PODCAST · science
The Human Risk Podcast
by Human Risk
People are often described as the largest asset in most organisations. They are also the biggest single cause of risk. This podcast explores the topic of 'human risk', or "the risk of people doing things they shouldn't or not doing things they should", and examines how behavioural science can help us mitigate it. It also looks at 'human reward', or "how to get the most out of people". When we manage human risk, we often stifle human reward. Equally, when we unleash human reward, we often inadvertently increase human risk. To pitch guests please email [email protected]
Episodes
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Dr Nina Burrowes on All Reasonable Steps: The Psychology of Sexual Harassment Prevention
What does it actually take to prevent sexual harassment at work? Policies, training, reporting mechanisms and statements of zero tolerance are one thing. Creating a workplace where sexual harassment is genuinely less likely to happen is something else entirely. Episode Summary In this episode, I...
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Professor Alex Edmans on the Madness of Markets — Why Smart People Make Crazy Decisions
What can financial markets teach us about human behaviour? Why might the size of a CEO’s signature tell us something useful about the company they run? And why, even when smart investors know something is probably a bubble, might they keep investing anyway? Episode Summary My guest on this…
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Lyndon Nelson & Gavin Stewart on Building Better Regulators
What if understanding regulation could help us spot when politicians are promising the impossible? Regulation sounds simple in theory. Something poses a risk, so we create rules and a regulator to control it. In practice, things get complicated very quickly. It's something we all benefit from…
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Roger Dooley on The Persuasion Engine
What if AI could help us understand people better, rather than simply replacing what humans do? Episode summary How can we use AI to become better at persuasion, communication and understanding human behaviour? My guest on this episode is Roger Dooley, author of The Persuasion Engine, a new book...
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Annie Wagstaff on The Joy of Curiosity
What’s the last thing you learned simply because you wanted to know? Episode summary Why do we feel the need to justify what we learn? My guest on this episode is Annie Wagstaff, a musician and composer whose career has taken her around the world touring with Take That and into writing music for...
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Paul Craven on Living With Uncertainty
What happens when someone who spends his life thinking about risk, decision-making and human behaviour is confronted with an uncertainty he simply can’t control? Episode summary My guest is Paul Craven, a behavioural scientist, former investment professional, magician and keynote speaker, and one...
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Benji Wilson on why we rate everything
Why do we rate everything and why do we do so on a scale of one to five stars? What happens when systems designed to help us make better choices start influencing our behaviour in ways we don’t necessarily notice? Episode Summary My guest is Benji Wilson, a journalist, TV critic and author of…
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Mark Heywood on The Stories We Tell About Ourselves
What parts of yourself have you learned to hide in order to be taken seriously? My guest on this episode is Mark Heywood, a friend of the show, returning guest and someone I've collaborated with on a number of projects. Episode Summary & Guest Profile Mark has spent more than twenty years working...
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Gill Kernick on Grenfell - the disaster we still haven't learned from
When something goes badly wrong, we investigate it. Reports are written. Recommendations are made. Lessons are identified. But do we actually learn them? Episode Summary Returning to the show, Gill Kernick joins me to discuss the substantially revised second edition of her book about the Grenfell...
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Anna Rössler on Finding Your Voice — Online, On Stage and At Work
What does jazz singing have to do with LinkedIn? More than you might think. This week's guest, Anna Rössler, has built a career helping senior leaders find their voice online while simultaneously developing her own as a singer-songwriter. Rather than separating her professional and creative...
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David Grosse on The Unconvention
What happens when two people who spend their careers thinking about human behaviour meet in a London pub and start complaining about conferences? Apparently, they decide to organise one. Episode Summary In this episode I'm joined by David Grosse, founder of behavioural risk advisory firm Behavor,...
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Freewheeling on Human Risk with Thomas Ableman
Why is it so hard to stop people playing vides, music or phone calls out loud on public transport — and what does that tell us about changing human behaviour? Show Summary This episode of The Human Risk Podcast is a little different. It is a cross-cast from The Freewheeling Podcast, hosted by...
