The Dangerous Women Podcast

Seires 5, Episode 5 - "The Motherhood Penalty". Sophy Norris in conversation with Maike Currie, VP of Personal Finance at PensionBee, Author and Award-Winning Financial Commentator

In this episode we are talking money, or at least how we, as women, need to become more financially literate and future-focused. We are, as we all know, living longer, sometimes much longer, lives. I suspect many of us are preparing for financial security until we are 85, but the truth is, many of us will live well past that. What happens then? These are the sort of questions the smarter amongst us are preparing for now.
Which is why our host Sophy Norris is speaking to an expert on personal finance, and pensions in particular, and someone who happens to be pretty dangerous! Maike Currie is an author, award-winning financial commentator, and advocate for improving women’s financial resilience. With more than two decades of experience in markets, money, investments, and pensions, she has held senior roles across the investment industry. She is a familiar voice in the media, regularly appearing on TV, radio and in national newspapers to explain what’s happening in the economy - and what it means for your money. 
In particular, Maike specialises in helping women take control of their financial futures, with a particular focus on pensions, investing and closing the gender wealth gap. She is also a working mother with two children, an expat living far from home and like so many of us, juggles work and life!  Sophy and Maike discuss all of this and more in an educational episode.  
Just some of the areas they cover include: 
The importance of women taking control of their own finances; it empowers us and enables us to make our own choices 
Women can create wealth; we just need to get comfortable talking about it , especially as we live longer!
Investment has been, and still is, male-dominated - there is no female Warren Buffett 
The Gender Pay Gap remains at 18%, while the Gender Pension Gap is 37%. On average, women have £100,000 less in their pension pots than men.  And this is thanks to the career breaks women find they have to take
How genders think about wealth differs: women think about what they have to share, whereas men think about how it defines them 
The insidious nature of the "pink tax" 
Women are far more likely to inherit 2x, once from parents and once from partners, so it is to our advantage to take control, even when it means moving outside our comfort zone, or into what can feel awkward 
The power of global citizenship, and the broader perspective it gives us 
Financial education and literacy should start as early as 7, once a child knows they can spend, and must be baked into school 
Links:
Maike Currie LinkedIn
PensionBee UK
Sophy Norris LinkedIn
The Alligator Pi Agency LinkedIn
Romi Savova LinkedIn
The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel
Untamed by Glennon Doyle 
 
 

Series 5, Episode 4 - "Curiosity, Reflection and Kindness." Sophy Norris in conversation with Birthe Mester, Organisational Culture Expert and Founder of Culture Dividend

In this week's Episode, our host Sophy Norris speaks to Birthe Mester, board advisor and award-winning organisational development and culture change expert. She is also a thought leader, facilitator, conference speaker, accredited mediator and coach with a 30-year cross sector track record and deep expertise in transforming performance, engagement and culture of complex global organisations.
As with so many dangerous women, Birthe’s career has been expansive. Before launching her current business Culture Dividend, she was a Senior leader at Deutsche Bank for 15 years, working closely with the board and leadership team on the employee effectiveness agenda. Responsible for embedding significant enterprise wide behavioural and culture change in a sustainable manner and in line with strategic and commercial objectives as well as corporate values.
We have talked on this podcast before about riding the transformation wave, and how exhausting battling every wave can be, finding a way to skim across the crests seems to be the trick, Culture change is part of our everyday lives now, whether it is complex, matrixed, enterprise organisations, or the solo worker finding a fresh path and everything in between, and Birthe and Sophy explore this across their conversation.
In this Episode we cover: 
How dangerousness in the eye of the beholder
Not pleasing everyone all the time, the power of difficult questions and the importance of inconvenient truths 
Knowledge is power, but so is experience 
Why businesses, like leopards, don't change their spots; the DNA is always there. But it is possible to adapt DNA to modern thinking 
Meeting people where they are; listen; channel everyday behaviours to push change 
If you want to survive as an organisation, diversity of thought is key 
Culture is linked to performance, and performance is critical 
Businesses that engender trust have more accountable and more collaborative employees
Increading the size of the pie is more important than increasing the slice 
Think penguins and flamingos - corporate change is not one size fits all 
Links: 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/birthemester/
culture-dividend.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophy-norris/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-alligator-pi-agency/
Thinking Fast and Slow - Daniel Kayhneman
Brian Eno - Oblique Strategies 
 

