The Decision-Making Studio Podcast

This is our annual “best of” episode, featuring some memorable clips from our 2021 podcasts. I use the term “best of” loosely because I recognise that all listeners get something a bit different out of each guest and episode. We feature clips from the following (in the order they appear in the “Best of” 2021): Ep. 154: Jeff Harry – Why and How to Rediscover Play Ep. 161: Lauren Yee – How to Cultivate Curiosity Ep. 159: Jen Ables – Creativity as an Anchor During Uncertainty Ep. 169: Stan Lui – The White Hat Guys, Bringing Cool Creativity to Compliance Ep. 155: Steve LeClair – Embracing Uncertainty Ep. 160: Jason Linett – Demystifying Hypnosis to Change Behaviours Ep. 157: Annie Duke – How to Decide Ep. 163: Tony Blauer – “Know Fear,” not “No Fear” Ep. 158: Nick Bradley – Purpose and Mindset in Business and Life Ep. 166: David Richman – “Cycle of Lives”, Cancer, Death, Living, and Cycling Ep. 164: Dr. Gleb Tsipursky – Cognitive Biases and Returning to the Office Ep. 162: Steve Adelman – The Return of (Safe and Secure) Live Events Ep. 167: Ethan Lou – “Once a Bitcoin Miner” Ep. 168: Dante Disparte – On Risk and the Future of Cryptocurrencies, Blockchain and Digital Finance Ep. 165: Richard Fenning – Risk Tales from the Edges of Globalisation _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _  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 how to take something that is important but frankly, considered to be less-than-exciting, and making that thing interesting and relevant. Anything that involves following rules is often like this – and if you do compliance or legal work, you will have come across this. And even if you don’t, chances are that you have faced this dilemma at some point. When faced with this challenge, it’s crucial to get creative – or risk the consequences. Meet Stan Lui, our guest in this episode. In his day job, Stan is the Legal Director of a Hong Kong-based automotive firm. That means that he works with colleagues on legal topics that are considered ‘boring’ but are very important – consider the risks of fraud or corruption for instance. So, Stan reached into his many creative talents – like street theatre – and founded something called the White Hat Guys. The White Hat Guys aims to create and innovative and engaging compliance narrative. This includes videos, interesting training and lots of cool techniques for what Stan calls “maximum message stickiness.” We get into all of that, how and why Stan set up White Hat Guys, cultural differences on these and related topics, and a range of things in between. Show notes: Stan on LinkedIn White Hat Guys White Hat Guys on Instagram The 6 hats of decision-making _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 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 

This is the second of our two consecutive episodes about cryptocurrencies, blockchain, and digital finance. You don’t need to have listened to the first of these with Ethan Lou in order to get out a lot of this one – at the same time, we do recommend you listen to it. In it, we covered the ‘wild west' of the cryptocurrency world. Today, we continue to talk about the risks and opportunities in this space, but our focus turns to the present and future of these technologies – including other uses of blockchain, stablecoins, and even a prediction or two. I am delighted to bring to you my conversation with Dante Disparte. Dante is a global leader in harnessing risk and emerging technologies to improve economic competitiveness and resilience. He is currently the Chief Strategy Officer and Head of Global Policy at Circle. Circle is a digital financial services firm, which among other things, has built the US dollar coin (USDC). Prior to this, Dante was a founding executive at the Diem Association. Diem (previously known as Libra) is the blockchain payment system of Meta (formerly known as Facebook of course). Dante was also a member of the USA’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). You may also be familiar with his name as he co-authored Global Risk Agility with Daniel Wagner, a frequent guest on All Things Risk. We get into a fair bit in this conversation, including: The risks and opportunities of crypto and blockchain, which include Dante’s take on his former professor Nassim Taleb (author of The Black Swan)’s prediction that Bitcoin goes to zero. Dante has great respect for Taleb but disagrees with this particular take; Stablecoins and what Dante calls “digitally-enabled and secure networks”, including some interesting applications for these technologies; Geopolitics and cryptocurrencies; What the future holds; A lot more! Show notes: Dante’s website Dante on Twitter Circle The US Dollar Coin (USDC) Nassim Taleb’s take on Bitcoin Yuval Noah Harari and Sapiens Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) and fraud Our conversation with Oliver Bullough on “Moneyland” “How Robert Mueller Used Bitcoin to Catch Russia” The Diem / Libra project The potential use of blockchain to speed up insurance payments following disasters “Is America Losing the Digital Currency Race” – Dante’s piece in Project Syndicate Web 3.0 Our episode on Global Risk Agility with Daniel Wagner Our episode with Ethan Lou, author of “Once a Bitcoin Miner” _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 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 

