Tangier Memos House of Beautiful Business

In this final episode before the House of Beautiful Business’ festival, Between the Two of Us, begins in Tangier, speakers from the event reflect on What is between the two of us? Their responses span the political and the personal; they are illuminating, funny, and sometimes deeply touching.

Nouha and Tim travel to Davos where they talk to biologist and investor Juan Enriquez, industry analyst Azeem Azhar, and Stanford AI professor James Landay about the economic and societal implications of fast-advancing bio tech and AI. We’ll also hear from African AI pioneer Pelonomi Moiloa, journalist Andrian Kreye, management thinker Niels Van Quaquebeke, futures literacy expert Riel Miller, and feminist author Minna Salami, who weigh in on how we can make exponential digital technologies advance our vision of a life-centered economy.

In this episode, we (finally!) arrive in Tangier and speak with local entrepreneurs and cultural observers about the city’s unique history and constant transformation. With writer Taiye Selasi and others, we discuss the benefits of living between many languages, cultures, and identities, and why this fluidity is a crucial quality of life-centered businesses. We end in silence—and the insight that more of it might be a good idea for any leader, team, or organization.

Our second episode takes its name from a poem by Khalil Gibran–On Joy and Sorrow–which reflects on how happiness and grief are often two sides of the same coin. We discuss the co-existence of problems and possibilities in today’s world, exploring to what extent the various crises (“polycrisis”) we face can be reframed as opportunities. A range of experts join us to weigh in on the topic, including philosopher Bayo Akomolafe, digital anthropologist Matt Klein, and privacy and AI ethics scholar Carissa Véliz.

Our first episode explores Tangier’s allure throughout the last century and recounts the funny restaurant incident that inspired us to host this year’s festival there.

Welcome to the Tangier Memos, a six-episode podcast series brought to you by the House of Beautiful Business and Cloud District.