Rest and Recreation

Exploring a user's guide to your life, with lessons from the life lived by Peter Samuelson. Peter Samuelson is a successful Oscar winning film producer and founder of seven not-for-profit organisations including the Starlight Children’s Foundation and First Star . Peter is also the author of Finding Happy. In this episode of Rest and Recreation, the work life balance podcast from Abeceder Peter de...

Sometimes the most difficult thing you can do is working out how to be you G Scott Graham is an author of more than 30 books, a career coach, business coach, and psychedelic support coach based in Boston, Massachusetts. Scott volunteers as an EMT instructor, firefighter, and Master Gardener in his community. Scott also runs a farm animal rescue centre. In this episode of Rest and Recreation, the w...

Me First Darling – a conversation with author Cheri Darling Meet Cheri Darling the author of Me First Darling A Sacred Guide to Healing, Boundaries, and Becoming Your Own Rescue. Cheri Darling is the hostess of the Ta Ta Darling, a one-of a kind wellness Airbnb nestled in the heart of Temecula Wine Country in California, USA. Cheri is also a military spouse, professional photographer, wellness adv...

Looking back on twelve months of Rest and Recreation Michael Millward the founder and managing director of Abeceder marks the first year as host of the Abeceder work life balance podcast Rest and Recreation. Find out more about Michael Millward at Abeceder.co.uk . Audience Offers – listings include links that may create a small commission for Rest and Recreation Travel – Holidays can play an impor...

A faith-based self-improvement book that defines four truths that can help us be successful, and the dangerous lie that can stop anyone from succeeding. By any standards Terry Tucker has had an extraordinary life. He has been a family carer, police hostage negotiator, and high school sports coach, amongst many other things. So, Terry was destined to deal with being diagnosed with a rare cancer in...

Children of immigrants can be caught between cultures, or they can embrace both and build a business that is inspired by their heritage. Wendy Jensen was a corporate executive who became an author , artist, and the founder of Scandinavian Hearts . What started as a passion for sharing her family’s Scandinavian traditions has grown into a business built on meaningful stories, handmade gifts, and cu...

Your hobbies and how you contribute to your community can shift—and that’s okay. It doesn’t have to stay the same every year (or even every month). Seasons change, and so do we. Gaby Estrada works in a start-up alongside working on her own business Poquillo as well. That coupled with volunteering in her community and a wide range of hobbies and fitness activities means that she is a busy person. I...

If you feel lonely more often than you feel connected to people, this episode of Rest and Recreation is for you. Surviving childhood abuse made Sharon Rolph crave invisibility. Later in life she realised that invisibility didn’t really suit her. In retirement Sharon Rolph discovered passions that led to her becoming a coach helping retired people enjoy a useful, seen and relevant life. In this epi...

Understanding how to sleep in a healthily Bart Henderson was set on a legal career, until he started looking at how he was contributing to society. The ensuing thought process resulted in him setting up the Agora Guild , a community for men that is built on kindness, strength and chivalry. In this episode of Rest and Recreation, the work life balance podcast from Abeceder Bart and host Michael Mil...

Sometime digital nomad Wendy Sellers reminisces about her travels in the USA and beyond. Find out how she did it. Where Wendy Sellers grew up, people weren’t really expected to travel. You went to school, you got a job, had a family and then the next generation repeated. All that changed when Wendy was working as an independent HR consultant and a friend invited her to go travelling. Now Wendy is...

A woman reflects humorously and insightfully on the coping strategies that helped her deal with the challenges of working in a male-dominated environment. Southern debutantes like Lauren Lusby Fernandez are not supposed to want a career in law enforcement, nevertheless she joined the US Secret Service . In her book Talkback Barbie Lauren describes the lessons others can learn from her experience....

Dog owners need to learn how to speak dog if they want to live happily with their dog. Drew Brashier is a professional dog trainer with Paw and Order in South Carolina USA. In this episode of Rest and Recreation, the work life balance podcast from Abeceder Drew explains to host Michael Millward how any dog owner can have a successful relationship with their dog and live happily together. Drew and...

Living the American dream led to burn out for Serban Mare, who then learnt how to recover from burn out. Serban Mare believes that achieving high performance at work should not result in someone losing their health or sacrificing their happiness. Serban was born in Romania and emigrated to the USA when he was 23 years old. Over the following ten years he lived the American dream until he stopped l...

