Episode 25 of Looking Outside welcomes prize-winning author, former professor, social worker, and activist, Dr Nora Gold to explore the perception and potential of Narratives; those stories we tell others and ourselves that ultimately limit or empower us.

Passionate about fiction, and writer of her own stories, Nora shares both her perspective and the social science research on how fictional stories can literally change us. How escaping into the story of someone else brings down our defenses, makes us more empathic, and turns us into a different person by the time we close the book.

Be prepared to teeter on the edge of excitement and cynicism, as we explore The Metaverse in this episode of Looking Outside, with technology futurist and Metaverse expert, Theo Priestley. Theo is CEO and Co-Founder of Metanomic, a complete web3 economic platform for developers, but he is also one of the public voices ready to poke holes in Metaverse concepts commonly spouted.

To peel back the polished veneer, Theo discusses the need to look at the gaps in the arguments made today on the Metaverse; like how technologies that make up web3 are at varied levels of understanding and development across industries, while the technologies adopted in every day use are still quite dated.

In this episode of Looking Outside we look closer at the numbers and what they are telling us, exploring the predictive human powers of Demographics. For this we chat with fellow Aussie, Bernard Salt, Founder & Executive Director of The Demographics Group.

As a well known personality, famous for injecting a bit of humor into his public speaking events and newspaper columns, Bernard shares his philosophy on presenting the numbers in a way that is engaging and compelling. He speaks to how to establish the facts, make a strong case, demonstrate your credibility … and be bold enough to have a bit of fun with it.

In this slightly poetic episode, we look both inside and outside the often simplified topic of Identity, exploring what it means to be, create and become who we are, with creative strategist and founding poet at Brand Poetry Inc., Theophilus Wells IV.

Naturally philosophically minded, Theo shares his observations on the dichotomy of human nature and will in shaping our individual identities, stressing the benefit of being curious about the things that make us different, and the power in observing the negative.

We start season 3 digging deep into human values, while speculating on their evolved expression into the future, with futurist and Associate Professor at University of Houston's Foresight Program, Dr Andy Hines.

Having authored a book on the topic of values, ConsumerShift, Andy shares how defining what a value is and how it is expressed by people with differing typologies, helps us perceive them as something less static and therefore shows us their potential evolution into the future.

We end Season 2 of Looking Outside with a frank look at the very topical topic of activism in business. We do this not theoretically or observationally but first hand with activist entrepreneur and CEO of Eat the Change, Seth Goldman.

Seth speaks to why 'acting' is critical in activism, as he's done first hand by venturing into organic packaged food, healthier fast-casual restaurants and planet-friendly meat alternatives. Seth shares how he has done this by crafting ideas designed to change large scale food system issues while appealing to evolving consumer values.

In Episode 19 we speak with marketing strategist and successful author, Mark Schaefer on the way to generate and leverage Influence, for both your personal and professional brands.

Author of nine books including Return on Influence and Cumulative Advantage, Mark shares his research and experience in the area of content marketing. He explains why it’s not enough to simply generate content; why you must rise above the noise with a ‘spiky point of view’.

In the latest episode of Looking Outside, we explore Exploration itself, and what it means to be truly curious about people, places and the future, with Zak Dychtwald, Founder of Young China Group and author of Young China.

Zak shares how he approaches exploration: from visiting countries that are ‘misunderstood’, to immersing himself in stories about the far off possible future, to building an ‘intimacy’ with foreign cultures, places and people that you wouldn’t get from descriptions by outsiders.

Episode 17 of Looking Outside shows us the courage, self-awareness and patience needed to make a Career Pivot, or in the case of Nihal Advani, Founder & CEO of QualSights … several!

What mindset does it take flip your life around and try something completely different? Nihal takes us on his personal journey from professional tennis player, to tech ‘idea guy’ at Microsoft, to creating and leading his own business. He details how adaptability is a pivotal component of seeing new opportunities, alongside the criticality of knowing yourself and your own strengths.

In episode 16 we get grounded in how a strategist thinks, and their process in creating impactful Strategy, with Mark Pollard, CEO Sweathead .

