What happens when telling the truth could cost you your career?

In this Outlaws Diary episode, Kate and Shayla sit down with Rabia Siddique, international human rights lawyer, former British Army officer, and leadership consultant, to explore what it really means to choose truth over safety.

From a hostage crisis in Iraq to a discrimination case against the UK government, Rabia’s story is extraordinary. But the tension at its core is universal: what do you do when the system tells you to stay quiet?

This episode explores courageous leadership, workplace discrimination, whistleblowing, and what it really means to speak truth to power. Rabia shares the personal and professional cost of challenging authority, and why values-based leadership often requires breaking the rules that protect powerful institutions.

We talk about what happens when silence feels like complicity, why speaking up can feel career-ending, and how real leadership sometimes begins the moment you refuse to comply.

– Rabia’s journey from Legal Aid lawyer to the British Army – The hostage crisis in Iraq and what happened behind closed doors – The discrimination case that challenged the UK government and military – Why injustice by those you trust can cut deeper than trauma itself – What whistleblowing really costs and why it matters – How to practise ethical, values-based leadership inside rigid systems – The myth that success requires perfection and conformity – Why you don’t have to be in a war zone to feel “held hostage” by your career

This conversation moves beyond the extraordinary circumstances of a military hostage situation and into something far more familiar: the moments in our own careers where we feel stuck, silenced, or pressured to conform.

And sometimes, the real outlaw move is this: speak up anyway.

Resources & Links Rabia’s book: Equal Justice Connect with Rabia via her website and social media

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Hosted and produced by Shayla Strapps and Kate Offer

What if your side hustle wasn’t about making money, but about becoming more of yourself?

In this Outlaws After Dark episode, Kate and Shayla are joined by Sandrine Alexandre-Hughes, a lawyer and mum of three who built a creative side hustle while working full time, not to chase millions, but to explore something her legal career simply couldn’t offer.

After hearing devastating stories about online grooming and bullying, Sandrine felt compelled to act. Instead of approaching the problem with fear or lectures, she asked a different question: if the problem is dark, does the solution have to be? That question led to All the Likes, a card game that teaches online safety through play, followed by Smoke, Mirrors and Filters, a conversation game about our digital habits and the conversations we avoid.

What followed wasn’t overnight success or financial freedom. It was exposure to creativity, manufacturing, education, media, and whole new worlds that sit well outside the legal profession. This episode is an honest look at starting a side hustle without quitting your job, and what can open up when you stop overthinking and start making.

In this episode

• Building a side hustle while working full time, without a grand plan or exit strategy
• Why Sandrine never saw herself as creative, and how the creative process surprised her
• The reality of starting a creative side hustle from scratch, sketches, designers, manufacturing, and learning as you go
• How legal training both helped and hindered her ability to create
• Why not all side hustles are meant to become businesses, and why that’s okay
• Marketing, visibility, and the parts of a side hustle that are far less glamorous
• Why boredom, rest, and stepping away often unlock the best ideas
• Practical advice for starting a side hustle without quitting your job, including one small first step

🔧 Resources & Links

• Team Together Online, Sandrine’s company focused on healthier online lives
• All the Likes, a card game teaching online safety through play
• Smoke, Mirrors and Filters, a conversation card game about digital habits
• Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, online safety resources for families

If you loved this episode... Share it with a friend who’s wanting a change (or just needs permission to do the thing!).

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Connect with us Instagram: @the.outlaws.podcast - https://www.instagram.com/the.outlaws.podcast Facebook Group: Outlaws Podcast Community - https://www.facebook.com/groups/the.outlaws.podcast LinkedIn: Outlaws Podcast - https://www.linkedin.com/company/106681587 Email: contact@outlawspodcast.com

Hosted and produced by Shayla Strapps and Kate Offer

In this episode of Outlaws, Kate and Shayla are joined by Dr Carly Schrever, a former lawyer who retrained as a psychologist and went on to become Australia’s first dedicated judicial wellbeing adviser. Carly shares her own journey from law to psychology, including the moment she realised she was more interested in the human dynamics of the courtroom than legal argument. That pivot ultimately led her to groundbreaking research on judicial stress and wellbeing, including her role in the National Judicial Stress and Wellbeing Study.

In this episode, Carly shares what the data actually tells us about stress in the legal profession and why judicial officers, despite deep job satisfaction and commitment, experience alarmingly high levels of burnout and secondary trauma. Carly explains why judges aren’t ‘above’ stress, why lower courts are under the greatest pressure and how systemic injustice itself becomes a source of psychological harm.

The conversation also explores moral injury, intentional hope, and what it really takes to build a sustainable legal career inside an imperfect system. Rather than focusing solely on individual resilience, Carly makes a compelling case for systemic change and for leaders being willing to speak honestly about the human cost of legal work.

This is a thoughtful, rigorous discussion about law, justice, and what it means to stay human while working inside systems that are often broken.

If you loved this episode... Share it with a friend who’s wanting a change (or just needs permission to do the thing!).

Rate and review Outlaws on Apple Podcasts or Spotify — it helps more Outlaws find us

Find out more Website: www.outlawspodcast.com

Subscribe to our newsletter for updates, tools, and more Outlawbrary picks

Connect with us Instagram: @the.outlaws.podcast - https://www.instagram.com/the.outlaws.podcast Facebook Group: Outlaws Podcast Community - https://www.facebook.com/groups/the.outlaws.podcast LinkedIn: Outlaws Podcast - https://www.linkedin.com/company/106681587 Email: contact@outlawspodcast.com

Hosted and produced by Shayla Strapps and Kate Offer