Sharon Critchlow sold her share in the business she had helped to build. She could afford to stop working. This is what Sharon does now. Sharon Critchlow is an entrepreneur who sold her share of the business she had helped to grow. That sale meant that Sharon could have enjoyed a comfortable life, but sitting back is not Sharon’s style. In this episode of Rest and Recreation, the work life balance...

Focus on understanding and achieving the end goal Stephen Shortt is a career talent strategist who has developed the Happy Work Life Map . Stephen is on a mission to make the world a better place, with happy people in fulfilling, rewarding careers! An important part of having a happy career is being happy across every aspect of life. Stephen explains why he defines happiness in life as being makin...

God will never make you poor, if you give to the poor Dr Matee Rajput is the Surgical Director at KSL Clinic , and one of the leading hair transplant surgeons in the UK. Dr Matee is also, with his four brothers a founder of the SAMR Trust . a charity that was inspired by the way his father lived his life. In this episode of the Abeceder work life balance podcast Rest and Recreation Dr Matee explai...

Swapping Online Virtual Networks for Authentic Real World Connections Bradley Glantz is the founder of The Mighty Tribe , a community designed to help men understand masculinity and create the best version of themselves. At age 13 Bradley was diagnosed with depression. Over the following three years he sank into video games addiction. In this episode of the Abeceder work life balance podcast Rest...

Joe Deppe works in the automobile industry in Michigan USA. But spends his rest and recreation time with trains. Not a model railway, but exploring the rail system and recording the historical railroad infrastructure in the area that he lives in. In this episode of the Abeceder work life balance podcast Rest and Recreation Joe and  host Michael Millward discuss what Americans call rail fannin...

Jennifer Mullowney is a licensed clinical social worker with over 20 years of experience in the mental health field, and the founder of Crossroads Counselling Services . Jennifer has seen clients struggle with finding a work/life balance and seen them want to do nothing in their rest and recreation time, which can potentially make their problems worse. In this episode of the Abeceder work life bal...

The opportunity to be creative plays an important role in a child’s cognitive development. But in UK 3.7 million children live on or below the poverty line. That is about 30% of people aged under the age of 18. For those children art resources are often an unaffordable luxury. During the COVID lockdowns when schools were closed children continued their education at home. Completing the projects th...

Nate Mayes is an actor , artist , writer and producer who grew-up in Arkansas before moving to Hollywood to pursue his artistic ambitions. The Wall Street Times have described Nate as “gradually establishing himself as an up-and-coming talent in Hollywood”. In this episode of Rest and Recreation, the work life balance podcast from Abeceder Nate tells host Michael Millward about his varied work, hi...

Ricky Rebel was 11 years old when he joined No Authority a boy band that was signed by Michael Jackson until he sold the contract to Madonna . Now Ricky is a solo artist. To celebrate the launch of the tenth anniversary edition of his Blue Album Ricky meets Michael Millward for a chat on the Abeceder work life balance podcast Rest and Recreation. Ricky gives Michael an insight into his career , wh...

In July 2025 C.J. Shaman was described by the Wall Street Times as The Rock Outlaw Ready to Ignite the Music Scene. Journalist Nic Abelian described C.J. as being from the windswept deserts of Arizona to the neon lights of Las Vegas, C.J. Shaman has carved a path as a dynamic rock artist who fuses the raw energy of country rhythms with the electrifying pulse of rock ‘n’ roll. In this episode of th...

Madhur-Nain Webster is a licenced Marriage and Family therapist , and accomplished author. In this episode of the Abeceder work life balance podcast Rest and Recreation Madhur-Nain discusses her latest book Beyond the Pain with host Michael Millward . Many people structure to cope with the pain that is created by negative experiences like separation, divorce, bereavement, job loss. Each person dea...

Dr Kyle Elliott is the founder of Caffeinated Kyle a career coaching company focused on the sort of executives that work in places like Silicon Valley.. Kyle offers trauma-informed career coaching, interview coaching, and executive coaching for senior managers, executives, and C-suite leaders in technology companies. You will find his clients working at Meta, Amazon, Google, and nearly every other...