Series 5, Episode 3 - "Early, Ugly and Often". Sophy Norris in conversation with Sarah Thomas PhD, Group CMO and EVP Capgemini

This week's guest is Sarah Thomas PhD, Chief Marketing Officer and EVP of Consultancy giant Capgemini. Sarah is an experienced B2B marketing and communications leader with a passion for innovation, creativity, and technology. She has spent her marketing career in global roles within the business services and technology sector. 
Before her role at Capgemini, Sarah led the Brand-led Employee Experience practice for award-winning brand consulting, design and experience agency, Landor and spent a significant part of her career at Accenture, where she held senior Marketing and Communications leadership roles, including Chief Marketing & Communications Officer for the Accenture Operations business.
Sarah has a scientific background, gaining a PhD in molecular biology at Warwick Uni, becoming a virologist, and specialising in the HIV virus in the 90s, at the height of the epidemic, and fear. It is unsurprising that Sarah is a passionate advocate for STEM education for girls and is a champion for growing the next generation of innovators.
In this episode, we cover what it means to become and be a leader, and how to craft our own careers.  Areas we discuss include: 
The importance of leaving every door open as we work our way up our careers
Perusing our passions and leaning into intuition to discover what is right for us 
Proactively running towards something, instead of running away 
Why speed is as vital as perfection, "good enough" is so important 
Don't be all things to all people
Learning by doing and curating mentorships
Being curious, rolling our sleeves up, owning our careers 
Support  bold decision-making and always have your team's back 
Why a low boredom threshold is a good thing 
Telling people what they need to hear, not what they want to hear 
Why hiring for mindset is important, and defines an ambitious career
Why it's so important to be inspired, and the flywheel of work and hobbies
Work should be fun
The power of cheerleading
Links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/drsarahthomas/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophy-norris/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/capgemini/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-alligator-pi-agency
https://www.linkedin.com/in/maryambanikarim/ 
TED Talk - Life's an obstacle course - here's how to navigate it
https://www.themessypartspodcast.com/
Instagram - @nickd_rebelcoach
 
 
 

Series 5, Episode 2 - "Unconventionality." Sophy Norris in conversation with Michelle McCann PhD. Senior Advisor, CMO, Author and visiting scholar at Queen's University Belfast.

In our latest Episode, Sophy Norris interviews a dangerous woman who has done that most dangerous of things; she has followed the opportunities.  So much so that she now has a dual career as a marketer and a published historian.  
Michelle McCann PHD has an Irish/American heritage and has lived in the UK for over thirty years. She has created a dual portfolio: on the one hand, a senior advisor and CMO; on the other, a passionate academic and visiting scholar at Queen's University Belfast. 
From a marketing point of view, Michelle is a B2B Marketing/Propolis Expert and Senior Advisor at M&A advisory company Collingwood. She specialises in delivering innovative and tailored GTM solutions to founder-led and PE-backed companies with ambitious growth targets and focuses on driving value by building award-winning, high-performing teams. She has worked for enterprise businesses in the US, Ireland, and the UK.
Michelle is also an accomplished professional historian and published author, specialising in nineteenth and early twentieth century Irish social and political history, with expertise in topics ranging from death investigation and the Great Famine to gender studies and the Irish Civil War. As an enthusiastic speaker, she shares her knowledge on diverse subjects, including administrative history, art history, innovation, and Irish estate life and management. Her published works, Melancholy Madness, published in 2003 and The Irish Coroner: Death, Murder and Politics in Co. Monaghan, 1846-78, released in 2023, unite Michelle’s passion for Irish social history, rigorous research, and storytelling.
In this Episode Sophy and Michelle discuss how to take the road less travelled, crafting a career that works for each of us individually, and the power of being unconventional.  Amongst other things, they discuss:
The importance of chosing place, where is right for us personally? 
How following your passion should mean making the right choices
Starting over and reinvention
Finding our tribes
The well-being a hybrid/dual career can bring 
Spending time outside work differently
How not to say in our lanes 
Why telling the truth is the hallmark of a dangerous woman
Seeing it through to the end:  "I can do this. I have got to make this work" 
The skill of getting agreement and buy-in
Living in an ageist world 
Trying everything and doing it for the joy 
Remembering that underneath it all, we are all just naked humans 
Taking the gang on your journey 
Why being a contrarian is so important 
 
