Recorded on Tuesday 7 October 2025, this episode confronts the murders at Heaton Park on Yom Kippur and the sharp rise in antisemitism in the UK. We name the harm plainly and we hold the line between free speech and incitement.We don’t posture; we do the hard work of sense-making. We explore why silence from institutions and politicians corrodes trust, how slogan-chanting lands as eradication to Jewish citizens, and why leaders must support protest rights clearly and also enforce the law on incitement consistently, not selectively. We acknowledge parallel harms, including arson at a Sussex mosque and the daily experience of British Muslims facing prejudice. But we don’t take refuge in the false comfort of “whataboutery”.This is a practical conversation for people who run things CEOs, headteachers, council leaders, community organisers. We offer three commitments you can enact now:1. Curiosity with backbone: seek understanding across difference without surrendering facts. Try to find agreement not just disagreement.2. Even-handed moral clarity: condemn antisemitism and Islamophobia without purity tests or exemptions.3. Local dialogue, real guardrails: create forums where disagreement is safe, and incitement is not.4. In everyday conversation commit to civility – only ever try to explore and at best convince but not to win. Not virtue. Not theatre. Leadership. We have the conversation you want to. Please do listen, like and share.For more about Rachel: Who Is The Fearless Facilitator? - Fearless Facilitator For more about Simon: Who We Are – Diversity by Design Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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53:47
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53:47
ID cards. Convenience or control?
In this episode of Fearless Diversity, Rachel Cashman - the fearless facilitator - and Simon Fanshawe - the diversity dissident - tackle one of the most contentious policy revivals in years: the return of the digital ID card. From dinner parties to football terraces the argument is dividing Britain. Are ID cards a slick, modern tool to cut red tape and to create a sense of Britishness - or the threat of Big Brother made real, of a society where our lives are one barcode away from state control and all-day surveillance. Is the BritCard a massive invasion of privacy or the key to our national identity? Although aren’t we being a bit hypocritical? Why are we so bothered about government having limited info on us so we can get benefits when we’ve already surrendered everything about ourselves to Google and Facebook? And can government actually pull it off? HS2 or the Edinburgh trams anyone? What will ID cards give us that we don’t already have? Ands what about Auty Betty who’ll never have an iphone so she’ll never go digital? If you’re an illegal immigrant you’ve already escaped the system so why will the BritCard stop you being in the UK? Will digital IDs streamline Britain’s services, build trust, cement values and create belonging or instead, in a country where only 12% of the population trust government, just be felt as another state overreach? Will the BritCard bind us closer - or drive us further apart? Fearless Diversity doesn’t just chew over politics—it digs into how policies shape the lives we live, the work we do, and the society we want to be part of. Enjoy, listen and share. For more about Rachel: Who Is The Fearless Facilitator? - Fearless Facilitator For more about Simon: Who We Are – Diversity by Design Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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43:48
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43:48
Flags
Simon and Rachel wade into flags, patriotism and nationality. At the moment flags are everywhere – at football matches, street parties, protests, Pride and, lately, at the heart of raging debate about what it means to be British. This week we try and understand the hope, the pride and the worry wrapped up in every St George’s Cross and Union Jack. A flag isn’t just a flag. For some, it’s a badge of pride, shared in the roar of the crowd when England scores. For others, it brings darker memories and fears of division. The left and right claim love and shame of country. But has the left abandoned patriotism, ceding the flag to extremists? And does the right use language of nationhood just to exclude? But we all know moments when flags precisely symbolise moments of joy and optimism - the Olympics, royal occasions, football and rugby - when the Union Jack and the St George’s flag unite communities of every colour, faith and background. Is it just lazy branding of ordinary flag-wavers to call them ‘racists’? Have too many leaders in public institutions got it wrong when they shut down conversations instead of listening to the real emotions behind the flags? Instead of labelling we need to create space for talking, listening and understanding. We should take care not to jump to judgement but stay curious. Can we understand what flags mean to each of us and talk to the issues rather than demonising each other. If we get it right, can flags unite rather than divide us?For more about Rachel: Who Is The Fearless Facilitator? - Fearless Facilitator For more about Simon: Who We Are – Diversity by Design Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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47:29
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47:29
Words, Violence, and the Tribe
Fearless Diversity — Series Two Premiere Title: “Words, Violence, and the Tribe: Beyond the Workplace”Series Two is here. Rachel Cashman, your Fearless Facilitator, and Simon Fanshawe, the Diversity Dissident, are back. This season we’re stepping past the office door. Fearless Diversity now lives in life and work because the tensions shaping our feeds, families, and friendships don’t clock off at 6pm. We’ll go where others swerve, holding space for difference without collapsing into silence or dogma. We have the conversations you want to have. Episode 1: “Words, Violence, and the Tribe”We open with a hard conversation: the assassination of Charlie Kirk and the chaotic 48-hour whirlpool that followed. Not a hot-take; a cool-head. We examine why it’s crucial to condemn political violence without equivocation, the effect of social-media virality in real time (yes, teens seeing it minutes after it happened on TikTok), and how “words are violence” became a cultural reflex that is just a step away from meeting wordswith violence. We probe Christian identity and movement-building, algorithmic tribalism, why the right lurches towards authoritarianism and the left embraces a fearsome illiberalism. And what it would mean to rebuild a norm where free speech is a value - not a thing we do but a way we do things.Along the way: compassion that isn’t contingent, the difference between dialogue and conversion, Sister Helen Prejean’s radical humanism, MLK’s non-violence as both means and end, and the old-school discipline of checking sources before you hit “post.” We’re honest about the personal, too health scares, kids’ digital lives, and an insight for episode two on what leaders (in teams, communities, and homes) can do on Monday morning when rival protests meet around the same table. Why listen (and why now):We refuse the false choice: safety or dissent. You get both.Practical takeaways for managers, parents, and community leaders who must host disagreement well.A season-long commitment: conversations that model the society we actually want to live in. Join us: Follow, rate, and share. Drop us your “yes, but…” and we’ll feature sharp listener questions in upcoming Q&As and bring guests who disagree with us well. Fearless Diversity, Series Two: beyond work now—because culture happens everywhere, and so does courageFor more about Rachel: Who Is The Fearless Facilitator? - Fearless Facilitator For more about Simon: Who We Are – Diversity by Design Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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53:30
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53:30
Does Age Matter?
