At the Coalface

In this episode, I speak with Jeff Dodson. Jeff shares his life and leadership lessons from his multiple careers, first as an investment banker working on Wall Street, then in the beverage industry, then pivoting to the executive search business, and most recently as a high school teacher. In our conversation, we reflect on what characterises the best leaders, what they think about in the shower, why leaders struggle to let go, how to manage a pivot, and what it’s like being a teacher. Recorded on 19 November 2024. Connect with Jeff on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/jeff-dodson-13839114/. Jeff's recent book, "Sculpting the Mists", is available on Amazon and can be ordered from bookstores in the U.S. Instagram: @at.the.coalface And don’t forget to subscribe to At the Coalface for new episodes every two weeks. Help us produce more episodes by becoming a supporter. Your subscription will go towards paying our hosting and production costs. Supporters get the opportunity to join behind the scenes during recordings, updates about the podcast, and my deep gratitude! Support the show

In this episode, I speak with Jivan Gjorginski. Together we dive into the complexities of diplomatic efforts to regulate biological and toxins weapons that Jivan has been spearheading. We also touch on his earlier work on lethal autonomous weapons. Jivan reflects on his personal journey, straddling Macedonia and Canada, and how his drive for calming things down guided his decisions and career. Recorded on 2 October 2024. Connect with Jivan on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/gjorgjinski. Jivan's podcast, "Diplomacy, Light", is available on Spotify. Instagram: @at.the.coalface And don’t forget to subscribe to At the Coalface for new episodes every two weeks. Help us produce more episodes by becoming a supporter. Your subscription will go towards paying our hosting and production costs. Supporters get the opportunity to join behind the scenes during recordings, updates about the podcast, and my deep gratitude! Support the show

In this episode, I speak with Ifeoma Okali. Ifeoma shares her journey growing up in Nigeria, finding her way into the legal profession, animated by a strong sense of the importance of equality and protecting civil rights in a society that was still very male dominated. We talk about her experience of 12 years working for the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the role of international law in bringing closure for victims of horrific conflicts. We conclude our conversation on what she found out about the state of Nigeria, in particular its judicial system, on her return, and how she is seeking to bring change today as an educator. Recorded on 26 September 2024. Connect with Ifeoma on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/ifeoma-okali-53293942. Instagram: @at.the.coalface And don’t forget to subscribe to At the Coalface for new episodes every two weeks. Help us produce more episodes by becoming a supporter. Your subscription will go towards paying our hosting and production costs. Supporters get the opportunity to join behind the scenes during recordings, updates about the podcast, and my deep gratitude! Support the show

In this episode, I speak with Adam Barbina. Adam shares his memories of growing up in rural Ohio in a hard working, religious and conservative family. After studying at a liberal grad school and living in New York City, Adam still remains connected to his roots and understands conservative viewpoints, wishing more people could see both sides. We talk about his career break into geostrategy consultancy and how the private sector grapples with geopolitical issues. Adam reflects on his difficult journey with health, his sense of gratitude, and how it’s shaped who he is today. Recorded on 31 October 2024. Connect with Adam on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/adam-barbina-2b076b3/. Instagram: @at.the.coalface And don’t forget to subscribe to At the Coalface for new episodes every two weeks. Help us produce more episodes by becoming a supporter. Your subscription will go towards paying our hosting and production costs. Supporters get the opportunity to join behind the scenes during recordings, updates about the podcast, and my deep gratitude! Support the show

