What to do about... the podcast that asks the big questions, with cake.
Peter Holbrook (CEO of Social Enterprise UK) and Lord Victor Adebowale CBE (House of Lords) pull up a sofa, slice the cake, and get stuck in.
Each week they sit down with a remarkable guest to tackle the big stuff. From poverty, nature, education, the state of the world, and ask the only question that matters: what do we actually do about it?
No jargon or spin, simply honest, entertaining, and sometimes uncomfortable conversation with the people trying to change things. Guests include Elvis & Kresse founder Kresse Wesling, Lisa Stepanovich, Atif Choudhury, and more brilliant minds doing brilliant things.
New episode every week. Find us wherever you get your podcasts.
Can you imagine your morning without coffee?
You might have to.
The average coffee farmer in Peru is around 65. Their children have mostly left for the city. And climate change is making every harvest harder.
On the latest What to Do About…, Peter Holbrook and Lord Victor Adebowale sit down with John Steel, CEO of Cafédirect, to ask what it would take to keep coffee in our cups. Here's what came out of it:
→ Too many "ethical" schemes amount to paying farmers a bit more of not enough
→ Farmers who earn a living income can afford to adapt to a changing climate; farmers who don't, stop
→ Putting farmers on the board changes who a business answers to
→ You have more power than you think: ask who owns the brand, and who gets paid
Plus: Victor reveals his family's link to Rowntree's cocoa, and Peter confesses to being a bit lazy.
Cafédirect sponsors this podcast. We're choosy about who does, and you'll hear why.
Who grows your coffee?
25 Sept 2026
What To Do About Work
Our first live episode ended in a disagreement, but that’s a good thing.
Peter Holbrook was the realist. Without real change, he argued, our children face a harder world of work than we did.
Meanwhile, Lord Victor Adebowale stayed the optimist. AI will force us to decide what we value in each other, and he believes people will choose each other.
Our guest, HR and reward specialist Rosemary Lemon, landed in between. In her words: glass half full.
We recorded What to Do About… Work live at the Wanstead Fringe Festival, with questions from the audience.
Along the way we covered:
→ Why AI needs guardrails. Rosemary described a company that let managers review contracts with AI and no lawyer involved. Around 15% of the AI's output was wrong.
→ Why where you shop, bank and save is a form of activism
→ Why jobs like teaching and care should be protected, because the relationship is the point → How to prepare for working into your late sixties: stay healthy, keep learning, stay flexible
Whose side are you on: the realist, the optimist, or glass half full?
14 Aug 2026
What To Do About Tomorrow's Environmental Citizens
This episode takes What To Do About out of the studio and into the real world. Peter and Jennifer Ogolle visit Dr. June O'Sullivan at London Early Years Foundation for the launch of their eco-pond in Camberwell, South London.
June took over a failing nursery in 2018 and turned it into a thriving social enterprise where children learn about nature, biodiversity and what it means to be a citizen.
Along the way, we hear from apprentices building careers, parents who love the place, and the team who designed the pond. It is a hands-on, hopeful look at social enterprise in action and what it means to raise the next generation with purpose.
31 Jul 2026
What To Do About Civil Society
What is civil society actually for, and who is it really serving? "Barely Civil" Alex Evans, writer of the Substack Barely Civil Society and self-described "recovering chief exec," joins Devi Clark, MD of Impact Hub King's Cross and SEUK board member, for a (mostly) civil conversation about charity in the UK. They dig into how attempts to de-politicise charities became political in themselves, why food banks have become a growth industry nobody wanted, how charity boards were built to keep organisations safely non-radical, why we give more to dogs than refugees, and how alarmingly easy it's become to register a hate group as a charity. It's a sharp look at power, money, and what simple changes could give civil society back the freedom to actually do good.
What to do About... Civil Society. Out now.
24 Jul 2026
What to do about Victor & Peter
In this week's episode, host Sarah Burns takes over to ask Peter and Victor "What to do About… Themselves".
Ten episodes in, and it felt like time to turn the cameras around. Every week Peter and Victor put the world's problems under the microscope, but who are the two people actually asking the questions? Where did they come from, what shaped them, and why do they care enough to keep making this podcast?
Sarah Burns steps into the host's chair to find out. From childhoods on opposite ends of the country to the experiences that pushed each of them toward activism and public life, this episode digs into the backgrounds, beliefs, and occasional bickering that sit behind the usual format.
No topic to solve this week, no expert to interview. Just Peter and Victor, under the spotlight, answering the question nobody else on the show gets asked: what to do about you two?
