In 1569, Gerard Mercator made a map for sailors. The sailors largely ignored it for almost two hundred years. Then it quietly became the picture of the world that generations of us grew up with, without anyone ever deciding it should.
In September 2026, 164 countries at the United Nations voted to challenge it.
In this episode of Stories of Change, I explore why the accurate map is the one that feels wrong, and what Mercator's slow adoption can teach anyone trying to make AI work in their organisation.
Ali Juma
@The Inner Game of Change podcast
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