The Regeneration Lab

Bas van den Berg
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Welcome to The Regeneration Lab. The podcast of the Regenerative Thinking research group at the the Mission Zero centre of expertise at The Hague University of Applied Sciences, where we conduct integrated research to come up with regenerative solutions for a more sustainable future. Each episode features a leading educator, activist, professor, or researcher who is already engaging in more regenerative forms of higher education. Join us on this journey as we discover how these educational innovations emerged, how they are practiced, and the beautiful futures that are envisioned for more regenerative higher education. Along the way we will explore the systemic and personal challenges, barriers and opportunities that our awesome guests are facing to do this. You can reach out through mission-zero@hhs.nl to respond or connect to any of the episodes! 

  1. How Do We Weave Academic Networks of Care? A Conversation with Sergia Lage Arias

    3H AGO

    How Do We Weave Academic Networks of Care? A Conversation with Sergia Lage Arias

    While mainstream entrepreneurship is about acceleration, innovation, and speed, Sergia offers a radically different metaphor: compost—slow, natural growth through decomposition and regeneration. Growing up connected to the land and sea in Galicia, Sergia brings a deeply place-based perspective to education, emphasizing that we must be "in, for, and of" our local contexts. Through nature walks, eco-social sewing (a form of community communication), and visits to local businesses that don't appear in textbooks, Sergia creates spaces for students to understand entrepreneurship beyond startup culture—as stewardship. But this work is hard, and Sergia doesn't shy away from naming educator burnout and the need for institutional bravery. "We should be weaving academic networks that really start from caring for others and being aware that you are not alone," Sergia reminds us, calling for courage, community, and the patience to let regeneration unfold at nature's pace. Key themes: Slow growth, place-based learning, eco-social methods, stewardship, educator networks, institutional courage

    1h 3m

  2. APR 9

    What if we viewed uncertainty as possibility? A Conversation with Yvette Baggen

    "We don't start-up businesses, we start-up people," Yvette declares, capturing her fundamental reframing of entrepreneurship education. For her, uncertainty isn't something to fear—it's a source of hope and inspiration. Yvette's teaching is centered on helping students learn to embrace and navigate uncertainty, understanding that collaboration and diverse teams are essential for addressing the complexity of sustainability and regeneration. She emphasizes that students need to take ownership of their own learning journey, working on real-world assignments based on effectuation principles—focusing on what they can control. In this conversation, Yvette explores why she finds more meaning in students' reflections than their final products, and how she's rethinking assessment and grading to better serve regenerative education. Key themes: Starting-up people, uncertainty as hope, student ownership, effectuation, team collaboration, assessment innovation

    58 min
  3. What If the Classroom Was a Relational Field? - A Conversation with Catherine Brentnall

    APR 2

    What If the Classroom Was a Relational Field? - A Conversation with Catherine Brentnall

    Catherine doesn't see the classroom as a space for delivering content - she sees it as a relational field where she's deeply interested in what's happening between people. Driven by a strong sense of justice and what she describes as an "obsession with inequality and unsustainability," Catherine's teaching journey took a decisive turn in 2021 when the IPCC's "Code Red for Humanity" report made continuing with business-as-usual education not just difficult, but impossible. In this episode, Catherine shares how she practices compassionate pedagogy - drawing from an interest in uncompetitive, cooperative learning interactions - and why she invests so much energy in learning students' names and understanding their realities. From exploring democratic ownership structures like steward ownership and cooperatives to insisting that we constantly question our assumptions, Catherine demonstrates what it means to build education on relationships, critical thinking, and hope in the face of climate breakdown. Key themes: Relational pedagogy, compassionate teaching, justice orientation, questioning assumptions, democratic ownership

    1 hr
  4. What If We Designed Futures We Can't Yet Imagine? - A Conversation with Sebastian Planck

    MAR 26

    What If We Designed Futures We Can't Yet Imagine? - A Conversation with Sebastian Planck

    Sebastian opens with a bold pedagogical move: meditation on the floor, shoes off, in the middle of an entrepreneurship class. As someone who deliberately challenges himself to push students out of their comfort zones -even when it makes him feel insecure - Sebastian believes that discomfort, resistance, and friction are not problems to be solved but energy to be harnessed. Using the kite runner metaphor, Sebastian describes entrepreneurship as learning to work with winds you cannot predict or control. This episode takes us through speculative design workshops, uncomfortable embodied exercises, and mountain retreats where Sebastian creates what he calls "comfortable uncertainty" - a space where students feel seen as humans while simultaneously being stretched beyond their limits. Key themes: Productive discomfort, embodied learning, speculative design, working with uncertainty, self-challenging

    43 min
  5. What If We Created New Maps for Entrepreneurship? - A Conversation with Juliane Schuster

    MAR 19

    What If We Created New Maps for Entrepreneurship? - A Conversation with Juliane Schuster

