Claim OwnershipSlay Your Dragons - Malcolm Stern
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To become equal to the dream sewn within us, our heart must break open and usually must break more than once. That’s why they say that the only heart worth having is a broken heart. For only in breaking can it open fully and reveal what is hidden within." - Michael Meade
This is a series of podcasts based on the premise explored in Malcolm Stern’s acclaimed book of the same name, that adversity provides us with the capacity to develop previously unexplored depths and is , in effect , a crucible for self reflection and awareness. Malcolm lost his daughter Melissa to suicide in 2014. It slowly dawned on him over the following few years that he was being educated and an opportunity was being presented where new insights helped him forge a path through his grief and despair. As part of that cathartic journey, he wrote “ Slay Your Dragons with Compassion ( Watkins 2020 ) where he was able to describe some of the practices that had helped him shed light on a way through the darkness.
Having run courses for a number of years for Onlinevents, he entered into a collaboration with John and Sandra Wilson, to put together a series of podcasts which featured interviews with people who had found enrichment through facing into, and ultimately overcoming adversity. The intention was to provide inspiration for its listeners to map out and challenge their own adversity. Some of his guests are well known - others less so, but each has a story to tell of courage, insight and spiritual and emotional intelligence.
More than 50 podcasts have been published so far and include Jo Berry’s moving story of transforming her fathers murder by the IRA in the Brighton bomb blast ( Sir Anthony Berry) by engaging with Pat McGee ( the man who planted the bomb) and finding forgiveness and meaning and an unlikely friendship. Andrew Patterson was an international cricketer who has found purpose and meaning after a genetic illness paralysed him and ended his sporting career. Jay Birch was an armed robber and meth addict , who woke up to his true self and now mentors and coaches other troubled individuals and Jim McCarty, a founder member of the Yardbirds , shares his story of his wife’s death from cancer and the deep spirituality he found in the wake of her passing.
All the podcasts are presented by Malcolm Stern. Who has worked as a group and individual psychotherapist for more than 30 years. He is Co-Founder of Alternatives at St James’ Church in London and runs groups internationally.
This is a series of podcasts based on the premise explored in Malcolm Stern’s acclaimed book of the same name, that adversity provides us with the capacity to develop previously unexplored depths and is , in effect , a crucible for self reflection and awareness. Malcolm lost his daughter Melissa to suicide in 2014. It slowly dawned on him over the following few years that he was being educated and an opportunity was being presented where new insights helped him forge a path through his grief and despair. As part of that cathartic journey, he wrote “ Slay Your Dragons with Compassion ( Watkins 2020 ) where he was able to describe some of the practices that had helped him shed light on a way through the darkness.
Having run courses for a number of years for Onlinevents, he entered into a collaboration with John and Sandra Wilson, to put together a series of podcasts which featured interviews with people who had found enrichment through facing into, and ultimately overcoming adversity. The intention was to provide inspiration for its listeners to map out and challenge their own adversity. Some of his guests are well known - others less so, but each has a story to tell of courage, insight and spiritual and emotional intelligence.
More than 50 podcasts have been published so far and include Jo Berry’s moving story of transforming her fathers murder by the IRA in the Brighton bomb blast ( Sir Anthony Berry) by engaging with Pat McGee ( the man who planted the bomb) and finding forgiveness and meaning and an unlikely friendship. Andrew Patterson was an international cricketer who has found purpose and meaning after a genetic illness paralysed him and ended his sporting career. Jay Birch was an armed robber and meth addict , who woke up to his true self and now mentors and coaches other troubled individuals and Jim McCarty, a founder member of the Yardbirds , shares his story of his wife’s death from cancer and the deep spirituality he found in the wake of her passing.
All the podcasts are presented by Malcolm Stern. Who has worked as a group and individual psychotherapist for more than 30 years. He is Co-Founder of Alternatives at St James’ Church in London and runs groups internationally.
78 Episodes
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At fourteen, Barry Goddard felt his life had been stolen from him—pointed toward his father’s chain of vet surgeries, the eldest son expected to inherit the measurable success of a materialistic path. He started vet school, lasted five months, and walked away with a relief he could barely name: what he wanted, he later realised, was to become a psychonaut—to live close to the sacred. Malcolm Stern sits down with his friend Barry to follow that trail from public-school expectation through hallucinogenic initiation into the shadow, a deep experience of faith in a Buddhist community, and the midlife collapse that pulled the plug on spiritual “brownie points” until astrology and shamanism gave him his life back.
We talk about herd animals and unspoken group rules, Jung’s “doing gladly that which you have to do,” and why a so-called spiritual path can delude us as easily as a worldly one. Barry describes learning shamanic journeying in the late nineties, leaving Buddhism to reclaim his own metaphysical autonomy, and discovering that his way of working is embodiment—shape-shifting—rather than only drum-journey structure. Writing arrives late: an astrology blog from 2006 becomes a fifteen-year apprenticeship; books on astrology and shamanism follow; and during this conversation his fantasy trilogy about shape-shifting is literally being delivered to the door.
