Skip to content
Melo Podcasts Home
CategoriesLanguagesFollowing

Season 3, Episode 9 · Awaiting Approval

Martina Hodges-Schell - Range

2 Jul 2026 · 57 min

Play episode WhatsApp Download

Episode notes

Martina Hodges-Schell has spent thirty years moving through design, from advertising in Germany at the dawn of the web, through Amazon and Yahoo in their early mobile years, to pioneering UX consultancies and a six-year run helping organisations build genuinely collaborative product teams. She is also an equine coach, working with horses as unfiltered mirrors for how leaders actually show up, beneath whatever they intend to project. It is an unusual range, and it turns out to be exactly the point. This conversation moves between the very grounded and the genuinely surprising. We talk about…

Podcast

Awaiting Approval

Adam Jennings hosts a podcast about the messy, human side of creative leadership · Arts & Books · English

What happens when seasoned creatives finally speak without filters? Hosted by Adam Jennings, a design leader with three decades of experience, Awaiting Approval invites creative directors, design leads, and experienced makers to share the work they’re proud of, the lessons they learned too late, an

More from Awaiting Approval All episodes →

  1. S3 · E14 · 6 Aug 2026 · 1 hr 30 min

    Michael Glass - Legacy

    Michael Glass has spent 25 years refusing to settle. He taught himself design in the late 90s by opening Photoshop every single day and learning something new before he was allowed to close it. He went from managing bars in Australia to becoming the guy you called when you wanted something on the FWA. He spent a decade as the most senior design voice at Fantasy Interactive, one of the world's top 3 experience design agencies. He builds his own computers, runs a local AI trained exclusively on himself, and is currently renovating his bathroom ... which he started doing in the 45 minutes…

  2. S3 · E12 · 4 Aug 2026 · 48 min

    Awaiting Approval LIVE 2 - In The Room

    This one is different. No single guest, no slow burn, no deep dive. This is Awaiting Approval LIVE 2, broadcast simultaneously across three cities on one night, with people thirsty for creative insight in each room and a Clipboard of Truth to test the mettle of each guest. What made it into this edit is worth knowing about. Kris on the most ridiculous feedback he has ever received, and what it actually takes for a purpose-driven agency to earn that label rather than just claim it. Gray on what he genuinely looks for in a creative hire that most people overlook, and what it means to lead a…

  3. S3 · E13 · 30 Jul 2026 · 1 hr 30 min

    Lara Juriansz - Boldness

    Lara Juriansz was born in Sri Lanka, grew up in Singapore, studied in Sydney, built her career in London, and is now Creative Director at TBWA Media Arts Lab in LA, working exclusively on ... well, let’s just say a very well known brand. She has said yes to almost every significant change that has come her way, not because she was certain, and not because she wasn’t scared, but because she has learned, repeatedly, that the floating feeling eventually settles, and that the benefits and lessons learnt that come after are almost always worth the leap. This conversation unfolds across two…

  4. S3 · E11 · 15 Jul 2026 · 1 hr 17 min

    Recruiter Roundtable - Part 2

    Over a thousand questions came in from the audience. Six recruiters came back. And within the first few minutes, Tom Scott, said what a lot of people in the industry are quietly thinking: we talk about it every single day, and it would be really nice not to for an hour. And so the panel voted to ban AI from the conversation. What followed was one of the most honest conversations this show has produced, about what the hiring market actually feels like right now, about money and how to talk about it, about nonlinear paths and how to make them work for you rather than against you, and about…

  5. S3 · E10 · 9 Jul 2026 · 1 hr 34 min

    Maria Nicholas - Service

    Maria Nicholas grew up between continents, between cultures, and between disciplines, and has spent her career making that range work for her rather than against her. She came into UX from advertising and brand design, learned to code in a three-month bootcamp where she didn’t see the sun, and built her leadership philosophy around a simple idea: a good designer facilitates great decisions out of other people, they don’t arrive with all the answers. She is also, quietly and on her own time, the guardian of her father’s musical legacy, a project that took ten years and ended in a 508-page…

  6. S3 · 1 Jul 2026 · 5 min

    An Invitation ...

    Hey, it’s Adam. This is a short bonus episode because I want to talk to you about something I’m really excited about, and I think you might be too. On July 23rd, Awaiting Approval LIVE is happening again. Live, in person, in three cities at the same time: London, San Francisco and New York City. I’ll be hosting the London room. Amy Khan is hosting San Francisco. Maryam Cristillo is hosting New York. And each room has a special guest who’s going to face the Clipboard of Truth - rapid-fire questions, no prep, nowhere to hide - followed by questions from the audience. In London, our guest is…

  7. S3 · E8 · 24 Jun 2026 · 47 min

    James Ferguson - Adaptability

    James Ferguson has spent his career moving towards things that excite him rather than away from things that don’t. From a Scottish design agency at sixteen, to building Skyscanner’s design system, to shipping interaction work at Atlassian from the other side of the world, to leading product and creative design at OVO Energy, he has consistently backed his instincts and figured out the rest on arrival. This year he discovered improv theatre, threw himself in without overthinking it, and is absolutely loving it. What comes through most in this conversation is how much James believes in play as…

  8. S3 · E7 · 18 Jun 2026 · 1 hr 7 min

    Maryam Cristillo - Love

    Maryam Cristillo grew up between cultures and continents, studied anthropology and art in the same breath, and has spent her career building creative teams at places like Victoria’s Secret , Naadam , and now Lindt , where she gets to do creative work on chocolate, which she will tell you is exactly as good as it sounds. She also runs a seventeen acre homestead in Maine with her husband, a hundred chickens, and two kids who roam the property wearing bells so she can hear where they’ve got to. There is a lot of love in how she talks about all of it. This conversation moves through some…

  9. S3 · E6 · 11 Jun 2026 · 59 min

    Tamora Petitt - Clarity

    Tamora Petitt has spent 25 years helping people find their way through complex experiences, from redesigning one of the internet’s most visited health tools to building UX teams from scratch, teaching over 200 career changers the craft, and quietly applying design thinking to everything around her, not just the screen in front of her. She started out as a dancer. That turns out to explain a lot. What comes through most in this conversation is how much clarity Tamora has about what the work is actually for. We talk about why the people commissioning the work need to be in the room long before…

  10. S3 · E5 · 4 Jun 2026 · 54 min

    Charles Cadbury - Conviction

    Charles Cadbury has spent 25 years building things at the edge of what’s possible. He created one of the first voice-enabled hotel concierge systems, invented voice-activated audio advertising, won the global Alexa Cup, and has spent the last decade quietly convinced that the way we talk to technology is about to change everything. He also watches the sunset every Thursday, without fail, with someone worth talking to. That alone tells you so much about him. This is a conversation about conviction, the kind that keeps you building in a direction long before the world catches up. We talk about…

Take it with you

The Melo app keeps playing with the screen off, works in the car and on your watch, wakes you to your station, and browses the whole catalogue offline. Free, no ads, no account.

Get it on Google Play