Shows
The Curiosity DividendEpisode 21 - Josh ConnollyJosh Connolly is a coach who uses embodiment practices, breath-work, and his own deeply personal experiences, to help build resilience in others. Josh is a passionate supporter of those affected by parental alcohol issues, an advocate for tapping into, and connecting profoundly with, our emotions and intuition as a way to heal trauma, and he’s a wonderful conversationalist.We connected over a shared frustration with aspects of the widely publicised debate between Gary Stevenson and Daniel Priestley about the economy. Our conversation became much richer – we talk about being a man, role models, vulnerability, stoicism, community, unfa...2025-05-201h 48
The Curiosity DividendEpisode 20 - John PardeyMy conversation with John Pardey, an architect of unparalleled skill in the field of housing design.A serial winner of the UK’s most respected architecture awards, John has been a Chair and member of the RIBA Awards Group and CABE's National Design Review Panel, and has held lecturing posts at the London South Bank, Westminster, Canterbury and Portsmouth Schools of Architecture and is an external examiner at both Cardiff and Oxford Brookes.An unashamed fan of Jørn Utzon, the master architect of the Sydney Opera House, John has been inspired by the man to...2025-05-061h 17
The Curiosity DividendEpisode 19 - Marc A. RossMarc A. Ross is a geopolitical strategist and communications expert. He’s the founder of Caracal Global and Brigadoon, and a passionate advocate for his home City of Detroit, its sports teams, its music scene, its architecture and its urban renaissance.A current resident of Washington DC, Marc is at the sharp end of the political shenanigans of US politics and advises companies around the world on geopolitical intelligence and corporate diplomacy. Who better to speak to about the shattering of the old world order in these chaotic times?He’s also an inveterate traveller and...2025-04-181h 28
The Curiosity DividendEpisode 18 - Anna Koska (take two)My second conversation with the lovely Anna Koska. This one is all about space, creativity, the natural world and where we draw inspiration from.Anna is an artist specialising in fruit, vegetables and the natural world, and alongside her book illustration work, Anna is regularly commissioned by chefs and restauranteurs for food and botanical art.Working in egg tempera, watercolour, pen & ink and oils, Anna’s deeply intuitive sensibility as a natural historian shines through in all her creative outputs which more recently include writing. Her books From Field and Forest and From Coast and Co...2025-04-081h 09
The Curiosity DividendEpisode 17 - Ben DerbyshireBen Derbyshire is a Past President of the Royal Institute of British Architects. He is the Chair of the acclaimed architecture practice HTA Design LLP and a Commissioner of Historic England.A wonderfully erudite, engaging and deeply thoughtful man, Ben shares his principles for good architecture and place-making and a wide array of valuable insights, relevant not just to those active in the formation of the built environment, but to anyone with an interest in vibrant, inclusive community. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or...2025-03-161h 24
The Curiosity DividendEpisode 16 - James MaloneJames Malone is a filmmaker, photographer and former Royal Marines Commando. His production company, Palpa Films, specialises in crafting compelling, extraordinary documentary work. His elite military background has provided a robust foundation for meticulous planning, seamless adaptation, and the creation of powerful stories in the most demanding environments. This is a deeply personal conversation. Certainly the most important conversation I have ever had as a podcaster. James tells his story - a searingly honest story of operating under the highest imaginable stress. Humble, courageous, compelling. Please help spread the word about what James is doing...2025-03-021h 59
The Curiosity DividendEpisode 15 - Elaine CarnegieEpisode 15: Elaine Carnegie This was a special conversation with the wonderful Elaine Carnegie originally recorded during lockdown in February 2021. Elaine is a workplace health, mental health and wellbeing consultant, and the founder and Managing Director of beingworks. A former Senior NHS Physiotherapist and Fortune 500 executive, Elaine talks to me about her journey to doing critically important work with her team to support employee wellbeing. Poor mental health has a staggeringly negative impact on employees and cost UK business £51 billion in 2024 according to Deloitte research. Elaine is an absolute delight to spend time with, and listen to, and s...2025-02-211h 02
The Curiosity DividendEpisode 14 - Murray KerrMurray Kerr is an architect and founder of the design practice Denizen Works. Winners of the Stephen Lawrence Prize, The Grand Designs Home of the Year, and Building Design Architect of the Year, Denizen Works projects are characterised by an articulate approach which taps into local history, landscape, microclimate and community. We start our discussion with the golden question “what is architecture?” Murray is an inspiring, considered thinker, and this conversation was a real adventure in space, constraints, bumps in the building process, humility in design and the need to keep pushing forward, always.Denizen Work...2025-02-181h 39
