The Brave Man Project with Hamish Niven

X: https://twitter.com/iamauthenticman

David - He Says It's Not Safe, And It's For Him To Decide

Wed, 23 Sep 2026 06:45:00 +0100

David Chambers asks a head of risk what he does, and the man sits up and talks with total confidence. Then David asks about his relationship, and the chair rolls back.

Sound Bites

"It's decided by the person often who is speaking, who lacks safety."
"We call them vulnerabilities to the system because it's how the system can be hacked."
"Most men don't know that they don't feel safe."
"There's a sinking, there's a backing away, the chair rolls back."
"Confidence isn't always transferable between different areas of our lives."
"The resentment is like the poison of relationships."
"You need to ignore the financial load. Ignore it."
"The other men just look at us with care and nod and go, yeah, I do that too, actually."

David Chambers spent 16 years testing software, where a weakness in a system has a name. It's called a vulnerability, because it's how the system gets hacked. Most men, he says, learned the same lesson about themselves long before they had words for it.

Today he coaches men on love, dating and relationships. He talks about why a man who runs a room at work goes quiet at home, why the money is a smaller share of the household load than men think, and why a safe space isn't decided by the person offering it.

What We Explore

Why a man who is sharp and direct at work freezes when she asks where this is going
Being told your feelings don't matter since the playground, then asked to speak them fluently in your thirties
The household load men don't see, and a monthly check-in that stops resentment setting in

Connect with David

Website: https://www.theauthenticman.net/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theauthenticman_/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IAmTheAuthenticMan

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAuthenticMan

The Authentic Man podcast on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1447910686

The Authentic Man podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/64n26CAX3FIhJj7aMR2CO6

A little about Hamish Niven

For 25 years, I lived a life that looked successful from the outside. Inside it was falling apart, and I was throwing fuel on the fire — addiction, alcohol. I was on a steep path to self-destruct.

November 2018. I chose life, and had to change everything.

I built The 13th Room because nothing like that existed when I needed it.

The Brave Man Project — this podcast. It is about men, but not just for men. Men who broke under the weight of their own performance. Men who rebuilt and climbed so much higher.

The 13th Room is a space for the successful man who needs to change and knows it. 13 sessions, you and me. No fixing. Pure witnessing. Starts with a free 20-minute conversation.

Podcast website: https://thebravemanproject.com

Hamish's website: https://hamishniven.com

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheBraveManProject

Azul - A Boy At The Book Fair Gave Me Back My Own Advice

Wed, 16 Sep 2026 00:15:00 +0100

A boy setting out his classmates' books asks his teacher where his own book is. Azul Terronez nearly lies, then admits he's afraid, and the boy hands him back his own advice.

Sound Bites

"Hiding from yourself is the game."
"Well, you tell us, it's okay to be afraid to just do it anyways."
"It had taken me 24 years and 30 days to write that book."
"He was loving the identity he had created more than the person."
"Great teachers are the ones who are listening to the young people."
"Everybody likes to read about it, but nobody wants to go through it."

Azul Terronez spent his adult life playing the perfect straight man. Eagle Scout, husband, father of two, school principal. At 19 he had lost the man he loved to suicide, and he locked the whole thing away.

Nearly 40, he finally said three words to himself in the mirror. What followed rearranged his marriage, his family and his work. Today he coaches authors through Authors Who Lead, and says children taught him most of what he knows.

What We Explore

Pretending to other people, pretending to yourself, and which one does the real damage
What happens to grief, guilt and creativity when they sit locked in a box for 25 years
A question from a boy, a book written in 30 days, and a life built without a plan

Mentioned in This Episode

Art of Apprenticeship — Azul's first book, written in 30 days, about learning from a mentor by serving them
Born to Write, Scared to Start — Azul's free audio series on his website, on finding the confidence to start

Connect with Azul

Website, and the free audio series Born to Write, Scared to Start: https://authorswholead.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/azul-terronez/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authorswholead/

Authors Who Lead podcast

on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3Qm8I3UO8FEoSh6xaElOFR

on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/authors-who-lead-learn-to-write-a-book-from/id1303212874

A little about Hamish Niven

For 25 years, I lived a life that looked successful from the outside. Inside it was falling apart, and I was throwing fuel on the fire — addiction, alcohol. I was on a steep path to self-destruct.

