Innovation Storytellers

In this episode of the Innovation Storytellers Show, I sit down with John Rossman, the former Amazon executive who helped launch the Amazon Marketplace and is a co-author of Big Bet Leadership: Your Transformation Playbook for Winning in the Hyper-Digital Era. Our title says it all: How to Continue, Kill, or Pivot Your Pilots with Clarity and Confidence.  John and I get practical about the moments that make or break innovation programs, from shaping the problem statement to running the high-stakes meetings where leaders must choose a path. If you have ever wondered why competent pilots stall, or how to defend a tough call in the room, this one is for you. John takes me inside the “working backwards” mindset and the rewired playbook he built with T-Mobile’s new business incubation team in Bellevue. We also dig into how decisions actually get made.  John lays out the discipline behind those pivotal Continue, Kill, Pivot, or Confusion meetings, including clear criteria, facilitation, and communications so decisions stick rather than drift into ghost projects. We discuss strategic communication and the role of the Chief Repeating Officer, drawing lessons from successes at Amazon and hard-won insights, such as the Gates Foundation’s inBloom post-mortem, where great technology and funding still failed without a proactive narrative that addressed resistance. You will hear how I approach innovation culture as an anthropologist, treating every company like its own country, with its own history, norms, and incentives that shape what is possible. We explore tools that invite people into the future rather than dictate it, such as “imagine if” framing and pre-mortems, which surface risks without killing momentum.  John also shares a few provocative ideas he believes the world needs now, from real-time freedom to shift cloud workloads to snap-switching your mobile carrier, all designed to put choice and competition back in the hands of users. If you are juggling pilots and pressure, this conversation gives you a plain-English playbook for moving from noise to momentum. You will leave with concrete steps to sharpen your problem statements, wire your experiments to the P&L, structure decisive meetings, and communicate like a leader who can carry a big bet across the line. Listen in, take notes, and get ready to make your next decision with clarity and confidence.  

I sat down with Lukas N. P. Egger, VP of Product Strategy and Innovation at SAP Signavio, to explore how storytelling derisks significant transformation and AI programs. We begin with his path from Austrian startup life to leading innovation within a global enterprise, and why early “peacocking” demos are only the first step.  Lukas demonstrates how he and his team transform messy narratives and SOPs into usable process models, then utilize Signavio’s Transformation Advisor to connect business pain points to the first processes worth addressing. What struck me most is his take on strategy as a story. He explains how the correct narrative makes the unfamiliar feel familiar, helping teams bridge silos, align incentives, and transition from feature checklists to real outcomes. I share my approach to co-creating a shared future with stakeholders before pitching any solution, and Lukas adds a candid look at why some high-ROI pilots still fail when they threaten power structures. We discuss reframing, empathy, and the mindset shift innovators need to achieve lasting impact.  Lukas also raises a timely warning about AI systems that can build emotional rapport at the marginal cost of electricity, and why our incentive structures need an upgrade if we want technology to serve people, not the other way around. If you have a high-stakes AI initiative on your desk and you need a story that lowers the cost of failure, this conversation will give you practical ways to start, align, and deliver.  

Mandates, metrics, and momentum decide whether great ideas ever reach the boardroom. In this episode of the Innovation Storytellers Show, I sit down with Jonathan Livescault, Managing Director at Itonics, to unpack how enterprise innovators move from hunches to hard results.  Jonathan shares the origin of Itonics’ “Big Picture” framework, built to give leaders a clear mandate, shared governance, and the right KPIs across the entire innovation lifecycle. He explains why ideation is only one piece of the puzzle, how strategic foresight defines the “where to play,” and what it takes to run disciplined pilots that fold fast and scale faster. You’ll hear how global brands replace scattered spreadsheets with a single source of truth, create a visible performance cockpit for executives, and align risk appetite with a balanced portfolio of bets. We explore culture, transparency, and the handoff problem that kills promising pilots, then dig into practical ways to set stage gates, secure ownership, and measure progress in real time. If you’ve ever struggled to turn innovation into a repeatable business function, this conversation offers a step-by-step view of the processes, mindsets, and tooling that make it work at scale. Tune in to learn how to give your program a clear mandate, choose smarter metrics, and build momentum that lasts.  

