Radical Truth

Most impact investing is just traditional finance wrapped in virtuous rhetoric—promising systemic change while demanding the exact same extractive returns. Julie Davitz breaks down why billions allocated for good are failing to move the needle and how true catalytic capital must fundamentally rewrite the rules of risk and return.Julie Davitz, Founder and CEO of Plus Purpose and renowned impact investing strategist, pulls back the curtain on how capital allocators mistake ESG compliance for genuine systemic impact. She reveals the operational disconnect between high-net-worth donors, family offices, and frontline enterprises that actually generate measurable social and environmental outcomes. Viewers will walk away with an unvarnished blueprint for evaluating authentic impact, structuring blended finance, and holding capital accountable to real-world outcomes.Julie Davitz is the founder and CEO of Plus Media Solutions and the former Head of Impact Solutions at BNP Paribas and Bank of the West. She built a platform that puts a QR code or a tap prompt in front of the credits, hands the viewer an action hub, and measures anonymously what that audience actually does next. In this conversation with Robert Rubinstein she names the dark side of philanthropy and impact investing: donors, funds and studios who would rather not know whether their money or their content changed anything. She explains why awareness raising is finished as a strategy, why fear of failure keeps donor-advised funds in the dark, and what the data says about which stories move people and which ones leave them hopeless. If you give, invest or produce content for a cause, you will leave knowing what to demand as proof. 📌 Key Moments in This Episode:00:00 Awareness is not enough, and a film can move 10 million people and change nothing02:48 "There's a dark side" to philanthropy and impact investing: nobody checks the results04:44 The QR code before the credits that turns a feeling into an action09:13 The Pitt, Warner Bros and why the Gates Foundation wants the viewer data11:43 Why donor-advised funds do not want to know whether it worked13:13 Apple spent a fortune on a climate series, and nobody wanted to engage16:49 Ten years of climate content, and emissions went through the roof19:08 The ribbon-cutting Olympics: finance and media celebrating nothing20:13 MrBeast and the Rockefeller Foundation got 85 million views. Then what?22:35 A global impact investing summit discovered its own audience didn't know what impact investing is32:00 $125,000 for a unity campaign, 400 ultra high net worth donors, no takers45:50 18 months of due diligence with two famous investors, then they ghosted her57:50 Silicon Valley passed on her and gave the next guy $8 million ▶ RELATED EPISODE: Rosser Goodman on philanthropic film finance, and why the films worth making never get funded.https://youtu.be/G1WJlL2g05k🔗 Connect with guest:• Website: https://www.plusmedia.solutions• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julie-davitz/📌 Subscribe to TBLI Radical Truth for unfiltered, deep-dive discussions with sustainable finance thought leaders challenging the conventional narratives around impact and the future of finance. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDBhRVM93uUnAAtqOMIz_yg?sub_confirmation=1EXTRACTION How business takes your money, your work, your resources, your data and your future, while presenting itself as something else entirely. Robert Rubinstein's next book, from 30 years inside the system.If this conversation makes you question where your money is actually going, Extraction takes that investigation much further.Follow its progress in the free Radical Truth Discussion Network: https://tblicircle.com/share/Lnu4hDm8ayILGevs?utm_source=manual

