The Future We Want: Season 4

Recorded during the first 100 days of the new Trump administration, Raphael speaks with Ariana Gómez, an expert in eco-anxiety, climate adaptation, and the ethics of artificial intelligence, about the collapse of the current global system, and how we as humans and leaders of brands and organizations can navigate the emerging world with our full humanity.At a moment of unrelenting challenge and change, Ariana sees the promise of something different – a renaissance.“For me, imagining a future is like a renaissance," says Ariana. "We are the Da Vinci's of that new renaissance. We get to invent and reinvent and redesign everything.”But first, she argues that business leaders and brands must create space for grief, curiosity, connection, and community. Because our emotional well-being and the well-being of the world around us will always be interconnected.Tune in to learn:How historical moments of collapse provide a roadmap for resilienceLessons from Joanna Macy's 'Work That Reconnects' and the spiral methodologyHow to imagine a future of community and symbiotic relationships with natureOur Guest:Ariana Gómez is an expert in eco-anxiety, climate adaptation, and navigating the new frontiers of artificial intelligence. She is the Founder and CEO of Technology for Impact, a global community of individuals, entrepreneurs, corporations, academia, government and private organizations focused on creating value and generating positive social, environmental, economic and political impact through exponential technology.You can learn more about her work at technologyforimpact.com.For BBMG's latest research on how Gen Z's eco-anxiety is leading to disengagement with sustainable brands, look out for our new report: From Anxiety to Agency: Five Ways Sustainable Brands Can Win Back Gen Z

In the five years since we launched The Future We Want podcast, the speed and scale of the challenges we’re facing are only growing – and the backlash to the progress that was made is causing many to retreat, resist and reset. In this new season, we’re asking: what if we imagine the renaissance? What if we face the reality of climate change and the retreat from freedom, justice and democracy with brutal honesty, bravery and love? What if we welcome the hard questions and imagine together how to carry the remnants of what matters most to us now into a future we want to be part of? As ever, we’ll be speaking with visionary thinkers, valued partners and beloved friends who bring new perspectives about the world we’re living in and give us hope for what might come next. Welcome to The Future We Want, from BBMG. 

At a time when our democracy hangs in the balance, Louise Dube, CEO of iCivics, reminds us that our Constitution is nothing more than a sheet of paper without the commitment of each successive generation to teach and learn it.In this episode, Raphael talks to Louise about the hope and opportunity inherent in the American ideal, the knowledge, skills and dispositions required for self-government, and why it’s crucial to teach the next generation how to be engaged citizens capable of finding common ground and taking collective action.“We're never going to have a system where we all agree,” says Louise. “So you need to have those skills to be able to do that, to find ways to argue, to find evidence for what you're saying, to engage in conversation.” A firm believer in the American idea, and a Canadian immigrant whose mother was a trailblazing lawyer, Louise’s personal journey and belief in the power of civic participation is a hopeful inspiration for us all.Tune in to learn:The importance of civic learning in the context of the upcoming election About Sandra Day O'Connor's founding vision to bridge the generational gap in the perception of American democracyWhat knowledge, skills, and dispositions are needed for civic engagementHow educators, students, parents, and administrators can get involved with iCivicsOur Guest:Louise Dube is CEO of iCivics, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to inspiring a passion for civic learning so young people can shape the world around them and believe in our country’s future. Louise began her career as an attorney in Montreal, Canada. She discovered the power of education in the early 1990s as a co-founder of CASES, a New York alternative-to-incarceration program for youthful offenders where education helped reshape lives. Inspired by a deep commitment to creating pathways to lives of learning and purpose, she has devoted her career to ensuring that all students are prepared for civic life.iCivics provides digital learning tools to teach young people how the system works, to value what it does, and to develop skills of critical thinking and problem solving. CivxNow, a project of iCivics, has formed the nation’s largest cross-partisan Coalition to fuel our constitutional democracy through K-12 civic education.You can read more about Louise’s perspective on the importance of each generation learning and embracing civics in her piece, “Reading Between the Lines of the United States’ Founding Document.”You can also learn more about BBMG’s work rebranding iCivics in our case study: https://bbmg.com/work/icivics/

