Evolving Door

Shikha Uberoi is an amazing person. She excelled at professional tennis (top 100 in the world, No.1 in India), went into TV and then Tech, and has done it all with such a great sense of purpose. She is one of five sisters and her parents (especially her father) gave them tremendous self-belief that they really could do anything, and that there was no limit. They have each gone on to achieve amazin...

Namarasa Das's parents became Hare Krishna when he was one year old. His dad got really into it and his mum was very unsure, especially since she saw it as a threat to stable family life. He grew up part of a spiritual community on weekends and a typical American high school kid Monday to Friday. He started to have doubts about his faith and needed to figure it out for himself so he embarked on a...

I so loved talking with Jacquline, it filled me with inspiration and hope and brought a few tears to my eyes. I hope it will do the same for you. We recorded this conversation a few years back and with the release of my documentary 'A Girl Can Touch The Sky' the podcast episode got delayed. I am delighted to be able to release it now in time for International Women's Day 2023.  Jacquline is a...

I loved the BAFTA award-winning show The Revolution Will Be Televised so much, with its cutting satire and hilarious pranks tackling serious issues it was the perfect combination of silly and serious all in one. It was a pleasure to chat with Heydon Prowse who along with Jolyon Rubenstein (E2) were the stars of the show as well as the writers too. Hear how Heydon along with Joe Wade were already c...

Jaz O'Hara is the amazing Founder of The Worldwide Tribe and Host of the Asylum Speakers podcast. Moved by the refugee crisis in the Calais Jungle, she shared a post on social media and woke up in the morning to 65,000 shares and so many messages.  It started her journey to better understand the issues facing Asylum seekers and for many years now she has been sharing stories and advocating fo...

See Rimi's work at https://www.minuvida.com https://www.rootsilience.com 02.37- When Rimi was 15 her parents got divorced, and she was calling for attention in all the wrong ways 5.38 - Her mother made it her mission to make Rimi's childhood different to her own in India. Both her parents really supported her education. 7.58- Her father remarried an African American woman and they visited India, h...

Bobby Friction is a larger-than-life character, a Radio1 DJ, and a supporter of young people coming up in the creative industries. In this episode, we dive deep, buckle up, and enjoy the ride. 2.28- Bobby was doing an art degree channeling his inner rage about racism, by the time he’d gone to university he had survived an anti-Sikh genocide, and experienced the raw racism of the seventies. 4.45- F...

In this final part of this epic conversation we dive deep into the lived experience of the family. They share what it was like when Malala was shot, to suddenly find themselves in another country and how it impacted on Khushal and his relationship with his dad. There are some wonderfully funny moments towards the end which I hope will bring some joy to your soul. Enjoy. 0.50 - Why are the Taliban...

In part two of this epic conversation, we cover the importance of dreaming for a better future and overcoming small-minded thinking. 2.00 - The first person you have to fight with is yourself and your current way of thinking. 4.45 - I find great shelter in my wife's support and advice 6.30 - The current framework or culture sets the standard of what is expected. Then it is a war of nerves on who p...

Zia Yousafzai is Malala Yousafzai's father and Khushal is her brother. Malala is the amazingly brave and powerful young woman that was shot by the Taliban for speaking out for the right of girls to go to school.  In this powerful conversation, Zia and Khushal share what it was like growing up in Pakistan and the cultural challenges they faced even before Malala was born and subsequently after...

Jon Miller is super-intelligent and super eclectic. Maybe that is why I find him so interesting. In part two we discuss his time at various big agencies and how his work with the biggest companies in the world changed his perspective on how social impact could be developed.  He realised a lot of the big issues business is dealing with are also social issues, and was excited by the idea that b...

Jon Miller is a super intelligent guy and also super eclectic. Maybe that is why I found him so interesting. From growing up between the countryside and the city, to his interest in psychedelics and philosophy, to his dot.com boom and bust experience. Jon experienced a double bereavement which hit him hard, he began a period of intense travel and work and got into yoga which has become a daily pra...

