Podcast
Humanizing Insurance
Hosted by Daniel Grimwood-Bird · EN
About Humanizing Insurance
Meeting the people behind the policies.
Humanizing Insurance is brought to you by Daniel Grimwood-Bird.
It’s a passion project, driven by the evergreen phrase: “Insurance is a people industry.”
Through each conversation, we explore the stories, experiences, and ideas that make our world of insurance more human - from the pioneers and innovators shaping its future to the quiet leaders who hold its traditions together.
This podcast exists to remind us that behind every policy, premium, and claim is a person - someone making decisions, taking risks, and protecting what matters most.
If these stories resonate with you, please follow the show, leave a review, and share it with a colleague or friend who still believes in the people side of this business.
You can also connect with Daniel on LinkedIn to continue the conversation, recommend our next guest, or request a topic that you'd love to hear more of.
Humanizing Insurance - one conversation at a time.
10episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Dr Nicholas Barbon, the father of fire insurance?: Howard Benge
Apr 2201:13:17Tap to summarizeIn this episode of Humanizing Insurance, Howard Benge of the Insurance Museum returns to the podcast to explore the life and legacy of Dr Nicholas Barbon, one of the most important and least understood figures in insurance history.Best known as the father of fire insurance, Barbon was far more than that. He was a physician, a property developer, an economic thinker, a pamphleteer, an MP, and a man who helped shape London in the aftermath of the Great Fire. Together, Daniel and Howard unpack the world Barbon lived in: a city marked by plague, fire, religious conflict, political upheaval, and rapid commercial change.They discuss how Barbon’s Fire Office helped create the foundations of modern insurance, from standardised policies and pricing to fire brigades, fire marks, and private capital backing risk. They also wrestle with the contradictions of the man himself. Was he a visionary who helped democratise financial protection, or an opportunist protecting his own property empire? As ever with history, the answer is more interesting than either extreme.This is a conversation about the origins of insurance, but also about capitalism, catastrophe, urban rebuilding, and the kind of people who shape industries before anyone quite realises what they are building.In this episode: Why Nicholas Barbon is known as the father of fire insurance How the Great Fire of London changed the future of property and risk The creation of the Fire Office and the earliest fire insurance model Fire marks, private fire brigades, and the roots of modern underwriting Barbon’s life as a doctor, developer, economist, and politician Whether history has judged him too harshly Why insurance history still matters nowHumanizing Insurance is bought to you by Daniel Grimwood-Bird. It's a passion project, driven by the evergreen phrase 'Insurance is a people industry'.Through each conversation, we explore the stories, experiences, and ideas that make our world of insurance more human - from the pioneers and innovators shaping its future to the quiet leaders who hold its traditions together.This podcast exists to remind us that behind every policy, premium, and claim is a person, someone making decisions, taking risks, and protecting what matters most.If these stories resonate with you, please follow the show, leave a review, and share it with a colleague or friend who still believes in the people side of this business.You can also connect with Daniel on LinkedIn to continue the conversation, recommend guests, or request a topic that you'd like to know more about.Humanizing Insurance — one conversation at a time.
Transcribe →Claims of the Future, Lessons from the Past: Alan Demers
Apr 100:59:06Tap to summarizeAlan Demers spent 24 years at Nationwide, building a career in claims, leadership and innovation before stepping out to found InsurTech Consulting.In this episode of Humanizing Insurance, we talk about what claims teaches you about people, pressure and decision-making, and why it remains one of the most misunderstood parts of the industry. Alan reflects on a career spent largely inside one organisation, what loyalty and longevity can give you, and the moments when staying in one place can make you wonder what you might be missing elsewhere.We also explore leadership at scale, the reality of trying to build the “claims of the future”, and what Alan sees now from outside the insurance machine that he could not see when he was inside it. It is an honest conversation about innovation too: not the conference version, but the real thing, with all the bureaucracy, delay and frustration that comes with trying to change a complex industry.This is a conversation about careers, conviction, claims, and the humbling experience of starting again after years at the top of a large organisation.In this episode:How Alan found his way into insurance through claimsWhy claims is far more nuanced than many people realiseWhat 24 years at one company gave him, and what it may have costThe tension between loyalty, longevity and moving to growWhat leadership looks like when you are responsible for thousands of peopleHow close the industry has really come to building the “claims of the future”What insurers still get wrong about innovationWhy external networks matter more than many people thinkWhat it feels like to leave corporate life and build something of your ownHumanizing Insurance is bought to you by Daniel Grimwood-Bird. It's a passion project, driven by the evergreen phrase 'Insurance is a people industry'.Through each conversation, we explore the stories, experiences, and ideas that make our world of insurance more human - from the pioneers and innovators shaping its future to the quiet leaders who hold its traditions together.This podcast exists to remind us that behind every policy, premium, and claim is a person, someone making decisions, taking risks, and protecting what matters most.If these stories resonate with you, please follow the show, leave a review, and share it with a colleague or friend who still believes in the people side of this business.You can also connect with Daniel on LinkedIn to continue the conversation, recommend guests, or request a topic that you'd like to know more about.Humanizing Insurance — one conversation at a time.
