier, Spy, Operation Mincemeat, Double Cross and SAS: Rogue Heroes have reached bestseller status and many have been adapted for the screen.

Ben’s latest book Colditz: Prisoners of the Castle tells the astonishing true story of history’s most infamous prison and became the biggest selling history book of 2022 and a No.1 Sunday Times Bestseller. His upcoming book The Siege is about the greatest SAS hostage drama held in the Iranian Embassy London.

We will talk about:

• The ultimate history curriculum
• How reality is always stranger than fiction
• Historical quantum leaps
• Agent versus structre theory
• Uncovering the hidden stories of spies
• How much of history is the story of the victors
• How much virality could change the way we tell history in the future

You can pre-order Ben's new book "The Siege" here.

Let’s travel through time!

Web: www.whereshallwemeet.xyz
Twitter: @whrshallwemeet
Instagram: @whrshallwemeet

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In this episode we speak to Dr. Roslind Watts. Dr Watts is a clinical psychologist, and a nature lover. Her work as the Clinical Lead for Imperial College London’s psilocybin trial has made her one of the most prominent voices and minds in the field of psychedelic research.

Dr Watts has been named as one of the 50 Most Influential People in Psychedelics. She builds tools and structures to foster connectedness after psychedelic experiences, finding inspiration for their design from nature. She co-founded the UK's first psychedelic integration group, and in 2022 launched ACER a global online integration community.

We will talk about:

• The difference between Macro and microdosing
• Categorising synthetic and natural compounds
• The Importance of post trip integration
• How psychedelics are changing approaches to therapy
• The condundrum of corporate interests and democratisation use
• Regulation
• ACER
• Appropriation of indegenous practices
• “Doing the work” and being a tenant of your own trauma
• The Default Mode Network

More about Dr. Rosalind Watt's ACER framework here.

Now let’s go on a trip!

Web: www.whereshallwemeet.xyz
Twitter: @whrshallwemeet
Instagram: @whrshallwemeet

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In this episode we talk to Ali Eslami, who is a Principal Research Scientist at Google DeepMind studying artificial intelligence. He's currently also Director of Research Strategy for Google Gemini. Prior to this, he led a team at DeepMind working on generative models, self-supervised learning, multi-modal large language models. He also led the Quantum Chemistry and Materials team in Science.

Prior to DeepMind, he was a post-doctoral researcher at Microsoft Research Cambridge. He did his PhD at the University of Edinburgh, where he was a Carnegie scholar. During that time he was also a visiting researcher at Oxford University in the visual geometry group.

We talk about:

• The emergence of the AI landscape
• Whether you need a body to understand the world
• Human perception slash Plato
• The difference between how humans and AI learn
• How AI models are built and trained
• Differences between Machine learning and Generative AI
• Marcus Aurelius and how amazing the human brain is
• Whether we are about to surrender our sovereignty to AI

Let’s log in!

Web: www.whereshallwemeet.xyz
Twitter: @whrshallwemeet
Instagram: @whrshallwemeet

Questions, suggestions, or feedback? Send us a message!

In this episode we talk to Erling Kagge who is an explorer, author, publisher, art collector, and the first person to have completed the Three Poles Challenge on foot—the North Pole, the South Pole, and the summit of Mount Everest. He has written eight books on exploration, philosophy, and art collecting. They have been published in 42 different languages. His next book is 'The North Pole - The History of an Obsession', which out later this year.

In this episode we talk about:

• Searching for infinity in the North Pole
• The hardship of exploration
• And how inconvenience is good for you
• Wearing the same clothes for 50 days
• Confronting Polar Bears
• Pooping at minus 50
• How a single raisin can make your day
• Living underground in sewers
• And whether silence can be measured

We recommend listening to this episode while walking!

Here a link to Erling's book 'Walking: One Step at a Time'

Web: www.whereshallwemeet.xyz
Twitter: @whrshallwemeet
Instagram: @whrshallwemeet

Questions, suggestions, or feedback? Send us a message!

In this episode we are speaking to Nitin Sawhney, who is a multifaceted artist whose career spans music, film, theatre and dance. Nitin is a world-renowned composer, producer, and musician, celebrated for his ability to blend a wide array of musical styles, including classical, jazz, electronica, and traditional Indian music. He also produces other artists work, offering stewardship to many talented young musicians. His work has earned him over 20 international awards, a CBE, a Mercury Prize nomination and an Ivor Novello Lifetime Achievement Award.

