I am drawn to people of mixed-cultural descent and of mixed-race heritage. I'm also drawn to those whose life itineraries are far from commonplace. Because of this, I was delighted to talk to the brilliant entrepreneur, Nadim Sadek. Today he is widely-known for pioneering and leading Shimmr AI, an AI-based advertising technology company designed to be a vital resource for the publishing industry. Part-Egyptian, part-Irish, Sadek is a thoughtful and warm man - what we used to call a renaissance man thanks to his progressive spirit, cosmopolitan outlook and astonishingly diverse range of expertise. He also possesses that increasingly vital 21st century trait: a willingness to disrupt things. With his quirky way with words, he shared this self-reflection with me. It is a perfect window onto the man himself:

David Aguilar, born in Andorra, is an inspiring figure known for his resilience and creativity in overcoming physical challenges. Diagnosed with Poland syndrome, a rare condition that left him without one forearm, Aguilar began designing prosthetic arms using LEGO bricks at the age of nine. His first creation, built with the support of his father, Ferran Aguilar, marked the beginning of a journey that would gain global attention. In high school, he developed an advanced prosthesis named the MK-1, which he showcased in a viral video that significantly raised his profile. Aguilar's story is captured in the Spanish documentary Mr. Hand Solo, which won the award for best documentary at the Boston Science Fiction Film Festival. He is also the co-author of the book Piece by Piece: How I Built My Life (No Instructions Required), detailing his experiences and innovative approach to life. Currently, Aguilar is developing his brand, Hand Solo, aimed at supporting organizations for the disabled and challenging the stigma around "diff-ability," a term he uses to reframe disability. His work continues to inspire through his advocacy and public presence on platforms like Twitter, where he and his father share updates (@Handsolooficial, @AguilarFerran).

Minna Salami is a Scandinavian-Nigerian scholar whom it has been a privilege to encounter in person and on the pages of Sensuous Knowledge , her seminal work of epistemology. Alongside, Ngugi wa Thiong'o's Decolonizing the Mind and Frantz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth, it is Salami's Sensuous Knowledge that has informed my perspectives on the oppressive post-colonial world created by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in her own pioneering work, Purple Hibiscus. From birth, Salami's life has played out against an uncommonly rich backdrop of diversity: geographic, cultural, linguistic and religious. Scheduled for release at midnight on New Year's Eve and to usher us into the hope of 2023, this interview sees Salami address a range of issues that are the focus of Sensuous Knowledge such as the tyranny of europatriarchal knowledge - the fitting term she coined. We discuss important if curious topics here also such as the branching pattern she expounds upon in the book which characterizes and binds the natural world in an ecosystem rooted in reciprocity and protest. Ultimately, the philosophical axis around which her themes spin is anchored in her heritage of plurality whose bequest is an outsider-insider status and a lifetime of inhabiting the liminal spaces. This bequest is the price Salami has paid for a world-view that shimmers with real hope for our planet and its people and Sensuous Knowledge is her vision - luminous and fully realisable - for our world.

For Bodour Al Qasimi, shaking up the global publishing industry did not begin in 2021 when she became President of the International Publishers Association. Her crusade began in 2009, with the foundation of the Emirates Publishers Association. EPA lost no time in transforming the once slow and archaic publishing industry of the United Arab Emirates into a regional and global heavy hitter. New narratives about UAE's publishing are being written everyday thanks for example to the creation of Sharjah Book Authority (SBA) established in 2014. On the world stage, the Authority is advancing the cause of publishing by means of strategic alliances with the IPA, one of which - the IPA Academy - Al Qasimi talks about in the discussion that follows. In her native Sharjah, the Authority is custodian to behemoth events which have become central to the global publishing calendar: Sharjah Children's Reading Festival which Al Qasimi founded in 2009 and the Sharjah International Book Fair, which is considered, after the trade fairs of Frankfurt and London , the most important book fair in the world. And likely the most glamorous.

Keith Hart, an economic anthropologist who lives in Paris and Durban, is known across the globe. He has taught in universities including Manchester, Yale, Chicago, Pretoria, London School of Economics (LSE) and for the longest time in Cambridge where he was Director of the African Studies Centre. A scholar of Africa and the African Diaspora, Keith Hart contributed the concept of the informal economy to Development Studies and has been described as "one of the most creative intellectuals of the last 50 years".