Transcribe →The Magic of Insurance: Tony Cañas
Mar 2500:52:24Tap to summarizeTony Cañas is one of insurance’s most distinctive voices: recruiter, podcast host, community builder, and, increasingly, magician.In this episode, Tony joins Humanizing Insurance to talk about the winding route that took him from wanting to work in computer science to falling into insurance after the 2009 crash, building Insurance Nerds and Profiles in Risk, and eventually rediscovering a childhood love of magic.What could have been a conversation about novelty becomes something much deeper. Tony reflects on authenticity, the performance of professionalism, the power of silence, and the ways both magic and insurance depend on perception, trust, and human psychology. He also makes a passionate case for insurance as a fascinating, meaningful career and argues that the industry has done far too little to educate consumers about what insurance is actually for.It is funny, unusual, and thoughtful in equal measure, and a reminder that sometimes the most interesting people in insurance are the ones bold enough to stop wearing the uniform.What listeners will get from this episodeTony’s route into insurance after the financial crashhow Insurance Nerds and Profiles in Risk came to lifethe story behind the top hat, the flaming wallet, and the return to magicwhat magic teaches about attention, silence, and human psychologywhy insurance should be an experience businesswhy consumers still misunderstand insurancewhy insurance is not boring, and never has beenHumanizing Insurance is bought to you by Daniel Grimwood-Bird. It's a passion project, driven by the evergreen phrase 'Insurance is a people industry'.Through each conversation, we explore the stories, experiences, and ideas that make our world of insurance more human - from the pioneers and innovators shaping its future to the quiet leaders who hold its traditions together.This podcast exists to remind us that behind every policy, premium, and claim is a person, someone making decisions, taking risks, and protecting what matters most.If these stories resonate with you, please follow the show, leave a review, and share it with a colleague or friend who still believes in the people side of this business.You can also connect with Daniel on LinkedIn to continue the conversation, recommend guests, or request a topic that you'd like to know more about.Humanizing Insurance — one conversation at a time.
Transcribe →In(surtech) Vogue: Rory Pyke
Mar 1800:40:39Tap to summarizeIn(surtech) Vogue: Rory PykeRory Pyke didn’t plan to work in insurance.He studied graphic design, interned at Vogue, built a custom trainer business (complete with a Dragons’ Den application), bought property in St Helens, and was on the verge of opening a wine bar before COVID changed everything.Today, he’s VP Global Partnerships at Insurtech Insights, sitting at the centre of the global insurtech ecosystem and helping shape the conversations that bring insurers, founders, and technologists together.In this episode of Humanizing Insurance, Rory shares what that journey looked like, and what it’s taught him.We talk about:being an “extroverted introvert” and learning to step onto big stageshandling imposter syndrome when interviewing senior industry leaderswhy the best conversations balance insight and inspirationwhat startups and insurers often misunderstand about each otherthe story behind the Insurtech Run Club and healthier ways to networkWe also get into something more personal: the reality of walking into a room full of strangers, the temptation to leave, and how community and shared experiences can make the industry feel a little more human.Because behind the conferences, the panels, and the partnerships, this is still an industry built on people.Humanizing Insurance is bought to you by Daniel Grimwood-Bird. It's a passion project, driven by the evergreen phrase 'Insurance is a people industry'.Through each conversation, we explore the stories, experiences, and ideas that make our world of insurance more human - from the pioneers and innovators shaping its future to the quiet leaders who hold its traditions together.This podcast exists to remind us that behind every policy, premium, and claim is a person, someone making decisions, taking risks, and protecting what matters most.If these stories resonate with you, please follow the show, leave a review, and share it with a colleague or friend who still believes in the people side of this business.You can also connect with Daniel on LinkedIn to continue the conversation, recommend guests, or request a topic that you'd like to know more about.Humanizing Insurance — one conversation at a time.