The Curiosity DividendEpisode 13 - Hugh MacLeodHugh MacLeod is a pioneer. He was one of the first two bloggers that I followed on the internet, back in about 2001, the other being Seth Godin. His blog gapingvoid.com, featuring his doodles on the back of business cards and creative advice for young entrepreneurs, was a huge inspiration to me as I started out on the lonely journey of starting my first company.A cartoonist, linguist and marketer, he has been championing the belief that art has the power to transform business, for over 30 years. His ebook “How to be Creative” on Change This was my f...2025-02-0951 min
The Curiosity DividendEpisode 11: Rob PoyntonRob Poynton is a deep and creative thinker and author, whose life and work straddle eclectic fields. He teaches strategic leadership at the University of Oxford, and acts as a facilitator, consultant and coach to a host of companies and clients. His work is at the intersection of leadership, creativity, innovation and branding. He draws on multiple influences including improvisational theatre, play and the science of complexity. He lives between a remote off-grid home he built himself in the mountains of central Spain, and Oxford, England. I love this conversation. Rob is so understated and yet so...2025-02-021h 42
The Curiosity DividendEpisode 10 - Sadie Morgan OBESadie Morgan is the co-founding director of multi award-winning international architecture and design practice dRMM. She was appointed OBE in the Queen’s 2020 New Year’s Honours List and is a Professor at the University of Westminster. She is the youngest ever President of the Architectural Association, the Design chair for HS2 and is a Commissioner for the UK Government’s National Infrastructure Commission. She is the founder of the Quality of Life Foundation which aims to put well-being at the heart of all new place-making and at the forefront of the housebuilding agenda. We discuss her wide-r...2025-02-0255 min
The Curiosity DividendEpisode 9 - Clare HieattI manage to coax Clare Hieatt, co-founder of Howies, The Do Lectures and Hiut Denim*, out of the shadows during the build up to the 2019 Do Lectures event on her farm in Wales. Clare shares personal insights into her professional life and business partnership with her husband David, writing her book Do Curious, and creating the unique, transformative space which facilitates the magic of the Do Lectures every year.www.thedolectures.comwww.hiutdenim.co.uk* Full disclosure - I have a minority financial interest in Hiut DenimThanks for...2025-02-021h 19
The Curiosity DividendEpisode 8 - Michael OwenI meet Michael Owen, the founder of Always Wear Red, an uncompromising menswear brand utilising only the very best materials and makers around the UK. Amongst other things we riff on growing up, turning 50 - an occasion that led Michael to start a blog which has grown into a searingly honest, witty and wise look at life through Michael's glasses - and the creative process. We end with a very personal exploration of the indelible impression that the film Kes has left on both of us.Michael has subsequently pivoted and now runs two businesses as well...2025-02-021h 09
The Curiosity DividendEpisode 7 - David HieattOn the eve of the 10th Do Lectures, I discuss the genesis of the event with co-founder David Hieatt. David shares the ideas and inspiration behind the Do, why and how it came into being, and what he hopes to achieve with it. He also shares rare insights of his life with his wife Clare, and their process in building their much admired first brand Howies, and their second - Hiut - a specialist hand-crafted maker of jeans in Cardigan, West Wales.*https://thedolectures.com/https://hiutdenim.co.uk/*Full disclosure...2025-02-021h 41
The Curiosity DividendEpisode 6 - Anna KoskaI meet the talented and multi-faceted artist Anna Koska in her rural studio after a joyous walk in the woods. In our first conversation* we talk about painting, writing, bee-keeping, rearing pigs, charcuterie, feeding a family on home grown vegetables, and cooking. Anna is deeply curious about the world, adventurous, unafraid to fail, and her beautiful little studio, sitting as it does on the edge of woodland, with just birdsong and Billie the lurcher for company, was the perfect space to talk.https://www.instagram.com/gremkoska/* second episode coming soon2025-02-021h 18
The Curiosity DividendEpisode 5 - Luke Sital-SinghI meet acclaimed singer-songwriter Luke Sital-Singh at his studio in Bristol to discuss his journey from teenage music fan to universally respected professional musician described by no less than Lauren Laverne as ‘unbelievably good’. We discuss Luke’s searingly honest, haunting and mournful songs and the creative process behind writing and recording them. We share a fascination with melancholy and discuss how that most misunderstood of aesthetic emotions can be a source of great creativity and the part it plays in Luke’s music. Luke also reveals his fabulously dry sense of humour. Sincere thanks to Luke for personally mixing h...2025-01-311h 38
