TIE Unearthed

Hosted by Philippa White

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Episodes

128

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Oct 2026

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About the show

TIE Unearthed explores what different worlds can teach us about being human. Conversations with scientists, artists, anthropologists, business leaders and people from unexpected worlds that challenge how we think about trust, judgement, identity, uncertainty and one another.

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60 recent

November 6, 202654 min

Are We Getting Business Backwards? with Jeff Schwartz

I think we've got our priorities backwards when it comes to running a business. We spend so much time trying to make organisations more efficient by cutting costs, improving productivity and finding ways to do more with less. But are we overlooking some of the very things that make businesses perform better? My conversation with Jeff Schwartz brings this question to life. After 25 years working with some of Canada's biggest companies, Jeff is now CEO of Go Lime, where he's building a business around a very different set of priorities. He keeps jobs local rather than outsourcing, pays people well and has replaced high-pressure selling with transparency and trust. All decisions that cost more. Yet Go Lime is growing quickly, now serving over 100,000 customers, and Jeff reports almost no voluntary employee turnover. It's a fascinating real-world example of something I've been exploring for years through my work and Return on Humanity. We pay enormous attention to costs, efficiency and productivity. But how much attention do we pay to creating the conditions that make exceptional performance possible? And perhaps more importantly, do our priorities reflect what we know actually matters? So grab your favourite beverage or throw on your running shoes, and here's Jeff. 👉 If you enjoyed the episode, I'd love you to share your thoughts, leave a review and subscribe to TIE Unearthed. 🗞️ If you'd like to stay updated on future episodes and other stories from TIE, join our newsletter here . 📙 You can find my international bestselling book, Return on Humanity: Leadership Lessons from All Corners of the Earth, here .

October 23, 202642 min

When AI Enters the Doctor's Room, with Erik Korsvik Østergaard

For generations, we've gone to doctors for answers. Now we're increasingly arriving with answers of our own. And sometimes those answers come from AI. The traditional relationship between doctors and patients is already changing. But as technology becomes more involved in our healthcare, who do we trust? Who makes the decisions? And who takes responsibility when things go wrong? In this episode of TIE Unearthed, I speak with Erik Korsvik Østergaard, a futures thinker, author and advisor who works with leaders in complex industries, particularly healthcare and life sciences, to challenge assumptions about what lies ahead. Together, we consider how AI is reshaping healthcare, and how imagining possible futures can help us make better decisions today. It's a conversation that left me thinking about just how much technology could improve our lives, and how important human judgement, ethics and collaboration will be in determining whether it actually does. So, whether you're heading out for a run or settling in with your favourite drink, here's Erik. You can find out more about Erik and his work https://goodmorningapril.com/erikkorsvikoestergaard/ 👉 In the meantime, don't forget to share your thoughts on the episode, leave a review, and subscribe! If you'd like to stay updated on future episodes and other inspiring stories from TIE, join our newsletter here . If you would like to order my international bestselling book Return on Humanity: Leadership Lessons from All Corners of the Earth, you can do that here .

October 9, 202636 min

Why Make Something Beautiful Just to Destroy It? With Ben Ashton.

Why would an artist spend years mastering beauty, only to deliberately destroy it? Internationally exhibited and recognised at the forefront of modern figurative painting and disrupted realism, British painter Ben Ashton combines the techniques of the Old Masters with a radically unconventional approach to painting. And his latest work takes things even further. Extraordinary, meticulously handcrafted paintings that twist, distort and physically emerge from the wall. We talk about beauty, destruction, human imperfection, and what happens when AI makes perfection increasingly easy to manufacture. And what all of this might mean for the value of the human touch. 🎨 Ben's new exhibition, May We Live in Impossible Times, runs 10 October–21 November at Dorothy Circus Gallery, London. Follow and explore his work @benashtonart. 🎥 Watch the episode on YouTube 👉 Don't forget to share your thoughts on the episode, leave a review, and subscribe! 🗞️ If you'd like to stay updated on future episodes and other inspiring stories from TIE, join our newsletter here . 📙 If you would like to order my international bestselling book Return on Humanity: Leadership lessons from all corners of the earth, you can do that here .

