AKQA Insight

Activism has entered a new age with social media and online petition platforms powering the biggest global protests of our time. The coronavirus pandemic has accelerated engagement in activism and the murder of George Floyd sparked the largest racial justice movement in UK history, with more than 5 million Britons signing petitions and attending protests in support of Black Lives Matter. Never ...

Allyson Williams MBE was born and raised in cosmopolitan Trinidad with Carnival as a way of life. Part of the Windrush Generation, she responded to the call from the British Government for Commonwealth workers to help rebuild Britain following WWII, and in 1969 she joined the NHS to train as a midwife. She later married Vernon Williams, one of Notting Hill Carnival’s founding members, and in 19...

It’s a belief that unites the left and right, psychologists and philosophers, writers and historians. It drives the headlines that surround us and the laws that touch our lives. Human beings, we’re taught, are by nature selfish and governed primarily by self-interest. From Machiavelli to Hobbes, Freud to Pinker, the roots of this belief have sunk deep into Western thought, but is it true? Are h...

We are the ancestors of our future; a generation who will either be celebrated for its activism or blamed for its apathy, and we have the opportunity to rebuild in a way that benefits society and ecology. What can we learn about sustainability from the diversity, wisdom and value systems of the oldest communities on earth? What is planet-centric design and why must we incorporate it into design...

The only way to consistently discover something new or unique is to explore the unknown. By choosing to remain open to all the challenges we face as parents, businesses, communities and nations together, we are choosing to learn, adapt and grow. What we do now creates our future. Never has it been more important to rally and test our values and purpose. Jim Huether, CEO of Hyperice joins Sam St...

Derek Owusu is a writer, poet and winner of the 2020 Desmond Elliott Prize for his novel That Reminds Me; the book he began writing while he was in a mental health facility in 2019. Derek joins AKQAs Rachel Taylor for a conversation about what it’s like to be Black in a primarily white industry and how we can help elevate young Black people, so their voices are heard. That Reminds Me is the fir...

It’s through storytelling, not statistics that people make sense of the world. Popular media and entertainment have been influencing our perspectives and behaviours for over a century, and the universal adoption of streaming, new formats and multi-platform experiences have altered our relationship with visual entertainment forever. Audience expectations for authentic, engaging stories has never...

The iconic boutique hotelier and New York Times bestselling author, Chip Conley, helped Airbnb’s founders turn their fast-growing tech start-up into a global hospitality brand by becoming a mentor and an intern at age 52. In his manifesto, Wisdom at Work: The Making of a Modern Elder, Chip ignites a conversation about age and ageism in the workplace. In this episode of AKQA Insight he shares hi...

In 2019 scientists warned that our civilisation is in crisis and that we can no longer feed our population a healthy diet while balancing planetary resources. Food is threatening our future. In this episode of AKQA Insight Miriam Plon Sauer, Strategy Director at AKQA Copenhagen welcomes Carolyn Steel; architect and author of Sitopia, and 2013’s Hungry City. Carolyn is an established influential...

Jeremiah Emmanuel BEM; youth activist, entrepreneur and author, joined AKQA Managing Partner Sam Kelly for a conversation about his unique journey, the valuable lessons he’s learnt along the way, and the impact - positive and negative - that he’s seeing Covid-19 having on the youth of today. Jeremiah’s hotly-anticipated autobiography Dreaming in a Nightmare: Finding a Way Forwards in a World Th...

The world is currently facing a global pandemic, unlike any seen in our lifetime. Yet organisations the world over have encountered something similar for many years. Almost irrespective of market, our largest publicly listed companies have a mortality rate on a 10-year horizon around 75%, meaning that by 2026, their average life expectancy will be just 12 years.   Sam Sterling, AKQA Managing ...

AKQA Insight is coming soon. We’ll be bringing you conversations with diverse thought leaders that aim to inspire ideas and broaden cultural horizons. Subscribe to AKQA Insight on your favourite podcast platform.