Season 3 | Episode 12 – Places She Shapes with Zoe Smeeth

This week, Zoe sits down with Christina Hsieh, structural engineer, Fellow of the Institution of Structural Engineers, and founder of Matter, a consultancy she built around social value long before the term existed.

Christina's story begins with a documentary, a dream, and a decision that put almost everyone she loved against her. She applied to study in the UK in secret, having never held a passport or set foot in an airport. What happened when she finally arrived is the kind of thing you couldn't make up, and it's only the beginning.

She's remarkably open about the moments that shaped her: the mentors who saw something she couldn't yet see in herself, a rebuild on the other side of the world, a diagnosis that changed everything, and the comment that finally made her stop trying to break the glass ceiling and simply build a company without one.

It's a conversation about following your gut, asking "why," and deciding your time is worth spending on work that matters. You'll want to hear how she got here.

Search 'Places She Shapes' to find us on all your favourite podcast platforms or use the link in bio!

📺 Watch full episodes on YouTube: @PlacesSheShapes

✨ Stay connected, follow us on TikTok: @PlacesSheShapes

Season 3 | Episode 11 – Places She Shapes with Zoe Smeeth

This week on New Tracks, Zoe is joined by someone she knows very well indeed: Lily Dent, Project Manager at JAC Project Management. New Tracks flips the usual format, asking the questions we might have posed to our season one and two guests if we could have caught them right at the start of their careers.

Lily didn't grow up knowing fit out existed. One disgruntled evening, a scroll through a job site, and a role she almost talked herself out of applying for; that's where it began. What happened next is a lesson in backing yourself before anyone else does.

She's honest about walking into rooms and being underestimated, about imposter syndrome that shows up "every day," and about the quiet power of deciding you'll simply outwork the doubt. She also talks about proving things to herself, the accreditation she took on to do exactly that, and why leaning into who you really are might be the most memorable thing you can do.

And then there's the question of what she wants people to say about her long after she's left the room. You'll want to hear her answer to that one.

Search 'Places She Shapes' to find us on all your favourite podcast platforms or use the link in bio! 📺 Watch full episodes on YouTube: @PlacesSheShapes ✨ Stay connected, follow us on TikTok: @PlacesSheShapes

Season 3 | Episode 10 – Places She Shapes with Zoe Smeeth

Brogan MacDonald was going to be an artist. A Blue Peter badge at five, a love of drawing and fashion, and a plan that had nothing to do with maths or science. Today she is Head of Sustainability for Building Structures at Ramboll UK, a role that, until three years ago, did not exist. She built it.

This week Brogan joins Zoe to trace a journey that almost went a very different way. She is honest about the teachers who told her what she could not do, the first year of university where her maths marks were Ds, and the tutoring she was too embarrassed to admit she needed. She talks about being one of very few women on site, the meetings she walked out of in tears, and the mentor who threw her in the deep end to see if she could float.

Then there is the month in the Bali jungle, silent until midday, that changed how she thinks about ambition altogether. She came home not quite sure where her career or her life was going, and that question is still with her.

If you have ever been told no, or quietly wondered whether the thing you love could ever become the thing you do, this one is for you. Listen to the full episode to hear how Brogan learned to trust that what is meant for you will find its way to you.

Search 'Places She Shapes' to find us on all your favourite podcast platforms or use the link in bio! 📺 Watch full episodes on YouTube: @PlacesSheShapes ✨ Stay connected, follow us on TikTok: @PlacesSheShapes