Listen to this transformative conversation between Gill Hicks and Trish Hansen, as they reflect on the way harrowing experiences can shape our lives, with both prioritising big picture thinking and seeking ways to have immediate impact in the world.

Our conversationalists for this episode are Gill Hicks and Trish Hansen. Gill is Founding Director of M.A.D Minds and Trish is the Founding Principal of Urban Mind Studio.

This moving conversation explores how Gill and Trish each approached life after facing death – one through the experience of the London bombings, the other via a breast cancer diagnosis. These experiences changed how they chose to live. They asked themselves: ‘What do we want to do with what we have?’ and ‘What is our impact and what is our influence?’ Gill and Trish describe very different approaches to this, concluding that we can design our way to something else using policy, education, strategy and changing procurement practices. As an extra treat, Gill describes meeting Zaha Hadid – she exuded presence, confidence and posture! 


This session is from the 2021 Adelaide Autumn Salon. It was recorded live on Kaurna Country at the Brickworks Design Studio on 6 May 2021. Organised by Ali McFadyen, it was supported by Parlour Partner AWS. Photographs Ben Liew.