Maverick School Podcast

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School prepared us for exams. But the world young people are entering today looks completely different. Degrees don’t guarantee jobs anymore. Career ladders are disappearing. AI is reshaping industries faster than most schools can keep up. And many young people — and their parents — feel it. That’s where this podcast comes in. The Maverick School Podcast is about the career education school forgot. Hosted by an educator with 16+ years of frontline experience helping young people navigate careers, this show explores how the modern world of work actually works — and what young people need to succeed in it. Each episode features honest conversations with entrepreneurs, leaders, and creatives who are building real careers in today’s economy. If you’re: • A young person trying to figure out your direction • A graduate feeling stuck or behind • A parent worried about your child’s future • Or someone trying to understand the new economy This podcast is for you. Inside the show we explore: • How careers really work in the 21st century • Skills that matter in the new economy • Networking, personal branding, and opportunity creation • Money, mindset, and resilience • How people are building careers outside traditional paths No fluff. No outdated advice. Just real-world insight from people living it. Because the future belongs to people who learn beyond the classroom. Welcome to Maverick School. For business inquiries, speaker bookings, or sponsorship opportunities, contact us at maverickschoolpodcast@gmail.com

  1. 2h ago

    EP17 'Why Even Millionaire Footballers Go Broke' — The Football Banker Eno Mwamba

    Imagine becoming a millionaire before your 25th birthday… only to lose it all. How does someone who earns more in a single season than most people will in a lifetime end up financially ruined? And here's an even stranger question. Could your friends and family, the support network you lean on, make you more likely to go into financial ruin? We tend to believe that money creates security, talent guarantees success and having every advantage in life puts you ahead of everyone else. But elite football and high finance tell a very different story. In this episode of the Maverick School Podcast, Karl sits down with Eno Mwamba, a man whose extraordinary career has taken him through some of the world's most prestigious institutions. From banking and wealth management at Barclays, to earning a Master of Finance at the University of Cambridge, to working at McKinsey & Company, one of the world's most renowned management consultancies, Eno has operated at the highest levels of finance and business. He's also helped an environmental start-up raise over £1 million, qualified as a UEFA football coach, and founded The Football Banker, combining his expertise in finance and football to help professional players protect their wealth and prepare for life beyond the pitch. Few people bring together such an unusual combination of financial expertise and firsthand experience of football's intensely competitive environment. And what he's discovered challenges some of our biggest assumptions about money, privilege, ambition and success. In this episode, you'll discover: ⚽ The elite mentality: What separates footballers who thrive in brutally competitive environments from those who don't — and how you can develop some of those same qualities in your own life. 🏆 The inner-circle paradox: Why footballers taking well-meaning advice from family and friends can actually hinder their career and finances 💰 The secret of staying wealthy: The one thing Eno has observed about how ultra-wealthy people protect their fortunes — and what the rest of us can learn from it. 💸 The millionaire money trap: The surprising financial mistake that even highly paid footballers can make, why ordinary people fall into similar traps, and how to avoid it. This isn't simply a conversation about footballers and their extraordinary salaries. It's about why some people succeed against the odds, why others struggle despite having every advantage, and why making money is only half the battle. Because the lessons from professional football might just change the way you think about your own future. https://www.thefootballbanker.com/   https://www.instagram.com/the.footballbanker/

  2. Sep 28

    EP16 ’The Truth About AI That Big Tech Isn’t Telling You’ — White House Award-Winning Tech Co-Founder R. Shawn Williams

    Big Tech is hiding something that you need to know.— R. Shawn Williams   Artificial intelligence is moving extraordinarily quickly. And depending on who you listen to, it's either about to solve humanity's biggest problems — or take everybody's jobs. But what if both versions are missing something important? In this episode of the Maverick School Podcast, Karl sits down with R. Shawn Williams, award-winning product designer, technology leader, entrepreneur and co-founder and CPO of Ubora Thrive AI. With more than 20 years of experience across product design, user experience and emerging technology, Shawn has built his career around one deceptively difficult question: How do we make powerful technology actually work for human beings? His work has received major recognition, including a White House award, and through Ubora Thrive AI he's now exploring how human-centred artificial intelligence can help people turn their existing knowledge, expertise and ideas into meaningful outcomes. This isn't a conversation about the latest shiny AI tool. It's about what happens to us when the tools become extraordinarily powerful. In this episode, you'll discover: 🤖 What's really happening with AI beneath the sensationalist headlines and Big Tech hype — and why the reality is more complicated than “AI will take everyone's jobs” 👤 Why completely removing human beings from the workplace may be impossible — and what that tells us about the skills young people should be developing now 🚀 Why young people may need to stop waiting for traditional institutions to create opportunities for them — and start learning how to create opportunities themselves 🎓 Why using AI isn't automatically “cheating” — and a healthier way to think about the relationship between human intelligence and artificial intelligence 💼 How AI could reshape the traditional 9-to-5 career — and what young people can do now to prepare for a labour market that may look radically different 🧠 Whether relying on AI really is destroying our ability to think — and how to use these tools without outsourcing your critical thinking 🛠️ Where someone completely new to AI should actually start — and which tools and capabilities are worth learning The central question running through this conversation isn't simply: “What will AI be capable of?” It's: “As machines become more capable, what becomes more valuable about us?” Because the future may not belong to AI. It may belong to the people who learn how to combine human expertise with AI leverage. Discover Ubora Thrive AI

