David de la Torre has been to Japan more than 40 times, drawn back by its craftsmanship, hospitality, rituals and uncompromising attention to detail.

We talk about how obsession shapes a life: the sacrifices of entrepreneurship, loneliness, resilience, the pursuit of excellence, Japanese whisky, a surreal Yakuza encounter, and what it means to realise that perhaps you’re already living the dream you’ve been chasing.

A conversation about ambition, devotion and the cost, and beauty, of caring deeply about something.

In this episode:

00:00 — Why Japan

04:30 — 42 Trips to Japan

08:16 — Japanese Hospitality and Excellence

13:00 — Building a Life Around an Obsession

19:05 — Inside a Yakuza Bar

26:28 — Excellence vs Perfection

30:41 — Are You Already Living the Dream?

38:14 — Self-Sabotage

42:10 — Entrepreneurship and Sacrifice

44:03 — Failure

46:38 — Just Try It

48:01 — AI vs Lived Experience

55:08 — When Friends Stop Calling

58:01 — The Cost of Obsession

1:00:31 — Solitude

David's Restaurants in Madrid, Spain:— Don Panko (Chamberi & Malasaña locations): https://www.instagram.com/donpankokatsu/?hl=en—Okonomi San: https://www.instagram.com/okonomi.san/?hl=enDavid's IG: https://www.instagram.com/david_dlt84/?hl=en

He fled a war at 10. At 27, he calculated his way to the Olympics with an excel spreadsheet and ten centimeters to spare.

Slaven grew up in the shadow of the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Olympics, fled his home country as a child due to war, and years later became the first-ever Olympic decathlete to compete for Slovakia, qualifying for Beijing 2008 on the very last event of the very last competition.

But the harder story is what came after: competing for years while closeted, coming out to a family who struggled to accept it, and watching his career decline under that weight. We talk about holding devotion and emotional destruction in the same body, and what it actually takes to rebuild after.

In this episode:

00:00 — Introduction

3:12 — "Sport saved my life and almost destroyed it"

6:35 — Fleeing war at ten

14:37 — The spreadsheet moment that got him to Beijing

30:48 — The voice at the start line

34:18 — Coming out to his parents

44:38 — Falling in love with the process, not the outcome

55:38 — "They kicked me out of the nest — but told me I could fly"

A Necessary Obsession is a show about devotion, what it demands, what it costs, and what's left of it when you finally have to face what it cost you.

Slaven Web: https://slavendizdarevic.com/

Slaven IG: https://www.instagram.com/slavendiz/

What happens when the thing you’ve spent your whole life trying to become is no longer the thing you’re best known for?Ian Gunther trained for the Olympics from the age of four and a half. 18 years, four NCAA titles, one knee surgery later, the Paris 2024 Olympic Games came and went without him. What he built instead was a following of millions as a creator.

0:38 — What happens when devotion outlives the goal

2:06 — Why "never being satisfied" felt so good

10:47 — Learning to live with fear

14:04 — Simone Biles and the twisties, explained

19:40 — The knee surgery and the fear of "what if"

29:19 — How the content career actually started

36:57 — Final advice: enjoy the journey

ABOUT A NECESSARY OBSESSION:Conversations on devotion, identity, and what it costs to chase something all the way.Through conversations with athletes, creators, founders and people who have built their lives around a pursuit, the show explores the complicated line between being driven by something and being consumed by it.

Ian on IG: https://www.instagram.com/iandgunther/?hl=enIan on YT: https://www.youtube.com/@iangunther Ian on TT: https://www.tiktok.com/@ian.gunther?lang=en

Ultra runner William Goodge ran across Australia in 35 days, breaking the previous record. Jason Brooks was the one who made sure he survived it.

A former Marine, Jason Brooks spent 35 days without a day off, crewing William Goodge through a 3,800km crossing of the entire length of Australia. Limited sleep, no room for weakness, and a front-row seat to what a body does when the mind refuses to quit.

In this episode, we talk about what it actually costs to devote yourself to another person's pursuit.

We get into the actual mechanics of holding someone together at the edge of what a body can do, the fight that happens in the mind long before it happens in the body.

Jason's book recommendations:

• Iron John — Robert Bly
• Chop Wood Carry Water — Joshua Medcalf
• The War of Art — Steven Pressfield

Chapters:

0:00 – Intro: Crewing William Goodge's 3,800km Run Across Australia

0:56 – How Jason Became Lead Crew: Friendship, Psilocybin, and Trust

4:22 – Marine Corps Conditioning and 35 Days of Relentless Work

9:21 – Mind vs. Body: Where the Real Battle Happens

12:10 – From Marine to "Run Philosopher": Burnout, Buddhism, and Stoicism

20:47 – Obsessive Personality and the Audacious Vision

24:25 – Devotion vs. Captivity: The Line Into Self-Destruction

30:22 – Iron John and the Breaking Point on the Australia Crossing

39:24 – Running for My Mother: Generational Motivation and Purpose

47:33 – Book Recommendations: Chop Wood Carry Water & The War of Art

Jason on IG: https://www.instagram.com/jason.everette.brooks/

"I believe the pursuit of elite sport is the best and the worst thing to happen to someone."

In this first solo episode of A Necessary Obsession, it's a solo episode with host Mathilde Delorme to lay out the premise of the show through her own story. A childhood sprinter who found belonging through winning, she chased a level she never quite reached, and came out the other side confused, empty, and addicted to a feeling she couldn't name. She talks through the sacrifice of the body, the addictive high of transcendence on the track, the emptiness that can sit underneath a medal, and the sacred rage of walking away from a sport that gave her everything and took just as much.

0:00 –"Sport is The Best and Worst Thing"

1:25 – The Sprinter Who Almost Made It

3:00 – The Body as Sacrifice

6:49 – Transcendence and the Addictive Loop

9:20 – "Everyone Claps for the Wrong Reasons"

12:12 – What Nobody Sees on the Podium

15:26 – Chewed Up and Spat Out

17:57 – Ego, Competition, and the Nike Controversy

20:25 – Reading the Poems

24:16 – What This Podcast Is