Mind the Gap

Twenty-six years ago, a voice was recorded in a studio in Manchester. Two takes. The first was used. The second was a safety copy. Nobody thought it would matter. That voice now tells millions of people to mind the gap. Every day. Several thousand times. And still, people fall in the gap. In this Season 5 opener, Michael Comyn returns to the recording studio, to the moment a four-word warning was...

Sometimes the most intelligent thing in the room is the thing left unsaid. We had a friend called Bob. When someone was being foolish — not malicious, just foolish — Bob wouldn't argue, correct, or sigh. He would go quiet. And in that quiet, the person speaking would hear themselves. Really hear themselves. Be more Bob. In this season finale of Mind the Gap, Michael Comyn explores silence not as a...

There’s a railway station in Ireland that exists for one purpose only, not to arrive, not to stay, but to move on. In this episode of Mind the Gap , Michael Comyn explores a moment that many of us recognise but rarely name. The point at which learning has done its job. The point at which guidance, coaching, or even a philosophy has taken us as far as it can. Drawing on the teachings of Epictetus a...

We’ve all met them. The person who can hold the floor without drawing breath. The one who doesn’t quite notice when someone else is trying to speak. The conversation that somehow becomes… one-sided. In this episode of Mind the Gap , Michael Comyn takes a thoughtful and quietly humorous look at what it really means to be “a bore.” Taking inspiration from a line in Dancing Queen by ABBA, “I’m nothin...

You walk into a café. The coffee is perfect. The service is efficient. And not once does anyone look at you. This episode starts with that small absence — and follows it somewhere unexpected. Through the emotional labour of public-facing work, the quiet logic of the screen, and the generational shift in what an interaction is even supposed to contain. Eye contact is not a nicety. It never was. And...

Before offering advice, ask a quieter question “You know what you should do.” Five familiar words, usually offered with kindness, sometimes with genuine care. Yet when we hear them, something small inside us can quietly deflate. In this episode of Mind the Gap , Michael Comyn reflects on the hidden tension inside unsolicited advice. When someone brings us a problem, are they really asking for a s...

In this episode of Mind the Gap , Michael Comyn explores a quiet but uncomfortable question. Is it acceptable to feel content while the world around us seems unsettled? With images of war, political unrest, and global tension constantly appearing in our news feeds, many people feel a subtle sense of guilt when moments of calm arise in their own lives. Does feeling steady mean we are disengaged? Or...

Mind the Age Gap | Retirement Age, Identity and the Psychology of Ageing What does retirement age really mean in modern life? In this episode of Mind the Gap , Michael Comyn explores the idea of the “age gap” — the gap between chronological age and how we actually experience ourselves. The reflection begins with a moment in a bank: an older couple being gently coached through online banking. They...

This week, during a leadership course, a participant shared a line from her father that stopped the room: “Whatever the mistake, it’s the lie afterwards that hurts more.” In this episode of Mind the Gap , Michael explores why that simple sentence holds up across high-trust professions and high-pressure environments. From medical errors in hospital settings to cockpit decision-making in aviation, f...

Here’s the thing. Most of us spend our lives editing ourselves in real time. Softening opinions. Swallowing reactions. Running everything through an internal risk assessment before it ever reaches our mouth. And then, occasionally, we meet someone who doesn’t do that. This episode was sparked by conversations with people on the autism spectrum, and by watching The Assembly . What struck me wasn’t...

How do people really heal? Not through dramatic breakthroughs, but through small, ordinary moments. In this episode, Michael Comyn reflects on personal recovery from a recent experience of gossip and intrusion, and explores how humans heal through connection, routine, purpose, and everyday emotional intelligence. A gentle, optimistic reflection on resilience, wellbeing, and the quiet work of becom...

In this episode of Mind the Gap , Michael Comyn returns to Stoic philosophy to address how Stoicism is being simplified and misused in some online spaces, particularly where grievance, emotional shutdown, and contempt are mistaken for strength. Drawing on the original teachings of Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, Seneca, and Musonius Rufus, Michael reclaims Stoicism as a philosophy of self-governance,...

