On The Horizon

Chris Roberts and Rob Evans are a graphic designer and photographer respectively. Together they have created the remarkable With Love Project which is part hobby and part commercial enterprise. They have travelled the length and breadth of Britain to create two wonderful crowd-funded books that chronicle the heritage makers that so inspire them. Charlie, Chris and Rob sat down around a smoky campf...

The Young Enterpeneurs features chats with three people who have started businesses in their twenties. None of them know if what they are doing will work financially, but they feel certain that they are doing something right with their lives. Charlie speaks with them about the hard work, the pain, the joy, the money, what their parents and friends think and what they want to achieve. This is a rel...

Thomasina Miers is a powerhouse; she's the founder of the Wahaca group of restaurants, an author, Masterchef winner, Guardian columnist, mother of three and tireless champion of sustainability. But nothing came quickly or easily to Thomasina. Charlie and Tommi talk about her childhood, her long and sometimes torturous journey to success, her brief foray into the world of finance and loads more.

Johnnie Boden founded his eponymous company in 1991 and has since worked tirelessly and with massive passion to turn it into a world-beating clothing brand. Charlie and Johnnie talk about hard work, life/work balance, design, family, music, corporate culture, sacrifice and fun. This chat is at once educational and inspiring.

Mark Shayler is a true maverick. His day job is helping companies to save money by focusing on the environment. But Mark has a huge amount more going on and Charlie and Mark talk about wanting to be liked, about kindness, charisma, Mark's book Do/Disrupt, his work as a founding partner of The Do Lectures as well as about being vegan, family and about growing up in Coventry and Australia. There's a...

Olia Hercules' first book Mamushka was a worldwide best seller and is loved by chefs, food writers and home cooks alike. Olia grew up in Ukraine and her love of cooking is intimately bound to her love for her family and the long meals they shared at home. Charlie and Olia talk about her childhood, her radical career change, her time in professional kitchens, her books, her family, about growing up...

Dan Kieran believes he has discovered the future of publishing. And he may well be right. As the CEO of Unbound he is changing the way books are brought to readers and in the process he is creating a large and dynamic company that produces wonderful books. Dan has also written a number of best sellers including the brilliant Crap Towns. Charlie and Dan talk about Dan's career, his agoraphobia, his...

Vivienne Rickman Poole is an artist, educator and wild swimmer. She swims almost every day, mainly in remote lakes in her native Wales but also in various remote (and dangerous) locations across the world and uses her experiences to create art, often by using her Heath Robinson style camera holder. Charlie and Viv talk swimming, death, art, extreme cold, danger and loads more. And Viv reveals exci...

James Sills -inspirational choir master, folk musician and teacher- chats with Charlie about his work with community choirs, the healing power of singing, his travels to create records with his folk bands and The Good Life Experience. James even sings a song (with 'help' from Charlie). Since recording this, James has launched his own podcast called Sing, Sing, Sing.

Charlie and Michael Townsend Williams chat about how personal tragedy encouraged Michael to change his life (from a stressed, fast-burning-out, alcoholic advertising executive) and become a breathing and yoga guru. They talk about the way that Michael trains people to be more productive and happier by slowing down and focusing on themselves. On this journey Michael has written the best-selling boo...

Kirstie Allsopp's top tips, a live song and more recommendations from some of this year's guests. Happy Christmas.

The best things of 2017 as recommended by Harry Enfield, Cerys Matthews and others. Books, music, places and much more...Charlie talks about the best things of the year as suggested by some of his podcast guests. And there's even a couple of minutes of Slade.

Old friends Charlie Gladstone and Giles Andreae talk about Giles' remarkable career. Giles has created characters including Purple Ronnie and Edward Monkton and sold millions of children's books. For a long time he was also Europe's best-selling poet. But that's not all; he has also suffered from two bouts of cancer and some appalling depression. He's a true optimist, a fearless creator and a keen...

Charlie Gladstone speaks with Miranda West, the founder of Do Books and Works In Progress Publishing. Miranda has taken a simple idea -to publish 'How To' books by people who have spoken at the world renowned Do Lectures- and turned it into a successful and highly original business. Do books are special; they are beautifully designed and(unlike many 'How To' books) full of worthwhile stuff. This i...

Charlie Gladstone speaks with Australian chef, writer, restauranteur and television personality Bill Granger. Bill has been described as 'the Australian Jamie Oliver' and has a growing chain of restaurants across the globe, has published 8 books and appeared in several of his own TV shows. You get the idea! Bill is a whirlwind of energy and creativity. They talk about all of this and much more, to...

Charlie Gladstone speaks with Will Hudson and Alex Bec who are the founders of two of London's top creative agencies, It's Nice That and Anyways. Alex and Will met at university and what started as a passion project has now become a significant concern. Recently they launched a new venture -Lecture in Progress- that aims to demystify the creative industry for students and those considering a caree...

Charlie Gladstone speaks with his old friend and Good Life Experience co-founder Steve 'Abbo' Abbott. Abbo started his life in music over 35 years ago as a founding member of influential punk band UK Decay and now manages some of the world's leading classical musicians including Max Richter and Lang Lang. Along the way Steve has married Cerys Matthews, worked with Jeff Buckley, spent nearly a deca...

Charlie Gladstone talks to former Deputy Prime Minister and Leader of the Liberal Democrats about Brexit and in particular, how to stop it. They investigate life in Downing Street and chat about stress, the (unpleasant) power of the right wing press, family, music, being human and lots more.

Charlie Gladstone speaks with television superstar, author, crafter, 'national treasure' and true maverick Kirstie Allsopp. They talk about Kirstie's early career, her subsequent work, the importance of family, the impact (both good and bad)of social media, the magic of craft, friendship, celebrity, energy levels and who wears the trousers at home.

Charlie Gladstone speaks with Paul McNamee, national editor of The Big Issue and twice voted Editor of the Year. They talk about the changes Paul has made to his internationally known title and about the challenges and excitement of keeping an important publication fresh as well as about magazines generally and -inevitably- loads of other things.

Charlie Gladstone speaks with maverick member of the church and libertarian Peter Francis who currently runs Gladstone's Library, a centre of liberal thought and Britain's only residential library. They talk about Peter's long campaign for women's rights in the church, about his current work and about film, family and books.

Charlie Gladstone speaks with his friend and festival co founder Cerys Matthews in front of several hundred people at The Good Life Experience 2017. The talk musical children, talent, radio, success, family and the audience join them in a sing-along.

Charlie Gladstone talks with Jim Estill, a successful and truly maverick man who has donated 1.5 million dollars of his own money to rehouse Syrian refugees in his hometown in Canada. What started as a quiet attempt to make a difference to a massive humanitarian crisis has -it seems- become all-consuming for him, his family and 800 volunteers.

Charlie Gladstone speaks with Professor Gavin Screaton -Dean of The Faculty of Medicine at Imperial College London (and soon to move to head the Department of Medicine at Oxford University)- about his mission to eliminate dengue fever, a disease that infects 400 million people each year. They also talk business, cycling and collecting eccentric tools.

This is a Mavericks Podcast Special. It's the second batch of recordings that I made at The DO Lectures in West Wales in July 2017 and includes chats with DO Lectures founder and environmentalist Andy Middleton, author, baker and all round good guy Tom Herbert and finally Instagrammer and musician Ella Grace Denton.