Let’s Crew & Riot

Hosted by Chin Ru

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Jul 2026

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About the show

The Let's Crew & Riot podcast is hosted by Chin Ru, founder of the advisory firm Crew & Riot. The show features honest, fearless conversations with changemakers and leaders designed to explore : 👉 Who we are 👉 And how we show up with and for each other The name of the podcast reflects its core mission: CREW: Harnessing the power and strength of community. RIOT: Taking courageous, necessary action to 'transform ourselves, in order to transform the world.' It frequently dives into topics around human agency, belonging, and cultural shifts.

Listen to episodes

48 recent

July 15, 2026Episode 640 min

Connor Rankin on ACV and their Radical Case for Slow Publishing

Connor Rankin is founder and director of Studio ACV, a slow journalism practice and creative studio situated at the edges of world-making. Since 2019, the ACV team have worked alongside pioneering people and practices — through storytelling, relational design, and creative projects — to help emergent shared futures take root. They work slowly and relationally, prioritising trust, context, and lived experience over speed or scale. ACV's projects grow through conversation, collaboration, and care — allowing ideas to evolve, stories to deepen, and futures to take shape together. In this conversation, we explore all this and more - including wisdom like 'Publishing at the Speed of Trust' and the importance of spotlighting changemakers who are making a difference in local grassroots communities. You can find out more about them here: https://www.acvmag.com/ Learn more at https://www.crewandriot.com/ Follow me on https://www.linkedin.com/in/chin-ru-foo-crewandriot/

June 25, 2026Episode 553 min

Rahim Hirji on Human Skills in the Age of AI

Rahim Hirji is the author of SuperSkills: The Seven Human Skills for the Age of AI (Kogan Page, 2026) and founder of The SuperSkills Intelligence Company. A London-based keynote speaker and advisor, he helps organisations build the human capability to thrive alongside AI. He believes the future belongs to people who can think clearly when machines think faster. That the skills that matter most in the next decade are not technical. They are curiosity, judgement, adaptability, and the willingness to hold a position when the algorithm suggests otherwise. He also writes Box of Amazing, a weekly newsletter on AI and human capability read by over 25,000 leaders. https://boxofamazing.substack.com/ In this conversation, we talk about all this and more. Find out more here: https://www.thesuperskills.com/ Learn more at https://www.crewandriot.com/ Follow me on https://www.linkedin.com/in/chin-ru-foo-crewandriot/

June 11, 2026Episode 41 hr 7 min

Masuma Ahuja on The Infrastructure of Belonging

Masuma Ahuja is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, strategist and author. She works with founders, funders, and institutions on designing solutions to sticky, systemic problems. Her upcoming book, The Infrastructure of Belonging , is out October 2026 and is the subject of this podcast conversation. She talks about the power of scaling down the world to a dinner table - which is where our worlds collide and how this conversation begins. You can read her essays on Substack: https://substack.com/@masuma/posts And find out more here: https://masuma.net/ Learn more at https://www.crewandriot.com/ Follow me on https://www.linkedin.com/in/chin-ru-foo-crewandriot/

April 28, 2026Episode 351 min

“Holding Multiple Selves” : Dr Anna Sulan Masing on belonging beyond labels

Dr Anna Sulan Masing is a Writer, Poet and Academic. In her book "Chinese and Any Other Asian: Exploring East and South East Asian Identity in Britain", she explores the vast history of othering and belonging for East and Southeast Asians in the UK, and what it means to be East and Southeast Asian in Britain today. She says this: "I sometimes say I am half white or half Iban Malaysian, but I feel much messier than a half. I feel like my identity spills out of everything and doesn't easily stay within boundaries. I've grown up in multiple cultural spaces, moved through and lived in many locations, and feel both at home and an outsider in all of these places. I want to take control of my identity and not be caught between two places and halves, to have agency and the ability to hold multiple locations and identities in one hand." Her work sits right at the intersection of identity, place, and belonging. She asks: " I am an Asian person from the South East part of the Asian continent. I am not South East Asian. It allows for the question: what part of South East or East Asia is your heritage from?" We discuss this and more in this podcast chat. Find out more about her here: https://www.annasulanmasing.com/ Learn more at https://www.crewandriot.com/ Follow me on https://www.linkedin.com/in/chin-ru-foo-crewandriot/

April 3, 2026Episode 228 min

“The Kids Get to Decide”: Love, Parenting and Contradiction with Nicholas Thompson

In this episode of Let’s Crew & Riot , I speak with Nicholas Thompson - CEO of The Atlantic and author of The Running Ground . We begin with a line from his book that I couldn't stop thinking about: " A parent has one obligation… unending love. There's no blueprint and there's only one rule. The kids get to decide if the parent meets the standard." From there, we explore the complexity of loving someone who is both formative and, at times, damaging - and what it means to hold contradiction with clarity. Nicholas reflects on his father’s life - one that began with promise and trajectory, and later became far more complicated - and how that experience has shaped how he thinks about parenting, relationships, and leadership today. We also explore how these deeply personal questions show up in his role as a leader, including how he thinks about generosity of spirit and decision-making at The Atlantic. This is a conversation about love, complexity, and what we inherit — and choose to carry forward. This is Let’s Crew & Riot - exploring who we are, and how we show up with and for each other. Learn more at https://www.crewandriot.com/ Follow me on https://www.linkedin.com/in/chin-ru-foo-crewandriot/

March 16, 2026Episode 139 min

A Mother's Day Special: What do adults forget about being 16?