In this episode, I speak with Zack Peterson. Zack founded 1000 Days Fund, an NGO addressing childhood stunting in Indonesia at a grassroots level with specially trained community health workers. Zack was working at the World Bank when he was confronted with the pernicious creep of stunting that was about to affect his daughter - and he decided to jump out and start his NGO. 1000 Days Fund has had incredible results, even with the painstaking work of tackling malnutrition household by household, challenging the conventional model of dumping food aid on people. Being in Zack’s presence to record this conversation moved me deeply, Zack is incredibly authentic and purpose-driven with a raw energy that I’m sure you’ll find infectious too. Recorded on 26 September 2024. Connect with Zack on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/zackpetersen1/. Watch the recently released documentary, Indonesia’s Silent Emergency: Stunting in Rural Populations. Instagram: @at.the.coalface And don’t forget to subscribe to At the Coalface for new episodes every two weeks. Help us produce more episodes by becoming a supporter. Your subscription will go towards paying our hosting and production costs. Supporters get the opportunity to join behind the scenes during recordings, updates about the podcast, and my deep gratitude! Support the show

In this episode, I speak with Carolina Neal. Carolina is originally from Costa Rica, a country with a deep connection to the wisdom of nature. Her grandmother, the powerful head of her family, had picked Carolina out among her many siblings for her smarts and sent her for higher education. Carolina’s life was destined for high political office, but love got in the way and she ended up in Joplin, Missouri. Carolina shares her fascinating reinvention, the way she connected the many dots in her life, and started restoring historical buildings with her husband, with an incredible impact on her new community. In our conversation, we reflect on what it takes to build roots and to nourish our inner purpose. Recorded on 25 September 2024. Connect with Carolina on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/carolina-neal-1275b19b. Instagram: @at.the.coalface And don’t forget to subscribe to At the Coalface for new episodes every two weeks. Help us produce more episodes by becoming a supporter. Your subscription will go towards paying our hosting and production costs. Supporters get the opportunity to join behind the scenes during recordings, updates about the podcast, and my deep gratitude! Support the show

Nino Kalandadze was one of our first guests on this podcast. Then, she spoke about her experience forged as a young politician while her country, Georgia, was fighting a war with Russia. In this conversation, Nino sheds light on the direction Georgian politics have taken, as a capture of state institutions is under way by interests aligned with Russia. The upcoming Parliamentary elections and the question of whether a peaceful transfer of power can occur will mark a turning point in the country’s history. Nino argues her country may fall behind a new Iron Curtain, reshaping Europe’s future. Recorded on 9 September 2024. Connect with Nino on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/ninokalandadze. Nino recommended the book A Little History of the World by E. H. Gombrich, Yale Books. Instagram: @at.the.coalface And don’t forget to subscribe to At the Coalface for new episodes every two weeks. Help us produce more episodes by becoming a supporter. Your subscription will go towards paying our hosting and production costs. Supporters get the opportunity to join behind the scenes during recordings, updates about the podcast, and my deep gratitude! Support the show

In this episode, I speak with Dana Dumitrascu. Dana just published a book, How To Discover Your Vocation. In our conversation, we explore Dana’s backstory and how she grew into becoming a vocational coach. Her book helps people, young and experienced in life, shed the conditioning we’ve all inherited about work and jobs, and look at vocation in a new way. Dana’s framework is practical and involves building on our natural inclinations to regain agency over what we choose to do. Her toolkit helps fill a void in meaning that individual pursuits never fully satisfy. Her advice takes on a spiritual dimension as she links vocation and fulfilment with serving others. Recorded on 3 September 2024. Connect with Dana on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/danatudosetianu. Dana's book is How to Discover Your Vocation [Amazon.com]. Instagram: @at.the.coalface And don’t forget to subscribe to At the Coalface for new episodes every two weeks. Help us produce more episodes by becoming a supporter. Your subscription will go towards paying our hosting and production costs. Supporters get the opportunity to join behind the scenes during recordings, updates about the podcast, and my deep gratitude! Support the show