I sit down with two innovation leaders from one of America’s oldest and most trusted consumer brands. Leah Fischman Hunter, Director of the Innovation Lab, and Ginny Fahs, Director of Product R&D at Consumer Reports, join me to unpack how a 90-year-old nonprofit is building modern tools for an online world filled with AI hype, dark patterns, and data brokers. I share a personal connection at the top. In 2004, I helped launch Consumer Reports WebWatch in the press, when most sites hid executive names, contact details, and return policies. That early effort to bring transparency to the Internet in the 1990s is why this episode matters so much to me.  Two decades later, the stakes are even higher, with scams in our inboxes, consent buried in legalese, and AI systems shaping what we see and buy. CR has always had our backs and I wanted you to hear how they are doing it again. Leah and Ginny explain how Consumer Reports blends advocacy with product building. Their team translates privacy laws into something people can actually use. We dig into Permission Slip, a free app that lets you reclaim your data and tell companies to stop selling it. We discuss the reality of an opt-out culture in the United States, why people feel powerless regarding data, and how CR’s independence and mission enable it to prioritize the public interest. We also explore Ask CR, an advisor grounded in tested ratings and reporting, rather than ads or affiliate commissions. We zoom out to the bigger shift happening with AI. I raise the worry that conversational agents often deliver a single definitive answer, while consumers still need choice and transparency. Leah and Ginny describe early work with academic partners on pro-consumer agentic systems and what duty of care and duty of loyalty could look like in software built for people, not just profits. We explore why online evidence needs clearer authorship, how to consider deleting data from platforms you rely on, and where education must catch up quickly. If you care about your privacy, your wallet, and the truth behind the products you buy, this one is for you. You will walk away with a clearer picture of what rights you already have, how to exercise them without hiring a lawyer, and why organizations like Consumer Reports still matter when technology moves faster than the rules that govern it.  

In this episode of The Innovation Storytellers Show, I sit down with Thai Nguyen, Managing Director of Diverge, the corporate venture and innovation arm of Hensel Phelps. With more than 20 years of experience in architecture and construction, Thai is charting a bold new path for the built environment by reimagining how disruptive solutions are discovered, tested, and scaled. From laser scanning and drones to the rise of robotics and generative AI, Thai shares how innovation is reshaping everything from fieldwork to leadership mindsets. We explore why simplicity is key to adoption, how “field first” thinking drives sustainable change, and why empathy is critical when overcoming resistance to new technology. This conversation goes far beyond blueprints and buildings. Thai opens up about his nonlinear career journey, the appetite for change that has guided him, and his vision for creating a culture of open collaboration across the construction industry.  Whether you are in tech, design, or business leadership, his insights on navigating complexity, balancing people with technology, and leading through uncertainty will resonate.  

This week, I sat down with Naftali “Naf” Jaman, a man whose career has stretched from engineering roles in the U.S. Air Force to leading open innovation programs for global giants like GM, Airbus, and LG Electronics. Along the way, he has helped launch startups in automotive safety, advised aviation and space ventures, and worked at the crossroads of academia, government, and industry. Our conversation centered on what Naf calls the inception method. It is the ability to plant an idea in someone else’s mind and let them believe it is their own. The process demands patience, empathy, and a willingness to let go of credit in order to see the idea thrive.  Naf described how he built trust inside LG by taking executives out of the office, talking less about technology and more about culture and daily life, until he could gently introduce a concept that eventually reshaped their approach to in-car infotainment systems. What struck me most was his insistence that real influence begins not with clever pitches but with listening and creating the conditions for others to feel ownership of a solution. We explored the challenges large corporations face when they attempt to work with startups, often overwhelming them with bureaucracy or diluting their energy through misguided “startup challenges” that serve more as PR exercises than true collaborations.  Naf’s preference is always to work one on one, helping a single leader take action on a problem they urgently need to solve, and quietly guiding them until the idea becomes theirs to champion. He also spoke about the role academia can play in solving early-stage R&D puzzles, highlighting his time at General Motors, where university researchers provided critical pieces of the hydrogen fuel cell puzzle long before commercialization was possible. Perhaps most provocatively, Naf shared his skepticism about dual-use technologies, which many in the innovation community hail as a promising path between defense and civilian markets. He argued that export controls and the slow timelines of defense procurement often strangle opportunities before they mature, making dual use more of a limitation than a catalyst. His candor about these challenges was refreshing, and a reminder that innovation is as much about what we choose not to pursue as what we chase. By the end of our conversation, I was reminded that the real work of innovation often happens quietly, in the spaces between people. It is about empathy, patience, and sometimes even a touch of psychological sleight of hand. As Naf put it, the greatest innovation of all is the human mind itself, provided we learn how to use it well.  

