New World in the Making

What are we really looking for?My guest today is Gio Israel, creator and director of Seekers, a cinematic docu-series six years in the making, filmed across the Amazon, the Himalayas, India, Africa, Native America, and California, with rare and extraordinary access to some of the world's last remaining wisdom keepers. It is one of the most ambitious projects ever created in this space, and it is about to launch.In this conversation, we talk about what it means to be a seeker, what the elders from the Amazon to the Himalayas to Zimbabwe are saying about this exact moment in human history, why they all say the same thing — the time is now — and what that actually means for how we live. We talk about consciousness, devotion, the relationship between life and death, the crisis of meaning underneath the mental health crisis, the power of choice, and what it looks like to build a life, and a company, as a ceremony.Topics we cover: — What it means to be a seeker and why so many of us are, without using that word — How Seekers was born in the desert during COVID, from a voice that said "meet people where they are" — What the wisdom keepers from the Amazon, Himalayas, Africa, India, and Native America are saying about this moment— Why every elder, across traditions and cultures, says the same thing: the time is now — The crisis of meaning beneath the mental health crisis — Life as a ceremony and what devotion really looks like day to day — The relationship with death that the healthiest societies share and that we in the West have lost— The Sapara Nation, their prophecy, and what it means that 80% of their territory is at risk right now — What happens if enough of us go inward — Seekers: the show, the platform, the mission, and the special early access link for our community→ Listen & subscribe: https://newworldinthemaking.com→ Read more on Substack: https://substack.com/@newworldinthemaking→ Support us by donating & Become an Active Maker: https://ko-fi.com/newworldinthemakingAbout Seekers→ Read more about Seekers here: https://seekers.co/ →🌿 Special early access link for the NWM community: https://seekers.co/m/new-world-inthemaking ⚠️ Disclaimer All content shared in this episode is for educational and informational purposes only. Nothing discussed should be considered financial, investment, or legal advice. The views expressed by the guest are their own and do not necessarily reflect my personal views or positions. Listeners are encouraged to do their own research and form their own conclusions.Thank you for listening, and for being part of the new world in the making.

In this episode of New World in the Making, I sit down with Nicholas Thomson, founder of Iceberg. Nick spent his career inside high-performance environments, and along the way he started noticing what many of us only feel: that the way we've been running companies is quietly no longer working. Underneath, the old paradigm of command, hierarchy, and control is being outgrown by the world we actually live in. Nick founded Iceberg to help organisations move into what comes next: more conscious, more self-managed, more human.We talk about:The real purpose of a company, and the personal why underneath itWhy true stories are more convincing than any theory or bookHow culture and profit are not mutually exclusiveThe new consciousness slowly emerging in business, and why it is so hard to grow intoWhat crisis moments are actually here forWhat conscious leadership looks like on a Tuesday morning, not just on a slideAnd what it takes for an organisation to hold its values when pressure and money enter the roomIf you are feeling this shift inside your own organisation, or you want to explore where this transition could take you, head to our website. We've just launched a course designed for anyone curious about where we're going, personally, and inside our organisations and businesses.→ Listen & subscribe: https://newworldinthemaking.com→ Read more on Substack: https://substack.com/@newworldinthemaking → Become an Active Maker: https://buy.stripe.com/14A28qgJS86obz572U9oc00About Nick Thomson and Iceberg Iceberg supports companies transitioning from traditional hierarchies into more conscious, self-managed, human-centred organisations. → Connect with Nick on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholasgilesthomson/ → Learn more about Iceberg: https://itsiceberg.com/ If this conversation resonates, tag someone who needs to hear it. And if you're enjoying the content, please hit follow and subscribe. It's a tremendous help in taking this further.⚠️ Disclaimer All content shared in this episode is for educational and informational purposes only. Nothing discussed should be considered financial, investment, or legal advice. The views expressed by the guest are their own and do not necessarily reflect my personal views or positions. Listeners are encouraged to do their own research and form their own conclusions.Thank you for listening, and for being part of the new world in the making.