November 2018. I chose life, and had to change everything.

I built The 13th Room because nothing like that existed when I needed it.

The Brave Man Project — this podcast. It is about men, but not just for men. Men who broke under the weight of their own performance. Men who rebuilt and climbed so much higher.

The 13th Room is a space for the successful man who needs to change and knows it. 13 sessions, you and me. No fixing. Pure witnessing. Starts with a free 20-minute conversation.

Podcast website: https://thebravemanproject.com

Hamish's website: https://hamishniven.com

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheBraveManProject

Corey - Children Are Wet Concrete And Everyone Leaves A Footprint

Wed, 09 Sep 2026 00:15:00 +0100

Corey's psychologist gave him a picture for his childhood: wet concrete, and everyone who walked past pressing in a footprint that set hard and stayed. He coaches boys' football now, and he reckons that if he can pull one footprint back out over a six-month season, that is a win.

Sound Bites

"When you're young, you're like wet concrete, and you had all these people footing footprints in you that were permanent"
"If I'm a good boy, if I'm well behaved, then I can create safety in my own environment"
"I really feel like my son has evolved beyond me in a lot of ways."
"It's not my aspiration to be looked up to."
"I wish you could see what I see in you."
"Boys who don't have male role models have to find their own way"
"My book is unintentionally helping men realise what their emotions are"

Description

Corey Gaidzionis grew up in the western suburbs of Sydney, the oldest son in a house where his parents would not speak to each other. He carried the messages between them. Years later, his psychologist gave him the picture for it — a child is wet concrete, and everyone who walks past leaves a footprint that sets hard.

He coaches boys' football in Western Australia. He wrote a children's book about emotions. It started with a post-it note he put under his pillow every night for a month. He will tell you the football was never really about football.

What We Explore

Wet concrete and permanent footprints, and whether you can ever pull one back out
What a boy takes on when there is no man in the house, and the head-butting when the man comes home
Six months with a boy on a football pitch against four days in the bush, and which one actually changes him

Mentioned in This Episode

The Little Book of Big Emotions - Corey's children's book. Characters for each emotion, space for the child to write, cognitive behaviour therapy underneath it. It fell out of him in a day after a month of post-it notes.
Cognitive behaviour therapy - the framework sitting under the book's characters.
The manosphere - what a boy often finds when there is no man to look up to.

Connect with Corey Gaidzionis

Website: https://bigemotionsacademy.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/corey-gaidzionis/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bigemotionsacademy/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/coreyg76

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@coreygaidzionis

The Little Book of Big Emotions can be ordered through his website.

A little about Hamish Niven

For 25 years, I lived a life that looked successful from the outside. Inside it was falling apart, and I was throwing fuel on the fire — addiction, alcohol. I was on a steep path to self-destruct.

November 2018. I chose life, and had to change everything.

I built The 13th Room because nothing like that existed when I needed it.

The Brave Man Project — this podcast. It is about men, but not just for men. Men who broke under the weight of their own performance. Men who rebuilt and climbed so much higher.

The 13th Room is a space for the successful man who needs to change and knows it. 13 sessions, you and me. No fixing. Pure witnessing. Starts with a free 20-minute conversation.

Podcast website: https://thebravemanproject.com

Hamish's website: https://hamishniven.com

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheBraveManProject

X: https://x.com/KilmisterCliff

Cliff – Every Box On Her Diagnosis Form, I Ticked for Myself - The Brave Man Project

Wed, 02 Sep 2026 00:15:00 +0100

Cliff sat with his daughter, working through the tick boxes on her assessment form. She's that, so am I. She's that, so am I. He booked his own assessment not long after.

Sound Bites

- "It's like being in an aeroplane. If the masks come down, you put it over yourself first, then you help your child."

- "If you can learn to self-regulate, you can then lend your nervous system to your child."

