Martin Allen Morales
What Can We Do In These Powerful Times?
Martin Allen Morales is the CEO at the Institute of Imagination. The Institute designs and delivers award-winning creative learning programmes, products, and platforms across the arts, sciences and digital technologies for children aged 5 to 11 years old.
As Martin touches on in the podcast, he has had an extraordinarily varied career. He started music, then senior roles in Apple and Disney. He started a chain of restaurants, Ceviche, which were grounded in his Peruvian heritage. His mother came from a culturally rich but poor indigenous community in the Andes, while his dad was working class British.
Key theme: imagination (including being open-minded and curious) is vital to thrive in our complex world, where there is so much information overload and so many economic pressures. Combined with the right support, it can help people grow out of challenges and nurture new futures.
The Institute of Imagination is currently working on a three year plan to reach half a million children to be prepared for the future in the next three years by 2025.
Apologies for one loud cough!
Links
Global's Make Some Noise - "Improving lives through small charities". Global is an entertainment and media group that includes radio stations like Heart and LBC, and more besides.
Five Rhythms Dance is a dynamic movement practice—a practice of being in your body—that ignites creativity, connection, and community.
Article explaining hypothesis that music came before language, and might be the necessary evolutionary step to get to language here.
David Epstein - Range: why generalists triumph in a specialized world.
Timings
0:50 - Q1 What are you doing now? And how did you get there?
12:20 - BONUS QUESTION: Does the variety in your early life (indigenous heritage, time in Peru, time in working class England) equip you to be more imaginative than your peers, who grew up in Leicester only?
14;14 - BONUS QUESTION: Are there practices or habits which you have to keep your imagination active?
19:45 - Q2. What is the future you are trying to create, and why?
24:50 - Q3. What are your priorities for the next few years, and why?
29:38 - Q4. If someone was inspired to follow those priorities, what should they do next?
31:45 - Q5. If your younger self was starting their career now, what advice would you give them?
34:04 - Q6. Who would you nominate to answer these questions, because you admire their approach?
35:26 - Q7. Is there anything else important you feel you have to say?
More here.
Twitter: Powerful_Times
Website hub: here.
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Thank you for listening! -- David
