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Let’s Reboot the Future

Reboot the Future

This podcast is for anyone who has ever been called naïve for thinking that we can create a world that is a kinder, more equitable and beautiful place to live.

It is a treasure trove of evidence that there are people out there leading with kindness, caring for our planet and thriving. These are their very human stories of how they are doing it - so that you know you are not alone, this is possible, and you can find your way to help Reboot the Future.

Tune in to the consistent frequency of inspiring, relatable stories, learning how people are navigating challenges and acting with courage.

Let's create the momentum towards a better way of being, let's Reboot the Future.

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Yesterday · 12 min
Learning to Live in Harmony: Richard Dunne
What if nature could teach us not just how to learn, but how to live in greater harmony with each other and the world around us? In this episode Richard Dunne founder of The Harmony Project, shares how a childhood shaped by kindness, a life-changing experience working with Mother Teresa in Kolkata, and 18 years as a headteacher inspired him to rethink education. Drawing inspiration from Harmony: A New Way of Looking at Our World, written by King Charles III when he was Prince of Wales, Richard explores how the principles of Harmony found in nature, including diversity, cycles and interdependence, can transform education and help children develop a deeper understanding of themselves, each other and the natural world. From exploring local rivers to creating joyful school communities rooted in care and connection, Richard reflects on why we need to learn not just about nature, but in nature and from nature. His story reminds us that Harmony is more than an approach to education; it's a way of living that recognises how deeply connected we all are. And his advice to his younger self? Be kind, trust your inner compass, and keep smiling. Discover more about Richard's work and The Harmony Project: https://www.theharmonyproject.org.uk More about Richard Dunne: Richard Dunne is Founder and Director of The Harmony Project - – an education charity working with schools and educators in the UK and around the world to help them develop a new way of learning that puts sustainability and nature at the heart of the curriculum. The Harmony Project’s approach brings together subject specific skills and knowledge around project-based enquiries that take the learning beyond the classroom and apply it to the real world. The approach is informed by what are called principles of Harmony, principles of nature that include cycles, diversity, interdependence and adaptation. The Harmony curriculum is wholly National Curriculum compliant for schools in England and can be adapted to any country and school context. Richard was a headteacher for 18 years and developed this way of learning in his previous role as headteacher of an Outstanding School. He now shares the Harmony approach across the education sector nationally and globally through presentations, workshops and school support programmes. He has written a teachers’ guide to enable teachers and educators to integrate Harmony principles into their curriculum in ways that bring learning to life. The teachers’ guide is in 9 languages. He also works with schools to help them to be smarter and more sustainable in their practices. Subscribe for more stories and practical tools from Reboot the Future. www.rebootthefuture.org
October 13 · 20 min
Against the Current: Sean Ashworth
From a childhood fascination with wildlife and David Attenborough's Life on Earth to helping restore rivers and Sussex's lost kelp forests, Sean Ashworth has spent much of his career challenging the way we think about and care for the natural world. Now working as a Catchment Strategy Manager with Southern Water, Sean shares how a determination to question the status quo has taken him from removing barriers on the River Ouse to helping turn a rather uninspiring trawling bylaw consultation into a community campaign to bring back Sussex's kelp forests – with a little help from David Attenborough! In this episode of Let's Reboot the Future, Sean reflects on what it takes to challenge established thinking, the importance of listening to different perspectives and why communities should have a voice in decisions about their environment. He encourages us all to become positive disruptors – to question systems that aren't working, seek out people who share our values and not be put off by those who can't see what might be possible. A reminder that even when we feel like a lone voice, with a clear vision and good people around us, remarkable things can happen. More about Sean Ashworth: Sean Ashworth is a Catchment Strategy Manager at Southern Water. For the last five years he has been working on developing the company's interactions with key environmental stakeholders and Catchment Partnerships. His work at Southern water has also included delivery of critical water