🎙️How do we change the status quo?

Conventions tend to be, well, conventional. Mingling people in rooms for a few days has been the default for a long time: the challenge is getting the delegates on board to try something new.

Mara Sandoval designs the gatherings for high-level decision makers. For her, experience design plays a key role in generating outcomes when people gather and it needs to be centre stage in the planning process rather than an afterthought. She calls on

🔹Alex McLean, CEO & Co-Founder, Alveole and

🔹Cindy Gallop, Founder & CEO, MakeLoveNotPorn

to join her exploration of the burning question: How do we break down the barriers to collaboration when we gather?

• Being a great guest
• Anthropology and graphic design in content and space
• Design as a theory of change
• Bringing collaborative design to boardrooms
• The need for a common language
• Why are we gathering?
• The pivotal role of human interaction
• An easy way to encourage collaboration
• typical conferences = boring
• Bruce Mau incomplete manifesto for change
• Typical conferences
• Power of intention as participant
• The people you need in the room

Host: Christine Renaud, Braindate

Subscribe to find inspiration, algorithm-free perspectives and good conversation at The More the Brainier. To contribute to the discussion, join us on Braindate’s LinkedIn post about this episode of our show or send us an email at TMTB@braindate.com

This episode of The More the Brainier was produced by Christine Renaud and Jane Gibb. Editing and sound engineering by Jenya Sverlov and Chris Leon.

🎙️How do you find the people you need when you don’t know where to look?

Cindy Gallop's mission is to help end rape culture globally through education and awareness. Cindy has solid experience getting her message across and getting things done: after identifying a lack and a need in the market back in 2012, Cindy created the online platform, MakeLoveNotPorn, a subscription service aimed at providing an alternative to porn. Cindy seeks investors for MakeLoveNotPorn, she knows the money is out there but the typical investor route is not open to her. She explains the situation to:

🔹 Mara Sandoval, Head of Event Design and Interaction, World Economic Forum; and

🔹 Alex McLean, CEO & Co-Founder, Alveole

Together, they address her burning question: How do I find investors/donors who 'get it' for MakeLoveNotPorn?

• Early experiences of earning and saving money
• Origins of MakeLoveNotPorn
• Cindy's Burning Question: How to find investors?
• Barriers and solutions to business growth in sex tech

Host: Christine Renaud, Braindate

Subscribe to find inspiration, algorithm-free perspectives and good conversation at The More the Brainier. To contribute to the discussion, join us on Braindate’s LinkedIn post about this episode of our show or send us an email at TMTB@braindate.com

This episode of The More the Brainier was produced by Christine Renaud and Jane Gibb. Editing and sound engineering by Jenya Sverlov and Chris Leon.

🎙️ How can nature and humans thrive in cities together?

Alex McLean, started beekeeping at 15 and it’s taken him around the world and into business as Co-Founder and CEO at Alveole, a turnkey urban beekeeping company.

Alex negotiates partnerships with commercial real estate across North America and Europe; one of his main challenges is translating the need for nature alongside us in cities for the people who have the power to improve the urban environment for all city dwellers.

In this tenth episode of The More the Brainier, Alex receives advice from:

🔹 Cindy Gallop, Founder & CEO, MakeLoveNotPorn; and

🔹 Mara Sandoval, Head of Event Design and Interaction, World Economic Forum

Together, they address his burning question: How do I make people care about nature being an integral part of the city?

• Alveole and its mission
• Urban beekeeping 101
• How do we get people to care about nature in cities?
• Moments of awe
• What do bees represent?
• The transformation of Singapore
• Nature as privilege
• Normalising nature
• Outreach to children
• Edible cities
• The link between nature, health and wellbeing
• Storytelling as a tool to bring nature to children
• The power of gardening
• Potential for radical improvement with urban planning
• Bottom-up change limitations
• When top down models for change are necessary
• How can everybody benefit?

Today’s guests:

• Alex McLean, (Main guest); Cindy Gallop; Mara Sandoval

Host: Christine Renaud, Braindate

Subscribe to find inspiration, algorithm-free perspectives and good conversation at The More the Brainier. To contribute to the discussion, join us on Braindate’s LinkedIn post about this episode of our show or send us an email at TMTB@braindate.com

This episode of The More the Brainier was produced by Christine Renaud and Jane Gibb. Editing and sound engineering by Jenya Sverlov and Chris Leon.

