We've selected Rutger Bregman’s Utopia for Realists to complement our program this year. We love this ground-breaking bestseller: How can we build the ideal world? The book unveils the world we live in from a completely different view point. It is riveting, informative and challenging. Good food for thoughts that makes you question everything you know.

Flavio Donato

Flavio is an assistant professor for Neurobiology at the Biozentrum in Basel. Italian of origin, he was trained in Italy, Switzerland (FMI, Basel) and Norway, Flavio is an awarded scientist  for discovering cellular mechanisms driving the development of circuits for the brain's representation of space. Since moving back to  Basel, Flavio has been investigating how the brain processes memories. Else, he enjoys the vibrant musical and artistic Basler scene, and schoggi weggli, one of the main reasons he moved back to Switzerland.

Daniele Diana

Daniele is a sports professional with football in his "blood". Born and raised in the suburbs of Naples, where as a kid ,he started kicking football on the streets, has attended hundreds of matches, and worked at the organization of many football tournaments and events all over the world, including the last two world cup finals.

Bert te Wildt

Prof. Dr. med. Bert te Wildt is a medical doctor, scientist and author. As professor for psychiatry, psychosomatic medicine and psychotherapy he is affiliated with the Ruhr-University Bochum and the technical university in Munich, Germany. His scientific and clinical field of expertise is behavioral addictions such as gaming disorder, internet addiction and workaholism that led to the publication of the popular science book “Digital Junkies”. Bert is the chief doctor of the Psychosomatic Hospital at Dießen Monastery, which he co-founded and where he conceptualized the “Burn On” concept.

Mary Meaney

Mary is the founder of Solidarite Ukraine, a non-profit effort that has supported hundreds of Ukrainian women and children in France, where she lives with her husband and six kids. Mary also serves as an investor and board member of several leading international organizations such as Imperial College London.  With a passion for impact, she is also author of a book: Leading Organizations: Ten Timeless Truths with Scott Keller.

Tyler Burns

Tyler is a California native who moved to Berlin for a work opportunity only to get married to a local and stay a little longer. He is a computational biologist trained at Stanford and who has worked for years in the field of single-cell analysis. He values the day-to-day flexibility that his self employment brings, which allows him to be more in tune with his creative process, and to take on a wide variety of research and open-source software projects.

Reto Odermatt

Reto is researcher and lecturer at the Center for Research in Economics and Well-Being (CREW) at the University of Basel. After obtaining his doctorate he held positions at the London School of Economics and the University of Chicago, financed by a fellowship from the Swiss National Science Foundation. Reto conducts research using data on subjective well-being in the interdisciplinary field linking economics, psychology, health, and public policy.

Jo Filshie Browning

Jo Filshie Browning is a communications coach dedicated to helping people understand the benefits of science and medicine.  Over more than 25 years she has helped scientists and physicians speak with impact and authority about their work and her book ‘Scientifically Speaking: How to speak about your research with confidence and clarity’ is an Amazon best-seller.  Jo began her career as a journalist before moving into communications, training and consultancy.  She studied English at Oxford University and holds a Diploma in Public Relations and a Post Graduate Diploma in Science and Society.  She’s trained more than 11,000 people across 43 countries and four continents.

Marcel Barelli

Marcel Barelli is an animation filmmaker and author of books, born in Ticino and graduated visual arts at the Haute École d ’Art et de Designs in Genève. He is passionate about animals and he develops all his projects around this theme, bringing difficult human topics to life through the simplicity of nature. His award-winning short films at GYPAETUS HELVETICUS (2011), VIGIA (2013), LUCENS (2015) and IN NATURE (2021) became huge festival hits and received numerous prizes at prestigious international festivals.

Benedikt Meyer

Benedikt Meyer is a historian, writer and comedian. His passion for history leads him to write and talk about what the past means for the present. His self-invented “Historic Cabaret” is a clever and entertaining mix between stand-up-comedy and a history lesson. He’s the person to talk to if you want to get wiser while having a good laugh. Growing up in the basel area, Benedikt has invented city tours, written historic novels, danced in music videos and cycled across the United States.

Daniela Fuentes

Daniela is a Mexican-born Swiss designer and a bodywork/Yoga facilitator. Her work intersects artistic and design practice, Yoga and Somatics, with a framework inspired in eastern philosophies, transpersonal psychology, nature and biomimicry, Mexican, Shamanic and First Nation wisdom, science-fiction, as well as Decolonial theory. As a creative independent professional, Daniela has worked in diverse fields and created works for museums like the Museum der Kulturen Basel. She is the founder and creative director and main teacher at B.Yoga Basel.

Edith Habraken

Edith Habraken is an dutch classical percussionist. She is the founder of Foundation “SMEH®Percussion & Marimba- school” and author of the book “On the footsteps of the drummers of Basel”. 

Deb.

deb. is a young jazz-pop act born from the creative mind of Basel-based singer and composer Debora Monfregola. Her debut album Balancing Act tells the story of relationships and the highs and lows that come with them. This title is an ode to the way relationships strive for balance and a reminder that it is ok for them to change and evolve into different directions. In Balancing Act, you will discover sounds from two worlds blending together to form another: classic and catchy jazz orchestrations mixed with dreamy pop melodies.