"Capital is never the shortage." Duncan Logan built the San Francisco building that produced more than 30 unicorns, including Uber and Spotify. Now he is doing it for climate.If you think climate's problem is a funding gap, this conversation argues the real shortage is density, vehicles and entrepreneurs.Duncan Logan is a Scottish farmer's son turned derivative trader, tech founder and community builder. He founded RocketSpace, the San Francisco hub where UberCab, Spotify, Flexport and Supercell grew up, and is now co-founder and CEO of 9Zero, a climate innovation hub with sites in San Francisco and Seattle and a 600-person waitlist in New York. In this conversation with Robert Rubinstein he makes the capitalist case for climate: no sacrifice, no moral lectures, just cheaper, better, faster alternatives and a physical place where founders, scientists and investors collide. He explains why he shares every investor contact he collects, why he refuses venture capital for his own company, and what kind of capital product the climate economy is actually missing. You will leave with a different diagnosis of why climate startups stall.Key Moments in This Episode:00:00 What if climate doesn't have a capital problem?01:31 From Scottish farm to derivative trader to 30 unicorns in one building04:32 "There is no Silicon Valley for climate. There is no Hollywood for climate"05:52 The network effect: why nobody joined, until 70 people a day did07:19 Is this just WeWork with a climate badge?11:28 Give, get, get: handing every founder 4,000 investor contacts15:16 40% of new members come from referrals. The industry average is 3%19:03 How they spot the companies greenwashing their way into the building21:03 Unicorn chasing in climate: Robert challenges Duncan on Climeworks23:21 "Every company is a climate company", including BP and Home Depot24:17 Why solving climate through sacrifice fails every time30:19 The insurance market is the canary in the coal mine33:58 Cheaper, better, faster: stop waiting for government43:50 The capital climate actually needs, and why venture capital fits almost none of it51:44 Supply constrained: 600 people waiting in New York📌 Subscribe to TBLI Radical Truth for unfiltered, deep-dive discussions with sustainable finance thought leaders challenging the conventional narratives around impact and the future of finance. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDBhRVM93uUnAAtqOMIz_yg?sub_confirmation=1🔗 Connect with guest:• Website: https://9zero.com• X: https://x.com/duncanlogan📌 ▶ RELATED EPISODE: Christoph Klink of Antler on day-zero investing and backing founders from the start: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7rdCBc4gf0#ClimateTech #ImpactInvesting #ClimateFinanceEXTRACTION How business takes your money, your work, your resources, your data and your future, while presenting itself as something else entirely. Robert Rubinstein's next book, from 30 years inside the system.If this conversation makes you question where your money is actually going, Extraction takes that investigation much further.Follow its progress in the free Radical Truth Discussion Network: https://tblicircle.com/share/Lnu4hDm8ayILGevs?utm_source=manual

A company can report perfect ESG scores while its core business remains extractive. Laurie Lane-Zucker exposes the gap.Laurie Lane-Zucker, founder of Impact Entrepreneur, joins TBLI Radical Truth to challenge the metrics we use to judge corporate ethics. We discuss why high ESG scores often mask harmful operations and what real sustainable finance looks like beyond the reports.Drawing from over three decades in the movement and his new book, The Immortality, Lane-Zucker explains how to look past the data and identify which companies are actually changing the system rather than just hiding their extractive practices.📌 Key Moments in This Episode:0:00 Why traditional impact models are broken 05:15 The myth of risk-free sustainable returns 14:30 Are ESG ratings just corporate cover-ups? 23:10 Laurie Lane-Zucker on systemic capital shifts 32:45 Why blended finance is harder than Wall Street admits 44:10 The hidden bottlenecks stalling climate finance 55:20 Reimagining fiduciary duty for real change 1:03:15 The future playbook for authentic impact🔗 Connect with Laurie Lane-Zucker:• Website: https://impactentrepreneur.com/• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurielanezucker/Related Episode: The Hidden Cost of Bias: Why $1.7 Trillion Is Missing From The Economy📌 Subscribe to TBLI Radical Truth for unfiltered, deep-dive discussions with sustainable finance thought leaders challenging the conventional narratives around impact and the future of finance. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDBhRVM93uUnAAtqOMIz_yg?sub_confirmation=1EXTRACTION How business takes your money, your work, your resources, your data and your future, while presenting itself as something else entirely. Robert Rubinstein's next book, from 30 years inside the system.If this conversation makes you question where your money is actually going, Extraction takes that investigation much further.

