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© 2025 Mid-life Men: the mental health podcast
Description
Have you ever felt like you’ve become lost in your own life?
Many men struggle to talk about their problems and mental health and grew up believing that to do can be perceived as a sign of weakness or failure. There is also a lack of open discussion in society around men’s mental health, especially aimed at mid-life men. As a result, at times many men can feel alone and lost in their own lives.
In this podcast series, I talk to mid-life men about their stories; the challenges, the turning points, and the support received to help them find their way so that others who may be suffering in silence or don’t know what to do next, realise that they are not alone and there is help available.
Stories will cover a whole range of challenges faced by mid-life men mainly relating to the causes of mental health issues including feelings of isolation, depression, job dissatisfaction, addiction, PTSD, and long-term illness.
The podcast is NOT a replacement for professional support and we signpost to organisations and their contact details by episode.
If you have a story you would like to share or any feedback on the podcasts, please email me: midlifemen01@gmail.com.
70 Episodes
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What happens when a successful career suddenly disappears overnight? In this frank conversation, we explore the hidden reality of job loss in today's brutal employment market and its devastating impact on mental health, identity, and self-worth. Joe built a thriving career as a copywriter for major brands before being made redundant alongside thousands of others in the tech industry bloodbath. What followed was an eye-opening journey through the modern job market that would challenge everythi...
TRIGGER WARNING This episode contains a reference to suicidal thoughts, which you may find distressing, so please listen with care. In this powerful episode, we hear the remarkable story of a man who turned years of bullying into fuel for resilience and achievement. Ben shares how relentless bullying at school - much of it focused on the way he ran - left him feeling isolated, stripped of confidence, and battling despair. What started as taunts from a friend escalated into years of cruelty th...
In this episode of the Mid-Life Men Podcast, I sit down with career strategist Mike Dwyer to tackle one of the biggest midlife challenges: how to stay relevant, employable, and fulfilled in a world of shifting technology, corporate upheaval, and age bias. Mike brings decades of experience helping men navigate uncertainty, and he shares practical strategies for fighting back against the forces that can leave midlife professionals feeling sidelined. We explore: Why so many sea...
TRIGGER WARNING : This episode contains a raw and honest account of a suicide attempt. Some of what you will hear may be distressing, so please listen with care. What happens when life strips you of everything - family, security, even the will to live? Jack Muldoon knows. From losing both parents as a child to battling addiction, homelessness, and a suicide attempt, Jack’s story is raw, brutal, and ultimately inspiring. In this conversation, Jack opens up about how he rebuilt hims...
What happens when fame fades, money runs out, and identity slips away? In 2005, Anthony Hutton became an overnight celebrity after winning Big Brother. aged just 23. Within days, he had agents, photo shoots, and hundreds of thousands of pounds in the bank. But when the cameras switched off, eventually life unravelled into drink, drugs, and even passive thoughts of suicide. Today, his story looks very different. As a barber, keynote speaker, and founder of the Never Throw In ...
What happens when the life you’ve built no longer feels like the life you’re meant to live? At 54, Erik walked away from a long marriage, left the country he’d called home for 25 years, rebuilt in Spain, survived a stroke, and is now creating a new business in AI. His story isn’t one of reckless reinvention, but of deliberate choices, awareness, and courage to face change head-on. In this conversation, Erik and I talk about: Letting go with respect - how to end a marriage wi...
What if the root of many problems faced by middle-aged men - burnout, broken relationships, anxiety, aggression - stemmed from something hiding in plain sight: entitlement and narcissism? In this fascinating conversation, psychologist and Dean of the University of Wollengong in Australia, Simon Moss explains why our culture's emphasis on status, dominance, and self-importance might be making us miserable, and what we can do about it. Drawing on decades of research, Simon introduce...
Tik Maynard is an internationally respected horseman, author, and dad who hit midlife before realising that life is less about striving and external validation and more about understanding who you truly are and how to live from that place with honesty and purpose. Through his journey training wild horses for a high-stakes competition, Tik uncovered something deeper: how presence, vulnerability, and authenticity are not just essential in horsemanship - they’re essential in life. This is ...
What happens when the big job ends and no one’s lining up to offer another? For Andrew Middleton, that moment sparked an identity crisis, financial panic, and ultimately, a radical reinvention. In this honest and hopeful episode, Andrew shares how it felt to be “airlifted out of relevance” in his 50s, facing ageism, self-doubt, and the loss of structure that once defined his life. But he didn’t stop there. Instead, he built something new: a portfolio career based on curiosity, joy, and ...