How can we have a tangible impact on the world? How does change begin?

In his role as Creative Director of Cities at Moment Factory and also through events he has organised within his community, Fady Atallah works by creating experiences but he's still frustrated that he can't feel a tangible impact. He feels we can do more. Fady enlists the help of:

🔹 Jennie Glazer, CEO at Coqual, The Centre for Talent Innovation; and

🔹 Paul Propster, Chief Story Architect, NASA/JPL StoryLab (Retired)

in this ninth episode of The More the Brainier.

Together, they tackle his burning question: How can I switch from citizen-spectator to active participation in an increasingly turbulent world?

In this discussion we cover politics, cities, climate, culture: what becomes apparent is that people don’t need more inspiration. They need a place to start. Design is often for attention but not necessarily for agency. What if intentional design created moments and experiences that made people feel like they have a role to play?

• Ovations: standing or sitting?
• Moment Factory
• Citizen spectator – experience as a citizen
• Inertia at different levels: federal: infrastructure: municipal and arts/cultural
• The potential for change in public urban space
• What to change and how, micro to macro
• Thinkers: Henry Jenkins: civic engagement: building a story to include the collective; Marshall Ganz: story of me, story of us, story of now; Amy Edmunsdon: psychological safety: creating safe spaces
• How do we design for trust and not compliance?
• Do we need a civic overhaul or more to create moments that remind people that they belong?
• Plan the expedition
• The need for new language: flip the perspective to create traction, motivation
• What's your prototype?
• Writing a document of reference
• Designing for agency, with conviction.

Today’s guests:

Fady Atallah (Main guest); Paul Propster; Jennie Glazer

Host: Christine Renaud, Braindate

Subscribe to find inspiration, algorithm-free perspectives and good conversation at The More the Brainier. To contribute to the discussion, join us on Braindate’s LinkedIn post about this episode of our show or send us an email at TMTB@braindate.com

This episode of The More the Brainier was produced by Christine Renaud and Jane Gibb. Editing and sound engineering by Jenya Sverlov and Chris Leon.

🎙️If you had 100 plus global multinational Fortune 500 member companies working arm in arm with you, to what would you draw to their attention?

Our second guest in this series: Jennie Glazer, works with C-suite leaders whose businesses have an impact on the lives of thousands in her role as CEO at Coqual, the Centre for Talent Innovation. She sees her privileged position as an opportunity to ask questions that count. She calls on:

🔹 Fady Atallah, Creative Director of Cities at Moment Factory; and

🔹 Paul Propster, Chief Story Architect, NASA/JPL StoryLab (Retired)

to explore the kinds of questions she could be asking in this eighth episode of The More the Brainier.

• The power of gathering: live performances
• Coqual: enabling people to fully contribute at work
• Creating space for innovation
• Burning question: what are the questions we should be asking as leaders?
• Digging down to the real questions
• Wading through uncertainty
• Short-termism - no termism
• What can growth look like?
• Hitting the mute button
• What are the mechanisms for change
• The what is, the what if and the what could be
• Double bottom line: doing good and making money
• Learning form organisations and "the smaller guys"

Today’s guests:

Jennie Glazer (Main guest); Fady Atallah; Paul Propster

Host: Christine Renaud, Braindate

Referenced:

Cosm (02:11)

Pussy Riot, Riot Days (03:58)

EPIC PLayer's Spring Awakening (8:53)

LaGuardia High School: Considering Matthew Shepard, The Opera (Clip)(9:44)

Hal Gregerson Questions are the Answer (27:33)

Subscribe to find inspiration, algorithm-free perspectives and good conversation at The More the Brainier. To contribute to the discussion, join us on Braindate’s LinkedIn post about this episode of our show or send us an email at TMTB@braindate.com

This episode of The More the Brainier was produced by Christine Renaud and Jane Gibb. Editing and sound engineering by Jenya Sverlov and Chris Leon.

Do you want to be part of someone else's mission—or is it time to launch your own? What’s the mission only you can launch?

Our first guest in this new series: Paul Propster recently retired from his position of strategist at NASA and having worked for many years for someone else’s purpose and mission, now seeks a purpose and mission that resonates more closely with his own values.

