The Decision-Making Studio Podcast

After doing 120+ episodes of All Things Risk, it’s hard not to have some episodes that completely embody the ethos of the show – to embrace uncertainty. This is one of those episodes. My guest is adventurer, travel risk expert, author and speaker Lloyd Figgins. In 2012, Lloyd and his friend David Whiddon rowed 3,000 nautical miles (~5,000 km) from Morocco to Barbados on a plywood boat. This was an amazing journey involving two years of preparation. We hear all about it from Lloyd – from the idea, the preparation, the journey, and its aftermath. It embraces everything about uncertainty that we love. It is also at once inspiring and filled with practical examples applicable to any endeavour. Show notes: Lloyd's website The TRIP group Lloyd on Twitter The Ocean Rowing Society BBC article on Lloyd and David's journey before setting out  James Cracknell Ben Fogle Bournemouth University Academy of Performance Coaching Dave Alred Earthwatch Institute Pygmy killer whale Episode 93 of All Things Risk with Lloyd Figgins _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Like what you heard? Subscribe and/or leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts: http://apple.co/1PjLmK Subscribe on Stitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/all-things-risk/the-all-things-risk-podcast Subscribe on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/ben-cattaneo Follow the podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RiskThings Drop us a note: allthingsrisk@gmail.com  _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Our free course module “How to Set Up Any Decision for Success” from our upcoming course How to Make Decisions With Calm and Confidence

What can we learn about risk from how services are priced at legal brothels? What does systemic risk have to do with the paparazzi? How are big wave surfers a bit like actuaries? What does fraud tell about how people mis-calculate probabilities? Meet Allison Schrager, author of An Economist Walks Into a Brothel. Allison is an economist, a journalist and co-founder of LifeCycle Finance Partners. She worked academically and professionally on retirement finance. She has worked with some of the world’s prestigious financial institutions and has written for the likes of The Economist, Bloomberg, Wired, Playboy and Foreign Affairs. It’s this stacking of skills and experience that I think makes her book An Economist Walks Into a Brothel so insightful and entertaining. In the book, Allison looks at the pricing of sex work at the Moonlite Bunny Ranch in Las Vegas, risk calculations of big wave surfers, how poker players stay rational in the midst of high stakes and a lot more. So many the risk concepts are highly applicable to contexts outside of hardcore finance, Allison’s work exemplifies that and today, she joins us to share her insights in our latest episode. We get into: The origin story of the book; Brothels, surfers and the paparazzi as well as the a spectacular fraud that went wrong, studying H.R. McMaster and the Gulf War; How a number of financial risk concepts are applicable to wider applications – Allison’s 5 rules to risk-taking: The risk free rate and risk versus reward Knowing that we are irrational Diversification Hedging Knowing that uncertainty happens She shares a number of colourful stories from her book and how she conducted the research for it Lots more This was a fun and incredibly insightful conversation. Show notes: Allison’s website Allison on Twitter An Economist Walks Into a Brothel The Moonlite Bunny Ranch Allison’s article – “Why big-waver surfers are just like actuaries” Crazy Eddie Robert Merton The Black-Scholes-Merton model H.R. McMaster _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Like what you heard? Subscribe and/or leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts: http://apple.co/1PjLmK Subscribe on Stitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/all-things-risk/the-all-things-risk-podcast Subscribe on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/ben-cattaneo Follow the podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RiskThings Drop us a note: allthingsrisk@gmail.com  _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Our free course module “How to Set Up Any Decision for Success” from our upcoming course How to Make Decisions With Calm and Confidence  

