Phenomena

In this special edition of the podcast, we are live from Copenhagen, Denmark where we hosted a discussion with Oluf Borbye Pedersen, a world expert on the gut microbiome, and Theis Brydegaard, head chef at the Alchemist. Are We Listening to the Gut? was the topic of conversation, and as part of our ongoing content series all about our changing relationship to flesh, offers us a novel lens through which to consider our bodies, our selves and the world around us. Hosted by ReD’s Filip Lau and Anne Mette Lottrup, they discuss why we should consider food as preventive medicine, the relationship between what and how we eat and healing and finally, and why paying more attention to our gut might help solve behavioural barriers around adherence.

Companies use the word “strategy” more than ever, while strategy consultants with MBAs march the halls of companies penning sensible “strategic plans” that boards enthusiastically approve. Yet companies with a unique perspective on why customers spend with them and how they will win in their chosen space are in the minority. In this special edition of the podcast we speak about strategy with Roger Martin, one of the most influential minds in business and a trusted strategy advisor to global CEOs. In conversation with ReD partners Filip Lau and Iago Noguer Storgaard, Roger outlines the sorry state of strategy today and explains why it is in danger of becoming a lost art. What is the difference between a “strategic plan” and an actual strategy? Why are traditional strategy consultancies actually selling project management services? And how might revisiting the teachings of Aristotle help us come up with better strategies in today’s business world?

While there are still many questions about what the metaverse of the future will look and feel like, nearly everyone is in agreement that it’s a big deal. And while the metaverse has been well covered from a technological angle, what is often missing from the debate are questions about the human and social implications of its evolution. In this episode, Eliot is joined by ReD partner Iago Noguer Storgaard and Jacob Wachmann, a former ReD employee and now strategy director for games and metaverse experiences at the LEGO Group, to discuss the possible directions the metaverse might take, and what that means for businesses as they look to build strategies and technology roadmaps for the future. To what extent does the metaverse mark the next paradigm shift in how we work, play, and learn as humans? How might science fiction be misleading us as to how it will change our lives? And what false assumptions are executives across industries making on features such as immersion and interoperability as they develop metaverse strategies of their own? Listen in as we also share the best books to dive deeper into the topic, from sci-fi to contemporary nonfiction to 1960s theoretical philosophy.

People use brands to shape social identities. We see this time and again in our work, as we help brands figure out how to deliver more value to their consumers. But what role fundamentally do brands play in people’s lives, and why do some resonate better than others? In this episode, host Eliot Salandy Brown is joined by ReD partner Filip Lau, to share ReD’s latest thinking on brands, the shifting perceptions around them and the different expectations consumers have of brands across categories and sectors. Eliot is also joined by Matt Johnson, PhD – a neuroscientist, speaker, and author of Branding That Means Business and Blindsight: The (Mostly) Hidden Ways Marketing Reshapes Our Brains – to discuss what neuroscience can teach us about brand perception and how the latest science challenges the core views of many marketeers. What are the key questions brands should ask themselves to better connect with their consumers? What lessons might brand giants take from small, nimble players about approachability? And finally, what can a study about popcorn teach brands about the power of context on consumer behaviour?

What foundational ideas should guide our thinking around future approaches to care? In 2026, the Mary Elizabeth Hospital in Copenhagen will open to the public. It is a hospital that will revolutionise the experience for children, teens, pregnant women and their relatives before, during and after treatment. And they are doing this by centering the hospital all around play. Alongside Elisabeth Ida Ginsberg and Thomas Frandsen the hospital’s chief project manager and chief medical officer respectively, ReD’s Anne Mette Worsøe Lottrup and Iago Noguer Storgaard discussed how play became the foundational idea to both the hospital’s design principles and day-to-day operations. A project that has been over a decade in the making, they also discuss how an idea, or human insight such as play, can be guarded as the governing principle through something as complicated and large-scale as building a new hospital.