Crisis What Crisis with Andy Coulson

By Andy Coulson

Hard-earned lessons from people who've faced the worst and come back stronger.

Hosted by Andy Coulson. Follow for weekly insights into the art of the rebuild.

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The podcast currently has 224 episodes available.

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Number 1: ERIN BAKER: “I'm sick and tired of being resilient”
This is a very unusual episode. It is rare that we would choose to have someone join us on the podcast so close to their crisis – usually our guests come to these conversations with the clarity that a few years' distance can bring. Erin Baker is just weeks on from the death of her partner, James, and still very much living in it. What she offers instead of distance is something rarer: the raw, unfiltered honesty of someone grieving out loud, in real time. A warning – this conversation is powerful and at times very difficult, and some of the themes may be upsetting. Erin Baker is one of the most respected motoring journalists in the country – the youngest and only female motoring editor on Fleet Street in her day. But in the autumn of last year, her life came apart. Her partner of thirteen years, James, was diagnosed with an aggressive, terminal brain tumour, and the blows kept coming: her father died, one of her sons was rushed to hospital, the family dog was put down, and a car was written off in a collision with a deer. Wave after wave, all at once. Then, this year, James died. He was 53. Rather than retreat, Erin made the conscious decision to grieve in public, writing for The Times and keeping a diary on Substack called Postcards from Grief, documenting James's dying, the days since, and the unexpected things his death has taught her. She joins Andy for a conversation about resilience and its limits, about loss and control, about black humour and love, and about what actually carries us through the very worst of it. She is, without a shadow of a doubt, someone we can all learn from. POWERED BY KINGSLEY NAPLEY Kingsley Napley are the kind of lawyers I wish more people knew about – there to help you make the right decisions, protect what matters, and build real resilience when the pressure is on. Visit www.kingsleynapley.co.uk for more details. FOUR LESSONS FROM ERINBeing "strong" can be a trap. If people decide you're resilient, they assume you're coping – and leave you to it. Sometimes the bravest thing is to admit you're not fine, and to ask for the help you need.Honesty is what makes people feel less alone. It's not the tidy, theory-shaped version of grief that helps others but the messy, unguarded truth. Say the thing that feels too close to the bone; it's often the thing someone else desperately needs to hear.You can't control the future, because it doesn't exist yet. Make your plans, but hold them loosely, they're only ideas of what you'd like to happen. Learning to live a day at a time is the only way through.Find your release. For Erin it was writing, walking in nature, even paint-by-numbers – something meditative to pour the fear and grief into. When you can't carry it all in your head, give it somewhere to go. CHAPTERS 03:37 – “I'm sick and tired of being resilient”: the exhaustion of always being the strong 07:52 – Grieving out loud: the decision to write through it 11:55 – The formidable mother, and a childhood that built the muscle 13:55 – Keep buggering on 15:20 – Fighting her way to Cambridge, and up a male-dominated newsroom 20:23 – Meeting James 23:05 – The life that looked perfect from the outside – and wasn't 25:08 – The Amazon night shift: the proudest she ever was of him 30:30 – The diagnosis 39:49 – When the blows kept coming 47:02 – Her son's seizure: the worst thing she's ever seen 51:02 – Learning to hold your plans loosely 53:22 – The last night, and a hug she'll never forget 57:04 – The chaos of loss 1:06:05 – The stranger by the roadside who knew exactly what to say FOLLOW ERIN'S WRITING Postcards from Grief – https://erinbaker1001.substack.com/ FOLLOW ERIN BAKER Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/erinbakerauto/?hl=en LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/erin-baker-58901a48/ FOLLOW CRISIS WHAT CRISIS? Instagram – www.instagram.com/crisiswhatcrisispodcast TikTok – www.tiktok.com/@crisispod This was a Crisis What Crisis Production – Rex Fisher (producer), Ioana Barbu (studio manager), Fred Sharp (research), Johnny Seifert (audio), Jasper Cullen (video)
August 18, 20261h 11min
Number 2: FRANK GARDNER: The day I should have died
On June 6th 2004, Frank Gardner was in Riyadh filming what was meant to be a routine piece of background footage when an Al-Qaeda cell opened fire. His cameraman, Simon Cumbers, was killed. Frank was shot six times and left for dead. One surgeon later told him he'd arrived at hospital the colour of a lab coat, bleeding from every wound faster than they could pour the plasma in. It was, in the truest sense, the day Frank should have died. That day split his life in two. Before it, he was a restless Arabist who'd hitchhiked across the Middle East with nothing in his pocket, spent a decade in banking, turned down MI6, and talked his way into the BBC in his mid-30s to become its first ever security correspondent. After it, he was partially paralysed and in daily pain – yet back at work within ten months, and has spent the twenty years since reporting from the very places that nearly killed him. He describes crossing an invisible bridge