When you have delicious food with mouth watering ingredients, made by people and farmers who are cared for and take pride in their work, you don’t need to shout about sustainability. The product speaks for itself. Flavor is your competitive edge, and a regenerative approach to business is your secret sauce.For a growing community of brands in the food industry, their recipe for success includes a rigorous commitment to quality and care measured through B Corp certification. In this episode, we speak with dear friends and brand leaders from certified B Corps – Jennifer Lally, VP of Marketing at Just Salad, the newly rebranded quick-serve restaurant chain that just opened its 100th store, and Guillaume Le Cunff, global CEO of the coffee giant Nespresso. They talk about how sustainability and social responsibility in the food industry go hand in hand with creating food that’s distinctly delicious. “One of the most important aspects of being in the B Corp community is that you're joining a movement,” Guillaume tells us. “And that inside the movement is an opportunity to learn from peers, to listen to critics, and to constantly strive to improve.”From their relationships with farmers and suppliers to their commitment to their employees and customers, both are the very essence of what a Regenerative Brand is all about.Tune in to learn:How sustainability can be an awesome factor for growing and rewarding brand loyaltyWhy connection across the food value chain leads to higher quality, desirable productsHow the rigor of measurement for B Corp certification helps reveal gaps and areas of opportunityOur Guests:Jennifer Lally is VP of Marketing at Just Salad, a plant-forward quick-serve chain that boasts the world’s largest restaurant reusable bowl program and was the first U.S. restaurant chain to carbon label its menu. You can learn more about BBMG’s recent rebrand of the company here, and visit them at justsalad.com.Guillaume Le Cunff is the global CEO of Nespresso where he’s making sustainability and social impact integral to creating the future of coffee quality, innovation and impact by advancing regenerative coffee farming and becoming one of the world’s largest B Corp certified companies. Nespresso’s AAA Sustainable Quality Program recently celebrated its 20th year of partnership with the Rainforest Alliance. Their Reviving Origins program is building coffee networks and supply chains in places recovering from war and natural disasters. And after championing recycling of coffee pods – and even paying for customers to return them – now they are pioneering paper-based, compostable capsules.If you’re hungry for more on the future of regenerative food, check out our Radically Better Food report and podcast episode at https://bbmg.com/radically-better-food/

We're living in a moment where the complexity and the divisiveness behind the challenges we face require a new way of leading in philanthropy – how we see and understand each other, how we repair what's broken, and together build a future we can all believe in.To look deeper into that, on this episode of our podcast we pass the host mic to BBMG’s Strategy Director, Hannah Thomas, who recently wrote the piece, Why the World Needs Regenerative Philanthropy, about the exciting possibilities for the field when it places humble, brave, and mutual relationships at the center of how it operates.Hannah speaks with Mayra Peters-Quintero, Executive Director at Abundant Futures Fund – a new donor collaborative co-founded by Emerson Collective, Ford Foundation, and the JPB Foundation – about how proximity, relationship, and shared narrative have been essential to helping them on their mission to ignite progress on immigration in the US by raising $100 million dollars over five years to supercharge the movement.Because immigration is so politicized and intentionally polarizing, and because new immigrants rarely have voting power, it’s a sorely underfunded issue. Less than 1% of all philanthropic funding goes to immigrant and refugee issues.BBMG had the great honor of helping to create the name, brand position and story for Abundant Futures Fund, which in just its first two years has already raised $60 million dollars to help fund immigrant justice.Tune in to learn:All about the power of narrative to open minds and heartsHow to embrace the beauty – and the messiness – of relationshipsThe benefits of proximity and reciprocity when working on social justiceOur Guest:Mayra Peters-Quintero is Executive Director at Abundant Futures Fund. Mayra has spent her career advancing the rights of immigrants through positions in philanthropy, government, and law. Prior to launching Abundant Futures Fund, Mayra spent more than a decade overseeing migration funding for the Ford Foundation. She co-led the Immigrant Rights Clinic at New York University School of Law; served as Director of the Bureau of Immigrant Workers Rights at the New York State Department of Labor; and was a Skadden Fellow and Associate Counsel at LatinoJustice PRLDEF. Mayra earned her JD from NYU and her MPA from Princeton University. She was born in Panama and raised in San Diego, CA.For more on BBMG’s work with philanthropic foundations and organizations, check out our case studies from branding the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, Einhorn Collaborative, and New Pluralists  at bbmg.com.