In this powerful and quietly revealing episode, Mike Flynn talks about a mid-life experience that will sound painfully familiar to many men: ticking all the boxes, doing everything “right”, yet feeling completely disconnected inside. Mike describes how success masked an emotional emptiness he didn’t fully understand until it almost broke him. He speaks candidly about the subtle slide into burnout, the role of people-pleasing and control, and the cost of never stopping long enough to fee...
In this extraordinary episode, Kenny Mammarella-D’Cruz - known as The Man Whisperer - opens up about a life that began in chaos and fear: fleeing Idi Amin’s Uganda, growing up in a refugee camp, and becoming the emotional crutch for his family at just seven years old. He shares how these early traumas buried his identity and left him riddled with compulsions, anxiety, and isolation. It’s not just survival. It’s the slow, deliberate undoing of a life built on fear. Kenny take...
What happens when the body that carried you through life starts to break? For Waldemar, an architect and explorer from Mexico City, who built his identity around physical endurance, the answer wasn’t to stop moving but to start moving differently. In this powerful conversation, Waldemar shares how knee surgeries shattered not just his meniscus, but his sense of self. What followed was a deep personal reinvention from adrenaline-fuelled guide to founder of the Wildflow Method, a movement...
In this episode, we're joined by Josh Fineman. Josh had the career, the young family, the success but behind it all was exhaustion, self-doubt, and a relentless voice asking, “Is this it?” In this honest and revealing conversation, Josh shares how growing up as the ‘good boy’ in a high-achieving North London household shaped his adult identity. He talks about the unspoken grief that filled the family home, the hidden cost of seeking approval, and the endless comparisons that wore him do...
Trigger warning: This episode includes honest discussions about suicide attempts, mental illness, domestic violence, and trauma. Adam Smith’s story is unlike anything you’ve heard - and exactly what so many men need to hear. Sectioned at 11. In prison by 21. Found unresponsive in a car after trying to end his life. This could’ve been the end - but it wasn’t. Instead, Adam’s journey is one of remarkable survival and a relentless mission to make his pain count for something. I...
Trigger warning: includes frank discussion of eating disorders, body image, and mental health. How do you find laughter in something that nearly kills you? In this episode, comedian and mental health advocate Dave Chawner takes us on a bold, brutally honest - and often hilarious - journey through his experience of living with anorexia. But this isn’t your typical “overcoming adversity” tale. Dave doesn’t sugarcoat the reality of his eating disorder. He talks openly abo...
In this episode, we’re joined by Mark Lawry, a former lawyer and long-time stay-at-home dad, who offers a frank and considered account of what it’s like to live with depressive illness across much of adult life. Mark brings a calm, articulate perspective to a subject often misrepresented or oversimplified. He speaks plainly about how symptoms first appeared, why he delayed seeking help, and what it means to maintain a functioning exterior while privately struggling. We explore the diffi...
In this powerful and compassionate conversation, we explore what really happens when life knocks down every support structure you thought you could rely on. We talk to Matt, a qualified therapist and podcaster about his own lived experience of emotional collapse in his twenties, the slow journey into therapy, and how healing unfolds - not through instant fixes, but through trust, honesty, and rebuilding from within. Matt demystifies common myths about therapy, shares honest reflections ...
In this episode, we meet the incomparable John Ryan, award-winning comedian, social commentator, and all-around force for good. With a sharp tongue and a massive heart, John has made it his mission to reach people on the topic of mental health where they least expect it: through laughter. We explore how John’s stand-up shows have turned into standing-room-only sessions on suicide awareness, PTSD, loneliness, and resilience. From army barracks to working men’s clubs, from prisons to boar...
This episode of Mid-Life Men includes open and honest discussions about mental health challenges, including suicide. Some listeners may find this content distressing. In this frank and powerful episode, we hear from a man who has walked through unimaginable darkness and emerged not just surviving, but speaking with purpose and compassion. Through heartbreak, rejection, success, loss, and silence, Chris shares his lived experience of growing up as a Black British man navigating ra...
What happens when a man spends decades surviving, but never truly living? In this powerful and deeply personal episode, poet, coach, and men's trauma specialist Rick Belden joins us to explore how childhood wounds - especially those inflicted by emotionally absent or unsafe parents - can shape and limit a man's entire adult life. Rick shares his journey from high-achieving student to sawmill worker, reluctant software engineer, and ultimately, to a man who rediscovered his true self through a...
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