On this episode of The Innovation Storytellers Show, I sit down with Dr. William Pao, physician scientist, former Chief Development Officer at Pfizer, and author of Breakthrough – The Quest for Life-Changing Medicines. His journey into medicine began with the loss of his father to cancer when he was just 13 years old, a moment that shaped his life’s mission to develop treatments that change outcomes for patients everywhere. We explore the extraordinary, and often invisible, process of medical innovation. Dr. Pao takes us behind the scenes of eight real-world breakthroughs, revealing the persistence, failures, and unexpected turns that happen long before a drug reaches the market. He shares the story of a 15-year effort to create an HIV capsid inhibitor now given just twice a year, and how a combination of basic science curiosity and problem-solving under pressure turned a limitation into a breakthrough. We dive into the development of CRISPR-based therapies for sickle cell disease and thalassemia, a century-long scientific journey that required insights from genetics, epidemiology, and bioengineering before it could cure patients. Throughout our conversation, Dr. Pao brings these stories to life with the human elements that make them possible. We talk about the “killer experiment” mindset that helps teams decide whether to keep going or shut a project down, the value of institutional memory, and why innovation in medicine requires a rare mix of biological insight, clinical understanding, and technological advancement. We also explore the emotional side of the work, how innovators cope with fatigue, navigate internal resistance, and make hard calls when decades of work are on the line. Whether you are developing life-saving drugs or leading innovation in a completely different field, you will find practical lessons here. Dr. Pao’s experiences show how to work through uncertainty, keep an open mind to ideas from outside your domain, and maintain the discipline to make good decisions even when the stakes are high.  

In this episode of The Innovation Storytellers Show, I sit down with Mary Beth Cicero, co-founder and CEO of 3Daughters, a clinical development company determined to transform women’s healthcare. Mary Beth has spent more than forty years in executive leadership, marketing, and business development, devoting most of her career to contraception, fertility, and the health conditions that affect women most. Her career has spanned work with start-ups, biotech firms, and major pharmaceutical companies, giving her a rare perspective on how innovation can truly change lives. Our conversation begins with an origin story that is as surprising as it is inspiring. A veterinary innovation for performance horses became the starting point for a groundbreaking frameless, non-hormonal IUD designed to dramatically reduce pain, eliminate strings, and adapt to the shape of a woman’s uterus. Mary Beth explains the science behind the device, which uses three self-assembling copper-encased magnets, and how her team developed a new insertion method that prioritises comfort and safety. We also talk about the bigger picture. Mary Beth shares why the contraceptive market has seen so little innovation in recent decades and why she believes women deserve more options for the thirty years they are likely to use contraception. She discusses the investment gap in women’s health, the lack of awareness among many investors, and the importance of creating products that respond to real patient needs. As policies around reproductive health shift around the world, the demand for reliable and accessible contraception is growing, making this not only a medical opportunity but also a critical societal need. From securing grants to navigating the complexities of FDA approval, Mary Beth offers an honest look at the challenges and rewards of bringing a new medical device to market. She leaves listeners with a clear message: innovation in women’s health is not optional, it is essential, and the potential impact reaches far beyond the individual patient. This is an episode that will expand your thinking about what is possible when passion, science, and persistence come together to solve one of the most pressing health challenges of our time.  