quality risk and mitigation work in river and groundwater systems. Sean started his career with a PhD in ecology at Exeter and went on to be a manager at the Environment Agency for fourteen years before joining Sussex Inshore Fisheries & Conservation Authority as Deputy Chief Officer, where he worked for seven years. Throughout this time he built the first Catchment Partnership pilot in Sussex, ran river enhancement project programmes, developed EA marine strategy, managed compliance programmes and developed and implemented significant marine protection regulation Link to the 'Help the Kelp' film, narrated by Sir David Attenborough, Sean speaks about here. It is also included in the book Ocean - Earth’s Last Wilderness, David Attenborough, Colin Butfield (2026) Subscribe for more stories and practical tools from Reboot the Future. www.rebootthefuture.org
October 6 · 8 min
The Business of Caring: Charmian Love
Charmian Love is a leading voice in reimagining the role of business in creating a thriving future. Alongside her work as the Global Ambassador with Brazilian beauty and wellbeing company Natura, she serves as Mother Nature & Future Generations Director at House of Hackney - bringing the voice of nature into the boardroom and helping businesses think differently about the impact they have on the world around them. Charmian shares where that conviction began: from campaigning to save whales as a child in Canada, to the lakes that shaped her love of nature and a powerful encounter with the Amazon where, as a friend told her, her “soul met its soil”. It’s a story about having the confidence to see things differently, holding onto what you care about and finding the courage to act on it. More about Charmian Love: Charmian (Char) Love is a fiercely determined optimist and believes in the power of people coming together to use business as a force for good. She is the Global Ambassador at Natura, a Brazilian-based beauty and wellbeing business, where she leads the International Advocacy function. In a personal capacity, Char serves as the legal representative for Mother Nature and Future Generations on the board of House of Hackney. She is also Executive in Residence at Oxford’s Said Business School, where she designed and teaches MBA and Executive MBA courses on topics such as Regenerative Business. Char’s work has been featured in publications including HBR, Wired, SSIR, and Fast Company and she delivered a TEDx talk on the topic: ‘How to be both in business and an activist’. Her advisory and board commitments focus on integrating environmental and social value into financial systems, advocating for structural and cultural-level change and championing intergenerational dialogue: Member of the TNFD (Taskforce for Nature-related Financial Disclosures) Founding Working Group Member of the TISFD (Taskforce for Inequality and Social-related Financial Disclosures) Advisory Council member at the Capitals Coalition Business Advisory Group member at Business for Nature Board Member of B Beauty Coalition Chair of the Board, Force of Nature Before joining Natura, Char was Co-Founder, Chair and Activist in Residence at B Lab UK and Co-Founder of Volans. She holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and an honours degree in Art History from Queen’s University. Char enjoys long distance swimming, colourful clothing, bringing poetry into business meetings and hosting ‘Hartigan Dinners’ in her home in London. She has two rugby-loving teenage boys and a border collie who all keep her on her toes. Subscribe for more stories and practical tools from Reboot the Future. www.rebootthefuture.org
September 29 · 13 min
Harnessing Markets for Good: Professor Steve Waygood
Professor Steve Waygood is Chief Executive of The Finance Transition Centre and a leading voice in sustainable finance. Having spent his career exploring how capital and markets can support sustainable development, Steve reflects on what he has learned about our financial systems - and how we can harness them to help create a better future. But Steve’s story begins far from the world of finance, with a childhood dream of becoming a vet in the Yorkshire Dales, inspired by James Herriot and David Attenborough. He reflects on the unexpected path his life took, his work to drive change in areas from energy and climate to the health of our rivers, and what he would tell his younger self today: believe that you can drive change - and remember that none of us does it alone. More about Professor Steve Waygood Professor Steve Waygood, CEO, The Finance Transition Centre. Steve is Chief Executive of The Finance Transition Centre - a think tank and education centre focussed on mobilising capital in support of sustainable development - and a Trustee of WWF-UK. Previously, he was Chief Sustainable Finance Officer at Aviva Investors. He holds a PhD in sustainable finance and is Honorary Visiting Professor of Sustainable Finance at the University of Surrey. Steve has advised the UK Government, the European Commission, the G20, the Financial Stability Board, the OECD and the UN on the creation of sustainable capital markets. He has received awards from Brummell, the International Chamber of Commerce, the City of London, the United Nations Foundation, Yale and Harvard. In 2024, he was listed among the 80 most influential people in European finance by Financial News. Subscribe for more stories and practical tools from Reboot the Future. www.rebootthefuture.org