Thrombectomy can have a paralysed stroke patient walking the next day. Two-thirds of the UK can't get it. An estimated 5,000 people die every year as a result. On TBLI Radical Truth, Robert Rubinstein talks with Steve Podmore, founder of Let's Fix the NHS and Sysovation, who sat beside his mother's hospital bed after her stroke and asked why a proven treatment reaches so few NHS patients. The answer isn't money or medicine. Too few neurointerventional radiologists, too few equipped theatres, and no national plan to get from a third of the country to everyone. Steve's costing: about £500 million over five years would deliver full thrombectomy access, saving at least 25,000 lives over a decade and returning £6 to 12 billion to the economy. From there the conversation turns to capital. Steve explains why money flows freely to large corporations and speculation while the small companies that create most jobs and innovation are starved of funding, why organisations kill good ideas ("innovation immunity"), and how funded missions can bring frontline workers, outsiders and investors together to fix problems the NHS, government and charities haven't. Steve Podmore is an entrepreneur and systems innovator who has spent 20 years designing new models for impact finance, including Transform Global, a concept for an impact investment bank. He founded Let's Fix the NHS and Sysovation AI, and helps run a peer support group for young stroke survivors. WHAT'S COVERED• Why a decade-old, proven stroke treatment still reaches only about a third of the UK• How thrombectomy can reverse paralysis and loss of speech overnight, if it is delivered fast• The £500 million plan to reach 100% access, and the £6 to 12 billion it could return• The economic food chain theory: why capital concentrates at the top and starves the "plankton" 📌 Key Moments in This Episode:00:00 The stroke treatment two-thirds of the UK can't get02:11 Who is Steve Podmore?02:57 From An Inconvenient Truth to impact finance04:38 Why capital doesn't reach innovators06:22 The economic food chain theory06:51 The "plankton": small firms starved of capital07:52 Designing an impact investment bank10:56 His brother, his mother and the stroke12:17 Why the NHS? The Extraction Machine13:35 Why a growing finance sector is a warning sign15:36 Three working computers on a stroke ward19:22 Innovation immunity: why organisations kill good ideas21:20 Film: the case for Sysovation27:15 Why not just fix the NHS?30:28 Thrombectomy: a third of the UK, 5,000 deaths a year32:09 £500 million to reach 100% access34:27 Adaptive capacity building and funded missions39:59 For-profit with a foundation: Restricted Impact Options44:38 Connectors, philanthropy and mission-led funding51:23 How you can help: beta testers and investor dinners RELATED EPISODESRenaissance Philanthropy: how a demand-driven funding model raised $500 million in two years to fix specific problems. https://youtu.be/Vg4yNyM7b0w?si=WHenYPobz55vyNdP• SOAR Connect: turning a decade of personal introductions into a platform that filters out the extractors. https://youtu.be/lLBBprTpFB8?si=YnACxoNvW0o4nZ6k🔗 Connect with guest: • Website: https://www.letsfixthenhs.help/• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevepodmore/#ESG #ImpactInvesting #sustainablefinance 📌 Subscribe to TBLI Radical Truth for unfiltered, deep-dive discussions with sustainable finance thought leaders challenging the conventional narratives around impact and the future of finance. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDBhRVM93uUnAAtqOMIz_yg?sub_confirmation=1EXTRACTIONHow business takes your money, your work, your resources, your data and your future, while presenting itself as something else entirely. Robert Rubinstein's next book, from 30 years inside the system.If this conversation makes you question where your money is actually going, Extraction takes that investigation much further.

