In the week that Parliament decided to give the vote to sixteen year olds, welcome back to Fearless Diversity, the podcast where age isn’t just a tick-box in the census, it’s the parent, the baby, and the teenage activist in the room. Join Simon, your resident digitally Bewildered Baby Boomer, living proof that you can survive a childhood without Wi-Fi or oat milk and Rachel stuck between Millennials’ optimism and Greta Thunberg’s existential despair.

Age is a minefield for managers and leaders. The young are idealised, patronised or indulged at work, while older people’s experience is either venerated or wasted and at worst consigned to the scrap heap. Some execs think their teenage children understand the world better than they do, young people reverse JFK’s exhortation and demand what the company can do for them and everybody disagrees about phone use, social media and how to communicate.

Rachel and Simon navigate the generational maze using their practical experience with clients and the latest scientific research. Neuroscience tells us that brains just aren’t fully cooked until at least 25. Executive function, the bit that helps you plot revolution or file taxes are still developing during your teens and early twenties. So, do children need parents, young people need older people and indignation need experience?

With age, discrimination goes both ways. In politics and workplaces, society is still wrestling with whose voice matters and whose is discounted. The generational divide is real, awkward, and much like our podcast, refuses to fit into a single, easy narrative.

So grab a cup of tea, an oat latte (God forbid), or just a tepid mug of nostalgia, and join us as we slice, dice, and deconstruct what age really means in a rapidly changing UK.

Equality Act – age discrimination and exceptions

https://shorturl.at/yolHi

Prof Sallie Baxendale - profile

https://shorturl.at/08fv7

Law Society of Scotland - Brain not fully developed until age 25, research reveals

https://shorturl.at/32aPn

Understanding the Teen Brain - University of Rochester

https://shorturl.at/uXvwK

The Power of Difference

Pp 201 – 204 and p208

https://shorturl.at/hvrfm

John Allen / CBI

https://www.thetimes.com/business-money/article/carolyn-fairbairn-on-cbis-really-good-culture-despite-sex-allegations-qhcmzc75s

Resolution Foundation report on young people’s mental health

https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications/weve-only-just-begun/

Harmful stereotypes of young people fuelling record numbers to fall out of work

https://shorturl.at/y6saT

For more about Rachel: Who Is The Fearless Facilitator? - Fearless Facilitator

For more about Simon: Who We Are – Diversity by Design

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Let’s Be Honest: The conversation on immigration is neither neat nor simple.

So in this episode, Rachel and Simon wade straight into the mess of history, aspiration, personal fear, good intentions and the fear of getting it wrong which make it so complicated.

Simon unpacks the historical waves of immigration since the War and the reaction which exposes public ambivalence and ingrained biases, caught between welcoming diversity and grappling with the underlying uncertainties which for so many reflects reality in UK workplaces. Born in Australia, Rachel tells how she was compelled every year to show up Britain’s intimidating immigration hub in Croydon, until she could finally become officially British in front of a cardboard cut-out of the Queen. Meanwhile,

The discussion challenges simplistic, binary views on race, identity, and integration. Behind every headline statistic and heated debate are real human stories, the personal experiences of immigrants. Central to the conversation is the crucial role that curiosity and language play in shaping inclusive workplaces.

As Simon explores the changes to Dagenham since his family owned it in the 16th and 17th centuries and the initial peculiarity of some loo signage at Edinburgh University, they confront serious questions: What role does language really play in integration? How do we move past simplistic narratives about race and identity to foster genuine workplace cohesion? Why questions of race may be morally black and white, but practically they are more complicated. And who wore Union Jack shoes at a citizenship ceremony?

The episode invites listeners to view immigration not as a monolithic policy matter but as a multifaceted human challenge requiring thoughtful integration over assimilation, inquiry over offence, and fact-driven conversations over fear-driven narratives.

Expect laughter and a healthy dose of fearless candour as they untangle myths, misconceptions, and the genuine anxieties that shape Britain’s diverse workplaces.

Official immigration stats

https://shorturl.at/Sw9W6

NHS staff stats

https://shorturl.at/SPNPB

King’s Fund reports on immigrants and health

https://shorturl.at/9flnL

Social Attitudes Survey

https://natcen.ac.uk/publications/british-social-attitudes-41-national-identity

Attitudes to race – IPSOS

https://www.ipsos.com/en-uk/attitudes-race-and-inequality-great-britain

EVENS (Evidence for Equality National Survey) 2023 (Guardian article)

https://shorturl.at/pAUyv

Tomiwa Owolade critique of the EVENS

https://shorturl.at/xvT5H

Instructing Animosity: How DEI Pedagogy Produces The Hostile Attribution Bias (Rutgers 2024)

https://networkcontagion.us/wp-content/uploads/Instructing-Animosity_11.13.24.pdf

For more about Rachel: Who Is The Fearless Facilitator? - Fearless Facilitator

For more about Simon: Who We Are – Diversity by Design

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After explosive scenes at Glastonbury and two alarming reports detailing “cancellation” and fear sweeping through both publishing and the arts, Fearless Diversity dives into the complex world of artistic freedom, censorship and public outrage.

Simon wrestles with whether there are any limits to what artists can say and whether Rod Stewart should just shut up about Gaza and Farage, and stick to singing “Maggie May”. Meanwhile Rachel tries (and fails) to keep the chat away from her beloved football, Edinburgh and her horror at the antisemitism at Glastonbury.

We’re not afraid to tackle the big issues:

· Should Glastonbury—or any promoter—gag their artists?

· Did the BBC go too far by airing those incendiary performances live to millions?

· Should festival boss Emily Eavis have shown more caution in her line-up?

We explore the issues around those hounded out of publishing and the arts simply for voicing their views. And we ask: Should museums tell us what to think, or should the public be trusted to make up their own minds?

From “Queers for Palestine” banners to Marilyn Manson’s headline-grabbing antics - and even the shocking appearance of a Hitler flag at Glasto - nothing is off limits as we explore the blurry line between free speech, the freedom of artists, outrage, hostility and moral responsibility or the law. Was Rushdie right when he said "The moment you limit free speech it's not free speech'.

Plus, find out why Simon’s mother protested at Scotland’s smartest retailer Jenner’s and how Rachel was brought up by an elephant.

This week’s show is bold, provocative and just serious enough to keep us on air. We hope this episode prompts us all to ask: what exactly is artistic freedom for?

Tune in, shout at your speaker or nod in agreement and let's thrash it out together. At Fearless Diversity we are always up for a difference of opinion.

RESOURCES:

Freedom In The Arts (FITA) report

https://shorturl.at/hs3UI

Every Day Cancellation in Publishing Report

https://sex-matters.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Everyday-cancellation-in-publishing-Sex-Matters.pdf

The First Writers' Congress of Donald Trump – David Aaronovitch

https://shorturl.at/Q5ZGO

Rachel Rooney - My Body Is Me – attacked

https://shorturl.at/HVjSV

Buy it:

https://shorturl.at/HyoT1

Letter to Sadler’s Well re Barclays sponsorship

https://shorturl.at/Sex2J

Letter re Manchester Royal Exchange’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream

https://shorturl.at/tEl1H

Report on letter to PEN opposing the Award to Charlie Hebdo

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/apr/29/writers-join-protest-charlie-hebdo-pen-award

For more about Rachel: Who Is The Fearless Facilitator? - Fearless Facilitator

For more about Simon: Who We Are – Diversity by Design

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.