Porridge for brains

I’ve finally emerged from my post-Golden Spurtle and Covid burnout, and once again am musing on what I can do next time to try to take it easier! Featuring some plans for next year and a word to the haters.

When life gives you lemons in the form of: a holiday two weeks prior to competing in The Golden Spurtle world porridge championship, to a destination 7 hours' drive from home, that turns out to be 1 hr away from Carrbridge, the competition's location. In this scenario, you make sweet, sweet lemonade in the form of a clandestine recce to check out the village hall and an attempt to butter up the unflinching and wonderful Karen Henderson.

An overspill of joy and oats after Nick and I spent so long talking we had to cut two episodes.  This one is approximately 25 minutes spent almost entirely talking about porridge. Nick is competing alongside Hester in this year's 29th annual Golden Spurtle WORLD PORRIDGE MAKING CHAMPIONSHIP. We discuss recipes, methods, the joy of oats and take the chance to scope out some of the competition. Check out Rude Health: rudehealth.com  Send me questions for my Q&A episodes: @haverhester on Instagram

Hester spoke to Nick Barnard, co-founder and chairman of Rude Health (@rudehealth), for a very long time. There was just way too much ground to cover, and it all felt way too exciting, so this episode 3 is PART ONE, soon to be followed by episode 4, PART TWO. In this PART ONE, we're talking about curiosity, simplicity and looking to the world around us to eat right.  Check out Rude Health: rudehealth.com Send me questions for my Q&A episodes: @haverhester on Instagram

Coming to you with a different format - one rainy Thursday morning, I allowed my wappy brain to wander and verbalised some recent lessons learned. Recently I crashed into burnout, which is part two of a cycle I've spun through for as long as I can remember. But this time, things were different: I watched myself as I went through the high energy and relentless pushing, and for the first time I saw what was at play. Spoiler alert: burnout isn't just an inescapable feature of the way my brain is wired. There's more to it than that, and there are steps I can now take to minimise it. Links mentioned in episode: Unmasking autism by Dr Devon Price PhD: penguinrandomhouse.com/books/688819/unmasking-autism-by-devon-price-phd/ Send feedback and questions to my Instagram: instagram.com/haverhester/ For nobody but me, a couple of language corrections: *out on the other side not out of the other side *eyes open wide not widely

Welcome to episode 1! Hester and Lucy nerd out on beer, planning processes, preparation as meditation and grain origin stories. Lucy Stevens is a self-proclaimed 'beer nerd' and the founder of Closet Brewing Project (@closetbrewingproject), Edinburgh's smallest brewery. She works as a software engineer by day and runs the brewery, with her wife Lizzie, part-time. Their first beer is going on sale on Sunday 21 August - buy it here: closetbrewingproject.co.uk Other links from the show: @pilotbeeruk pilotbeer.co.uk @campervanbrew campervanbrewery.com @queerbrewing thequeerbrewingproject.com

Host Hester introduces herself and shares a little about the upcoming series. New episodes every other week! Follow @haverhester on Instagram for haphazard updates - want to be on the show? Slide into those DMs!

Bec - you know where to find me

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