Tomorrow, Sept. 8, a new Manila Bulletin product debuts on YouTube and Spotify, with edit downs and verticals on our MB Facebook Page and TikTok. It’s called The Sit Down, and it’s a concept that was pitched and refined by Jordan Tan, Irish Lorenzo, and myself. It may have taken several months to ‘germinate’, but now that we have some episodes in the can, I’m praying that the public takes to it, and will find it both informative and entertaining.

The simplest way to describe The Sit Down is to say it’s a podcast that will attempt to be an open window for the public to get a better, nuanced glimpse of the personalities and issues of today; in a manner that’s breezy, informal, chatty, and can mix substance with lightness. To my mind, in the case of some episodes, it can even be considered as ‘hard news, but with a soft touch’. We intend to traverse the arena of politics and government, of business and commerce, of entertainment and culture, of science and technology, and several points in between; but always with an eye to make the subject matter conversational and anecdotal, and to find resource people who will help make that happen.

It’s scratching the surface, and attempting to inject depth, without being contentious or polemical. We want dialogue, and we want wisdom and intelligence that’s accessible and discerning. In short, we’ll endeavor to bring you interesting people, provoke them to say interesting things, and cover anything under the sun with them. I’ll be moderating a good number of the episodes, and whenever appropriate, a Manila Bulletin editor or reporter will join me to add texture to the questions, and subsequent conversation.

While a number of the Sit Down episodes and guestings will seem self-explanatory and obvious to most viewers; I love how we plan to have a number of our episodes became part of our advocacy to make Sustainability more accessible and understood by the general public. It’s often said that Sustainability is a hard sell in a situation where so many are living below the poverty line, or are just thinking about what they’ll eat for their next meal, or if they have the resources to feed their family and children. The same people will argue that resilience has no place in a world where flooding is an everyday threat, and where a sudden downpour can paralyze a whole city.

I, on the other hand, would say that for those very same reasons, Sustainability and Resilience are very important and crucial today. The UN Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs) and the ESG (Environment, Social and Governance) agenda are precisely there to offer a framework, a blueprint, for creating a future that our children and the next generation, deserve. We owe it to ourselves and to them to make the future world a better place to live in. The very same people we feel have no time to think of Sustainability or Resilience; are in actuality, the most vulnerable during these times of disaster or environmental fragility and imbalance. During flooding or disasters, it’s their homes that are most threatened, and when threats to the environment occur, such as an oil spill, it’s their subsistence livelihood that’s imperiled.

We intend to talk to companies and entities that pursue and advocate ESG agendas and prioritize Sustainability, in the hope that more can understand why they pursue these goals, how they transform the advocacy into social action; and so that they’re more appreciated. The youth of today do put a value on Sustainability, so it will be helpful to have them be cognizant of those enterprises that share that value. And if it leads to better choices on who to support as a consumer, or even where to work when they graduate, then we’d have made this Sit Down have purpose, and I’ll be happy.

The inaugural episode that drops tomorrow features Senator Kiko Pangilinan and Sharon Cuneta. It was our first taping, and I hope you’ll be forgiving of some of the technical glitches we encountered. Senator Kiko does talk about food security and farming; but I’m sure you’ll have fun listening to his family anecdotes about growing up as the fifth of nine children.

Steven Tan, president and CEO of SM Supermalls is our guest in another episode, and he has wonderful things to say about how being appointed president in 2020, just two months before Covid-19 struck, wasn’t some bad cosmic joke played on him; but became a challenge taken, that now makes anything and everything problematic, a minor glitch compared to what he had to face back then.

From the world of Entertainment, we were fortunate to have the free-spirited Bela Padilla, and the enigmatic JC Santos as guests; and when I ask them who would be their alter-ego superhero, and with what powers, be prepared for Bela’s hilarious reply!

It’s golden nuggets like what I mention above that make us proud to be bringing you this podcast. So do look out for when they drop, and for the guests we plan for future eps! Thank you to JD and his video team, and to Leslie and Jaime for helping make these shows happen.