Links and References
Michelle McCann LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mimccann/
Sophy Norris LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophy-norris/
The Alligator Pi Agency LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-alligator-pi-agency/
Collingwood LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/collingwood-advisory-ltd/
Melancholy Madness (A Coroners Casebook) by Michelle McCann: https://bit.ly/3MUR40B
The Irish Coroner: Death, Murder and Politics in Co. Monaghan by Michelle McCann  https://bit.ly/40RqzfE 
The Rest Is Entertainment: https://www.youtube.com/@TheRestIsEntertainment
Olwen Perdue, Queen's University Belfast: https://pure.qub.ac.uk/en/persons/olwen-purdue/
 

SERIES 5 LAUNCH. ”Dumbo’s Feather.” Sophy Norris in coversation with Alev Scott, journalist and author of Cash Cow

Welcome to Episode One of Series Five; you are listening to The Dangerous Women Collective, hosted by Sophy Norris. The launch guest of this Series is the mightyvAlev Scott, a writer whose journalism has graced The Times, Sunday Times, Guardian, and New Statesman. Following her Turkish heritage, Alev became a journalist in Istanbul, where she covered politics and cultural change, which culminated in a ban from Turkey in 2017. After this seismic change, Alev found a new life in marriage and motherhood, but the call of investigative reporting never left her. An abundance of breast milk was the initial inspiration for her latest book Cash Cow. In Cash Cow, published 26 February 2026, Alev lifts the lid on the booming global fertility market—egg freezing, surrogacy, breastmilk—and the complex web of profits, ethics, and human stories behind it. Her reporting blends undercover work with first‑hand accounts, bringing us close to a surrogate of twelve children, an international embryo courier, and the people who profit—and pay the price—from this industry. Alev and Sophy explore what it takes to tell these stories with honesty, courage, and nuance, and what motherhood, career, and risk Alev must navigate in the pursuit of truth. Highlights include:The bravery and naivety of youth when it comes to breaking barriers and exploring new territory Responding to shock, managing a shift in energy and a change in purposeBeing dangerous, even if unknowingly and how those feelings manifest The complexity of motherhood, and letting (or not wanting to let) our children follow in our own footsteps The struggles and benefits of pivoting in life and the importance of curiosity The importance of balance in keeping an open mind, and why starting conversations is keyUsing femininity to our advantage Dumbo's Feather Lifting the lid on an industry we know, but don't know, exists The uncomfortable reality of market forces defining female fertility The uncomfortable sexualisation of fertilityOttoman Odyssey - AmazonCash Cow - AmazonThe Alligator Pi Agency | LinkedInLinkedIn - Sophy Norris Alev Scott

SERIES FINALE ”Say Yes Before You Can Say No.” Sophy Norris in conversation with Emma McClarkin, OBE. CEO of the British Beer & Pub Associaiton

