Today’s brilliant guest is journalist and author, Andy Bull, who has lived in London for the best part of 40 years. Author of two books about London, on today’s podcast we talk about Andy’s book: Secret Twickenham, Whitton, Teddington, and the Hamptons. Now I’m sure all of you will have heard of the Cavern Club in Liverpool where the Beatles made their name, but chances are you’ve never heard of the Eel Pie Island in Twickenham—which in the 60’s was a favorite spot for the likes of the...

I was thrilled to have really had such an entertaining and fascinating chat with philosopher, jazz musician and renowned cheese historian, Ned Palmer. Author of the Sunday Times Book of the Year ‘’A Cheesemonger’s History of the British Isles’’ Ned makes it clear that every cheese tells a story. In his recent book Ned takes us on a mouth-watering journey across Britain and Ireland to uncover the histories of beloved old favourites like Cheddar and Wensleydale to exciting new innovations like...

As you wander round the streets of our magnificent capital city today, you’ll probably most likely be aware of all the shops and offices, albeit deserted if we are still in lockdown. What you will not see so much of are the relics of London’s glorious industrial past, unless of course, that is you know where and what to look for. From brewing giants such as Guinness, toy manufacturers like Airfix and Lesney who made the world-famous matchbox cars, to the aircraft makers like De Haviland and...

As the great Samuel Johnson once said, ‘when a man is tired of London he is tired of life’ and in my view this has never been more true. In these troubled unique times, finding the pleasure and joy in plain view is critical for us all, from a physical, mental and wellbeing perspective. In this brilliant episode I caught up with award winning Tom Jones (no, not that one), author of best-selling book Tired of London Tired of Life, One Thing a Day to do in London. When Tom found himself bored in...

Today’s brilliant guest is responsible for what can probably be described as one of London’s absolute best secrets, The London Metropolitan Archive. Geoff Pick is Director of this amazing London based resource. Just imagine over 100km of archives jam packed full of amazing historical and contemporary material with over 1000 years to choose from. Well that is Geoff’s job. Geoff is an adopted Londoner from Wigan who was recently awarded an OBE for services to the management of records and...

When Hashi Mohamed arrived in London from Kenya as a 9-year-old, separated from his mother and still grieving the recent and tragic loss of his father, he couldn’t possibly have foreseen the incredible journey ahead. A journey of social mobility littered with hurdles and barriers, some clear and obvious and others much more subtle. Against all the odds it would seem, Hashi is now a prominent London based Barrister, broadcaster, and author of his new hugely successful book ‘People Like Us –...

The fear of losing your mind has to be one of the scariest things you could ever endure—and the worry that a loved one will forget who you are, or start acting in a way that is totally opposite to how they have all their lives, is too much for most to imagine. This week’s brilliant guest, Jules Montague, is a Consultant Neurologist here in London. Her clinical specialty is “young onset dementia” with patients who develop memory and behavior changes as early as their twenties—and some of her...

Did you know you have an unfair advantage in your life? Something that gives you an edge over your competition. Even if you are not aware it, today's brilliant guests Ash Ali and Hasan Kubba have devised a simple framework that allows us to find out what our unfair advantage is and how we can use it to help us succeed in life and business. Ash Ali and Hasan Kubba are start up entrepreneurs. Ash skipped Uni and was the first marketing director of Just Eat; one of the Uk’s first tech unicorn...

This week’s amazing guest is the inspirational Brenda Birungi, aka Lady Unchained. Lady Unchained is a Poet and founder of Unchained Poetry, a platform for artists with experience of the criminal justice system. In 2008, 20-year-old Brenda got into a fight in a club whilst trying to protect her sister from being attacked. Serving 11 months of her prison sentence—her life changed completely. Whilst her experience was shocking Brenda looks back on and forward to a bright future with a mission...

Beth Gardiner is an American Journalist based in London. Her hugely important and critically acclaimed book “Choked: The age of air pollution and fight for a cleaner future’’ was one of The Guardians Best Books of 2019 and described by Arnold Schwarzenegger as ‘an urgent essential read’. Air pollution kills seven million people every year, causing heart attacks, strokes, cancer, dementia and more. In Choked, Beth Gardiner travels the world to tell the story of this modern-day plague, exposing...

London cabbies are a wonderful, rich and varied bunch and Mark Monroe is no exception. Born in Plymouth Mark moved to London as a young man and studied Musical Theatre at the Arts Ed school in Chiswick, after which he was a jobbing theatre actor to the age of 33. Realising the instability of the acting world Mark took the ‘The Knowledge’ absorbing very facet of his new home London. Marks love of London extended beyond the standout historical icons such as Buckingham Palace and the London eye....

As a kid, James Cook grew up with his grandparents on the streets of Jamaica, until his parents brought him to London as a 9 year old and his whole world changed. James grew up on the notorious North Peckham Housing Estate and went on to become British and European super – middleweight champion, in an era of classy boxers. But James always loved working with and helping the youth, and when he retired he went on to become a successful trainer before saving from closure and then running the...