- "So we're going to put some drugs into your daughter that could be dangerous for your heart. Okay. There's got to be different ways."

- "We're going through all these tick boxes, ticking all the same boxes."

- "Once you've got your diagnosis, you're like, I don't even know who I am anymore."

- "I would always make sure I brought a football because if you get to school and nobody's got a ball, we're like, my God, how am going to get through?"

- "I'm drinking and that's probably the only time I was unmasking because I was numbing the worries, the anxiety."

- "It got to a point where I really liked the naughty step because it's quiet."

Cliff's daughter used to turn a big yellow builder's bucket upside down and sit inside it with her toys. It took two other parents at the school gate, a teacher, and a waiting room full of toddlers before anyone worked out why.

Somewhere in the middle of filling in her assessment forms, Cliff started answering for himself. He was diagnosed with ADHD last year. He now runs the podcast Parenting, Autism and ADHD, which his daughter appears on, and is working towards ADHD coaching certifications.

Mentioned in This Episode

Snapdragons — the assessment service where Cliff sat in the waiting room, saw toddlers being assessed, and realised how much time they had lost waiting

Paul McKenna — the technique Cliff uses of changing the voice of the inner critic into a cartoon voice so it stops sounding vicious

Eckhart Tolle — the silent observer practice Cliff uses to break hyperfocus when his daughter needs him

Connect with Cliff

Parenting, Autism and ADHD on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ParentingAutismandADHD

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cliff_kilmister08

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cliff.kilmister

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cliff-kilmister-420a07bb

Work with Cliff — anxiety support, founding members offer, message him here: https://m.me/cliff.kilmister

A little about Hamish Niven

For 25 years, I lived a life that looked successful from the outside. Inside it was falling apart, and I was throwing fuel on the fire — addiction, alcohol. I was on a steep path to self-destruct.

November 2018. I chose life, and had to change everything.

I built The 13th Room because nothing like that existed when I needed it.

The Brave Man Project — this podcast. It is about men, but not just for men. Men who broke under the weight of their own performance. Men who rebuilt and climbed so much higher.

The 13th Room is a space for the successful man who needs to change and knows it. 13 sessions, you and me. No fixing. Pure witnessing. Starts with a free 20-minute conversation.

Podcast website: https://thebravemanproject.com

Hamish's website: https://hamishniven.com

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheBraveManProject

Ivan - Every Angry Man I Turned Away Made Me A Wiser One

Wed, 26 Aug 2026 00:15:00 +0100

Half three in the morning, fifteen years into working nightclub doors, Ivan stopped saying "members only" and told an angry man the truth instead. He says it landed like a punch in the face — and the bloke came back a fortnight later and shook his hand.

Sound Bites

"Tough guys don't like to be bullshitted to."
"Because they respected that I was upfront, I was honest, and I told them the truth about why I'm not letting them in."
"When you explain to them the reasons why before they ask, you'll get much further with people."
"If you're not willing to face anyone, you're no good to me."
"I therapise in class."
"I'm just helping you open doors within your own mind to explore places that you might not have looked."
"We've got a pharmacy of emotions and feelings."
"You're enough, but you've just forgotten it."

Ivan Rakitic was eighteen and working backstage when Billy Joel drove through the gate and waved at him. That settled it — thirty-six years in security followed, fifteen of them on nightclub doors.

One morning after a bad shift, he sat down and asked himself why he turned men away at all, then rewrote what he said to every one of them. What the door taught him — that no man does what he is told until he is told why — is what he works with now as a therapist, and on the mats teaching Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

What We Explore

Why "members only" starts a fight and "mate, you look like you're angry" ends one
What fifteen years of reading angry men at 3am gave him that no training course could
Therapising in the dojo — an eighth-degree black belt who will not teach you to hurt anyone

Mentioned in This Episode

Billy Joel — Ivan was eighteen, backstage, when Joel drove through the gate and waved at him. That was the moment security work won him over.

Cus D'Amato and the book about Mike Tyson's life, written with the men who trained him, told Ivan that D'Amato took his fighters to a hypnotherapist. That single detail set him off down the path that became his second career.