In this episode, I speak with Bernard Zongo. Bernard’s story inspires me in so many ways. He grew up in a poor environment where the odds were stacked against him doing much with his life. His relentless determination to pursue education, with a sprinkle of help along the way, led him to blaze a path in local development, urbanism, humanitarian interventions in conflict zones and more recently, in stakeholder management for the mining sector. And this is far from the whole story: Bernard is accomplished in sports, theatre, music and writing, and has used his talents to shape political reform in Burkina Faso. I feel there is so much more to come for him, but let's learn from his already incredibly rich journey. Recorded on 16 August 2024. Corrigendum: Bernard's scholarship when at the University of Montréal was 450 Canadian dollars, not Euros (450 CAD was equiv. to 300 EUR). Bernard also refers to Botswana as an example of a country that wasn't colonised, when it was a British Protectorate. He intended to use the example of Ethiopia. In the conversation, Bernard mentions Professor Ian Kershaw's book, Hitler: A Biography. Connect with Bernard on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/bernard-zongo-316a1929. Instagram: @at.the.coalface And don’t forget to subscribe to At the Coalface for new episodes every two weeks. Help us produce more episodes by becoming a supporter. Your subscription will go towards paying our hosting and production costs. Supporters get the opportunity to join behind the scenes during recordings, updates about the podcast, and my deep gratitude! Support the show

In this episode, I speak with Michael Brasseur. Michael is a man of the seas, who’s made a living sailing the oceans for the US Navy and grappled with some of the most fascinating naval and security challenges of our time. Michael shares his leadership lessons from decades of building winning teams, summed up as having a vision, clear values and a strong culture. He talks about his journey of injecting imagination and creativity in NATO to incorporate robotics and AI as a resource multiplier in the Persian Gulf in record time: this is the story of Task Force 59. Recorded on 26 July 2024. Instagram: @at.the.coalface Connect with Michael on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/michael-d-brasseur-53b23645/. And don’t forget to subscribe to At the Coalface for new episodes every two weeks. Help us produce more episodes by becoming a supporter. Your subscription will go towards paying our hosting and production costs. Supporters get the opportunity to join behind the scenes during recordings, updates about the podcast, and my deep gratitude! Support the show

In this episode, I speak with Professor Diana Chigas. Diana is one of the foremost experts in international negotiation and conflict resolution. She has worked in El Salvador, South Africa, Ecuador and Peru and in the Georgia/South Ossetia peace process, facilitated inter-ethnic dialogue in Cyprus and in Central and East Africa. She co-directs the Corruption, Justice and Legitimacy Project that aims to improve the effectiveness of anti-corruption programming in fragile and conflict-affected contexts. In our conversation, we reflect on the evolution of the field of negotiation to encompass social factors such as identity and narratives, and the importance of systems thinking, with corruption as a key barrier to unlocking durable development. Recorded on 22 July 2024. Instagram: @at.the.coalface Connect with Diana on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/diana-chigas-732b283/. The organisation she co-leads has a fascinating blog accessible at corruptionjusticeandlegitimacy.org/blog. And don’t forget to subscribe to At the Coalface for new episodes every two weeks. Help us produce more episodes by becoming a supporter. Your subscription will go towards paying our hosting and production costs. Supporters get the opportunity to join behind the scenes during recordings, updates about the podcast, and my deep gratitude! Support the show

In this episode, I catch up with Steve Viola. We last spoke on this podcast about 2 1/2 years ago when he shared his fascinating career in the Navy and as special warfare operator. Since that last conversation, I had been following Steve’s work advocating for opening up new treatment protocols for veterans suffering from trauma. We speak about the healing power of plants with psychotropic properties, Steve’s own journey with these modalities, and his work today helping veterans with the hard part - integration. We wrap up by discussing entry pathways for people seeking to improve their mental wellbeing. I hope you’ll join us with an open mind as we explore this potentially life-saving and fascinating ancient technology. Recorded on 22 May 2024. Instagram: @at.the.coalface Connect with Steve on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/stevenviola1/. The organisation he supports as Executive Director is The Mission Within (missionwithin.org). His moving testimony at the Kentucky Opioid Abatement Advisory Commission is available here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CzJwjenrkEf. And don’t forget to subscribe to At the Coalface for new episodes every two weeks. Help us produce more episodes by becoming a supporter. Your subscription will go towards paying our hosting and production costs. Supporters get the opportunity to join behind the scenes during recordings, updates about the podcast, and my deep gratitude! Support the show