In the Series 4 Finale, Sophy Norris speaks to a true trailblazer, a woman unafraid to work in the worlds seen as typically male: politics, rugby and the great British pub. Emma McClarkin is the current Chief Executive of the British Beer & Pub Association (BPPA), a role she has had since 2019. A passionate beer and pub lover, Emma is the voice for the beer and pub sector, leading them through the pandemic and interfacing with Government and stakeholders to secure vital grant support and economic stimulus to aid the Sector's recovery.Before joining the BBPA, Emma served as a Member of the European Parliament for 10 years and as a true beer lover, she also served as Vice President of the European Parliament Beer Club. Before that, she was the Government Relations Executive for the RFU.Outside of work, Emma is a big fan of music and sport, closely following rugby, football, and cricket – as well as watching them in her local pub!In this Episode, Sophy and Emma discuss: The importance of grabbing the opportunities in front of you and being open to them at all times Why the pub is the nation's living room, a national treasure. 80% of Brits see it as their sanctuary, and it needs preserving Why leaders are natural risk takersThe power women have as natural communicatorsThat boards are made better when there is strong female representation, and why investing in women is good for businessWhy being Queen Bee is not how you advance as a woman, rather it is important to create pathways for those travelling with youHospitality needs to be showcased as a brilliant career option, and more women are needed at the C-suite levelHow important it is to listen to our gut and follow our instinctsOur only competition should be with the best version of ourselvesDressing for success and empowering ourselves Managing grief at work and being open to help Why we need quality in politics to move beyond the Punch and Judy Show of todayThe Rest Is Entertainment | The Rest Is EntertainmentBBPA Academy | BBPAStroud BreweryThe Fresh Standard Brew Co – Beers from The Five ValleysOpen to all 2025 | BBPALong Live the Local | BBPAHome | BBPALinkedIn - Emma McClarkinThe Alligator Pi Agency | LinkedInLinkedIn - Sophy Norris

Series 4, Episode 7. ”I am excellent. I am not a token.” Sophy Norris in conversation with Ama Frimpong. Head of Product at 52 North and IET’s Young ...

In this, our penultimate Episode of Series 4, our host Sophy Norris speaks to the, quite simply, inspirational Ama Frimpong: self-confessed tinkerer, creator, engineer, fixer, representor and mother (plus so much we have missed out).Ama is Head of Product Development at 52 North Health, where she leads development across the company’s portfolio of healthcare solutions, including Neutrocheck® developed to help cancer patients avoid sepsis. She is also a multi-award-winning biomedical engineer, named the 2022 Young Woman Engineer of the Year by The Institution of Engineering and Technology, and one of the Top 50 Women in Engineering (Inventors and Innovators). With expertise spanning medical device development and global health innovation, Ama has contributed to the design, safety, and commercialisation of technologies addressing critical gaps in healthcare.She is also an active advocate for diversity in STEM, herself growing up between the UK and Ghana (where her parents were born), working with organisations such as the IET, Women’s Engineering Society, and Bridges for Enterprise to support and equip the next generation of innovators. And she has achieved all this by the age of 35, and as the mother of two young girls.Always passionate about creating and building things, and in the medical profession (her mother was a nurse), Ama has brilliantly combined these loves, and works tirelessly to spread this word to other women (and men) of colour – letting them know engineering is a dynamic and viable pathway.Sophy and Ama cover so much in this Episode including being the child of immigrants, raising her own children, a relentless persuit of career goals, representation, and leaning in (and out) of the village she has created around her family. Highlights include:The power and problems of growing up in two very different countriesWhy conciously and relentlessly following the opportunties, following serendipity but with thoughtfullness and care can be career definingManifesting what you crave to make it happen, being tenaciously open to the journeyWhy you must not let the environment control you, but you must control yourselfThe impact of representation and advocacy, especially for women in engineering and even more so for women of colour in engineeringWhy is it so crucial to see "other people like me"And conversley how corrosive and undermining token representation isWhy simply being "the best" when you are a person of colour is not enough, and how important it is to stand on the shoulders of the representors before youTaking setbacks is an important part of your journey and your futureCurating your own village, leaning in on them when needed. And understanding when you are at commitment overload so you can dial up and down on key prioritiesAnd curating a network of mentors to unlock the widest range of opportunities and growth paths, and knowing when to respectfully step back from mentorships that no longer serve their purpose.Patricia Obo-Nai - LinkedInSamantha Tross - LinkedInThe Alligator Pi Agency | LinkedInSophy Norris - LinkedIn52North | Transforming emergency careAma Frimpong - LinkedIn