Dr Bob Johnson — UK psychiatrist who worked at Parkhurst prison with men who had done serious harm. Now 89 and retired, he and Ivan still speak every month.

Sugar Ray Robinson — nicknamed Sugar because he was so sweet. Ivan points people to the documentary Pound for Pound.

Connect with Ivan Rakitic

Free strategy call with Ivan: https://calendly.com/ivanrakitic2069/free_strategy_call_with_ivan_rakitic

Website: https://ivanrakitictherapy.com.au/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ivanrakitictherapy/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ivan.rakitic.802297

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ivan_rakitic_mens_therap

A little about Hamish Niven

For 25 years, I lived a life that looked successful from the outside. Inside it was falling apart, and I was throwing fuel on the fire — addiction, alcohol. I was on a steep path to self-destruct.

November 2018. I chose life, and had to change everything.

I built The 13th Room because nothing like that existed when I needed it.

The Brave Man Project — this podcast. It is about men, but not just for men. Men who broke under the weight of their own performance. Men who rebuilt and climbed so much higher.

The 13th Room is a space for the successful man who needs to change and knows it. 13 sessions, you and me. No fixing. Pure witnessing. Starts with a free 20-minute conversation.

Podcast website: https://thebravemanproject.com

Hamish's website: https://hamishniven.com

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheBraveManProject

Hubert - Only Zero or One There's No In-Between in an Autistic Brain

Wed, 19 Aug 2026 00:15:00 +0100

They call it high-functioning. It just means you can't see the cost. He's had some days when he couldn't speak at all, and his mother sat beside him reading Nietzsche aloud until something switched back on.

This is a conversation about what it costs to look like you are coping.

Sound Bites

"There is a physical sensation of discomfort when I lie. I feel physically sick."
"What a high functioning autist is, is someone who's just as autistic as every other autist, but someone who can hide it more for the benefit of neurotypical people."
"We can pay the ultimate price for fitting in apparently so well, when actually inside we're feeling absolutely out of sync with the rest of society."
"It's like a computer that's overheating, the mouse thing starts to jump from place to place, and suddenly it's not moving at all. That's autism for you."
"Veracity is the need for truth, order, and things making sense."
"We're not a mistake. We're meant to be here. We're doing our job."

Hubert found out he was autistic at forty-two. He calls his lot the lost generation — men who got through school, work and relationships playing a game nobody gave them the rules to.

He has been a European Parliament intern, an award-winning entrepreneur and a van man. He has also spent days unable to speak, his mother sitting beside him reading Nietzsche aloud until something switched back on. This is a conversation about what it costs to look like you are coping.

What We Explore

Why a white lie causes physical pain, and what that does to small talk, work and friendship
"High functioning" — what the label hides, and who it is actually for
The bridge between neurotypical and neurodivergent minds, and why Hubert thinks everything ahead of us gets built on it

Mentioned in This Episode

Quinn, and the Autistamatic YouTube channel — where Hubert takes the idea of veracity, which he uses to hold truth, order and physical discomfort in one word
Nikki Stevenson, writing in The Guardian in 2015 — called prejudice against neurodiverse people the last great prejudice
Nikola Tesla — died penniless, and is Hubert's example of what a society wastes when it will not accommodate the people it depends on
Star Trek — the version of a future human he was drawn to as a child and still is
Elon Musk'sremark that nobody who spent an hour in his head would want anything he has

Connect with Hubert

Hubert is not on social media. He can be contacted through me via this email address: hamish@thebravemanproject.com

The autism education channels Hubert recommends:

Autistamatic: https://www.youtube.com/@Autistamatic
Autistic AF: https://www.youtube.com/@Autistic_AF
That Autistic Guy: https://www.youtube.com/@orionkelly

A little about Hamish Niven

For 25 years, I lived a life that looked successful from the outside. Inside it was falling apart, and I was throwing fuel on the fire — addiction, alcohol. I was on a steep path to self-destruct.

November 2018. I chose life, and had to change everything.

I built The 13th Room because nothing like that existed when I needed it.

The Brave Man Project — this podcast. It is about men, but not just for men. Men who broke under the weight of their own performance. Men who rebuilt and climbed so much higher.

