Transforming Tomorrow 26 Transforming our Audience One of the goals for the Pentland Centre is to communicate our work with a wide audience. One that goes beyond academia and reaches business and the public. In summer 2023, Centre Director Jan Bebbington, Co-ordinator Desna Mackenzie, and Lancaster University Management School Research and Engagement Content Manager Paul Turner started a journey to take this communication and reach into a new form and to a new level. Discussions about the potential for a Pentland Centre podcast had been simmering for some time, but it was now that they became more concrete, and Transforming Tomorrow was born. A year later, there have been more than 60 episodes – and you will have seen links to some scattered though this publication – in a series that has gained subscribers around the world, and that was shortlisted for the Chartered Management Institute, British Academy of Management, and Chartered Association of Business Schools Management Publication of the Year. The balance between Jan and Paul’s interests is ideal - so the podcast is not too serious and involves some mild bickering between the hosts – feedback suggests a good number of listeners have that feature high on their list of reasons for listening. Transforming Tomorrow sees Jan and Paul (usually) joined by a guest (sometimes two, on one occasion with a newborn Belted Galloway calf in attendance) to address areas of interest to the Centre and its members. Often, these guests are members of the Centre at Lancaster University – everyone from Early Career Researchers to Distinguished Professors – discussing their research projects. Topics have included modern slavery reporting, the economics of pollution, salmon farming, solar power, asteroid mining, and much, much more. But the podcast has also welcomed guests from the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW); the Lake District Farmers; and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, among others. Every guest has a story to tell and they take listeners – and presenters – on journeys we do not expect, including a whole episode on sand, and discussions of mango tree harvests and favourite seabirds. There is always something to learn; something to be fascinated by; something to surprise. It is also guaranteed that Paul and Jan will have contrasting perspectives. Knowing they are not just aiming at an academic audience, the podcasts build in humour (or so they hope) and random tangents, and discussions never become too complicated. The podcasts have been a great success. In the first 13 months, there were more than 13,000 downloads, with listeners stretching from the UK to Japan, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Belgium, Sweden and beyond. The Stanford University Centre for Ocean Solutions has shared episodes, as have the ICAEW and other accounting bodies; and podcasts have been used on student reading lists beyond Lancaster as a good introduction to topics. The podcast will continue for as long as there are sustainability topics that inspire and provoke listeners, and a second series will be well under way by the time you read this. To become a new listener, you can find us here https://pod.co/transforming-tomorrow
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTI5NzM=