What? How? Why‪?‬ Ritvij Singh

We're talking comedy this week with Nimesh Patel. He's been a writer on SNL, the Oscars and the White House Correspondents dinner. I first heard him on the Joe Rogan podcast and just had to reach out. We chat about writing for SNL, Chris Rock and getting started in standup. Just a disclaimer that this is an explicit episode and despite my best editing, you can hear the the colourful hustle of a New York coffee shop in the background. 

My guest is food and beverage entrepreneur Nelson Chan. He set up fen noodles almost a year ago in London's Spitalfields market and is already expanding on to new ventures. I manage to grab hold of him for 30 minutes to talk about the process of starting up a business straight out of uni and what the day to day life of someone in the F&B industry looks like.

In this episode we talk with social entrepreneur Ronit Kanwar. I was excited to get him on because he's someone who took his E&M degree from Oxford and ventured off the beaten track of finance and banking to set up the social enterprise Empower. We talk about his startup journey and the lessons he learnt along the way. Here are some of his recommendations: 

Books:


Disciplined Entrepreneurship - Bill Aulet.
The Lean Start Up - Eric Ries. 

Websites:


https://www.f6s.com/
https://80000hours.org/career-guide/

A discussion with BAFTA and Golden Globe winning producer Charlie Hanson. He most recently was a producer on Ricky Gervais' Netflix show Afterlife. We talk about what an executive producer does and he gives his advice to people looking to make it in the creative space of acting, writing and directing.

Cambridge history graduate and University Challenge winner, Julian Sutcliffe, talks about working at the FCO on their fast stream. Sadly, no gossip on top ministers made it into the show but we do get insight into the best and worst parts of working in the civil service. We touch upon tips for applying to these schemes and finish off with the elephant in the room, his victory with Cambridge on University Challenge 2015. 

In this episode I'm talking with Tom Childs. He recently graduated from Cambridge with a degree in architecture and is working at a small firm in London. We discuss what the work of an architect typically is and dive into his advice for students; from what journals to follow to applying to university and other new routes into architecture. I'll be writing a blogpost soon with Tom's full recommendations for budding architects but for now here's a summary: 1) Dezeen magazine 2) Archdaily website 3) Eyes of the skin, Juhani Pallasmaa 4) The Architecture of Happiness, Alain De Botton 5) Radical Cities, Justin Mcguirk