This is the first in the mini-series brought to you by the Road to Vrindavan documentary feature film which examines the importance of education for girls in India & the insight needed for tradition to be applied in ways that uplift rather than oppress. You can watch the film by checking for screenings at www.roadtovrindavan.com (UK Premiere is on right now from March 31st to April 5th and can...

I have just released the feature Documentary Road to Vrindavan after 4 years of working on it. It's set on an epic 1800km road-trip along the west coast of India in a convoy of tuk-tuks and examines the importance of education for girls and the insight needed for tradition to be applied in ways that uplift rather than oppress. I am interrupting series one to bring you this mini-series of interview...

Join Jean Griesser (spiritual name Visakha Devi Dasi) and I for part two of this conversation to discover how she overcame the discrimination she experienced as a woman and how she gradually became more and more involved in her spiritual practices through her association and loving experiences with her spiritual teacher Srila Prabhupada. She shares how she overcame her skepticism and found a deepe...

Jean Griesser (spiritual name Visakha Devi Dasi) is the first female temple president of Bhaktivedanta Manor, a beautiful period house in the Watford countryside given by George Harrison of the Beatles to the Hare Krishna people in the 70's. Join us for this wonderful conversation where we hear from jean about growing up in America in the '60s, how she felt like an outsider growing up, about her p...

In this second part of our conversation Mat shares how ignoring the signals and what his body was telling him led to a breakdown.  What you will see when you follow Mat on Instagram @matwakeham is a man who is working through and doing well, a man who is learning from what's come before and sharing his lived experience which I have found really valuable.  A lot of his work now is about i...

In this episode I speak with Mat Wakeham about his life growing up in a household in flux, his passion for art, getting into TV and Film, and helping with the graphics and website for the music group 'The Gorillaz'. He shares that drugs, alcohol, and party life were constant companions throughout much of his life and how a perfectionist streak and the pressure to develop the perfect manly physique...

Sarah shares what it was like living on a canal boat for 10 years during the time she and her husband Chris had their son Jay and developing her career in teaching. At 18 she found her voice to speak out against things she had felt were wring since the age of 6 but didn't know how to express at that age. Her expression sometimes came in the form of anger.  This led Sarah to try and understand...

Sarah Fletcher: Sarah is a life long educator, an ex secondary school headteacher, and now oversees a group of schools. We talk about growing up in the '80s in an army town in the midst of a council estate and the violence of the era and how it shaped her. Her interest in art, literature, and surrealism has helped her consider life in a nuanced way from different perspectives. The thread that runs...

Jay really stepped into his own when he recognised what value he offered to people's lives - synthesizing science, psychology and wisdom and explaining it in a simple way so everyone can benefit from it. We briefly take a look at the structure of the book and some of the sections and Jay shares how much he has put into it so that people can make progress to thinking like a monk without having to g...

Jay shares having to 'let go' to become a monk and again having to 'let go' to stop being a monk and how of the two stopping was much harder. We talk about the difficulty of re-adjusting to normal life after being a monk and how Jay realised what he had learnt as a monk was even more relevant and important to his life in the world. Jay shares some of the key breakthroughs in becoming who he is tod...

Sima shares how her near-death experience impacted her and her work going forwards. She explains how when we open our hearts to others we can always find the connection. This is illustrated through the stories she has documented as a filmmaker from tower blocks of flats in Birmingham to the Suffragette movement to classical ballet with a troupe of disables dancers.  Being a mum has been a cha...

Sima brings us on the inside of what it was like growing up in Blackburn as one of few Indian kids, learning to integrate but also knowing you were different. Finding herself and her voice leads her to set off on a bicycle around Thailand, Vietnam and Laos without telling her parents.  She finds herself on the side of a mountain with a machete in her face and no clear way out.

In part two Jolyon shares how Dick Cheney got away but that Sasha Baron Cohen managed to get him later. He also reveals how repressed trauma from filming in character and not being able to help people who asked for his help has shifted his efforts to talking more directly about issues including Black Lives Matter. He talks about winning the BAFTA, self-care, and a move towards scripted drama.