The story of work is a story of design and in this conversation between Julia Hobsbawm, Founder and CEO of Workathon and Ryan Anderson, Vice President of Global Research and Planning at design powerhouse Miller Knoll they cover a century of design's influence in the workplace, declaring an unofficial Movement of contemporary Changemakers just as influential in the story of work today as Herman Miller and Hans and Florence Knoll were did in the twentieth century. Julia and Ryan explore how place ...
Jul 07, 2025•31 min
The Nowhere Office is in New York as Julia Hobsbawm is joined by Ethan McCarty, CEO and Founder of award-winning employee experience company Integral. Showcasing results from the latest Integral Index on why frontline managers hold the key to performance to why it's actually Gen Z which worries most about AI they also fought on the future of PR in a social media world of of diminishing returns and the rise instead of a"mixternal" communications where the employee voice is key. You can find the I...
Jun 06, 2025•32 min
Julia Hobsbawm is joined by David Marks and Jason Blank, the co-founders of Brockton Everlast, the company behind Fora, the flexible workplace provider. Recorded at Fora’s building on Soho’s Broadwick Street, they discuss how mixing “workboots and wingtips”, building expertise and business acumen, has shaped their approach to building a better future of work. They also explore property development, the ascendence of small businesses, and how smart, human-centred buildings are reshaping cities. T...
May 01, 2025•37 min
This week on The Nowhere Office , hosts Julia Hobsbawm and Stefan Stern speak with journalist, author, and broadcaster Rachel Johnson for another addition of My Working Life in a conversation about her unconventional career journey Rachel shares how she broke into journalism as the Financial Times’ first female trainee, the early mistakes she learned from, and how she built a career on her own terms. She talks about the challenges of balancing working motherhood with her own ambitions, and why h...
Mar 31, 2025•26 min
How is AI transforming the workplace and what does it mean for employment law? In this episode of The Nowhere Office , host Julia Hobsbawm visits the Bankside offices of Lewis Silkin LLP to speak with James Davies, Senior Employment Partner, about the legal implications of artificial intelligence in hiring, AI regulation, and the future of legal work. How is AI being used in recruitment and employment decisions? What AI-specific tools like Harvey are changing legal practice? How are governments ...
Mar 31, 2025•35 min
This episode of The Nowhere Office focuses on the United State of Work report, featuring an in-depth conversation with Brian Elliott , a contributor to the report and a leading voice in the future of work. Brian is the CEO of Work Forward , co-founder of Future Forum , and author of How the Future Works . With 25 years of experience at Google and Slack , he offers firsthand insights into corporate America's shifts and sheds light on: What’s really driving return-to-office mandates The persistenc...
Mar 18, 2025•34 min
Joining Julia and Stefan is David Dewane, Chief Experience Officer of Physical Space at Geniant, a design services firm at the cutting edge of workplace transformation. David shares wide-ranging insights and anecdotes from his work—covering everything from the historical impact of air conditioning and the elevator to the role of human creativity in the age of AI. He also discusses the evolving discipline of architecture, how its definition is expanding, the influence of UX research, and where th...
Mar 13, 2025•26 min
Julia Hobsbawm and Stefan Stern are joined by John Bond, founder and executive director of Whitefox Publishing, and Toby Mundy, literary agent and former publisher, to explore and evaluate the business of publishing. Toby reflects on his career, from founding Atlantic Books, now as a literary agent and serving as Executive Director of the Baillie Gifford Prize. Against the backdrop of the London Book Fair, they discuss how shifts at book fairs reflect broader industry changes. Toby and John offe...
Mar 03, 2025•51 min
In this episode, Julia Hobsbawm and Stefan Stern talk to Rory Sutherland, Vice Chairman of Ogilvy about his working life. Rory shares anecdotes from a career in advertising and lessons from behavioural science. The Nowhere Office is a Fully Connected Production brought to you in association with Sandstone Global Productions . Music by Julian Brezon. Find out more at thenowhereoffice.com and sandstoneglobal.com . Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices...
Feb 24, 2025•43 min
In this episode of The Nowhere Office , we bring together three experts with very different perspectives on work to explore how we measure it, how we experience it, and how workplaces are changing. What is productivity, and why does it matter? Professor Dame Diane Coyle , economist and Bennett Professor of Public Policy at the University of Cambridge, joins Stefan to discuss why productivity is such a tricky thing to measure what GDP can and can’t tell us. These ideas will be explored more in Di...
