Our podcast claims the “Dangerous Woman” mantle, one incredible, dangerous woman at a time!
The Dangerous Women Collective™ is a community of professional women where achievement is celebrated, mutual support is unquestioned, and women’s contribution to economic, social, and technical progress is championed.
The Dangerous Women Collective™ podcast is the public voice of our community. It’s a forum to hold in-depth conversations with brilliant women who have a strong story to share about how they have navigated the world of work and life and what we can do together to lift one another up.
And Dangerous Women know as well as anyone that we live in an increasingly fractured and targeted world, and how important it is to protect ourselves on and offline. That’s why we are honoured to announce ESET as our new sponsor. As one of the world’s leading cybersecurity brands and Europe’s top vendor, trusted by over half a million businesses worldwide, we know we are in safe hands.
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Series 5, Episode 6 - "Human Flirtations". Sophy Norris in conversation with Monica Chadha, Strategic Advisor, Board Member, Coach, Speaker
Season 5 · Episode 6
Wednesday, May 13, 2026 • Duration 58:24
In this Episode, Sophy talks to a woman who defines the meaning of a portfolio career, a carefully crafted series of roles and services that enable her to share her expertise, support and lift those she works with and lean into the industries she is passionate about.
Monica Chadha's story is one of grabbing opportunities, following instincts, harnessing mentorship and sometimes stepping into the unknown. This is a woman who knows her value and shares it. Today, she is the Chair of a PwC Advisory Board; sits on the Advisory Board for the 30% Club, a Non-Executive Director of the British Film Institute; and a Senior Advisor to Digital Entertainment Group International (DEGI); British Association for Screen Entertainment (BASE); and the International Union of Cinemas (UNIC). She is a member of the British Screen Forum and a voting member of BAFTA.
Of course, she didn’t begin with such an illustrious portfolio, but she did start making waves early on. She started her career at Technicolor Distribution in supply chain management and was appointed to the Board of the British Video Association aged 24. She became Production Director of Prism Leisure Corporation PLC aged 25. Since then, she has held several roles including CEO of MyMovies.Net; Non-Executive Director of Obviously Creative; Chair of the British Independent Film Awards Advisory Board; a member of the BAFTA Digital Communications Board; Advisor to Marlow Film Studios; a member of the Bias in AI Research Group at Durham University; and the All-Party Parliamentary Group for AI; and Vice Chair of Queen Mary University of London.
Monica is a faculty member of the Financial Times Board Director Programme and a confidential thinking partner and coach for senior executives. In 2019, she was named as one of the top 50 Women to Watch in the UK Female FTSE Board Report.
It's an impressive list, daunting even. But, as you will hear as you listen to this podcast, Monica is anything but daunting. She is fun, mischievous, insightful and generous. She shares her experiences and wisdom widely, and there is much to learn from her discussions with Sophy.
Just some of the MANY takeaways include:
Managing success at a young age, and how people respond to that success, "the most important relationship is the one with yourself."
The importance of turning confrontations into conversations.
Understanding that what is dangerous for some feels safe for others.
Knowing what your values are early on and being able to articulate them.
The crucial power of relationships, of holding on to them, and letting go of them and the absolute importance of egalitarianism (aka human flirtations).
You are the CEO of your own career. Curate your own personal boardroom of advisors, and know the expanse of your network, and who to tap into for different scenarios and advice.
Remembering that leadership needs a phenomenal network.
Hope is harvesting opportunities and seeing possibilities everywhere.
Sometimes we have to manage the difficult stuff, so understanding how is key.
Why humour is a superpower.
Always be careful what you say yes to and remember to think about what you want your exit to look like.
Progress is a series of tiny wins built on years of experience. Remember that!
Series 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
Season 5 · Episode 5
Wednesday, April 29, 2026 • Duration 58:08
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"
Series 5, Episode 4 - "Curiosity, Reflection and Kindness." Sophy Norris in conversation with Birthe Mester, Organisational Culture Expert and Founder of Culture Dividend
Episode 12
Wednesday, April 15, 2026 • Duration 01:07:13
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
Series 5, Episode 3 - "Early, Ugly and Often". Sophy Norris in conversation with Sarah Thomas PhD, Group CMO and EVP Capgemini
Season 5 · Episode 3
Wednesday, March 25, 2026 • Duration 01:03:44
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
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.
Episode 11
Wednesday, March 11, 2026 • Duration 01:04:44
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
SERIES 5 LAUNCH. ”Dumbo’s Feather.” Sophy Norris in coversation with Alev Scott, journalist and author of Cash Cow
Season 4 · Episode 9
Wednesday, February 25, 2026 • Duration 59:56
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 purpose
Being 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 key
Using 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 fertility
SERIES FINALE ”Say Yes Before You Can Say No.” Sophy Norris in conversation with Emma McClarkin, OBE. CEO of the British Beer & Pub Associaiton
Season 4 · Episode 8
Wednesday, February 4, 2026 • Duration 58:24
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 takers
The power women have as natural communicators
That boards are made better when there is strong female representation, and why investing in women is good for business
Why being Queen Bee is not how you advance as a woman, rather it is important to create pathways for those travelling with you
Hospitality needs to be showcased as a brilliant career option, and more women are needed at the C-suite level
How important it is to listen to our gut and follow our instincts
Our only competition should be with the best version of ourselves
Dressing 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 today
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 ...
Season 4 · Episode 7
Wednesday, January 21, 2026 • Duration 01:03:33
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 countries
Why conciously and relentlessly following the opportunties, following serendipity but with thoughtfullness and care can be career defining
Manifesting what you crave to make it happen, being tenaciously open to the journey
”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
Season 4 · Episode 6
Wednesday, January 7, 2026 • Duration 59:08
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 ourselves
Putting oversleves in other people's shoes is a woman's superpower
The importance of finding balance in our working lives, fuelling our passions and finding windows of joy
How we dress and look can boost confidence and resilience
Managing 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
”Could do better.” Series 4, Episode 5. Sophy Norris in conversation with Claire Roberts, Co-Founder of Full Fathom Five and inclusive AI campaigner
Season 4 · Episode 5
Wednesday, December 10, 2025 • Duration 01:17:39
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 win
Why we need to realise that not every day is the day that we will change the world
How a "disaster zone" career path can reveal new routes, even some back doors, to a successful career
Leaning 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 brilliance
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
Why you must not let the environment control you, but you must control yourself
The impact of representation and advocacy, especially for women in engineering and even more so for women of colour in engineering
Why is it so crucial to see "other people like me"
And conversley how corrosive and undermining token representation is
Why 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 you
Taking setbacks is an important part of your journey and your future
Curating 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 priorities
And 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.
When we are the only, or one of few, women in the room, we need to think about how we introduce more diversity of thought
We 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 ahead
Currently, 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 prepared
We 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 regulated
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