A podcast series from ISEP about ideas, challenges and hope for the planet, including conversations with experts in the fields of technology, conservation, sustainability, food, finance and nature. Hosted by ISEP's CEO Sarah Mukherjee MBE.
Professor Tim Minshall heads up the Institute for Manufacturing and Management at the University of Cambridge. The department’s aim is simple: to “help manufacture a better world”. And so Tim has spent hours fostering links between engineering students and companies to help put their new ideas into practice.
He’s recently published the book Your Life is Manufactured (shortlisted for the 2025 The Royal Society Trivedi Science Book Prize) which takes a deep dive into the world of manufacturing. He argues that the systems that make things in our modern world are extraordinarily fragile, almost invisible to us and that has worrying consequences.
Tim studied at Cambridge as a PhD student before leaving in 1993 to work at the St John’s Innovation Centre - a business incubator in Cambridge for tech startups. He rejoined the university in 2002 and was named the very first endowed chair in innovation in 2017.
He talks to Sarah about the critical need for industrial sustainability in manufacturing processes and how some of the incredible systems we’ve built are also destroying the planet.
Sustainable Matters … A podcast series full of solutions and optimism for a more sustainable world, brought to you by ISEP: transforming the world to sustainability.
