James Cussen is a philosopher, video creator and the first Limerick man we’ve had on the podcast. He runs a very successful and useful YouTube channel titled “The Living Philosophy” through which he unpacks long-standing philosophical arguments with modern-day application. A good friend put me on to his stuff and I’ve been dipping in ever since. In this conversation, we cover what philosophy has done for James, and how exactly it can help us in a very real way in our daily lives while acknowledging the dangers of overthinking and overanalysing. We also critique some heralded figures in the mainstream and what their success might reflect about our current society. Are we running away from feeling?

Martín Prechtel is an artist, writer, musician, storyteller, teacher, healer and leading thinker..he’s also one of the funniest guests we’ve ever had on The Earthly Delights. He has lived an incredibly full life and has some profound lessons to share with whoever is open to learning. I was first introduced to the work of Martin by My dear friend Matt who shared with me “The Smell of Rain on Dust: Grief and Praise”. In this book, he speaks of the inherent interconnection between grief and praise in a truly life-affirming manner. It is one of the most influential books on how I view life and I would encourage anyone to give it a read if they are struggling with grief and joy in their own lives. To be brutally honest, I would recommend the work of Martin Prechtel to you all listening.

Brother Richard Hendrick is a priest-friar of the Irish Capuchin Franciscan Province, now based in Dublin. He was director of Youth Ministry for the Irish Capuchins for over ten years and has worked at both secondary and third level as a retreat giver and chaplain. He is deeply knowledgeable about ritual and initiation within several wisdom traditions and his work highlights the significance they play in our development as humans. With the Sanctuary Mindfulness and Spirituality Centre in Dublin, he has created many youth and teacher training programs around this perspective – the perspective being that young people need elders along with ritual and healthy forms of initiation to help them progress through the stages of human development. In this conversation, we unpack this further with Brother Richard, along with essential components of initiation, the precise role of the elder, and why our parents cannot be our elders. We also hear his critique around the confirmation, the common form of initiation for young people associated with the Catholic Church. This was a special chat with a man deeply committed to spreading insights from many wisdom traditions, not just the Christian tradition. If you would like some more from Brother Richard, he has a fantastic book out called Still Points: A Guide to Living the Mindful, Meditative Way which is available in all good bookshops.

Barry Dillon is the Programme Manager at Venture Out Wilderness Project, a registered charity and social enterprise based in the West of Ireland. Barry spent many years teaching adventure sports in places such as Honduras, Mexico, Asia and South America and returned to Ireland 10 years ago to spread the expertise and wisdom he learned to the young people of Ireland. In this podcast, we unpack his experience with the natural world, working with young people outdoors and the specific programmes Venture Out provide. Some of these programmes have helped people that haven’t yielded much benefit from traditional talk therapy and I hope this serves as some inspiration for those who feel that nothing is working to help their mental health, their relationship with themselves and the wider world. I invited Barry on because, as a Youth Worker myself, I see first-hand the lack of time many young people spend outdoors and I sense that this has broader repercussions than we are quite aware of right now, so I strongly support the work he and his team are doing at Venture Out.

Manchán Magan is a writer, traveller, documentary maker, Gaeilgeoir and polyglot. He is a very necessary presence in Irish culture right now as interest in the Irish language and Pre-Christian Ireland grows and grows. I was introduced to his work by my girlfriend late last year and was pulled by his incredible passion for the Irish language and myth. He describes in powerful detail how the language provides us with a much more rich, more mystical and interconnected perspective on the world compared to the English language that was forced onto us. His recent work can be seen as a plea to ponder the significance of an island losing its native language and as a rising call to explore the Irish language and myth with greater curiosity if one feels the call. This podcast covers all of this in more detail and insightfully highlights how the Portal of language and mythology can push us to feel a tighter connection to our ancestors and to our land.

Melissa Kramer is the founder of LIVE UTI FREE. An organization established to help support people struggling with long-term Urinary Tract Infections. They also advocate for the need for more research in this somewhat neglected area of women’s health. Why arrange this podcast? Well, I think our majority male audience could brush up on their knowledge of UTIs as it has and will impact a large percentage of the women in their lives. I have also seen the crushing impact of a Chronic or long-term UTI on my girlfriend and her mental health. She and many others in a similar situation feel alone and often dip into periods of despair- wondering if they will always experience this pain. Melissa is keenly aware of this, having suffered with this condition for many years.

In Ireland in 2023, we find ourselves in a deepening housing crisis that means fewer people than ever can afford to finance their own home, let alone achieve joyful and sustainable life.

It’s easy to forget that we once had the skills, resources and sense of community to feel confident in addressing these kinds of challenges – perhaps easier to believe that we have lost them forever. Common Knowledge is a non-profit organisation, based in Co. Clare committed to helping people familiarise themselves with such skills while empowering the community to play a more hands-on role in their living arrangements. Spider Hickman is a Co-founder of Common Knowledge and programme director. Originally thinking that architecture was her path, she diverted to contemporary art, then residential development before finding her happy place back on site, this time with tools in hand.