Transcribe →Risk, Markets, and Mentorship: David Cabral
Mar 600:50:34Tap to summarizeDavid Cabral has worked across more corners of insurance than most of us will ever see - Bermuda, the UK, Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas - spanning claims, underwriting, leadership, and now senior advisory work at the Bank of England.In this conversation, David shares why he believes claims is the best place to start any insurance career, how he deliberately built breadth through “sideways moves” (often without pay rises), and why insurance companies miss opportunities when they obsess over product instead of risk management.We also talk about what it really takes to enter new markets well, how local nuance gets lost when head office exports a one-size-fits-all approach, and why the simple question “What do you need?” can unlock better products, better pricing, and deeper client trust.Towards the end, David reflects on what he’d do differently if he started again — and why his curiosity is increasingly pulled towards microinsurance, development economics, and building models that serve communities properly.In this episode:Why claims teams understand the contract better than almost anyoneThe hidden cost of being “product-first” instead of “risk-first”How to build a career through knowledge, not titlesWhat changes when you move from CEO/CUO roles to strategic advisoryWhy “listening locally” is the real unlock for international growthThe quiet case for microinsurance beyond parametricsHumanizing Insurance is bought to you by Daniel Grimwood-Bird. It's a passion project, driven by the evergreen phrase 'Insurance is a people industry'.Through each conversation, we explore the stories, experiences, and ideas that make our world of insurance more human - from the pioneers and innovators shaping its future to the quiet leaders who hold its traditions together.This podcast exists to remind us that behind every policy, premium, and claim is a person, someone making decisions, taking risks, and protecting what matters most.If these stories resonate with you, please follow the show, leave a review, and share it with a colleague or friend who still believes in the people side of this business.You can also connect with Daniel on LinkedIn to continue the conversation, recommend guests, or request a topic that you'd like to know more about.Humanizing Insurance — one conversation at a time.
Transcribe →The Show Must Go On!: Freddie Sparrow
Feb 2701:03:29Tap to summarizeRisk, Liability & Event Insurance with Freddie SparrowWhat happens when a music festival founder becomes an insurance entrepreneur?Freddie Sparrow is the co-founder of Vento Insurance, a specialist event insurance broker serving festival organisers, conferences, trade shows and the wider events supply chain. Before launching Vento, Freddie ran a 5,000-person music festival — managing venues, contractors, ticket sales, cashflow, weather risk and the legal responsibility of thousands of attendees.In this episode of Humanizing Insurance, we explore the real risks behind live events and how those experiences led Freddie into underwriting, broking and eventually building an event insurance business.We cover:Event insurance and cancellation riskPublic liability insurance for festivals and live eventsCashflow, ticket sales and operational exposureWeather risk and “acts of God”Underwriting vs broking — what’s the difference?COVID cancellations and the underinsurance gap in the events industryBuilding a specialist insurance startupFreddie’s journey runs from music promoter to reinsurer at TransRe, broker at Acrisure, and now founder of Vento Insurance — bringing discipline, lived experience and trust to a sector that learned the hard way what happens when coverage isn’t in place.If you work in insurance, event management, live production, risk management or are building a business in a volatile industry, this conversation will resonate.Because whether you’re running a festival or an insurance company, one truth remains:The show must go on.Humanizing Insurance is bought to you by Daniel Grimwood-Bird. It's a passion project, driven by the evergreen phrase 'Insurance is a people industry'.Through each conversation, we explore the stories, experiences, and ideas that make our world of insurance more human - from the pioneers and innovators shaping its future to the quiet leaders who hold its traditions together.This podcast exists to remind us that behind every policy, premium, and claim is a person, someone making decisions, taking risks, and protecting what matters most.If these stories resonate with you, please follow the show, leave a review, and share it with a colleague or friend who still believes in the people side of this business.You can also connect with Daniel on LinkedIn to continue the conversation, recommend guests, or request a topic that you'd like to know more about.Humanizing Insurance — one conversation at a time.
