Jun 17, 2026 · 1 hr 8 min · 15 segments
In this episode, we explore social entrepreneurship, wicked problems like homelessness, and the importance of redesigning societal thinking with Lord John Bird, co-founder of The Big Issue. Discover…
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John BirdGuest
Saeema Ahmed-KristensenHost
Melisa LeneroHost
And for me, I want to understand also, what is your perspective to a genuinely preventive anti-poverty strategy? Like, you were tackling a problem that was already happening, right? Like homelessness was already happening.
But if we talk about prevention, if we talk about one step behind that, what would be your strategy? I've been reading about the Ministry of Poverty Prevention that you wrote about.
So we just move that a little bit to the right so we'll see the other.
What you've got, the way governments work, and most governments work this way, is they have a very, very small circle which represents prevention.
So they do very little prevention because most of the money they spend is in the emergency.
So 90% of all money spent in the world on social intervention is spent on emergency.
So they don't spend money on prevention of poverty and nor do they spend much money on cure.
Most of the money goes in the UK, in the United States, in Italy and various other countries in Spain, France and Germany.
I mean, the Nordic countries are much better at spending money on prevention and money on cure.
So they're trying to reduce the vast amount of money that they spent on emergency.
And for me, I want to understand also, what is your perspective to a genuinely preventive anti-poverty strategy? Like, you were tackling a problem that was already happening, right? Like homelessness was already happening.
But if we talk about prevention, if we talk about one step behind that, what would be your strategy? I've been reading about the Ministry of Poverty Prevention that you wrote about.
So we just move that a little bit to the right so we'll see the other.
What you've got, the way governments work, and most governments work this way, is they have a very, very small circle which represents prevention.
So they do very little prevention because most of the money they spend is in the emergency.
So 90% of all money spent in the world on social intervention is spent on emergency.
So they don't spend money on prevention of poverty and nor do they spend much money on cure.
Most of the money goes in the UK, in the United States, in Italy and various other countries in Spain, France and Germany.
I mean, the Nordic countries are much better at spending money on prevention and money on cure.
So they're trying to reduce the vast amount of money that they spent on emergency.
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3 of 6
Shutting Critics Down
He faced fierce opposition from charities first.
Poor Aren't Another Species
Bird shares his deepest wish for humanity.
Emergency Vs. Prevention Funding
Why governments keep spending on emergencies instead.
+3 more clips · 4 min 32 sec of audio in all
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