The 13th Room is a space for the successful man who needs to change and knows it. 13 sessions, you and me. No fixing. Pure witnessing. Starts with a free 20-minute conversation.

Podcast website: https://thebravemanproject.com

Hamish's website: https://hamishniven.com

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheBraveManProject

Pasco – I Went to Mexico to Expose Corruption and Came Back to Fix Myself

Wed, 12 Aug 2026 00:15:00 +0100

Pasco – I Went to Mexico to Expose Corruption and Came Back to Fix Myself

Pasco sold everything, flew to Central America with a backpack full of camera kit, and set out to break a corruption story that would make his name. Somewhere in Mexico, he realised the story was about him — and that shaming people changes nothing.

Sound Bites

"I was reliant on weed to relax me. I was reliant on it to go to sleep. I was reliant on it to come down off an energetic day."
"the more I do this work of practicing self-reflection and witnessing others, I realised the more it is all about the stories we tell ourselves, our identity, who we are is made up of these stories"
"the sustainable change is the slow one, it's the hard graft, it's the individual, it's never gonna be these big, big changes"
"In fact, I've not been in a Men's Circle where a man has decided not to share."

Pasco Ashton

6 men on Hackney Downs, sitting on the grass through the summer of 2020 because it was the only place they were allowed to meet. Pasco had been to one men's circle, liked what it did for him, and asked his mates if they were up for it. They said yes. 4 ½ years later, there are now 55 trained facilitators, running Circles across Europe, 1 Circle in the USA and 1 on the way in Asia.

Ashton got there the long way around; ecology, photography, Al Jazeera, chasing a career of service he couldn't quite name. 2 close friends took their own lives. He was smoking weed every day to get to sleep. And the big-systems change he'd spent his twenties mapping turned out, in the end, to run through one man at a time.

What We Explore

Losing two friends to suicide, and the internal loneliness of being a man with no one to talk to.
The "cheeky" joint, the "social" cigarette — the small words we use to shrink our own behaviour
Why macro-scale greed and power struggles are just someone's internal fear, scaled up
What actually makes a room psychologically safe, and why "safe space" has stopped meaning anything
Rejecting money for four years, then realising it's the water of the system and just needs to flow

Mentioned in This Episode

No More Mr. Nice Guy — the classic men's workbook where a lot of men first find the words "Men's Circle"
Vice and Al Jazeera — where he worked as a journalist before walking away from that path
Mexico — the assignment where he realised blaming and shaming doesn't create sustainable change
His Dads' Club in Sheffield. Where 350 local dads joined, inside a year

Connect with Pasco

Free trial: four circles, no cost, no obligation — and the circles are the core of it. Members also get the two annual UK hikes and ad hoc London events. Pasco's note on finding them: just search "Men's Circle" and they're there.

Website: https://menscircle.club/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/menscircle.club/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@menscircle_club

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@menscircle.club

LinkedIn – Pasco: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pasco/

LinkedIn – Men's Circle: https://www.linkedin.com/company/menscircle/

A little about Hamish Niven

For 25 years, I lived a life that looked successful from the outside. Inside it was falling apart, and I was throwing fuel on the fire — addiction, alcohol. I was on a steep path to self-destruct.

November 2018. I chose life, and had to change everything.

I built The 13th Room because nothing like that existed when I needed it.

The Brave Man Project — this podcast. It is about men, but not just for men. Men who broke under the weight of their own performance. Men who rebuilt and climbed so much higher.

The 13th Room is a space for the successful man who needs to change and knows it. 13 sessions, you and me. No fixing. Pure witnessing. Starts with a free 20-minute conversation.

Podcast website: https://thebravemanproject.com

Hamish's website: https://hamishniven.com

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheBraveManProject

Matt - Six Years Sober and Still Not Settling for Average

Wed, 05 Aug 2026 00:15:00 +0100

Matt Evans — Six Years Sober and Still Not Settling for Average

There's a photograph of Matt taken a few weeks before his arrest. He's in the kitchen with his kids. He is smiling. You can see it is half-arsed.