Transcribe →Action Heroes, not Religion: Ola Jacob
Feb 2000:42:59Tap to summarizeOla Jacob – Director of Business Development, Global ParametricsInsurance has a storytelling problem.Not because what we do isn’t meaningful — but because we don’t always explain it in human terms.In this episode, I’m joined by Ola Jacob from Global Parametrics. We start where we always do — with the person. From dreaming of an Ironman-style “Jarvis life” to studying Human Computer Interaction and becoming an insurance scholar at UCL, Ola’s journey into the industry was intentional, curious, and entrepreneurial from the beginning.What follows is a conversation about purpose, prevention, and people.Ola explains parametric insurance in its simplest form:“When a precondition is met, a pre-agreed payout is made.”But we go deeper than definitions.We talk about:Why insurance, at its heart, is simply a promise to payHow parametric is evolving from filling protection gaps to enabling pre-emptive risk managementWhy entrepreneurship absolutely exists inside insurance — if you’re willing to look for itThe quiet economic ripple effect of a well-handled claimAnd how we bring more young people into an industry that touches every business in the worldOne of the standout moments comes when Ola suggests that insurance may have accidentally positioned itself like a religious institution — held to impossible standards and judged harshly when it falls short.His alternative?Maybe we’re closer to action heroes.Not perfect, not glamorous, but steady, dependable, and there when it matters most.If we told that story better, perhaps the next generation would see what we see.Humanizing Insurance is bought to you by Daniel Grimwood-Bird. It's a passion project, driven by the evergreen phrase 'Insurance is a people industry'.Through each conversation, we explore the stories, experiences, and ideas that make our world of insurance more human - from the pioneers and innovators shaping its future to the quiet leaders who hold its traditions together.This podcast exists to remind us that behind every policy, premium, and claim is a person, someone making decisions, taking risks, and protecting what matters most.If these stories resonate with you, please follow the show, leave a review, and share it with a colleague or friend who still believes in the people side of this business.You can also connect with Daniel on LinkedIn to continue the conversation, recommend guests, or request a topic that you'd like to know more about.Humanizing Insurance — one conversation at a time.
Transcribe →Emergency Chocolate and Biscuits: Mollie Horne
Feb 1300:38:59Tap to summarizeWhat do wartime staff magazines, colonial underwriting rates, and a forgotten female trailblazer reveal about the history of insurance?In this episode of Humanizing Insurance, I’m joined by Mollie Horne, archivist at Aberdeen Group, to explore what insurance archives uncover about the people behind the policies.We step into Second World War staff magazines, read letters from employees on active service, and revisit the London office destroyed during the Blitz - where only an envelope of ash from the policy safe survived. We discuss how duplicate ledgers were preserved during wartime, what historic “extra rates” books reveal about underwriting and social assumptions, and how internal sports like the Davidson Cup reflected company culture across offices in London and Edinburgh.We also spotlight Edith Beesley, one of the first women in insurance management, who flew to Paris on business in 1920 and challenged expectations in a male-dominated industry.Finally, we look forward. As insurance becomes increasingly digital, we explore why electronic records may be more fragile than the paper ledgers that have survived for centuries — and what future archivists might struggle to recover from our era.Behind every policy is a person. And insurance history, at its heart, is social history.Humanizing Insurance is bought to you by Daniel Grimwood-Bird. It's a passion project, driven by the evergreen phrase 'Insurance is a people industry'.Through each conversation, we explore the stories, experiences, and ideas that make our world of insurance more human - from the pioneers and innovators shaping its future to the quiet leaders who hold its traditions together.This podcast exists to remind us that behind every policy, premium, and claim is a person, someone making decisions, taking risks, and protecting what matters most.If these stories resonate with you, please follow the show, leave a review, and share it with a colleague or friend who still believes in the people side of this business.You can also connect with Daniel on LinkedIn to continue the conversation, recommend guests, or request a topic that you'd like to know more about.Humanizing Insurance — one conversation at a time.
