The Futures Project Podcast

Our guest this episode is Professor John Gallacher, professor of cognitive health at Oxford University and Director of BrainWaves, the UK's largest cohort study focused specifically on adolescent mental health. What makes this research remarkable isn't just its scale (30,000 16-year-olds, expanding to 50,000+ by 2026), but its fundamental approach: shifting from clinical intervention to population...

This time we're delighted to welcome Ishaaq Shafi, CEO and founder of ChatUniversity, who's using TikTok to revolutionise how young people approach university applications and super-curriculars. We talked about how he's making higher education access more democratic, what admissions tutors are actually looking for (spoiler: it's not always what you think), and why the traditional application proce...

This episode, Cathy chats to Abigail Foster, Chartered Accountant and founder of Elent Finance, who's on a mission to demystify money for the next generation. Having worked with the Bank of England, HMRC, and Downing Street, plus global giants like Google and Goldman Sachs, Abigail brings serious credentials to her passion for financial education. In this episode, we explore what financial literac...

This Results Day Special episode comes to you mid-August, just as young people across the UK are preparing to open those all-important A-level and GCSE results envelopes. Drawing on 25 years of supporting thousands of students and families through exam seasons, Cathy offers essential perspective and reassurance: whatever happens on results day, these outcomes are far from the be-all and end-all of...

Summer stretching ahead and not sure what to do with it? This special retrospective episode brings together wisdom from every Futures Project Podcast guest - all answering the question 'what would you tell your teenage self?' Whether you've just finished exams, you're thinking about Results Day, you're simply in that weird liminal space that summer creates - or you're a parent, carer or teacher wi...

A warm welcome to this fortnight’s guest: Dr Tara Porter is a highly respected clinical psychologist who has been working with young people and their families for over 25 years, both in the NHS and in private practice.  Tara is also a well-known voice on adolescent mental health, thanks to her widely shared writing, including her bestselling debut book You Don’t Understand Me , which we met t...

Louis Hatchwell is an athlete, elite cyclist, coach, creator and influencer from London. As his alter-ego, Beast On A Bike, he has over 180k followers on TikTok and 80k + on insta. A former British World Cup ski racer, he joins us today to tell us about the turn of events that led him away from a top performing career on the Team GB Olympic ski team, to becoming a top cyclist and influencer who is...

In this episode of The Futures Project Podcast , we’re joined by the brilliant Dr Fran Harris — sustainability advocate, researcher, and founder of 4GOOD, a social enterprise dedicated to building communities for positive change. With a background spanning planetary and public health, Fran has advised organisations, published widely, and spoken at major events about how we can live and work more s...

This fortnight's guest is Laura Jane Silverman. LJ is Head of LSE Generate, the London School of Economics’ award-winning Entrepreneurship Hub that she set up in 2018 to support the School’s students and alumni to develop entrepreneurial skills as they build businesses and innovate in the UK and around the world. To date, Generate has supported over 20,000 LSE entrepreneurs as they validate, build...

This episode we welcome Hugh Viney, CEO and founder of Minerva Virtual Academy. We caught up the start of the year to have a brilliant conversation about how Minerva is offering parents and young people an alternative approach to the mainstream education system. We cover mental health, tech, alternative provision, the future of education, and how you create communities online when you have 1000 st...

This fortnight we mark Neurodiversity Celebration Week - a worldwide initiative that challenges stereotypes and misconceptions about neurological differences - we are talking to two medical experts with decades of experience in the field of diagnosing, supporting and empowering young people to understand themselves better and take pride in being different.  Dr Deborah Woodman has over 25 year...

Genelle Aldred is a journalist and communications expert who has worked for the likes of BBC, ITV and Sky. Her book, Communicate for Change, published in 2021, looked at how we communicate around social justice to move away from circular conversations and talk to solutions, because, after all, we all approach justice conversations with our biases, blind spots and lens of life. She is also the host...

This fortnight’s guest is fashion and lifestyle journalist Victoria Moss. Previously Fashion Director at The Standard and Senior Fashion Editor at The Telegraph, she has also written for publications including The Times, Sunday Times Style Magazine, ELLE, Vogue and Glamour amongst many others. She shares her insights into the world of fashion and beauty, and how we can reconcile the desire to acqu...

Jas Schembri-Stothart is co-founder of Luna, the world’s first teenage health app. It was set up to help teenage girls and non-binary people and their parents navigate the complexities of adolescence together. Through Luna, Jas and her co-founder Jo Goodall are on a mission to tackle the overload of the misinformation so readily available to young people online, and to create a more connected, edu...

This special insight episode comes from the PC/LSE Innovation Festival, a partnership between Pine Crest School , Fort Lauderdale, and LSE Generate , the Entrepreneurship Hub at the London School of Economics.  At the start of January 2025, we came together in Fort Lauderdale, South Florida, for a series of bootcamps, workshops, keynotes and conversations around social entrepreneurship, innov...

TikTok may be known for influencers and dance trends, but for singer, actor and content creator Even Briar, it’s a stage for her creativity. This episode, we're looking at how Tiktok can be a powerful platform to showcase work, connect with audiences, and open doors. We talk about harnessing the algorithm without selling your soul, the art (and science) of creating an engaging fan edit, and the su...

In this fun and thought-provoking Quick Insight episode, we chat with the Sixth Form Student Leadership team from Birkenhead High School Academy. They share their plans, reflections on going to uni v. entering the world of work, nerves about leaving home, thoughts on politics, what makes them worry (and smile!), plus some golden advice for parents. Then, we wrap up the year with a look back at wha...

Our guest on the inaugural episode of our podcast could not be better placed to give us her take on what the future looks like.  Dr Cathy Rogers has thus far an incredibly impressive and eclectic career path that has included TV presenter, entrepreneur, academic, musician and writer. Her children’s book Future Vision: Stories of Our Brilliant Tomorrow, co-authored with her sister Madeleine, w...