What does it take for corporate innovators to stop killing startups and start working with them productively? In this episode of The Innovation Storytellers Show, I sit down with Andy Goldstein, Partner at Venture University, to unpack how large companies can finally bridge the gap between venture capital and innovation that delivers results. Andy is a seasoned entrepreneur and investor with over 40 years of experience founding, scaling, and funding startups around the world. He's worked with thousands of founders, co-launched accelerator programs across Europe, and played a critical role in creating nine unicorns. Now, through Venture University, Andy is training corporate innovation leaders to develop the skills of real VCs by doing the work themselves. In our conversation, we explore why so many corporate innovation programs stall or fail when trying to work with startups. Andy explains that the majority of breakthrough technologies come from startups, not from within the walls of large corporations. Yet many corporations still lack a repeatable system for sourcing, piloting, and integrating those innovations. This disconnect, he argues, isn't just an oversight. It's a strategic blind spot. We talk about the structural flaws in most corporate venture capital teams, particularly the tendency to jump into ownership too soon without proving value through partnership first. Andy introduces the concept of "venture clienting," a model pioneered at BMW that allows corporations to work with startups as paying clients before investing in or acquiring them. This approach, he says, reduces risk, builds trust, and produces measurable ROI long before equity ever changes hands. Andy also shares how Venture University flips the traditional VC education model. Rather than teaching venture theory in a classroom, the program operates as a functioning VC fund. Participants, many of whom are corporate leaders, source real deals, perform due diligence, sit in on partner meetings, and help deploy capital. It's a hands-on apprenticeship designed to demystify the venture process and make it actionable within a corporate setting. Throughout our discussion, Andy offered real-world examples of startups that became critical partners to large organizations. Not because they were acquired, but because the relationship started with a competent pilot, clear value, and mutual respect. He emphasizes that the key to success lies in aligning venture strategies with the real pain points and revenue goals of the business.  The startups that win are those that solve expensive problems, scale well inside complex environments, and come backed with investor confidence.  

This week on The Innovation Storytellers Show, I had the absolute pleasure of sitting down with Dr. Gina O’Connor, Professor of Innovation Management at Babson College. If you're in the corporate innovation space and feel like you're spinning your wheels or chasing moonshots that never lift off, this episode is for you. I first heard Gina speak at the Innov8rs conference in Arizona, and I was blown away by how practical and grounded her research is. She doesn’t just talk theory. She shows exactly what it takes for large companies to build innovation functions that actually deliver. Her work spans decades, and she’s worked with companies like IBM and DSM to study how they’ve structured innovation to drive long-term growth. We discussed why innovation teams often fail, how to structure a program that lasts beyond a single flashy project, and what it means to build something Gina calls a “domain of innovation intent.” It’s not about chasing shiny objects. It’s about being intentional, strategic, and deeply aligned with your company’s future direction. What I loved most about our conversation was how she breaks down the three stages of innovation: discovery, incubation, and acceleration. Gina explains that each stage requires different kinds of thinkers, various processes, and substantial leadership support. We also got into why most companies aim too small, how to avoid what she calls “incrementalism creep,” and why so many innovation leaders burn out after just 22 months in the role. This isn’t just an episode filled with great ideas. It’s a roadmap for anyone trying to build real innovation capability inside a mature organization. If you’ve ever felt stuck between big vision and slow-moving systems, this conversation will help you find a new path forward.  

What does it take to turn an entire city into a thriving innovation hub? In this episode of The Innovation Storytellers Show, I sit down with Callie Taylor, Vice President of Economic Development at Opportunity Austin, to explore how Austin, Texas, evolved from a creative, music-fueled city into one of the world's fastest-growing innovation ecosystems. This is not just a profile of a single company or tech success story. It offers a wide-angle view of how a region mobilized its talent, institutions, and identity to create something greater than the sum of its parts. Callie shares the remarkable story behind Austin's intentional growth, from its early days as a haven for misfits and musicians to its emergence as a global player in tech, life sciences, space innovation, and advanced manufacturing. She explains how South by Southwest helped shift global attention toward the city, but how the real power came from coordinated action across universities, accelerators, local government, and industry.  From Samsung's multibillion-dollar investment to Tesla's 20,000-employee expansion, the Austin region is now attracting international startups and legacy companies alike. Together, we explore the infrastructure that makes this possible, including the role of Austin Community College in customizing workforce pipelines and the city's openness to both international founders and homegrown startups.  We also discuss why venture capital is steadily flowing into the region, how the community supports life sciences growth, and what it means for innovation when public school districts, higher education institutions, and private employers all work toward a common goal.  Austin's ability to stay weird while scaling fast is not just branding. It is a key ingredient in maintaining its creative and inclusive spirit. Throughout the conversation, Callie offers practical insight into what makes a city attractive to innovators. She also addresses the challenges of rapid growth, including infrastructure strain and the need for improved collaboration between neighbors working on similar ideas.  What emerges is a clear picture of how innovation ecosystems are not born but built, and how culture, policy, and human connection all have to align for that to happen. Whether you're a startup founder, a city planner, or just someone curious about the future of innovation, this episode is packed with ideas that extend far beyond Austin's city limits.  