6 years later, he has built a life the old him could not have imagined, and he still refuses to call it finished.

Sound Bites

"I was literally in the shadow of myself going, I should be more."
"It's soul-destroying, mate. It's Jekyll and Hyde in your own brain."
"I don't want to ever settle for average, and I don't want her to settle for average."
"Sometimes burning stuff to the ground and rebuilding it can be the most perfect option."

Matt Evans spent years being the man everyone came to when something needed fixing. Life and soul of the party. Always happy. When it all came apart, the guys who worked for him said the same thing — we would never have known. Six years sober now, and the difference is not that he stopped drinking. It is that he stopped performing.

This conversation is about what comes after. Rebuilding trust with a wife who had heard the promises before. Writing down who you are on purpose, because the old story was written for you. And refusing, point blank, to settle for an average marriage, an average life, an average anything.

What We Explore

Why white-knuckling isn't sobriety, and what "eyes wide open" actually costs
Cognitive dissonance; screaming inside while telling the world you're fine
Rebuilding trust when your word already has a track record, and why "just because I said it" changed nothing
Identity as a conscious choice — declarations, not affirmations, and clearing the old judgement first
Growing up with no masculine role model, and what his daughter absorbed about who pays the bill
Burning down a charity event five months out and rebuilding it from nothing

Mentioned in This Episode

The Ultimate Coach — the book about Steve Hardison that Matt credits with shifting his life more than getting sober did.
Les Brown — the quote Matt leaned on in early sobriety "Find someone to believe in you when you find it hard to believe in yourself"

Connect with Matt

Matt's coaching lives on LinkedIn. Facebook and Instagram are just his life, as he put it, "they're not like my coaching world, they're just me."

Linktree: linktr.ee/mattevansdfc

LinkedIn: mattevansdfc

Facebook: matt.evans.3517563

Instagram: @matt_lovin_life

Website: differentfocus.co.uk

A little about Hamish Niven

For 25 years, I lived a life that looked successful from the outside. Inside it was falling apart, and I was throwing fuel on the fire — addiction, alcohol. I was on a steep path to self-destruct.

November 2018. I chose life, and had to change everything.

I built The 13th Room because nothing like that existed when I needed it.

The Brave Man Project — this podcast. It is about men, but not just for men. Men who broke under the weight of their own performance. Men who rebuilt and climbed so much higher.

The 13th Room is a space for the successful man who needs to change and knows it. 13 sessions, you and me. No fixing. Pure witnessing. Starts with a free 20-minute conversation.

Podcast website: thebravemanproject.com

Hamish's website: hamishniven.com

YouTube: @TheBraveManProject

LinkedIn: hamishniven

TikTok: @hamish.niven

Instagram: @hamishniven

Facebook: facebook.com/hamishniven

Kasper - Do you know any stories about Ugly Princesses?

Wed, 29 Jul 2026 00:15:00 +0100

Do you know any fairy tales about ugly princesses?

A 14-year-old girl in the burns unit, scarred for life, asks Kasper for a story about an ugly princess. He didn't know one. So he made one up on the spot — and kept going back for sixteen years.

"Stories convey more than numbers."
"Speak your truth, keep it real."

Kasper Sørensen is a Danish storyteller who works in hospitals, sitting with children who are seriously ill and sometimes dying. He started at eighteen, scared of thirty kids in a kindergarten, and found that a story was the only thing that worked. What began there became a vocation built on truth, presence and the willingness to stay in the room.

What we explore:

What storytelling actually does in a hospital ward — and why it isn't a distraction from the hard stuff
The girl in the burns unit, and answering a 15-year-old's question about what comes after death
Why truth is non-negotiable: kids know instantly when you're performing
What children facing death say about how to live — and how consistently they say the same thing
Holding it together and letting it go: what Kasper does after an afternoon in intensive care

Connect with Kasper:

A little about Hamish

I spent 25 years building a life that looked successful from the outside, but within, it was the opposite. Everything was falling apart, and I was throwing fuel on that fire. The joy of life had fallen away. Late November 2018, I had to make a choice: live or die. I chose to live, and everything changed. I had to confront the pain I was carrying, look at the stories, and change. I built The Brave Man Project because there was nothing like this when I needed it.

