This week marks 20 years since the Arctic Monkeys released this groundbreaking debut album, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not.
It didn’t arrive quietly.
It didn’t follow the rules. It didn’t wait for permission. And it didn’t sound like everything else on the radio.
It captured something raw and real about a moment in time - and in doing so, it changed the landscape. Not just musically, but culturally. How music was shared. How artists were discovered. What “success” even looked like.
Some albums do that.
They don’t just entertain. They shift things.
When a stuck record becomes a statementAt The EX Space, we’ve been thinking a lot about that kind of shift.
Because internal communication and employee experience feels like it’s facing a similar moment. Familiar patterns. Well-worn habits. The same conversations looping again and again.
Not because we’re out of ideas, but because some ideas are worth repeating until the profession finally listens.
Introducing: The Stuck Record — the complete album
We’re excited to share that the full series of The Stuck Record is now available.
Every episode. The complete album.Created as an audio companion to our book, People-First Internal Communication, the podcast explores why the profession needs to change - and what that change really demands of us.
Across the series, we dig into:
How internal communication drifted away from its human roots
Why experience, not messaging, is the real measure of success
What AI means for the profession — and where human value now sits
The skills, mindsets and courage required to do this work differently
The tensions we all feel between control, speed, care and trust
Like any good album, themes recur. Ideas evolve. Earlier tracks land differently once you’ve heard what comes later.
If the book is the manifesto, the podcast is the conversation around it.
More reflective. More discursive. Sometimes more provocative.
Together, they make the same case from different angles: that internal communication and EX need to stop chasing polish and start reconnecting with people’s lived experience at work.
Just as the Arctic Monkeys captured something real and raw about their world, we believe the future of our profession depends on telling the truth about ours.
Listen in full (and explore the liner notes)
Each episode on the site includes:
Full show notes
Links to research, thinking and practical resources
Clear connections back to the ideas explored in the book
Whether you dip into individual episodes or listen straight through, there’s plenty here to pause, rewind and come back to.
Same message. On repeat. Until it sticks.
Some albums mark a moment. Some redefine a genre. Some arrive at exactly the right time.
We won’t claim The Stuck Record is the Whatever People Say I Am of internal communication — but we will say this:
The profession doesn’t need another single. It needs a body of work that says something real.