The Curiosity DividendEpisode 4 - Jack Adair BevanJack Adair Bevan exudes soul. He’s an author, director and craftsman. Jack co-founded The Ethicurean - a multi award winning West Country restaurant straight out of University. He developed an award-winning artisan vermouth, The Collector, selling it successfully to the best bars and restaurants in the land. But driven by his innate curiosity Jack gave it up to follow a new-found passion - to use his hands to craft classic wooden sailing boats. With rare humility Jack shares his story of learning a new trade, the intense kindness of the folk on the West coast of Scotland, and ho...2025-01-311h 27
The Curiosity DividendEpisode 3: Tim StrangeIn this episode I meet Tim Strange in his beautiful beach hut on England's South Coast. Tim is an artist, photographer, educator and, notably, one of only 1,881 people to have completed a solo swim of the English Channel (as at 31st January 2025). Tim talks with great clarity about how he came to take on the challenge of the Channel swim. To put this achievement into perspective as at December 2024 7,120 different people have reached the summit of Mount Everest. Tim also talks about studying fine art at Goldsmiths in the shadow of the YBA's, his art practice and how he...2025-01-311h 18
The Curiosity DividendEpisode 2: Shana DresslerA conversation with all round New York City cool cat Shana Dressler, about art practices, unrequited love, family tragedy, rebounding from failure, Jaques Cousteau, patenting McDonald's Golden Arches and Hugh Heffner's Playboy logo, and social impact. Shana gives a very personal, visceral and searingly honest insight into her life, her love of travel and cultural exploration and how she has switched her professional focus from personal goals to supporting emergent businesses seeking to effect socially progressive and positive change in the world.www.shanadressler.com This is a public episode. If you would like...2025-01-311h 21
The Curiosity DividendEpisode 1: Dan KieranDan Kieran is a writer, entrepreneur, lecturer, speaker and mentor.The start of my meandering podcast journey was an eclectic conversation with Dan Kieran around the office kitchen table at Unbound, the crowd funding publishing platform that he co-founded to liberate writers - putting them and their readers into a direct relationship. Like a physical Substack of sorts. At the time Dan was growing Unbound as CEO.Channelling an off-piste skier mentality we went all over the place searching for the best powder snow. Dan revealed the personal journey that took him from a junior...2025-01-281h 37
The Curiosity DividendEpisode 12: James TaplinI share a somewhat unstructured, whiskey fuelled conversation with the fabulous Dr James Taplin. James is an innovation expert, maker, grower, community anchor and adventurer. James is as humble as apple pie, always puts others first, and is a Trojan behind the success of the Do Lectures. Recorded back in the late phase of the Covid pandemic remotely, James is a wonderful, natural storyteller, and shares all sorts of eclectic insights.https://www.instagram.com/jrdtaplin/https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamestaplin/ This is a public...2025-01-231h 37
Making SpaceMaking Space with Rob PoyntonRob Poynton is a creative thinker and author whose life and work straddle numerous different fields. He teaches strategic leadership at the University of Oxford, and acts as a facilitator, consultant and coach to a host of companies and clients. His work is at the intersection of leadership, creativity, innovation and branding. He draws on multiple influences including improvisational theatre, play and the science of complexity. He lives between a remote off-grid home he built himself in the mountains of central Spain, and Oxford, England. In this conversation Carlo and Rob cover all sorts of ground including how Rob wa...2020-05-2100 minMaking SpaceMaking Space with Sadie MorganSadie Morgan is the co-founding director of multi award-winning international architecture and design practice dRMM. She was appointed OBE in the Queen’s 2020 New Year’s Honours List and is a Professor at the University of Westminster. She is the youngest ever President of the Architectural Association, is the Design chair for HS2 and is a Commissioner for the UK Government’s National Infrastructure Commission. She is the founder of the Quality of Life Foundation which aims to put well-being at the heart of all new place-making and at the forefront of the housebuilding agenda. In this conversation Carlo and Sa...2020-05-0400 minMaking SpaceMaking Space with Clare HieattCarlo meets Clare Hieatt, co-founder of The Do Lectures and Hiut Denim, during the build up to the 2019 Do Lectures event on her farm in Wales. Clare shares personal insights into her 30 plus year