Explore every episode of the podcast Maverick School Podcast

Why do some people build wealth while others struggle—despite earning similar incomes?

The answer may have far less to do with money than most people think.

In this episode of the Maverick School Podcast, Karl sits down with award-winning financial educator and entrepreneur Sacha Dsane, better known as 'The Money Lady', to explore the psychology behind money and why so many of us reach adulthood without the financial education we truly need.

After nearly two decades working in senior roles across Lloyds Bank, Barclays, Halifax, Templar Financial Planning and advising high-net-worth clients, Sacha came to a surprising conclusion:

People rarely struggle because they lack money. And the answer is a lot more straightforward than people realise.

Today, through her organisation Financial Harmony, she delivers game-based, psychology-driven financial education to young people, parents and communities, helping people build healthier relationships with money and create better life outcomes.

In this conversation, you'll discover:

• The surprising psychological reason many people remain financially stuck—even when their income increases
• Why our earliest experiences with money often shape our financial future more than our education does
• The financial lessons schools rarely teach—but every young person needs before entering adulthood
• What so many people get wrong about cryptocurrency and what that could cost them everything
• Simple, practical strategies to build confidence, improve financial decision-making and create long-term financial wellbeing

This isn't another conversation about budgeting or saving.

It's a conversation about confidence, behaviour and understanding the hidden beliefs that influence every financial decision we make.

If you've ever wondered why money feels so complicated—or how to give young people a healthier financial future—this is an episode you won't want to miss.

LinkedIn: Sacha Dsane

Website: https://financialharmony.co.uk/

"Traditional careers education doesn't work anymore."

It's a bold statement—but is it true?

Young people are entering one of the most challenging job markets in a generation.

Youth unemployment has reached 16.2% nationally, and almost one in four young people in London are unemployed. Meanwhile, Alan Milburn's recent NEETs report warns that more than one million young people are currently out of education, employment or training, with that figure projected to rise to 1.5 million by 2030.

If the world of work has fundamentally changed, shouldn't the way we prepare young people change too?

In this episode of the Maverick School Podcast, Karl sits down with education consultant Olivia Saunders to explore why many of the assumptions underpinning careers education are no longer fit for purpose—and what needs to replace them.

Drawing on her experience across education, safeguarding, inclusion and system-wide school improvement, Olivia shares why she believes we need to rethink the journey from classroom to career.

Together they explore:

• Why traditional careers education struggles to prepare young people for today's economy
• The innovative MBacc curriculum and how it could transform pathways into employment
• Why conventional work experience often misses the mark—and what meaningful employer engagement should look like instead
• How forward-thinking employers are embracing AI as a skill rather than treating it as a threat
• The exciting, high-value career opportunities that are often overlooked by schools and careers programmes

This is a conversation about far more than employment.

It's about giving young people the knowledge, confidence and opportunities to navigate a rapidly changing world.

If you care about the future of work, education and the next generation, this is an episode you won't want to miss.

LinkedIn: Olivia Saunders Baker Dearing

"Society has created such a narrow definition of success that many people spend their lives chasing goals they never chose."

In this thought-provoking episode of the Maverick School Podcast, host Karl explores the psychology of modern life with Daniel Alves, a Cambridge-educated psychotherapist and content creator.

At a time when young people are navigating economic uncertainty, AI disruption, social comparison, and a growing mental health crisis, Daniel offers a fresh perspective on what it means to live a meaningful and fulfilling life.

Together, Karl and Daniel unpack a pressing question:

Why are so many young people struggling when they've never had more information, opportunities, and technology at their fingertips?

This wide-ranging conversation explores:

🧠 How the subconscious mind shapes everyday decisions, behaviours, and relationships

🌑 Why confronting our "inner darkness" can become a powerful catalyst for personal growth

💰 The surprising reason that chasing money and external success can leave us feeling unfulfilled

🤝 The friendship green flags that can positively influence the course of our lives

📱 The hidden psychological costs of social media and what its long-term impact may be on society

Rather than offering simplistic solutions or motivational clichés, Daniel provides something far more valuable: a framework for understanding ourselves and the world around us.

