Slay Your Dragons - Malcolm Stern

Send us Fan Mail A five-year-old watching her parents shout and thinking “it doesn’t have to be like this” can grow into an adult who makes conflict resolution her life’s work. That’s where our conversation with Anna begins, and it quickly deepens into the realities that shaped her: divorce, a mother leaving at a pivotal age, sexual abuse, and the survival choices children make when the system aro...

Send us Fan Mail Someone asks, “Do you have children?” and suddenly you are standing at a crossroads between politeness and truth. That is where this conversation begins: a party, two strangers, and the quiet moment when we both admit our children took their own lives. My guest, Claire Greenland, speaks with disarming clarity about suicide bereavement, child loss, and what it takes to stay human w...

Send us Fan Mail Spiritual awakening is often marketed as a constant high, but what happens when it feels more like an unravelling? I sit down with mentor Joanna Long to talk about awakening as the unconscious becoming conscious, the body as a truth detector, and why real growth rarely lets us bypass the hard parts. From the start, Joanna reframes spirituality as something we bring down into our l...

Send us Fan Mail A diagnosis can scramble your sense of who you are, especially when you’ve built a life around clarity, competence, and being the person with the answers. When Jonathan Dawson tells us he has Parkinson’s disease, he also tells us what happens next: the awkward pauses, the uncertainty on stage, and the surprising power of simply naming the truth at the start of a talk. We go wider...

Send us Fan Mail Pain does not only come from what happened to us. Sometimes it arrives already packed in the family story, sitting in the nervous system like an inheritance we never asked for. We talk with Andre Zitcer about intergenerational trauma in the most human way possible: a Jewish father who survives the Holocaust and cannot speak about what he lost, and a mother whose childhood is shape...

Send us Fan Mail A single sentence changed everything: you’re not doomed. From that moment, Darinka chose life and built a disciplined, human path back to health—pairing monitored fasting and daily visualisation with music, nature, and the support of a healer who spoke to her as a whole person. This is not a tale of magical thinking; it’s an intimate map of agency, faith, and consistency meeting h...

Send us Fan Mail A sudden loss can set the course of a lifetime. Malcolm sits down with master puppeteer and educator Tony Gee to trace the unexpected path from a father’s death in Singapore to world-record puppet shows, radical youth work, and a philosophy of making that places imagination at the centre of community life. What begins as a story of bereavement opens into a practical guide to meani...

Send us Fan Mail A lost voice became a doorway. When our guest—a former international singer—underwent thyroid surgery and fell into silence, a drumbeat led to a startling vision of a warrior and an arrow to the throat. That image cracked open a deeper inheritance: the teachings of a shamanic grandfather, a flood of memory that reshaped a life built on stages into a life built on service. We walk...

Send us Fan Mail What if the moment your life falls apart is not failure but initiation? In this candid conversation with author and philosopher Fiona Robertson, we trace the shape of a true dark night of the soul: the sudden crash after outward success, the flood of memories and emotions that refuse to be managed, and the unexpected grace that arrives when control finally loosens. Fiona brings a...

Send us Fan Mail Grief rarely knocks once. Sometimes it moves in, rearranges the furniture, and dares you to keep living in your own house. That’s where we meet James: a man who fell back in love with an old friend turned husband, built a life around art and quiet rituals, and then watched that life tilt in a single sentence—“I’ve got cancer.” What follows isn’t tidy. It’s six months of chemo and...

Send us Fan Mail What if the smartest decision you ever make begins with your body quietly refusing to board the train? That was Carmen’s turning point—a full-body no that unravelled a polished corporate life and opened a door to travel, therapy, and a community designed for belonging without armour. We talk through the cost of conforming and the relief of naming misalignment, from ending a marria...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when you stop playing small and start telling the truth—to your coach, your body, and yourself? Claire joins us to share how she left a stable HR career and built a life around running, breathwork, and positive psychology, not as separate practices but as one coherent path to purpose. Her story is not a straight line; it curves through divorce, self-development, and l...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when a life built on performance turns toward presence? We sit down with world‑ranked dancer and coach Andrew Cuerden for a candid journey from a disciplined South African childhood to London hostels, global competitions, and the bright lights of Strictly—then beyond fame to the deeper craft of connection. Andrew shares how a £500 leap of faith, a resilient family eth...

