INSEAD Knowledge Podcast

Why do we often misjudge whether a conversation will be enjoyable? In this episode of the INSEAD Knowledge podcast, Nadav Klein, Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour at INSEAD, explains why even apparently boring topics can lead to engaging conversations. Drawing on his research, Klein explores how curiosity, attentiveness, humour and genuine interaction matter more than the subject itself—and what this means for leaders communicating with their teams.

Read the related INSEAD Knowledge article.

Chapters
00:00 – Introduction: Why boring conversations can be engaging
01:00 – Nadav Klein’s research question unpacked
03:00 – The Seinfeld effect: ordinary topics, compelling interactions
06:00 – The real value of engagement
10:14 – The different types of ‘talk’  
12:53 – Conversation, connection and unexpected enjoyment
16:17 – Why our predictions about conversations are often wrong
17:18 – What leaders bring to a conversation
20:44 – Is there a difference between small talk and networking
24:05 – When to enter into conversations
26:30 – Final reflections: paying attention to what conversations can become

Conspiracy theories aren't a sign of poor judgement or personality flaws. Constructed from a shared language, they actually offer a means for someone to try and make sense of an uncertain or stressful event. That's according to Henrich Greve, Professor of Entrepreneurship at INSEAD, speaking on this episode about his new book, co-authored with Stanford University's Huggy Rao: Ctrl+Alt+Doubt: Decoding the Language of Online Conspiracy Talk. Greve explains why anyone can end up believing in conspiracy theories, how "gateway" theories work like gateway drugs, why the calmest, most rational-sounding posts spread the furthest, and why people often hold several contradictory theories at once as a kind of psychological safety net. The conversation also covers real-world harms, from vaccine hesitancy and the return of measles to South Africa's HIV denialism and the January 6th Capitol attack, before turning to what actually works, and what doesn't, in slowing the spread of harmful conspiracies.

Chapters 00:00 Introduction: why conspiracy theories spread faster than ever
02:03 Why the book was written, and what past research got wrong
06:36 Defining a conspiracy theory, and how widespread they are
11:23 Reframing believers as problem solvers, not "dupes"
15:00 How the conspiracy "toolkit" is learned and spreads
21:03 The language of conspiracy talk: calm words, hashtags and community
24:23 Why people believe multiple, even contradictory, theories
26:56 Real-world harms: vaccines, violence and the return of measles
30:28 Conspiracy theories at state level: South Africa, Russia, January 6th
34:04 What actually works, and doesn't, in limiting the spread
40:34 Closing thoughts and where to find the book
 
Read the related INSEAD Knowledge article.

In this edition of the INSEAD Perspective: Spotlight on Asia” podcast series, Sameer Hasija, Dean of Asia at INSEAD, speaks with Suhina Singh, co-founder of Singapore-based Jonda Health, about how AI is reshaping healthcare and why Asia has proved an early adopter when it comes to embracing its potential.   They discuss why global AI healthcare spend hit US$37 billion in 2025 and is set to nearly double its share of the industry by 2030, and explore how the technology is compressing drug discovery timelines and reshaping diagnostics, treatment and clinical workflows. Singh explains how Asia's aging populations (Japan, South Korea) and digitally native youth are both driving adoption for different reasons, and how governments are accelerating change, even as rural and lower-income communities risk being left behind.   Drawing on her experience building JondaX, Singh also gets candid about the real technical and regulatory challenges of deploying large language models in healthcare, where privacy, accuracy and quality control are non-negotiable. The conversation closes with a broader question: if AI can transform something as complex as healthcare, what can other industries — education included — learn from this customer centric approach?  

Chapters:
0:00 – Introduction
1:18 – Biggest Opportunities for AI in Healthcare
8:25 – AI Healthcare Adoption in Asia
13:27 – Developed vs. Developing Asia: Is Access Equal?
15:59 – Government and State Support for AI Health Adoption
19:33 – Suhina's Journey and Founding Jonda Health
22:45 – Challenges Building with Large Language Models
26:08 – Who Benefits: Clinicians, Patients, and Researchers
28:32 – What's Next for Jonda Health
32:19 – The Future of Healthcare in 10 Years
Read the related INSEAD Knowledge article.

The world’s leading aerospace company shows that successful innovation is not just about technical breakthroughs. Consumer demand, financial viability and a functioning ecosystem are crucial for an innovation to move from the drawing board to a commercially viable reality.

That’s according to INSEAD professors Manuel Sosa and Adrian Johnson, in their conversation with Harsh Shah, a leading expert on Hydrogen fuel in the aviation sector. In this INSEAD Knowledge podcast, they discussed Airbus’s 2020 public commitment to bring the world’s first hydrogen-powered commercial aircraft to market by 2035.  

Despite making major strides in developing the technical innovations needed to achieve this aim, Airbus ultimately had to push back their deadline due to challenges beyond their control. Sosa explains that this case underlines the fact that any company introducing innovations needs to consider the desirability, feasibility and viability framework of innovation if it has any real chance of success.

As Shah put it, they were faced with a classic chicken-and-egg scenario: Airlines wouldn't commit without infrastructure, and infrastructure wouldn't get built without demand. His proposed solution was greater government intervention and financial incentives that absorbed cost premiums in the early stages, similar to those in other sectors, such as wind energy.

As Johnson concludes, pushing back a deadline shouldn’t be seen as failure; it's what learning through experimentation actually looks like when the stakes, and the ambition, are this high.

Read the related INSEAD Knowledge article and the two INSEAD Cases exploring the challenges faced by Airbus.

Two words appear in entertainment headlines more than almost any other excuse, but are they doing more harm than good?

When a director exits a film "due to creative differences", everyone reads it the same way: something happened, and we're not meant to know what. Spencer Harrison, Professor of Organisational Behaviour at INSEAD, calls it the "aloha" of Hollywood, a phrase flexible enough to mean hello or goodbye, used precisely because its vagueness protects everyone involved. In the latest episode of the INSEAD Knowledge podcast, he explains what the research reveals about whether that protection actually works.