What happens when a journalist investigates one of the biggest scams in history? My guest on this episode, Jamie Bartlett is the author of ‘The Missing Cryptoqueen’, which tells the tale of his multi-year investigation into the disappearance of Dr Ruja Ignatova. Dr Ruja is the founder of OneCoin, a cryptocurrency that sold itself as an alternative to Bitcoin but was instead a pyramid-style scam which relieved people from 175 countries of at least £4 billion. The Missing Cryptoqueen is also the t...
Jun 23, 2022•1 hr 7 min
How did a journalist with a relentless appetite for the truth, bring down a $30bn German tech company? The company in question is Wirecard and the journalist is my guest on this episode, FT reporter Dan McCrum. He’s just released a new book called ‘Money Men: A Hot Startup, A Billion Dollar Fraud, A Fight For The Future’ in which he explores both the story of Wirecard and its downfall and the efforts he went to as a journalist to investigate it. In what was one of the — if not *the* — financial ...
Jun 17, 2022•59 min
How can we be better at negotiating and why does it matter? When we think of negotiation, we tend to think of formal situations like buying a house, sealing a business deal or getting a hostage released. But it also applies to many of our day to day conversations, where we’re looking to achieve a particular outcome. My guest on this episode Fotini Iconomopoulos had a childhood nickname of ‘The Negotiator’ and she’s been doing it ever since then. Fotini specialises in helping executives around th...
Jun 12, 2022•1 hr 1 min
What is Creative Courage & why do we need it? On this special episode of the show — which I’m releasing between the normal schedule — my guest James Victore helps me to explore why being creative is a matter of courage and why we should embrace it. A word of warning: the episode contains lots of adult language. It’s also one that some regular listeners will absolutely love and some o really won’t. Which is ok from my perspective. The point of the podcast isn’t to produce bland content that m...
Jun 04, 2022•1 hr
Why did a group of hackers with links to North Korea launch a cyber attack on Sony Pictures in 2014? That’s what journalist Geoff White set to find out. In doing so, over a period of several years, he uncovered a trail of criminal activity that included a bank heist, data leaks and money laundering. On this episode, Geoff, whose new book The Lazarus Heist tells the story of what he discovered, explains how Geoff came to investigate the story, how he went about researching it and the lessons he’s...
Jun 02, 2022•1 hr 1 min
What is ESG and why might it lead to poor decision-making? You probably know it’s short for Environmental, Social, and Governance; an acronym that covers three topics of interest to investors. In simple terms, three things they look for to determine how environmentally and socially conscious the company is. Or in even simpler terms, is this a good, ethical company? As regular listeners will know, this isn’t an investment podcast, so what’s the human risk angle here? Well, metrics like ESG are a ...
May 29, 2022•1 hr
How can we manage the ethical challenges faced in business? On this special episode of the show, I’m speaking to Professor Josephine Nelson, the co-author of a brand new book called ‘Business Ethics: What Everyone Needs To Know’. Josephine — who publishes as JS Nelson — is a Professor of Business Ethics (Law) at Villanova Law School and is currently a visiting professor at Harvard business school. The episode is special because I’m releasing it just a few days after recording as an extra episode...
May 24, 2022•1 hr 10 min
How can we implement Behavioural Science in larger organisations? On this episode, I’m doing a deep dive into practical Behavioural Science with three practitioners from across the globe, who talk about some of the projects they’ve been working on. My guests are all from Ogilvy Consulting, a leading Behavioural Science practice and each work in different regions. Heather Watson heads up Ogilvy’s North American BeSci team from Austin, Texas, Dan Bennett is responsible for the UK and is based in L...
May 21, 2022•1 hr 3 min
How can we travel adventurously while still being sustainable? I’m a huge fan of exploring, but I’m also very conscious of my environmental footprint. On this episode, I’m speaking to Sustainable Adventurer Wiebe Wakker. He’s a Dutchman who likes exploring the world in an environmentally friendly ways. Wiebe came to my attention earlier this year when we went from Amsterdam to Dubai by train for an environmental conference. That wasn’t his first adventure. He’d previously spent 3.5 years travell...
May 14, 2022•1 hr 5 min
How can charities use Behavioural Science to be more effective at fundraising? It’s a question a number of listeners have asked me to explore; either because they work for charities or because they want to help their favourite causes to raise more money. Even if neither of those things apply, what we can learn from how charities can be better at raising funds, is relevant in other contexts. My guest on this episode is Maddie Croucher, a behavioural science practitioner who specialises in interve...
