Daniel Simpson, Researcher

Among other things, Daniel has worked as a ghost tour guide, a summer school teacher and a foreign correspondent for Reuters and the New York Times. He resigned from his last posting to organise a music festival on Big War Island in Belgrade. "Mired in what, from the outside, looked like true Balkan chaos," wrote a visiting BBC reporter, "the festival always looked as if it was on the brink of falling apart." After holding it together, just, he ran away to reinvent himself as a researcher, which forced him to read books instead of just mouthing off. He now juggles for a living and plans sustainable early retirement.

Watch Daniel & Franny discussing how to find a character representing the Iraqi war while the engineer fits Franny's solar panels.