Send us Fan Mail The transformative power of bringing our full humanity into leadership takes center stage in this profound conversation with Nicholas Janni, award-winning author of "Leader as Healer." Nicholas shares his extraordinary journey from studying with master drummers in West Africa to becoming a transformational coach for corporate executives worldwide. What unfolds is a deeply moving e...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when your name isn't truly yours? When your cultural heritage is erased? When doctors dismiss your pain? Camilla Balshaw's powerful story tackles these questions with remarkable vulnerability and wisdom. For the first 24 years of her life, Camilla answered to "Mandy" – a name her Jamaican mother preferred over the Nigerian name her father had chosen. This dual identit...

Send us Fan Mail What messages might our bodies be sending through illness, disability, or limitation? What wisdom lies beneath the surface of our physical challenges? Caroline Born, a movement practitioner with over four decades of experience, takes us on a remarkable journey through her 34-year relationship with a progressive hand disability. Rather than pursuing surgical interventions to "fix"...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when you discover your voice is actually a gateway to spiritual awakening? In this soul-stirring conversation, Malcolm Stern welcomes singer-philosopher Chloe Goodchild, founder of The Naked Voice, for a profound exploration of sound, silence, and authentic expression. From an unexpected beginning—childhood deafness that immersed her in the language of silence—Chloe r...

Send us Fan Mail Alina's remarkable journey from the constraints of Soviet Ukraine to spiritual enlightenment reveals how profound suffering can transform into extraordinary wisdom.  Born into poverty under communist rule, her early years were marked by material deprivation and the absence of spiritual frameworks. At just six years old, a traumatic experience at a communist camp effectively silenc...

Send us Fan Mail When a palm reader told high-powered lawyer Jonathan Sattin to quit his job during a lunch break reading, most people would have laughed it off. Instead, he handed in his notice that very afternoon. This seemingly impulsive decision marked just one pivotal moment in an extraordinary journey from corporate law to founding London's most respected yoga studios. Jonathan's story unfol...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when we stop swimming against the current and allow life to show us where we truly belong? Martin Pollecoff, former chair of the UK Council of Psychotherapists, shares a fascinating journey that began in industrial Birmingham and wound through breakdown, transformation, and ultimately to becoming a gifted psychotherapist who helps others shape meaningful lives. Growin...

Send us Fan Mail Breaking free from a religious community that prays daily for the execution of outsiders leaves lasting wounds. But what happens when that same person harnesses their pain to create spaces where genuine connection can flourish? John Wilson, co-founder of Onlinevents, opens up about his journey growing up as a Jehovah's Witness and the profound impact it had on his capacity for rel...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when you step out of rock's golden spotlight to find your true self? Jenny Boyd's remarkable journey takes us behind the velvet rope of music history into a world few have experienced firsthand. Jenny opens up about traveling with The Beatles to India in 1967 to study with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, providing an intimate glimpse into a pivotal moment in music history. She...

Send us Fan Mail A heart-stopping conversation with Chukumeka Maxwell takes us deep into the landscape of human suffering and transcendence. Born to a Nigerian father and Jamaican mother, Chukumeka's early life was marked by dramatic upheaval when civil war in Nigeria led to his father's imprisonment and his own evacuation back to England at age seven. The trauma was so severe his hair and skin tu...

Send us Fan Mail Russell Byrne takes us on a remarkable journey from childhood struggles with stuttering and shyness to finding temporary solace in alcohol, then ultimately discovering his true calling as a compassionate counsellor working with society's most marginalized individuals. This conversation reveals how personal wounds can transform into powerful healing gifts when coupled with courage...

Send us Fan Mail Rosy Datt's life trajectory could have ended in tragedy. Molested by her uncle from age 11 to 18, trapped in two arranged marriages spanning decades, and physically abused by her parents—she instead transformed these profound wounds into a healing mission that spans continents. "Most people with what you have gone through would have become alcoholics, drug addicts, killed themselv...