What does it mean to be human in an age of AI, accelerating uncertainty, and collapsing systems?In this episode, I sit down with Josep M. Coll — systems thinker, economist, educator, and spiritual practitioner — to explore one of the most important questions of our time: how do we navigate a world in deep transition without losing ourselves in the process?Josep's story is as interdisciplinary as his thinking. From studying economics and international development, to living and practising Zen in South Korea, to bringing spirituality into business schools and the United Nations — his life has been a long practice of connecting the inner and the outer. What he discovered along the way is that you cannot address the big systemic challenges we face — climate change, inequality, AI disruption, the collapse of old economic models — without also doing the inner work.We talk about what systems thinking really is (and why it's not a discipline but a field of interdependence), how AI is acting as a mirror forcing us to ask who we are beyond work and productivity, why education for children needs roots before screens, what spirituality actually looks like inside a business or organisation, how money and purpose can coexist, and what gives him hope in what Italian philosopher Antonio Gramsci called "the era of monsters" — that difficult passage when the old world is dying but the new one hasn't yet taken shape.This is a conversation about courage, curiosity, collective intelligence, and the responsibility we each carry to help build the world that is emerging.Topics we cover: Systems thinking: what it is and why it matters now more than ever  AI as a mirror: who are we when machines can do what we do? Education, children, and screens: what should we actually be teaching? Spirituality in business: how Josep brought meditation into boardrooms and the UN Money, purpose, and the health of organizations Universal basic income, techno-feudalism, and what happens to the economy How to stay resilient and curious in times of chaos Gramsci's "era of monsters" and the futures we have a responsibility to imagine→ Listen & subscribe: https://newworldinthemaking.com→ Read more on Substack: https://substack.com/@newworldinthemaking→ Become an Active Maker: https://buy.stripe.com/14A28qgJS86obz572U9oc00About Josep M. Coll→ Connect with Josep on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josep-m-coll-phd-0baaa0ba/→ Read more about Josep on his website: https://www.jmcoll.com/ ⚠️ Disclaimer All content shared in this episode is for educational and informational purposes only. Nothing discussed should be considered financial, investment, or legal advice. The views expressed by the guest are their own and do not necessarily reflect my personal views or positions. Listeners are encouraged to do their own research and form their own conclusions.Thank you for listening, and for being part of the new world in the making.

In this episode of New World in the Making, I sit down with Zee, known online as The Reluctant Accountant. Zee has spent the last fifteen years working in the parts of finance most of us never see: internal audit, risk, and compliance. The places where you actually find out how the system works, because your job is to check whether anyone is breaking the rules.Now she reads the news so the rest of us don't have to. And she does it in a language built to include people, not exclude them.We talk about:How a working-class kid from South London ended up decoding global finance, and why she thinks her languages degree shaped her more than accounting ever didWhat shadow banking actually is, and why we're not as protected from another 2008 as we thinkPrivate equity, private credit, hedge funds, and the rebrands that quietly hide what's really going onWhy money only has value because we collectively believe it does, and what happens when that belief shiftsThe AI bubble: is the valuation real, or are we pricing a future that may not arrive?The petrodollar, BRICS, de-dollarization, and what's happening to American financial powerCBDCs and the dystopian edge of programmable moneyHow geopolitics is reintroducing friction into a global economy that ran on Amazon-Prime logic for decadesThe deliberate flooding of misinformation, and why people are starting to see through itWhy community, the unsexy, slow, in-person kind, may be the most radical thing left→ Listen & subscribe: https://newworldinthemaking.com→ Read more on Substack: https://substack.com/@newworldinthemaking→ Become an Active Maker: https://buy.stripe.com/14A28qgJS86obz572U9oc00About Zee — The Reluctant AccountantFind Zee's commentary on financial news, geopolitics and the systems behind both — accessible, sharp, and refusing to be obtuse on purpose.→ Follow Zee on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thereluctantaccountant/⚠️ Disclaimer All content shared in this episode is for educational and informational purposes only. Nothing discussed should be considered financial, investment, or legal advice. The views expressed by the guest are their own and do not necessarily reflect my personal views or positions. Listeners are encouraged to do their own research and form their own conclusions.Thank you for listening, and for being part of the New World in the Making.

