The Backstory Podcast

My guest today is Julie Meltzer, PhD., a Director of Kindergarten to 12 grade and Teacher Education for the Institute for Humane Education.  Alongside this, Julie is a published author, a sought-after speaker, editor and reviewer.  She is “committed to creating schools that truly help students prepare to successfully meet their futures,” and she believes the “best hope for the planet is to educate a generation of solutionaries.”    

My guest today, Nick Goldsmith, is a former British Royal Marine Commando who served his country as an elite soldier for 11 years during which he completed 6 operational deployments in some of the most dangerous environments. In 2018, he was medically discharged from his life on the battlefield, having been diagnosed with complex PTSD. Having initially fallen through the cracks and after hitting rock bottom, Nick finally reached out for help. Craving his new identity, he sought solace from nature and the sense of safety it slowly gave him. He estimated Hidden Valley Bushcraft, a business teaching forest skills, as well as creating the Woodland Warrior Programme which takes military veterans for weekend outdoor activities. Mr Goldsmith has also written a book – “Rewild Your Mind”, which encourages using nature as a guide to a happier and healthier life, a book I am currently devouring.  So, without a further ado, I am honoured and really excited to welcome my guest today, Nick Goldsmith.  

I am delighted to host a special series of podcasts (on the Backstory Podcast) with distinguished guests who are pivotal to “The Base 10 Solutionary Summit of 2024”. The Summit, hosted by Munich International School, represents around 200 young Changemakers and Educators from 20 European Schools, who together look to share solutions for improving systems at differing scales, from local to global levels. At the heart of the Summit is the notion that sustainability is the balance overtime: From 1, to 10, to 100, to 1000.  And so, in today’s episode, Will is honoured to talk to Raina Ivanova   Ivanova is a German climate justice activist, focusing on children’s rights violations caused by climate change and resulting social inequalities. As a part of the Children vs Climate crisis petition, alongside Greta Thunberg and 14 others, she petitioned 5 countries to drastically reduce carbon emissions. She also took part in the Fridays for Future school strikes. Ivanova is a former member of UNICEF Germany’s Youth Council and having graduated from the IB in 2022, now works as an intern at the International youth NGO called “Heirs to Our Ocean” which brings together youth from differing cultural and socio-economic backgrounds to collaborate towards a just, equitable, and empathetic future.  

I am delighted to host a special series of podcasts (on the Backstory Podcast) with distinguished guests who are pivotal to “The Base 10 Solutionary Summit of 2024”. The Summit, hosted by Munich International School, represents around 200 young Changemakers and Educators from 20 European Schools, who together look to share solutions for improving systems at differing scales, from local to global levels. At the heart of the Summit is the notion that sustainability is the balance overtime: From 1, to 10, to 100, to 1000.  And so, in today’s episode Will was honoured to talk to Jennifer Brandsberg- Engelmann.   As an international educator teaching children for more than 25 years in the Social Sciences, Jennifer Brandsberg Engelmann is an expert in developing and executing educational strategies, projects, processes, and curricular. Her core focus is to train young people to take action for regenerative societies.  In the Sustainability Action Lab she founded, she works with Student Changemakers with a curriculum she lead developed. She also co/lead authors Economics, Business Management, and Environmental Systems and Societies textbooks, focusing on a sustainability, development, and social enterprise.  

  I am delighted to host a special series of podcasts (on the Backstory Podcast) with distinguished guests who are pivotal to “The Base 10 Solutionary Summit of 2024”. The Summit, hosted by Munich International School, represents around 200 young Changemakers and Educators from 20 European Schools, who together look to share solutions for improving systems at differing scales, from local to global levels. At the heart of the Summit is the notion that sustainability is the balance overtime: From 1, to 10, to 100, to 1000.    In this episode, I was honoured to talk to Matovu Nkoba   Nkoba is a young, socially conscious entrepreneur and founder of Clawest, a company utilizing AI technology to assess water quality and provide clean drinking water solutions.     As a child living in a village in Uganda, his community did not have access to safe water sources. His IB grade 10 Personal Project involved building a well which provided 600 local households with access to safe water. The impact of this endeavour has spurred him on to become a changemaker and he is determined to make a lasting difference. 