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Jill Wick on The Human Side of Cybersecurity
What if the best way to improve cybersecurity — or any other form of human risk — wasn't another policy, training course, or piece of technology, but a board game? That's the kind of question my guest, Jill Wick, loves asking. Episode Summary Jill is a cybersecurity awareness consultant, business...
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Tobias Sturesson: from cult to corporate culture
What can businesses learn from cults? It might sound like an uncomfortable comparison: one involves strategy meetings, values statements and quarterly targets; the other manipulation, charismatic leaders and extreme behaviour. But perhaps the distinction isn't as clear as we'd like to think. Both...
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Will Tarrant on Service: Closing the gap between brand promise and reality
What makes great service? It’s one of those things we instantly recognise when we experience it, but struggle to define. And while organisations spend huge amounts of time trying to design seamless customer experiences, the reality is that service doesn’t happen in strategy documents or training...
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Dr Carissa Véliz on Prophecy
What if prediction isn’t about knowing the future, but controlling it? On this episode, I'm joined by a leading thinker on digital ethics, privacy and technology to explore the idea of prophecy. Episode Summary My guest is Dr Carissa Véliz and in our discussion, we talk about humanity’s...
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Dr C Thi Nguyen on How to stop playing someone else's game
We like to think we choose what matters. But what if the goals we’re chasing… aren’t actually ours? Episode Summary My guest on this episode is Dr. C. Thi Nguyen, philosopher and author of The Score: How to Stop Playing Somebody Else’s Game, a book about how metrics, scoring systems, and “games”...
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Phil Dobson on Cognitive Leadership
We tend to assume that if we’re working hard, we’re working well. But what if that isn’t true? Episode Summary My guest on this episode is Phil Dobson, author of The Brain Book and founder of Brain Workshops, about what he calls 'cognitive leadership': using neuroscience and psychology to help...
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Professor Mark Stoyle on The Western Rising of 1549
What lessons does a religious protest that led to an uprising in 1549 have to do with human risk? At first glance, not very much. It’s easy to see it as a distant historical event — something about religion, kings, and a very different world. But as my guest, Professor Mark Stoyle explains, the...
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Jeffrey Ludlow on What A Sign Is...
What exactly is a sign? At first glance, that might sound like a strange question. Signs are everywhere: telling us where to go, what to do, what not to do, and sometimes what might happen if we ignore instructions. But as my guest, Jeffrey Ludlow Saentz explains, signs are much more than bits of...
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Marc Ross on The Art of The Negroni
What Can a Cocktail Teach Us About Curiosity and Creativity? At first glance, documenting Negronis around the world might sound like a frivolous hobby. But could a simple cocktail become a vehicle for curiosity, experimentation and creative thinking? On this episode, I speaks with geopolitical...
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Tom & Sue Hardin On Wired On Wall Street
What’s the difference between a mistake… and a bad decision? My guest knows this only too well. Tom Hardin has been on the show several times before. As Tipper X, he wore a wire for the FBI and helped build the largest insider trading investigation in US history. Since then, he has spent nearly a...
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Charlie Hurst, Tom Noble and Will Sudlow on Flat White or F*ck Off
What happens when someone runs with a business idea they've heard as a thought experiment on a podcast? Can a business have an expletive in its name? And is it possible to run a business that sells a single very specific product? Episode Summary On this episode, I’m joined by Charlie Hurst, Tom...
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Amy Watson on Violence Against Women & Girls
What if we stopped telling women how to stay safe, and started asking why violence against them keeps happening in the first place? On this episode, I’m joined for a second time, by Amy Watson, the founder of social enterprise HASSL. She’s trying to tackle violence against women and girls at its...
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Professor Veronica Root Martinez on Purpose-Driven Compliance
Who determines what 'good' Compliance actually looks like? The obvious answer is regulators (and in some jurisdictions) prosecutors. But what if it were the regulated Firms themselves? That's the idea behind purpose-driven compliance, which I'm exploring on this episode. Episode Summary To…
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Professor Tina Weisser on Trusting AI In An Uncertain World
As Artificial Intelligence (AI) gets smarter and tkaes over more tasks, what happens to human dynamics like trust, transparency, leadership and empathy. How can humans and machines wowrk togehter effectively? And how can leaders lead in this new world? Episode Summary AI is often discussed as a...
