We’re reaching a critical point in the COVID crisis. The time has come for leaders to take radical decisions about their future direction. Plus, what happens when half our money is spent online?

Tom speaks to Nicola Lovett, CEO of Engie UK & Ireland. Engie is an energy and services giant that has transformed in recent years from a carbon dinosaur to a pacesetter in greening both public and private sector. Nicola speaks about her journey to the role of CEO, shares stories of Engie's work with local authorities and large businesses, and talks about transformation of a former coal plant site into 2000 low-carbon homes.

Tom talks to Janine Owen, specialist in recruitment marketing and technology, about the future of work in a post-COVID world. What changes will we see to the way we hire and manage our teams? Can we expect dramatic shifts or just the acceleration of existing trends? How do we revalue humans in the new workplace? And what is the role of attitude over experience?

Robot-fan Tom speaks to Peter van der Putten, Assistant professor in AI & Creative Research at Leiden University, and Director, Decisioning & AI Solutions, at Pegasystems. Peter researches robots, in all their forms, looking particularly at the interface between human and machine. He and Tom discuss emotional robots, misbehaving robots, and why it's important to experiment with machines that do bad, as well as machines that do good.  You can find out more about Peter and his projects, both academic and corporate, at these links: Academic page: http://liacs.leidenuniv.nl/~puttenpwhvander/ Bots Like You: https://sites.google.com/view/botslikeyou Twitter: @PetervanderP LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petervanderputten/ Industry: www.pega.com, www.pega.ai

How are leaders changing in response to these uncertain times? Fiona McKay works with the leaders of global corporations to help them to change and develop. In this episode she talks to Tom about the results of her research into the gender pay gap and the critical differences between the feedback that men and women receive in the workplace. Plus how the nature of leadership is changing - and must change further - in response to a very different business environment.

In the second #AskAFuturist series, Tom shows why people are right to be sceptical about self-driving cars, but why they will ultimately take over.  Plus, why high frequency change doesn’t affect everything.

What are the five trends that will define the 2020s? This is Tom's bet. Plus, the first in Tom’s #AskAFuturist series where he collects the questions you want to ask a futurist from social media: will we really eat insects in the future?

Tom shares his experience of mentoring people with an unconventional career path and suggests that there is always a story of your past that leads to your career future. Plus, how Tom went about making predictions about the future of sport for a joint project with Grosvenor.

Tom answers one of his most frequently asked questions: will we ever put microchips in our brains?  Plus, why tomorrow’s worker is always performing, and why that might not be healthy.

Tom catches up with fellow futurist Dan Sodergren, in an episode that was due to be recorded at Mobile World Congress, the first major event to be cancelled after the COVID-19 outbreak back in February. Tom and Dan talk about the future of work, and a post-pandemic world.