    "We need to let go of some of the old maps," Juliane tells us, describing herself as a mapmaker who sends learners out to explore their own paths. But this isn't about abandoning students—it's about recognizing that in the current system, the old maps lead toward finite resources, and that's not where regeneration can take us. Juliane's turning point came from studying IPCC reports and climate science: "We cannot go on like this." What followed was the development of transformative entrepreneurship education, where futures thinking comes before project work, where values alignment is essential, and where Juliane frames entrepreneurship itself as an intervention to the status quo. In this episode, we explore the tension of operating within a system while trying to transform it, and why Juliane insists that learning must emerge from struggle—we can't design the difficulty out of transformation. Key themes: Transformative education, futures thinking, entrepreneurship as intervention, learning through struggle, creating new maps

    49 min
  6. What if students already have wings? A Conversation with Robin van Oorschot

    MAR 12

    What if students already have wings? A Conversation with Robin van Oorschot

    Robin's metaphor says it all: students come to class with wings—some bigger, some smaller—and as the "guardian of the winds," Robin's role is simply to provide the conditions they need to fly. This episode explores Robin's emergent teaching philosophy, shaped by student-driven inquiry and a commitment to designing for neurodiversity. Robin shares innovative approaches like creating theatrical dialogues between interview subjects who've never met, and discusses the theory-practice gap that frustrates so many academics. With an optimistic outlook and belief that entrepreneurship and regeneration naturally go hand-in-hand, Robin challenges us to trust students' inherent capacity and focus less on content delivery and more on creating the winds of possibility. Key themes: Student agency, neurodiversity, innovation in methods, theory-practice integration, optimism Universe Size Comparison | Cosmic Eye (Original HD)

    1h 11m
  7. Can Entrepreneurship Education Be An Adventure? A Conversation with Marina Schmitz

    MAR 5

    Can Entrepreneurship Education Be An Adventure? A Conversation with Marina Schmitz

    Marina sees teaching as navigating a ship through uncertain waters—but uncertainty doesn't mean danger, it means adventure. As an activist-educator, she's moved away from cognitive-only teaching toward fostering curiosity, futures literacy, and imagination in her students. In this episode, Marina shares how she uses theater-based methods and arts-based approaches to help students question dominant narratives like Silicon Valley's "unicorn" culture, and why she believes the counter-narrative of "zebras"—businesses that are both profitable and purpose-driven—offers a more regenerative path forward. She challenges us to embrace uncertainty not as something to minimize, but as the very space where transformation happens. Key themes: Futures literacy, activism in education, alternative narratives, embracing uncertainty

    1h 5m

  8. FEB 26

    What If Entrepreneurship Was for All Disciplines? - A Conversation with Ingrid Wakkee

    "Towards the end of my teaching and educational career, I think 95% of everything that had to do with education for me was about impact and sustainability, diversity, inclusion," Ingrid reflects. Her journey wasn't sudden - sustainability, transformation, and regeneration "grew into my education over time" - but she was always drawn to impact examples, even when teaching more conventional entrepreneurship. What frustrated Ingrid was resistance to her sustainability focus and the struggle to make colleagues understand that "entrepreneurship is all these things - impact-driven, for all disciplines." So she moved away from traditional examples and Anglo-Saxon textbooks, finding entrepreneurs who weren't just driven by money but by "what can I do?" Teaching in Amsterdam meant being "in Amsterdam and for Amsterdam and of Amsterdam," with field labs and exchanges that rooted learning in place. Ingrid describes higher education as a privilege, approaching students with high expectations: "I assume you can do a lot." She emphasizes that as an educator, being interested in students' stories and wanting to understand their backgrounds matters - "you can still learn everybody's name." Looking toward the future, Ingrid hopes that transformational impact entrepreneurship becomes simply "entrepreneurship" - that we stop teaching extractive and pollutive forms altogether. Key themes: Impact as central (not peripheral), entrepreneurship for all, place-based learning, moving beyond textbook examples, high expectations, making the implicit explicit

    49 min
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Trailer

About

Welcome to The Regeneration Lab. The podcast of the Regenerative Thinking research group at the the Mission Zero centre of expertise at The Hague University of Applied Sciences, where we conduct integrated research to come up with regenerative solutions for a more sustainable future. Each episode features a leading educator, activist, professor, or researcher who is already engaging in more regenerative forms of higher education. Join us on this journey as we discover how these educational innovations emerged, how they are practiced, and the beautiful futures that are envisioned for more regenerative higher education. Along the way we will explore the systemic and personal challenges, barriers and opportunities that our awesome guests are facing to do this. You can reach out through mission-zero@hhs.nl to respond or connect to any of the episodes! 

Information

  • Creator
    Bas van den Berg
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    65
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 The Regeneration Lab
  • Show Website
    The Regeneration Lab

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