Episode Summary: In this episode our co-founder Elizabeth Zhivkova meets innovation policy expert Padmashree Gehl Sampath, who describes technology as a 'tool of change' during their conversation on the importance of technological innovation. Living in a digitalized world, Padmashree shares her thoughts on the new reality, the strategic means for national digital development and her leading concerns about it. Throughout discussing interventions for positive change, Padmashree stresses on the...

Episode Summary:In this episode we meet ecological researcher Wanyi Li, with who we discuss the destruction of the natural world and dealing with the enormity of the problem. Living in times, in which our planet is facing a ghastly future of mass extinction and climate-disruption upheavals, Wanyi shares with us her vision on far-reaching changes for acknowledging and preventing the continuity of biodiversity loss and soil degradation and handling our ecosystem with care, mainly through small...

Episode Summary:Just before Christmas our co-founder Farah Piriye hosts a candid conversation with British artist and sculptor Piers Secunda, who’s intensive research based practice examines the deliberate targeting of culture in war time, by moulding damage from war zones and the sites of historic conflicts to make works. Discussing how art can be a social vehicle that shifts perceptions and conversations on diplomatic arena, Secunda shares with us why his latest body of work is built around...

Episode Summary:In the aftermath of the attempted Coup at the Capitol, we start the New Year with a strong belief for a profound change, releasing an episode, where we meet Amin Husain and Nitasha Dhillon - members of the action-oriented collective Decolonize This Place. They tell us why they utilise museum spaces as a focal point for resistance, identifying modern day emergencies that drastically unfold in New York and beyond. The DTP's members express their idea on how cultural...

Episode Summary:Today we are meeting with Bahia Shehab, an artist, designer and art historian. Bahia through investigating Islamic art history, creates a poetic and powerful body of work, reinterpreting contemporary Arab politics, feminist discourse and social issues. Utilising urban environments and murals to communicate her strong message, a street artist and activist, Bahia produces an ephemeral artwork in response to Arab Spring and beyond, relentlessly saying “No and a thousand times No”...

Episode Summary:In this episode we meet American researcher and academic Sara Naomi Bleich, who speaks about one of the long lasting side effects of COVID-19 - food insecurity. A former White House Fellow and a Senior Policy Advisor to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Michelle Obama's Let’s Move initiative, Sara discusses major issues of the food supply chain and a potential future recovery of the system, build through new adequate policies helping the ones who need the most, mainly...

Episode Summary:In the wake of the myriad crises of the past two decades - art helps the world to be felt - by its inhabitants - spurring thinking, engagement and even action. In this episode we meet Simon Butler, founder of Migrate Art Charity, who delves into most pressing issues of today that the media and global society are disconnected from. We talk about his latest project The Scorched Earth, turning ash from burnt crops of Iraqi Kurdistan into art, organised in direct response to...

Episode Summary:They say in the past scientist were called "natural philosophers", and we are honoured to launch our Season 2.0 No Man Is An Island, having one of the leading epidemiologists, internationally recognized for scientific contributions to HIV treatment, Prof. Salim Abdool Karim, on our platform, to discuss potential COVID-19 vaccination, the hazards of 'vaccine-nationalism', the significant milestones in HIV prevention, the inequality in medical care access and other major...

Episode Summary:In this episode we speak with Lorenzo Piazzi from Design Library about the future of the contemporary library and all the challenges along the way of digitalization. As a meaningful contributor to social design, Lorenzo discusses the importance of cooperation in community development and the means of multiculturalism in his multi-faceted research practice. The Speaker:Lorenzo Piazzi is a design entrepreneur and co-founder of the DesignLibrary Network. For the first thirteen...

Episode Summary:In this genuine conversation with the curator and director of Foundation Art Divvy Zahra Khan, we discuss the rise of contemporary art scene in Pakistan, the significance of women’s artistic creations in the region, political and social manifestations in the work of the local artists and how foundations such as Art Divvy and Lahore Biennale breath a new life into the Pakistan’s vibrant art universe. The Speaker:Zahra Khan is a curator based between the United Kingdom and...

Episode Summary: In line with the new partial lockdown in Italy, in collaboration with MdA Design Agency, in this episode we meet Marco Minoja, the Cultural Director of Comune di Milano - the Municipality of Milan. We will discuss how Milan and its cultural scene are dealing with the pandemic and what are the new ways for re-thinking the museum system in a critical moment of a transparent diagnosis of its fragile parts. Marco speaks to us about the need of cultural mosaic and the importance...

Episode Summary:Released within the framework of Zeitgeist19’s participation at ASviS, Festival For Sustainable Development, this episode, co-led with the founder of Milan based studio MdA Design Agency Maddalena D’Alfonso, hosts the CEO of ToornendPartners, architect and special advisor for the ICOM working group on Sustainability, Jean Hilgerson. We meet him to talk about how the conversation about the 17SDGs has shifted over the past 5 years since they have been set by United Nations...