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Becky Holmes on Romance Scams
What lies behind Romance Fraud? Romance fraud is one of the fastest-growing forms of fraud worldwide, and one of the most emotionally devastating. It’s also one of the most misunderstood. On this episode, I’m speaking to Becky Holmes, author of the bestselling book Keanu Reeves Is Not in Love…
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Amy Kean on Grief
Why do we struggle to talk about grief? Why that matters and what we can do about it, is the subject of this episode. Summary Grief is something almost all of us will experience, and yet something we still struggle to talk about openly. Not because it’s rare, but because it makes us…
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Dr Guy Champniss on Business, BeSci and AI
Are we losing our ability to think critically as we rely more on AI? Episode Summary My guest is social psychologist Dr Guy Champniss to explore the role of behavioural science in business and the emerging challenges of AI in the workplace. We discuss why behaviour change is so hard to sell, the...
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Professor Yuval Feldman on Can The Public Be Trusted?
Why do governments rely on coercion and punishment when voluntary cooperation often produces better, more sustainable outcomes? Episode Summary On this episode, I’m joined once again by Professor Yuval Feldman, who returns to explore the core question behind his latest book: Can The Public Be...
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Dr Michael Hallsworth on The Hypocrisy Trap
We all intuitively know that hypocrisy is a bad thing. But what if it isn’t a flaw, but a feature? But maybe the real problem isn’t hypocrisy, it’s how we think about it. Episode Summary On this episode, I'm talking to Dr Michael Hallsworth, a leading behavioural scientist and the author of The...
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James Geary on The Art of The Aphorism
Can a single sentence change the way you see the world? My guest on this episode, James Geary thinks so. Episode Summary On this episode, I speak with writer and journalist James, whose lifelong fascination with aphorisms — the world’s shortest literary form — reveals why brevity really is the…
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Dr Nicholas Wright on How the Brain Shapes War and War Shapes The Brain
What can war teach us about how the human brain really works? And why is human decision-making a more significant factor than military strength in wars? Episode Summary On this episode, I'm exploring how the human brain truly manifests in conflict—and what that reveals about everyday...
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Dr Nikolay Kukushkin on Memory
What if your body is learning things your mind doesn’t know? What if memory wasn't just something that our brain has? Episode Summary On this episode, I'm exploring a bold idea with neuroscientist Dr Nikolay Kukushkin: memory doesn’t just live in the brain. It might be a basic property of life...
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Richard Chataway on Designing AI for Humans
What if the biggest AI risk isn’t bias or data, but human behaviour itself? How might AI impact the people using it and what does that mean for how we design solutions and deploy the technology? Episode Summary On this episode, I’m joined by a returning guest. Richard Chataway is a behavioural...
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Tom Hardin On Turning A Crime Into A Calling
What happens when the worst thing you’ve ever done becomes the foundation for your life’s work? Episode Summary My guest on this episode is Tom Hardin, otherwise known as Tipper X. He's been on the show before, but this time we're tackling a different angle. If you don’t already know his story…
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James Healy on BS at Work (Bullshit & Behavioural Science)
Why do so many workplaces run on bullshit processes and procedures? And how might Behavioural Science help resolve them? Episode Summary In this episode, I sit down with author, speaker and advisor James Healy to explore his book BS at Work — and the everyday nonsense we all recognise inside...
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Pep Rosenfeld on Work Laugh Balance
What if the most powerful tool at work isn’t logic, but laughter? On this episode I'm speaking to a comedian who far from thinking humour is a workplace distraction, thinks it might be one of our most powerful tools. Episode Summary My guest is Pep Rosenfeld: comedian, improviser, and co-founder…
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Ella Jenkins & Pete Dyson on Why Do Cyclists Run Red Lights?