In this special one off season of The Backstory Podcast, Will hosts a special series of short podcasts with distinguished guests who are pivotal to “The Base 10 Solutionary Summit of 2024”. The Summit, hosted by Munich International School, represents around 200 young Changemakers and Educators from 20 European Schools, who together look to share solutions for improving systems at differing scales, from local to global levels. At the heart of the Summit is the notion of Base 10 thinking, the idea that education is the balance overtime: From 1, to 10, to 100, to 1000.  In this episode, Will speaks to Craig Vezina. With over 2 decades of experience at the forefront of International education, Mr Vezina is the Co-Founder + CEO of” The Spaceship Academy”, offering world class innovation and sustainability programs for schools, universities, businesses, and organisations. Vezina is also the founder and president of Z-17 Collective and is the leading voice around the power of innovation for a more sustainable future for people and the planet.  

Today, I delve behind the scenes in order to understand the backstory of “The Backstory Podcast” a little more. My guest today is a sound engineer and IT technician, and the man that generously gave his time to teach me about the sound editing processes required in creating a podcast.  My guest, Mr Andrew Smit, worked as an audio engineer for the award winning “The Work Room Audio Post”, Cape town South Africa, where he was part of the team awarded an Emmy for outstanding sound in the series “Black Sails”. He is also known for his work on the 2017 movie Dark Tower, and the 2016 movie, “The Legend of Tarzan”, amongst others we will certainly dive into. Smit then moved to Munich, Germany where he worked freelance as a sound designer and mix engineer and now as an IT technician at Munich International School.  While learning how to edit my podcast episodes under the mentorship of Mr Smit, I soon realised that if a sound engineer does their job correctly, then their role is less noticeable, as the listener gets to experience a smooth, clear, flowing conversation. But, the world of sound engineering is a fascinating one. So, I am thrilled today to partner Mr Smit in front of the microphone to learn more. 

In this episode, Will interviews Dimitri Abold, an actor of stage and screen. Scroll through Netflix and you will see him playing Randall in the American Fantasy Series, Warrior Nun, or over on Amazon in Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan Series, amongst others. Next month, my guest will be seen on the silver screen, playing Reaper Ash in The Hunger Games: The Ballard of Songbirds and Snakes, the prequel to the dystopian Hunger Games record breaking franchise worth almost 3 billion dollars globally.     Today, I am lucky enough to be talking to Dimitri Abold. Born in Jamaica, raised here in Munich Germany, and a graduate of NYU Tisch School of the Arts, an actor who is currently experiencing international success. I want to talk to him today about his backstory, and understand how his upbringing has shaped his career to date, and ask what advice he has for young people looking to follow similar dreams.  

In this episode, Will speaks to Dr. Mattias Bosch, who has a rich, academic background.  He studied Aeronautical and Mechanical Engineering at TUM and a PhD in Law at LMU, both Munich based universities, and during his German law studies he was a scholar at the University of Washington in Seattle.      Bosch has worked in the intellectual property field since 1993, having begun his doctoral thesis comparing US, European and German patent law related to medical process patents. He was a founding partner of the intellectual property law firm Bosch Jehle in Munich and his practice expanded to focus upon complex patent litigation in the tech industry.      Bosch retired from his law practice in 2020, but his story does not end there.   Realising his career had provided the opportunity to travel the world, he had come to believe that the route to a stronger and more stable society was to encourage the worldwide teaching of dignity.  He enrolled in the Harvard Kennedy School for an Executive Education Certificate in Non-Profit Organisations, and has served as the Executive Coordinator for the charity Global Dignity, since 2021.    Today I find my guest as a fellow of Harvard University’s  Advanced Leadership Initiative Cohort of 2023, whose vision is to ‘unleash the potential of experienced leaders to help solve society’s most pressing challenges’.  Listen to this episode to learn more about Dr Bosch's route to success. LinkedIN: Dr Matthias Bosch

In this episode, Will speaks to Olivia Heine, an Energetics and Success Coach, a certified Neurolinguistic Programming Practitioner and Hypnotherapist.  Olivia works exclusively with women with the aim of creating holistic success strategies that lead to a more balanced lifestyle.      After graduating from Munich International School, here in Germany,  Olivia moved to Canada where she studied Media Information and Technoculture at the University of Western Ontario.  During this time Olivia showed entrepreneurial spirit writing a blog that specifically focused on decluttering homes, which became her first side business at university.    Listen to this episode to hear how Olivia set off starting her business, as well as the route that brought her to this point.