Dame Mary Beard is one of Britain’s best known classicists. She’s Cambridge Emerita Professor and Fellow of Newnham College, Cambridge. She’s a trustee of the British Museum and classics editor of the TLS, where for 20 years she has been writing a blog, “A Don’s Life”. Her bestselling books include SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome, the Wolfson-prize-winning Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town, Confronting the Classics and Women & Power. She has presented highly acclaimed TV series including Meet the Romans and BBC arts shows including Inside Culture and the landmark series Civilizations. She has been awarded an OBE and a DBE for services to classical scholarship. In this podcast, she shares what she has learnt about power.

Sir Ken Olisa is an entrepreneur, philanthropist and Lord-Lieutenant of Greater London. After a career in tech, with IBM and then Wang Labs, Ken is now Founder and Chairman of Restoration Partners, a boutique technology merchant bank. He has chaired and been on many boards, including Thomson Reuters, the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority and the charities Shaw Trust and Thames Reach. He has been awarded an OBE and a Knight Bachelor for services to business and philanthropy. In this podcast, he talks about the ups and downs of the entrepreneurial life and the thrill of helping others.

Nicola Williams is a judge, ombudsman and novelist. Called to the bar in 1985, she has been a part-time Crown Court Judge since 2009. She has been Commissioner at the Independent Police Complaints Commission, Complaints Commissioner for the Cayman Islands and the first ever Service Complaints Ombudsman for the UK Armed Forces. She has served on many boards, won a Cosmopolitan magazine Woman of Achievement Award and been listed as one of the 100 most influential Black people in the UK. She’s the author of a legal thriller, Without Prejudice, which was reissued in a series curated by Bernardine Evaristo in 2020. Her second novel, Until Proven Innocent, will be published in March 2023. In this podcast, Nicola talks about ambition and the joy of justice.