This is a fascinating conversation for parents, educators, young professionals, and anyone trying to make sense of modern life in an increasingly complex world.

Expect fresh insights, challenging ideas, and plenty of moments that may change the way you think about success, happiness, and what it means to thrive in the digital age.

YT: Deeper Perspectives

What if we've been teaching young people to navigate the modern economy using a map from a different century?

For generations, success followed a relatively simple formula:

Work hard. Get good grades. Pick a career. Climb the ladder.

But what if there is no ladder anymore?

What if the modern economy looks less like a career path... and more like an open-world game?

This week on the Maverick School Podcast, Karl explores one of the most important questions facing young people today:

Are we thinking about careers completely the wrong way?

The timing couldn't be more important.

Former MP Alan Milburn's latest report reveals that more than one million young people in the UK are currently not in education, employment or training — with that number projected to rise significantly over the coming years.

The traditional playbook isn't working for everyone.

So where do young people go from here?

In this thought-provoking solo episode, Karl uncovers the surprising parallels between the gaming industry and the modern economy, arguing that some of the best career lessons may not come from careers advisers at all...

...but from the games many young people are already playing.

Inside this episode:

🎮 Why the career ladder may be one of the most outdated ideas in modern work

🎮 The surprising connection between open-world gaming and the way opportunities now emerge in the real economy

🎮 What The Legend of Zelda can teach us about careers, exploration and building valuable skills

🎮 Why becoming "the expert" may no longer be the safest strategy in an AI-powered world

🎮 The simple decision-making framework used by the richest man on Earth — and how it can help you make smarter choices when the future feels uncertain

And perhaps most importantly:

🎮 How young people can stop worrying about finding the perfect path and start building the skills to thrive no matter what path appears next.

If you're a young person (or a person who works with them) trying to make sense of an increasingly unpredictable world, this episode might completely change the way you think about work, opportunity and success.

Because in an open-world game, the people who win aren't always the ones with the best map.

They're the ones willing to explore.

"The system is not designed to develop everything you need.

And you have to take ownership of that."

Karl’s second interview was with Adrian McClean. Executive leader. Character education specialist. Absolute powerhouse.

Let’s be blunt here.

Our current education system is making less and less sense as the days go by. AI is already taking massive chunks out of the jobs market. Our young people (and many adults) need alternative approaches to thrive in the Digital Age.

So Karl had the honour of sitting down with Adrian to figure out what those approaches actually are.

After a glittering career in education, he's branched out to holistically develop young people and educators for what's coming next.

Here's what we broke down in this interview:

1. Why the "stable" systems of the last century are obsolete. And what we now need to do to prepare for the "wicked world" ahead. The old playbook is gone.

1. Why intrinsic values like kindness, empathy, and discipline have more real-world value than our current grade systems. Not soft skills. Survival skills.

1. Why most people look at "struggle" completely wrong. And why struggle is actually essential for flourishing. Adrian's framing will dhange the way you look at difficulty

1. Why the new world belongs to those who can self-educate and are willing to fail at scale.

Adrian dropped some 💎💎💎’s that will help anyone young and old navigate their careers during this intense period.

Enjoy!

Adrian McLean links:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/adrian-mclean

https://www.instagram.com/character_guy1/

“If the education system is the Titanic… then maybe we’ve already seen the iceberg.”

This week on the Maverick School Podcast, Karl heads to the Schools & Academies Show at London Excel — one of the biggest education conferences in Europe — to ask a deceptively simple question:

Is the education system still preparing young people for the world they’re actually walking into?

Surrounded by thousands of teachers, school leaders, policymakers and education experts, one thing becomes clear very quickly:

The people inside the system can feel the world changing in real time.

AI. Mental health. Attention spans. The future of work. Economic uncertainty.

