• Conflict Drives Change
    Jan 22 2026

    In business, as in politics, we’re often taught to avoid conflict because tension is seen as dysfunction, something that should be avoided or managed away. But what if that friction is actually the system’s way of signaling it’s time to evolve?

    This episode explores why conflict is not always a communication breakdown, but a potential breakthrough; a vital feedback loop, one that drives innovation and renewal.

    For leaders and decision-makers everywhere, the challenge is to harness conflict and to recognise the difference between productive tension that sharpens ideas and destructive rivalry that just corrodes trust.

    🎧 Listen now.



    This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.kevinthomasryan.com/subscribe
    Show More Show Less
    12 mins
  • Why the Strong Stop Playing by the Rules
    Jan 8 2026

    Every political system begins with promises, such as fairness, cooperation, and shared gains. But over time, something changes. Many of us may feel that things just don’t run as they used to. The rules that once bound everyone together start to feel optional to a few, including those strong states that created them.

    But what if that moment isn’t about greed or corruption, but about evolution?What if the breaking of the rules is actually the system revealing its next stage?

    This episode steps into that volatile space we are increasingly feeling in our daily lives, where power rewrites its own playbook, and the world quietly shifts around it.



    This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.kevinthomasryan.com/subscribe
    Show More Show Less
    7 mins
  • Ethical Leadership is a Strategic Asset
    Nov 19 2025

    In today’s economy, ethics has moved from the margins of corporate life to the core of business strategy. It has increasingly become a structural advantage. As industries such as AI, fintech, and biotech redefine global competition, the ability to make principled, forward-looking decisions is fast becoming a key differentiator.

    Ethical leadership signals systems awareness, which entails the capacity to see how choices ripple through markets, societies, and institutions. Ignoring it is a strategic mistake.

    🎧 Listen now.



    This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.kevinthomasryan.com/subscribe
    Show More Show Less
    8 mins
  • Graduates Face a Changing Business Landscape
    Nov 5 2025

    For graduates, studying a business subject was considered a sure thing. For decades, degrees in business or management were the safe path to career success and the middle class. But as AI, automation, and digital transformation increasingly reshape the modern workplace, that old logic seems to be breaking down.

    This episode discusses how an oversupply of business graduates, shifting contemporary power structures, and accelerating technology are now rewriting the rules of employability. This is about the system where universities, markets, and governments interact to produce winners and losers in the graduate economy.

    If you’re a graduate, early-career professional, parent, or business leader just trying to make sense of where the next generation will fit in, this episode will be of interest.

    🎧 Listen now



    This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.kevinthomasryan.com/subscribe
    Show More Show Less
    10 mins
  • The Multipolar Mess
    Sep 11 2025

    The international system has evolved, and we are now back in a world with nobody in charge. It’s a world with no global policeman, where revisionist powers now push and violate boundaries, and old allies cooperate only when it suits them. Crises drag on, and on, because no one in the system seems to have enough authority or credibility to resolve them.

    In this episode, the discussion is about what happens when the global order loses its anchor. From hegemonic stability theory to revisionist states and weaponised supply chains, it outlines why turbulence has become the new baseline and what it means for decision-making in both politics and business in this new era.

    Listen now



    This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.kevinthomasryan.com/subscribe
    Show More Show Less
    9 mins
  • The Circular Economy
    Aug 28 2025

    Most people think of the circular economy as about recycling, plastic bans, or just a trendy sustainability buzzword. But it has become much bigger than that. Circularity is quietly transforming how companies design products, develop strategy, and even measure profitability.

    This episode explores the origins of circular thinking, from Kenneth Boulding’s “Spaceship Earth” concept in the 1960s to contemporary boardroom strategies. It discusses why governments, investors, and businesses are turning to circular models, and what this shift means for leadership, transformation, and the future of capitalism itself.

    If traditional linear growth was about extraction, then circular growth is about regeneration. And the businesses that adapt first may be the ones that win big and define the next economy.



    This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.kevinthomasryan.com/subscribe
    Show More Show Less
    11 mins
  • Culture Follows Power
    Aug 14 2025

    We often hear that “culture eats strategy for breakfast.” But what if the question we’re not asking is: so what then eats culture?

    Culture rarely drives change on its own. Instead, it follows power. Whether in politics, markets, or organisations, the beliefs, norms, and behaviours we call “culture” tend to adapt to whoever holds authority and shapes incentives.

    If you are in the process of transforming an organisation, navigating political upheaval, or just wondering why “culture change” is so hard, this episode unscrambles the forces and signals that really are moving the needle.



    This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.kevinthomasryan.com/subscribe
    Show More Show Less
    9 mins
  • Populism vs Nationalism
    Jun 27 2025

    If you read, watch, or listen to the news, the terms populism and nationalism are two of the most talked-about forces in politics today. We could be forgiven for thinking that the two words are actually describing the same thing. That’s because today, these forces often arrive on the political scene at the same time. But they are not the same thing.

    In fact, the difference between them is important. They are forces that operate in different directions. One challenges who holds power, while the other defines who belongs. The more voters become aware of the difference between the two, the better the chance our societies will have to steer our politics in healthier directions.

    🎧 Listen now.



    This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.kevinthomasryan.com/subscribe
    Show More Show Less
    8 mins