September 22 · 13 min
Rewidling our Psyche: Ben Goldsmith
This week's Reboot Forum series episode features Ben Goldsmith, who talks about growing up fascinated by wildlife and refusing to let go of a vision of Britain living with wildlife. Visits to France as a child showed him it was possible, and by his teens he was writing to park rangers and Country Life magazine to make the case for bringing back species like wild boar. Ben is hopeful about where the country is heading. He reflects on Britain's shift from a nation wary of wildness to one increasingly ready to trust nature to lead, and on what it takes to keep pushing for change even when the odds feel stacked against you. More about Ben Goldsmith: Ben has two decades of investment experience in green industries. He is co-founder of Nattergal Ltd, a natural capital company focused on restoring ecosystems at scale, and founded and chairs Conservation Collective, a growing network of locally-focused environmental philanthropic foundations. He also serves as a Trustee of the Children's Investment Fund Foundation, and was a non-executive director of the UK Government's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs from 2018 to 2022. Alongside all this, Ben hosts the Rewilding the World podcast, is author of God is an Octopus, and is rewilding land surrounding his family home in south Somerset. You can listen to Ben Goldsmith’s weekly podcast ‘Rewilding the World with Ben Goldsmith’ here. Subscribe for more stories and practical tools from Reboot the Future. www.rebootthefuture.org
September 14 · 10 min
Rivers' Worth: Aimee Felus
This week’s guest is Aimee Felus, CEO of the Western Sussex Rivers Trust. Aimee loves working for Rivers Trusts, drawn to the reciprocity and energy she finds there. She and her team know the value of the work they do, for rivers and for people, particularly through the ecosystem services that help mitigate environmental issues like flooding and biodiversity loss. She finds it challenging when others don't place that same value on the work, but this spurs her on to help people understand. Ultimately, Aimee feels that treating people with kindness and respect, fuelled by real passion for the work, takes you a long way in bringing others on board. A grounded conversation about staying committed to work that matters. More about Aimee Felus: Aimee has worked with water for 21 years, specialising in water quality issues, nature-based solutions and community engagement. Rivers captivate Aimee, for their vital place in the natural world, for their role in our culture and all that they offer to us. Aimee’s top river moments include hauling 3500 tyres from the Lea with amazing Thames21 volunteers, watching the sand martin’s aerial dance from a canoe on the Wye and seeing a river weave its magic into her son as he was charmed for hours on a paddleboard. Aimee feels very privileged to be able to work for her local rivers through the Western Sussex Rivers Trust. Subscribe for more stories and practical tools from Reboot the Future. www.rebootthefuture.org
September 8 · 14 min
Living an Inspired Life: Hitendra Wadhwa
Hitendra Wadhwa has spent his career exploring what it really takes to live and lead well, work he now leads at Columbia Business School and through the Mentora Institute, which he founded. In this episode, he talks about the years he spent pulling back from the world (leaving strategy consulting and a Silicon Valley startup behind) to go deeper into his own inner life, and what that inner work eventually taught him: that the goal isn't to choose between the inner and outer world, but to find the intersection between them. He shares how that thinking played out in an unexpected place, a leadership programme he ran inside a Northern California prison. That instinct not to inflict pain on others goes right back to childhood. Hitendra became a vegetarian at eight, in a Punjabi meat-eating family, and held to it even when it meant pushing against his own dinner table. It's a thread that runs through everything else he talks about: living an inspired life, and finding freedom not in our circumstances, but in how free we are on the inside. More about Hitendra: Hitendra Wadhwa is the founder of the Mentora Institute and a professor at Columbia Business School, where he's won the Dean's Award for Teaching Excellence. He's the author of Inner Mastery, Outer Impact, and draws on the world's mystic traditions to codify the laws of success in life and leadership. Before academia, he was a strategy consultant at McKinsey and founded a Silicon Valley startup. He holds an MBA and PhD in Management Science from MIT's Sloan School of Management, and a BA with Honours in Mathematics from St. Stephen's College, Delhi. Subscribe for more stories and practical tools from Reboot the Future. www.rebootthefuture.org