Most movies don't make a profit, says filmmaker Rosser Goodman, who began her career on an Amblin series for Steven Spielberg. So films with a cause should be funded by philanthropy, not investors.On TBLI Radical Truth, Robert Rubinstein asks Rosser how philanthropic film finance actually works. Her model, TANŌ RISING FILM, starts with one donor and one cause, finds a production-ready script among the thousands already written, and funds the marketing and distribution from day one, when most independent films have nothing left for it. The return she promises is not 10x. It is return on impact, measured by what audiences actually do after the credits roll.Rosser Goodman is a director and producer and the founder of TANŌ RISING FILM. She directed the features Holding Trevor and Love or Whatever, founded Circle Content with offices on the Paramount Studios lot, and received the Millennia Scope Entertainment Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. She is a member of the Producers Guild of America and the Television Academy.WHAT'S COVERED• Why most movies, even the big ones, don't turn a profit, and why she calls film investing a lottery ticket• The two things that make films take 10 years: financing and script development• One donor, one cause, one movie: how a $5M to $15M film gets greenlit• Why independent films finish with no money left for marketing or festivals, and how she fixes it• Where net profits go: 50% to the donor's cause, 50% to an evergreen fund for filmmakers• How to get A-list cameos on an independent budget• Why the biggest foundations and billionaires are not her target funders• Is Hollywood more extractive than finance? Her honest comparison• The QR code before the credits that tracks what viewers actually do nextCHAPTERS00:00 Why the films worth making don't get funded01:39 Who is Rosser Goodman?03:19 Why movies take 10 years to make05:05 Thousands of scripts, ready and unfunded05:59 One donor, one film: the $5M to $15M model07:05 Fiscal sponsors and donor-advised funds10:05 Why indie films run out of marketing money12:35 Most movies don't make a profit14:18 ROI: return on impact15:02 Where the profits go16:34 A-list actors on an indie budget18:39 How to find the right donor23:05 Ava DuVernay's Origin28:11 The script menu: climate, oceans, trafficking, veterans30:38 Hollywood vs finance: who ghosts you more?34:43 Is Hollywood more extractive than finance?39:41 The 10-year vision for philanthropic film finance44:09 The money sitting idle in donor-advised funds50:44 How you can help57:01 The QR code that measures impactMORE ON ROSSER GOODMAN• TANŌ RISING FILM: https://tanorising.film• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rossergoodman/ABOUT THE TBLI RADICAL TRUTH PODCASTMost finance podcasts protect the industry. This one interrogates it.I'm Robert Rubinstein. For 30 years TBLI Group has been the world's leading ESG and impact investing network.Every week on this show, one unfiltered conversation with someone actually moving capital toward a liveable future, and no polite silence about the ones only claiming to.No sponsors. No pretending.THE EXTRACTION MACHINEHow business takes your money, your work, your resources, your data and your future, while presenting itself as something else entirely. Robert Rubinstein's next book, from 30 years inside the system.If this conversation makes you question where your money is actually going, The Extraction Machine takes that investigation much further.TBLI GROUP• https://www.tbligroup.com• Robert Rubinstein on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertrubinstein/#Philanthropy #FilmFinance #IndependentFilm #RosserGoodman #ImpactInvesting #DonorAdvisedFunds #ImpactFilm #Hollywood #FamilyOffice #SocialImpact #TBLIRadicalTruth #RobertRubinsteinRecorded 2026.

AI lies, forgets and burns through tokens. Mark Turrell, founder of unDavos and a former WEF Technology Pioneer, explains why, and how he built AI that doesn't. On TBLI Radical Truth, Robert Rubinstein pushes Mark on whether AI can be trusted at all. Mark's answer: large language models are probabilistic guessers, and prompting alone is theatre; the real work is the harness around the model. Then the Davos story: how a community that started outside the Congress Centre in 2011 became a parallel Davos now bigger than the invitation list, and why sponsor money kills critical thought at almost every global summit. Mark Turrell is the founder of unDavos and CEO of Orcasci. He was named a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer in 2008, was a Young Global Leader, and took his first company, Imaginatik, public on the London Stock Exchange. He is the author of "Scaling: Small Smart Moves for Outsized Results". WHAT'S COVERED• The three AI problems you must solve before anything else: lying, forgetting and token burn• How a techno album built with ChatGPT