29 Jun 2026
What To Do About Political Policing
In this week's episode, Peter and Victor ask 'What to do About… Political Policing'.Political policing – the surveillance and disruption of lawful activism – has a long and troubling history in Britain. From the undercover operations of the Special Demonstration Squad targeting war protesters and animal rights activists, to the ongoing scrutiny faced by human rights advocates today, the question of how state surveillance is wielded against dissent remains urgent.Atif Choudhury has spent his working life challenging injustice and building fairer systems. As a social entrepreneur championing disability inclusion and economic justice, he's co-founded Diversity and Ability (DNA), Calling All Minds, and worked to establish the first Fair Trade Palestinian Olive Oil cooperative. He's a trustee of Disability Rights UK and advisor to the World Health Organization. But beyond his professional achievements, Atif's lived experience – shaped by dyslexia, the care system, and the complicated experience of being both welcome and unwelcome in Britain – gives him particular insight into how power operates.It's an insight born from being on the wrong side of the state's gaze. Who better to ask, and answer, 'What to do About… Political Policing'?
19 Jun 2026
What To Do About... Solutions (Our Best So Far)
Forget the doom spiral. Real solutions to serious problems already exist—we've just been talking to the people building them. From food systems to apprenticeships to breaking media monopolies, hear what actually works, why it works, and how to make it work for everyone. This is our best of season one.
12 Jun 2026
What To Do About The Hostile Environment
In this week’s episode, Peter and Victor ask ‘What to do About… the Hostile Environment’.
‘Hostile environment’ – a phrase coined by Home Secretary Theresa May in 2012, but a lived reality for many immigrants and their children in the decades before and since.
As a granddaughter of Polish immigrants and a daughter of Windrush, Dr. Wanda Wyporska can talk about the ‘hostile environment’ of Britain with more authority than most.
And not just personally, but professionally, having been the Chief Executive of the Equality Trust, Safe Passage International and now the Black Cultural Archives.
Who better to ask, and answer, ‘What to do About… the Hostile Environment’?
5 Jun 2026
What To Do About Media Representation
In this week’s episode, Peter and Victor ask ‘What to do About… Media Representation’.
Whether entertainment media or the news, whose stories get told and who gets to tell them is a live question in British culture – who has the money and power to decide what parts of our society we get to see, and who doesn’t.
That’s a problem for all of us, because the less we understand, the easier it is to manipulate us, shaping our view of the world in a way that suits someone else.
Luckily, people like Rachel Wang and David Floyd have figured out ways to preserve and improve representation in their parts of the media – film, for Rachel. For David, local news – so that as many people as possible get to see the whole picture.
In this episode, they tell us how they do what they do, and why.
‘What to do About… Media Representation’ with Peter Holbrook & Lord Victor Adebowale.
29 May 2026
What To Do About The Press
This week, Victor and Peter are joined by Stephen Colegrave, co-founder and executive editor of Byline Times.
Selling 30,000 PRINT copies a month (yes, still a thing!) on top of tens of thousands of digital subscriptions, Byline Times is a rare success story in modern British journalism.
Even more impressive is the weight its reporting carries with politicians, commentators and other journalists, who can’t ignore the quality of its investigative reporting.
It’s Byline Times we have to thank for revelations around the Covid PPE ‘VIP lane’, around Russia’s influence on British politics and society, and around Reform UK and Nigel Farage’s connections to an international network of crooked operators, from Steve Bannon to Jeffrey Epstein, via, yes, Russia.
So if Byline Times can do it, what’s stopping everyone else?
Good question. One this episode sets out to answer.
What to do about… The Press.
22 May 2026
Has Racism in Britain Changed?
Is the fight against racism getting better, or has it just moved to a more pervasive, invisible front line?
Welcome back to What To Do About, the podcast that trades systemic hand-wringing for grounded, frontline solutions.
In this episode, hosts Peter Holbrook (CEO of Social Enterprise UK) and Lord Victor Adebowale sit down with Professor Patrick Vernon OBE to talk about what it actually takes to move from corporate performance to aggressive, enforced human rights.
We dive into:
The dangerous 30-year cycle of public moral outrage and institutional amnesia.
How social media algorithms are designed to multiply division and concentrate old colonial thinking.
The death of legal aid and why rights are meaningless without the resources to access justice.
An exclusive look inside Patrick's private battle with the Bank of England over historical accountability.
If you’re tired of "experts" talking about social policy without ever living it, this episode is a masterclass in authenticity. Hit follow to join us as we tackle the world's biggest challenges.
Connect with Peter: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterholbrook/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterholbrook/)
Connect with Victor: https://www.linkedin.com/in/loadebowale/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/loadebowale/)
15 May 2026
What To Do About Class & Community Wealth with Lisa Stepanovic
In this episode of What To Do About, Peter Holbrook and Lord Victor Adebowale sit down with Lisa Stepanovic MBE, the "talent spotter" and founder of Social Arc.