Paul examines the options before him in this seventh episode of The More the Brainier, he is joined by:

🔹 Jennie Glazer, CEO at Coqual, Centre for Talent Innovation

🔹 Fady Atallah, Creative Director of Cities at Moment Factory

• Childhood stories that have impacted our adult lives
• What makes a good story?
• The power of shared stories
• The burning question: How do I launch a new career with more meaning in middlescence?
• Purpose after prestige
• Prototyping vs job seeking
• What's needed when one mission ends—but you're ready to invent your own
• The people we work with
• Taking time
• Uncomfortable travel
• Middlescence and mile-stones
• Communities

Today’s guests:

Paul Propster (Main guest); Jennie Glazer; Fady Atallah

Host: Christine Renaud, Braindate

Referenced: Orbiting the Giant Hairball (11:35)

Subscribe to find inspiration, algorithm-free perspectives and good conversation at The More the Brainier. To contribute to the discussion, join us on Braindate’s LinkedIn post about this episode of our show or send us an email at TMTB@braindate.com

This episode of The More the Brainier was produced by Christine Renaud and Jane Gibb. Editing and sound engineering by Jenya Sverlov and Chris Leon.

Polarisation, extreme views, lack of curiosity and unwillingness to listen: How do we bring people closer to the middle-ground? How do we maintain and nourish a vision of the future that doesn't just include the idea of peace but a future in which peace is an attainable outcome? In our sixth episode of The More the Brainier, Co-Founder of The Knowledge Society, Navid Nathoo, Head of Impact at TED, Logan McClure Davda and host, Christine Renaud tackle Ella Robertson McKay’s burning question as Managing Director at One Young World: How do we reclaim the centre-ground and create more peaceful co-existence?

Covered in this episode

• Favourite reads
• Origins and inspiration for One Young World and its work in action today
• How do we reclaim the centre-ground and create more peaceful co-existence?
• What can we do to promote dialogue?
• OYW’s current work in peacekeeping and bridge-building
• Decline in curiosity and willingness to listen to divergent perspectives
• Holding space
• Leveraging Braindate and TED to facilitate, educate and build empathy
• Leaders as role models
• Cultural competency
• Development of skills

Referenced in conversation:

Books: James, Orbital, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, A Covenant of Water (01:44)

Recognition (referenced by Ella at 06:40)

Human Libraries (18:36)

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This marks the end of the second series for April! We’ll be back on May 6th with more burning questions on finding one’s purpose in middlescence, the questions we ask ourselves as leaders and moving from passive bystander to active participant.

Thank you for listening to The More the Brainier, if you liked the show, please share with someone whom you think you would also enjoy the discussion, or let us know and we’ll contact them 🙂 We’d love to hear from you! Drop us a line at TMTB@braindate.com

This episode of The More the Brainier was produced by Christine Renaud and Jane Gibb. Editing and sound engineering by Jenya Sverlov.

Braindate

An amazing youth leadership accelerator that equips 13-17 year-olds with a skillset to solve real-world problems using cutting-edge technology and methodologies: the alumni are proving the programme's impact, the kids know about it but the parents don’t.

Eleven years after founding The Knowledge Society, one of Navid Nathoo’s biggest hurdles is reaching parents: so in this fifth episode of The More the Brainier, he asks Logan McClure Davda, Head of Impact at TED and Ella Robertson McKay, Managing Director at One Young World : How can we bring more awareness of innovative education to parents?

This isn’t your typical “expert talks” format: it’s collaborative learning in action.

Real stories. Shared wisdom. Off script.

• Philosophies/mottos to live by
• Origins of The Knowledge Society (TKS)
• How can we bring more awareness of innovative education to parents?
• Identifying points of parent intervention
• Parenting champions
• College/university recruiters
• Word of mouth
• Summer programmes
• School communities
• Alumni
• Philanthropic collaborations
• Homeschoolers
• Identifying each immediate market inorder to build partnerships

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More information on today’s guests:

• Navid Nathoo, The Knowledge Society (TKS), (Main guest);
• Logan McClure Davda, TED;
• Ella Robertson McKay, One Young World

Host: Christine Renaud, Braindate

Subscribe to hear different perspectives on more burning questions from creative minds around the world. To contribute to the discussion, comment on Braindate’s LinkedIn post about this episode of our show or send us an email TMTB@braindate.com

This episode of The More the Brainier was produced by Christine Renaud and Jane Gibb. Editing and sound engineering by Jenya Sverlov.