became a team of AI agents with memory• Memory compression: why Mark's AI agents "dream"• Why most corporate AI use is prompting theatre• A 25% error rate on a research task, and the fix: one AI to produce, a second to attack the result• What a seat at the World Economic Forum actually costs• From 27 side events in 2011 to more than 1,200 in Davos Week today• Why sponsor money silences critics at impact and ESG conferences• Using AI to fact-check and publish summit content for 10,000 people instead of 50• The 25-year plan written in 2008, and crowdsourced election monitoring in Zimbabwe• Applying AI to pancreatic cancer biomarkers and medical research CHAPTERS00:00 A 25-year plan to change the world01:38 Who is Mark Turrell?03:03 Will AI go rogue? The guardrails question04:24 Learning AI by making a techno album07:38 "These AIs lie to you"08:22 Memory compression and AIs that dream09:50 The three problems: lying, forgetting, tokens10:48 An operating system for AI11:43 CEO of AIs13:41 Prompting theatre vs real control16:43 Robert pushes back: ChatGPT got it right19:08 Is AI too unreliable to take our jobs?20:36 A 25% error rate, and why two AIs beat one21:52 How Davos really works, and what it costs24:42 2011: the birth of unDavos27:00 From 27 side events to 1,21529:38 Who pays? Sponsors vs independence31:48 The Impact Mafia: sponsors vs critical thought34:50 Democratising Davos content with AI39:10 The 25-year plan and Zimbabwe's 2008 election42:48 COVID: the reset humanity blew44:47 AI for pancreatic cancer and medical science47:10 Not everything can be fixed with AI51:57 The world is built by the tens of thousands54:01 How to help Mark56:59 M Wizard: the techno side MORE ON MARK TURRELL• unDavos: https://undavos.com• LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/markturrell/ ABOUT THE TBLI RADICAL TRUTH PODCAST Most finance podcasts protect the industry. This one interrogates it. I'm Robert Rubinstein. For 30 years TBLI Group has been the world's leading ESG and impact investing network. Every week on this show, one unfiltered conversation with someone actually moving capital toward a liveable future, and no polite silence about the ones only claiming to. No sponsors. No pretending. THE EXTRACTION MACHINE How business takes your money, your work, your resources, your data and your future, while presenting itself as something else entirely. Robert Rubinstein's next book, from 30 years inside the system. If this conversation makes you question where your money is actually going, The Extraction Machine takes that investigation much further. TBLI GROUP• https://www.tbligroup.com• Robert Rubinstein on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertrubinstein/ #AI #Davos #WorldEconomicForum #unDavos #MarkTurrell #AIAgents #ChatGPT #AIHallucinations #ImpactInvesting #TBLIRadicalTruth #RobertRubinstein Recorded 2026.

Women rarely default on bank loans. Banks still lend them less and charge them higher interest. That is not risk pricing. It is bias, and it costs $1.7 trillion. This is TBLI Radical Truth with Robert Rubinstein. When Anne Ravanona started, the gap was $300 billion. Everyone called it a scandal and commissioned a report. Thirteen years later it is $1.7 trillion. Her argument: this is not a diversity problem but a capital allocation failure, and whoever sees it first is sitting on the biggest arbitrage in the market. Anne Ravanona is the founder of Global InvestHer and entrepreneur in residence at INSEAD, with 25 years in global business. She served three years on the jury of the French president's Simone Veil Prize, put women's economic empowerment proposals to President Macron, and has spent six years in the EU delegation to the W20, which advises G20 leaders. Her target is one million women funded by 2030. WHAT'S COVERED - 2% of global venture capital goes to women founders, 3% in Europe, and only 12% of cheque writers are women- 1% of corporate purchasing and 1% of government purchasing worldwide goes to women-owned businesses- Women rarely default on loans, yet banks lend them less and charge higher rates- Her own son is 70 to 80% more likely to get funded, and he does not have to be good- "I have to ask my wife about this": what happens when a woman pitches a product for women CHAPTERS 00:00 From $300 billion to $1.7 trillion01:07 Who is Anne Ravanona02:06 Joan of Arc, and the question she asked at eight02:47 The 2012 question that changed her career04:18 Finding the World Bank IFC number04:38 Passed over, paid less, fired on maternity leave05:36 "I have to ask my wife about this"06:22 Founding Global InvestHer06:51 Asking investors how many women they funded10:01 The email she twice deleted as spam14:05 The W20, and the G20 finance ministers15:17 Thirteen years at 2%: is this a failure?17:39 $28 trillion, what full participation is worth19:06 Her son, 70 to 80% more likely to get