Moe Aloha is a facilitator, DJ, writer and a man who’s devoting a lot of his time to improving relationships; people’s relationships with themselves, their loved ones and their relationship with the universe around them. The initial intention of this podcast was to discuss grief, and we did. Still, this podcast also turned out to be a healthy conversation between men who experience the world quite differently. I found it to be a wide-ranging reflection on where we are collectively with our felt sense of pain, grief, loss and trauma. This isn’t one of the episodes where an expert gives us the answers, this is an episode where 3 men listen to each other and respectfully express their thoughts.

In a world of everything, everywhere, all the time it can be very challenging to have time to pin down what’s really important to us and keep the focus on these aspects of ourselves and our lives, in the midst of omnipresent content and distraction. Ronit Herzfeld is a woman who cares deeply about helping people reach an intimate connection with themselves, their deepest selves. She is a social worker specializing in psychiatric crisis and trauma, and a social activist devoted to alleviating human suffering by guiding people to live a conscious, open-hearted life. In 2014, she began co-creating a community of diverse individuals who are deeply committed to authenticity, and to consciously transforming our relationships toward ourselves, each other and our planet. This community is called Leap Forward and I have left a link below for anyone who is interested in learning more about their work. This conversation begins to unpack the key processes and perspectives that have aided Ronit's and Leap Forward's growth towards a richer, more trusting and more connected life experience.

Dr Jacqui Dillon is an activist, trainer, writer, and speaker specialising in hearing voices, dissociation, trauma, abuse, and recovery. She is the Chair of the Hearing Voices Network in England and a key figure in the international Hearing Voices Movement. Her survival of childhood abuse and subsequent experiences of using psychiatric services inform her work. She is an outspoken advocate and campaigner for trauma-informed approaches to madness and distress. Jacqui is part of a collective voice demanding a radical shift in how we understand and respond to experiences currently defined as psychiatric illnesses. In this episode, Jacqui talks about her experience with hearing voices, her relationship to the voices and the power of community and support in aiding her healing and the healing of many across the world. I think this can be a huge turning point for those listening who are not too knowledgeable about the phenomenon of hearing voices.

Robbie Tomkins is a remarkable person who has overcome all manner of hurdles. We spoke to him about his struggles with binge eating and his honesty, transparency and clarity regarding the subject made this podcast one to remember. If you believe you suffer from binge eating or just have an unhealthy relationship with food then this one is for you!

Dr Piera Briganti is a trilingual therapist and a trained EMDR therapist. Life led Dr Piera to face different adversities, but also to develop an interest in the influence of events on the mind and personality. She chose to graduate in clinical psychology and become a psychotherapist because she wanted to teach people how to stop suffering and learn to overcome difficult moments. Thanks to EMDR, Dr Piera has managed to overcome past experiences and realised that it could really help a lot of people to overcome their traumas quickly and deeply.

Ciara Sherlock is a hard woman to put in a box, but she can be definitely described as someone who is deeply invested in helping people improve their relationships with themselves and the world around them. You might find her holding space for a woman becoming a mother, supporting a person through an altered state of consciousness or working with someone with pain or trauma manifesting physically. She weaves her knowledge and experience of bodywork, altered states of consciousness and shamanism (or spirituality) to create a holistic process that encompasses mind, body and spirit. In this podcast, I speak with Ciara about the importance of what is referred to as integration work after a psychedelic journey, in essence how we can derive meaning from the experience and how this meaning can help us in our everyday lives. We discuss what psychedelic integration can entail and what can happen if one moves from a trip to trip without attempting to bring these experiences into the day-to-day. We also talk about the Women’s Circles that Ciara facilitates and the healing power of being held by a group of people as you reveal the layers of your soul (yes, that is a Kanye West lyric). But sincerely, I have benefitted hugely from men’s circles and it was lovely to hear Ciara describe similar uplifting shifts and deeper connections occurring for women too.

This week we chatted with Environmental activist Manuel Salazar who has been associated with the organisation Extinction Rebellion in Ireland since its inception in 2018. Extinction Rebellion is a global environmental movement, with the aim of using nonviolent civil disobedience to compel government action to avoid tipping points in the climate system, biodiversity loss, and the risk of social and ecological collapse. The media I consume often depict Extinction Rebellion as quite extreme and lacking a clear structure to achieve its aims. I invited Manuel on to talk about this and much more. For anyone frustrated at the lack of large-scale environmental response or who feels heavily judged by environmentalists for not living a carbon-conscious lifestyle – this is the podcast for you.

