Hand Baggage Only

Have you ever moved away from the place you used to call home? Did your friendships move with you? What was it like making new connections? What helps you to feel like you connect and belong? Is it a sense of shared history you have with your friends? Maybe it’s your shared values or beliefs.   In this episode of Hand Baggage Only, host Suzette Shahmoon, is joined by Dr Tal Ben Shahar. A Doctor of...

In this episode of Hand Baggage Only, host Suzette Shahmoon speaks to Natalie Silverman, Founder of the Fertility Podcast, the UK's first podcast dedicated to the topic, and co-founder of Fertility Matters at Work, who provides training and policy guidance for organisations to better support people dealing with family building challenges. Natalie joined Suzette in the studio to chat about her own...

In this episode of Hand Baggage Only, host Suzette Shahmoon speaks exclusively to actor and model, David Gant about his experience of being in hospital and the importance of friendships. Recorded in the Medicinema at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London, we get to hear how this amazing facility brings so many of the hospital's inpatients an escape from their reality and a real opportunit...

In this special episode of Hand Baggage Only, host Suzette Shahmoon speaks exclusively to Lord Bird, Founder of the Big Issue, about how friendship is affected by homelessness. We get to hear about Lord Bird's own experience of homelessness, how he spent time as a child in an orphanage, then a detention center, and eventually prison and how it affected him socially. He tells us what led him to lau...

In this sixth episode of Hand Baggage Only, host Suzette Shahmoon speaks to her youngest daughter Gabriella. Suzette asks her daughter about the experience she had as an introvert trying to make lasting friendships in her first year of university. Why don't people talk about this topic more? Is it normal to feel left out of the 'university experience'?  Gabbi ended up dropping out of University an...

In the fifth episode of Hand Baggage Only, host Suzette Shahmoon speaks to James Page, an internationally renowned interior designer and close personal friend. They explore the complicated situation of what happens to our relationships when we share a secret about ourselves, specifically focusing on James' journey of coming out as gay and what it's like to share something so deeply personal about...

In the third episode of Hand Baggage Only, host Suzette Shahmoon speaks to Aviva Elias; entrepreneur and founder of the Grey Icon movement.  They talk about Aviva's fearlessness when dealing with difficult situations, and their opinions on what to do if you think a friendship might not be working anymore. Perhaps we could all do with taking a step back from time to time. 

In the second episode of Hand Baggage Only, psychologist and cognitive hypnotherapist, Suzette Shahmoon, talks to Oliver Baum, a Psycho-Spiritual Therapist and Systemic Facilitator.   They discussed the complicated situation of what happens to our friendships when we suddenly find ourselves single again. What if your partner was the one in control of the social diary? Is it inevitable that friends...

In the first episode of Hand Baggage Only, psychologist and cognitive hypnotherapist, Suzette Shahmoon, talks online to Dr. Deborah Egerton, an internationally respected best-selling author who works in inclusion, diversity and equity, and is an anti-racism consultant, and spiritual teacher. Suzette spoke to Deborah to explore friendships across cultural division. They discussed why having people...

Our experiences shape us. So many of our interactions make us form beliefs about our self and the world we live in. That moment when you put up your hand in class to answer a question only to get it wrong and face the humiliation of a class full of snickering, can leave you questioning your intelligence for decades to come. Each time you are put on the spot to speak up in public or make your thoug...