Phenomena ReD Associates

In a special edition of the ReD podcast, we’re bringing you the best bits of a conversation that took place last week in our offices in NYC, where Ian Dull sat down with neuroscientist and entrepreneur Vivienne Ming and VP of Research Science at Meta’s Reality Labs, Richard Newcombe, to discuss the role of bodies in the age of AI

In front of a packed room on a cold New York evening, they discussed how computers “see” and interpret the world compared to how we as humans do, when and how to integrate these technologies for different industries from healthcare to education, tech to finance, and finally, what’s next for more embodied forms of AI.

In this special edition of the podcast, we are live from Copenhagen, Denmark where we hosted a discussion with Oluf Borbye Pedersen, a world expert on the gut microbiome, and Theis Brydegaard, head chef at the Alchemist.

Are We Listening to the Gut? was the topic of conversation, and as part of our ongoing content series all about our changing relationship to flesh, offers us a novel lens through which to consider our bodies, our selves and the world around us.

Hosted by ReD’s Filip Lau and Anne Mette Lottrup, they discuss why we should consider food as preventive medicine, the relationship between what and how we eat and healing and finally, and why paying more attention to our gut might help solve behavioural barriers around adherence.

This is a special edition of the ReD podcast live from Paris, France, where we hosted a discussion with British photographer Maisie Cousins, and Pernod Ricard’s head of foresight, Daphnée Hor, at the beautiful Lafayette Anticipations, a gallery space in the heart of Paris.

Are We Afraid Of The Body? was the topic of conversation, a question that sits right at the heart of our ongoing content series all about our changing relationship to flesh.

Hosted by ReD’s Sandra Cariglio, they discuss the changing ways bodies are considered and represented in our age of sanitised, Instagram-ready aesthetics, the growing fascination with perishability, waste and decomposition, and finally, ask whether we’re entering a germ renaissance.

Since the sexual revolution of the 1970s, the Western world has been obsessed with representations of sex. And within this historical explosion of sexual imagery, many companies capitalised on the powerful narrative that consumption could deliver sex appeal and in turn, increase one's chances for finding a partner.

More recently, however, we're seeing a shift where sex appeal is becoming increasingly dissociated from the idea of romantic love and folded into a wider and more varied set of personal narratives.

To unpack this further, host Eliot Salandy Brown sits down with Sandra Cariglio, a partner at ReD Associates, and Polly Rodriguez, co-founder and CEO of sexual wellness brand Unbound, as part of our ongoing special series on our evolving relationship to flesh and the body.

Together, they tackle big questions such as: Does sex still sell? How are behaviours and values around intimacy changing? And if the desire to seduce isn't driving consumption in fashion and beauty like it used to, what will take its place?

Money is one of the great stressors of our age, and learning to manage our finances one of our most important life needs. So why do the financial products we are offered still feel so out of sync with how we really experience money?

In this episode, host Eliot Salandy Brown sits down with Martin Gronemann, a partner at ReD Associates leading our work in finance, and John Dalton, Vice President of Research at the Fidelity Center for Applied Technology, to unpick how the latest social science can help banks and financial institutions provide better products and services and build deeper interactions with their customer base.

How do some executives misunderstand young people? What are the key emerging financial practices to watch? How has the digitization of financial tools made managing money even more overwhelming? And how might introducing productive friction help us make better and more informed financial decisions?

While there are still many questions about what the metaverse of the future will look and feel like, nearly everyone is in agreement that it’s a big deal. And while the metaverse has been well covered from a technological angle, what is often missing from the debate are questions about the human and social implications of its evolution.

In this episode, Eliot is joined by ReD partner Iago Noguer Storgaard and Jacob Wachmann, a former ReD employee and now strategy director for games and metaverse experiences at the LEGO Group, to discuss the possible directions the metaverse might take, and what that means for businesses as they look to build strategies and technology roadmaps for the future.

To what extent does the metaverse mark the next paradigm shift in how we work, play, and learn as humans? How might science fiction be misleading us as to how it will change our lives? And what false assumptions are executives across industries making on features such as immersion and interoperability as they develop metaverse strategies of their own?

Listen in as we also share the best books to dive deeper into the topic, from sci-fi to contemporary nonfiction to 1960s theoretical philosophy.