Episode Summary:In this episode we meet Talimka Yordanova, the CEO of the Global Citizen Forum, who speaks with us about the concept of interconnectedness, the consequences of interrupted travelling access and the radical idea of a Global Governance. Talimka shares with us how she envisions the notion of progress by changing the way dialogues are taking place and by building on the conversation through action, subtly pushing the social criterion towards an evolution of the global mind, in...

Episode Summary:In this episode, together with our co-host Kiana Talebpour from Milan based MdA design agency we meet Hormoz Hematian founder of the Dastan - a multidimensional program focusing on Iranian contemporary and modern art, including Dastan's Basement, Dastan+2 and Dastan:Outside, as well as Teer Art Tehran, a private-sector initiative that runs Teer Art Fair and Teer Art Week. By means of this genuine and crucial conversation Hormoz takes us on a journey to Iran, where even though...

Episode Summary:In this episode, co-hosted with MdA Design Agency, we meet architect, researcher and film producer Bahanur Nasya. She talks about how we can improve the conditions for people living in rural and coastal areas, meanwhile delving deeper into the notion of ’togetherness’ and suggesting new ways of being and feeling more connected. Bahanur grasps into what strengthens social freedom and cultural diversity, simultaneously stepping away from vicious old-world hierarchies. *In...

Episode Summary:Co-hosting this episode with MdA Agency, Milan based Design studio, as part of our series dedicated to cultural pluralism, we meet prof. Ingrid Paoletti, who shares her invaluable knowledge with us reflecting on multicultural memory and the contemporary notion of ‘habitus’, translating from latin as ‘Conditions suitable for an organism or population of organisms to live’. Questioning the current unsustainable environment we find ourselves in, Ingrid talks about the importance...

Episode Summary:In this episode we meet Wallpaper's China editor Yoko Choy, who speaks about the consequences of Covid-19 in the design industry and business, the most recent promising projects oriented towards social well-being and the importance of collaboration. In the multi-faceted reality in China, Yoko expresses her vision on contemporary design, still in flux but yet to be shaped in a more environmentally sustainable direction by the young creative generation. As a multicultural...

Episode Summary:In this episode we continue exploring the notion of stage and performance art, this time meeting British musical-theatre choreographer Gillian Bruce, who speaks with us about reshaping musicals in a post-pandemic reality. Facing numerous restrictions due to the health risks, she shares with us her challenges on directing through distance and her high hopes for the future of theatre. What the future of musical theatre holds? What are the biggest challenges of the performance...

Episode Summary:«Искусство никому ничего не должно. У него нету каких то целей и задач, как и у коронавируса..»,- так размышляет наш сегодняшний интересный собеседник, ученик Кирилла Серебренникова, талантливый режиссёр Гоголь-центра Илья Шагалов, которого пандемия застала в Берлине. О новом формате онлайн-театра, о первом в своем роде десктоп спектакле «Феи», о классике видеоарта Билле Виоле, о провокаторе немецкого театра Франке Касторфе, об идее метамодерна и о многом другом вы услышите в...

Episode Summary:'Art doesn’t owe you anything’, says our today’s guest speaker Ilya Shagalov, ‘It doesn’t have goals or objectives, just like coronavirus”. One of Russia’s most talented and emerging video artists and theatre directors, student of Kyril Serebrennikov, and member of Russia’s leading avant-guard theatre Gogol Centre, Shagalov, who finds himself in Berlin during the pandemic speaks to us about his deeply inspiring creation entitled Fairies, which was released just for a day in...

Episode Summary:In this episode we meet fashion designer Francesca Liberatore, who shares with us her vision on reimagining the world of fashion. She is a firm believer that fashion can be a a platform for positive social good and we have to rethink the way we manufacture and consume fundamentally. Francesca speaks to us about creating new paths which are more considerate for humanity and the environment, eventually slowing down the 'bad habits' of brands and consumers on a global scale. How...

Episode Summary:In this episode we meet Dr. Roberto Ridolfi, who speaks with us about the rising inequalities, the phenomena of nationalism and the fragile side of globalisation. Through the lens of multiculturalism, he explains to us why we are in the same storm but not in the same boat and how different cultures are responding to COVID-19’s paralysis according to their assets and beliefs. Roberto shares with us how he envisions the recovery of the global economy and why we should eventually...

Episode Summary: In Episode VII, one of the leading voices of our generation, Arturo Galansino, Director of Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, transports us to the capital city of Tuscan region, as we dive into a timely conversation about how art can reconnect us with the environment, how a museum can turn into a laboratory for experimentation and join forces with the science; and how the foundation is looking for more sustainable paths of operating. The episode features Galansino’s thoughts about...

Episode Summary: In this episode we meet green tech entrepreneur Lubomila Jordanova, who shares with us her vision on a carbon neutral and conscientious economy. She is a firm believer that each of us has the power to pave the way to a more sustainable future of the world. Lubomila talks about the most recent challenges in fighting Global Warming and the importance of every small act. She also suggests on how a company can reduce its environmental impact and how her innovative digital...