September 25, 202641 min

Why Knowing More Should Make Us Better at Saying “I don’t know”, with Thierry Courvoisier

What if real expertise makes you less certain, not more? And what happens when we already know enough to act, but still don’t? Thierry Courvoisier has spent a lifetime testing what we think we know. An astrophysicist and honorary professor at the University of Geneva, he created and led the science data centre responsible for ESA’s INTEGRAL gamma-ray satellite, and later became President of the European Academies Science Advisory Council, bringing scientific evidence into the world of public decision-making. For Thierry, doubt is fundamental. You cannot think critically without it. But doubt everything, all the time, and you have nothing solid enough to move forward from. That tension sits at the heart of this conversation. We explore why genuine expertise can make it easier to say “I don’t know”; why many of humanity’s biggest challenges may no longer be problems of knowledge, but of judgement and action; and what happens when evidence meets short-term interests, competing priorities and systems that struggle to listen. After more than 400 scientific papers, and years crossing oceans with his wife Barbara, Thierry’s perspective is refreshingly clear: listen widely, filter carefully, then decide. Perhaps knowing more was never meant to make us more certain. So throw on those running shoes, or grab that favourite beverage, and here is Thierry. 👉 In the meantime, don't forget to share your thoughts on the episode, leave a review, and subscribe! If you'd like to stay updated on future episodes and other inspiring stories from TIE, join our newsletter here . If you would like to order my international bestselling book Return on Humanity: Leadership lessons from all corners of the earth, you can do that here .

September 11, 202636 min

Ep #123: The Things Data Can’t Tell Us, with Michael Swaisland

What happens when the people whose job is to know have to become increasingly comfortable with not knowing? We have more data, more opinions and more intelligence at our fingertips than ever before. And yet working out what deserves our attention, and what to believe, may be getting harder. That tension sits at the heart of my conversation with Michael Swaisland, Vice President of Consumer Intelligence and Transformation at Arla Foods. Michael and I have worked closely together over the past couple of years through TIE Leadership’s work with his team at Arla, so this conversation comes from questions we’ve been exploring together in real time. We talk about what happens when AI can analyse more information than any human possibly could, and why that may make curiosity, judgement and empathy more important, not less. We explore the increasingly different realities created by our feeds, what that means for trust, and why expertise alone is no longer enough when every problem can be seen through multiple frames. And perhaps most importantly, why we need to deliberately create space to be uncomfortable, vulnerable and genuinely unsure. A fitting place to begin this new series of TIE Unearthed. So, whether you’re heading out for a run or settling in with your favourite drink, here’s Michael. 👉 In the meantime, don't forget to share your thoughts on the episode, leave a review, and subscribe! If you'd like to stay updated on future episodes and other inspiring stories from TIE, join our newsletter here . If you would like to order my international bestselling book Return on Humanity: Leadership lessons from all corners of the earth, you can do that here .

August 28, 202641 min

Ep #122: When Access Changes What’s Possible, with Debbie Ahenkorah and Cameron Milne

Most conversations about AI begin with speed. What can be done faster, cheaper, with fewer people involved. But almost none begin with what an organisation has never been able to do at all. And that's where my conversation with Debbie Ahenkorah and Cameron Milne ended up, although it started somewhere else entirely. They first met through TIE Leadership during the pandemic. Debbie was leading Golden Baobab in Ghana and needed help translating an ambitious social-impact idea into something the corporate world could understand. Cam, then working in advertising in New York City, became a bridge between the two. Six years later, Cam is the founder of Braid, focused on the human side of AI transformation, and Debbie is part of that work. During our conversation, Debbie makes an interesting observation: for a small organisation that has always had the ambition but not the resources, AI can become “their Cam.” Which then opens up a much bigger question. If capability is becoming less scarce, what might become possible for organisations that have always been constrained by access to it? We talk about what that could mean for social-impact organisations, why AI only becomes useful when people know how to weave it into the work, and the agency we need to have over how we choose to use it. Episode 122 of TIE Unearthed is available now. 👉 Don’t forget to share your thoughts on the episode, leave a review, and subscribe. If you'd like to stay updated on future episodes and other inspiring stories from TIE, join our newsletter here . If you would like to order my international bestselling book Return on Humanity: Leadership Lessons from All Corners of the Earth, you can do that here .

