Thought Starters

This week’s Thought Starter discusses writing love stories, his first novel, and how everything starts from a blank page. Recorded live from The Pod at White City Place, our special Co-Host Liv Siddall, commissioner at WePresent and former Editor at It’s Nice That, sits down with author Caleb Azumah Nelson, to explore the journey of writing, and his first novel ‘Open Water’.

This week’s Thought Starter discusses why exposing children to all types of art is so important, ahead of the launch of The Ultimate Art Museum, an incredible “museum-in-a-book” for young readers published by Phaidon. Recorded live from The Pod at White City Place, our special Co-Host Liv Siddall, commissioner at WePresent and former Editor at It’s Nice That, sits down with podcast host and author Ferren Gipson, to explore how to use writing to make museums more accessible.

This week’s Thought Starter discusses writing editorial, and how to approach the blank page. Recorded live from The Pod at White City Place, our special Co-Host Liv Siddall, commissioner at WePresent and former Editor at It’s Nice That, sits down with journalist and Guardian columnist Stuart Heritage, to explore how to stay inspired during the process of writing.

This week’s Thought Starter discusses consumer psychology and the senses (touch, taste, smell, sight and sound) and how they impact our perception of the world. Recorded live from The Pod at White City Place, our special Co-Host Sam Bompas of Bompas and Parr - the leading Architects of Taste: Feeding Minds and Stomachs, sits down with Betina Piqueras-Fiszman, Professor of Consumer Behaviour, to explore how our senses impact our perception of products and the world around us. Betina dedicates her time to research around exploring new ways of understanding consumers food preferences and motivations

This week’s Thought Starter asks where does pain come from, what does it mean, and what effect does it have on our daily lives? Recorded live from The Pod at White City Place, our special Co-Host Sam Bompas of Bompas and Parr - the leading Architects of Taste: Feeding Minds and Stomachs, sits down with ​​Linda Rodriguez McRobbie, writer and journalist, to explore the science of pain and how it ultimately affects our survival. Linda has recently launched her book titled 'Ouch! Why Pain Hurts, And Why It Doesn't Have To', which explores why pain is complicated. The way we treat pain is superficial – we seek out states of perfect painlessness by avoiding it at all costs, or suppressing it, usually with drugs. Through in-depth interviews, investigation into the history of pain and original research, the book paints a new picture of pain as a complex and multi-layered phenomenon.

This week’s Thought Starter asks what is art in the realm of Science Fiction, the idea of making personable art, the beauty of the unknown and more.

As the whole world grapples with lockdowns, closures and cancelled events – and the milestones of the design industry’s busy calendar of trade shows disappears, we might look to one country for lessons on how to cope: China.

We meet Benedicte Sunde and Jan Christian, two leaders in the Norwegian design community who would have been showing at the Milan Design Week, to speak instead about the role of design as we emerge from Covid-19 lockdowns.

The Museum of the Home, with Sonia Solicari, the museum's Director, and Naila Yousuf, a senior associate at award-winning practice Wright & Wright Architects that leads the team working on the redevelopment of the Museum of the Home.

We take a look at the latest exhibition at London’s Royal Institute of British Architects, an exploration of 500 years of aesthetics in architecture.