In summary, Europe stands at a digital crossroads — and the clock is ticking. Its hospitals, banks, and businesses run on infrastructure owned, governed, and ultimately controlled from 6,000 miles away. One political decision, one geopolitical shock, could bring it all down. The debate is stark: build sovereignty now, or sleepwalk into permanent dependency. The homework is overdue. But agreement ends there. Should Europe build its own hyperscalers from scratch, at trillion-dollar cost? Regulate its way to safety? Or deepen transatlantic partnership rather than risk becoming a fragmented, high-friction tech island left behind by global capital? Nobody agrees — but everyone knows something has to give.

The motion was carried, with 65% voting for it.

There are already ideas for the next debate - feel free to add to them.

The secrets are out. Platforms like Spotify do everything except the speaking and, in truth, AI writes and speaks most of what is on YouTube these days.

But that is not the point.

SWISSUES is community - the same root as the word communicate - and the tech is, well, convenient.

Is there any room for creativity and fun? Listen to Any and Bill to find out.

Howard Price and Lily Kozlowska join Bill Young to discuss critical thinking.

Any SWISSUES subscriber is welcome to join our podcast panel and to suggest topics for discussion. You may have noticed that we are neither celebrities nor experts - we do this to get better at thinking and communicating ‘on our feet’, and we don’t expect a massive audience. Thank you for your indulgence.

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SWISSUES subscribers are invited to submit articles, and to join open discussions and podcast panels

Episode Overview

In this episode, Bob Dignen, Amy Jones, Lilia Kozlowska, Nadia Stroykov and Bill Young explore how social media exploits our most primitive neurological functions. From the “race to the bottom” of the brainstem to the erosion of personal agency, we discuss how digital platforms fuel tribalism and how we can reclaim our cognitive sovereignty.

Key Takeaways

• The Brainstem Trap: Modern tech has evolved from lowering economic standards to lowering neurological ones, targeting the ventral striatum (reward) and amygdala (fear).

• The Cost of “Always On”: High cognitive load and increased beta waves lead to heightened anxiety and a loss of reasoned decision-making.

• Weaponized Tribalism: Algorithms prioritize moralistic outrage over nuance, creating “us vs. them” environments ripe for populist manipulation.

• Reclaiming Agency: True freedom exists in the “pause” between a digital stimulus and our response.

• SWISSUES Evolution: Why the move to Substack marks a shift toward long-form business philosophy and “human-centric” operations.

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If you would like to join our podcast panels in 2026, contact me at bill.young@forvm.ch

Featuring Daniela Dollinger, Martin Eisenhut, Chris Holmes and Bill Young, this episode is about new forms of organization; how they encourage ideas, motivate staff and build self-reliance.

Listen and all will be revealed.

What is your ‘Colour’? Which Star Wars character are you? If you are unamiliar with these questions, then we apologise if this episode could be a little puzzling.

In this episode, Bob Dignen and Bill Young try to get their heads around Systems Thinking and to understand why it has had practically no influence on business management.

We apologise for some audio problems in the recording of this episode

One of my take-aways was that an organization’s management of risk is enhanced by a culture of openness and challenge. That, dear SWISSUES-Follower, could take us to another place altogether.

In this episode, Thierry Fausten and Bill Young are joined by David Jones. Instead of our usual loose discussion, we invited David to give us a broad overview of the whole field of non-executive directorship, which he does brilliantly. You’ll learn what the role involves in shareholder corporations, private equity firms and start-ups.

We have no doubt that some listeners will see an intriguing and fulfilling opportunity to use their career experience to help companies and other indivituals.

* Charles is the founder of Trusted Advisor Associates and co-author of ‘The Trusted Advisor’, its follow-up ‘The Trusted Advisor Fieldbook’; and author of Trust-Based Selling

In this special episode of the SWISSUES PodCast, Armin Scharlach, Bob Dognen, Thierry Fausten and Bill Young consider its significance.

Michelle Wang, Armin Scharlach, Thierry Fausten and Bill Young consider aspects of trade protectionism. The background is clearly the well-trailed tariffs of the U.S. president-elect and we want to know what. if anything, business people should do to prepare for the new politics of international trade.

The SWISSUES PodCast is a panel discussion about events and trends in business, society and politics. The title, SWISSUES, comes from the original contributors being from Switzerland and discussing ‘issues’.

Let’s get something straight before we start. SWISSUES contributors, no matter how experienced, perceptive and wise, are not experts. They have different backgrounds, disagree frequently, and like to challenge everything. You take their advice at your own risk.

We are in the early stages of learning how to do this podcasting thing and we hope you will help by offering comment, advice and guidance, as well as by throwing in your opinions on the issues discussed

Welcome to SWISSUES