Beyond The Dark Clouds Podcast

• Beyond The Dark Clouds Podcast Episode Thirty Seven : Lord Syed Kamall

  Syed Kamall is Professor of politics and international relations at St Mary’s University, Twickenham; Visiting Scholar at the Vinson Centre, University of Buckingham; a Member of the UK House of Lords; Shadow Minister (Health and Social Care) and co-chair of the APPG Commonwealth.Previously roles include: UK government Minister for Health; Minister for Civil Society; Academic and Research Director at the Institute of Economic Affairs, the UK’s leading classical liberal think tank; a Member of the European Parliament (MEP); leader of the Conservative MEPs; and leader of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) Group.He regularly meets and supports neighbourhood non-state civil society organisations tackling social exclusion and improving wellbeing.In his spare time, he enjoys travelling, reading and playing guitar and electric bass in blues and rock bands. In this episode,  Lord Kamall talks to Dr Mealey about his work and his special interest in community based solutions to poverty, his hope for the role that education can play in this endeavour, and the need for us to promote more local groups that seek to be self-reliant (SRGs).  He discusses his career journey and shares his views on the need for good character education, ethical leadership and service learning as part and parcel of what society needs right now for the common good.

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• Beyond The Dark Clouds Podcast Episode Thirty Six : Barbara Best

  Barbara Best (https://www.linkedin.com/in/barbara-best-6131368/) is acommunity organizer, youth advocate, and system change leader who is passionateabout building systems of care to empower youth and communities to thrive. Guidedby a north star of healthy interconnectedness, she inspires joy, purpose, andconnection in the people and communities she serves.Barbara serves as Executive Director of Convu, a vibrant community that buildscapacity for deep listening and peer coaching in schools, workplaces, andcommunities. Convu generates positive community impact in cultivating dialogue,listening, and belonging through the Harvard University Peer Coaching Initiative(HUPCI) and the Massachusetts General Hospital Peer Coaching Initiative (MGHPCI). We’re excited to expand peer coaching in organizations and communities acrosssectors and create spaces for people to listen, learn, and grow together. We believethat leadership is a shared practice – and that real change starts in the quality of ourconversations. Barbara holds a Doctor in Education Leadership (EdLD) from the Harvard GraduateSchool of Education. She led a three year initiative to cultivate school and communityconnectedness in Reading Public Schools in Massachusetts, United States.Barbara is committed to centering compassion in leadership – to meet suffering withkindness and know that we are not alone as we work for transformation.Barabara talks to Dr Mealey about the importance of compassionate leadership,listening to create communities of belonging and a culture of nurturing and safety forfuture generations.

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• Beyond The Dark Clouds Podcast Episode Thirty Five : Dr Pam Jarvis

  Pam is a chartered psychologist (British Psychological Society) and qualified teacher withadditional academic qualifications in history and education. She is also a Fellow of the HigherEducation Academy. She joined Leeds Trinity University in 2013 as a senior lecturer, and waspromoted to Reader in Childhood, Youth and Education in 2016. She has a keen interest in amulti-disciplinary research perspective, considering psychological, biological, social andhistorical perspectives. Her PhD research focused upon play-based learning in 4-6 year olds.She is an extensively published academic author whose edited book ‘Perspectives on Play’has been published in three successive English editions, and additionally in Greek andPortuguese (Brazil) where it was adopted as a set text by the national teacher trainingprogramme.She is also an active blogger and conference/training presenter, seeking to create accessibledissemination formats to bring insights from psychological and educational research to theattention of non-psychologist professional audiences, education professionals in particular;and to the general public. Her key focus is the well-being of children, young people and theirfamilies, and the development of social policy to support this. She completed her firstdegree in Psychology with The Open University while caring for her three young children,becoming a graduate psychologist in 1995, and between 1995 and 2019 taught psychology,sociology, social policy and child development in Higher Education, School, FurtherEducation and Community Education. This includes over 20 years as an Open Universitytutor and resource writer.Since retiring from LTU at the end of 2019 to focus on consulting and writing projects, shehas added to her academic publications and writes regularly in Bylines Network publicationsas a citizen journalist. She has also published 2 novels  ‘On Time’ (2021) and ‘On Time forEco’, (2025), and is currently working on the third book in the series: ‘On Time for Love.’  Pam talks to Dr Mealey about citizen journalism and academia, her passion for ethics andvalues in social work and suggests an all-inclusive interpretation of psychology to shape abetter context for relationships to flourish in today’s complex society.

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• Beyond The Dark Clouds Podcast Episode Thirty Four : Paul de Beer

  Paul de Beer is a seasoned business leader, consultant, and educator with a background thatspans technology, manufacturing, and organisational transformation. He began his career asan electronics engineer and went on to lead pioneering online business ventures in SouthAfrica and China during the early years of the digital economy. Since then, he has heldsenior leadership roles in sectors ranging from online gaming to textile manufacturing, oftenstepping in to turn around struggling businesses and realign them for long-term growth.Paul is the founder of Evolve Leadership Consulting, where he works with business ownersand leadership teams to align strategy with culture and improve performance. He alsoteaches and supervises at York St John Business School, with a focus on ethical leadership,innovation, and change.With an MBA from the University of Stellenbosch Business School and a deep interest inhow values shape organisations, Paul brings a grounded yet forward-looking perspective toleadership. His work sits at the intersection of commercial success and ethical responsibility.Outside of work, Paul is a keen writer, runner, and lifelong learner, with a growing interestin the ethical implications of emerging technologies like AI.Paul speaks to Dr Mealey about ethics in business, AI and the need to keep values in ourconsiderations of what the future of business might look like.

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• Beyond The Dark Clouds Podcast Episode Thirty Three : Mariana Behr Andrade

  Mariana Behr Andrade is a Leadership Development Specialist and Self Compassion Advocate who is also a Fellow at Harvard University. Mariana talks to Dr Mealey about her work on compassionate leadership, focussing in particular on the distinction between ‘resonant’ and ‘dissonant’ leadership approaches and informed by current scholarship in the field. She explains the importance of ‘psychological safety’ in teams and stresses the need for everyone to exercise self- compassion in their lives and in their work. Mariana ends her discussion with some helpful insights and hopes for the future of leadership and of organisations.

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