Beyond his albums, Nitin has composed scores for film, television, and stage productions, showcasing his versatility and depth as an artist. His collaborations read like a who’s who of the music and entertainment world, featuring artists such as Paul McCartney, Sting, Annie Lennox, Nora Jones, Anoushka Shankar, Joss Stone and Jeff Beck. His influence extends to activism as well, using his platform to address social and political issues.

We talk about:

• The neuroscience of music
• Nature and music
• How cultures create different musical frameworks
• The impact of technology on music production
• Why is it that music affects our mood?
• The fabulousness of Nitin’s musical career
• Will copyright survive AI?
• And the existential questions that arise form this

Press play and enjoy the music!

Here's a link to Nitin's newest Album Identity.

Web: www.whereshallwemeet.xyz
Twitter: @whrshallwemeet
Instagram: @whrshallwemeet

Questions, suggestions, or feedback? Send us a message!

In this episode we'll talk to Tugce Bulut. She recently launched Luna, a GenAI dating coach that aims to transform the dating market. She is committed about providing a solution to what she believes is a loneliness crisis. Previously, Tugce was a strategy consultant at EY Parthenon advising Private Equity houses on M&A. Tugce is a published author and a Cambridge economist, specialising in the use of technology to bolster economic development. She is passionate about the power of AI and the positive change it can bring to the world. As a serial entrepreneur, Tugce started a number of AI businesses including Streetbees where she served as the CEO for 8 years.

We will discuss:

• Are tick boxes really the way to find your life partner
• Has dating become yet another job
• The rapid adoption of dating apps as a way to meet your romantic partner
• How many more men than women there are on hetero-normative apps
• And how having fewer women creates unique dynamics
• Democratising the access to relationship coaches
• The tradition of arranged marriages
• How responsible Hollywood is for creating unrealistic expectations

If you enjoyed this date, you can sign up for Luna on the My Alchemy website.

Web: www.whereshallwemeet.xyz
Twitter: @whrshallwemeet
Instagram: @whrshallwemeet

Questions, suggestions, or feedback? Send us a message!

In this episode we speak to Roy Greenslade, a renowned journalist with a career spanning over 40 years. He was the media commentator for the Guardian newspaper for 28 years and ex-editor of the Daily Mirror newspaper. He is also an author, historian and former professor of journalism at City University London where he has had an influence on the next generation of journalists. Despite his frequent criticism of the press, Roy continues to hold a sympathy for the values of traditional media and a concern for what its loss of influence means in our culture.

Together we explore legacy vs social media. In particular:

• Benefits of citizen journalism
• Accountability of the traditional editorial model
• Media manipulation by powerful elites
• Post trust and post truth
• The virality of narratives which provide simplistic answers
• Versus: nuanced discussion asking complicated questions
• Proliferation of ‘angertainment’ through algorithms

If you want to hear more from Roy, follow him on Twitter.

Web: www.whereshallwemeet.xyz
Twitter: @whrshallwemeet
Instagram: @whrshallwemeet

Questions, suggestions, or feedback? Send us a message!

In this episode we talk to Sophie Hackford about technology. Sophie is a futurist, and has given 220+ provocative talks to boards and exec teams on novel science and tech. Sophie is an advisor to John Deere & Co, on the future of food, climate, and agriculture. Sophie is also an advisor to New Lab in Brooklyn. Sophie co-founded and chaired 1715Labs: a spinout from Oxford University’s Astrophysics Department, labelling data to train algorithms. She previously worked at WIRED Magazine, Singularity University on the NASA Research Park in Silicon Valley, and the Oxford Martin School at Oxford University, where she raised $120m for frontier-bending research.

Our conversation covers:

• the merger of biological and silicon-based systems
• is technological advancement actually progress for humanity
• the hidden power of "dark compute"
• interspecies communication
• the power of narratives to inspire and drive positive change
• innovative solutions in environmental monitoring and conservation

If you want to help make science more relevant, representative and connected  consider checking out The British Science Association.

If you want to channel your inner citizen scientist how about classifying some galaxies on the Galaxy Zoo page.

Web: www.whereshallwemeet.xyz
Twitter: @whrshallwemeet
Instagram: @whrshallwemeet