2h ago

Design, from the Ground Up: Oliver Lloyd

Oliver Lloyd is a designer and systems thinker, with sustainability as the starting point of his work. He was once advised to "meet people where they are, but don't leave them there," and you get a strong sense of his enthusiasm for collaborating on projects where our connection to and care for nature is front and centre. Oliver shares how he's used this approach with a brand that makes multi-tools. Finding the point where his ethos and their brand met, he's been able to take them on an exciting journey, designing tools for city gardeners with small spaces to spark their engagement with nature. Considering planetary boundaries as a next step in design and production then became a natural conversation. Oliver is keen to share his work and methods, believing that an open source approach puts greater value on our planet, rather than only on the sale of the product. It's a challenge to business as usual, and it has met its share of pushback. But for Oliver, this way of working lets people feel part of a whole process, where their own agency and creative abilities are trusted and come to the fore. More about Oliver: Oliver is a designer and systems thinker working at the intersection of physical product development, emerging technologies, and climate adaptation. I help early-stage ventures and mission-driven organisations design products, services, and systems that are regenerative from the ground up. My approach combines hands-on prototyping and manufacturing knowledge, co-creation, workshop facilitation, futures thinking and strategic foresight — so sustainability isn’t an afterthought, it’s the starting point. Oliver Lloyd Design Subscribe for more stories and practical tools from Reboot the Future. www.rebootthefuture.org

6d ago

Real Solidarity: Mary Ann Clements

Mary Ann Clements, Co-CEO of ADD International, has spent her whole life refusing to accept that "this is just the way the world is." As a child in a small Oxfordshire village, she felt every injustice keenly and couldn't fathom why the grown-ups had all given up. That refusal became her work. At ADD, a participatory grant maker for disability justice across Africa and Asia, she led a full-scale rethink: ending the old programmes, handing the decisions to the disabled movements ADD exists to serve, and swapping "we know best" for genuine solidarity. Plenty called it naïve. She is honest about what was hard, and what helped get her through. Mary Ann believes we need to be brave and hopeful. She has a photo on her desk of herself, aged four, dancing in the garden, a reminder to bring that free spirit into the messy, serious business of changing the world. Read our blog about this episode 'Turning the Ship' here. More about Mary Ann: Mary Ann Clements is a writer, facilitator and coach with over 25 years' international experience in social justice and organisational change. Most recently Co-CEO of ADD International, she helped transform it from a traditional NGO into a participatory grant-maker advancing disability justice, and was Co-Director of Healing Solidarity, which engaged over 3,500 people in reimagining global development through equity, care and collective action. She shares reflections on leadership, power and change through her Substack, How We Transform , and at maryannclements.com, and co-authored Red Tents: Unravelling Our Past and Weaving a Shared Future (2021). She is currently working on her first novel. Subscribe for more stories and practical tools from Reboot the Future. www.rebootthefuture.org

Jul 14

The Case for Idealism: Satish Kumar

Photo by Carles Rodriguez Marin Peace pilgrim, lifelong activist, former monk and founder of The Resurgence Trust, Satish Kumar has been inspiring global change for over 50 years, and at 90 he is still choosing to be, in his own words, a naïve idealist. At nine he renounced the world to become a Jain monk, against the wishes of his businessmen brothers, who thought him too idealistic. He decided then that being naïve was exactly what he wanted, and he has never let go of it. In his twenties he walked 8,000 miles across 15 countries without money, from India towards the world's nuclear capitals, in the name of disarmament, meeting Bertrand Russell, Martin Luther King and others along the way. The pragmatic people, he argues, are the ones ruining the world with war, waste and warming. It is the idealists, the Buddha, Gandhi, King, who actually change it. Idealism, for Satish, is not a flaw to grow out of but the very thing the world most needs us to hold onto. That conviction led him to found Schumacher College in Devon. He wanted an education of head, heart and hands, teaching young people courage, creativity and the confidence to make their own path rather than wait for one. It is idealism as a practical training, a way of seeing that dares young people to imagine differently and act on it. Satish now wants every country to establish a Minister of Peace, noting that 194 nations fund armies and defence while not one invests in peace itself. War, he says, achieves nothing: not in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Ukraine or Gaza, only lives lost. The age of war has passed, he believes, and the age of peace is what we must now build, spending our energy on how to be good neighbours rather than good enemies. It is a bracing, hopeful call from someone who has lived every word of it. More about Satish: Peace-pilgrim, life-long activist, and former monk, Satish Kumar has been inspiring global change for over 50 years. He undertook a pilgrimage for peace, walking for two years without money from India to America for the cause of nuclear disarmament. Now in his 80s, Satish has devoted his life to campaigning for ecological regeneration and social justice. He is a world-renown author and international speaker, founder of The Resurgence Trust and Editor Emeritus of Resurgence & Ecologist – a change-making magazine he edited for over 40 years. To find more about Satish and join him in protecting people and planet click here. Link here to the Resurgence Trust Subscribe for more stories and practical tools from Reboot the Future. www.rebootthefuture.org