September 1 · 18 min
Belly Bugs to the Rescue: David Bell
David Bell, creator of Belly Bugs, has found a way to get children genuinely excited about eating well. After thirty years in advertising, David turned his skills to a new challenge: gamifying the science of gut health for kids. He introduces children to the “gang of little helpers" living inside them, turning gut microbes into characters they want to feed with colourful fruit and vegetables, and it works. In a Sunderland pilot, a school cook reported children coming in and ordering salad straight away. David describes his childhood in rural County Down as both heaven and hell: an idyllic dairy farm and close community, set against the backdrop of the Troubles. As a Protestant whose three best friends were Catholic, he wished everyone could cross divides as easily. His advice to his younger self, and it clearly runs deep, is simply this: never give up. This episode celebrates the launch of the Belly Bugs X Reboot the Future Academic Calendar, find it here. Read out blog 'Learning for Their World' based on David's episode here. More about David Bell: Born in County Down, Northern Ireland in 1961, David graduated from Edinburgh University in 1987 with a PhD in Ancient Greek before joining ICI's marketing department in Manchester. In 1992 he founded his own advertising agency, Cheetham Bell, which became known as Manchester's "creative hotshop" and was bought by WPP in 2000. He went on to be CEO of JWT's Manchester office and Creative Director at global digital agency Mirum, before leaving advertising in 2017 to develop Belly Bugs, the children's IP he created to introduce kids to their gut microbes, which research is showing to be the silver bullet for childhood nutrition. He has published one Belly Bugs book with New River/Little River Books, with a second, "The Poo That Wouldn't Budge," due this autumn. A keen cyclist, David is fascinated by the natural world. Subscribe for more stories and practical tools from Reboot the Future. www.rebootthefuture.org
August 25 · 13 min
Wilder: Jon Conradi
This week we're joined by Jon Conradi, founder of Wild Mosaic, who is getting people rewilding without needing to own acres of land or live beside a nature reserve. Rewilders choose a three-metre by three-metre tile to follow, and Jon sends personal updates on their patch, the wildlife spotted there, and the progress of the land. It began with a nature club he set up at primary school, sparked by watching a neighbour's tree cut down. Even then he sensed that caring about nature was one thing, but persuading others to take action invited the question, why does it matter? For Jon, rewilding has been a way through apathy and despair at environmental chaos, and what he loves most is the personal connection: knowing each rewilder, and the small joys of an otter sighting or a butterfly landing on someone's tile. www.wildmosaic.eco More about Jon Conradi: Jon Conradi is the founder of Wild Mosaic. He is getting people rewilding without them needing to own acres of land or live next to a wildlife site. The UK led the world in exploiting wildness, it's now time for us to lead the world in restoring it. Subscribe for more stories and practical tools from Reboot the Future. www.rebootthefuture.org
August 3 · 14 min
Project: Kindness - Filippa Brundish
Filippa Brundish, founder of The Kindness Cooporation, learned early just how much listening matters. A quiet child raised with little money but plenty of love, she spent her early years absorbing the world rather than speaking up in it, taking it all in like a sponge. In time, she wanted to put that attentiveness to work. A project manager who loves getting things done, she took the brave, some might say naive, step of leaving a well-paid job to found The Kindness Coorporation, using her skills to design and deliver programmes that build kindness. Their flagship project Project JOY (Joining Older and Younger), brought schoolchildren and care home residents together, lighting up both. She hopes to see this project grow far beyond her corner of the UK. Her advice to her younger self is about finding her voice: be bold, be brave, speak out sooner, but remain exactly who you are. The quiet dark horse, she's learned, has her own kind of strength, and people, and the relationships that matter, are everything. More about Filippa & The Kindness Cooperation CIC With 25 years' experience as a management consultant across both the private and public sectors, I've spent my career helping organisations plan, deliver and navigate change. Three years ago, I decided to put that experience to work for good, founding The Kindness Cooperation CIC — a non-profit delivering projects with real social impacts, powered by the same project management skills I've honed throughout my career. Outside of work, I'm mum to two wonderful kids and married to a very gifted primary teacher. When I'm not juggling family and work life, you'll find me on the tennis or padel court, planning our next family holiday to France, or being dragged around the park by Ruby, our endlessly energetic cocker spaniel. Subscribe for more stories and practical tools from Reboot the Future. www.rebootthefuture.org
