The Lonely Chapter

What if the life you worked for no longer fits you? At 23, Yusef Smith worried it was already too late to start again. He left a career at BlackRock to study medicine, then later left the NHS to focus on Propane Fitness. In this episode of The Lonely Chapter, Dr Yusef Smith joins me to talk about changing careers, finding purpose and the expectations that shape our decisions before we've stopped t...

One bad moment can make you question everything. Confidence can take years to build, yet sometimes a single comment, mistake or setback is enough to make us doubt ourselves. So how do we rebuild that belief when it's been knocked? In this episode of The Lonely Chapter, I sit down with Joshua Paul, founder of Fit4Football, to explore what really builds confidence, why we lose it and how we can lear...

Working hard and still waiting for your chance? In the first 'On Reflection', I return to three moments from my conversations with Iain Dale, Martin Seager and Corrie Mustafa, bringing in my own experiences of ambition, listening and appreciating an achievement. Iain’s story of waiting to be noticed makes me reflect on asking for opportunities and taking more initiative with the podcast. An exchan...

What does it take to believe in yourself when you’ve grown up feeling like the problem? For Corrie Mustafa, a small sense of purpose began in the 24-hour gym opposite his temporary accommodation. Boxing brought routine, friendship and people who wanted him to do well. In this episode of The Lonely Chapter, Corrie joins Sam Maclean to reflect on growing up with ADHD, autism and Tourette’s, his expe...

Being told to talk isn’t the same as being heard. In this conversation, consultant clinical psychologist Martin Seager returns to The Lonely Chapter for episode 121. We explore masculinity, emotional wellbeing and the difference between encouraging someone to talk and helping them feel understood. From boys’ experiences at school to men’s groups and male-friendly therapy, we discuss listening, lon...

Some truths are hardest to tell the people we love. LBC presenter Iain Dale hears them on live radio. In this conversation with Sam on The Lonely Chapter, he reflects on the trust that leads callers to share things they have never told their partners, friends or families. We begin with Constance, a regular caller approaching her 102nd birthday, who wondered whether she would speak to him again. He...

Someone can look as though they’re coping while carrying pain other people don’t see. For Suicide Awareness Month, I’ve brought together moments from seven previous episodes of The Lonely Chapter about struggling privately, feeling heard, and what helped people through. Dr Susie Bennett begins by exploring the pressure some men feel to appear fine. Brandon Day shares the gap between outward succes...

Sometimes you can do everything right and still lose. You can prepare properly and still fail. Treat someone well and still be left. Work hard for an opportunity and receive no answer. So how do you live well when effort cannot guarantee the outcome? In this solo episode, Sam explores Stoicism as a practical philosophy for the moments when reality refuses to cooperate. Drawing on ideas from Epicte...

What does it really take to lead when you don’t know the right answer, and the consequences of getting it wrong are real? Dave Berke is a retired US Marine Corps fighter pilot, former TOPGUN instructor and ground combat leader who served in Ramadi alongside Jocko Willink and Leif Babin. Today, he is Chief Development Officer at Echelon Front and the author of The Need to Lead . In this conversatio...

Why can someone appear to be doing fine, stay busy and remain constantly connected—yet still feel that they belong nowhere? Christian d’Ippolito is the founder of The Spartan Project and former leader of Steel Warriors, an anti-knife-crime charity that transforms confiscated knives into outdoor community gyms. After almost two decades in media and marketing, Christian began applying what he knew a...

She looks happy. The grief is still there. Rosie Moss has built a beautiful life, raised three children she adores and created a career she loves. She is also still grieving the husband she lost eight and a half years ago. Both things are true. In this episode, Rosie explains the hidden duality of widowhood: the joy that people can find uncomfortable in the early days, the pain they stop noticing...

The business was working. Adam was running on empty. A year after leaving his dream job to become a founder, Adam Williams had built a thriving podcast studio... But behind the success were relentless hours, no proper break and a business that still depended on him giving everything. In Episode 114, Adam reveals the moment he realised that although the business was working, the way he was working...