”Windows of Joy.” Series 4, Episode 6. Sophy Norris in conversation with Natalie Abou-Alwan, Author of How To Navigate Your Career Like a Legend

Our first podcast of 2026 is a candid conversation about being a woman in a highly corporate environment and the importance of sharing our life experiences so that we can all learn from them.In this Episode our host Sophy Norris speaks to former lawyer and GC, and now first-time author, Natalie Abou-Alwan. Natalie is a London-based lawyer with over 25 years of experience across leading City and Wall Street firms, multi-national giants such as JPMorgan, Chase Bank and BP p.l.c., as well as smaller businesses. She is recognised in the Legal500 GC Powerlist as a Rising Star. She is a respected voice in the international energy sector, and beyond her legal work, Natalie has served as a charity trustee and adviser, and actively mentors professionals across a diverse range of backgrounds. Natalie also has a passion for arts and creativity in all their forms, a passion which has recently been realised in the publication of her first book – How to Navigate Your Career Like a Legend. More than a book, it is a companion to anyone seeking to make their mark in the corporate world, peppered with practical advice, stories from Natalie’s own career and her own illustrations. This fascinating conversation covers:Being fuelled by negative feedback and experience, and why learning from challenging times is so impactful Recognising there is only so much we can control, so stop worrying about the rest of it! Why drive and success includes working hard, and why our biggest competitor is ourselvesPutting oversleves in other people's shoes is a woman's superpowerThe importance of finding balance in our working lives, fuelling our passions and finding windows of joyHow we dress and look can boost confidence and resilienceManaging tricky advances in the workplace, and understanding who has your back And having the clarity to see that difficult situations are often not about you, but about the other person/people involved The importance of self-compassion, of having time to manage outside forces at work, but put them on the clock, and move forward Why networking can feel like a loaded word, but it is not cheating; it is helping you grow And how networking needs to be supported in the workplace, at all levels and across all diversities Managing toxic workplaces, taking power back and not giving it away Home - lollipop mentoring Look Good Feel BetterSmart WorksThe Dangerous Women Collective | LinkedInLinkedIn - Sophy NorrisLinkedIn - Natalie Abou-AlwanHow to Navigate Your Career Like A Legend on Amazon

”Could do better.” Series 4, Episode 5. Sophy Norris in conversation with Claire Roberts, Co-Founder of Full Fathom Five and inclusive AI campaigner

