Work is Weird Now

Work is Weird Now

by Danielle Emery
Business
Season 6
E60: Worktech AI+Digital round-up with Alice, Dan & Dinah
AI
Dan and Alice took an AI agent called Dinah to a conference at Meta's Kings Cross HQ — and let her challenge a room of 100 senior leaders live on stage. In this episode they unpack what happened, what surprised them, and what it actually feels like to work alongside AI. Then they hand the mic to Dinah herself.
S6 · E4
Jun 17, 2026
28:23
E58: How Do We Redesign Early Careers When the Ladder is Broken? With Suze Cook
In this episode of Work Is Weird Now, Dan and Alice sit down with Suze Cook to unpack what happens when the traditional career ladder no longer works for early career talent. From hidden internships and broken graduate pathways to project-based work, AI-native skills and social mobility, Suze shares why the future of early careers may look very different — and why businesses need to rethink how they spot and support talent.
S6 · E3
May 20, 2026
27:46
E57: Can AI help lighten the mental load for women? With Alex Issakova
Here’s a tighter podcast bio option that keeps her credibility and personality, while tying directly into the episode themes: Alex Issakova is an AI strategist, educator and founder helping businesses navigate the messy reality of generative AI. After 15 years working across tech, systems thinking and machine learning for Silicon Valley companies, she left corporate life to build her own business focused on practical AI adoption, ethical implementation and real-world ROI. Before ChatGPT even launched, Alex’s MBA research explored how non-technical leaders could bring AI into their work responsibly — a conversation that now feels more urgent than ever. Through her consultancy, leadership training and newsletter, The Roadmap, she helps organisations cut through the hype and figure out what AI actually means for work, leadership and everyday life. In this episode, we explore the hidden gender dynamics shaping AI adoption, why women often feel they need permission to use these tools, and how AI could radically reduce the invisible mental load carried by so many working women. From household “chiefs of staff” to job disruption, workplace bias and the future of human value, this is a conversation about the opportunities and tensions emerging as AI becomes part of daily life.
S6 · E2
May 13, 2026
36:04
E:56 Have traditional hierarchies made us too dependant? With Alex Hirst and Lizzie Penny
This week on Work Is Weird Now, we’re joined by Lizzie Penny and Alex Hirst, co-founders of Hoxby and The Workstyle Revolution, to unpack how work needs to evolve beyond industrial-age thinking. From the legacy of the 9–5 to the rise of digital, distributed work, we explore why organisations are struggling to balance autonomy with structure and what happens when people are given freedom without the skills or frameworks to use it well. We get into: • Why traditional hierarchies create a parent–child dynamic at work • The shift from presence-based to trust-based collaboration • Why “freedom within a framework” is the real unlock • How autonomy is a skill, not a perk • What organisations get wrong when they try to go “flat” Along the way, Lizzie and Alex share the deeply personal experiences that shaped their thinking — from burnout to illness to building a business around a more human way of working. This isn’t about scrapping structure. It’s about redesigning it.
S6 · E1
May 6, 2026
40:55
E59: What is today's best career advice? With Alice and Dan
What’s today’s best career advice? In this solo episode of Work is Weird Now, Alice Phillips and Dan Emery unpack the career advice that no longer fits the reality of modern work — from climbing the corporate ladder and staying loyal to one company, to following your passion at all costs. Instead, they explore what actually matters now: building T-shaped skills, learning continuously, creating optionality, and staying visible in an increasingly AI-shaped job market. Along the way, they reflect honestly on identity, ambition, burnout, and why tying your entire sense of self to a job title might be one of the biggest risks of all. A conversation about careers, reinvention, and how to stay adaptable when the rules keep changing.
S6
May 27, 2026
33:37
Season 5
E55: She Shapes AI Global Awards & Conference Wrap Up
She Shapes AI: Who gets to build the future? Alice and Dan recap their experience at the She Shapes AI Global Awards and Conference at the London School of Economics an event that didn’t just celebrate innovation, but challenged who gets to shape it. The day opened with a bold Oxford-style debate asking whether AI will lead to an era of abundance and human flourishing. Arguing the opposition, Alice helped shift the room driven by one simple, cutting question: if abundance is inevitable, why aren’t we seeing it already? From there, the conversation turned refreshingly honest. Author Caroline De Cock cut through the hype, calling time on years of overpromising from the tech world—and questioning why the people building AI are still the ones defining its purpose. But the most powerful theme came from the founders themselves. Across the awards, women from around the world showcased AI solutions shaped by lived experience tackling everything from domestic abuse and healthcare inequality to environmental challenges and political conflict. Many had stepped away from traditional careers to build something better. Most had been told not to. The takeaway is clear: AI is changing who gets to participate. And for those with deep, personal understanding of a problem, that might be the most powerful advantage of all.