In this episode of New World in the Making, I sit down with Richard Cope, founder of EcoVox, to take apart one of the most persistent myths in business: the idea of the "green consumer."Richard has spent more than two decades researching what people actually do, not what they say they'll do, when sustainability shows up on a shelf, a menu, or a price tag. And his conclusion is sharp: the green consumer, as most brands imagine them, doesn't really exist. People aren't refusing to buy sustainable because they don't care. They're refusing because the proposition has been built on assumptions that were wrong from the start.What Richard offers instead is more grounded and more hopeful. We talk about:Why the "green consumer" segment most businesses chase is largely a fictionWhat people actually care about when they buy: the Me Economy, Healthy Habitats, Closer CommunicationsWhy the green premium is collapsing, and why that's good news, not badHow guilt-led climate messaging is alienating nearly a third of societyThe values that genuinely unite people across the climate debateWhy corporate humility, transparency, and even apology matter more than perfect campaignsFashion resale, balanced diets, small wins: where behaviour change actually happensThe agility gap between startups and big brands, and who's really moving the needleHow AI, labelling, and regulation are quietly reshaping the point of purchaseWhat Richard thinks the next decade looks like, and what surprised him most along the way→ Listen & subscribe: https://newworldinthemaking.com → Read more on Substack: https://substack.com/@newworldinthemaking → Support & become an Active Maker: https://buy.stripe.com/14A28qgJS86obz572U9oc00About Richard Cope and EcoVoxFounder, EcoVox Consumer Insights Researcher with 20+ years tracking how people actually behave around sustainability→ Learn more about the EcoVox's last report at this webinar, June 4th at 2PM GMT: https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/6574896370885199447→ Connect with Richard on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardcope-ecovox/→ Learn more about EcoVox: https://www.ecovox.co.uk/⚠️ DisclaimerAll content shared in this episode is for educational and informational purposes only. Nothing discussed should be considered financial, investment, or legal advice. The views expressed by the guest are their own and do not necessarily reflect my personal views or positions. Listeners are encouraged to do their own research and form their own conclusions.Thank you for listening and for being part of the new world in the making.

In this episode of New World in the Making, I talk with Tara Stevens, Executive Director of the Center for Tomorrow, about how AI is disrupting our societies and why the systems shaping our world are more fragile than they seem.Most of us don't realise how quickly AI is transforming work, economies, and power. Tara reveals the hidden powers of techno-colonialism: how AI concentration and data dependency are creating new forms of inequality and threatening sovereignty. And we also dive into the agency and power we have to build the new emergent world that takes all life into the equation.With over 15 years leading impact-driven innovation worth hundreds of millions, Tara proves systemic change is possible. We explore what it takes to ensure no one gets left behind in this transition.We talk about:How AI is reshaping jobs, economies, and power, and who gets left behindTechno-colonialism: what it is and why it threatens equity and sovereigntyWhy grassroots movements and civic agency matter for ethical, inclusive AIThe skills future leaders need: systems thinking, agility, emotional intelligencePractical steps to participate in systemic change and reimagine workWhy reimagining capitalism, UBI, and new governance models are essentialThis conversation matters because the choices we make today will dictate whether AI fuels greater inequality or becomes a tool for collective empowerment.If you're curious about building a future where technology works for all of us, not just Silicon Valley elites, this one's for you.→ Listen & subscribe: https://newworldinthemaking.com→ Read more on Substack: https://substack.com/@newworldinthemaking?utm_campaign=profile&utm_medium=profile-page→ Support & become an Active Maker: https://buy.stripe.com/14A28qgJS86obz572U9oc00About the Center for TomorrowThe Center for Tomorrow is a global nonprofit building infrastructure for societal transformation in the age of AI.→ Learn more: https://www.centerfortomorrow.com/ → Connect with Tara: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tarapjstevens ⚠️ Disclaimer All content shared in this episode is for educational and informational purposes only. Nothing discussed should be considered financial, investment, or legal advice. The views expressed by the guest are their own and do not necessarily reflect my personal views or positions. Listeners are encouraged to do their own research and form their own conclusions.Thank you for listening and for being part of the new world in the making.

