Ep08 - Reality Bites: How Meerkats Make Learning Stick
Ever taken a course, nailed the theory… and then fallen apart the moment it gets real? Same. And it turns out the fix lives in the Kalahari.In this episode, Pia heads into meerkat country to uncover a quietly brilliant system for learning that actually sticks under pressure - not just in your head, but in your bones. No hacks. No feel-good fluff. Just nature-tested design principles for building capability in the real world, without the chaos or the panic.From small “reality bites” to why purpose matters more than motivation, this is a surprisingly human look at why we freeze, why we bail, and how to take one small real step that changes everything.If you’ve ever been stuck in theory mode, over-preparing, under-doing, or circling something that matters - this one’s for you.🎧 feralbydesign.com | @feralbydesignpod | Created and hosted by Pia Williams Subscribe and listen. Clever by Nature. Feral by Design.
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Ep07 - The Mussel Cup: Here for a Good Time, Not a Long Time
Ever felt that tiny stab of guilt when you toss a takeaway coffee cup into the bin, even when you’re trying to do the right thing?In this episode, Pia takes that everyday eco-anxiety somewhere unexpected: underwater, to the mussel - a creature that quietly solves problems we’ve been wrestling with for decades.From its renewable anchor threads comes a provocative idea for a different kind of cup altogether. Not disposable. Not forever. But something in between: a retiring cup, designed to age gracefully and work with how humans actually behave.Whether you drink things, think things, design things, or decline things… this one’s for you.If this episode leaves you seeing your daily coffees a little differently, please share it with someone.Subscribe and listen. Clever by Nature. Feral by Design. 🎧 feralbydesign.com | @feralbydesignpod | Created and hosted by Pia Williams Subscribe and listen. Clever by Nature. Feral by Design.
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Ep06 - Swooped: What Magpies Know About Handling Conflict
Ever been swooped by a magpie? Turns out, you weren’t being attacked — you were being communicated with. And you probably missed the whole conversation.Magpies avoid real fighting through communication — using graduated conflict signals to regulate tension and maintain social balance. They’ve mastered something we humans rarely do: tiered cues, pattern-based memory, and conflict used as maintenance rather than meltdown.In this episode, Pia uses biomimicry to explore how we can handle tension more like a magpie — why every argument today trains a pattern for tomorrow; how to spot early signals before small frictions become full-scale blow-ups. She also unpacks her framing of “memory as mentor, not menace,” and how it creates a faster route back to calm.Because maybe peace isn’t the absence of conflict — it’s just conflict done right.🎧 feralbydesign.com | @feralbydesignpod | Created and hosted by Pia Williams Subscribe and listen. Clever by Nature. Feral by Design.
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Ep05 - Hooked: How Burrs Inspired Velcro
Hooked: How Burrs Inspired Velcro — and Why Curiosity Is The Real Innovation.Ever spent an hour on your kitchen floor pulling burrs out of your dog’s fur while questioning your life choices? Those annoying little hitchhikers accidentally sparked one of the most successful biomimicry stories in history — the invention of Velcro.In this episode, Pia unpicks the legend — a Swiss engineer, a hunting trip, and a microscope moment that turned frustration into a global, nature-inspired design revolution. Two tiny words did it all: hook and loop.But we’re not stopping at the origin story. From space suits to school shoes, Velcro solved one problem brilliantly but left another wide open — and that’s the part worth re-designing.It’s funny, sticky, and surprisingly deep. Because sometimes the best ideas start with the stuff that drives you mad — you just have to look close enough to see the genius underneath.If this quick trip to the moon and back was worth it, please share this episode with someone who’s curious and would enjoy the ride.🎧 feralbydesign.com | @feralbydesignpod | Created and hosted by Pia Williams Subscribe and listen. Clever by Nature. Feral by Design.
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Ep04 - The Octopus Method: What Octopuses Know About Sharing the Load
Ever felt like you’re the bottleneck — the one brain trying to juggle every moving piece until the whole thing collapses?In this episode, Pia shares a true story of running a chaotic innovation project in India… while accidentally locked in a toilet with no reception. That moment of enforced stillness led her to one of nature’s best system designers: the octopus.Two-thirds of an octopus’s neurons live in its arms, allowing it to sense, decide, and adapt without waiting for head office — a strategy that inspired The Octopus Method, a biomimicry-based approach to distributed leadership and team collaboration.Discover how distributed intelligence can reduce bottlenecks, unlock team autonomy, and turn chaos into adaptive flow — from high-pressure projects to everyday life.If this episode made you see teamwork a little differently, share it with someone who’s got their own set of clever arms in the mix.🎧 feralbydesign.com | @feralbydesignpod | Created and hosted by Pia Williams Subscribe and listen. Clever by Nature. Feral by Design.
Feral by Design is a podcast stealing nature’s smartest strategies for our everyday chaos. Short, playful episodes grounded in real science, told through messy, self-deprecating stories. Some dive into real-world examples, others explore fresh frameworks inspired by nature. It's Biomimicry with the door left open: smart ideas from nature, made relatable, practical, and surprisingly fun. Nature owns the patent - we get to copy it.
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