The next two episodes will be focused on cryptocurrencies and we will be giving this the full “All Things Risk” treatment. If you look at many of the resources available to try and understand this stuff, you will inevitably be driven to the areas of computer science, finance, economics and in some cases, philosophy. Bitcoin has even been described as a libertarian nirvana and many cryptocurrencies have an almost cult-like status amongst some of their proponents. On top of this, there is plenty of mis-information based on a lack of transparency – which of course can lead to fraud as much as (if not more than) riches. What I have long thought is that there was a lack of explanation for the cryptocurrency phenomenon based on the human condition. That is, until now. Meet Ethan Lou. Ethan is a journalist at Canada’s Financial Post, an early crypto investor, and the author of a fabulous new book called Once a Bitcoin Miner – Scandal and Turmoil in the Cryptocurrency Wild West. I came across Ethan upon reading his opinion piece in Canada’s Globe and Mail in which he equates the world of crypto to the “frontier myth” in which participants are motivated not just by greed and speculation but also by a sense of adventure and even fantasy. That entails good and bad things, particularly when that fantasy comes up against reality. Ethan has met a range of colourful and sometimes dodgy characters during his crypto journey and he shares of some of that in this episode. This path even took him to North Korea, and we discuss that too. He also discusses whether or not these assets are in a bubble and shares advice for the crypto-curious. Regardless of your views of and experiences in cryptocurrency and blockchain, I don’t think you can fully understand these things without understanding the perspective that Ethan shares. His insights are colourful, based on first-hand experience, and very revealing. Show notes: Ethan’s website; Once a Bitcoin Miner; Ethan on Twitter; Ethan’s Financial Post column; Ethan’s Globe and Mail article; Anthony Di Iorio; Virgil Griffith; Ronny Chieng video in the Daily Show; Nassim Taleb on Bitcoin; Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs); Gerald (Jerry) Cotton and the Quadriga insolvency; Bitcoin ETFs _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 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 

What can we learn about living from the prospect (indeed the certainty) of dying? Meet David Richman. David is an author, speaker, trainer, and endurance athlete. For the purposes of this conversation, he is the author of Cycle of Lives, a book that tells 15 different people’s stories around the emotional chaos of cancer. David lost his own sister to cancer, which, as will hear, led to his ventures in endurance sport. That is relevant because not only did David write 15 very compelling stories, but he also rode a bike across the United States to meet with those subjects in person, covering a distance of over 5,000 miles (approximately 8,000 kilometers). We talk about all of that and more, including: The certainty of death, and what that does to those facing it directly, and those around them; How to have difficult conversations; Various stories from the book; Endurance sport and pushing one’s limits. Show notes: David Richman; David on:             Twitter             LinkedIn             Instagram Cycle of Lives; Chris Boardman _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 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 take a dive into some lessons from the political and security risk business. My guest is Richard Fenning. Now and executive coach, Richard was the CEO of Control Risks for 14 years, one of the world’s foremost consulting firms in this space. As you might imagine, being the CEO for a firm like this is incredibly interesting. After all, Control Risks helps clients deal with things like kidnappings, terrorist incidents, coups, fraud, corruption, and just about everything in between. Richard has written a fabulous book about the experience. It’s called What on Earth Can Go Wrong? Tales From the Risk Business. It’s part memoir, part travel book, part business book and contains first-hand, insightful (and sometimes funny) accounts of Richard’s experiences in places like Kenya, Iraq, Colombia, Russia, the USA amongst others. It also contains interesting reflections about decision-making in such places. We get into that and more in this episode, including: Richard’s reflections on the situation in Afghanistan (this was recorded the day after the fall of Kabul); Decision-making in challenging business environments; The underside of globalisation; The difference between fear and risk; Much more. Show notes: Richard Fenning What on Earth Can Go Wrong? Tales from the Risk Business Control Risks _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 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 talk about the work in a post-pandemic world. I welcome back to the show Dr. Gleb Tsipursky. Gleb is a best-selling author, the CEO and founder of Disaster Avoidance Experts and an expert on cognitive biases and decision-making. He joins the podcast to discuss his latest book Returning to the Office and Leading Hybrid and Remote Teams. We discuss the mistakes that the likes of Facebook, Amazon, and others have made when returning to physical offices, how organizations can avoid these, why hybrid working is here to stay, cognitive biases and the new era of work, and much more. Show notes: Returning to the Office and Leading Hybrid and Remote Teams Disaster Avoidance Experts Gleb on LinkedIn Gleb’s website; Gleb on Twitter Episodes 45  76 and 126 of All Things Risk with Gleb Tsipurksy _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 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

