Builders of the Broken Bazaar
Podcast Description
Redefining entrepreneurship through the realities of the informal, the resettled, and the overlooked. When systems collapse, people still build.Hosted by Dr. Tabish Zaman, Builders of the Broken Bazaar explores refugee entrepreneurship, necessity entrepreneurship, and migrant entrepreneurship in the face of displacement, inequality, and digital disruption. From refugee camps and conflict zones to neglected high streets, hear stories of grassroots innovators, social entrepreneurs, and informal economy builders creating for survival, dignity, and community resilience. We uncover the human cost of AI on marginalised communities, the realities of crisis-driven enterprise, and the power of dignity-based economies that exist far from Silicon Valley myths.🎙 “This podcast isn’t for unicorn founders. It’s for those who build quietly, in the margins—because they have no other choice.”Subscribe and join us in rewriting the story of entrepreneurship for those who build under pressure.
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
The show focuses on refugee entrepreneurship, necessity entrepreneurship, and migrant entrepreneurship, examining topics like the impact of aids in crisis situations, the intersection of AI and human labor, and the realities of survival-driven business models, with episode highlights including discussions on mutual aid and grassroots resilience against systemic neglect.
Builders of the Broken Bazaar
When systems collapse, people still build. In a world obsessed with billion-dollar startups and tech-driven progress, Builders of the Broken Bazaar turns the microphone towards those who build from the ashes — refugees, migrants, and everyday innovators creating meaning, work, and dignity in the ruins of broken systems.
Hosted by Dr. Tabish Zaman, this series dives deep into the informal, the invisible, and the overlooked — where entrepreneurship isn’t a choice, but a lifeline. From camps and conflict zones to Britain’s forgotten high streets, we uncover the moral and human frontlines of enterprise: where survival fuels innovation and community becomes the last safety net.
Through unflinching conversations with founders, reformers, and thinkers, we challenge the economisation of human effort — moving far beyond Silicon Valley myths to reframe entrepreneurship around social value, solidarity, and repair. When profit stops being the purpose, building becomes an act of defiance, not accumulation.
🎙 “This podcast is for those who rebuild what the world broke — not for profit, but for purpose.”
🎧 Listen and subscribe — to the voices of those proving that hope doesn’t come from systems, it comes from people.
Technology Isn’t Neutral. It’s Cultural.
We are constantly told technology is neutral.
That algorithms are objective.
That design is “just technical.”
But technology doesn’t appear from nowhere.
It is built by people, shaped by culture, and assembled through decisions, decisions that increasingly determine who gets a job, who gets a mortgage, and who receives medical care.
In this episode of Builders of the Broken Bazaar, Dr Tabish Zaman is joined by Glenn Block (Founder & CEO, ProdSense) to unpack what the tech industry often refuses to name:
Neutrality is not the absence of bias.
It is often the protection of privilege.
This is not a conversation about hype.
It is a conversation about responsibility and what happens when innovation scales faster than care.
Together, they explore:
• Why “neutral technology” is a dangerous myth
• How culture shapes design decisions long before launch
• What product equity means in practice, not as a slogan
• Why exclusion is often designed in, not discovered later
• Who is missing from the rooms where products are imagined
• How startup culture rewards speed, not accountability
• Why accessibility and inclusion cannot be retrofitted after harm
• And what responsible innovation should demand from entrepreneurs, designers, and institutions
🎙 “The bias isn’t in the zeros and ones it’s in how we assemble them.”
This episode is a challenge to founders, innovators, and anyone building systems that touch other people’s lives. Because if technology reflects our culture, we have to ask:
what kind of world are we building and for whom?
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