About This Episode
“Rather than marching into global warming and unemployment, we can create our world the way we want.” That’s the message of our guest Professor Muhammad Yunus, Chief Adviser of Bangladesh, who says: “If we imagine that world, we can create that world. Imagination can make it happen.”
As a pioneer of microfinancing with Grameen Bank, the Nobel Peace Prize winner has alleviated poverty for tens of millions of people and given them an economic lifeline, with small loans that look to bring out the entrepreneur in everyone. His ethos is driven by a view of human nature that is innately good, and a world view that critiques our economic structures as having suppressed people’s natural selflessness and creativity. This interview is a story of how when a big idea takes hold, the impossible really does become possible.
Professor Muhammad Yunus
Professor Muhammad Yunus is the interim leader of Bangladesh, a Nobel Peace Laureate and the founder of Grameen Bank, renowned as a global visionary for pioneering the concepts of microcredit and social business. In 2006, Professor Yunus and Grameen Bank were jointly awarded Nobel Peace Prize for his work helping people escape from poverty by providing loans and financial advice tailored to their needs.
From Professor Yunus’ small personal loans to destitute basketweavers in Bangladesh in the mid-1970s, his vision has evolved into a global movement toward eradicating poverty through microlending, with Grameen Bank’s model replicated in over 100 countries.
Professor Yunus is the recipient of 67 honorary degrees from universities across 26 countries and 146 awards from 33 countries. He was appointed Chief Adviser of the interim government of Bangladesh in August 2024.
