Shows
Choosing to MatterRethinking Value and Building Regenerative Worlds with Gil Friend🎙️ Choosing to Matter: Cocktails with Chris Rethinking Value and Building Regenerative Worlds with Gil Friend Episode 15 In this episode, Chris sits down with Gil Friend, strategist, translator, and sustainability pioneer. From a curious, science-minded kid in New York to working alongside Buckminster Fuller on the World Game, Gil's path has always intertwined curiosity with contribution. He went on to become one of the first Chief Sustainability Officers in the United States, serving the City of Palo Alto, and has advised global companies, investors, and cities through his career. His j...
2026-03-1143 min
Choosing to MatterFrom Scramjets to Sustainable Design with Anne Kovachevich🎙️ Choosing to Matter: Cocktails with Chris From Scramjets to Sustainable Design with Anne Kovachevich Episode 14 In this episode, Chris sits down with Anne Kovachevich, engineer, futurist, and sustainability pioneer. From her early fascination with physics and scramjets to her current role shaping the cities of tomorrow, Anne's path has been guided by curiosity and resilience. A formative trip to Serbia - and her first introduction to coffee - offers a glimpse of the playful, human side behind her rigorous professional journey. At the core of Anne's work is a con...
2026-02-2538 min
Choosing to MatterCrafting Hospitality and Clarity with Andreas Stöckli🎙️ Choosing to Matter: Cocktails with Chris Crafting Hospitality and Clarity with Andreas StöckliEpisode 13 In this episode, Chris sits down with Andreas Stöckli, hotelier, chef-turned-general manager, and steward of one of Zurich's landmark hotels. From cutting his fingers as a teenage apprentice in the kitchen to guiding a historic property through its transformation into a five-star destination, Andreas has built his career on hospitality with people at the center. His journey spans adventures abroad and hard-learned lessons in kitchens from South Africa to The Bahamas, charting a steady climb f...
2026-02-1147 min
Choosing to MatterTurning Capital into Positive Energy with Christin ter Braak-Forstinger🎙️ Choosing to Matter: Cocktails with Chris Turning Capital into Positive Energy with Christin ter Braak-Forstinger Episode 12 In this episode, Chris sits down with Christin ter Braak-Forstinger, impact investor, author, and co-founder of Chi Impact Capital. From growing up in a small baroque Austrian town to leading one of Europe's pioneering circular investment firms, Christin's journey has been shaped by passion, clarity of purpose, and a belief that finance supports a fulfilling life. Her story is colored by memories of fly fishing with her father, the influence of a warmhearted grand...
2026-02-1054 min
Choosing to MatterShaping Philanthropy's Next Chapter with Sarah Howard🎙️ Choosing to Matter: Cocktails with Chris Shaping Philanthropy's Next Chapter with Sarah HowardEpisode 10 In this episode, Chris sits down with Sarah Howard, connector, storyteller, and Managing Director of the Global Philanthropy Forum. From her beginnings in California as a filmmaker capturing human stories across South Sudan, Honduras, and small island states, Sarah has woven together a career at the intersection of media, philanthropy, and systems change. Her journey has been shaped as much by serendipity, as by her own determination to engage with the world directly. What drive...
2025-12-1743 min
Choosing to MatterPhysics, Serendipity, and the Future of Journalism with Felix Graf🎙️ Choosing to Matter: Cocktails with Chris Physics, Serendipity, and the Future of Journalism with Felix GrafEpisode 9 In this episode, Chris sits down with Felix Graf, physicist turned media leader, lifelong learner, and jazz enthusiast. From a youth steeped in music and philosophy to his PhD in quantum optics; he is now CEO of Switzerland's biggest newspaper. Felix's path has been anything but linear. Hes traveled the world and has worked in more industries than anyone we know. A love affair with Brazil, his father's advice and many serendipitous turns make his story...
2025-12-0344 min
Choosing to MatterNarratives that Move the World with Ana Rold🎙️ Choosing to Matter: Cocktails with Chris Narratives that Move the World with Ana RoldEpisode 8 In this episode, Chris sits down with Ana Rold, media entrepreneur, futurist, and founder of Diplomatic Courier and World in 2050. Ana was a child refugee who learned to adapt to new surroundings and gained a unique perspective on how other cultures and societies live. Years later, after moving to the USA, she went on to build platforms that shape global dialogues. Her journey is marked by resilience, curiosity, and communication. Her move to Boston opened the door to new c...
2025-11-1942 min
Choosing to MatterCoffee, Resilience, and Supply Chains with Ramon Schalch🎙️ Choosing to Matter: Cocktails with Chris Coffee, Resilience, and Supply Chains with Ramon Schalch Episode 7 In this episode, Chris sits down with Ramon Schalch, CEO of Vi Collective, hiker, cyclist, and lifelong adventurer. From early dreams of becoming a professional ice hockey player to rebuilding his path after a career-ending injury, Ramon found a new calling in coffee. What began as childhood fascination with the smell of beans grew into a journey across Colombia's coffee farms and eventually to leading one of Switzerland's most recognized sustainable coffee brands. ...
2025-11-0547 min
Choosing to MatterThe Serendipity of Science with Zina Cinker🎙️ Choosing to Matter: Cocktails with Chris The Serendipity of Science with Zina Cinker Episode 6 In this episode, Chris sits down with Dr. Zina Cinker, physicist, global platform creator, and Director General of MATTER. From a childhood shaped by both art and science, to a chance discovery of graphene, to launching PuzzleX and Xpanse as platforms that translate deep science into human stories and explore how Quantum connects to everything, Zina's journey is driven by curiosity, serendipity, and a fearless embrace of the unknown. Her love of Isaac Asimov, the Sufi wisdom passed down through her f...
2025-11-0251 min
Choosing to MatterNature, Cities, and Endurance with Russell Galt🎙️ Choosing to Matter: Cocktails with Chris Nature, Cities, and Endurance with Russell Galt Episode 5 In this episode, Chris sits down with Russell Galt, ecologist, strategist, and lifelong advocate for the natural world. From growing up in the Scottish Highlands to tracking hyenas in South Africa, cycling across Continents, and now working at the intersection of conservation, cities, and carbon markets, Russell's journey is one of curiosity, courage, and commitment. Along the way, his love for whisky and bagpipes, and his stories of wilderness encounters, bring a deeply personal dimension to his p...
2025-11-0242 min
Choosing to MatterWelcome to Choosing to MatterWhat shapes a life? Sometimes it is the bold decisions. More often, it is the quiet ones, the everyday choices that open doors, shift directions, or help us become who we are meant to be. Choosing to Matter digs into those moments: both the seen and unseen decisions that shape someone's life, work, and way of being in the world. Hosted by Chris Luebkeman and brought to you by @Your2040, each episode is an open, unscripted conversation with someone living with intention. No scripts. Just real people reflecting on how they navigate...
2025-10-2901 min