Podcast website https://thebravemanproject.com/

Hamish's website https://hamishniven.com/

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@TheBraveManProject

Personal Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hamishniven

SEO Title: Kasper Sørensen on Hospital Storytelling, Truth and Dying Children | The Brave Man Project

SEO Description: Danish storyteller Kasper Sørensen on 16 years telling stories to seriously ill children, and what they taught him about living.

Gareth - Fuck Suicide, lets Make Guacamole

Wed, 22 Jul 2026 00:15:00 +0100

Four suicide attempts. A father with schizophrenia. And the avocado that saved his life.

"Stop carrying masks — be comfortable with being naked."

"The only way to get rid of the chatter is to listen to it."

Gareth Stubbs grew up around suicide and mental illness before he had words for either. By eighteen he'd made his first attempt. Two more followed. Today he lives in southern Spain, running retreats and teaching what he calls the Avocado Philosophy — a blunt, often funny look at what's really underneath the mask.

What we explore:

Growing up around schizophrenia and suicide, and what it did and didn't teach him about mental health
The masks we wear to survive trauma, and why dropping them feels like being "naked"
Humour as a coping mechanism — and where it stops working
The Avocado Philosophy: what's actually underneath when you cut yourself open
Building a new life and a retreat business in Spain after three suicide attempts

Connect with Gareth:

Facebook Community – Our Space to Talk: facebook.com/groups/ourspacetotalk

Instagram: @theavocadophilosophy

Personal Facebook: facebook.com/gareth.stubbs2

Website: theavocadophilosophy.com

A little about Hamish

Late November 2018. I had to make a choice: live or die. I chose to live, and everything changed. I had to confront the pain I was carrying, look at the stories, and change. I built The Brave Man Project because there was nothing like this when I needed it.

Podcast website: thebravemanproject.com

Hamish's website: hamishniven.com

YouTube: @TheBraveManProject

LinkedIn: hamishniven

TikTok: @hamish.niven

Instagram: @hamishniven

Facebook: facebook.com/hamishniven

Tim - And Everything Goes From Black and White to Colour

Wed, 15 Jul 2026 00:19:00 +0100

Tim Freke — philosopher, spiritual pioneer, and international bestselling author of 35 books — describes the single 'Technicolour' moment that launched a lifetime of inquiry. In this conversation, he frames bravery as the courage to follow your highest calling, shows how spiritual awakening is the shift from black-and-white to colour, and reveals why reflection and conscious choice open the door to a life that feels vividly alive.

"Life is mind-blowingly amazing."

"The universe is a process made of the past."

What we explore:

Wisdom as the courage to do what's right — and how reflection builds it over a lifetime
Spiritual awakening as seeing in colour, and simple practices for switching it back on
The evolution of consciousness, and Tim's idea of a super-soul and collective intelligence
Choice and agency: taming the instinctual self and creating your own journey
Soul-to-soul connection as the most radical act a man can offer in a world trained in distraction.

Connect with Tim:

Podbook & Podcast: youtube.com/timfreke

Website & Events: timfreke.com

Substack: timfreke.substack.com

Instagram: @timfreke

Facebook: facebook.com/TimFreke

X: @timfreke

A little about Hamish

Podcast website https://thebravemanproject.com/

Hamish's website https://hamishniven.com/

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@TheBraveManProject

Personal Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hamishniven

Al - He laughed so loud the nurses came to check, he just lost his leg

Wed, 15 Jul 2026 00:17:00 +0100

Al Richards woke up with one leg missing. And yet his room was the one full of laughter. New staff were warned about laughter in a room - if you hear a room having a good time, that's Al's. What made it remarkable was everything he was laughing in the middle of.

"There's nothing we can do. Your foot will continue to die."

"I'm done. I'm having him take it. The pain I'll go through is going to be healing pain."

