Skip to content
Contrarians

Predicting the unpredictable: see what others don’t – Dr Pippa Malmgren

About This Episode

Joining Michael today is the economist, entrepreneur and author Dr Pippa Malmgren, and pessimism is not part of her vocabulary. She says: “I may be the most optimistic economist in the market today. I think that we’re going to get a recovery faster and sharper than people are expecting. Money, plus entrepreneurial energy, plus digitalisation, I think we’re going to see the recovery faster and sooner than we thought.”

A former Special Assistant to George W. Bush and the co-founder of H Robotics, an organisation creating drones as tools not toys, she is using her decades of experience analysing policy to analyse the world as it is today. With her book Signals, released in 2016, Pippa told the world how she used everyday signals to see what many others did not – from the financial crash, to Brexit, to Trump – and explained how we could all do the same.

Dr Pippa Malmgren

Dr Pippa Malmgren is an American economist, policy analyst and best-selling author. She served as Special Assistant to the President of the United States, George W. Bush, for Economic Policy on the National Economic Council and is a former member of the U.S. President’s Working Group on Financial Markets. On top of being a Board member for the Department for International Trade, Pippa is the founder of the DRPM Group and co-founder of H Robotics, a robotics company which makes AI-led, commercial-use drones. She has been named a leading Woman in Tech by We Are Tech Women and the top 50 Women in Tech by AccelerateHer.

Listen on all your favourite platforms

Lockdown List

What is a book that has changed your life?

The Golden Bough by Sir James Frazer

What are you watching in lockdown?

I am writing what I hope may become a Netflix Series, which is a huge adventure.

What is your lockdown soundtrack?

Don’t Hold Back by Bob Moses

I Asked by Snarky Puppy with Becca and Vasen

Have Love Will Travel by the Sonics

195lbs by Nightmares on Wax

Liquid by Robert Koch.

In one sentence, describe your new normal.

Simple soulful sense making in my home life and my work life alike.

Who is your biggest inspiration and why?

Heddy Lamar. She was a beautiful actress who was inducted into the Inventors Hall of Fame for her discovery of the frequency hopping that makes all our mobile devices today work.

What is your best tip for life ?

If you ever think “People don’t really get me” or they think I am something other than I am, then show them more who you really are. Always align the interior and exterior.

Find out more

Subscribe to Change Makers Podcast