July 28 · 10 min
Design, from the Ground Up: Oliver Lloyd
Oliver Lloyd is a designer and systems thinker, with sustainability as the starting point of his work. He was once advised to "meet people where they are, but don't leave them there," and you get a strong sense of his enthusiasm for collaborating on projects where our connection to and care for nature is front and centre. Oliver shares how he's used this approach with a brand that makes multi-tools. Finding the point where his ethos and their brand met, he's been able to take them on an exciting journey, designing tools for city gardeners with small spaces to spark their engagement with nature. Considering planetary boundaries as a next step in design and production then became a natural conversation. Oliver is keen to share his work and methods, believing that an open source approach puts greater value on our planet, rather than only on the sale of the product. It's a challenge to business as usual, and it has met its share of pushback. But for Oliver, this way of working lets people feel part of a whole process, where their own agency and creative abilities are trusted and come to the fore. More about Oliver: Oliver is a designer and systems thinker working at the intersection of physical product development, emerging technologies, and climate adaptation. I help early-stage ventures and mission-driven organisations design products, services, and systems that are regenerative from the ground up. My approach combines hands-on prototyping and manufacturing knowledge, co-creation, workshop facilitation, futures thinking and strategic foresight — so sustainability isn’t an afterthought, it’s the starting point. Oliver Lloyd Design Subscribe for more stories and practical tools from Reboot the Future. www.rebootthefuture.org
July 21 · 17 min
Real Solidarity: Mary Ann Clements
Mary Ann Clements, Co-CEO of ADD International, has spent her whole life refusing to accept that "this is just the way the world is." As a child in a small Oxfordshire village, she felt every injustice keenly and couldn't fathom why the grown-ups had all given up. That refusal became her work. At ADD, a participatory grant maker for disability justice across Africa and Asia, she led a full-scale rethink: ending the old programmes, handing the decisions to the disabled movements ADD exists to serve, and swapping "we know best" for genuine solidarity. Plenty called it naïve. She is honest about what was hard, and what helped get her through. Mary Ann believes we need to be brave and hopeful. She has a photo on her desk of herself, aged four, dancing in the garden, a reminder to bring that free spirit into the messy, serious business of changing the world. Read our blog about this episode 'Turning the Ship' here. More about Mary Ann: Mary Ann Clements is a writer, facilitator and coach with over 25 years' international experience in social justice and organisational change. Most recently Co-CEO of ADD International, she helped transform it from a traditional NGO into a participatory grant-maker advancing disability justice, and was Co-Director of Healing Solidarity, which engaged over 3,500 people in reimagining global development through equity, care and collective action. She shares reflections on leadership, power and change through her Substack, How We Transform , and at maryannclements.com, and co-authored Red Tents: Unravelling Our Past and Weaving a Shared Future (2021). She is currently working on her first novel. Subscribe for more stories and practical tools from Reboot the Future. www.rebootthefuture.org
July 14 · 16 min
The Case for Idealism: Satish Kumar
Photo by Carles Rodriguez Marin Peace pilgrim, lifelong activist, former monk and founder of The Resurgence Trust, Satish Kumar has been inspiring global change for over 50 years, and at 90 he is still choosing to be, in his own words, a naïve idealist. At nine he renounced the world to become a Jain monk, against the wishes of his businessmen brothers, who thought him too idealistic. He decided then that being naïve was exactly what he wanted, and he has never let go of it. In his twenties he walked 8,000 miles across 15 countries without money, from India towards the world's nuclear capitals, in the name of disarmament, meeting Bertrand Russell, Martin Luther King and others along the way. The pragmatic people, he argues, are the ones ruining the world with war, waste and warming. It is the idealists, the Buddha, Gandhi, King, who actually change it. Idealism, for Satish, is not a flaw to grow out of but the very thing the world most needs us to hold onto. That conviction led him to found Schumacher College in Devon. He wanted an education of head, heart and hands, teaching young people courage, creativity and the confidence to make their own path rather than wait for one. It is idealism as a practical training, a way of