It’s always a pleasure to welcome back Daniel Wagner to the show. Daniel has been a guest several times. He is a geopolitical risk expert, CEO of Country Risk Solutions, and has written several books on risk topics – including China Vision, AI Supremacy, and Virtual Terror amongst others. In this episode, Daniel joins me from Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire where he is on assignment and we check in on the state of the world, primarily from the perspective of geopolitics. We recorded it about a month ago, October 2019. We cover an amazing amount of ground, including: The China-US trade war; Greta Thunberg and climate change; The trend of “party over country” in the US and UK; Donald Trump and foreign policy; Sustainability; China’s Belt and Road Initiative; What’s happening in Hong Kong; Russia and election security; Eliud Kipchoge’s sub-2 hour marathon and the fervour this has created in Kenya; Things you might not be hearing about, particularly with regard to Africa Much more Show notes: Daniel on Twitter: https://twitter.com/countryriskmgmt Daniel’s company, Country Risk Solutions: http://countryrisksolutions.com/ Daniel’s recent books:                 China Vision on Amazon’s US site China Vision on Amazon’s UK site                 AI Supremacy                 Virtual Terror Ep. 91 with Daniel and Keith Furst, Ep 102 Ep 98  Ep 69,  Ep 57, Ep 17 and Ep 10 with Daniel Wagner The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI); Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Like what you heard? Subscribe and/or leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts: http://apple.co/1PjLmK Subscribe on Stitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/all-things-risk/the-all-things-risk-podcast Subscribe on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/ben-cattaneo Follow the podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RiskThings Drop us a note: allthingsrisk@gmail.com  _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Our free course module “How to Set Up Any Decision for Success” from our upcoming course How to Make Decisions With Calm and Confidence

Today we continue exploring data, ethics, technology, and risk. There is a continuation of some of the ideas in Ep. 117, and many alternative viewpoints provided as well. My guest is StJohn Deakins. StJohn is the Founder and CEO of CitizenMe, a company that enables organisations to solve problems and build closer relationships with the public through ethical user data and research tools. His vision is to create a service for everyone that allows us to unlock the value of our personal data, for our own ends. This will allow us to take control of our digital identities and assert our rights. And, as you’ll hear our data is worth more than we may think. StJohn is quite a visionary and has been ahead of numerous trends in the tech space for some time. We cover a lot of very interesting ground in this episode: The origins of CitizenMe, and how its vision is to make the internet work as originally planned; The organic data that is all around us as individuals; How StJohn and CitizenMe help people interct with their data; The Cambridge Analytica scandal; Analog versus digital memories; Dark patterns; Problems with our education system; Ethics and governance of data; Adtech; Much more!  Show notes: StJohn’s personal site StJohn on Twitter CitizenMe CitizenMe on Twitter Lloyd’s List Terms of Service; Didn’t Read Charlie Brooker on tech’s next Black Mirror moment Dark patterns Ad Tech Radical Everyone Home Deus by Yuval Noah Harari Contact, 1997 film _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Like what you heard? Subscribe and/or leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts: http://apple.co/1PjLmK Subscribe on Stitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/all-things-risk/the-all-things-risk-podcast Subscribe on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/ben-cattaneo Follow the podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RiskThings Drop us a note: allthingsrisk@gmail.com  _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Our free course module “How to Set Up Any Decision for Success” from our upcoming course How to Make Decisions With Calm and Confidence