  3. Sep 14

    EP15 'AI Should Never Replace Human Stories' — Author & Education Entrepreneur Natalie Chama-Pupé

    If AI Can Write a Book in Seconds, Why Should Humans Bother? — Natalie Chama-Pupé What happens to books when machines become capable of writing them? Artificial intelligence can already produce stories, articles and entire manuscripts in seconds. As the technology improves, an uncomfortable question emerges for the next generation of writers: Why spend months or years mastering the craft of writing when a machine can generate thousands of words almost instantly? In this episode of the Maverick School Podcast, Karl sits down with Natalie Chama-Pupé to explore why the answer might have less to do with technology — and more to do with what makes us human. Natalie is an author, educator, entrepreneur and founder of Chama Tuition, where she works with young people to help them develop academically and fulfil their potential. She is also the author of several books and releases her latest, Identity, in September 2026. Together, Karl and Natalie explore the future of books, reading and human creativity in the age of AI — and why becoming an author can offer advantages that have surprisingly little to do with the number of books you sell. In this episode: 📚 Why representation in literature matters — and what happens when young people rarely encounter characters, experiences and voices that reflect their own 🚪 Why writing a book can become a surprisingly powerful form of career leverage, opening doors and creating opportunities far beyond publishing 🤖 Whether AI-generated books should carry an “ingredients label” so readers know when — and how — artificial intelligence contributed to what they're reading ❤️ The surprising relationship between reading, loneliness, stress and empathy — and whether books could have a role to play in an increasingly disconnected society They also explore why school can sometimes destroy a child's enjoyment of reading, why young people's relationship with books may be changing again, whether human-written books will retain their value as AI improves, and the three books Natalie believes every young person should consider reading. But underneath the conversation sits a much bigger question: If machines can produce unlimited content, does authentic human creativity become less valuable — or more? For aspiring writers, parents, educators and anyone wondering what creativity looks like in the age of AI, this is a conversation about much more than books. It's about voice, identity and why having something uniquely human to say still matters. Enjoy the episode! Website: https://www.chamatuition.com/

  4. Aug 31

    EP14 7 Things I Wish I Could Tell My 23-Year-Old Self

    7 Things I Wish I Could Tell My 23-Year-Old Self At 23, Karl lost his job. For the next six months, he scratched around for a living, signed on for Jobseeker's Allowance and tried to work out what on Earth he was going to do next. More than 20 years later, he sees that period very differently. In this special episode of the Maverick School Podcast, Karl looks back at that younger version of himself and shares seven things he wishes he'd known at 23. Not seven life hacks. Not seven steps to success. But seven lessons about what happens when life doesn't turn out quite how you expected. And there's one lesson in particular that took him more than 20 years to understand. If he'd known it at 23, it might have changed everything. For anyone trying to work out what they're doing with their life — or wondering how on Earth they ended up where they are — this episode might be exactly what they need to hear.

  5. Aug 17

    EP13 'AI Won't Wait for Our Education System to Catch Up' — Tatler-Nominated Headteacher Suzannah Cryer