40+ Conversations. One Course. A New World in the Making. | Adriana Sánchez UebelhoerThis one is a little different.For the first time, I am not the one asking the questions. My colleague and collaborator Beatriz Paniego Béjar sits in the host seat, and I get to be the one reflecting. On a year of conversations. On what I've learned. On why we built what we built. And on what's coming next.New World in the Making is turning one. And after more than 40 conversations with people working at the edges of this transition, something became clear: the knowledge was there, but not everyone has the time or the bandwidth to sit with 40+ hours of dense, rich, sometimes unsettling conversations. So we asked ourselves, what if we distilled all of it into something people could actually move through together?That's how Become a Maker was born.An 8-week course structured around the 5 forces of change I kept hearing across every single conversation, no matter whether I was talking to an ocean engineer, an energy economist, a philosopher, or a spiritual thinker. They were all describing the same transition from different angles.The 5 forces we go through together:Macro Systems and Geopolitics: money, debt, the fracturing dollar-based order, CBDCs, Bitcoin, and why the system we've always known is crumblingTechnology and AI: what it means when intelligence itself gets automated, who controls it, and what's emerging at the edgesOrganizations: how we organize ourselves is changing, from steward ownership to teal organizations to entirely new social contractsNature and Regeneration: what it looks like to step back into alignment with natural systems and the logic of abundanceConsciousness and Self: where it all lands, in us, in how we show up, and in what we choose to buildEach week includes daily content capsules you can navigate in a busy life, live sessions with some of the most listened-to guests from the podcast, and a community to go through all of it with together. Because this is a lot to hold alone.Special guests joining us inside the course include Jeff Booth, author of The Price of Tomorrow, Daniel Luca from Eden Block, Lisa Gill from Leadermorphosis, Ismael Dainehine from EverGive, and others who have shaped how I understand this moment.This isn't a five-step solution. It's a map. And it's for anyone who senses that something isn't adding up, who feels both scared and strangely alive in this moment, and who wants to move from confusion into clarity and from clarity into action.Become a Maker starts May 18th. Five spots available at a reduced price for anyone not in the right financial moment right now.→ Sign up & find out about the course at: https://newworldinthemaking.com/courses → Listen & subscribe: https://newworldinthemaking.com→ Read more on Substack: https://substack.com/@newworldinthemaking?utm_campaign=profile&utm_medium=profile-page 
→ Support & become an Active Maker: https://buy.stripe.com/14A28qgJS86obz572U9oc00⚠️ Disclaimer
All content shared in this episode is for educational and informational purposes only. Nothing discussed should be considered financial, investment, or legal advice. The views expressed by the guest are their own and do not necessarily reflect my personal views or positions. Listeners are encouraged to do their own research and form their own conclusions.Thank you for listening and for being part of the new world in the making.

In this episode of New World in the Making, I sit down with Melina, a first-generation Greek-American who grew up in San Francisco, studied human rights and international affairs, worked at the UN, and has spent the last five years calling Athens home. Melina works at the intersection of philanthropy, systems change, and regenerative thinking. She's building Kali Polis Project, an urban climate lab in Greece connecting young people with local government. She's curating the Ministry of Regeneration track at the World Beautiful Business Forum in Athens this May. And she's founding Zymosi, which means fermentation in Greek, a venture built around slow, trust-building dinners that bring together changemakers who don't yet know each other.We talk about:What climate citizenship actually means and why you don't need to be a climate scientist to practice itThe iceberg model, leverage points, and what systems change tools actually look like in practiceScarcity versus abundance: and how shifting that mental model changes everything, from economics to relationshipsThe two-loop model and what it means to grieve an old system while building a new oneDoughnut Economics, regenerative finance, and what local governments are quietly already doingWhat resilient systems actually require and why redundancy matters more than specializationHow geopolitical crises are, paradoxically, accelerating the shift toward localization and regenerationThe feminine in systems design and what matriarchal design principles have to offerHow to stay hopeful without being naive and what Melina does personally to keep goingAnd what a moment of glimmer looks like on a spring morning in Athens→ Listen & subscribe: https://newworldinthemaking.com→ Read more on Substack: https://substack.com/@newworldinthemaking?utm_campaign=profile&utm_medium=profile-page → Support & become an Active Maker: https://buy.stripe.com/14A28qgJS86obz572U9oc00 About the World Beautiful Business Forum Taking place in Athens, May 7–10, 2025. Open to everyone. → Look up the World Beautiful Business Forum for tickets and info: https://houseofbeautifulbusiness.com/world-beautiful-business-forum About Zymosi A gathering project by Melina based in Athens: curated dinners for climate changemakers who don't know each other yet. Built on trust, slow conversation, and the belief that fermentation takes time.→ Look up Zymosi on Melina’s Substack: https://substack.com/@melinadunham → Look up Zymosi on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zy.mosi/ → Reach out to Melina directly: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melina-dunham/  About System Change Models:→ Find your meaningful and bespoke way to help address the climate crisis, draw your own Climate Action Venn Diagram: https://www.ayanaelizabeth.com/climatevenn→ More about the Iceberg Model: https://ecochallenge.org/iceberg-model/ → More about Leverage Points: https://donellameadows.org/archives/leverage-points-places-to-intervene-in-a-system/ ⚠️ DisclaimerAll content shared in this episode is for educational and informational purposes only. Nothing discussed should be considered financial, investment, or legal advice. The views expressed by the guest are their own and do not necessarily reflect my personal views or positions. Listeners are encouraged to do their own research and form their own conclusions.Thank you for listening and for being part of the new world in the making.

