You Don't Sound Northern

The Quiet Influence of Mothers

Last Sunday the world celebrated powerful women for International Women’s Day. A week later comes Mother’s Day in the UK. It made me think about something we rarely talk about - the quiet influence of the women who raised us. Because whether we realise it or not, much of who we become as adults begins there. The way we see ourselves, the way we handle relationships, the patterns we carry into our own lives. In this episode of My Little Rants, I reflect on the complicated, powerful and often invisible influence mothers have on who we eventually become.

The Underdog Story That Divided Parents

This week’s one started with a children’s book… and a mum who was furious about the message it might be sending to girls. But when I read the same pages, I saw something completely different. So it got me thinking… are we uncovering real problems in society, or are we starting to look for them everywhere? With International Women’s Day coming up this Sunday, this felt like a good moment for a little rant.

The Human Cost of AI Hiring

Fourteen years in recruitment, and I’ve never seen hiring feel this efficient… and this impersonal. AI is changing everything, and that isn’t a bad thing. But when automation replaces conversations instead of improving them, something important gets lost. In this episode, I talk about invisible candidates, algorithmic bias, ghosting by design, and why hiring will always be human work, no matter how advanced the tools become. Because recruitment isn’t just process. It’s trust.

You Don't Sound Northern

We talk a lot about diversity. But we rarely talk about sound. This episode explores the invisible hierarchy of accents in the UK and what it quietly says about class, credibility and belonging. From childhood elocution lessons to boardroom tone-shifting, I unpack the subtle ways many of us learn to edit ourselves before we even know who we are. Not out of shame. Not out of vanity. But out of protection. Because sometimes bias doesn’t shout. It smiles. This isn’t really about vowels. It’s about energy. Identity. And whether the world has changed enough that we can stop sanding down our edges to be taken seriously.

Work Wasn't Designed Around Human Energy - And It Shows

We’ve built modern work around a structure that ignores how humans actually function, then we wonder why people are exhausted, disengaged, or just getting through the week. In this episode, I unpack what really happens to focus and energy from Monday to Friday, why Tuesday is often the most productive day, why midweek friction is predictable, and why Fridays can produce some of our best thinking. I also revisit the four-day week debate and ask why it faded just as the results became hard to ignore. This isn’t a rant about laziness. It’s a challenge to outdated expectations. If your best work happens despite the working week, not because of it, this one will land.