funded19:34 "I see it as arbitrage"20:00 The wealth transfer coming to women23:57 A model of business designed by men for men26:03 Risk-averse or risk-aware?27:14 The next guy in a hoodie33:39 Women rarely default, and banks still charge them more35:10 Carly Fiorina, Iceland, and women called in to fix37:07 Ghosting, and a Glassdoor for VCs39:46 Red flags, and the founders who said no45:01 Why they both tell founders to bootstrap52:01 Ranking 1,100 funders on how women-friendly they are52:58 BuyFromHer, and the 1,100 companies on it59:55 How listeners can help MORE ON ANNE RAVANONA Global InvestHer: https://www.globalinvesther.comBuyFromHer: https://www.buyfromher.comAnne Ravanona on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anneravanona/ ABOUT THE TBLI RADICAL TRUTH PODCAST Most finance podcasts protect the industry. This one interrogates it. I'm Robert Rubinstein. For 30 years TBLI Group has been the world's leading ESG and impact investing network. Every week on this show, one unfiltered conversation with someone actually moving capital toward a liveable future, and no polite silence about the ones only claiming to. No sponsors. No pretending. THE EXTRACTION MACHINE How business takes your money, your work, your resources, your data and your future, while presenting itself as something else entirely. Robert Rubinstein's next book, from 30 years inside the system. If this conversation makes you question where your money is actually going, The Extraction Machine takes that investigation much further. TBLI GROUP https://www.tbligroup.comRobert Rubinstein on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertrubinstein/ #VentureCapital #WomenEntrepreneurs #GenderLensInvesting #FemaleFounders #StartupFunding #ImpactInvesting #AccessToCapital #WomenInFinance #SustainableFinance #WomenInVC #AnneRavanona #TBLIRadicalTruth Recorded in August 2026.

Nobody prices a relationship, and every deal in private capital runs on one. David Homan lost a foundation endowment to Madoff and rebuilt on 2,500 of them. Fourteen years running a cultural foundation, seven albums as a classical composer, and one rule that decides who gets into the room. This is TBLI Radical Truth with Robert Rubinstein. David Homan spent 14 years running a cultural foundation until Bernie Madoff took the endowment, rebuilt his career as a working classical composer, and then built a private community of more than 2,500 connectors around one argument: the introduction is the asset, relational capital is the only capital nobody bothers to measure, and you curate a room for integrity rather than for net worth. David Homan is the founder and CEO of Orchestrated Connecting, a private community of over 2,500 global superconnectors spanning venture capital, family offices, sport, entertainment and founders. He is a classical composer with seven albums and international radio play, author of the 2025 book Orchestrating Connection, board chair of the Arthur Miller Foundation, and founder of SOAR Connect, the relationship technology platform he launched in July 2024. WHAT'S COVERED - 14 years running a multi-million dollar arts foundation, and the day the endowment went to zero- What rebuilding donor trust takes when the money is gone and the fraud was not yours- Why the introduction, not the meeting, is the asset- Give before you ask: the rule underneath a 2,500 person community- Measuring what a room actually produced, instead of counting who attended- Why family offices run on relationships no accounting standard recognises- Networking to be seen, versus connecting to be useful- Seven albums and international radio play, and why he calls composing and connecting the same job- SOAR Connect, launched July 2024, and the problem of building trust into software- Orchestrating Connection, the 2025 book, and what writing the framework down changed- Professional pivots, and what he tells people starting over after a setback that was not their fault CHAPTERS 0:00 The Art of Orchestrated Connecting2:13 Finding Purpose in Divergent Paths4:08 Why Relationship Value Is Overlooked6:17 Filtering Extractors from Connectors8:18 The Power of Vulnerability in Networking12:42 Lessons from the Madoff Endowment Crisis26:02 The Economics of Success Fees40:31 The Eternal Hope for Human Connection RELATED EPISODES Max Studennikoff, CC Forum, on why deal flow is the only measure of a room that matters. The same argument from the convening side. Yarrow Kraner, HATCH, on getting people who cannot normally work together into one room, and what happens when they are. MORE ON DAVID HOMAN Book Orchestrated Connecting: https://orchestratedconnecting.comDavid Homan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidrhoman/ ABOUT THE TBLI RADICAL TRUTH PODCASTMost finance podcasts protect the industry. This one interrogates it.The financial system says one thing. Reality often