Octavian Graf Pilati's family has been in Lower Austria since 1730, when his ancestors, the Khevenhüllers, bought Burg Hardegg and the estate at Riegersburg. One of them ran Maria Theresa's court and was made a prince. Another went to Mexico with Emperor Maximilian. The estates fell into the Soviet zone in 1945 and the family spent ten years as refugees; when they came back in 1955, half the forest had been cut down.

In 2009 his father pledged those forests as security for the bank loans of a listed timber company planting teak in Costa Rica. His sons found out in 2010, when his older brother pulled the land registry documents. The timber volumes had been overstated and half the Costa Rican land was protected rainforest. The company went bankrupt, investigations ran in Austria and Costa Rica and nobody was prosecuted, and three Austrian banks called the pledges. Octavian was in his early twenties, sitting opposite them with a lawyer.

At the end of 2017 the family sold the entire forest and repaid every bank in full, with money left over. They kept the castle at Hardegg, sold the baroque palace at Ruegers in 2021, and ended up owning the teak plantations in Costa Rica. Harvard Business School teaches the story in a course called How Not to Bankrupt Your Family.

More than half of adults in the UK have no will. Tasnim Khalid, founder of Private Client Solicitors in Manchester, has spent 21 years sorting out what families leave behind, and she says they are arguing more than ever.

Sheelam Chadha and Tasnim talk about why inheritance fights are getting bigger, the client who sold his company with six months to live, a family that fought over a gargoyle, and why wealthy families are moving money to Portugal, Singapore and Dublin. Tasnim also explains why she left corporate law at nine months pregnant to start her own firm.

Chapters

0:00 Intro

0:20 Meet Tasnim Khalid

0:58 Leaving corporate law, nine months pregnant

3:46 From Punjab to London: her father's story

8:33 Starting a business in Britain's tax squeeze

11:04 AI and the law

12:35 56% of adults have no will

14:45 Six months to live

20:18 Why heirs fight more than ever

23:23 The property ladder and lifetime renters

25:20 Talk to your children while you can

27:06 The gargoyle

27:55 Britain's wealthy are moving abroad

31:05 Don't let the tax tail wag the dog

34:41 London 25%, Dublin 12.5%

35:57 Running a business as a working mum

38:21 Take the leap

Watch the video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/ELYPoe-qRxk

More: https://loadbearingpodcast.com

The Netherlands is taxing its investors away. Why, and what happens when the money leaves?

Jan de Quay ran Savills in the Netherlands for 19 years, after 11 years at Jones Lang. We talk about rising taxes, government spending, investors moving elsewhere, a property market stuck between buyers and sellers, and why Jan thinks a slow crisis can be worse than a crash.

We also get into Amsterdam's finances, where he would put money today, AI risk, European politics, China and what the Netherlands could look like in ten years.

Chapters

00:00 From running Savills to walking away at 60

03:40 A slow crisis, not a 2008 crash

05:08 A government that cannot pass anything

06:52 The Dutch market everyone wanted to own

08:02 A 10.4% transfer tax and the end of FBI status

09:50 Why nothing gets built

10:35 The new rent band from 900 to 1,250 euros

12:26 Box 3 explained

14:05 75,000 rental homes gone in two years

15:36 Everybody loses and nobody changes it

17:19 Are the Dutch actually leaving?

19:39 Amsterdam's 300 communication advisers

20:42 The country our children inherit

24:16 Are owners finally selling?

25:02 An 80 million office, offers at 62

26:25 Sell, or hand the keys back

27:02 Why office to residential rarely works

28:49 Which Dutch cities still trade

31:27 Waiting for the crisis that unlocks the market

34:38 Why Jan avoids offices now

35:13 The AI danger zone

37:00 The case for secondary retail

40:43 Amsterdam is technically broke

41:27 Where are we in ten years?

47:00 Cynicism or realism?

What happens when AI changes our jobs, fights our wars and becomes something we can't run our businesses, or our lives, without?

Sheelam Chadha sits down with Caleb Cicek, Chief AI Officer at the Institute of AI, for a candid conversation about where all this is taking us. From the US-China technology race and Europe's dependence on foreign providers to robot soldiers and competition for energy, we explore who holds the power and what happens when they decide to switch it off.

Then there's the human question. Are we becoming more capable, or simply handing over our ability to think? We discuss job losses, accountability, AI companions and "cognitive surrender": believing the machine because it sounds like it knows.

I use AI every day and love what it makes possible. That doesn't mean I'm comfortable with everything that might come next.

Some dark predictions, some disagreement and a few laughs, because you can be excited about the technology and still ask difficult questions.

Recorded on 8 September 2026. Future scenarios discussed are predictions and opinions.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Introduction

01:00 Caleb's story: engineer first, consultant second

04:37 What the Institute of AI actually does

05:47 Ethics, regulation and standards are not the same thing

07:47 Nobody types any more

08:31 "I wouldn't hire someone who can't use AI properly"

09:59 The regulation we missed on social media

11:57 Is AI good for us?

12:52 A robot in the house, and what it can see

14:29 Cognitive surrender

15:32 Idiocracy, and what we are losing

17:14 The EU AI Act and the December 2027 deadline

19:03 Should a model decide who gets a mortgage?

22:10 What happens to work

25:17 The AI race with China

27:03 What if another country switches you off?

29:40 Who actually controls AI

32:18 Which AI does he actually use?

37:20 Jobs, robots and manual labour

41:37 2030: robot soldiers and the war for energy

43:05 What he hopes for

Follow Load Bearing for more: https://loadbearingpodcast.com

What happens when AI collides with politics, productivity and Europe’s economic reality? Sheelam Chadha speaks with Christopher Hütwohl about Germany, technology, work and the ideas shaping our future.

Load Bearing explores money, power, business—and the absurd systems holding everything together.

More: https://loadbearingpodcast.com

Is commercial real estate worth investing in when bonds yield 4%? Sheelam Chadha speaks with Paris real-estate expert Paul Habert about pricing, interest rates, AI and the future of property investment.

Load Bearing explores money, power, business—and the absurd systems holding everything together.

More: https://loadbearingpodcast.com

Damon Healey joins Load Bearing to discuss leaving corporate real estate, building an independent business, artificial intelligence, risk and the realities of starting again.