S5 · E11
Apr 23, 2026
31:01
E54: Can AI education help level the playing field? With Anna Cejudo
Can AI education help level the playing field? This week on Work Is Weird Now, we’re joined by Anna Cejudo, co-CEO and co-founder of Founderz, to explore one of the most important questions in the age of AI: who actually gets to benefit? Anna unpacks why traditional education models are struggling to keep up — caught between exclusivity at one end and passive, disconnected online learning at the other — and how Founderz is trying to build something different. We dive into what it means to learn with AI, not just about it. From always-on AI mentors to personalised, real-time learning experiences, this is a model that shifts education from consumption to interaction. But access to tools is not the same as capability. Anna shares why so many organisations are getting AI adoption wrong, and why mindset, confidence, and practical application matter far more than simply rolling out licences. We also explore what this means for the next generation, how AI could reshape learning in schools, and the risk of a new divide emerging — not just between those who have access to technology, but those who know how to use it well. At its core, this is a conversation about opportunity. Because if education creates opportunity, then in the age of AI, the real question is: who gets to learn?
S5 · E10
Apr 1, 2026
30:48
E53: WIWN x SSAI - Can AI open doors to hidden candidates? With Hannah Topler
Can AI open doors to hidden candidates? This week on Work Is Weird Now, we’re joined by Hannah Töpler, CEO of Intrare and finalist in the She Shapes AI Awards (Future of Work category). While companies struggle to fill frontline roles, millions of capable people remain locked out of formal employment — including refugees, migrants, single parents, LGBTQ+ candidates and older workers. Hannah is building a different kind of hiring system — one that uses AI not to filter people out, but to bring them in. We explore why traditional recruitment systems are fundamentally biased, how AI has often made this worse, and what it takes to design technology that actively reduces inequality rather than scaling it. From WhatsApp-based hiring journeys to AI that questions its own decisions, Intrare is rethinking what inclusive hiring looks like at scale — growing from supporting 200 people a year to over 25,000 candidates globally. But this episode goes beyond one company. It asks a bigger question: If AI reflects the world as it is, can we design it to build the world as it should be? This conversation is for anyone thinking about the future of hiring, AI bias, and who gets access to opportunity in the next era of work.
S5 · E9
Mar 25, 2026
28:08
E52: WIWN x She Shapes AI - Can AI make pay fairer? With Barbara Stolorz
Can AI make pay fairer? Most companies know they have a gender pay gap. Very few measure it properly. In this episode of Work Is Weird Now, Alice Phillips and Dan Emery speak with Barbara Stolorz, co-founder of Levelly AI and a finalist in the She Shapes AI Awards. Barbara shares how her own experience returning from maternity leave and discovering her salary increases had simply been skipped led her to build a tool that helps organisations measure pay equity in seconds. As the EU Pay Transparency Directive approaches, companies will soon be required to reveal where they stand. Barbara explains how Levelly AI works, why many organisations still resist the data, and what happens when a board sees evidence of a gap and refuses to believe it.
S5 · E8
Mar 18, 2026
33:11
S5E7: What is the future of pay? With Paul Vezelis
In this episode of Work Is Weird Now Podcast, Alice and Dan sit down with Paul Vezelis, CEO of Traxlo, to explore how pay is evolving as work becomes more fragmented, flexible and outcome-driven. Paul challenges one of the most embedded assumptions in modern employment: that time is the right unit of value. Instead of paying for hours, Traxlo breaks retail work into measurable tasks and pays people when outcomes are delivered. Clear expectations. Transparent outputs. No fixed shifts. But this conversation goes deeper than gig economy headlines. We explore why task-based work appeals to women seeking flexible, local income, how people are stacking multiple income streams to create resilience, and whether diversification is becoming the new form of security. If pay shifts from hours to outcomes, what happens to loyalty, identity and belonging at work? Work is weird now. And how we pay people may be one of the biggest shifts of all.
S5 · E7
Feb 25, 2026
34:13
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