In this episode of New World in the Making, I sit down with Mônica Felício Fragoso, architect, urban planner, and co-founder of Shifted, a climate tech startup reimagining how the world stores electricity.Mônica spent 18 years in the automotive industry before making the leap into the startup world. And what she's building now reflects everything that experience taught her about systems, scale, and what it actually takes to change the physical world.Shifted's technology combines two of the most proven energy systems we already have, pumped hydro and compressed air, into one long-duration storage solution that uses no rare materials, no lithium, no cobalt. Just steel, water, and air. It's a radical simplification hiding a sophisticated answer to one of the hardest problems in the energy transition: what do we do when the sun isn't shining and the wind isn't blowing?We talk about:How Shifted's hybrid pumped hydro and compressed air system actually worksWhy long-duration storage is the missing piece of the renewable energy puzzleWhat 18 years in automotive taught Mônica about designing systems that scaleThe leap from corporate career to co-founding a deep tech startupWhy building with abundant materials matters for a truly global energy transitionThe role of heat management in making compressed air storage efficientWhat it means to design something for the public good, not just the marketThe deeper question underneath all of it: what kind of world are we building?For anyone curious about the energy transition, long-duration storage, climate tech, systems design, and what it looks like when an architect decides to redesign the grid.→ Listen & subscribe: https://bio.site/newworldinthemaking→ Read more on Substack: https://newworld.substack.com→ Support & become an Active Maker: https://buy.stripe.com/14A28qgJS86obz572U9oc00About Shifted Shifted develops long-duration energy storage by combining pumped hydro and compressed air, a mineral-free, scalable alternative to lithium batteries designed to make renewable energy fully dispatchable. → Connect with Mônica Felício Fragoso on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/monica-felicio-fragoso/ → Learn more about Shifted: https://shifted-energy.com/→ Shifted on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/shifted-energy-storage/ ⚠️ DisclaimerAll content shared in this episode is for educational and informational purposes only. Nothing discussed should be considered financial, investment, or legal advice. The views expressed by the guest are their own and do not necessarily reflect my personal views or positions. Listeners are encouraged to do their own research and form their own conclusions.Thank you for listening and for being part of the new world in the making.

In this episode of New World in the Making, I talk with Rayan Kassis, CEO and co-founder of AED Energy, about the future of energy and what's actually changing right now.Rayan's company has developed thermal battery systems that store electricity as heat—delivering 6 to 32 hours of clean power at 10x cheaper than lithium batteries. They're deploying these systems in Nigeria, replacing diesel generators that burn millions of liters of fuel every year. This is about proving that renewables can work, at scale, 24/7.We question the systems we come from and explore what's emerging in this new energy landscape.We talk about:How thermal batteries work and why they're so much cheaperThe real barriers to scaling renewables—regulation, financing, industrial resistanceWhy decentralized energy changes everything for resilience and accessThe current moment in the Middle East and what oil dependence really costsHow geopolitics and policy shape the energy transitionEnergy storage as the key to 100% renewable systemsLeadership and human creativity in uncertain timesThis conversation brought things down to reality—showing what's possible when we start building instead of waiting.This is for anyone curious about energy transition, clean tech, decentralized systems, geopolitics, and how innovation is reshaping power—literally and politically.→ Listen & subscribe: https://bio.site/newworldinthemaking→ Read more on Substack: https://newworld.substack.com→ Support & become an Active Maker: https://buy.stripe.com/14A28qgJS86obz572U9oc00About AED Energy StorageAED Energy develops ultra-low-cost thermal battery systems that enable 24/7 clean energy by storing electricity as heat.→ Connect with Rayan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rayankassis/→ Learn more about AED Energy: https://aed.energy/ ⚠️ DisclaimerAll content shared in this episode is for educational and informational purposes only. Nothing discussed should be considered financial, investment, or legal advice. The views expressed by the guest are their own and do not necessarily reflect my personal views or positions. Listeners are encouraged to do their own research and form their own conclusions.Thank you for listening and for being part of the new world in the making.