    How do you prepare a child for a world that nobody has experienced before? Artificial intelligence is transforming how people learn, work and communicate. The skills employers demand are changing, misinformation is becoming increasingly difficult to detect, and today's children could eventually enter careers that don't yet exist. So is our education system changing quickly enough? In this episode of the Maverick School Podcast, Karl sits down with Suzannah Cryer, Head of Highfield and Brookham School, to explore one of the defining educational questions of our time: what should schools actually be preparing young people for in the age of AI? Suzannah is a highly respected educational leader with more than 17 years' experience spanning mainstream education, SEND, primary and secondary settings. Her innovative leadership has seen her shortlisted for Tatler's Best Head of a Prep School. She also helped co-author an ambitious white paper submitted to the Department for Education calling for curriculum reform that responds to technological and societal change while protecting the distinctly human capabilities that could become increasingly valuable in an AI-driven world. In this wide-ranging conversation, Karl and Suzannah explore: 🎓 Why the exam system may be measuring the wrong things — and the radically different ways we could assess young people instead 💼 What leading businesses actually want from the next generation of employees — and why exam results might only tell part of the story 🤖 Why banning AI from the classroom could spectacularly backfire — leaving young people less prepared for the very workplaces they're about to enter 🧠 The huge bottleneck nobody can ignore if we genuinely want every young person to receive a high-quality AI education 📱 The hidden social crisis playing out amongst young people — and why technology may be making an already difficult problem even harder This isn't a conversation about tearing down the education system or blaming teachers. It's about recognising that schools and educators are being asked to prepare young people for circumstances that previous generations never faced — and asking whether the structures surrounding them are evolving quickly enough. Because the world has changed. Education must do too. If you're a young person trying to understand the future, or a parent, educator or employer thinking about how we prepare the next generation for it, this is an episode you won't want to miss. LinkedIn: Suzannah Cryer Suzannah’s White Paper: https://highfieldandbrookham.co.uk/app/uploads/2026/06/White-Paper-Education-for-a-Changing-Society.pdf

  6. Aug 3

    EP12 ‘The Traditional 9-to-5 is Dead’ Content Creator This Food Bangz

    ‘The traditional 9-to-5 is Dead’ Content Creator This Food Bangz   Is content creation one of the most misunderstood careers of the modern economy? For many people, social media still looks like entertainment. But behind every successful creator is an entrepreneur, storyteller, marketer and business owner building value in one of the fastest-growing industries in the world. In this episode of the Maverick School Podcast, Karl sits down with award-winning digital creator Eli, founder of This Food Bangz, to explore why the creator economy has become a genuine career pathway—and what every young person can learn from it. With millions of views across his platforms, partnerships with global brands and tourism boards, and recognition as one of the UK's leading food and drink influencers, Eli has built a career that simply didn't exist a generation ago. Together, Karl and Eli explore: • Why content creation is becoming one of the biggest career opportunities in the modern economy • The three characteristics every successful creator needs—and why they're valuable in almost every profession • The hidden pitfall that catches out creators and anyone trying to build a career online • How young people can stop scrolling and start using social media as a tool to create opportunities and gain leverage • Why success in the creator economy has far more to do with resilience, storytelling and problem-solving than expensive equipment or luck This isn't just a conversation about YouTube, Instagram or TikTok. It's a conversation about entrepreneurship, creativity and how young people can build valuable skills in a rapidly changing world. If you've ever wondered whether content creation is a real career—or what it can teach us about the future of work—this is an episode you won't want to miss.   YT: This Food Bangz Instagram: @thisfoodbangz TikTok: @thisfoodbangz

  7. Jul 20

    EP11 'The #1 Money Belief That Holds Most People Back' The Money Lady Sacha Dsane

    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/

  8. Jul 6

    EP10 ‘The Jobs Market Changed. Schools Didn't.’ Further Education Consultant Olivia Saunders

    "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

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About

School prepared us for exams. But the world young people are entering today looks completely different. Degrees don’t guarantee jobs anymore. Career ladders are disappearing. AI is reshaping industries faster than most schools can keep up. And many young people — and their parents — feel it. That’s where this podcast comes in. The Maverick School Podcast is about the career education school forgot. Hosted by an educator with 16+ years of frontline experience helping young people navigate careers, this show explores how the modern world of work actually works — and what young people need to succeed in it. Each episode features honest conversations with entrepreneurs, leaders, and creatives who are building real careers in today’s economy. If you’re: • A young person trying to figure out your direction • A graduate feeling stuck or behind • A parent worried about your child’s future • Or someone trying to understand the new economy This podcast is for you. Inside the show we explore: • How careers really work in the 21st century • Skills that matter in the new economy • Networking, personal branding, and opportunity creation • Money, mindset, and resilience • How people are building careers outside traditional paths No fluff. No outdated advice. Just real-world insight from people living it. Because the future belongs to people who learn beyond the classroom. Welcome to Maverick School. For business inquiries, speaker bookings, or sponsorship opportunities, contact us at maverickschoolpodcast@gmail.com

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  • Creator
    maverickschoolpodcast
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    17
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026 All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    Maverick School Podcast