Feb 11, 2025•32 min
For this My Working Life edition of the Nowhere Office, Julia Hobsbawm and Stefan Stern are joined by Sam McAlister, the former Newsnight producer best known for securing the game-changing interview with Prince Andrew. She shares details of her background from working-class childhood to criminal barrister and her jump into TV. She talks about the joys of her newfound autonomy and the relentless hustle required to make it all work. Sam takes us behind the scenes of TV news and gives her take on t...
Feb 03, 2025•25 min
Julia Hobsbawm and Stefan Stern are joined by John Bond, founder of Whitefox Publishing to discuss the business of publishing. We hear about how the industry has changed since the 1980s and 1990s when huge advances were handed out at the drop of a hat and books were acquired on professional instinct. That’s been replaced by data-driven metrics and a clearer understanding of what consumers want. The episode provides advice for anyone looking to have a book published, explaining the current market...
Jan 27, 2025•33 min
In this episode of The Nowhere Office , Stefan Stern and Julia Hobsbawm discuss leadership with Barbara Kellerman. Our My Working Life feature is an interview with American union organiser Jaz Brisack, who has been involved with movements at Nissan, Starbucks, and Tesla. This episode covers: Tulip Siddiq's resignation and what it reveals about the challenges facing the workplace that is 10 Downing Street An interview with Barbara Kellerman, founding member of the Harvard Kennedy School, about he...
Jan 20, 2025•37 min
Julia Hobsbawm interviews Syreeta Brown, Group Chief People & Communications Officer at Virgin Money. They explore the huge changes that have taken place in the workforce in recent years, whether those changes can be unravelled and discuss how ripping up the rule book can help to get, grow and retain great talent. Also featured is a clip from an upcoming interview with Barbara Kellerman, renowned leadership writer and academic. She discusses the upcoming inauguration of President Trump, like...
Jan 13, 2025•36 min
This is a tribute to a dear friend of The Nowhere Office , Charles Handy, the management writer, who died this week aged 92. Julia Hobsbawm and Stefan Stern are joined by the FT’s Andrew Hill to discuss Handy's life and legacy, his extremely sharp predictions about work, the humanism at the heart of his thinking, and his unconventional practices like ‘empty chair’ exercises. We have included an interview with Charles Handy from the very first episode of The Nowhere Office . In this episode's My ...
Dec 20, 2024•49 min
Julia Hobsbawm speaks with Peter Miscovich, Executive Managing Director and Global Future of Work Leader at JLL, to explore the past, present, and future of offices around the world. They discuss the tech transformations in workplaces, quantum computing on the horizon and the massive changes in the past 50 years of work. In this episode's My Working Life segment, we hear from Birgitte Stoerger of AuPairCare. With years of experience matching au pairs with families, Birgitte shares the joys of he...
Dec 12, 2024•43 min
For this My Working Life edition of the Nowhere Office, Julia Hobsbawm is joined by Iain Dale to discuss his career as a broadcaster, author, publisher, editor, lobbyist and much more. This week’s My Working Life segment features Olivia Alexander, a SoulCycle instructor. Olivia shares how the pandemic disrupted her musical theatre career and how SoulCycle has not only "filled her cup" but also helped her navigate grief. This sponsored feature is brought to you by Whitefox—exceptional publishers ...
Dec 05, 2024•43 min
In this News from Nowhere, we bring you a conversation from a recent Workathon event in London: How the Media Works. Ravi Mattu, managing editor of The New York Times' DealBook, and Matthew D’Ancona, editor of The New European, joined Julia Hobsbawm to discuss the state of the media. Stefan Stern talks to journalist Carole Cadwalladr about the Tortoise-Observer deal. Carole shares candid views on paywalled versus free journalism and what she describes as the breathtaking arrogance and contempt o...
Nov 29, 2024•46 min
In this episode of The Nowhere Office , Julia Hobsbawm is joined by author and speaker Terence Mauri to discuss his new book The Upside of Disruption: The Path to Leading and Thriving in the Unknown. Terence explores the risks of standing still in an age of rapid change and shares how a serious accident reshaped his career and perspective. The conversation covers warm and cold AI, future readiness, and his philosophy of reduction. This week’s My Working Life features Declan Hogan, CFO of O’Dwyer...
Nov 25, 2024•33 min
In this episode of The Nowhere Office , Julia Hobsbawm and Stefan Stern welcome leadership coach and author Tiffany Gaskell, who has updated Sir John Whitmore’s classic Coaching for Performance for its sixth edition. Since it was first published, the book has sold over one million copies. They explore coaching’s origins in sports, the evolution of leadership styles, the impact of the pandemic on leadership, and whether AI could disrupt traditional coaching models. This week’s My Working Life fea...