professional life and business partnership with her husband David, writing her book Do Curious, and creating the unique transformative space which facilitates the magic of the "Do" every year.2019-07-0300 minMaking SpaceMaking Space with Michael OwenIn this episode Carlo meets Michael Owen, founder of Always Wear Red, an uncompromising menswear brand utilising only the very best materials and makers around the UK. AWR aims to create beautiful products designed and made to last a lifetime. Amongst other things they riff on turning 50 - an occasion that led Michael to start a daily blog - 50odd which has grown into a searingly honest, witty and wise look at life through Michael's glasses. And they end with a very personal exploration of the indelible impression that the film Kes has left on both.2018-12-0700 minMaking SpaceMaking Space with David HieattOn the eve of the 10th Do Lectures Wales, Carlo discusses the genesis of the event with co-founder David Hieatt. David shares the ideas and inspiration behind the Do Lectures, why and how it came into being, and what he hopes to achieve with it. He also shares rare insights of his life with his wife Clare, and their process in building their much admired brand Howies, and more recently Hiut - a specialist hand-crafted maker of jeans in Cardigan, West Wales.2018-06-2700 minMaking SpaceMaking Space with Anna KoskaIn this episode Carlo gets to hang out with the extraordinary illustrator Anna Koska in her rural studio. In a sweeping discussion they talk about painting, writing, bee-keeping, rearing pigs, charcuterie, feeding a family on home grown vegetables, and cooking. Anna is quite the polymath - curious, adventurous, unafraid to fail, And her beautiful, humble studio sitting as it does on the edge of woodland, with just birdsong and Billie the lurcher for company, was the perfect space to talk.2018-03-3100 minMaking SpaceMaking Space with Luke Sital-Singh Carlo meets acclaimed singer-songwriter Luke Sital-Singh at his studio in Bristol to discuss his journey from teenage music fan to respected professional musician described by no less than Lauren Laverne as ‘unbelievably good’. They discuss Luke’s searingly honest, haunting and mournful songs and the creative process behind writing them and then turning them into records. Sharing a fascination with melancholy Luke and Carlo discuss how that most misunderstood of aesthetic emotions can be a source of great creativity and the part it plays in Luke’s music, but Luke also reveals his fabulously dry sense of humour. Enjoy not just...2018-02-2700 minMaking SpaceMaking Space with Jack Adair BevanIn this episode Carlo talks food, drink, ritual, craftsmanship and hand built boats with the wonderful, soulful Jack Adair Bevan. Jack co-founded The Ethicurean - a multi award winning West Country restaurant straight out of University. He developed an award winning artisan vermouth, The Collector, selling it successfully to the best bars and restaurants in the land. But driven by his innate curiosity Jack gave it up to follow a new found passion - to use his hands to craft classic wooden sailing boats. So with a rare humility Jack shares his story of learning a new trade, the...2018-01-3000 minMaking SpaceMaking Space with Tim StrangeIn this episode Carlo meets Tim Strange in his beautiful beach hut on England's south coast. Tim is an artist, photographer, educator and, notably, one of less than 1800 people to have swum the English Channel. Tim talks with great clarity about how he came to take on the challenge of the Channel swim - a feat that has been completed by less than half the number of people than have climbed Mount Everest. Tim also talks about studying fine art at Goldsmiths in the shadow of the YBA's, his art practice and how he makes his stunning photography, and...2017-12-3100 minMaking SpaceMaking Space with Shana DresslerIn this conversation Carlo and Shana discuss, amongst other things, art practices, unrequited love, family tragedy, rebounding from failure, Jaques Cousteau, patenting McDonald's Golden Arches and Hugh Heffner's Playboy logo, and social impact. Shana gives a very personal, visceral and searingly honest insight into her life, her love of travel and cultural exploration and how she has switched her professional focus from personal goals to supporting emergent businesses seeking to effect socially progressive and positive change in the world. 2017-11-0200 minMaking SpaceMaking Space with Dan KieranCarlo starts his series of meandering and eclectic conversations with Dan Kieran, the co-founder and CEO of Unbound - the crowd funding publishing phenomenon that is liberating ideas and putting authors and their readers into a direct relationship. Like off piste skiers searching for the best powder snow, Carlo and Dan explore all sorts of unexpected territory. Dan is a writer who describes himself as an accidental entrepreneur, and in this soulful conversation he reveals the personal journey that has taken him from a junior bank teller position in a suburban town via The Idler magazine and writing about...2017-10-0300 min