Al is a podcaster, speaker, co-founder of the Healing Utah Success Summit and a newly certified crisis and recovery coach. In 2025, a plaque blockage cut off the blood supply to his right foot until it began to die beneath him. He chose amputation over a dying limb. Barely out of hospital, four weeks later, addiction took his wife.

This episode is about surgical choice, grief, and what it takes to turn towards the storm like the bison instead of running from it.

What we explore:

The two-hour ultimatum — choosing amputation over a foot that was dying underneath him
Why ego is a man's worst enemy: not crying, not asking for help, not seeing the doctor
The "message in the mirror" — Al's morning routine of gratitude and self-love
Losing his wife four weeks after losing his leg, and refusing to let grief become identity
Vessels, not victims — the Drama Triangle, paying it forward to new amputees, and walking towards the storm like the bison

Connect with Al:

Podcast: The Other Side of Addiction (Apple)

YouTube: The Other Side of Addiction

Instagram: @mralrichards

TikTok: @alrichards780

LinkedIn: Al Richards

Facebook: Al Richards

A little about Hamish

Podcast website: thebravemanproject.com

Hamish's website: hamishniven.com

YouTube: The Brave Man Project

LinkedIn: Hamish Niven

TikTok: @hamish.niven

Instagram: @hamishniven

Personal Facebook: Hamish Niven

Joe - I woke up as a ticking clock, not as a ticking bomb

Wed, 15 Jul 2026 00:16:00 +0100

I woke up as a ticking clock, not a ticking bomb

Joe Henderson — former Brisbane police officer, survivor of a heart attack at 37, and a man living with a mechanical heart valve — was on the phone with his best mate Dan when the line went dead. Dan was killed on his police bike while they were still connected.

"I couldn't even say I'm sorry for my behaviour."

"I'm a ticking time bomb, pretty much."

Joe Henderson lives with a mechanical heart valve — every beat an audible reminder of the surgeries that saved him. Add a heart attack at 37, the loss of his best mate, PTSD from police work, and 15 years as a single dad, and you have a man with every reason to break. Instead, he faced the mirror — literally — and changed.

What we explore:

Rebuilding life after multiple heart surgeries and a stress-driven heart attack at 37
The weight of grief — losing his best mate — and what it did to his mental health and family
The mirror exercise: brutal daily self-honesty as the engine of change
Talking to your children about mental health, and why honesty beats pretending
Breaking the cycle of toxic masculinity and what fathers model for the next generation

Connect with Joe:

Website: joe-betterdad.com

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/leaddontblame

Facebook: facebook.com/leaddontblame

Instagram: @leaddontblame

A little about Hamish

Podcast website https://thebravemanproject.com/

Hamish's website https://hamishniven.com/

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@TheBraveManProject

Personal Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hamishniven

John - "I'm all right mate." The lie every man has told

Wed, 15 Jul 2026 00:15:00 +0100

John Milham, host of Kintsugi Heroes, had the successful life, the family, the script — until his wife's cancer diagnosis tore it up. What followed was grief, single fatherhood, parenting after loss, and the slow discovery that "I'm alright, mate" was the most expensive lie he'd ever told.

"Life is simple — love, connection, stories, and a little silliness"

"Does anyone even want to hear my story?"

"The world doesn't have a lot of resources for men who are left on their own"

John grew up in an Australian culture where men didn't do feelings. In this raw first episode, he shares what losing the life he'd built taught him about vulnerability, community, and why "I'm alright, mate" nearly cost him everything.

What we explore:

The moment of crisis: a cancer diagnosis, grief, and confronting mortality
How masculine conditioning shuts down men's emotional expression — and what it costs
Vulnerability as the doorway to healing, not a weakness to hide
The power of community, elders and authentic conversation in recovery
Maslow's pyramid, self-actualisation and the simplicity of a life built on love, connection and a little silliness

Connect with John:

Website: kintsugiheroes.com.au

Instagram: @kintsugi.heroes

LinkedIn: Kintsugi Heroes

YouTube: Kintsugi Heroes

Facebook: facebook.com/kintsugiheroes

A little about Hamish

Podcast website https://thebravemanproject.com/

Hamish's website https://hamishniven.com/

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@TheBraveManProject