seeing that dares young people to imagine differently and act on it. Satish now wants every country to establish a Minister of Peace, noting that 194 nations fund armies and defence while not one invests in peace itself. War, he says, achieves nothing: not in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Ukraine or Gaza, only lives lost. The age of war has passed, he believes, and the age of peace is what we must now build, spending our energy on how to be good neighbours rather than good enemies. It is a bracing, hopeful call from someone who has lived every word of it. More about Satish: Peace-pilgrim, life-long activist, and former monk, Satish Kumar has been inspiring global change for over 50 years. He undertook a pilgrimage for peace, walking for two years without money from India to America for the cause of nuclear disarmament. Now in his 80s, Satish has devoted his life to campaigning for ecological regeneration and social justice. He is a world-renown author and international speaker, founder of The Resurgence Trust and Editor Emeritus of Resurgence & Ecologist – a change-making magazine he edited for over 40 years. To find more about Satish and join him in protecting people and planet click here. Link here to the Resurgence Trust Subscribe for more stories and practical tools from Reboot the Future. www.rebootthefuture.org
July 7 · 7 min
An Eye For Nature: Xander Beks
This week we're joined by Xander Beks, founder of Eye For Nature, whose whole way of working began with a simple willingness to step up. As a teenager, when others met a good idea with "that will never happen," his instinct was different: nothing is impossible until we have tried. More often than not, it became a success. He puts it down to an open, generous approach, one he traces to his Dutch roots, and a saying that "you always have no as an answer, and maybe you will get a yes." Coming to people with kindness rather than self-interest builds trust, he found. Much of our conversation turns to intergenerational learning, and Xander's belief that we waste the potential of young people. Through Eye For Nature he works to put them in the driver's seat, helping shape how they learn and matching them with mentors and experts around the world. What he describes is a genuine two-way exchange: older generations sharing experience, and younger ones, often the real experts now, teaching in return. Find out more about Eye For Nature here. Read our blog about this episode here. More about Xander Beks: Xander Beks is the Founder and Leader of Eye for Nature Cooperative, bringing over 20 years of international experience across nature-related fields, youth engagement, learning design and system transition, spanning government (national, EU and UN), education, civil society and the private sector. With more than 30 years of hands-on farming experience, he combines a deep understanding of farming realities with strategic expertise in regenerative agriculture, landscape restoration and value-chain transformation, put into practice on the farm he runs with his wife and parents-in-law, the home base of Eye for Nature and part of a future Polder Campus. He has extensive experience designing learning programmes for young people, farmers and changemakers, with a focus on leadership, experiential learning and system change. He has led national and international initiatives across youth, food systems and regenerative agriculture, including Harvest of Tomorrow, Youth Food Lab, World Food Forum national chapters, Groundswell NL, and the School of Sustainable Food and Farming NL. He has also held senior roles in public-sector policy and defence-related sustainability and energy-transition programmes, bringing strong capability in multi-stakeholder coordination, governance and complex delivery. Xander holds a Master's in Agricultural Engineering from Wageningen University & Research, is a Nuffield Scholar (2023), and is a reserve officer (Major) at the Dutch Centre of Expertise for Military Engineering, filling several roles in European and NATO fora. Subscribe for more stories and practical tools from Reboot the Future. www.rebootthefuture.org
June 29 · 11 min
Adventures in Understanding: Alice Morrison
Explorer, TV presenter and author Alice Morrison joins us this week, fresh from a world first: becoming the first recorded person to cross Saudi Arabia from north to south on foot. For Alice, the heart of adventure is understanding, and not only of the people next door. Through the stories she gathers and shares from her journeys, she helps us get to know other people, countries, religions and places, so we can no longer stand back and condemn them from a distance. We see where they are coming from, and make better decisions. She honestly wrestles with her beliefs about our world. She once believed life would simply keep getting better. Reporting from Northern Ireland, she saw the peace reached at Stormont as a template the rest of the world might follow, and the rise of conflict and violence since has been hard to bear. Yet she still believes we have to face it and keep acting