Crossing The Pond

Imposter syndrome is a constant thread, but it doesn’t get the final say. This week Gary talks about shaking it off, why you should always take on the thing you’re a little unsure of, and what 31 days on a static bike for Prostate United Challenge ‘26 taught him about facing everything else life throws at us. Everyone has a pond they’ve had to cross. #crossingthepondpodcast Music licensed through...

One day after signing for a football club in England, Matt Hodge’s leg was broken in half. And he never played football again. From there came a summer camp in America, two years in New Zealand, a PE classroom in Liverpool and eventually a one-way ticket out with his partner Beth. Now he’s on the Sunshine Coast of Australia, under the guise of @WheresHodgie. Talking about young men’s mental health...

Gary's guest this week was born on a plane somewhere over New Orleans, and his life hasn’t really touched down since. Chef Karl Wilder has dubbed films he’d rather not name. He spent three years in Italian kitchens because of a misunderstanding over a risotto, cooked for Barbara Walters without ever meaning to become a caterer, and won Chef of the Year in New Orleans off the back of a nudist weddi...

Ever kept quiet about what you’re carrying because everyone’s got their own battles? This week Gary talks about the guilt of leaning on people, and why it isn’t your call to decide whether someone wants to listen. Put it to them. If you feel strong enough to speak, speak. Plus: why you should never overlook anyone, a look ahead to next week’s episode with Chef Karl Wilder, and a reminder to stop a...

Shaun Burke started out in hotel management with football just a hobby. Until an advert for a coaching job in America changed the whole direction of his life. His time in the US taught him how to coach players how to people from a completely different football culture and the idea this could actually be a career, instead of a passion on the side. Shaun now works for the FA’s Football Foundation an...

Bethany Payet was head of the art department in a UK school, saying yes to everything until she was close to burning out completely. In 2025 she handed in her notice, spent one summer testing whether she could make it as an artist, and then left the UK with her partner Matt to travel for 8 months through Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand and Bali. In Thailand, an idea to try painting a mural...

This time Gary is on the other side of the mic. Joining Brad Garoon and Jake Ziegler on the Never Did It Podcast to talk about two British films from the 80s: Withnail and I and The Long Good Friday . One is a boozy, bleak and brilliantly funny story of two out-of-work actors fleeing London for a countryside "holiday" that goes horribly wrong. The other is Bob Hoskins at his absolute bes...

This week on The Monday Mood, Gary talks through two conversations that stuck with him, both with people fighting something hard with no way around it. From there, a look at fortitude, why "how are you" so often gets an answer nobody means, and what he's started calling life therapy, the plain, everyday version of getting something off your chest with someone who'll actually list...

We welcome back a previous CTP guest, Ross Burbeary, to the show this week. Co-founder of the 'Prostate United' challenge back in 2018. A month-long challenge born out of personal loss that's since grown into one of the biggest grassroots fundraisers in English football. Eight years on, with clubs, staff, and fans across the country lacing up every October, Ross joins me for a catch-up...

This week's guest was born in Wales, deliberately, so he could one day pull on a red shirt and play rugby for his country. That's the first decision someone else ever made for him. Everything after that has been his own. Matt Evans first caught the bug for the US during a summer project as an 18-year-old. Upon his return to Wales, he always had one eye on a getting back to the US, eventual...

3 weeks back from the UK and still catching up with himself, Gary opens this week's Monday Mood with the whiplash of coming home twice. Why the people who seem to hold everyone else together are so often the ones who need it most, the male loneliness numbers that don't get talked about enough, and what's actually being lost as pub culture fades out of everyday life. Plus: Crossing the...

Gary's guest this week is Marysue Moses, a dementia educator, consultant, and former memory care coordinator who’s spent years helping caregivers and professionals create richer, more human connections with people living with dementia. Long before any of that, she was a theatre kid, trained in London, and later working with Minneapolis’s Illusion Theater, co-founded Theatre at Work. Until her own...