Transcribe →Why If X, Then Y: Tim McCosh
Feb 600:45:38Tap to summarizeEpisode summary In this episode of Humanizing Insurance, Daniel Grimwood-Bird sits down with Tim McCosh, Founder and CEO of Yokahu — an MGA and digital marketplace for worldwide parametric natural catastrophe and extreme weather risk insurance. Tim shares the very human reality of building a startup while becoming a new dad to twins, his unexpected route into insurance, why he left broking after years in the market, and the lessons that forced Yokahu to rethink its original approach.We unpack what parametric insurance really is (“if X then Y”), why Yokahu is aiming to become an infrastructure layer for the market, and what’s changed in the industry — from the early “is this even insurance?” conversations to today’s push for innovation through Lloyd’s Lab. Along the way, Tim gives a candid view on why insurance change takes time, why product-market fit is harder than it sounds, and why he’d still tell his kids: yes, work in insurance.What you’ll hear aboutBecoming a dad of twins while scaling a startup — “hard mode” leadershipFrom rural Scotland to the Lloyd’s market: how Tim stumbled into insuranceWhy broking can feel reactive — and why Tim couldn’t do “another 30 years”Parametric explained in plain English: the logic and the valueWhy SMEs are the missing middle for parametric (not personal lines, not sovereign/corporate)The biggest early mistake: building what carriers would offer vs what customers wantedThe cultural and structural blockers to innovation (value chains, slow onboarding, proof points)Lloyd’s Lab, interconnected InsureTech, and why the revolution may arrive faster than expectedTim’s five-year view: better certainty for customers, and what success would changeGuest Tim McCosh — Founder & CEO, YokahuHost Daniel Grimwood-Bird — Host, Humanizing InsuranceHumanizing Insurance is bought to you by Daniel Grimwood-Bird. It's a passion project, driven by the evergreen phrase 'Insurance is a people industry'.Through each conversation, we explore the stories, experiences, and ideas that make our world of insurance more human - from the pioneers and innovators shaping its future to the quiet leaders who hold its traditions together.This podcast exists to remind us that behind every policy, premium, and claim is a person, someone making decisions, taking risks, and protecting what matters most.If these stories resonate with you, please follow the show, leave a review, and share it with a colleague or friend who still believes in the people side of this business.You can also connect with Daniel on LinkedIn to continue the conversation, recommend guests, or request a topic that you'd like to know more about.Humanizing Insurance — one conversation at a time.
Transcribe →Innovation Through Conversation: Bill Harris
Jan 1600:51:56Tap to summarizeEpisode summary This one’s a deliberate tangent. Not away from insurance, but out to the place where the industry comes together to argue, learn, sell, build… and occasionally rethink itself.My guest is Bill Harris, co-founder and Chief Customer Officer of InsureTech Connect (ITC) — the largest gathering of insurance innovation in the world. We talked about how ITC started (including the very “sliding doors” origin story), what it takes to build something at that scale, why the pandemic actually accelerated the need for face-to-face community, and what Bill hopes his legacy is beyond “the conference guy in Vegas.”What we coverBill’s early ambition to be a news anchor, and the moment that dream changedThe real origin story of ITC — and why Bill says it wasn’t even his ideaBuilding the first ITC in roughly 180 days (yes, really)Why the 1-to-1 meeting zone became the “most valuable real estate” in the expo hallThe year ITC almost didn’t go ahead — and the weight of that decision in 2017When ITC shifted from “a big event” to part of the industry’s innovation infrastructurePost-pandemic: why community came roaring back, and why ITC acceleratedBill’s take on signal vs noise (and the “AI sticker” problem)What success at ITC actually looks like for founders and leaders: connections, conversations, networkDesigning an experience that works for everyone from solo founders to carrier CEOsThe content responsibility: how ITC topics can shape Q4 planning and next-year budgetsBill’s legacy: being remembered as a connector and bridge builderLinks / where to find Bill & ITCITC Vegas: vegas.insuretechconnect.comBill on LinkedIn: Bill Harris (ITC Vegas)If you enjoyed this episode… Share it with someone who’s never been to ITC but keeps saying they’ll go “next year.” And if you’re going in 2026, come say hello — we might just do Humanizing Insurance live from Vegas.Humanizing Insurance is bought to you by Daniel Grimwood-Bird. It's a passion project, driven by the evergreen phrase 'Insurance is a people industry'.Through each conversation, we explore the stories, experiences, and ideas that make our world of insurance more human - from the pioneers and innovators shaping its future to the quiet leaders who hold its traditions together.This podcast exists to remind us that behind every policy, premium, and claim is a person, someone making decisions, taking risks, and protecting what matters most.If these stories resonate with you, please follow the show, leave a review, and share it with a colleague or friend who still believes in the people side of this business.You can also connect with Daniel on LinkedIn to continue the conversation, recommend guests, or request a topic that you'd like to know more about.Humanizing Insurance — one conversation at a time.
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