What if getting your big idea across the finish line wasn't about pitching harder, but about thinking like a storyteller… or a mastermind? In this episode of The Innovation Storytellers Show, I sit down with Ed Essey, Director of Business Value at The Microsoft Garage, to uncover the surprising mechanics behind one of the most successful innovation engines in tech. Ed isn't just helping Microsoft employees come up with bold ideas. He's teaching them how to bring those ideas to life, secure executive sponsorship, and scale them globally. With more than 20,000 projects emerging from Microsoft's annual hackathon, his work is reshaping what innovation looks like inside a giant. We discuss the Garage Growth Framework, the storytelling techniques that help innovators get to 'yes,' and why corporate innovation often needs to feel more like a heist than a business plan. Along the way, Ed shares the powerful backstories of projects like Repowering Coal, which sparked the revitalization of Three Mile Island with clean nuclear energy, and MirrorHR, a deeply personal project that's helping families reduce epileptic seizures using AI and wearables. Ed also gives us a preview of his upcoming book, The Inside Job, a heist-themed guide to innovation for intrapreneurs looking to create meaningful change in complex organizations.

Do corporate innovators truly innovate, or are they trapped inside systems that make real transformation impossible? On this episode of The Innovation Storytellers Show, I speak with Elliott Parker, CEO of Alloy Partners and author of The Illusion of Innovation. Drawing on decades of experience launching startups with High Alpha and advising Fortune 100 companies at Innosight, Elliott explains why most corporate innovation efforts fall short. He outlines how organizational structures, incentives, and short-term metrics often prevent innovation teams from achieving the transformation they are tasked with delivering. Elliott also breaks down the critical difference between execution problems and learning problems, and why most corporations confuse the two.  Elliot shares how Alloy builds startups outside the core business, giving them the freedom to take risks, run fast experiments, and uncover opportunities that internal teams cannot reach. These external ventures enable corporations to explore innovative ideas, validate assumptions, and acquire the type of knowledge that drives long-term strategic advantage. Whether you are running an innovation team, funding one, or simply wondering why they rarely deliver game-changing results, this episode offers sharp insights, real examples, and a practical framework for thinking differently about how innovation works.  

What does it really take to fix a billion-dollar bottleneck inside a company famous for saying no to new spending? And how do you translate that same problem-solving into one of the world’s largest bureaucracies? This week, I sat down with Danielle McCormick, Founder of Immersive Insights, whose talent for turning messy systems into high-performance engines has saved companies like Southwest Airlines and defense contractors billions of dollars. At Southwest, Danielle faced a straightforward request: get a single aircraft hangar approved. What she uncovered instead was a tangled web of disconnected teams, undersized infrastructure, and a fleet plan with no roadmap for growth. Her answer was radical in its simplicity: build a twenty-year plan that no one could refute, backed by math and front-line buy-in. From aligning network planning, airport affairs, ground operations, and maintenance to fighting for trust on the hangar floor, Danielle reveals how real innovation is often about listening better and connecting the dots others overlook. She then shares how she applied this same mindset to the Department of Defense, navigating the notorious “Valley of Death” to bring cutting-edge counter-drone technology into the hands of young warfighters, proving that even the most rigid organizations can adapt when they care about the people at the end of the process. Stick around to hear Danielle’s answers to my three hot seat questions: the greatest innovation of all time, the historic team she would join in a heartbeat, and her wish for how to fix the workplace once and for all. If you want to understand how process innovation works in the real world and why it is more human than technical, this is an episode you cannot miss.  