to a new version of himself, this conversation is about what that crossing actually cost. POWERED BY KINGSLEY NAPLEY I know what it is to have the right legal support around you when facing a crisis. Kingsley Napley are the kind of lawyers I wish more people knew about – there to help you make the right decisions, protect what matters, and build real resilience when the pressure is on. This episode is powered by Kingsley Napley. Visit www.kingsleynapley.co.uk for more details. FOUR LESSONS FROM FRANKDon't waste your energy mourning what you can no longer change. Pour it into what you still can. When crisis hits, there's a fork in the road. One path is self-pity – and it's entirely justifiable. The other is deciding to make the most of what you've got left. Choosing the second is a daily struggle.Look outwards, not inwards. Fill your life with the things that make you feel useful and alive. Fixating on your own troubles is a trap – curiosity about the world around you is the way out.Volunteer for the work no one else wants – the weekends, the bank holidays, the night shifts. It's how you make yourself indispensable, and how you get your shot when it finally comes. CHAPTERS 05:18 – The daily indignities most people never see 08:57 – Why he refuses to let it define him 11:33 – Where his grit really came from: two extraordinary parents 14:19 – The bold early decisions that shaped a life 20:38 – Turning down MI6 – and the self-awareness to know why 27:45 – How to break into a career when there's no job at the end of it 30:27 – The attack: what actually happened that day 31:02 – Seven months in hospital, and living with the what-ifs 39:45 – The one thing he's still bitter about 42:15 – Losing Simon, and finding a way through the grief 44:37 – "You'll never walk again" – the second hammer blow 48:05 – The letter from the BBC that gave him something to aim for 50:42 – Going back to Saudi Arabia to face it down 53:52 – Why he doesn't spend his life grieving BUY FRANK'S BOOK Ballistic – https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/178763549X?tag=prhmarketing2552-21 FOLLOW FRANK GARDNER Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/frank.gardner/?hl=en X – https://x.com/FrankRGardner FOLLOW CRISIS WHAT CRISIS? Instagram – www.instagram.com/crisiswhatcrisispodcast TikTok – www.tiktok.com/@crisispod This was a Crisis What Crisis Production – Rex Fisher (producer), Ioana Barbu (studio manager), Fred Sharp (research), Johnny Seifert (audio), Jasper Cullen (video)
July 21, 20261h 3min
Number 3: UNDERSTANDING ANXIETY: Why It Isn't the Enemy
In this country, one in six of us will experience significant anxiety at some point in our lives. It's an epidemic that doesn't care about class, wealth, gender, age or race – and yet, as this episode argues, anxiety isn't the enemy. It's information. A signal to be read, not a fault to be removed. In this special compilation episode, Andy Coulson draws on his own experience of anxiety attacks and revisits six past guests – a broadcaster, a journalist, a content creator, an adventurer, a designer and a cellist – who each faced anxiety in a very different form and found their own way to live alongside it. POWERED BY KINGSLEY NAPLEY I know what it is to have the right legal support around you when facing crisis. Kingsley Napley are the kind of lawyers I wish more people knew about – there to help you make the right decisions, protect what matters, and build real resilience when the pressure is on. This episode is powered by Kingsley Napley. Visit www.kingsleynapley.co.uk for more details. FULL EPISODES: Steve Peters: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/crisis-what-crisis-with-andy-coulson/id1517015748?i=1000547878428 Christian O'Connell: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/crisis-what-crisis-with-andy-coulson/id1517015748?i=1000659675816 Bryony Gordon: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/crisis-what-crisis-with-andy-coulson/id1517015748?i=1000650752366 Alex Goldie: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/crisis-what-crisis-with-andy-coulson/id1517015748?i=1000729186695 Mark Beaumont: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/crisis-what-crisis-with-andy-coulson/id1517015748?i=1000618838895 Anya Hindmarch: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/crisis-what-crisis-with-andy-coulson/id1517015748?i=1000768689727 Julian Lloyd Webber: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/crisis-what-crisis-with-andy-coulson/id1517015748?i=1000779874143 FOLLOW THE GUESTS: Christian O'Connell: https://www.instagram.com/mrchristianoconnell/?hl=en Bryony Gordon: https://www.instagram.com/bryonygordon/?hl=en Alex Goldie: https://www.instagram.com/goldiealexx/?hl=en Mark Beaumont: https://www.instagram.com/mrmarkbeaumont/?hl=en Anya Hindmarch: https://www.instagram.com/anyahindmarch/?hl=en Julian Lloyd Webber: https://www.instagram.com/julian.lloydwebber/?hl=en FOLLOW CRISIS WHAT CRISIS? Instagram – www.instagram.com/crisiswhatcrisispodcast TikTok – www.tiktok.com/@crisispod This was a Crisis What Crisis Production – Rex Fisher (producer), Johnny Seifert (audio)
September 01, 202644min
Number 4: JULIAN LLOYD WEBBER: The Day the Music Stopped