says another.I'm Robert Rubinstein. For 30 years TBLI Group has been the world's leading ESG and impact investing network, which means 30 years inside the room with the people running the system.Every week, one question the industry would rather nobody asked, and the insider who can answer it.No sponsors. No pretending.TBLI GROUP- https://www.tbligroup.com- Robert Rubinstein on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertrubinstein/THE EXTRACTION MACHINEHow business takes your money, your work, your resources, your data and your future, while presenting itself as something else entirely. Robert Rubinstein's next book, from 30 years inside the system.If this conversation makes you question where your money is actually going, The Extraction Machine takes that investigation much further. If you want to understand who really benefits from sustainable finance, subscribe to TBLI Radical Truth. Recorded in 2026.

Eight years ago they said impact investing was a fad and climate change was arguable. Now the same people call Max Studennikoff of CC Forum asking for a $1 trillion opportunity, blue or green. His answer: where have you been all along?This is TBLI Radical Truth with Robert Rubinstein, an impact investing and climate finance podcast from TBLI Group. Max built CC Forum, the gathering the press calls the Green Davos, on one conviction: the world does not lack capital and it does not lack climate conferences, it lacks alignment between the people who control the money, the people who write the rules and the entrepreneurs who can actually change the system. We argue about whether events can move capital at all, why he refuses to take a cut of any deal struck at his own forum, and why he thinks the market, not policy, decides which technology wins.ABOUT THE GUESTMax Studennikoff is the founder and chairman of CC Forum: Investment in Sustainable Development, held across London, Paris, Monaco, Los Angeles, Dubai, Bahrain and Zurich since 2018, and patronised by Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Albert II of Monaco, President Macron and the Crown Prince of Bahrain. The 14th edition runs in London in late October, and the next one after that is the forum's first Pan-African edition.IN THIS EPISODEImpact investing, climate finance and the machinery of convening: the 2016 Davos coffee that produced the idea, the property he sold to fund the first edition, why deal flow is his only measure of success, 400 speaker applications for 100 places, why CC Forum takes no cut of the deals it creates, the trillions going into AI, COP, Chinese solar, and why the real barrier was never convincing anyone, it was access to the person who writes the cheque.CHAPTERS00:00 Introduction: CC Forum, the Green Davos04:09 Davos, 2016: the coffee conversation that started it05:53 "Create a club of impact investors. That's what the world needs"07:27 Selling a property to fund the first edition15:07 Deal flow is the one and only criterion of success22:38 The rowing boat, and the people who cling to the outside of it29:47 The sceptics come back: "Max, is there a $1 trillion opportunity?"34:34 400 applications to speak, 100 places on stage44:11 "Profiteering from technology is immoral"45:35 COP: 200 heads of state, private planes, a preposterous outcome47:09 "We are making the right moves. The pace is wrong"48:22 Pakistan, and a third of national energy consumption installed in a year53:26 Solarge: no glass, no aluminium, no PFAS55:38 The real challenge is not convincing, it is accessMORE ON MAX STUDENNIKOFFCC Forum: https://cc-forum.comMax Studennikoff on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/max-s-179938155/RELATED EPISODESYarrow Kraner, HATCH, on getting people who cannot normally work together into one room.Christopher Marquis on the impact mafia.ABOUT THE TBLI RADICAL TRUTH PODCASTMost finance podcasts protect the industry. This one interrogates it.I'm Robert Rubinstein. For 30 years TBLI Group has been the world's leading ESG and impact investing network.Every week on this show, one unfiltered conversation with someone actually moving capital toward a liveable future, and no polite silence about the ones only claiming to.No sponsors. No pretending.Follow TBLI Radical Truth for a new episode every week. Watch the video: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDBhRVM93uUnAAtqOMIz_ygTHE EXTRACTION MACHINEHow business takes your money, your work, your resources, your data and your future, while presenting itself as something else entirely. Robert Rubinstein's next book, from 40 years inside the system.If this conversation makes you question where your money is actually going, The Extraction Machine takes that investigation much further.TBLI GROUPhttps://www.tbligroup.comRobert Rubinstein on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertrubinstein/Recorded in Amsterdam, September 2026.