In this week's episode, our host Sophy Norris speaks to a woman on the frontline of AI; someone who has deliberately crafted her own career whilst raising a family and battling a few of her own "demons". Claire Roberts is an inclusive AI campaigner and Co-Founder of Full Fathom Five, an AI consulting and training firm dedicated to helping organisations design ethical, people-centred AI strategies and develop confident, inclusive AI leaders. A founding member of the UKAI Women in AI, Claire is a passionate advocate for women & diversity in technology and AI, most recently speaking at the UKAI parliamentary roundtable on Tackling Misogyny in AI. With over 25 years’ experience leading transformation across FTSE 100 companies, Claire brings a unique perspective on how to embed AI responsibly within complex organisations. Her work focuses on shaping cultures that empower women and underrepresented groups to lead technological change, ensuring that the future of AI is both ethical and equitable.Alongside a deep dive into ethical AI, gender bias and personal responsibility, we also discuss Claire's own career trajectory, which happened despite not having a degree (her words, not ours), an educational shoulder chip which drove her to "hack" her way upwards, being a working mum and the importance of cognitively balanced teams in fostering innovation. Specifics include:How a lack of something and a chip on a shoulder can become a transformational driving force: the ultimate motivation Why being dangerous means never being satisfied The power of insatiable curiosity and constant questioning The incredible power of realising that you don't need to play by anyone else's rules, and that the game is yours to winWhy we need to realise that not every day is the day that we will change the worldHow a "disaster zone" career path can reveal new routes, even some back doors, to a successful careerLeaning into opportunities, even when they seem terrifying If you want to innovate, you have to be allowed to break things Diverse teams, strong leadership and channelling dangerous thoughts can generate brillianceWhen we are the only, or one of few, women in the room, we need to think about how we introduce more diversity of thoughtWe need to talk about AI in a way that works for women Using AI responsibly is our next big learning curve; we need to learn to be responsible, hold AI accountable and use it ethically Why women must become more interested in AI: for every one woman taking an AI course, there are two to three men, and people with strong AI skills (currently men) are more likely to pull aheadCurrently, the jobs that AI might replace over-index as female AI is ingesting toxic data (24% of data in ChatGPT3 is from Reddit), which naturally skews male Our future will require analytical, empathetic thinkers, which is very female-focused, but only if we are preparedWe need to ask harder questions about AI in the workplace, and question our prompts and outputs (see links for a shared prompt database)The AI chain of accountability is highly fragmented and complex; every part needs to be regulatedEthical and Responsible AI Use - Prompt Library Sarah Porter - LinkedInCindy Gallop - MakeLoveNotPorn | LinkedInLaura BatesProfessor Sue Black OBE - LinkedInThe Alligator Pi Agency | LinkedInLinkedIn - Sophy NorrisFull Fathom Five WebsiteFull Fathom Five AI | LinkedInLinkedIn - Claire Roberts

”Recovering Perfectionist”. Series 4, Episode 4. Sophy Norris in conversation with Georgia Ware Co-Founder & CEO of HotGreen Solutions

Today, our host Sophy Norris is speaking to Georgia Ware, the Co-Founder and CEO of climate tech start-up HotGreenSolutions. Georgia is taking on the world of industrial heat (which contributes a staggering 20% to CO2 emissions) through her impressive blend of entrepreneurialism, innovation, storytelling and gritty determination. HotGreen is an industrial heat pump start-up that is outcompeting steam boilers with a green heat solution. She became passionate about industrial heat, and its enormous climate impact while in her previous role as the Head of Growth and Partnerships at Hexxcell, a hybrid-AI software company focused on optimising the maintenance processes for industrial heat transfer equipment. Georgia and her business partner have just secured £1.2 million in seed funding, which will help the business kick-start its mission of making industrial heat solutions affordable for all, as well as reducing emissions. And hearing her tell her story, and making the seemingly unsexy world of industrial heat, SEXY, it becomes clear just how driven she is, and why investors have invested. In our conversation, we discuss the world of start-ups, engineering, climate change, what it means to be dangerous, and why operating in a man's world can be a brilliant secret weapon. She shows a new way of doing business and the importance of innovation and new solutions in a rapidly transforming world. Sophy and Georgia discuss:Helping solve climate change solutions, but tackling the affordability of, and emissions created by, industrial heat (which is responsible for more than the emissions created by the transportation industry or the US and India combined!)Finding the sexy in the unsexy and the power of crafting a powerful narrative (especially in manufacturing) Why the government needs to support climate tech innovation more Walking the investment journey as a woman, and the power of being memorableKnowing your purpose and how that fuels an unrelenting desire to move forwardChannelling Taylor Swift and not wasting time wondering: "I'm so sick of running as fast as I can, Wondering if I'd get there quicker if I was a man"How her side-hustle (improv comedy) has taught Georgia to get comfortable with small failures and why practical resilience is vital Remember that resilience is a muscle; train it! Why more women should consider engineering Being average can also mean forward momentum (though Georgia's "average" is perhaps a rare breed)Being a Founder is being everything: CEO, CRO, CMO, PA and Delivery PersonGrowth is inherently uncomfortable; it is a marathon, not a sprint The Dangerous Women Collective | LinkedInThe Alligator Pi Agency | LinkedInSophy Norris - LinkedInLinkedIn Login, Sign in | LinkedInHotGreen SolutionsGeorgia Ware - LinkedIn