'All Roads Lead to Rural' with Robert Godfrey.

Season one finale!

In this weeks episode of Gut The System I am joined by the brilliantly insightful and deeply knowledgeable Robert Godfrey. Robert is the Head of Investment Strategy and Asset Management at Savills. But more than that Robert is a naturalist, a fountain of knowledge and an extremely lovely person to walk and talk to.

In his career at Savills and with the Oxford University Endowment, Robert has been not only been talking the talk but also walking the walk, when it comes to developing natural capital investment prospects and brining the importance of rural stewardship into the boardrooms of companies like Savills and to table of institutional investors and family offices. That was demonstrated while he was Head of Natural Capital at Savills Investment Management and where Robert coined his now famed catch phrase - 'All roads lead to rural'.

In this episode we also discuss burgeoning ecosystem markets like BNG, the role of investors in fanning the flames of NatCap investments, the nexus of nature and the urban environment, where Robert sees nature as a key enabler for meeting and reaching ESG targets and what the future of rural Britain may or may not look like in the years to come.

I met Robert on the beautiful and historic Ridgeway by the famous White Horse Hill. An area, as you will hear, very close to Roberts heart and an area he knows a great deal about. I really enjoyed recording this episode with Robert and I hope you enjoy listening too.

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Contact the show:

• Harry Farnsworth - Host
• Ned Sedgwick - Producer
• Rosanna Farnsworth - Content

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

20,000 Leagues Under The Soil with Dr Jacqueline Stroud.

In this week’s episode of Gut the system I am joined by the fantastically interesting and deeply passionate Dr Jacqueline Stroud. In this episode we dive deep into the world of soil acoustics and sneak a peak at the lives of the creatures below our feet.

I first came across Dr Stroud’s work about a year and a half ago whilst attending a farming conference. It really was one of those eureka moments or indeed one of those moments where you start to connect multiple dots in your brain. Jackie was presenting her research into soil acoustics a topic which I knew very little about but one which immediately captivated my attention. The prospect of being able to hear the life beneath our feet and start to understand how certain management practices above and below ground affected soil biology and how in-turn that biology affected the health of the surrounding farm, be that in terms of sustainability or profitability really was really an enticing proposition.

Over the last year or so I have had the pleasure of getting to know Jackie and I’ve come to understand the passion for acoustics and worms stretches way beyond just the soil but also into how we work with scientific research. How we collect data and how we involve people from the industries and communities that are affected by the research. Jackie is a strong proponent of empowerment through citizen science. Jackie is not laboured by some of the traditional scientific and academic rigor that can cause friction points between those who research and those who practice, she has a wonderfully open mind and open research journal to those that are willing Interested.

In this episode I met Jackie at her research plots on the Warrack University innovation and crop Centre. I was taken on a journey, through my ears, into the truly baffling and fascinating world beneath our feet.

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Contact the show:

• Harry Farnsworth - Host
• Ned Sedgwick - Producer
• Rosanna Farnsworth - Content

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

‘I Think Therefore AI’ with Naveed R. Parvez.

In this week’s episode of Gut The System I am walking and talking with the wonderful Naveed R. Parvez.

I first met Naveed in a small town in Italy of all places, whilst we were on a walk, so it seems extremely fitting to be coming together again, on a walk around the majestic Regents Park.

This conversation comes at quite an important junction in this series. Over the last few episodes we have talked at length about systems thinking, about how to scale change in our current systems and why we need systems that considered the whole rather than individual parts. However, we haven’t discussed a more foundational and or philosophical positioning on what systems thinking is, which Naveed and I touch upon during the first part of this episode. Naveed, at his centre is a systems thinker and has a really talent for condensing and simplifying complex topics.

Also, in this episode we go into Naveed’s backstory as an entrepreneur and innovator in the healthcare sector. We discuss why innovation can be so hard to successfully deploy in the NHS, even when the results are an improvement on the status quo and why we need to make sure we use data in a impactful way.

Naveed has always been an innovator at the cutting edge of technology and we analyse how now he’s working with AI, to accelerate the pace of change. We haven’t spoken much about AI in this series so far but given the monumental change it will and is bringing, not only in the way we interact with each other day to day but also run businesses and how we reward value, it is important to pay it proper attention.

Speaking to Naveed, not just during this episode but throughout the time I’ve known him has been a series of eye-opening events for me. I greatly enjoying this walk and talk and I hope you do too!

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Contact the show:

• Harry Farnsworth - Host
• Ned Sedgwick - Producer
• Rosanna Farnsworth - Content

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.