Why do so many people feel exhausted even when nothing obvious is wrong? In this opening episode of Season 4 of Mind the Gap , Michael Comyn explores what it means to live in permanent alert mode, a state of constant urgency driven by 24-hour news cycles, notifications, and global uncertainty. This episode looks at how the human nervous system reacts to modern life, why being informed is not the s...

In this special December episode of Mind the Gap, Michael reflects on the emotional landscape of the holiday season. For many, December is joyful and full of celebration. For others, it carries sadness, memory, and the quiet ache of missing someone who was here last year but is not here this year. Both experiences deserve space. Through the simple ritual of putting up and taking down decorations,...

In this episode of Mind the Gap, Michael reflects on a small moment in a bank queue that reveals a much larger shift in how we connect. As more organisations encourage us to use apps and digital services instead of speaking to real people, something subtle is happening beneath the surface. Drawing on recent research from almost seventeen thousand young adults, a global dataset of twenty-eight thou...

In this episode of Mind the Gap, Michael explores how the stories others place on us can quietly shape the direction of our lives. A simple comment, a casual label, or a reputation formed years ago can become a route we follow without ever stopping to question whether it was ours to begin with. Using the quiet landscape of Limerick Junction as a metaphor for moments of choice, Michael reflects on...

In this episode of Mind the Gap, Michael explores the hidden layers of communication that sit beneath the words we speak. Tone, timing, silence and posture often tell the true story long before language ever arrives. Drawing inspiration from the first chapter of his upcoming book Between the Lines , Michael invites us to notice the subtle signals that shape our conversations and influence our rela...

We’ve all done it — assumed the worst about someone else’s actions. The colleague who doesn’t reply, the driver who cuts across, the friend who forgets. It’s easy to think they meant to hurt or ignore us. But what if most of it isn’t personal at all? This week, Michael Comyn explores Hanlon’s Razor , the simple rule that reminds us not to attribute to malice what can be explained by misunderstandi...

There is a moment on every journey when the light fades and the world outside disappears. The train slips into a tunnel, and for a few seconds, it feels as if everything has stopped. Yet even in the dark, the train keeps moving. In this episode of Mind the Gap , Michael Comyn delves into the quiet power of limiting beliefs, those inner convictions that tell us what we cannot do or who we cannot be...

In this episode of Mind the Gap , Michael Comyn continues the journey through his book The Next Station Is… — turning from the tickets we carry to the masks we wear. At any given moment, each of us plays a role: the Hero chasing the next challenge, the Caregiver holding everything together, the Ruler keeping control, or the Seeker searching for something just beyond reach. Drawing on Carl Jung’s c...

In the opening episode of Season 3, Michael Comyn introduces The Next Station Is… — a new season of Mind the Gap inspired by his latest book. Standing on a railway platform one winter morning, Michael reflects on how so many of us travel through life on tickets written long before we learn to choose our own destinations. Drawing on the work of psychiatrist Eric Berne and the Stoic wisdom of Epicte...

Why do so many people start their working lives with energy and enthusiasm, only to end up doing the bare minimum? Cabin crew once said they loved meeting people. Nurses spoke of healing. Teachers dreamed of inspiring. Yet, years later, many are drained, disengaged, and doing what appears to be half-hearted work. In this episode of Echoes from the Margin , Michael Comyn asks what really happened....

Even the sharpest minds can be fooled — not because we are careless, but because con artists know how to pull the emotional levers that make us human. In this episode of Mind the Gap , Michael explores how scams old and new trick us into lowering our guard, from the classic infomercials that promised six-packs in six weeks to today’s deepfakes that use familiar faces and voices to convince us to c...

In a world that demands you choose sides, what happens when you no longer recognise the middle ground? In this month’s Echoes from the Margins , the monthly companion to Mind the Gap (now in its second season), Michael Comyn reflects on life when the centre no longer holds — in politics, in community, and within ourselves. From Yeats’ haunting words to ancient Chinese philosophy, from Arabic wisdo...

Betrayal cuts deep, whether it’s a colleague taking credit for your work, a promised promotion that never arrives, or the quiet exclusion from a team. Inspired by the hit television series The Traitors , this episode of Mind the Gap explores how we respond when trust is broken. Michael Comyn unpacks the sting of betrayal in both personal and professional life, weaving together insights from philos...