Seth M. Siegel: Let There Be Water: Israel’s Solution for a Water-Starved World

“There are many great reasons to come to the Czech Republic, but going to Moser stores is high on my list.” That’s how the interview with Seth M. Siegel, a water activist and a New York Times bestselling author of Let There Be Water: Israel’s Solution for a Water-Starved World, started. Seth was supposed to …

Benjamin Von Wong: My Viral Photos Empower People to Act

Benjamin Von Wong, a Canadian viral photographer, started out as a mining engineer. Something was missing, however, so he committed to taking one photo per day and posting it on social media. Soon, his photos had hundreds of thousands of likes and followers. But in 2016, at the top of his career after a successful …

Willem Van Cotthem: A Professor Who Tried to “Kill the United Nations Business”

An 85-year old Belgian professor of Botany Willem Van Cotthem has dedicated his whole life to finding solutions to end hunger and combat desertification. Many of them became hugely successful and helped many people, but none of them was adopted by the international organizations concerned. Why? Read on to find the shocking answer.  When land …

Silke Horáková: The Future Belongs to Investments with a Social Impact

Silke Horáková used to be a classical investor. However, when she heard about the British fund Bridges Ventures that invests exclusively into projects with a social impact, she decided to found a similar fund in the Czech Republic. It was 2011; the sector of social entrepreneurship was in its infancy and impact investing was an …

Robin Maynard: Too Many People on Earth? Why We Need to Have a Hard Talk about Population

Talking about the size of human population has become so controversial that very few people dare to do that. Director of British NGO Population Matters Robin Maynard, who’s seen the world population double in his life, explains why it’s so difficult to discuss demographics, how to achieve UN’s low projection of 7.3 billion people on …

Staffan Widstrand: We Need to Restart the Love Affair with Nature

Staffan Widstrand is a world-renowned wildlife photographer and a strong advocate of nature conservation, biodiversity and rewilding. His project Wild Wonders of Europe, which presented the natural heritage of Europe to the World, reached 800 million people and his photos have been published in major media like National Geographic, GEO Magazin, Der Spiegel and many …

Andrew J. Hoffman: If Climate Change Doesn’t Threaten Rich People, Nothing Will Change

Andrew J. Hoffman is a Holcim (US) Professor of Sustainable Enterprise at the University of Michigan. He came to the Czech Republic to present his book How Culture Shapes the Climate Change Debate at the Ekofilm festival.  How do you perceive climate change? Are you worried or optimistic? I am pessimistic but hopeful. I think the …

Dan Lyons: Why the Whole World Is Crazy About Startups and Why You Shouldn’t

The last company from Silicon Valley that reached a billion dollar revenue and was profitable, was Twitter, founded in 2006. Since then all the other companies like Uber, Airbnb or Snap haven’t made any profit. Yes, you read that right. None. How is that even possible? Dan Lyons, the author of the New York Times …

Frank de Winne: UNICEF changed me more than my two spaceflights

In 1989, Frank de Winne answered a newspaper job ad. But not a typical one. The European Space Agency (ESA) was searching for new astronauts. He went through a demanding 2,5-year training and waited 10 years to get into space. He spent 198 days in the International Space Station and became the first ESA astronaut …

Mark Martin: Guardians of Human Rights WANTED!

Human rights can disappear in the blink of an eye. That is why we should constantly be on guard, says Mark Martin, director of Amnesty International Czech Republic. We got into discussion about evolution of human rights, political correctness and tension between business and NGO world. Why does Amnesty International fight for some rights (LGBT …