Near the end we ask the dragon question. Barry’s answer is to need a sword in both hands—to be a warrior and soft, “like armadillo”: tough outer surface, soft heart—fighting not only on his father’s terms but from a wider, more open intelligence. If you care about faith beyond dogma, shadow initiation, astrology, shamanism, creative vocation, or finding the courage to do the unthinkable when the herd says stay, this conversation stays close to lived experience. Subscribe, share it with someone who needs it, and leave us a review so more listeners can find Slay Your Dragons With Compassion.
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Send us Fan MailA 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 around them is unsafe. We speak honestly about trauma, insecure attachment, suicidal feelings and the long echo these experiences can have in relationships, self-trust and the ability to feel at home in your own body.From there we follow the thread of healing as a lived practice rather than a tidy story. Anna shares how studying psychology and sociology, entering counselling, and spending time in survivors’ groups helped her break patterns like codependency and self-erasure. We reflect on the “unbroken part” that keeps people moving, and why presence, compassion and language matter so much when someone is suffering. If you care about trauma recovery, emotional resilience and how to rebuild a sense of self after abuse, this dialogue stays grounded in what that work actually looks like over decades.We also turn towards purpose and longevity, including Blue Zones research and the idea that health is not only diet and exercise but also community and meaning. We challenge the cultural messages aimed at women about ageing, beauty and “giving up”, and we explore why soulful purpose can be the most sustaining kind of energy. If the conversation resonates, subscribe, share it with someone who needs it, and leave us a review so more listeners can find Slay Your Dragons With Compassion.This Podcast is sponsored by Onlinevents
Send us Fan MailSomeone 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 when the room does not know what to do with your grief. We dig into the part people rarely prepare you for: not only your own pain, but the faces, comments, predictions, and judgements that come with it. Claire shares why she went dancing just four days after her son died, how authenticity can shock people, and why grief does not get “better or worse” so much as arrive in waves. We talk about practices that keep us connected to life, including meditation, qigong, and good psychotherapy, plus the importance of protecting yourself from spaces that flatten your natural process. We also explore death denial, the stigma that still surrounds suicide, and why language matters, including moving away from “committing suicide”. From mosaics to planting oak trees, we look at rituals that help love stay present, and how approaches like EMDR can ease guilt and support a continuing bond with the child who has died. If you have ever felt pressure to grieve the “right” way, this is a steadier, more compassionate alternative. If this resonates, subscribe, share it with someone who needs it, and leave a review so more people living with grief can find these conversations.This Podcast is sponsored by Onlinevents
Send us Fan MailSpiritual 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 lives, not something we use to float above them. Joanna shares her own dramatic catalysts: moving to Bali, feeling “activated” by the land, a motorbike accident that stripped away what she thought she had sorted, and a later kundalini activation that forced deeper integration. We dig into shadow work, nervous system imprinting and the difference between performative spirituality and lived embodiment. If you’ve ever felt suspicious of “love and light” messaging that skips pain, this will help you name what’s missing and why it matters. We also go straight to vulnerability, grief and the protective strategies we build after loss. Joanna speaks openly about her father’s slow death from lung cancer, the end of her marriage as grief surfaced, and the abandonment beliefs that can form when love and loss collide. From there we explore wisdom that doesn’t rely on credentials, intuition that lives in the body, acceptance that is not agreement, and a bigger question: what might humanity become if we moved beyond separation and into service? If this conversation lands, subscribe, share it with a friend who needs it, and leave us a review. What part challenged you most, and what part felt unmistakably true?This Podcast is sponsored by Onlinevents
Send us Fan MailA 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 too, because Jonathan’s work has always been about the big picture. He has spent years in international development in Africa, helped shape the ecovillage movement, and led a master’s programme in economics at Schumacher College. His view of ecological economics lands as a challenge and an invitation: treat economics as moral philosophy, stop assuming endless growth equals wellbeing, and ask instead how we live well on a shared planet in a way that is equitable and kind.Then we come back to the personal losses that don’t tidy themselves away. Jonathan speaks about living in intentional community, the permission to grieve openly, and the slow realisation that old wounds still have a voice. He shares the ongoing heartbreak of being separated from his children, and the deep “rupture” of boarding school trauma, alongside the inner practices that help him keep his humanity intact.If you care about resilience, chronic illness, grief, chosen family, sustainable living, or a more human kind of economics, you’ll find something here to hold on to. Subscribe, share this conversation with someone who needs it, and leave us a review with the line that stayed with you most.This Podcast is sponsored by Onlinevents
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