Women Emerging Podcast

In this episode of the How to Lead – 2025 Edition series, Julia speaks with Paula Redway, Culture and Community Development Manager at Oxford City Council, who shares practical, creative, and refreshingly honest advice on running a strategy day.  Drawing on her background in the arts, Paula offers guidance on everything from how to set the tone and read the room, to how to use physical space,...

In the very first episode of the How to Lead - 2025 Edition series, Julia explores the concept of followership with Ruth Sims, who brings a research-informed perspective to a topic often overlooked in conversations about leading.  Ruth reframes followership as an active choice, not a passive role. You’ll hear why deciding to follow comes before any leader’s bid for attention, how those roles...

In this episode, Julia speaks with Sasha Vaswani and Kamden Maas, two participants of the Women Emerging Renewable Energy Expedition, about the unexpected leadership insights they took away.  Women Emerging runs group expeditions for up to 24 women who want to find their own approach to leading. They run over 7 months—explorers commit to 5 hours of exploring each month. Each group is formed a...

In this final episode of the Leadership Insights I Wish I Had Known at the Start series, Julia speaks with Saki Chen who is a lawyer, pilot, and the first woman from China to fly around the world in a small single-engine plane.  Saki reflects on what she learned about leading while navigating a complex and high-risk expedition with a small, intimate crew, many of whom were older and more expe...

In this episode of the Leadership Insights I Wish I Had Known at the Start series, Julia speaks with Falak Madhani, a health systems leader working in Pakistan, where she leads research and programmes focused on primary care, mental health, and suicide prevention in low-resource settings.  Falak shares two hard-earned insights she wishes she’d known earlier. The first: stepping back as a lead...

In this episode of the Leadership Insights I Wish I Had Known at the Start series, Julia is joined by Alison Coburn, environment leader at Common Purpose leader with over 30 years of experience guiding teams through complex change, often in some of the world’s most challenging settings. Alison shares nine fundamentals she wishes she’d known before she started leading. Starting with this vital trut...

In this episode of the series - Leadership Insights I Wish I Had Known at the Start, Julia speaks with Amy Brand, a long-time leader in the world of academic publishing.  Amy dismantles the illusion that leadership is about charisma or glamour. For her, it’s always been about getting the basics right: clear structures, strong boundaries, showing up fully, and being open to constant learning....

In the first episode of the Leadership Insights I Wish I Had Known at the Start series, Julia speaks with Aramide Kayode, a 24-year-old educator and founder of a free school in Nigeria.  Aramide shares the eight lessons she’s learned about leading, starting with the power of believing in people before they believe in themselves. From listening fiercely and celebrating growth, to standing by y...

In this final episode of the Bridging the Age Gap Series, Julia invited Funmi Adeyemi and Folawe Omikunle, two women are deeply committed to transforming education and equity in Nigeria and they bring distinct generational experiences to this conversation, but with a shared conviction.  They speak openly about the quiet tensions that can exist between senior and younger leaders: the hesitatio...

In the second episode of the Bridging the Age Gap series, Julia is joined by Jackie and Emma, two Indigenous women who share the same heritage but stand in different life stages, weaving together ancestral wisdom and contemporary voice. What unfolds is a deeply grounded conversation on reclaiming identity, resisting colonial definitions of mentorship and leadership, and learning to lead in a way t...

This is the very first episode of the Series – Bridging the Age Gap – where we explore how women from different generations come together to reframe what it means to lead. In this episode, Julia is joined by Mieke Verloo and Mariel Mia Haug, a professor and her former student who connected at a conference on democracy and gender equality in Europe. What began as a formal introduction quickly evolv...

In this episode, Julia speaks with Dr. Gina Della Togna from Panama and Laurie Cummins from Florida, both explorers from the Women Leading in Nature expedition by Women Emerging in partnership with Re:Wild. They reflect on their journey and share how they instantly connected over trauma as part of their Essence, exploring how it shapes the way we lead.  Women Emerging runs group expeditions f...