May 07, 2022•52 min
What does behaviour have to do with procurement? On the face of it, not much. But as my guest on this episode David Loseby explains, behind every procurement and supply chain operation, there are human beings involved in the design and management of the processes. In other words, they’re areas that present huge opportunities for human risk to manifest itself. As David, who specialises in helping companies to manage the behavioural dynamics behind operational decisions, explains, there are trade-...
Apr 30, 2022•1 hr 8 min
What makes a good leader? When we think of leaders, we often imagine lone, inspirational figures lauded for their behaviours, attributes, and personal decisions. However, leaders also have an impact on the way people around them make decisions. My guest on this episode is Professor Don Moore. Don is the Lorraine Tyson Mitchell Chair in Leadership and Communication at Berkeley Haas and serves as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. Don is the co-author of a book with Professor Max Bazerman called...
Apr 23, 2022•58 min
What distinguishes a good leader from a bad one? My guest on this episode, Wendy Lambourne is a proponent of Legitimate Leadership — the idea that to have real power, leaders need to have legitimacy. Not by dint of being appointed, but by the way in which they fulfil their role. She believes that leaders stand or fall at the end of the day on the basis of their intent, or motive. Or to put it another way, whether they’re in the relationship to give to their people, or to get something out of the...
Apr 15, 2022•1 hr 3 min
When we need to solve problems, we often think we need to develop new ideas. But what if that were wrong? On this episode, I’m joined by Behavioural Science practitioner Sam Tatam whose new book Evolutionary Ideas shows how behavioural science and evolutionary psychology can help us solve tomorrow’s challenges. Not by divining something the world has never seen, but by borrowing from yesterday’s solutions – often in the most unexpected ways. Sam is Global Head of Behavioural Science at Ogilvy. H...
Apr 08, 2022•1 hr
How do we measure the effectiveness of Compliance programs? It sounds like a simple question, but it is actually hard to answer. And it's not just a challenge facing Compliance Officers. If you work in Ethics, Risk or even as a Regulator, you'll recognise the dynamic. You've probably either been asked to demonstrate the effectiveness of your program or had questions asked about your budget or resources. And usually, that's not because they want to give you more. It's equally possible that you mi...
Apr 02, 2022•1 hr 4 min
Ever had a terrible customer experience? Of course, you have. They’re very common. But why? My guest Michael Bartlett has just written a book on the dark side of customer experience - in other words, the processes that companies engage in that irritate the hell out of us. The purpose of Michael’s book isn’t — you’ll be pleased to hear – to help companies make their processes more irritating. Rather it's to help them identify when they might inadvertently do things that will turn otherwise loyal ...
Mar 26, 2022•57 min
Why might an innocuous-sounding word we all use, result in a social injustice? The answer is: when that word is ‘accident’. It’s something we hear all the time. “Sorry, it was just an accident” or “there’s been a traffic accident’. But have you ever stopped to think about the impact the word has? I hadn’t until I read the book by my guest journalist Jessie Singer. In ‘There Are No Accidents’, she explains that the vast majority of mishaps are not random but predictable and preventable. What’s mo...
Mar 19, 2022•1 hr 1 min
Why might insubordination be a good thing? Normally when we use that word, it’s seen as a negative. But there’s an alternative interpretation, where insubordination is seen as a positive, constructive challenge to traditional orthodoxy. For ideas to evolve and societies to progress — in other words, if we want to mitigate human risk - we need to cultivate rebels who are committed to challenging conventional wisdom and improving on it. But change is never easy. And it's not easy being a rebel. Pa...
Mar 12, 2022•1 hr 13 min
What should you listen to when you’ve heard the entire Human Risk podcast back catalogue? I'm glad you asked. Because one of the aims of the show is to explore ideas, stories and people that can help to inspire us to think differently about human risk. And that includes pointing you in the direction of other content producers who have interesting things to say. On this special episode, I’m introducing a fellow podcaster who produces content that I think you’ll find interesting. Daniel Ross is th...
Mar 10, 2022•1 hr 4 min
Why should businesses get involved in politics? Traditionally companies have tried to avoid getting involved in political issues, because remaining apolitical, means you avoid offending anyone. But in the 21st century, there is an increasing expectation that companies will take a position. As we’ve seen with the invasion of Ukraine, businesses have been taking steps to engage with the public mood. Some have ceased doing business in or with Russia or Russian clients, others have provided humanita...