In this episode, I speak with Zsuzsanna Szelényi. Zsuzsanna shares with me her incredible journey at the heart of Hungary’s political transformation since the fall of the Soviet Union. She talks about the early days of Hungarian democracy and the levers used by Victor Orban to shape the country’s institutions towards a more authoritarian, illiberal form of governance. This was the subject of her acclaimed book, Tainted Democracy, published in 2022. Zsuzsanna talks about her personal trajectory as a lifelong politician and how she dedicated her career to issues of human rights, migration, and development, the bedrock of European democracy. Recorded on 19 June 2024. Instagram: @at.the.coalface Connect with Zsuzsanna on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/zsuzsanna-szelenyi-69047318. You can find more information about Zsuzsanna's latest book, Tainted Democracy Viktor Orbán and the Subversion of Hungary, on her publisher's website. And don’t forget to subscribe to At the Coalface for new episodes every two weeks. Support the show

In this episode, I speak with Rahul Sharma. Rahul has had a fascinating international career in journalism, media, corporate and political affairs. He’s worked at the Economic Times, Khaleej Times and Reuters among others, covering business and political stories, while also living in Hong Kong, Singapore and Sri Lanka. He has a unique perspective about China, watching the country rise while his native India was undergoing its own transformation. We talk about his early career, his pivot to the private sector and advising top corporate leaders, India’s elections and conclude with musings about leadership. Recorded on 13 May 2024. Instagram: @at.the.coalface Connect with Rahul on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/rahul-sharma-41a451b. His blog is called Looking Beyond Borders (lookingbeyondborders.com). And don’t forget to subscribe to At the Coalface for new episodes every two weeks. Help us produce more episodes by becoming a supporter. Your subscription will go towards paying our hosting and production costs. Supporters get the opportunity to join behind the scenes during recordings, updates about the podcast, and my deep gratitude! Support the show

In this episode, I speak with Perry Boyle. Perry shares with me his multiple lives and how he reinvented himself as his life goals evolved and as his values broadened. We talk about his initial career in investment banking and private equity, his pivot to equity research, and then his decision to reframe his purpose towards scaling a successful NGO tackling acute poverty in Africa. Perry shares his outrage at the threats to the liberal rule based order by autocracy, and how he decided to put all his life experience to use in setting up an investment bank focusing on developing Ukraine’s defence industry. This is a broad ranging and personal conversation about living one’s beliefs, reinvention, leaning in and letting go. Recorded on 17 May 2024. Instagram: @at.the.coalface Connect with Perry on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/perryboyle. BOMA's website is boma.ngo. And don’t forget to subscribe to At the Coalface for new episodes every two weeks. Help us produce more episodes by becoming a supporter. Your subscription will go towards paying our hosting and production costs. Supporters get the opportunity to join behind the scenes during recordings, updates about the podcast, and my deep gratitude! Support the show

In this episode, I speak with Kamran Balayev. Kam is a lawyer specialised in human rights and international law. He grew up in Azerbaijan but has made London home. He divides his energy between commercial consulting projects and international transactions and his work on human rights. Kam is passionate about improving the political and legal structures that underpin business and enable individual prosperity: he took this to heart when he decided to run for Mayor of London a few years ago. I was delighted to catch up with Kam and record this conversation. Recorded on 29 April 2024. Instagram: @at.the.coalface Connect with Kam on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/kamran-balayev-93751ba4. And don’t forget to subscribe to At the Coalface for new episodes every two weeks. Help us produce more episodes by becoming a supporter. Your subscription will go towards paying our hosting and production costs. Supporters get the opportunity to join behind the scenes during recordings, updates about the podcast, and my deep gratitude! Support the show