Steve Rader returns to share how open innovation has transformed from an experiment to a mission-critical tool inside NASA and beyond. As a newly minted retiree from NASA’s Center of Excellence for Collaborative Innovation, Steve unpacks how crowdsourcing and challenge-based problem-solving went from fringe ideas to proven ways of tackling complex technical barriers. He explains what NASA looked like before open innovation took hold, the cultural resistance it faced, and how a small group of believers turned crowdsourced expertise into life-saving solutions, including doubling the warning time for dangerous solar flares and improving landing systems for Mars missions. Real-world stories bring this conversation to life. A retired cell phone engineer offered an algorithm that outperformed NASA’s best predictions. A marine biologist from a tiny Texas town found a more innovative way to study Mars’ atmosphere. A violinist’s hobby cracked a stubborn food industry problem. These examples show that sometimes, the answers come from the least expected places. Steve also tackles what this means for the future of work. As gig platforms, remote teams, and flexible careers reshape how experts contribute, companies that ignore open talent risk falling behind. He makes the case that innovation is no longer limited to those on your payroll. In a world of constant technological change, staying connected to the right expertise has become a vital survival skill. This episode is a clear reminder that better ideas are out there waiting. All it takes is the courage to open the door and invite them in.  

What does it take to shake up one of the largest and most complex organizations in the world from the inside out? On this episode of the Innovation Storytellers Show, I invite you to buckle up for a conversation that dives straight into the heart of how the US Air Force is building a homegrown culture of audacious innovation through its Blue Horizons Fellowship. I’m joined by Colonel Daniel Ruttenber and Dr. Eric Keels, two brilliant minds guiding this unique think-and-do tank based at the Air War College. Blue Horizons is where selected majors and lieutenant colonels step out of their daily missions and into a ten-month sprint to tackle strategic challenges that could redefine the future of national security.  What makes it so remarkable is that these officers aren’t handed polished blueprints to test. Instead, they begin by hunting down the most significant, thorniest problems no one else has solved yet, then race to turn raw ideas into tangible prototypes that push the boundaries of what’s possible in modern warfare and defense technology. Colonel Ruttenber lifts the curtain on how this fellowship for battle-hardened innovators has evolved from an academic elective into a crucible for rapid prototyping and strategy shaping that senior leaders now rely on for bold insights.  Eric shares how diverse perspectives, strategic forecasting, and a healthy risk appetite come together to give fellows the courage to imagine everything from bacteria-built runways to Google Maps-style decision support for mission commanders. Together, they unpack why breaking through bureaucratic roadblocks and perfecting the art of storytelling is just as vital as building breakthrough tech when you’re challenging an institution designed to prioritize certainty over the experiment. Suppose you’ve ever wondered what real innovation under pressure looks like and how a tight-knit cohort can turn constraints into rocket fuel. In that case, this episode delivers an inside look at a program rewriting the playbook on defense innovation.  We also explore how private companies, startups, and universities can collaborate with Blue Horizons, bringing fresh thinking to the Air Force’s most challenging missions while learning what it truly means to build resilience, speed, and adaptability. After listening, I’d love to hear your thoughts. How can leaders inside large organizations borrow lessons from Blue Horizons to encourage more risk-taking, faster learning, and better storytelling to turn big ideas into real-world impact? Join the conversation and share what you think.  

In this episode, I sit down with Shegun Otulana, founder and former CEO of Therapy Brands. His journey from arriving in Birmingham, Alabama at 18 to leading one of the largest software exits in the state's history is nothing short of remarkable. Shegun opens up about his early days, the lessons learned from failure, and the moment his wife encouraged him to finally go all in. He explains how he used consulting work to attract real-world problems and applied a personal framework to choose which one was worth building into a business. We talk about why pricing can be a powerful form of innovation, how Therapy Brands stood out by aligning with what customers actually valued, and why differentiation often beats being the best. Shegun reflects on communication as the greatest innovation of all time and shares his passion for helping build Alabama's innovation ecosystem through his work with Innovate Alabama. This is a conversation about self-awareness, long-term thinking, and what it really takes to build something meaningful.  

