It was only a few years ago that the pandemic swept across the world, sending many of us home to work for what felt like an indefinite stretch. For a time, it seemed entirely plausible that the office might fade into irrelevance. But something more nuanced emerged. When people are suddenly told to stay at home, going out and being around others quickly becomes something to value.

The same dynamic has shaped the way we work. Flexibility clearly matters, but the evidence increasingly suggests that working alongside others is often better for both productivity and wellbeing.

Offices, then, are not disappearing, but they are evolving. Abby Brown, a partner at Knight Frank, joins Georgina Godwin to discuss how the property market is changing — and what it reveals about the workplace of the future.

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In the space of a week, six undersea cables were recently mauled in the Baltic Sea. In a world built on constant connectivity, incidents like these carry serious consequences. Undersea fibre-optic cables are the unseen backbone of the modern internet, carrying around 99 per cent of international data traffic — from emails and video calls to financial transactions.

That makes them an attractive target. Disrupt enough connections and daily life quickly begins to fray: communication falters, payments fail, and uncertainty spreads.

Acts of sabotage like this are not new. But they do appear to be becoming more frequent — often timed to coincide with moments when global attention is focused elsewhere.

Elisabeth Braw is a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. She recently wrote for Foreign Policy about the growing threat posed by data outages, and she joins Georgina Godwin to explain how such attacks are carried out — and what can be done to prevent a catastrophic global blackout.

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Sundance is leaving the ski slopes. After more than four decades in Park City, Utah, the film festival started by Robert Redford is preparing to relocate to Boulder, Colorado. For veteran film journalist and documentary producer Bronwyn Cosgrave, speaking to Visionary from the snowy heart of this year’s edition, it’s a move that feels bold, necessary, and optimistic.

Sundance, she explains, has always been about reinvention. And amid a changing media landscape – where big-budget celebrity documentaries dominate streamers and selling smaller films is harder than ever – the festival remains a vital launchpad. “Young people are rediscovering the power of independent film,” she says. “Sundance has to reflect that.” While the big players bring scale, it’s the buzz generated on the ground that can turn a smart, small documentary into a global conversation.

As the festival looks ahead to its next chapter in Boulder, Bronwyn sees promise in the university town's fresh energy and audience. The departure from Park City may ruffle a few local feathers, but the mission endures: to create space for cultural dialogue, human storytelling, and artistic risk. “Festivals,” she reminds us, “aren’t just distribution engines. They’re where communities are built – and where new ideas begin.”

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