Jul 7

An Eye For Nature: Xander Beks

This week we're joined by Xander Beks, founder of Eye For Nature, whose whole way of working began with a simple willingness to step up. As a teenager, when others met a good idea with "that will never happen," his instinct was different: nothing is impossible until we have tried. More often than not, it became a success. He puts it down to an open, generous approach, one he traces to his Dutch roots, and a saying that "you always have no as an answer, and maybe you will get a yes." Coming to people with kindness rather than self-interest builds trust, he found. Much of our conversation turns to intergenerational learning, and Xander's belief that we waste the potential of young people. Through Eye For Nature he works to put them in the driver's seat, helping shape how they learn and matching them with mentors and experts around the world. What he describes is a genuine two-way exchange: older generations sharing experience, and younger ones, often the real experts now, teaching in return. Find out more about Eye For Nature here. Read our blog about this episode here. More about Xander Beks: Xander Beks is the Founder and Leader of Eye for Nature Cooperative, bringing over 20 years of international experience across nature-related fields, youth engagement, learning design and system transition, spanning government (national, EU and UN), education, civil society and the private sector. With more than 30 years of hands-on farming experience, he combines a deep understanding of farming realities with strategic expertise in regenerative agriculture, landscape restoration and value-chain transformation, put into practice on the farm he runs with his wife and parents-in-law, the home base of Eye for Nature and part of a future Polder Campus. He has extensive experience designing learning programmes for young people, farmers and changemakers, with a focus on leadership, experiential learning and system change. He has led national and international initiatives across youth, food systems and regenerative agriculture, including Harvest of Tomorrow, Youth Food Lab, World Food Forum national chapters, Groundswell NL, and the School of Sustainable Food and Farming NL. He has also held senior roles in public-sector policy and defence-related sustainability and energy-transition programmes, bringing strong capability in multi-stakeholder coordination, governance and complex delivery. Xander holds a Master's in Agricultural Engineering from Wageningen University & Research, is a Nuffield Scholar (2023), and is a reserve officer (Major) at the Dutch Centre of Expertise for Military Engineering, filling several roles in European and NATO fora. Subscribe for more stories and practical tools from Reboot the Future. www.rebootthefuture.org

Jun 29

Adventures in Understanding: Alice Morrison

Explorer, TV presenter and author Alice Morrison joins us this week, fresh from a world first: becoming the first recorded person to cross Saudi Arabia from north to south on foot. For Alice, the heart of adventure is understanding, and not only of the people next door. Through the stories she gathers and shares from her journeys, she helps us get to know other people, countries, religions and places, so we can no longer stand back and condemn them from a distance. We see where they are coming from, and make better decisions. She honestly wrestles with her beliefs about our world. She once believed life would simply keep getting better. Reporting from Northern Ireland, she saw the peace reached at Stormont as a template the rest of the world might follow, and the rise of conflict and violence since has been hard to bear. Yet she still believes we have to face it and keep acting for a better humanity. In a Scottish word from her upbringing, we must "gird" ourselves for the tough and necessary work ahead. More about Alice: Alice Morrison is an explorer, TV presenter and author, fresh from a world first as the first recorded person to cross Saudi Arabia north to south on foot. A Scot brought up partly in Africa, she studied Arabic and Turkish and worked in journalism before changing course in mid-life, cycling 12,000km from Cairo to Cape Town on the longest bike race on earth. Now based in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco, she has since walked the length of the Draa river as the first woman to do so, crossed the Sahara with camels and Amazigh guides, and presented BBC series including her latest, Arabian Adventures: Secrets of the Nabateans. She is the author of four books, among them Walking with Nomads, runner-up for the Best Travel Book Award 2023, and hosts the podcast Alice in Wanderland. Link here to learn more about Alice’s adventures and her 4 books here. Link here for Alice’s podcast ‘Alice in Wanderland’. Read our blog about this episode here. Subscribe for more stories and practical tools from Reboot the Future. www.rebootthefuture.org