We have a big-picture conversation today that is a fascinating look at social media, data protection, privacy, accountability and much more. Our guest is Paul-Olivier Dehaye. Paul is a Swiss-based mathematician who helped lift the lid on the Cambridge-Analytica / Facebook scandal. He has extensive expertise in and has conducted research on how social media platforms predict our behaviour and can create dangerous amplification patterns. If you have seen the acclaimed Netflix documentary The Great Hack (and if you haven’t, I highly recommend you do), you will have come across Paul. He was instrumental in helping one of that documentary’s protagonists – New York-based media professor David Carroll - try to obtain the data Cambridge Analytica held about him. He had been looking at how Cambridge Analytica had been violating EU data protection rules well before both the Brexit referendum in the UK and the 2016 US elections. He has subsequently provided testimony to the UK parliament on this topic. He has actually been looking at how social media platforms trade in and handle data for some time – not just by Facebook but several other firms. He is the founder of personaldata.io a non-profit that promotes digital rights and trust the digital world. It aims to help people control their digital identity. We get into all of that and more in this fascinating conversation that covers: Social media and behaviour prediction; How amplification patterns work; How Cambridge Analytica first came onto his radar, how he researched the firm and what he found (again, this is before the Brexit referendum and 2016 US elections); Facebook – what the company is and is not doing well in light of all of this. How it is “shooting itself in the foot”. Paul had focused a lot on Facebook because it has been profoundly changing social dynamics around the world; We also discuss other social platforms, particularly Uber and Tinder; The “physics” of social media – and how we don’t really fully understand who this works; Solutions and why many of these like in individuals’ rights to access the data companies have on them; Generic risks we face as we move to an algorithmic society; Much more! Show notes: Paul-Olivier on Twitter                 On LinkedIn Paul-Olivier’s website On Medium Personaldata.io Mydata.org The Great Hack The Snowden revelations Privacy International The OCEAN model of personality traits Paul’s running dossier on Cambridge Analytica Aleksandr Kogan David Carroll    Brittany Kaiser Sockpuppets “I asked Tinder for my data. It sent me 800 pages of my deepest, darkest secrets” Article on James Farrar: “The Londoner Who Brought Uber to its Knees” Tom Watson India’s approach to data protection _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Listener survey – Help us keep making All Things Risk better – take our listener survey here. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Like what you heard? Subscribe and/or leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts: http://apple.co/1PjLmK Subscribe on Stitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/all-things-risk/the-all-things-risk-podcast Subscribe on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/ben-cattaneo Follow the podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RiskThings Drop us a note: allthingsrisk@gmail.com  _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Our free course module “How to Set Up Any Decision for Success” from our upcoming course How to Make Decisions With Calm and Confidence

  It’s no secret that open plan offices suck. This has been confirmed by a recent study from Harvard. Their only redeeming quality is that they’re cheap – great if the only thing that matters to the work that gets done in them is cost. For everything else, they’re terrible. One of the things open plan offices seem to assume (in addition to assuming human beings are unaffected by distractions) is that all that matters is what happens from the neck up. This directly contradicts a basic truth about biology, decision-making and something that countless guests on the All Things Risk podcast have said – the mind and body are part of the same system. In this short In-betweenisode, I offer some thoughts on how to do great work and make quality decisions in spite of the constraints open plan offices generate. Show notes: Article: It’s Official: Open Plan Offices are the Dumbest Management Fad of All Time Article: This is Nuts: It Takes Nearly 30 Minutes to Refocus Once You’ve Been Distracted The Pomodoro Technique Article: How to Calm Your Mind Using a Simple Breathing Technique Article: How to Calm Your Mind Using a Simple Breathing Technique  Coffee naps / espresso naps - scientist agree that they work Article: How Plants at Work Can Improve Wellbeing and Efficiency What is a terrarium? Check out Leafage to find out a bit more Music for concentration: What are "Binaural Beats?" Lo Fi beats for concentrating and studying _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Listener survey – Help us keep making All Things Risk better – take our listener survey here. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Like what you heard? Subscribe and/or leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts: http://apple.co/1PjLmK Subscribe on Stitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/all-things-risk/the-all-things-risk-podcast Subscribe on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/ben-cattaneo Follow the podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RiskThings Drop us a note: allthingsrisk@gmail.com  _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Our free course module “How to Set Up Any Decision for Success” from our upcoming course How to Make Decisions With Calm and Confidence