Lisa shares her journey from market trader to community hero, discussing the "hard yards" of economic development in East London. The conversation dives deep into the "hidden discrimination" of the British class system and why lived experience is the ultimate tool for fixing broken communities. From challenging "helicopter" funders to pitching a radical new "Community Dividend" for local high streets, this episode is a masterclass in driving systemic change from the ground up.
8 May 2026
What To Do About Education (Part 2)
Welcome to the latest episode of "What To Do About." We aren't here to just admire the problems; we’re here to talk to the "doers" who are actually navigating the challenges of the next generation.
In this episode, Peter and Victor sit down with Dr. June O’Sullivan, CEO of the London Early Years Foundation (https://www.leyf.org.uk/)(LEYF) and a leading expert on children and education. We tackle the early years crisis, diving into how social enterprise can dismantle systemic inequality and why we need to stop treating children as mere "economic units" for the labor market.
We also cover:
The Social Justice Pedagogy: Moving beyond basic childcare to build "cultural capital" through debate, oracy, and critical thinking.
The "Triple Glass Ceiling": June’s personal journey navigating the intersections of being Irish, a woman, and a social entrepreneur.
The Send Crisis: Addressing the rise in neurodiversity and the urgent need for early intervention over late-stage institutionalization.
The Degree Barrier: Why requiring degrees for every entry-level role is an unnecessary hurdle that sifts out working-class talent.
Scaling in the "River of Chaos": The reality of growing a social business from 8 to 43 nurseries while fighting for affordable investment.
"What To Do About" isn't a podcast about doom and gloom. It's solutions-focused, hopeful, and builds a bridge between systemic problems and community action.
As June notes, we need to move from "extractive" models to an ecology where society profits and every child is treated as a global citizen.
Hit play and let’s figure out what to do about Education in part 2 of this series!
1 May 2026
What To Do About Education (part 1)
Welcome to the latest episode of "What To Do About." We aren't here to just admire the problems; we’re here to talk to the "doers" who are actually navigating the challenges of the next generation.
In this episode, Peter and Victor sit down with Jovan (https://www.jovanowusunepaul.co.uk/), an aspirational politician and Cambridge graduate , and Gustavo, a talented studio engineer at Sirlute Studios (https://www.sirlutestudios.com/) in Canning Town. We tackle the future of education and work, diving into how a new generation is facing down the rise of AI, a volatile labor market, and a housing crisis that makes traditional milestones feel like a pipe dream.
We also cover:
Why a teacher told his students "good luck" on their first day because of the threat of AI.
The "day-to-day" mindset of young people who feel robbed of a predictable future.
Why we need a "Skills Guarantee" to ensure every young person gains professional experience outside of academia.
The insidious role of social media algorithms and digital populism in shaping modern political engagement.
Radical solutions for a dignified life: from social housing to redistributing corporate profits through social enterprise.
"What To Do About" isn't a podcast about doom and gloom. It's solutions-focused, hopeful, and builds a bridge between systemic problems and community action.
As Javan notes, we need a "strategic direction" to move from a state of malaise to a prosperous nation where everyone is dignified through decent work and wages.
Hit play and let’s figure out what to do about Education in part 1 of this three part series!
24 Apr 2026
What To Do About Nature
Welcome to the very first episode of What To Do About! We’re kicking things off with a massive thank you for joining us on this journey. We aren't here to just admire the problems; we’re here to talk to the "doers" who are actually fixing things.
In this episode, Peter and Victor sit down with the incredible Kresse Wesling (the force behind Elvis & Kresse) and Jennifer Ogolle (BANG Charity) to tackle nature and the climate crisis. We dive into how Kresse turned discarded firehoses into a "guilt-free" luxury brand and is now proving that a farm can actually clean more water than it uses.
We also cover:
Why are people building bunkers in New Zealand instead of fixing the planet.
A radical vision to make it illegal to profit from exploitation by 2036.
How "net regeneration" and social enterprise are the ultimate routes to abundance.
What To Do About isn't a podcast about doom and gloom. It's solutions-focused, hopeful and builds a bridge between problem and action.
As Kresse's grandmother always said: "If you're capable, you're responsible".
Hit play and let’s figure out what to do about Nature!
22 Apr 2026
What To Do About.. Episode 1 Trailer
Stop admiring the problem and start fixing it. From luxury bags made of firehoses to the radical goal of making exploitation illegal , Peter and Victor talk nature, climate, and "net regeneration" with Kresse and Jennifer. It’s time for real action.
Out this Friday.
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