Jun 23

A Strong Sense of Fairness: Ben Rawlence

Award-winning author and co-founder and director of the pioneering Black Mountains College, Ben Rawlence joins us this week. He shares how his life has been guided by a need for fairness for all and a deep commitment to morally important campaigns. That work in policy and human rights has taken him to the USA, to his beloved Tanzania, and across Africa, a career that someone recently described to him as a graveyard of good intentions. Through all of it, one question has kept him steady: "what's the right thing for me to do right now?" Right now for Ben, that means building this unique college in and around the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park in Wales, creating a future where nature and people thrive together. Black Mountains College takes on the challenge of our times: how to build a fair and just society within safe planetary boundaries. More about Ben: Ben Rawlence is the is the award-winning author of Radio Congo, City of Thorns, The Treeline and Think Like a Forest. His writing has been translated into a dozen languages. The Treeline won the 2023 Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism, the 2022 Schmidt Award for Excellence in Science Communications among others. He is the co-founder and director of the pioneering educational institution, Black Mountains College in Wales. His next book chronicles the Gulf Stream system: The River in the Sea: The Ocean Current That Made the World As We Know It (out in 2027). Ben's latest book is Think Like a Forest, Letters to My Children Children From A Changing Planet. Read our blog about this episode here. Subscribe for more stories and practical tools from Reboot the Future. www.rebootthefuture.org

Jun 15

A Mission to Spread Kindness: Joshua Ford

This week we're joined by Joshua Ford, an award-winning actor and filmmaker whose work explores kindness, vulnerability, human connection and the belief that creativity can change lives. In 2024 he made a film called Hey You, Yes You, Open Me, dropping a hundred handwritten notes of kindness across London's tubes and buses, each one a message of hope and an invitation to connect. It went viral, and Joshua still hears from people every day, grateful for the impact it has had on them. Joshua grew up in a small, busy house in High Wycombe with three brothers, his parents and a couple of animals. Amid the chaos, and his mum's serious ill health, there was so much kindness that he assumed the whole world worked that way. He believes he was drawn to the arts because of it, drawn to understanding people more because of the compassion shown to him. He emphasises keeping your imagination alive and not caring if you look silly doing what you love. As he puts it, when it comes to creativity, "it doesn't really matter what people think so much because you've made it and they haven't." Link here to watch ‘Hey You, Yes You, Open Me’ More about Joshua Ford: Alongside his creative endeavours, Joshua champions a “DIY” approach to creativity, believing that creativity can underpin almost every part of life and help nurture the truest human experiences. Through his films, talks, and community projects, he encourages others to stop waiting for permission and simply begin making, connecting, and expressing themselves authentically. Read our blog 'Shifting the Baseline: Joshua Ford's episode' here. Subscribe for more stories and practical tools from Reboot the Future. www.rebootthefuture.org

Jun 9

Shamelessly Idealistic Creativity: Ben Peers

Ben Peers, Creative Director, Designer and Videographer, believes that nothing ever really changes for the better without a little bit of shameless, idealistic creativity. He also believes that our fixation on metrics and the bottom line can stifle our ability to challenge the status quo and shame idealism out of us. He recalls the same trajectory in his own life: creativity that flourished in primary school, before that spark was stifled and shamed within the conformist walls of secondary school. That's why he created 'Good Eye', a safe space for idealism and a counterweight to the cynicism that stops us believing we can do things differently. As he says, "if we're discouraged from imagining a better future because it's too idealistic, then how on earth are we ever going to even achieve a fraction of that?" He shares how, through Good Eye, he is bringing together a community of creatives who want to use their talent to build a better world. He wants to awaken people to a possibility many of us lose sight of: that creativity is for more than selling things, it can help build the world we want to live in. More about Ben Peers: Ben Peers is a London-based Creative Director, Designer and Videographer. In 2025 he began developing Good Eye, a community for creatives who want to use their creativity for good. Read our blog 'On the Side of Nice: Ben Peers’s episode’ here. Subscribe for more stories and practical tools from Reboot the Future. www.rebootthefuture.org

Let’s Reboot the Future

Design, from the Ground Up: Oliver Lloyd

Real Solidarity: Mary Ann Clements

The Case for Idealism: Satish Kumar

An Eye For Nature: Xander Beks

Adventures in Understanding: Alice Morrison

A Strong Sense of Fairness: Ben Rawlence

A Mission to Spread Kindness: Joshua Ford

Shamelessly Idealistic Creativity: Ben Peers

About

Information

Let’s Reboot the Future

Episodes

Design, from the Ground Up: Oliver Lloyd

Real Solidarity: Mary Ann Clements

The Case for Idealism: Satish Kumar

An Eye For Nature: Xander Beks

Adventures in Understanding: Alice Morrison

A Strong Sense of Fairness: Ben Rawlence

A Mission to Spread Kindness: Joshua Ford

Shamelessly Idealistic Creativity: Ben Peers

About

Information