To tee up this conversation, I want you to think about fear, or more specifically “fearlessness”. I’m going to posit that this is a concept that makes little to no sense, at least when presented as a positive trait. It isn’t wise to be around anyone who purports to be “fearless”. Fear is a natural human emotion. Courage and bravery are impossible without it, and great risk management needs to acknowledge and understand it. With that, meet Coach Tony Blauer, this episode’s guest. Coach Blauer has been in the martial arts, self-defence, defence tactics industry for over four decades. He trains people in self-defence, working with both individuals and governments. His research into physiology and mindset as it relates to violence and confrontation management has influenced over three decades of reality-based martial arts. However, I didn’t bring Coach Blauer on to discuss combat tactics. I brought him on the show because in creating and refining his self-defense system, he developed a deep understanding of fear based on psychology, physiology, and neuroscience. We talk about that because there is a huge cross-over with just about everything else when it comes to fear. From a risk and uncertainty perspective, we can learn a lot from Coach Blauer. So today, it’s about “know fear”, not “no fear’.   Show notes:   Blauer Training Systems Coach Blauer’s Know Fear Now website Coach Blauer on:             Instagram             Facebook             LinkedIn Coach Blauer’s free ebook “Making Friends With Fear” is available here Hick’s Law Crossed Extensor Reflex The Boston Strangler Flow states _ _ _ _ _ _ _   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 comes at a very interesting time as parts of the world start to open up. A feature of many of our “normal” lives is live events – sport, theatre, live entertainment. We put this episode live one week before the Tokyo Olympics and a week after the European and South American football championships. Live events are reflections of our societies. With that, meet our guest, Steve Adelman. Steve is a lawyer and a world-renowned expert on event safety and security. He literally wrote the book on crowd safety in the USA, was the lead author on The Event Safety Alliance Reopening Guide, and has worked with numerous large organisations on live events. He even deposed Eminem. Steve has a rare gift for making complex topics come to life. This makes for a super interesting and fun conversation. We cover crowd behaviour, risk assessment in large events, the pandemic, reopening, and much more. Show notes: Steve’s law firm, Adelman Law Group Event Safety Alliance Adelman on Venues The Crucible by Henry Miller The Hillsborough Disaster Love Parade Disaster The Black Swan by Nassim Taleb Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman Route 91 shooting Manchester Arena bombing The Unthinkable by Amanda Ripley Event Safety Summit _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 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

If you’ve listened to our show for any length of time, you will know that we look at risk and uncertainty in unconventional ways. We rarely talk about risk methodology nor do we use lots of jargon. We talk to people from all walks of life because uncertainty is everywhere. We can’t escape it, so we better understand it. We want to make risk and uncertainty accessible because they are fundamental to the human experience. This is embodied when we say “embrace uncertainty”. This conversation provides us with another lens to embrace uncertainty. That lens is curiosity. Meet Lauren Yee, the “Cultivator of Curiosity”. Lauren helps organisations and people solve problems, improve their ideas and reach their potential through curiosity – because curiosity, as you will hear, is a driver of great things. She has worked with the likes of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors, LinkedIn, Google and others. She also founded the largest LEGO-based (i.e. the toys) STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) consultancy. We talk about that and more including quitting, innovation and failure, having difficult conversations, play and of course, how to cultivate curiosity. Show notes: Lauren’s website; Lauren on LinkedIn; Lauren on Twitter _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 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