This episode is all about risk awareness. And in many ways, it’s an unusual episode in that we get into risk management as a profession. I tend to stay away from this as a topic because I don’t believe risk should have its own jargon and rituals that only certain hallowed people can use. We all take risks, and as you will hear, the science of risk and decision-making has been around for a while. My guest, however, isn’t your ordinary risk professional. He’s Alex Sidorenko and he has been on the show before. For the past several years, Alex has been disrupting the way in which organisations think about and practice risk management. Alex runs something called Risk Academy which offers counterintuitive and controversial views on risk management. Next week (Oct 14-18 2019), Alex is putting together Risk Awareness Week – an online conference which offers some amazing speakers and content on risk as a management discipline – why it’s broken, how to fix it, and much more. Even if – and especially if – you are not a risk professional, you will get tons of value from my conversation with Alex and from Risk Awareness Week. Alex is fun, and we cover a range of topics including: Why risk management is all about probability theory, neuroscience and decision science – don’t let the marketing fool you; Why so much corporate risk management is bullsh*t; How to de-bias yourself; Some great tips on decision-making; How Alex and some of his colleagues beat the lottery; Much more Show notes: Risk Academy Risk Awareness Week Alex on Twitter Alex on Linkedin On YouTube Alex’s interview with Grant Purdy Alex’s favourite risk management books The Flaw of Averages by Sam Savage and Jeff Danziger The Failure of Risk Management – Why It’s Broken and How to Fix It by Douglass Hubbard Alex and colleagues' lottery experiment My first episode with Alex on All Things Risk _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Listener survey - Help us keep making All Things Risk better – take our listener survey here. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Like what you heard? Subscribe and/or leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts: http://apple.co/1PjLmK Subscribe on Stitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/all-things-risk/the-all-things-risk-podcast Subscribe on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/ben-cattaneo Follow the podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RiskThings Drop us a note: allthingsrisk@gmail.com  _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Our free course module “How to Set Up Any Decision for Success” from our upcoming course How to Make Decisions With Calm and Confidence

Let's talk about "human risk" - the risk of people doing things they shouldn't or not doing things they should. That definition comes from this episode's guest, Christian Hunt. Christian is the founder of Human Risk, his company which embodies his mission to bring behavioural science to organisations so they they, and their people can do the right things.   The whole area is incredibly important - and often mis-managed. Many organisations do the exact opposite of what would be the most effective way of helping their people do the right things. They often set rules and policies without an understanding of what it feels like for the people who try to follow them. Getting this right involves a lot of counter-intuitive thinking. We are complex and sometimes irrational.    What's more and as you'll hear, as technology advances, so does exposure to human risk. That's why Christian is disrupting the way organisations manage this fascinating area. Christian is brilliant. He was the Head of Compliance at a large international bank and through his work, saw how things weren't working - for instance, why sending an authoritative email to get people to follow a policy often backfires.   We get into some interesting stuff which I am sure you will find highly engaging - that is, if you have to obey any rules - and that's all of us. We cover:   Christian's background and how he got into behavioural science; The types of things organisations get wrong about setting policies, rules, and trying to comply with regulations; Cognitive biases and how to overcome these; Christian's excellent "5 Rules of Human Risk" - massive knowledge and wisdom drop!; Christian's own approach to uncertainty and his vision for Human Risk; much more!   Show notes:   The Human Risk website Christian on Twitter Christian on LinkedIn How Netflix reinvented HR Malcolm Gladwell's Revisionist History Rory Sutherland Alexander Den Heijer The Law of Good People by Yuval Feldman Alchemy by Rory Sutherland Gut by Giulia Enders _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Like what you heard? Subscribe and/or leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts: http://apple.co/1PjLmK Subscribe on Stitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/all-things-risk/the-all-things-risk-podcast Subscribe on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/ben-cattaneo Follow the podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RiskThings Drop us a note: allthingsrisk@gmail.com  _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Our free course module “How to Set Up Any Decision for Success” from our upcoming course How to Make Decisions With Calm and Confidence