The ocean absorbs about a third of human-caused climate emissions, provides 50% of the oxygen we we breathe, 15% of the animal protein that we eat, and it can be as much as 50% of the food source for many nations. It also provides livelihoods for some 3 billion people globally in the “blue economy.”And yet, at this moment, UNESCO says that it's possible we'll lose 50% of marine life and species by 2100, and the UN Environment Programme says that there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish potentially by 2050.Protecting the ocean and harnessing its potential for humanity is crucial for our very survival, yet so many people have very little understanding of its wonders.With that in mind, we invited two experts we've worked with over the years to talk to us about the role of brands and storytelling to capture imaginations and shift consumer behavior to protect and regenerate the ocean. At a time when progress on climate action feels so fraught, it’s exciting to be reminded of the great frontier of possibilities that lies beneath the blue.Tune in to learn:The many ways humanity is inextricably linked to the oceanHow to make distant (and sometimes mysterious!) issues exciting and relevant for peopleThe win-win of sustainable seafood and the role of product certificationsOur Guests:Vikki Spruill is President and CEO of the New England Aquarium and its research and conservation institute powering science and education to advocate for vital and vibrant oceans.Nicole Condon is US Program Director at the Marine Stewardship Council, working to protect and promote sustainable seafood at every level – from the ocean to our dinner plates.

How do we break free from the consumerist story we’ve inherited, one where material possessions define our worth? And how might brands write a new story of responsible consumption that’s not about what we must give up, but about how much more becomes possible in a circular economy? In this episode of our podcast, Raphael speaks to Kate Daly of Closed Loop Partners and John Atcheson of Circular Way about the exciting experiments they have helped pioneer to make circular solutions frictionless and fabulous. Closed Loop Partners are behind the ongoing “Beyond the Bag” initiative, a partnership of national retailers including Target, CVS, and Walmart who are working together to design plastic bag waste out of the shopping experience. Their latest beta tests – supported by BBMG – have helped nudge consumers towards reusable bags and estimate they’ve eliminated the use of three million single-use plastic bags as the outcome of the Denver and Tucson pilots alone.As a serial entrepreneur, John Atcheson has piloted a number of innovative circular retail platforms including the car sharing company, Getaround and the apparel resale platform Stuffstr that powered successful recommerce offerings from adidas and John Lewis in the UK. His newest venture, Circular Way, takes everything he’s learned from those earlier experiences and endeavors to completely reorient the retailer’s – and the consumer’s – relationship with the stuff we own. Tune in to learn:How brands, and people, can unleash more use from goodsHow to remove barriers to new behavior adoptionHow to build a new retail model that makes the old model obsolete Our Guests: Kate Daly leads the Center for the Circular Economy at Closed Loop Partners, an innovation center for research, analysis and collaboration to accelerate the transition to a circular economy in which materials are shared, re-used and continuously cycled. Early in her career, she earned the nickname “garbage girl” for her habit of fishing useful things out of the trash and spearheading office reuse efforts. It’s no wonder she made her way into work for the circular economy.Watch Kate’s interview with the NYSE about ‘Beyond the Bag’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiXXFVV-aQ8 Learn more about the ‘Bring Your Own Bag’ pilot: https://www.closedlooppartners.com/beyond-the-bag/byo/ John Atcheson is Co-Founder/CEO at Circular Way, a circular technology company that enables shoppers to buy or rent both new and used clothing side-by-side, receive a host of blockchain-enabled services to maximize their enjoyment and use of their clothes, and resell garments at end of use with the touch of a button.Read John’s 3-part blog series, The Path to Circular Fashion: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7025754099996323841/ 