In the week that Parliament decided to give the vote to sixteen year olds, welcome back to Fearless Diversity, the podcast where age isn’t just a tick-box in the census, it’s the parent, the baby, and the teenage activist in the room. Join Simon, your resident digitally Bewildered Baby Boomer, living proof that you can survive a childhood without Wi-Fi or oat milk and Rachel stuck between Millennials’ optimism and Greta Thunberg’s existential despair. Age is a minefield for managers and leaders. The young are idealised, patronised or indulged at work, while older people’s experience is either venerated or wasted and at worst consigned to the scrap heap. Some execs think their teenage children understand the world better than they do, young people reverse JFK’s exhortation and demand what the company can do for them and everybody disagrees about phone use, social media and how to communicate. Rachel and Simon navigate the generational maze using their practical experience with clients and the latest scientific research. Neuroscience tells us that brains just aren’t fully cooked until at least 25. Executive function, the bit that helps you plot revolution or file taxes are still developing during your teens and early twenties. So, do children need parents, young people need older people and indignation need experience? With age, discrimination goes both ways. In politics and workplaces, society is still wrestling with whose voice matters and whose is discounted. The generational divide is real, awkward, and much like our podcast, refuses to fit into a single, easy narrative. So grab a cup of tea, an oat latte (God forbid), or just a tepid mug of nostalgia, and join us as we slice, dice, and deconstruct what age really means in a rapidly changing UK.Equality Act – age discrimination and exceptions https://shorturl.at/yolHiProf Sallie Baxendale - profilehttps://shorturl.at/08fv7Law Society of Scotland - Brain not fully developed until age 25, research revealshttps://shorturl.at/32aPnUnderstanding the Teen Brain - University of Rochesterhttps://shorturl.at/uXvwKThe Power of Difference Pp 201 – 204 and p208https://shorturl.at/hvrfmJohn Allen / CBIhttps://www.thetimes.com/business-money/article/carolyn-fairbairn-on-cbis-really-good-culture-despite-sex-allegations-qhcmzc75sResolution Foundation report on young people’s mental healthhttps://www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications/weve-only-just-begun/Harmful stereotypes of young people fuelling record numbers to fall out of workhttps://shorturl.at/y6saTFor more about Rachel: Who Is The Fearless Facilitator? - Fearless Facilitator For more about Simon: Who We Are – Diversity by Design Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Leaders are faced with dilemmas every day that flow from human interactions at work. And they are so often disruptive, time-consuming, potentially create division among your staff and test you as a leader. You need time to reflect…..you need space in the morning to listen to Rachel Cashman and Simon Fanshawe eating these problems for breakfast. Fearless Diversity is the candid podcast that tackles the real dilemmas bosses, managers, and leaders face every day – around accountability, decision-making, workplace dynamics, conflict, and organisational culture and their people. Join Rachel Cashman and Simon Fanshawe — two of the foremost thought leaders in workplace diversity, leadership, and inclusion — as they dive into honest conversations that get to the heart of it. We have the conversations you want to have. Rachel brings real-world, high-level implementation experience - expertise that CEOs and managers can trust, learn from, and enlist when they need results and to ensure their teams perform at their best. Simon adds his clout as a highly respected broadcaster, author, and inclusion specialist. They don’t always agree — and that’s the point. Rachel and Simon argue, disagree, and explore different perspectives, and always with resolution and insight – modelling the difficult conversations leaders need to have. It’s a podcast for thoughtful leaders who want to reflect, rather than shout or be shouted at. Fearless Diversity is the place to think differently about today’s trickiest human issues at work. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Ireland