  This is a conversation about uncertainty and decision-making - for certain – but it’s also one about culture, travel, books, writing, the way women are treated, justice, and career transitions. And it’s also a super fun one. My guest is Tikiri Herath. Tikiri is an award-winning author who has written four fiction (thrillers) and four non-fiction books that focus on overcoming fears and uplifting women around the world. Tikiri’s books and work are reflective of her own very interesting background. She was born in Sri Lanka, considers herself to be Zambian, and lived in seven countries growing up including Canada and apartheid-era South Africa. Throughout her upbringing and travels, she became very drawn to the way women are treated around the world and in the different countries in which she has lived. She has woven these experiences into her work. Tikiri’s first career was as a civil servant for the Canadian government. In fact, she worked in Brussels as part of Canada’s mission to NATO, amongst other things. However, this wasn’t where her passion was. So, as you’ll hear she “risk managed the hell” out of her career to become the successful author she is now. There are some wonderful lessons in all of that about fear, decision-making and uncertainty (and you can even get a free copy of one Tikiri’s books on this topic The Fear Buster). We also cover off why Tikiri thinks the predominantly Asian concept of “saving face” is problematic as well as why a number of cultural traditions need to be discarded. There is loads of other great stuff in between! Show notes: Tikiri's website Get a copy of Tikiri’s book The Fear Buster Tikiri on Twitter on LinkedIn on Facebook on Instagram Brendon Burchard The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry Jeff Bezos on decisions Kayt Sukel on All Things Risk Anna Glover on All Things Risk Muhammad Yunus _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Like what you heard? Subscribe and/or leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts: http://apple.co/1PjLmK Subscribe on Stitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/all-things-risk/the-all-things-risk-podcast Subscribe on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/ben-cattaneo Follow the podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RiskThings Drop us a note: allthingsrisk@gmail.com  _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Our free course module “How to Set Up Any Decision for Success” from our upcoming course How to Make Decisions With Calm and Confidence

Is it possible for humanity to have peace? To not have violent conflict, wars or violence in our homes, schools or online via cyberbullying? As you ponder this question, you might draw on your hopes, experience of human behaviour and possibly what you think is realistic – this is a show about risk and uncertainty after all. Meet our latest guest, Jeremy Gilley. Jeremy is the founder of Peace One Day, a non-profit organisations whose objective is to institutionalise the International Day of Peace (September 21st each year). Jeremy is a documentary film maker, actor and he founded Peace One Day in 1999. Peace One Day is an impressive organisation. In 2001, its efforts were rewarded when the UN General Assembly unanimously adopted the first day of global ceasefire and non-violence – Peace Day. In 2007, Peace One Day Ambassador Jude Law travelled to Afghanistan and met with the government, the UN, non-governmental organisations, paving the way for a day of ceasefire in Eastern Afghanistan. This allowed 10,000 volunteers to administer polio vaccines to 1.4 million children. Peace One Day works with world leaders, major corporations and celebrities like Jude Law and its two other ambassadors Juliet Rylance, and Mike Posner, as well as Sir Michael Caine, Forest Whitaker, Akon, Michelle Rodriguez – the list goes on and on. In a few weeks, on Sept 21st, Peace One Day will celebrate its 20th anniversary. While this conversation certainly covers the organisation Jeremy founded, it is deeper than that. It is a conversation about who we are as human beings – about our darkness, about why cynicism kills and about what we can do about that. It serves as a reminder that violence not only takes place in far flung places but that it also occurs in our homes, schools and communities. Listen with an open mind and heart. And, on September 21st ask yourself “with whom will I make peace?” Show Notes: Peace One Day                 On Twitter                 On Instagram                 On Facebook                 On YouTube Peace One Day’s Origin Story Film Jeremy on Twitter Jeremy on Instagram The  Hero’s Journey by Joseph Campbell Greta Thunberg The Second Mountain by David Brooks My conversation with Ken Bensinger, author of “Red Card” _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Like what you heard? Subscribe and/or leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts: http://apple.co/1PjLmK Subscribe on Stitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/all-things-risk/the-all-things-risk-podcast Subscribe on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/ben-cattaneo Follow the podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RiskThings Drop us a note: allthingsrisk@gmail.com  _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Our free course module “How to Set Up Any Decision for Success” from our upcoming course How to Make Decisions With Calm and Confidence