Mar 03, 2022•1 hr 5 min
What drives people to follow careers that involve dangerous activities like skydiving & stunts? My guest is Nicole Smith-Ludvik, a professional skydiver and stuntwoman. Last year, Nicole starred in two incredible advertisements for Emirates, the Dubai based airline which featured Nicole standing on the top of the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa. If you haven’t seen the advertisements — and I recommend watching them before you listen to the show — then you can watch them here: Orig...
Feb 26, 2022•53 min
Why would a bicycle delivery company ban its riders from wearing helmets? Depending on where you're reading this, you'll either think it's normal — hello, for example, to my Netherland's based listeners 🇳🇱 — or irresponsible. On this episode, I'm speaking to Ben Knowles, the CEO of PedalMe who is the man behind the company that made that decision. I'd heard of PedalMe, but not their policy. That changed, when they posted a thread on Social Media explaining the rationale behind it. Not only did...
Feb 22, 2022•1 hr 6 min
Why is something that happened in Iceland in 2008 still of relevance today? The answer is revealed by my guest Jared Bibler. He's the author of a book called 'Iceland's Secret: The Untold Story of the World's Biggest Con'. Having started his career working for a Wall Street Bank, Jared moved to Iceland in 2004, supporting the Icelandic pension funds' foreign investments. He resigned from his job at a leading Icelandic bank days before the 2008 Icelandic financial crisis and was subsequently hire...
Feb 18, 2022•1 hr 5 min
How can comic books reduce human risk? We've all seen airline safety cards that use imagery to communicate complex messages in a simple to understand way. So why couldn't we use that same logic for legal contracts? That's what my guest Professor Camilla Andersen, set out to discover when she stumbled across the idea during a conversation with a colleague. That led to the creation of Comic Book Contracts (CBCs). In our discussion, Camilla talks to me about the genesis of the idea and how CBCs are...
Feb 11, 2022•1 hr 3 min
How can we become more influential? That’s a question that fascinates my guest on this episode, Dr Zoe Chance. She teaches a course on it at Yale and has just published a new book called Influence Is Your Superpower: The Science of Winning Hearts, Sparking Change, and Making Good Things Happen. In our discussion, we explore the simple ways in which we can all be more influential and how that can help us to fulfil our potential. To learn more about Zoe visit her website: https://www.zoechance.com...
Feb 06, 2022•1 hr
This episode is the second part of my discussion with Gill Kernick about the Grenfell Tower Disaster and the broader lessons we can draw from it. In the previous episode, Gill and I talked about Grenfell. I recommend listening to that before listening to this one. You'll find it here: https://www.humanriskpodcast.com/gill-kernick-on-the-grenfell-tower-disaster-part-one/ Using historical examples like the 17th century Great Fire of London and a fire in the late 1990s at a gas plant in Australia, ...
Jan 27, 2022•31 min
What can we learn from the UK's largest residential fire since World War Two, in which 72 people died? The Grenfell Tower disaster happened in the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, one of London's wealthiest areas. As a result of catastrophic decision-making — both by those responsible for maintaining the building and those responding to the fire — what should have been a containable fire turned into a blazing inferno. In this episode, I explore how those decisions were made and what we...
Jan 21, 2022•1 hr 9 min
How did the Post Office deliver one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in British history? My guest Nick Wallis, is a journalist and radio presenter who has written a book called The Great Post Office Scandal which explains how a billion pound IT system, unleashed an enormous legal, ethical and political scandal. As Nick explains on the show, hundreds of sub-postmasters were alleged to have engaged in theft, false accounting and/or fraud and were taken to court by the Post Office. This resul...
Jan 15, 2022•1 hr 3 min
What does Sustainability have to do with Compliance? On this episode, I’m speaking to a Compliance innovator that has combined both. Dr Sarah Tischler is Head of Compliance for NKG, the world’s largest coffee trading company. Since NKG is privately owned and isn’t operating in a regulated industry, on the face of it, they’re not the kind of company you might naturally expect to have a compliance function. And up until a few years ago, they didn’t. Until Sarah came along and persuaded them that t...
Jan 07, 2022•1 hr 7 min
What is kindness and why does it matter? One of my New Year's resolutions for 2022 is to be kinder to others. So, in this episode, I'm learning more about what being kind means — spoiler alert, it doesn't mean always being nice — and why that matters. My guest Sebastian Boo is a trainer, tutor and researcher at the London School of Economics and Political Science and the founder of Kindness Advantage Ltd, a company that brings kindness training to the workplace. So he knows what he's talking abo...
Jan 02, 2022•1 hr 3 min