Education is the foundation on which our society is built, and it shapes our success as brands. Without a trained workforce, businesses cannot thrive. But our traditional learning models simply haven’t caught up with the way we live and work today. How and where learning happens needs to evolve so that the American education system serves our full potential as people.Brands have a crucial role to play in reimagining education, from offering flexible learning opportunities for employees to supporting schools and educational programs with resources, real world learning opportunities, and more. In this episode of The Future We Want we speak to two visionary leaders and awesome human beings who are pioneering the future of education: Kelly Young of Education Reimagined and Michael Hansen of Cengage Group. Together we look at how our culture is moving away from dated norms of education and navigating new technologies like AI and remote learning to put our unique human needs at the center of learning. And we talk about the role of companies and brands in supporting a future where learning is a lifelong pursuit that happens everywhere.Our Guests: Kelly Young is president at Education Reimagined, a radically inventive community of practice working for a socially just, learner-centered future where education lives everywhere. BBMG has worked with Kelly and her team over the years to build their brand, their movement, and strategize for what’s next.Michael Hansen is CEO at Cengage Group, an edtech company focused on helping millions of learners achieve their education and career goals with more confidence, more opportunity, and more impact at every stage of life. BBMG worked with Cengage on brand strategy, talent and employee engagement, and on the branding and launch of Cengage Unlimited, their “Netflix of textbooks,” which was named a finalist for Fast Company’s 2020 World Changing Ideas Awards and sold over one million subscriptions in its first year.Read the 2023 Cengage Group Graduate Employability Report: AI Joins the Workforce: https://cengage.widen.net/s/nvd6ghd8vl/final-cg-employability-survey-report-july2023At a time when we're all facing change at a pace like never before. Kelly and Michael share a vision for the role of education in our lives, our organizations, and our society, and how we can all help make learning work for everyone. 

To celebrate BBMG's 20 years in business and kick off season three of our podcast, Raphael sat down with three dear friends, mentors, and BBMG role models – Rha Goddess of Move The Crowd, Jay Coen Gilbert of B Lab and Imperative 21, and Lara Galinsky of Unfinished.com’s Project Liberty – to reflect on where they’ve been and what they’ve learned, about business and about themselves, over the years.For each of them, so much comes back to the importance of personal acceptance, mutual relationships, and starting where you are. This resonates with us deeply, the idea that personal change and local change, change within one community or one company, has a way of rippling outward and laying the groundwork for meaningful, systemic change. That feels… doable, right? Especially when you look back twenty years and see just how far we’ve all come.Our Guests:Rha Goddess, Founder and CEO of Move The Crowd and author of the book The Calling. For Rha, a terrifying personal experience prompted her to follow her calling to coach others to be their most genuine selves. “My work is about helping to build the capacity for people to come home to the truth of themselves, to be themselves more authentically, and thereby create and deliver on their unique contribution. If we could do that in mass, we would really get the world we want." Read Rha's Open Letter to My Beloved White Male Allies.Lara Galinsky, Founder & Social Impact Strategist at The GenuineAnd the Senior Director of Impact Innovation at Project Liberty. For Lara, living a purpose-driven life starts with listening for the “sound of the genuine,” as the author and theologian Howard Thurman describes it. It’s about having organic openness to where you can make a genuine impact, and having radical acceptance for that which you cannot control.Jay Coen Gilbert, Co-Founder of B Lab, Imperative21, and White Men for Racial Justice. He’s learned that any meaningful cultural, systemic change has to start with personal change. “And don't think of that as making it smaller,” he says. “It's actually a portal to the biggest change you can make.” Most recently that’s come to bear in his work founding White Men for Racial Justice, an anti-racist pro-justice community of practice rooted in personal transformation, relationships of mutual accountability, and taking action in our spheres of influence. Learn more about Jay's work:Work That Leads to Joy"What Do YOU Think We Should Do?"Time for a Capitalist ReformationWhy I Support a Reparations Task Force

On this episode Raphael is joined by Peter Ambler, the executive director of the gun safety organization Giffords. Since co-founding Giffords with Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, Navy Captain – and now U.S. Senator – Mark Kelly, Peter and their team have faced unimaginable tragedy with courage, determination and grace, and they’ve worked together with people from all walks of life to lead the way toward meaningful progress on gun safety.In our conversation, Peter shares their remarkable story, offers advice for brands on how to affect public policy for good, and how he maintains his personal energy to keep fighting for change in the face of so much challenge.You can read more about BBMG’s branding work for Giffords at https://bbmg.com/work/giffords/.