Jim Burnside and Craig Mackail-Smith reflect on how the podcast is being received by people from all walks of life and it allowing them to open up about their own experiences. The previous episode with Barry Fry showed us an insight to how he lives his authentic life and how this has enabled him to live out his version of a dream life. Barrys key message was to embrace being yourself. This episode really takes a focus on how the media can make or break a footballer (or anyone) with their own process of how stories should be told and from what version. Mental health can really take its toll on those impacted and how people can be negatively impacted with those opinions shared in the media. Non league teams are typically displayed as relatable people with day jobs and the further up the leagues you go there appears to get a wider divide and detachment of footballers not being relatable or having ‘normal’ lives & routines. As Jim and Craig discover both of them have never been trained in media (responses to interviewers) Craig explains how he leant as he went along to say certain things to have a good rapport but nothing that could be taken out of context and used against himself or his teammates. This was then an automatic response he provided straight after games and talking to anyone which resulted in his true thoughts and feelings to be suppressed. This is then looked into with more common stories that Craig and Jim talk about. Craig shares a personal heartbreak story of his time at Brighton & Hove Albion where his partner, Amber Fry experienced a miscarriage whilst they were out shopping for the day. Craig tells his version of events and the challenge they both faced being in a public place with no-one who could help in that moment. Minutes after, Craig was live on Talk Sport national radio to discuss an upcoming game of Scotland vs England and Craig once again switches his emotions and focus into work mode for media. Not long after Craig suffered a breakdown whilst playing a game and on the pitch where this time his emotions couldn’t be suppressed and he cried in the changing room once the game had finished. Jim holds space for Craig to share these never before told stories about how Craig & Amber navigated their way through this situation. Craig reflects back in that moment, they highlight there are so many other men that may be going through their own personal pain and its not to compare stories with pain but acknowledge that they have gone through something and they may have not yet unpacked it for themselves. Craig asks Jim about players going against the grain and the possibility of consequences as a result of doing so. Was there a difference in senior players vs youth players? There’s some great players thrown into this and for reasons. You may not think! Embracing individuality is key and although it is tricky with so much media and social media around to distort real stories, is knowing what is your own truth and learning to stand in your own power. Be sure to tune in for all the details on this weeks episode, lastly please subscribe and follow if you enjoy each episode.