«What will become of us in a hundred years? [...] It is for us alone to decide where to go. We are the pilots of the spaceship called Earth. [...]. I would like that in 2050 the world has finally left poverty behind; that there is not a single human being left who can be called poor».
Confidence in the development of human society, hope for change born of the encounter with the other, the recognition of the right to a dignified life for every person, especially the least of the Earth. It is the "untouchables of credit" who are the first recipients of the message of renewal launched to the planet by Muhammad Yunus, the economist who has become famous throughout the world as "The Banker to the poor", thanks to the idea of micro-credit and Grameen Bank, which led him to become Nobel Peace Prize winner in 2006.
An idea to guarantee access to banking services to those who have no collateral to give for a loan, which has lifted thousands of families out of extreme poverty. An innovation that could not remain locked in a university lecture hall or within the borders of his country, Bangladesh, whose interim Prime Minister Yunus became in August 2024, at the age of 84.
Yunus has dedicated his entire life to economic innovation, to transferring a "technology" from a developing country to suburbs all over the planet, from the African countryside to the metropolises of the West. A "technology" actually based on trust in people, accompanied by a message of social and environmental sustainability, with an ambition for a "Three-Zero World", to be achieved by 2050: "Zero poverty, zero unemployment and zero pollution".
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Credits
Text: Daniele Monaco
Narrated by: Giuditta Avellina
Editorial coordination: Teresa Bellemo
Sound: Luca Piceno
Interview: Enrico Testi, director of the Yunus Social Business Centre, University of Florence
A production by: Studio Editoriale
Pioneers of the future - A podcast by Infra The Mundys Journal
Pioneers of the future is the podcast of Infra The Mundys Journal. The second season is a six-part journey through some of the most important innovations of the last 30 years, trying to speculate on their impact on the next 20. As always, dedicated to the lives and adventures of the innovators who are shaping our present and future.
How is a revolutionary invention born? What challenges did the creator have to overcome? What are the needs, fears and hopes of these pioneers of thought and imagination? How much does the case count? Pioneers of the future gathers the stories of the makers who have changed the course of our times through a podcast of voices, anecdotes and interviews.
Men and women, known and lesser-known, remained true to their own ideals and intuitions, even when no one else understood them. Their ideas pose questions, but at the same time they are a promise to improve our lives, able to give new light to our way of living, communicating, moving and traveling. All over the world.