In this episode, Julia wraps up the Cultural Intelligence series with a powerful conversation with Ukonwa Ojo, founder and CEO of Zaia Ventures.   What starts as a meeting of two very different "cores" becomes a deep exploration of how we lead, how we listen, and what it takes to connect across differences.  Ukonwa speaks candidly about the concept of  Core and Flex , and how finall...

In this episode of the Cultural Intelligence series, Julia speaks with Francesca Cavallo, an author and co-creator of Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls to explore what it truly means to lead in a world where boys and girls are raised on radically different emotional blueprints.  From childhood the stories we’re told, girls are invited to understand emotions, their own and others’. Boys, on t...

In this fifth episode of the Cultural Intelligence series, Julia Middleton pauses to answer the questions you’ve been sending in. After four episodes unpacking the Core and Flex model and exploring what happens when cultures collide, both between people and within individuals, this episode dives into real-world dilemmas, confusions, and curiosities.  “Almost everybody you meet will have a dif...

In the fourth episode of the Cultural Intelligence series, Julia Middleton explores what happens when two people meet, and both are in their Core. Through metaphors and real stories, Julia dives into how seemingly aligned values can still lead to tension, and how clashing cores if not carefully navigated can result in misunderstandings, resistance, or even breakdowns in communication.  "The s...

In the third episode of the Cultural Intelligence series, Julia explores what happens when different cultures come together. She dives into the tensions, misunderstandings, and moments of growth that emerge when people with different cultures interact and how that shapes their leading.   "Sometimes, when cultures collide, we feel it as a clash, but what if we saw it as an opportunity instead?...

In this second episode of the Cultural Intelligence series, Julia Middleton, Mother of Practical CQ, founder of Women Emerging and the podcast host dives into the Core and Flex: a simple yet powerful way to understand how Cultural Intelligence works in practice. She explains why women with high Cultural Intelligence to have clarity on what is non-negotiable in their identity (Core) and where they...

In this first episode of the Cultural Intelligence series, Julia Middleton, Mother of Practical CQ, founder of Women Emerging and the podcast host, explains what Cultural Intelligence (CQ) means, why it is essential for leading today, and the foundational mindsets needed to develop it. CQ is often assumed to be just about geography, but as Julia explains, it goes far beyond that, spanning generati...

In the second part of the two-part episode on resilience, Julia and Liz Bloomfield move beyond defining resilience to explore practical, everyday strategies for building and sustaining it. Liz highlights how resilience is about preparation, intentional habits, and the power of community in overcoming challenges.  "Resilience really lies within teams and communities. The danger is that when we...

In this first part of the two-part episode on resilience, Julia speaks with Liz Bloomfield, a mission-driven leader and former British Army officer, about what resilience means. Liz challenges the idea that resilience is simply about enduring hardship and instead explores how self-awareness, recovery, and adaptability shape a more sustainable approach to resilience.  "Resilience isn’t about b...

 In this episode, Julia speaks with Shurti Singh from India and Myriem Benkirane from Morocco, explorers from the first Women Emerging expedition for students in higher education, as they reflect on their expedition, an experience that reshaped their understanding of leading, identity, and personal growth.  Women Emerging runs group expeditions for women who want to find their own approach t...

In this episode, Julia speaks with Dr. Mounia Amrani, a senior medical practitioner, about navigating extreme hostility in war zones and humanitarian crises. Mounia shares her journey of working in isolated conflict areas where violence, suffering, and loss are constant companions, and reflects on the emotional toll of operating in these high-pressure environments.  "In hostile environments,...

In this episode, Julia speaks with Nora Madjar, a researcher and professor specialising in creativity, negotiation, and team dynamics, about the impact of hostile environments on women's leadership styles. Nora explores how environments of resistance and criticism can destabilise women leaders, often leading them to stray from their natural strengths of collaboration, creativity, and empathy.&nbsp...

In this episode, Julia speaks with Susana Lopez, a seasoned leader in private equity, about navigating one of the most high-pressure and competitive industries. Susana shares her cautionary tales from years in the field, offering insights on the challenges of trust, authenticity, losing sight of the big picture and overcoming fear in hostile environments.  "Fear is our worst enemy, but it’s a...