Desperately Seeking Wisdom

This is a special edition of Desperately Seeking Wisdom.

Just after we completed the third season a few months ago, Craig began began talking to Jonathan Scott Lee. In 2023, Jonathan's daughter, Caitlyn, took her own life at the exclusive Wickham Abbey School. Her tragic death was covered widely in the media and forced him to confront some hard questions about why Caitlyn did what she did. 


As a regular listener to the series, Jonathan wondered if others might like to hear about what he went through and learned; in this episode, you'll hear Jonathan is brave, thoughtful, and challenging in explaining how his neurodiversity affected him coming to terms with what happened to him and his family.

If you've been affected by discussions of suicide, you can find help at the Samaritans website: www.samaritans.org

Baroness Tanni-Grey Thompson is one of Britain’s most successful athletes, having won 16 Paralympic medals, including 11 golds. 

In part two of our conversation, we talk about what Tanni has learnt from moving from being a elite athlete to working in the House of Lords...as well as the wisdom her father gave her, when he told her to think of herself as a 'Venn Diagram'. 

This is the last episode of our current season. All of our episodes, from every season, are available now and we have a fantastic variety of guests for you to explore if you haven’t heard them already including George Alagiah, Richard Curtis, Amber Rudd, The Reverend Richard Coles and Ruth Davidson.

This epsiode was produced by Red Bicycle.

Baroness Tanni-Grey Thompson is one of Britain’s most successful athletes, having won 16 Paralympic medals, including 11 golds. Since retiring, she’s transferred her drive to a different arena, the House of Lords. 

In part one of our conversation, we discuss where her positive attitude comes from and explore how she’s achieved such remarkable success throughout her life. We discuss how she has learnt not to react to the steady stream of prejudice she faces and she also refers to the action movie Under Siege, a first for the podcast...

Part two of our conversation is out on Thursday 4th April. 

This episode is produced by Red Bicycle.

Sir Trevor McDonald is one of our country’s most celebrated journalists and news presenters.  

In part two of our conversation, Sir Trevor talks in more detail about some of the defining moments of his career, including his reaction to hearing Nelson Mandela’s wisdom when he was released after nearly three full decades in prison.

This episode is produced by Red Bicycle.

Sir Trevor McDonald is one of our country’s most celebrated journalists and news presenters.  

He rose from a poor childhood in Trinidad, to cover the biggest stories of our times - and became one of the most famous people in Britain while he was at it. It’s a unique story and in part one of our conversation we talk to Sir Trevor about what his childhood taught him and how an aspirational family environment prepared him for an extraordinary career.

Part two of our conversation is out on Thursday 28th March. 

This episode is produced by Red Bicycle.

As part of season three, this is a special compilation episode featuring guests from season one and two. 

In the last couple of years we have had many inspiring conversations with people including Richard Curtis, the late George Alagiah, Amber Rudd, Sian Williams, David Baddiel and many more. You can listen to all of these episodes on our website - www.desperatelyseekingwisdom.com - or whereever you get your podcasts.  

But to give you a taste of these conversations, we’ve compiled a collection of some of the most memorable insights from our guests. First-up, wisdom. What rules do each of these guests live by?

This compilation features the following people:

Matt Forde, George Alagiah, Isobel Hardman, Ruth Davidson, Reverend Richard Coles, John Simpson, Richard Curtis, Tanya and Nadim Ednan-Laperous, Sian Williams and Kenny Imafidon. 

Robi Damelin is a peace activist based in Israel. She's a leading voice in The Parents Circle - a grassroots Israeli-Palestinian organisation, made up of over 600 families who’ve all lost family members in the conflict and campaign for a non-violent response.

Robi’s life was changed forever when her beloved son David was killed by a Palestinian sniper, twenty years ago. Her response was to reject violence and the idea of revenge and work for peace, something she's done ever since. 

In this conversation, we discuss how her work is needed more than ever after the attacks of 7th October 2023 and find out what she's learnt from 20 years of travelling the world meeting people who've lost family members in conflicts and attacks.  Robi also shares her secrets for coping with 
her emotionally demanding work....which include music, whisky, laughter and cats. 

This episode was produced by Red Bicycle.

On Desperately Seeking Wisdom this week, we’re doing something we haven’t done before – speaking to a guest who has already been on the podcast, the comedian Matt Forde.

We recorded Matt's first chat on the series less than a year ago and when we did Matt was about to get married. But soon after the happy day, he was diagnosed with cancer - a spine tumour that required major surgery towards the end of 2023.

A few months on, Matt wanted to share how he coped with his cancer and the agonising pain. This is part two of our chat and we discuss why Matt thinks he's always had an optimistic mindset and how that helped him during his illness. We also look ahead to a year of politcal turmoil in the UK and US.

This episode is produced by Red Bicycle.

On Desperately Seeking Wisdom this week, we’re doing something we haven’t done before; speaking to a guest who has already been on the podcast, the comedian Matt Forde.

We recorded Matt's first chat on the series less than a year ago and when we did Matt was about to get married. But soon after the happy day, he was diagnosed with cancer - a spine tumour that required major surgery towards the end of 2023.

That's why this week we're talking to Matt to see how he's getting on. As you’ll hear, the recovery process has been intense and there’s still a long way to go. But Matt wanted to share how he coped with the agonising pain - and what he’s learned.

This is part one of our conversation, part two is out on Thursday 14th March.

This episode is produced by Red Bicycle.

James Cracknell is a double Olympic Gold medallist, adventurer, and now Parliamentary candidate.

In part two of our conversation, we discuss the horrific cycling accident that James suffered which changed his life forever - how he coped with it and what he's learnt from it. We also discuss his constant desire to tackle new challenges and what that says about who he is.

This episode was produced by Red Bicycle.