August 14, 202644 min

Ep #121: What It Takes to Build What Doesn't Yet Exist, with Faisal Kiwewa

Some ideas don’t fail because they are wrong. They fail because the world has nowhere to put them yet. We often assume that if something is good enough, an audience is already there, waiting. But sometimes what you are actually building is the audience itself. That idea runs through my conversation with Faisal Kiwewa, founder and Artistic Director of the Bayimba Foundation in Uganda. Faisal began as a musician himself. But when performing became too expensive to sustain, he realised the problem was much bigger than his own career. So, over twenty years ago, Faisal set out to create opportunities for Ugandan artists who had talent but few places to perform, collaborate or build sustainable careers. Today, Bayimba has helped shape Uganda’s thriving arts landscape, from live music and festivals to training and art forms that simply weren’t there before. We talk about what it takes to keep building before the market exists, why Faisal chose to stop performing himself, and what becomes possible when fresh perspectives enter a world you know almost too well. And I love the thought that Faisal ends with: you can achieve a mission. But if you can achieve your vision, perhaps the vision wasn’t big enough. So, whether you’re heading out for a run or settling in with your favourite drink, here’s Faisal. 👉 In the meantime, don't forget to share your thoughts on the episode, leave a review, and subscribe! If you'd like to stay updated on future episodes and other inspiring stories from TIE, join our newsletter here . If you would like to order my international bestselling book Return on Humanity: Leadership lessons from all corners of the earth, you can do that here .

July 24, 202639 min

Ep #120: What Curiosity Needs to Survive at Work, with Jeppe Fischer-Mogensen

Curiosity is easy to praise and surprisingly hard to organise. Most organisations say they want more of it. Then they reward speed, certainty and the person who arrives with the answer. That tension sits at the heart of my conversation with Jeppe Fischer-Mogensen, Head of Strategic Planning at Arla, on this week's episode of TIE Unearthed. Jeppe grew up in a small town in Denmark, feeling slightly outside of things, following interests nobody else around him cared about. That sense of being on the edge shaped how he sees organisations now, and how rarely they make space for genuinely open thinking. We explored why curiosity needs purpose, but also room. Why something as small as calling a session a “presentation” rather than a “workshop” can change how people show up. And why brave ideas rarely emerge because people are told to be braver. And he leaves us with a thought I love: Have strong opinions, but hold them lightly. A useful place to leave any conversation about curiosity. Episode 120 of TIE Unearthed is available now. 👉 In the meantime, don't forget to share your thoughts on the episode, leave a review, and subscribe! If you'd like to stay updated on future episodes and other inspiring stories from TIE, join our newsletter here . If you would like to order my international bestselling book Return on Humanity: Leadership lessons from all corners of the earth, you can do that here .

July 10, 202643 min

Ep #119: What if work has become incompatible with being human, with Kimberly Shaw

What if the problem was never that people can't cope, but that we've built a way of working no human was ever meant to sustain? Just think about that for a moment. This thought sits at the heart of my conversation with Kimberly Shaw, founder and principal of the Canadian change and transformation consultancy Changify. For more than twenty years she has worked inside complex organisational change, helping businesses navigate mergers, transformations and the realities of leading through uncertainty. Where Kimberly goes is somewhere more interesting than frameworks. She takes one of leadership's favourite words and then turns it back on itself. Resilience, she suggests, has become something organisations expect from people, rather than something they are willing to build for them. And a bigger question then follows. If trust, connection and psychological safety are the first things to disappear whenever the pressure rises, were they ever really part of the system at all? We cover a lot of ground, and Kimberly's energy carries all of it. The full episode is out now. 👉 In the meantime, don't forget to share your thoughts on the episode, leave a review, and subscribe! If you'd like to stay updated on future episodes and other inspiring stories from TIE, join our newsletter here . If you'd like to order my international bestselling book Return on Humanity: Leadership Lessons from All Corners of the World, you can do that here .

June 26, 202640 min

Ep #118: From Systems Thinking to Systems Being, with Philippe Vandenbroeck

Some people sense that the question they are allowed to ask is not yet the question that matters. Reflect on that for a moment. It comes from Philippe Vandenbroeck, my guest on this week's episode. An engineer who became a philosopher, then an urban planner, then one of Europe's most original thinkers on how organisations actually change. He founded shiftN thirty years ago and now teaches imagination as a pre-design practice at ETH Zürich. What makes Philippe rare is where he has arrived. Not at more certainty, but at less. He describes a shift from systems thinking to what he calls systems being. From trying to master the mess to accepting our place inside it. We talk about why imagination is not a luxury but a precondition for change. And about a gap most organisations never measure. Most boards can name the cost of a decision, but almost none can name the cost of doing nothing. Philippe believes that gap is where the questions that matter actually live. The full episode is out now. 👉 In the meantime, don't forget to share your thoughts on the episode, leave a review, and subscribe! If you'd like to stay updated on future episodes and other inspiring stories from TIE, join our newsletter here . If you would like to order my international bestselling book Return on Humanity: Leadership lessons from all corners of the earth, you can do that here .