Ronni Abergel is an author and founder of the Human Library Organization, where real people with real stories are on loan to readers instead of books. At the Human Library, people have the opportunity to talk with others who are often discriminated against to find out about their lives and to get a better idea of what’s it like to be them. A man who is deeply committed to facilitating communication and making our society a less judgemental place, Ronni started the Human Library at a festival in Denmark 20 years ago and it is now located in 85 countries across the world. This conversation covers a lot, including the collective intolerance of the intolerant, our lack of curiosity and the power of conversation. We also discuss the process of changing people’s opinions and perspectives on issues and how this usually takes an extended period of time. This serves as inspiration for having conversations with people we disagree strongly. We won’t change their mind immediately and vice versa but if there is curiosity and respect, greater understanding can be achieved.

Our guest this week is Dr Iseult Twamley, who is a Clinical Psychologist and Open Dialogue Trainer/Supervisor. She is Clinical Lead of the Irish Open Dialogue implementation in West Cork, which she initiated with a successful implementation grant. Since 2012 she and the team there have been implementing Open Dialogue as part of the Adult Mental Health Service. This project has been very well received by service users and families and described as “transformative” by staff involved. Put succinctly, Open Dialogue is an innovative, network-based approach to psychiatric care. It could well be a future model of care in Ireland and beyond in the coming years. We invited Iseult on to discuss Open Dialogue more thoroughly, how it came about, how does it work, who can it potentially help and much more. For anyone who has been frustrated by the mainstream medical model, this will be a very important listen. There are alternative approaches out there helping people with a wide array of conditions

Sarri Gilman is a psychotherapist, author, and speaker and has over 35 years of experience as a marriage and family therapist. She also has decades of experience as a community worker starting organisations such as Cocoon House and One Childhood lasts a lifetime before deciding to focus totally on people's development. Her 2014 book ‘Transform Your Boundaries’ highlighted how acknowledging, setting and clearly articulating our boundaries can deepen our relationship with ourselves. Sarri is widely regarded as a leading world expert on boundaries so it was an absolute honour to have her own to talk about her area of expertise. So what exactly are boundaries? Sarri describes it simply as our yeses and our nos. What we feel comfortable doing and what we do not. So why are we talking about boundaries? Well, Sarri tells me that as a psychotherapist, she believes that boundaries are at the heart of why most people end up in therapy. These can be boundaries between ourselves and our partners, our parents or guardians, our jobs and even our use of technology. I have benefited hugely from Sarri’s work and I am delighted I can share this conversation with you.

This week our guest is Lee Teresa Moore who is an advocate for raising awareness about dissociative disorders and complex PTSD. We are also joined by her lovely partner Paul. In this podcast, Lee discusses some of the major events in her life that now, can be viewed retrospectively as trauma resurfacing. As our previous guest Dr. Mike Lloyd mentioned in our conversation a few months ago, some brains in a response to incredibly shocking and traumatic events can eradicate the event or events from conscious memory or create several personalities to help process the trauma. This episode hopes to shed light on what it is like for someone in this position, such as Lee who after decades of misdiagnosis was diagnosed with dissociative amnesia several years ago. We also hear from her partner, Paul on the challenges of this condition as someone on the outside looking in. This may be a difficult listen for some as harrowing events are mentioned.

Milo O’Shea had a very significant impact on my development in my teenage years and beyond. He was a unique figure in my secondary school who never shied away from showing his students how he really felt. This wasn’t always pretty but it was human. This aspect of humanity is crucial to the growth of young people, in my opinion. Milo was one of the few teachers in my life that really demonstrated an interest in the student’s development, as a person – not just academically. I specifically remember him telling my class one day that it will be our attitude and perspective ‘out there’ that will dictate our experience of life rather than the results of upcoming exams. As the years have passed by, these words have never veered too far away from my regular thought rotation. I wanted to record a conversation with him to talk about how he cultivated that perspective in himself, the need for deep internal questioning, how he views teaching, the power of music and poetry to evoke inspiration and much more. This was a special chat for me and I’m very grateful he agreed to come on.

Matthew Thompson is an entrepreneur, host of two podcasts, a father, a husband and a friend. You might remember our interview last year with Dr Steve Ilardi, who is the author of the mega-famous book “The Depression Cure, the 6 step programme to beat depression without drugs- Well, Dr Steve linked myself and Matt together and since then I’ve learned a lot from him. This is a long conversation but I truly believe there’s so much in it. In this podcast, we cover dopamine (Matt has recently interviewed Dopamine expert Dr Anna Lembke), what is in our control and what is not and how delineating this is huge for our mental health. We discuss non-violent communication. We also talk about the need for compassion and confrontation in our relationships and the lifelong work of learning the different combinations of the two we need for the situations we find ourselves in (yes, we allude to the recent Will Smith/ Chris Rick incident).