Navid Modiri
Creativity and Diversity
Navid Modiri is an author, public speaker and podcaster. He believes in the power of human conversation as a tool to reach higher levels of communication, collaboration and cooperation. Using radical curiosity and the art of not knowing, Navid sparks your imagination and invites you to think about the complexity of the challenges in modern day society, the raw and fearful nature of the unknown and the possibilities of the future.
Born 1983 in Iran and raised in Sweden, Navid has the benefits of being a "third culture kid" with multiple sets of languages, culture and perspectives. He has been speaking, facilitating and singing on stage since the age of 16. Navid has received the Blog Awards for his blog "365 things you can do", the award as Communicator of the Year and was nominated for the
King's Leadership Award Foundation.
In 2014 Navid decided to invite the leader of the conservative right wing Swedish Democrats party for a game of golf to discuss integration and migration politics, with the aim to inspire more Swedes to have meaningful conversations with people they disagree with. This was the beginning of a career as a conversation activist with a firm belief in human conversation—which resulted in both fierce criticism from the political establishment and the mainstream media but also two highly appreciated TEDx talks. Navid then went on to produce and host the "How can we?"-podcast where he invites dissidents, contrarians, experts, researchers and politicians to long-form conversations, inspired by people like Joe
Rogan, Russel Brand and Sam Harris.
During the fall of 2017, he released his book "Hi Sister". The book tells the story of the challenges with integration and migration growing up as a persian swede in Sweden, exclusion and war but also the power of language in order to bring people together. He speaks about how difficult it is to adapt to a new country, finding a new home and what it feels like to grow up inbetween the boxes and how that could spark the ability to be able to really think outside the box.
In 2020, Navid and his friends Björn Natthiko Lindeblad and Caroline Bankler wrote the book "I May Be Wrong" about the life, wisdoms and adventures of ex-monk Björn Natthiko
Lindeblad's life. The book was a great success in Sweden and is now being translated into multiple different languages and making its way around the world.
Navid and Björn hosted the famous podcast "Björn & Navid '' where they explore the depths and darkness of existence and address challenging topics like death, ego and anger.
Navid works as an advisor to several high-ranking leaders in the corporate world and public sector in Sweden and is frequently hired as a conversation leader, public speaker and panelist to discuss matters of integration and diversity, freedom of speech and how to use dialogue in a way that helps people, groups and organisations to grow.