Everyone agrees something is shifting.

But nobody seems fully certain what comes next.

Using a mix of live conference audio, interviews, documentary-style narration and historical analysis, this episode explores not just what’s happening in education right now — but why the system looks the way it does in the first place.

Inside the episode:

• Why the UK’s education system was originally built during the Industrial Revolution — and how it revolutionised the country
• Why the education system's greatest strengths make it so vulnerable to emergent AI
• The hidden safeguarding risk that most people never talk about, and how it’s devastating our young people
• What young people and parents need to understand about navigating education and careers in the modern world

This isn’t an attack on teachers or schools.

In many ways, the modern education system was one of Britain’s greatest achievements.

But the world changed faster than the system did.

And young people are now living inside that gap.

If you care about the future of education, the pressures facing young people, or how we prepare the next generation for an increasingly uncertain world — this episode is for you.

In this special episode, Karl interviews Eric Odotei, MBA, the esteemed Global Regulatory Head of an award-winning global trading company, about how technology has changed his industry and how it will soon change everyone else's.

In the first-ever Maverick School Podcast interview, Eric breaks down the key challenges that emerging AI technology presents to young people starting out and how they can navigate these perilous times.

In this episode, you will learn:

• The #1 skill every young person should master to thrive in this new economy
• Why ‘permission is an illusion’ and ‘keeping your head down’ will halt your career
• Why social media is poisoning your life and the key mindset that’s the antidote
• How the emergence of AI is like facing a ‘fire breathing dragon’ and what we can do to stop ourselves being eaten by it.

LinkedIn: Eric Odotei MBA

Instagram: odderic

Nobody wants to be seen as a ‘weirdo.’

But in the digital age, it might be the greatest asset you got.

AI has supercharged conformity.

Cover letters, CVs and social media posts are now a dime a dozen thanks to ChatGPT and Claude.

HR and hiring companies now use algorithms to fish out candidates with machine-like precision.

If you add increasing layoffs, economic uncertainty, and world leaders acting like DuShane and Sully from Top Boy, no wonder things feel bleak.

But in this episode, Karl argues that leaning into your personality quirks might be the key to securing your future.

In this episode, you will learn:

• The clever framework that Ryan Reynolds used to conquer Hollywood, and why being 'average' is now a huge advantage
• Why a little high school in Downtown Brooklyn, New York, produced some of the greatest rappers of all time, and a key lesson you can learn to turbocharge your career
• Why asking for work online may paradoxically stop you getting it – and what you can do instead

The world is in crisis.

Following on from last week's episode, Karl continues to lay out how technology, geopolitical tensions and unprecedented events have made the world more unpredictable than ever and what that means for our young people.

But ever the optimist, Karl switches gears and offers practical advice on how our young people can take advantage of this turmoil to build themselves better futures, including:

• Why the traditional CV is 'dead' - and what young people should replace it with

• Why learning to ask great questions supercharges your career in the long run

• Why learning how to combine your skills in interesting ways will help you open doors to opportunities you can't even imagine

If you are a young person struggling with a career path, this is for you.

We’re living in interesting times.

The rules that shaped work, education, and society for the last hundred years are shifting. Political tensions are rising, the global economy feels uncertain, and technology is moving faster than most institutions can keep up.

At the same time, artificial intelligence and the information economy are transforming how we learn, work, and create opportunity.

2020 marked the end of the Industrial Age and the beginning of the Information Age.

Young people can feel this shift. Many sense that the world they are preparing for will look very different from the one their parents entered.

In this episode, I explore how these global changes are shaping the future of work — and what it means for students trying to find their place in an unpredictable world.

• 1 in 5 young people between 8 to 25 have a probable mental health disorder
• Almost a million young people are out of work
• A third of recent graduates are unemployed

There's something very wrong in our society and our young people are suffering.

In the the first ever episode of the Maverick School Podcast, Karl lays out how our current education system is failing our young people and the mission of the show.