Without doubt—one topic that I find more fascinating than virtually any other, is the field of neuroscience. And this week, I was excited to be joined by Kris De Meyer, Neuroscientist and Research Fellow at King’s College London. One of Kris’s interests lies in the area of belief. By that he means, how our brain decides that certain ideas are ‘true’ while rejecting others as 'false'. Kris also studies how entrenched belief systems invariably lead to polarisation in society, from such crucial...

Shoreditch in the East End of London has an incredibly rich and varied history. From theatre and Shakespeare in Elizabethan times, to the wealthy traders and French Huguenot silk weavers of the 17th Century to the decline of the furniture industry in the late 19th century when the area was one of the worst slums in London. The illustrated London News in 1863 described the terrible living conditions in the 'Old Nichol' as ‘one painful and monotonous round of vice, filth and poverty, huddled in...

I’ve never really thought of myself as a creative type. From my days studying law, to my career as an Insurance Loss Assessor with my head in policy wordings, the arc of my story has somehow seemed rather dry. That is of course until I discovered my love of podcasting whilst flat on my back in a hospital bed some three years ago. As it was in that London hospital bed where my first create seed was germinated. Today, some people tell me I’m a creative. That I’ve actually come up with an idea,...

If you were looking back over a hundred years of your life what would you change? This is the conundrum Richard Lumsden posed his wonderfully drawn lead character, in his beautiful, yet melancholy recent novel ‘’The Six Loves of Billy Binns’’. Richard is an English actor, composer, and musician, having performed in such diverse TV shows including Foggy in First of the Summer Wine, Henry in Sugar Rush and Martin in The Catherine Tate Show, as well as EastEnders. His film credits include the...

Abigail Barnes is an award-winning entrepreneur, author, and speaker on personal productivity – a topic that is very close to my heart. She is also a qualified coach and creator of the renowned 888 Formula and Founder of Success by Design Training. A few years back Abigail had a life changing moment which she now uses as a wakeup call to inspire and motivate audiences, leaving them excited to take action. Since I first read Stephen Covey’s masterful Seven Habits of Highly Effective People...

Marketing ain’t what it used to be. Whether you are CEO of a large corporation, Director of an SME, or solopreneur—getting your marketing message out has never been more important than it is today when we are all so distracted. Lock-down may mean that we have far more time on our hands than ever before, but we also have way more things prodding and grabbing at our attention every second of the day—oops, there goes another notification. Today’s guest Barnaby Wynter is a leading marketing...

Pearly Queen Diane Gould follows in the rich tradition of Pearly royalty. Born in North London into a family of Costermongers (street market traders) her Father Alf Dole was grandson of the very first Pearly King of St Pancras, having put on his first suit as the Pearly Prince aged 7. As Diane says, The Costermongers worked hard and played hard, always ready for a sing song and knees up in the local battle cruiser (boozer). The Costermongers were a resilient bunch with a Stoic outlook on...

There simply can be no topic of more significance today than how food shapes our lives and is an integral part of who we are….indeed we are literally what we eat and we live in world moulded and dominated by food. Who can forget in the early days of Covid 19 lockdown—the pathetic sight of people scrambling for the last bag of pasta, and the aisles of empty shelves where once was your favourite fruit and vegetable? Carolyn Steel is a leading thinker on food and cities and her first book Hungry...

**************************************************************************************************************** March 2020 will for many be seen as watershed in their lives. There was before and there is after. Covid 19 raises many fascinating questions. Its has caused most of us to re evaluate our lives. Are we happy with the direction our life has been taken? Are we content in our job, our relationship, our values, the way we use or abuse our time, and of course if we are not happy what...

In these bizarre and unsettling times, many of the things we took for granted have been severely curtailed—and in some cases restricted all together. As you know, I have always loved the fact that I get to meet all the guests on the podcast in person, be it at their place of work, their home, or at a location that is specific to them; on the diving platform at Highgate Mens Bathing Pond, on the lifeboat with the crew at RNLI Chiswick, over a cappuccino in Little Italy Soho, or at the top of...

As many of us struggle on through the Covid 19 London lock down, it's a good time to pause, and reflect and truly see that good can come out of bad. I've chosen to re publish one of my earliest interviews with the inspiring and Jonny Benjamin. This is his very dramatic personal story from the depths of despair to being awarded MBE ( service for mental health). I hope you find this amazing yet true life story of 'The Stranger on The Bridge' a motivation that things will get better soon....

The guests on my show never fail to amaze and inspire me, and Heidi Herkes is no exception. She is right up there with the very best of them. As a young woman, she travelled extensively around the world running her own high end bridal and make up company—from Sydney to Dubai, Berlin and the US. She worked at incredible venues making her clients look and feel amazing, until one day, she suffered an unimaginable life changing event that meant Heidi was forced to rethink everything she ever...