In this special episode of Nordic Visionaries, I'm joined by Lincoln Bleveans, Senior Sustainability Executive at Stanford University. He is leading one of the most ambitious real-world experiments in climate innovation happening anywhere in the United States. If you've ever wondered what it would take to turn sustainability from a pledge into daily practice, Lincoln has answers grounded in both pragmatism and long-term thinking. From waste to water, buildings to buses, Lincoln and his team treat every aspect of Stanford's infrastructure as a living lab. This isn't a theory. It's applied innovation running at full scale every day. What makes Lincoln's perspective genuinely unique is the significant influence of Nordic inspiration on him. He discusses the concept of climate citizenship, a mindset he sees embedded in Nordic culture, and how it contrasts with the more transactional approach prevalent across much of the US.   We also hear about Stanford's shift away from fossil fuels, the development of a self-powered water treatment system, and what it means to run a university as if it were its municipality. Lincoln points out that being part of California helps, but this isn't about waiting for a top-down policy. It is about leading with bottom-up action.   Throughout our conversation, one idea kept coming back: visibility. When environmental systems are visible, people start to care. When waste isn't hidden, we deal with it differently. When energy sources are transparent, we think more critically about how we use them. For Lincoln, the next five years are not just about new technology but about shifting our mental habits and making the invisible visible.   So, how do we move from a linear mindset to a circular one? Can institutions model the kind of profound change our cities need? And if so, what can the rest of us learn from Stanford's bold approach?   Join us for a conversation that might change the way you see the systems around you and your role in shaping them. And if you're working on sustainability at a Nordic campus or institution, Lincoln would love to hear what you're building. Why not reach out and share your story?  

In this special Nordic Visionaries edition of the Innovation Storytellers Show, I am joined by one of the most influential architects of our time, Bjarke Ingels, founder of BIG, Bjarke Ingels Group. From reimagining the clean port of Copenhagen to designing the first permanent human habitat on the Moon, Bjarke’s work challenges conventional thinking about architecture, sustainability, and innovation. In this expansive conversation, Bjarke reflects on his early passion for graphic novels and how that artistic instinct evolved into a career that shapes skylines and societies alike. He introduces listeners to the Danish concept of form giving, the idea of shaping not just objects but the frameworks of human life. From Bhutan’s Galefu mindfulness city to NASA’s lunar base, Bjarke reveals how his designs are rooted in ancient culture and future potential. Listeners will hear how nature, not as an ornament but as a collaborator, inspires Bjarke’s vision. Whether allowing vines to invade his home office or designing a ski slope atop a waste-to-energy plant, he demonstrates how sustainability and pleasure coexist. He shares his philosophy of “hedonistic sustainability” and makes a compelling case that what’s good for the planet can also improve our quality of life. Bjarke also discusses material innovation, from using bacteria to brew carbon-free concrete to printing structures with moon dust. He explains how earthly or extraterrestrial constraints can unlock some of the world’s most transformative ideas. This episode is more than a journey through architecture. It invites us to rethink how we design our lives, cities, and shared future.  

What does building a business with climate responsibility at its core look like, not as an add-on but as a starting point? In this episode of Innovation Storytellers Show, we're heading to the Nordics to meet two young leaders who are challenging the status quo around what it means to be a sustainable business. This is part of our special "Nordic Visionaries" series, where we hear directly from the next generation of change-makers reshaping how we think about innovation, impact, and industry. Synne Sauar, CEO and co-founder of Litech, and Anna Bjerre Johansen, climate activist for the Green Youth Movement in Denmark, are joining me in this discussion. Synne is building a cleantech company tackling one of the least glamorous but most critical environmental challenges: fires in waste facilities caused by improperly sorted batteries and hazardous metals. With AI-powered sensors and a fresh take on circularity, her startup finds opportunity in overlooked infrastructure. Anna brings a very different angle. She's part of a youth-led climate movement demanding more from the business world, starting with a clearer definition of what is truly sustainable. Drawing on her book For Future Businesses, she outlines why half-measures won't cut it and why profit must be the tool, not the goal. For Anna, real sustainability isn't about polishing the edges. It's about redesigning the system from the inside out. Together, we unpack what it means to grow like a tree—finding strength, expanding purpose, and building trust over time. We talk about donut economics, rethinking business models, and how transparency and trust are the backbone of Nordic innovation. Synne and Anna also share who inspires them, what they want American listeners to reflect on, and why the next five years are a tipping point for regenerative thinking. If you've ever wondered what it takes to move beyond marketing slogans and put climate into the DNA of your business, this conversation is for you.