A departure from regular programming to share a conversation with my 16 year old daughter on Mother's Day, sitting on her bed in our pyjamas, speaking into a phone. I asked questions like : When do you feel most like yourself? What do you think adults forget about being young? What does power mean to you? When do you feel powerful and when do you feel powerless? What do you think mothers worry about too much? I parked my mummy brain, I got curious, I took feedback, I got a peek into her honest beautiful mind and emerged richer and wiser. As I said at the end, "I am learning everyday how to be a mother, so thank you for teaching me." Learn more at https://www.crewandriot.com/ Follow me on https://www.linkedin.com/in/chin-ru-foo-crewandriot/

July 13, 2025Episode 101 hr 3 min

Amy Daroukakis on Valuing Humanness

Amy Daroukakis is Founder of Culture Concierge, providing global businesses, agencies and innovative start-ups with strategic insights (culture, category, citizen, company) and emergent trends. Amy is 'curious agnostic' and enjoys getting 'lost on purpose.' In this conversation, we get lost on purpose with a 'brain dance' in that liminal space of being messy, inquiring, and inherently human. Find out more here: https://cultureconcierge.co/ Learn more at https://www.crewandriot.com/ Follow me on https://www.linkedin.com/in/chin-ru-foo-crewandriot/

June 28, 2025Episode 952 min

Haris & Chloe on the art of documenting multicultural unions

Haris & Chloe are a a husband and wife duo who photograph and film multicultural weddings. Haris is of Italian-Pakistani descent from London, and Chloe is a Chinese-Malaysian who grew up constantly on the move due to her father’s profession. In this conversation, we explore everything from the need to hold space for cultural nuance and unspoken dynamics in weddings to breaking free from pre-determined 'wedding formulas' in order to capture the complexity of multicultural unions. We discuss the importance of cultivating emotional safety, empathy and curiosity when tasked with witnessing the celebration of love and community that transcends religion, borders, ethnicities. Find out more about them here: https://www.haychweddings.com/ https://www.instagram.com/haychweddings/ Learn more at https://www.crewandriot.com/ Follow me on https://www.linkedin.com/in/chin-ru-foo-crewandriot/

May 26, 2025Episode 852 min

Rajeev Balasubramanyam on Compassion, Dialogue & Non-avoidance

Rajeev Balasubramanyam is a British writer. His first novel, IN BEAUTIFUL DISGUISES won a Betty Trask Prize and was nominated for the Guardian First Fiction Prize. In 2004 he was awarded the Clarissa Luard Prize for the best British writer under the age of 35. His latest novel is PROFESSOR CHANDRA FOLLOWS HIS BLISS which is translated into six languages and was the Bookseller’s book of the month in June 2019. Rajeev holds a PhD in English, and degrees from the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. He has lived in London, Manchester, a remote Suffolk beach, Berlin, Kathmandu, and Hong Kong, where he was a Research Scholar in the Society of Scholars at Hong Kong University. He was a fellow of the Hemera Foundation from 2014-16, for writers with a meditation practice, and has been writer in residence at Crestone Zen Mountain Center and the Zen Center of New York City. But it is through his Instagram account (@Rajeevwriter) exploring the fusion of politics and spirituality that I discover Rajeev's work. Rajeev's journey is a fascinating one. We meet in St James Park under my favourite trees - two strangers, recording a conversation about how to engage with the world from a place of love, compassion and non-avoidance. Find out more here: http://www.rajeevbalasubramanyam.com/ Learn more at https://www.crewandriot.com/ Follow me on https://www.linkedin.com/in/chin-ru-foo-crewandriot/

May 18, 2025Episode 71 hr 1 min

Rebecca Robins on Mutuality & Intergenerational Collaboration

Rebecca Robins is co-author of 'Five Generations at work: How we Win Together for Good. The book starts with a quote by Anne Carson - ‘To stay human is to break a limitation.’ Ultimately this is what we discuss (alongside core themes in the book - Intergenerational Collaboration, Respect, Curiosity and most of all - Mutuality). A linguist and philosopher by background we go down many rabbit holes that are ultimately about what it means (to quote John Berger) "defy the spaces which separates." Link to book here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Five-Generations-Work-Together-Good/dp/139425220X Learn more at https://www.crewandriot.com/ Follow me on https://www.linkedin.com/in/chin-ru-foo-crewandriot/