In this episode, I speak with Scott Malcomson. Scott is an accomplished author, reporter, editor, foreign affairs analyst and investigator, with experience working in government advising leaders that have defined our era, as well as for the private sector. He’s travelled all over the world to dive deep into the local dynamics of far flung places, from Latin America to Central Asia to the Pacific Islands, speaking to rebels and guerrilleros. In our conversation, we reflect on what forces have shaped his life, his early encounter with racial issues and political violence, his fascination with empires and with the perpetual tensions between international and local structures. There is so much to Scott’s life that we barely scratched the surface, but I hope you’ll enjoy this glimpse behind the scenes of Scott’s prolific work. Recorded on 12 April 2024. Instagram: @at.the.coalface Connect with Scott on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/scottmalcomson. And don’t forget to subscribe to At the Coalface for new episodes every two weeks. Help us produce more episodes by becoming a supporter. Your subscription will go towards paying our hosting and production costs. Supporters get the opportunity to join behind the scenes during recordings, updates about the podcast, and my deep gratitude! Support the show

In this episode, I speak with Alberto Montrond. Alberto is originally from Cape Verde and moved to the US as a child. In our conversation, we explore what it meant to grow up in an environment with bullying, racial and social challenges. Alberto shares how he turned these negative forces into a source of strength and self-discipline thanks to martial arts, leading him to use this wisdom to serve his community. He shares his journey into electoral politics to drive change to Cape Verde. And how he’s today putting all of his skills to work in science diplomacy as Senior Fellow in the Emergency Preparedness Research, Evaluation and Practice Program at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, focusing on fascinating multidisciplinary and multi-stakeholder programmes ranging from countering violent extremism and human trafficking. Recorded on 11 April 2024. Instagram: @at.the.coalface Connect with Alberto on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/alberto-montrond-55264b25. And don’t forget to subscribe to At the Coalface for new episodes every two weeks. Help us produce more episodes by becoming a supporter. Your subscription will go towards paying our hosting and production costs. Supporters get the opportunity to join behind the scenes during recordings, updates about the podcast, and my deep gratitude! Support the show

In this episode, I speak with Journel Jospeh. Journel shares his fascinating story into the world of AI entrepreneurship. He grew up in Haiti and initially pursued a journalistic ambition. In the US, he moved into data science and saw opportunities for digital technologies to improve some of the disparities and inequalities with access to quality healthcare. We talk about the dangers and opportunities of AI, in particular for the global South, and reflect on the raw intensity of life as an entrepreneur with no safety net. Recorded on 8 March 2024. Instagram: @at.the.coalface Connect with Journel on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/journeljoseph. And don’t forget to subscribe to At the Coalface for new episodes every two weeks. Help us produce more episodes by becoming a supporter. Your subscription will go towards paying our hosting and production costs. Supporters get the opportunity to join behind the scenes during recordings, updates about the podcast, and my deep gratitude! Support the show

In this episode, I speak with Janine Di Giovanni. I first met Janine at a crisis simulation workshop as part of our degree programme at the Fletcher school and remember being struck by her energy, but also the ease with which she navigated the harrowing scenario of an ambassador needing to take immediate action as staff were caught hostage. Janine needs no introduction, she is one of the world’s most experienced and acclaimed war reporter, more than that: a human rights reporter. Janine has dedicated her life to giving a voice to those caught in the middle of many of the most gruesome conflict of the last decades. In our conversation, we talk about what inspired her to take the path she did, the meaning of failure, faith in war, and grappling with evil. Warning: this episode touches on subjects that could be traumatic to some. Recorded on 13 March 2024. Instagram: @at.the.coalface Connect with Janine on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/janine-di-giovanni, on Instagram @janinedigi, on X @janinedigi and at her website janinedigiovanni.com. And don’t forget to subscribe to At the Coalface for new episodes every two weeks. Help us produce more episodes by becoming a supporter. Your subscription will go towards paying our hosting and production costs. Supporters get the opportunity to join behind the scenes during recordings, updates about the podcast, and my deep gratitude! Support the show