Nov 15, 2024•28 min
In this episode of The Nowhere Office, Julia Hobsbawm and Stefan Stern dive into Google’s new AI NotebookLM, debate Big Tech’s increasingly inhuman approach to innovation, and explore the lasting influence of management guru Peter Drucker. This week’s My Working Life features a conversation with Bobby Healy, the founder of pioneering drone delivery service Manna, and Rory Sutherland, renowned ad-man and unlikely Tik-Tok star. The Nowhere Office is a Fully Connected Production, in association wit...
Nov 11, 2024•25 min
In an addition to the regular Nowhere Office theme-led show is now a weekly episode looking at the headlines affecting the world of work. To kick off our additional show this week Julia Hobsbawm and Stefan Stern are joined by Bloomberg's Irina Anghel to talk about the impact of Donald Trump's re-election as President of the United States on work, working life and workers. The Nowhere Office is a Fully Connected Production brought to you in association with Sandstone Global Productions. Music by ...
Nov 07, 2024•27 min
In this week's episode of The Nowhere Office , fresh off the UK government's budget announcement, Julia Hobsbawm and Stefan Stern welcome economist Vicky Pryce. They delve into the Economy of Work , exploring workforce inactivity and persistent challenges to productivity, with a special focus on the overlooked challenges faced by women in the workforce and the economic cost of prisons. In our My Working Life segment, meet an entrepreneurial couple who run a cutting-edge retreat in the Bavarian A...
Nov 01, 2024•32 min
In this episode of The Nowhere Office, Julia Hobsbawm and Stefan Stern discuss hot topics in the world of work. They consider how McDonalds and restaurant tips have become political footballs in the US election and debate the appointment of Mariella Frostrup as Menopause Employment Ambassador in the UK. Tom Redmayne of Industrious, a flex workspace giant, is in the studio to discuss the offices of today and tomorrow, our changing cityscapes and his fears about burgeoning debts in the corporate r...
Oct 29, 2024•35 min
In this episode of The Nowhere Office , Julia Hobsbawm and Stefan Stern grapple with tensions at the UK's recent Investment Summit including the fallout from Louise Haigh’s comments about P&O Ferries and DP World. They ask pressing questions about the world of work: How can governments be pro-business and pro-worker? Is legislation the answer to rapid changes in AI? What impact will a much-anticipated National Insurance hike have on employers? We've got expert guests from the world of food t...
Oct 21, 2024•27 min
On The Nowhere Office , Julia Hobsbawm and Stefan Stern dive into the essential news from the world of work, covering the UK Government’s new employment plan, the dockworkers’ strike and union power in the US, and return-to-office mandates from the likes of Amazon CEO Andy Jassy. Julia channels her inner Kemi Badenoch and Stefan offers sage advice from the world of management. Also joining the conversation is Sue Duke of LinkedIn who sounds the alarm about a growing shortage of skilled workers, ...
Oct 15, 2024•32 min
Given that hybrid working is here to stay we hear from one of the leading companies providing smart video conferencing which makes everyone feel that bit more connected – Frank Weishaupt, CEO of Boston-based Owl Labs, who gives a highly informative and data-rich interview covering everything from attitudes to flexible work through to whether we’ll all be meeting in the Metaverse in the future – or not. Also in this episode we hear from the Financial Times features writer Emma Jacobs, who frequen...
Sep 13, 2024•38 min
Wouldn't work be great if the human was put at the heart of the experience of working? And how do the all-too-human issues of conflict and difference play their part in well running workplaces with satisfied workers and customers? In a wide-ranging and candid discussion KeyAnna Schmiedel, Chief Human Experience Officer of leading talent and employee reward and recognition platform Workhuman talks about this with Julia Hobsbawm. Also in this episode we hear about how award-winning writer and New ...
Jul 01, 2024•45 min
Plus: My Working Life with Tina Fordham This episode sees Julia Hobsbawm and Stefan Stern discuss whether a 32-hour working week with no loss of pay can work across the board and if not why not? To argue the case they are joined by Joe Ryle of 4dayweek the British campaign. Also in this episode we hear about how geopolitical strategist Tina Fordham of Fordham Global Foresight works in a new feature bringing a snapshot of working life to our audience. My Working Life is brought to you in associat...
Jun 05, 2024•34 min
We begin a brand new series this spring with the wisdom and optimism of one of the great legends in HR practice, strategy, and thought leadership: Josh Bersin. Josh is often cited as one of the leading HR and workplace industry analysts in the world. Most recently, Bersin launched the Josh Bersin Academy, the world’s first global development academy for HR and talent professionals at all levels and across all industries. You can listen to the beginning of this interview and then head for more co...
Apr 22, 2024•12 min