Julian Lloyd Webber is undoubtedly one of the country's greatest living musicians – the man who, perhaps more than anyone of his generation, took classical music out of the concert hall and into the mainstream. But in October 2013, ten minutes into a recital in a Suffolk seaside town, the power drained from his right arm and he found he could barely draw the bow across his cello. Within six months, at 63, he was forced to retire – unemployed overnight and stripped of the thing that had defined him since he was a boy of thirteen. For half a century, the cello had been Julian's whole life. He toured the world, playing with everyone from Yehudi Menuhin to Elton John, took an Elgar recording to a Brit Award and his brother's Variations to number two in the pop charts. He was the first officially licensed busker on the London Underground and the only classical soloist at the London Olympics closing ceremony. Then, at 64, he sat the first job interview of his life and went on to lead the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire into a £57 million new home, winning it royal status along the way. On his 75th birthday – and while quietly managing a prostate cancer diagnosis – he walked back onto the Wigmore Hall stage and played again. And now, twelve years after the power drained from his arm, Julian is touring – a full run across Ireland this autumn with his cellist wife, Jiaxin. His memoir, Bows & Arrows, is out now, and this conversation is about the abuse he survived as a boy, the instrument he loved and lost, and how you rebuild an identity when the thing that made you who you are is taken away. POWERED BY KINGSLEY NAPLEY I know what it is to have the right legal support around you when facing a crisis. Kingsley Napley are the kind of lawyers I wish more people knew about – there to help you make the right decisions, protect what matters, and build real resilience when the pressure is on. This episode is powered by Kingsley Napley. Visit www.kingsleynapley.co.uk for more details. FOUR LESSONS FROM JULIANTalent and hard work aren't enough on their own – you need passion, because that's the only thing that gets you up to do it all again after a bad night.A second string to your bow can end up saving your life. When you lose the thing that defined you, throw yourself into whatever else genuinely moves you – even if it's nothing like what you did before. Find something that truly absorbs you, and the healing takes care of itself.When a setback knocks you down, picture the alternative. For Julian, the fear of ending up disappointed with his life was the fuel that kept him going.Healing is not forgetting; it's reaching the point where the trauma you carry doesn't drag you down. CHAPTERS 04:01 – Growing up in a chaotic, bohemian home 09:12 – The day on the Tube that took his childhood 11:03 – Why some things you don't get over – and shouldn't have to 15:21 – His father's warning that lit the fire 17:39 – Fifty years at the top: how he kept the flame alive 27:25 – The longest relationship of his life 33:12 – A football bet, a number two record, and a gold disc 35:01 – The night the power drained from his arm 39:02 – Losing your job, your income and your identity overnight 39:59 – The first job interview of his life, at 64 44:22 – The daughter's remark that brought him back to the cello 47:57 – Facing a cancer diagnosis 51:32 – Why he refuses to slow down, even now BUY JULIAN'S BOOK Bows & Arrows – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bows-Arrows-Julian-Lloyd-Webber/dp/1837360588 SEE JULIAN LIVE Julian's Irish tour with his wife, Jiaxin – https://julianlloydwebber.com/events/ FOLLOW JULIAN LLOYD WEBBER Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/julian.lloydwebber/ FOLLOW CRISIS WHAT CRISIS? Instagram – www.instagram.com/crisiswhatcrisispodcast TikTok – www.tiktok.com/@crisispod This was a Crisis What Crisis Production – Rex Fisher (producer), Ioana Barbu (studio manager), Fred Sharp (research), Johnny Seifert (audio), Jasper Cullen (video)
August 04, 202654min
Number 5: UNDERSTANDING SHOCK: The body's crisis handbreak
Shock is a fundamental part of almost any crisis. It's a state of complete operating system override which, when left unacknowledged, can turn into something far more damaging. In this special compilation episode, Andy Coulson revisits five past guests who each experienced shock in very different ways, and found very different routes through it. POWERED BY KINGSLEY NAPLEY I know what it is to have the right legal support around you when facing crisis. Kingsley Napley are the kind of lawyers I wish more people knew about – there to help you make the right decisions, protect what matters, and build real resilience when the pressure is on. This episode is powered by Kingsley Napley. Visit www.kingsleynapley.co.uk for more details. FULL EPISODES: Johnny Mercer: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/crisis-what-crisis-with-andy-coulson/id1517015748?i=1000482235919 Rupert Soames: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/crisis-what-crisis-with-andy-coulson/id1517015748?i=1000700198554 Dr Richard Shepherd: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/crisis-what-crisis-with-andy-coulson/id1517015748?i=1000533310865 Jill Halfpenny: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/crisis-what-crisis-with-andy-coulson/id1517015748?i=1000661591052 Kate Bowler: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/crisis-what-crisis-with-andy-coulson/id1517015748?i=1000762523544 FOLLOW THE GUESTS: Johnny Mercer: https://www.instagram.com/johnnymercermp/?hl=en Dr Richard Shepherd: https://www.instagram.com/drrichardshepherd/?hl=en Jill Halfpenny: https://www.instagram.com/jillhalfpenny/?hl=en Kate Bowler: https://www.instagram.com/katecbowler/?hl=en
July 14, 202625min