Being the strong one made Jasper almost invisible. For nearly 30 years, Jasper Calcara built a successful structural engineering firm and became the person others trusted to handle any amount of pressure. But the more capable he appeared, the easier it became for everyone, including Jasper, to overlook what he was carrying. The sudden death of his business partner left him with grief he didn’t pro...

Sometimes real confidence is being secure enough to admit that you might be wrong. In this solo episode of The Lonely Chapter, Sam Maclean reflects on three ideas that have repeatedly surfaced in the conversations since Episode 100: Why confidence and certainty are not the same. Why complex human problems rarely have quick fixes. Why giving someone permission to talk doesn’t automatically make the...

War gave Liz purpose. Peace nearly took her life. Liz McConaghy spent 17 years flying on the RAF Chinook Fleet, completing deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan and serving on the Medical Emergency Response Team. Surrounded by people, purpose and teamwork, she learned to function in some of the most dangerous environments imaginable. But the chapter that nearly ended her life began after she left. F...

He looked fine, but he was falling apart. In this episode of The Lonely Chapter Podcast, Sam speaks with Jason Kubiak, a firefighter, former professional MMA fighter, father and co-founder of Unified Against Violence CIC. Jason opens up about the period of his life where everything started to collapse around him: divorce, operational trauma, not seeing his children, homelessness, self-medication,...

Most of us are looking for answers, but maybe what we need is better questions. In this solo episode of The Lonely Chapter, Sam Maclean reflects on the questions that have kept appearing across more than 100 honest conversations about identity, difficulty, purpose, personal growth and what it means to live well. Through personal stories, including leaving veganism after eight and a half years, wor...

What does real responsibility feel like? In this episode of The Lonely Chapter, I sit down with Jonathan Smith, the London Fire Commissioner, to talk about what it really means to lead the London Fire Brigade. Jonathan leads the largest fire and rescue service in England and Wales, but this conversation goes beyond the title. We talk about the pressure of responsibility, the loneliness of leadersh...

Some men look fine. They’re not. In this episode of The Lonely Chapter, I’m joined again by Dr Susie Bennett, a researcher whose work focuses on male suicide, men’s mental health, emotional suppression and the hidden pain many men carry. We explore why some men appear completely fine on the outside while struggling internally, how men learn to hide pain, and why emotional suppression can become da...

Firefighting teaches you what pressure reveals. In this solo episode of The Lonely Chapter, I reflect on 5 lessons firefighting taught me about life - and how those lessons connect to confidence, pressure, identity, mental health, emotional intelligence, and the conversations I’ve had on the podcast. Working in the fire service puts you around people on some of the hardest days of their lives. Ove...

What do you do when your dream life starts to feel like a nightmare? In this chapter, we sit down with Brandon Day to explore the "dark places" that high performance often hides. From winning National Championships and being featured in Sports Illustrated to waking up on a deflated air mattress in a shoebox condo, Brandon shares the raw reality of when success stops feeling sustainable. We dive de...

Sometimes the pain we avoid is trying to teach us. Chris from Conversations for the End joins Sam for a conversation about grief, suffering, addiction, Carl Jung, and what happens when the things we avoid begin to find their way back to us. After losing his brother in a car accident at fourteen, Chris spent years trying to outrun the grief through distraction, achievement, drugs, alcohol and diffe...

Not every tired man needs testosterone. The conversation around low testosterone has exploded. Online clinics, adverts, influencers and high-profile men are all talking about testosterone replacement therapy as if it could be the missing piece for men who feel tired, flat, foggy or disconnected. But is TRT being understood properly, or is a complex medical issue being sold as a quick fix? In this...

Two years into The Lonely Chapter, I don’t feel like I’ve figured life out, but I do think I’m asking better questions. In this solo episode, I reflect on what success really means when you’re building something that matters, how to grow without losing yourself, and why numbers are only one part of the story. I also talk about identity beyond work, titles and roles, the tension of using social med...

Some jobs change the way you see people. Eric Robinson spent 24 years as an FBI special agent, including 15 years in SWAT. Before joining the FBI, he spent years in Christian ministry - which gives this conversation a very different depth from the usual law enforcement interview. In this episode, we explore what high-risk work does to a person, what elite teams can teach us about accountability an...