Off The Lead

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Endurance athlete Graham Macken joins me again to walk us through his most recent epic challange, a 5,000km coast to coast 'Race Across America' or Raam for short, otherwise known as the toughest race in the world.We talk death, psychedelics, near death experiences, depression, mortality, Rhabdomyolosis, sleeping in dodgey motels and a whole lot more.We also cover his hallucinations during the race and what they might mean and also delve into the realitites of cycling non stop from coast to coast, from how he was burning 22,000 calories a day {not a misprint} to forgetting who and where he was and what he was doing.In short, Graham is a bonifide mad bastard. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The thumbnail that accompanies this episode (@offtheleadofficial on Instagram) is a graph depicting someone's weight loss. I use this graph as an analogy for visualisations generally.I also speak of the importance of volume when it comes to creative output.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I begin by explaining how a sneeze just happens and 'you' are just along for the ride as it takes place. Which reminds me of when I left a puddle of tears on the floor of Drogheda A&E. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Don't underestimate the extent to which we create our own realities, outside of objective facts. The stories we tell ourselves (and others) are of the utmost importance, how we frame our experiences is of the utmost importance, the 'labels' and language we use are of the utmost importance.I get into my social media use and reframe the trinity of 'Body, Mind and Soul' from the perspective of 'nourishment'. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I open this episode with a quote from one of my boyfriends, a guy that's been hugely influential on my life, Jordan Peterson. The episode is essentially about defining your terms for success and managing your motivation to achieve said goals. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I give myself a bit of a pat on the head in this episode (something I'm not exactly prone to do) and appreciate the feeling of (to some small degree at least) that I might be on to something. I also flesh out a little more of Ian Mcgilchrists viewpoint that we have become 'left brain dominant' in our modern world. Or to use my own terminology, "soulless". Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode should probably come with the trigger warning of, "if you're black, autistic or German then brace yourself".Having endlessly used the words soul, ego, mind, spirit etc, what has come out of the wash of this episode is the idea that I should probably work towards concretising them and picking words that best describe what I'm talking about once and for all. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In a previous episode I feel as though I may have demoted the body to a container and this episode is an effort to clarify my thoughts on the roles of all 3 compoment parts of us, namely Mind Body and Soul. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I MISPOKE IN THIS EPISODE; I said that the way music effects us on an emotional level is a perversion of 'real' soulful experiences. I meant 'manufactured music'. The kind of music that is created by industry experts, unlike music that is created by genuine artists, which absolutely 'is' soulful and not in any way a perversion of anything.This episode is essentially about how 'industry heads' have hijacked our 'psychological machinery'.They've figured out what induces soulful experiences in us and have tailor made products to exploit our souls for profit, and at the expense of everyone and everything. Whilst doing it with the clearest of conscience because they themselves have been tarnished by their own actions. Tarnished to the point of being entirely self serving. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I often if not mostly talk about what makes us different and today I explore the fact that we are more more alike than different. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I've doubled up on a few of the episodes so that's why it 'appears' that I've 'jumped' to 24, I haven't, count'em!It's the 25th of March so our new years resolutions are well fucked. But, perhaps (in Irealand at least) January 1st is possibly one of the worst times to try and initiate some change. This episode explores the idea that all may not be lost and that in fact (with mearly a change in perspective) NOW is the best time to get our shit together. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.