Why do cyclists in London run red lights? It's against the law, and yet, if you've cycled, driven or just observed London's cyclists, you'll know that many of them don't stop when there's a red light. Confession time: I'm one of them. Not all the time, but some of the time, and weirdly not when…
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Dr Nuno Reis on Rare Dots
What if the ideas that linger in the back of your mind — the ones you can’t quite explain — are the ones you most need to pay attention to? Episode Summary In this episode, I explore that question with Dr Nuno Reis, a former physicist and investment banker turned thinker and guide in uncovering...
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Professor Christian van Nieuwberg on Radical Listening
Is listening a hidden superpower we’ve overlooked? You've heard of Active Listening, but what is Radical Listening and why does it matter? Episode Summary On this episode, I’m joined by Professor Christian van Nieuwerburgh, an academic who also describes himself as 'Coach on a Motorcycle'. He's…
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Dr Sunita Sah on Defiance - how to speak up when it matters
Why do we follow orders or go along with things that feel wrong? Why might defiance be better than compliance? And how can we go about becoming more defiant? Episode Summary I’ve always been fascinated by why people obey, even when it clashes with their instincts or values. In this conversation,...
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Dr Libby Maman on Measuring and (Re-)building Trust
What happens when citizens lose faith in the institutions that serve them? And how can we rebuild that trust? Episode Summary On this episode, I'm speaking to someone who cares passionately about this subject and who has made it her life's work to research and solve it. From politicians who lie…
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Iain Morrison on When The Show Mustn't Go On
We’ve all heard the phrase ‘the show must go on’. But when shouldn’t the show go on? To help me answer that, I’m speaking to someone who has spent 35 years managing some of Australia’s most iconic large-scale events — from Taylor Swift concerts to public city spectacles with crowds over 200,000,...
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Zsike Peter on Thinkbait
What if the real risk of AI isn’t job loss but brain atrophy? Episode Summary If you've spent any time on social media recently, you'll be familiar with the flood of low-quality AI-generated sludge. And on this episode, I'm speaking to someone who is leading a one-woman campaign against it and in...
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Dr Kiran Bhatti & Professor Thomas Roulet on Wellbeing Intelligence
What if we treated mental health like a capability instead of a crisis? On this episode, I'm talking to a business school professor and a counselling psychologist about their new book that looks at practical ways we can manage mental health. Not after it manifests itself, but beforehand. Episode...
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Tahira Endean on Joy as a KPI (or why live events need to be more joyful)
What if joy became the most important metric when we organised events? Or, to put it another way, why are so many events uninspiring and not very joyful? Episode Summary On this episode, I’m joined by event strategist, educator, and author Tahira Endean to explore a provocative question: what if…
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Claus Raasted on Getting Shit Done
Why is getting shit done so hard, and what can we do about it? Episode Summary Getting shit done isn’t just about motivation or tools, it’s about design. In this episode, I speak to Claus Raasted: consultant, author, speaker, experience designer, and someone who describes himself — with tongue...
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Katy Diggory on communicating across borders
What happens when a British communications expert takes her political instincts and corporate storytelling skills to Germany? 🎙️ Overview On this episode, I speak with Katy Diggory, who’s done exactly that — and learned a lot about tone, culture, and translation along the way. It’s a brilliant...
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Kevin Evers on The Strategic Genius of Taylor Swift
What can a global pop icon teach us about business strategy? In the case of Taylor Swift, more than you might think. Episode Summary On this episode, I’m joined by Kevin Evers, senior editor at Harvard Business Review and the author of There's Nothing Like This: The Strategic Genius of Taylor...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
People are often described as the largest asset in most organisations. They are also the biggest single cause of risk. This podcast explores the topic of 'human risk', or "the risk of people doing things they shouldn't or not doing things they should", and examines how behavioural science can help us mitigate it. It also looks at 'human reward', or "how to get the most out of people". When we manage human risk, we often stifle human reward. Equally, when we unleash human reward, we often inadvertently increase human risk.
To pitch guests please email [email protected]
HOSTED BY
Human Risk
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