for a better humanity. In a Scottish word from her upbringing, we must "gird" ourselves for the tough and necessary work ahead. More about Alice: Alice Morrison is an explorer, TV presenter and author, fresh from a world first as the first recorded person to cross Saudi Arabia north to south on foot. A Scot brought up partly in Africa, she studied Arabic and Turkish and worked in journalism before changing course in mid-life, cycling 12,000km from Cairo to Cape Town on the longest bike race on earth. Now based in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco, she has since walked the length of the Draa river as the first woman to do so, crossed the Sahara with camels and Amazigh guides, and presented BBC series including her latest, Arabian Adventures: Secrets of the Nabateans. She is the author of four books, among them Walking with Nomads, runner-up for the Best Travel Book Award 2023, and hosts the podcast Alice in Wanderland. Link here to learn more about Alice’s adventures and her 4 books here. Link here for Alice’s podcast ‘Alice in Wanderland’. Read our blog about this episode here. Subscribe for more stories and practical tools from Reboot the Future. www.rebootthefuture.org
June 23 · 16 min
A Strong Sense of Fairness: Ben Rawlence
Award-winning author and co-founder and director of the pioneering Black Mountains College, Ben Rawlence joins us this week. He shares how his life has been guided by a need for fairness for all and a deep commitment to morally important campaigns. That work in policy and human rights has taken him to the USA, to his beloved Tanzania, and across Africa, a career that someone recently described to him as a graveyard of good intentions. Through all of it, one question has kept him steady: "what's the right thing for me to do right now?" Right now for Ben, that means building this unique college in and around the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park in Wales, creating a future where nature and people thrive together. Black Mountains College takes on the challenge of our times: how to build a fair and just society within safe planetary boundaries. More about Ben: Ben Rawlence is the is the award-winning author of Radio Congo, City of Thorns, The Treeline and Think Like a Forest. His writing has been translated into a dozen languages. The Treeline won the 2023 Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism, the 2022 Schmidt Award for Excellence in Science Communications among others. He is the co-founder and director of the pioneering educational institution, Black Mountains College in Wales. His next book chronicles the Gulf Stream system: The River in the Sea: The Ocean Current That Made the World As We Know It (out in 2027). Ben's latest book is Think Like a Forest, Letters to My Children Children From A Changing Planet. Read our blog about this episode here. Subscribe for more stories and practical tools from Reboot the Future. www.rebootthefuture.org
June 15 · 13 min
A Mission to Spread Kindness: Joshua Ford
This week we're joined by Joshua Ford, an award-winning actor and filmmaker whose work explores kindness, vulnerability, human connection and the belief that creativity can change lives. In 2024 he made a film called Hey You, Yes You, Open Me, dropping a hundred handwritten notes of kindness across London's tubes and buses, each one a message of hope and an invitation to connect. It went viral, and Joshua still hears from people every day, grateful for the impact it has had on them. Joshua grew up in a small, busy house in High Wycombe with three brothers, his parents and a couple of animals. Amid the chaos, and his mum's serious ill health, there was so much kindness that he assumed the whole world worked that way. He believes he was drawn to the arts because of it, drawn to understanding people more because of the compassion shown to him. He emphasises keeping your imagination alive and not caring if you look silly doing what you love. As he puts it, when it comes to creativity, "it doesn't really matter what people think so much because you've made it and they haven't." Link here to watch ‘Hey You, Yes You, Open Me’ More about Joshua Ford: Alongside his creative endeavours, Joshua champions a “DIY” approach to creativity, believing that creativity can underpin almost every part of life and help nurture the truest human experiences. Through his films, talks, and community projects, he encourages others to stop waiting for permission and simply begin making, connecting, and expressing themselves authentically. Read our blog 'Shifting the Baseline: Joshua Ford's episode' here. Subscribe for more stories and practical tools from Reboot the Future. www.rebootthefuture.org
June 9 · 9 min
Shamelessly Idealistic Creativity: Ben Peers