A guide to many creative thinkers and long-time strategists, Mark discusses the role of chaos within orderly processes, the purpose of finding personal meaning in your thinking, and the need to balance intellectualism with practicality.

Episode 15 takes us outside the comfort zone in looking at the darkness in life and in people. We’re talking about True Crime with Jenn Vogel, Chief Revenue Officer, Voxpopme.

Both fans of the true crime genre, Jenn and Jo discuss their seemingly irrational (but actually very rational) fascination with criminal acts, and the true circumstances surrounding them, and what that tells about human limitations and moral boundaries.

In Episode 14 of Looking Outside we explore the mindset needed to break out and do something on your own - successfully. Today we’re chatting with Julie Meyer, Founder and Co-CEO of Eat Well Global, about Entrepreneurship.

Having founded her own company, and constantly writing and reflecting, Julie shares her motivations for bringing ideas to life, as well as what meaningful ‘real why’ lies behind her personal drive to create something impactful.

Looking Outside Episode 13 tackles deeper, critical and courageous thinking, with industry leader on transformative Rethinking, Tom Goodwin, Co-Founder of All We Have Is Now and world-renowned speaker on business transformation.

As someone who proclaims to ‘profoundly not give a shit’, and voices his views regularly to a large audience, Tom shares how he braves feedback and negative perceptions by following the voice of the every day person and championing uncommon perspectives.

In Episode 12 of Looking Outside we explore the influence of Music with music lover and the ever-insightful, Adam Conley, Director of Insights for North America at Mars Wrigley.

While music plays subtly in the background of our lives, it defines our cultures, shapes our psychology, and even influences our physiology. Adam helps us examine music’s impact over time, at a universal human level and a personal one.

To broaden our perspective, in Episode 11 we bring the Curiosity mountain to us direct from the source, with the original Chief Curiosity Officer, former VP of Consumer & Market Insights and Foresight at L'Oréal Groupe, and now Chief Data Officer at Pierre Fabre, Sarah DaVanzo.

Sarah shares her vast experience in “strategic curiosity science”; unpacking what curiosity is beyond intellectualism, stressing the worrying results in quantifying and tracking curiosity over time, and highlighting the importance of immersion when applying curious behavior.

In Episode 10 of Looking Outside we traverse the past and present of Storytelling with educator, scholar, and my good friend from Australia, Dr Belinda Calderone, Philanthropic Proposals Manager at Monash University.

Belinda shares her learnings in creating a compelling case for change through human focused storytelling. As well as the pitfalls of storytelling, where a clear start and end is missing (fairly common!) or not walking forward along the story path.

In Episode 9 of Looking Outside we discuss the evolving expectations of Market Research with MRX guru, Jamin Brazil, co-founder and CEO at HubUX.

Jamin shares techniques he’s developed over 20 years in obtaining deeper market knowledge by evaluating new technologies, embracing social platforms and understanding cultural communities.

In Episode 8 of Looking Outside we explore the power held by Words with wordsmith, curious human and Senior Insights Leader at Mars Inc, Jessica Southard.

Jess and Jo explore how words can be magical, can empower and motivate, but also how they can be destructive and divisive. To do that, Jess shares her personal experience of communication in her Army intelligence days leading soldiers, the transition to the complex world of business, and how she treats words with responsibility raising her three children.

Episode 7 of Looking Outside takes us deeper into culture and beyond pre-defined ideas, with Cultural Anthropologist and CEO of MotivBase, an AI Anthropology agency, Ujwal Arkalgud. Today we’re looking outside meaning (whatever that … means?).

Ujwal speaks to core concepts of culture, which is in everything around us, and how all things carry the weight of meaning, even seemingly simple concepts and narratives.

For Episode 6 of Looking Outside we invite thought leader, Maneesh Kaushik on the show, Insights and Trend lead at PepsiCo. Today we’re looking outside Insights.

Maneesh outlines how he breaks apart conventional thinking used in business to understand humans of today and showcases how his team pushes to the human of tomorrow.