She built a home for other people before she'd fully found one herself. Leeds → London → six years in Ho Chi Minh City → New Jersey, starting again from scratch. No easy Brit community waiting for her when she landed, so she built one. That's Brits of NJ. This week on Crossing the Pond, I sit down with founder Katie Hoang to talk about the moves that shaped her, the loneliness that sparked...

This week’s Monday Mood reflects on a two-week trip back to England.-Starting with the 18-year-old choosing a Pinewood internship over the ‘traditional’ path everyone expected. -Sweating through a summer I was absolutely not prepared for. 20 odd years and the people who kept the thread alive through all of it. -The importance of being in the right place at the right time. -A birthday in Ireland wh...

This week on Crossing the Pond, I'm joined by Macarena Tracey, who left Chile as a young girl after her father pioneered a life in the US for his family Macarena spent over twenty years in the fashion industry until recently, when she made a choice to step back from the spotlight and start a quieter chapter in upstate New York. We talk about all the facets of the fashion world, finding communi...

In this Monday Mood, we reflect on what World Cup '26 has done to the people who travelled here for it. He talks about the England supporters who flooded the streets of New York and New Jersey in numbers he wasn't prepared for. About what seeing them did to him, someone who hasn't called England home in over two decades but never stopped carrying it. About the communities that were alr...

This week, we've got a guest whose pond took him from small-town on the east coast of the US all the way to the bright lights of LA  Cliff Beach .stepped out of his comfort zone before he even knew what a comfort zone was, trading everything familiar for a shot at something bigger. Leading to a career in Music, Public Speaking and authoring his 3-book series, Hustle & Flow Cliff speaks abo...

This week on  Crossing the Pond , we're joined by Andrew Broadbent, whose journey began in England before taking a leap of faith to the United States in the mid-1990s What started as a young coach chasing an opportunity abroad evolved into a career of leadership, as Andrew went on to become a Regional Manager with UK Elite Soccer (now Steel Sports) helping guide and support thousands of young coac...

Twenty-three years in America. No cake. No big post. Just a quiet Tuesday and a number that made me stop. This week's Monday Mood is four things that all landed in the same week and somehow won't stop talking to each other in my head. *Asking for help and why it took this long to get comfortable with it.*Breaking habits that served you once but maybe don't anymore.*Why being kind without agenda is...

My guest this week is James St uart , a guy who literally crossed the pond as a youngster when his parents brought a little piece of England to Florida in the shape of a proper English pub. From those early roots, James went on to cut his teeth in NYC's restaurant scene before helping open some of Manhattan's most iconic restaurants and hotels. Now living in Miami with his wife and two children, h...

What does luxury really mean? For Mike Pearson, a man who has built a career in the world of luxury watches, the answer goes far beyond the industry. In this episode, Gary and Mike explore the quieter luxuries: supportive parents, a career that opened unexpected doors, a life shaped by travel, and a family to come home to. A warm, honest conversation about recognising the good in your life and not...

What if the most powerful thing you did this week took just five minutes? Over the last two weeks, Pat McCarry and Regsan Watkins both said something that stopped me in my tracks. Both of them spoke about receiving messages from people they hadn't heard from in years, people telling them they'd made a difference. And both of them said the same thing: they never would have known. That's the thing a...

This week on Crossing the Pond , we're joined by Regsan Watkins, whose journey began in Melbourne, Australia, and led him halfway around the world to pursue the dream of playing college soccer in the United States. We explore the international recruiting process, what it takes to leave home as a young student-athlete, and the challenges of adapting to a new country, culture, and education system....

We welcome Pat McCarry to the show this week. An educator, coach, and leadership mentor whose career has taken him from the classrooms of Wales and England to coaching and curriculum development roles across the globe. After training  at Loughborough University, Pat has spent decades working in education, teacher development, elite coaching, and executive leadership. His journey has included desig...

Sometimes the most powerful place you can stand is in front of a blank canvas with nothing on it yet. This week on Monday Mood, Gary reflects on one of the most underrated feelings in the world, the clean slate. No history, no baggage, no fixed idea of what you're capable of. Just you, and the question of what the first stroke is going to be. Whether you've just crossed a pond, changed direction,...