Ben Peers, Creative Director, Designer and Videographer, believes that nothing ever really changes for the better without a little bit of shameless, idealistic creativity. He also believes that our fixation on metrics and the bottom line can stifle our ability to challenge the status quo and shame idealism out of us. He recalls the same trajectory in his own life: creativity that flourished in primary school, before that spark was stifled and shamed within the conformist walls of secondary school. That's why he created 'Good Eye', a safe space for idealism and a counterweight to the cynicism that stops us believing we can do things differently. As he says, "if we're discouraged from imagining a better future because it's too idealistic, then how on earth are we ever going to even achieve a fraction of that?" He shares how, through Good Eye, he is bringing together a community of creatives who want to use their talent to build a better world. He wants to awaken people to a possibility many of us lose sight of: that creativity is for more than selling things, it can help build the world we want to live in. More about Ben Peers: Ben Peers is a London-based Creative Director, Designer and Videographer. In 2025 he began developing Good Eye, a community for creatives who want to use their creativity for good. Read our blog 'On the Side of Nice: Ben Peers’s episode’ here. Subscribe for more stories and practical tools from Reboot the Future. www.rebootthefuture.org
June 1 · 16 min
Building Bridges in the Food System: Dr Lucy Wallace
What happens when you stop trying to fit in and start trusting your own way of seeing the world? Dr Lucy Wallace, a convenor and peacebuilder in food systems, has spent her career bringing people together in rooms thick with conflict, holding to one quiet belief: everyone deserves a seat at the table. In this conversation she takes us from a childhood spent hunting out small pockets of nature in the concrete West Midlands, to the noisy halls of COP, where making space for every voice is rarely tidy but is how trust slowly takes root. She speaks openly about embracing her late-diagnosed ADHD, about peacebuilding between those working in food systems, and about hope. When others try to dim your light, she says, it is usually a sign you have touched on something that matters. Her gentle encouragement to the rest of us is to stay with it, and to keep building the empathy that carries people along. More about Lucy Dr Lucy Wallace is a globally recognised connector, convenor and peacemaker in the food system, with 20 years' experience. She is the founder of Liminal Thinking, where she advises organisations on food innovation ecosystems, and Creative Director for tmrw. She has held senior roles at EIT Food, led the secretariat of the Action on Food hub at the UNFCCC COP, and co-founded REGEN HOUSE. A biologist by training, with a zoology degree from Aberdeen and a PhD in veterinary science, her feel for complex systems is rooted in the living world. Want to think more about the issues raised in this podcast? Read our blog 'When 'Not Enough' Means it's Time to Share' here. Subscribe for more stories and practical tools from Reboot the Future. www.rebootthefuture.org
May 26 · 18 min
The Right Thing To Do : Samantha Ward OBE
What happens when you refuse to accept that nothing can be done? In this episode, we hear from Samantha Ward OBE, Deputy CEO of Royal Voluntary Service, whose lifelong conviction that the world can be changed for the better has shaped an extraordinary career in service and volunteering. From childhood, Sam had a powerful sense of right and wrong and the grit to go with it, always asking not just "why is this happening?" but "what can we do about it?" Where others saw naivety, Sam saw possibility, and she never stopped acting on it. That conviction was tested most visibly when the pandemic hit and Royal Voluntary Service stepped forward while others battened down the hatches. The result? The NHS Volunteer Responders programme, built in a matter of weeks, which mobilised 750,000 volunteers and delivered support over 2.6 million times to people who might otherwise have been completely cut adrift. Sam also shares the more recent launch of GoVo, RVS's flexible volunteering platform now home to nearly 1,800 charities, designed to meet people where they are and make volunteering work for modern life, whether that's 20 minutes on the way home or a Saturday afternoon trying something completely new. As Sam describes it, it was built on the same quiet certainty that it was simply the right thing to do. More about Samantha: Samantha Ward OBE, Deputy CEO and Chief of Services and Volunteering at Royal Voluntary Service As well as Deputy CEO responsibilities, Sam is also responsible for Royal Voluntary Service's volunteering, safeguarding & service delivery, including health, social care, community services and Armed Forces support. Sam is also a qualified Leadership Coach, Mentor & Consultant for Leaders who feel driven to serve and are born to lead. She was awarded an OBE for services to charity in 2022. Links and resources: Royal Voluntary Service GoVo volunteering platform Want to think more about the issues raised in this podcast? Read our blog 'The Girl Who Wouldn't Look Away' here. Subscribe for more stories and practical tools from Reboot the Future. www.rebootthefuture.org

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