This episode of The New Abnormal podcast features Clare Stark, Head of Futures Literacy and Foresight at UNESCO - the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

They’re a specialized UN agency dedicated to promoting world peace and security through international collaboration in education, arts, sciences, and culture. Headquartered in Paris, its mission spans 194 member states and encompasses several focus areas. Key Initiatives include World Heritage Sites, Global Education, Scientific & Ethical Standards, and Cultural Heritage Safeguarding.

Clare is a dedicated professional with more than 20 years of experience in international development cooperation, she’s passionate about ensuring that technology leads to positive social transformations, and using futures literacy and foresight to inspire collective action to shape the futures we want, using evidence-based approaches to enhance anticipatory capacities.

She covers a lot of ground in the podcast, including UNESCO's role in advancing futures literacy and anticipatory governance / Embedding foresight into national and int’l policymaking / The Global Anticipatory Policy Coalition / AI governance, AI readiness and responsible deployment / Climate anxiety & information anxiety / Trust, democracy and misinformation / Leadership through collective intelligence and collaboration / The importance of culture, history and indigenous knowledge in shaping future policy / Participatory foresight involving young people, educators and citizens / The future of education, creativity and public policy in an AI-enabled world.

So, I hope you enjoy listening to her as much as I did, in what I hope you'll agree is a fascinating conversation re: the growing importance of anticipatory governance and futures thinking in addressing today's global challenges.

This episode of The New Abnormal podcast features Fatima-Zahra Ma-el-ainin, who is a psychologist, poet, and narrative architect reimagining how societies cultivate wellbeing.

Her work sits at the intersection of systems work, knowledge design, and social transformation, informed by more than a decade of experience in systems mapping, programme design, and conversational leadership. Through global commissions, institutional partnerships, and field-building initiatives, she develops frameworks that elevate wellbeing from intervention to design principle.

She currently serves on the Lancet-LSHTM Commission on the Emotional Determinants of Health, and co-leads the World Economic Forum’s Future50 Initiative. Previously, she co-founded a mental health social enterprise whose programs and curricula impacted seven million students in Morocco.

A sought-after speaker, she has addressed audiences at the UK Parliament, the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos, the IAYMH Conference, and TEDx, among other platforms.

So, I hope you enjoy listening to her as much as I did, in a dynamic conversation that takes in all of the above and more!

This episode of The New Abnormal podcast features Dr Mark Bloomfield, who has leveraged AI and advanced technology for over fifteen years to drive innovation, transformation, and measurable impact across an array of businesses.

Operating at the intersection of business, technology, and academia, he now works across multiple industries, advising organisations on how to apply AI and emerging technologies for real commercial impact with measurable results.

As a Fellow at Cambridge Judge Business School, Mark teaches on executive education programmes. Hence, he's constantly immersed in the most cutting-edge thinking and practice, engaging with some of the brightest minds in academia and business.

So, I hope you enjoy listening to him as much as I did, in what I hope you'll agree is a fascinating conversation.