A school in Manila trained 500 blind people to use a computer. Five years of teaching, and not one ended up properly employed. Thomas Ng was a trustee, and he spent three more years walking them into every boardroom he knew. Lots of excitement. Zero result. So in 2008 he started a company to hire them himself, before he had worked out what the company would do.On TBLI Radical Truth, Robert Rubinstein asks him what that cost. Ten straight years of losses, ten years without drawing a salary, and a promise to his wife about the house. The episode makes three arguments: that the people nobody will employ are an underpriced workforce rather than a charity case, that you cannot be fully honest as a senior person inside a large multinational, and that the corporate career he walked away from is the only reason the second act worked.Thomas Ng spent 25 years at ABB and Rexam plc, starting ABB's first joint ventures in China and finishing as the first Asian country manager in the Philippines. He left at 47. Genashtim, the company he founded in 2008, was fully remote from day one out of necessity, employs 252 people in 39 countries, and has staff turnover of two percent. Its team does the certification analysis behind more than 11,000 B Corps in over 90 countries.CHAPTERS00:00 Introduction 00:39 Penang, a schoolteacher father, and a family with no car 02:06 Twenty five years at ABB and Rexam, and the China joint ventures 03:42 Walking out at 47 with all the trimmings 04:09 The computer school for the blind in Manila 04:54 Five hundred people trained, not one properly employed 05:04 Starting a company to hire them, before knowing what it would do 05:33 Fully remote in 2008, and the day the digital office vanished 07:17 Ten years of losses, ten years without a salary 08:09 What B Lab and B Corp certification actually are 09:33 B Lab scaled down for COVID, then submissions came in six times over 10:57 A pilot of twenty that became 150 people in 29 countries 12:04 From about 3,000 certified B Corps to more than 11,000 15:34 252 people, 39 countries, and 2 percent staff turnover 18:31 Blue switchgear, yellow switchgear, purple switchgear 24:28 You cannot be honest all the time in a large multinational 25:52 Japan, Indonesia, and the Malaysian government surprise 29:18 Can anyone purpose driven rise to the top of a listed company? 35:16 The promise about the house, and what his wife said back 44:39 Why greed is not a long term strategy▶ Subscribe for a new Radical Truth conversation every week: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDBhRVM93uUnAAtqOMIz_yg?sub_confirmation=1MORE ON THOMAS NGGenashtim: https://genashtim.comThomas Ng:https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-ng-1497791/ABOUT THE TBLI RADICAL TRUTH PODCASTMost finance podcasts protect the industry. This one interrogates it.I'm Robert Rubinstein. For 30 years TBLI Group has been the world's leading ESG and impact investing network.Every week on this show, one unfiltered conversation with someone actually moving capital toward a liveable future, and no polite silence about the ones only claiming to.No sponsors. No pretending.THE EXTRACTION MACHINEHow business takes your money, your work, your resources, your data — and your future.The book examines the systems through which value is extracted from individuals, workers, consumers, communities and the planet — often while the system presents itself as something entirely different.If this conversation makes you question where your money is actually going, The Extraction Machine takes that investigation much further.TBLI GROUPhttps://www.tbligroup.comRobert Rubinstein on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertrubinstein/Recorded August 2026. Thomas Ng joined from Kuala Lumpur.