Evolving Door

Samantha Moyo gave me a big warm hug at TEDxEastend in 2013, she had just recently sold Morning Gloryville, a sober raving movement that had grown massively over the previous year or so.

I was delighted to sit down with her for this interview ten years on to discuss her life pre and post-Morning Gloryville. She was born and grew up in Zimbabwe and moved to Derbyshire in the UK at 15 years old to a bit of a culture shock. She talks about her glorious Uni days in Brighton as the perfect place to come out and experience being a young free gay person, attending parties, then organising parties and experimenting with her sexuality, drugs and alcohol.

She moved to London and hit it hard and it all became a bit too much after a while which ultimately led to Morning Gloryville, where young professionals would come to Sam's early morning sober raves before work. It became incredibly popular and spread to cities all over the world.

These days she has found her spiritual side and has trained as an interfaith minister and believes that each of us stepping into our spiritual leadership will help solve many of the world's problems.

You can find out more about Sam and the work she is doing now including her membership of a blossoming community of creative people called Moyo Magic at www.samanthamoyo.com

In the last few years, we have been learning about neuro - divergence including Autism and ADHD in our own family. I knew of Ash as an up-and-coming film maker in the Midlands and saw him post that he was neuro-divergent and that he was into Airsoft and thought I would love to interview him to learn more about his experience growing up with Autism. My son is also massively into Nerf guns and thought it would be cool to invite Ash over to do the podcast and also to bring his Airsoft guns so we could have a go in the garden. I also wanted to introduce my son to someone with Autism who is doing well in something they love.

Ash is a cinematographer Based in the UK and works nationally and internationally. He is neurodiverse and on the Autism Spectrum and is an advocate for diverse crewing on all productions. He has experience in a wide range of production styles and Genres and various budget levels. He has worked on small two or three person teams up to crews of 30+ and everything in between, and shot a mix of Narrative (Feature and short), documentary, music videos and commercials as well as branded content and corporate. working for clients such as The BBC, Warner Brothers and M&C Saatchi.

Check out his work at https://www.ashconnaughton.com/

I am very excited to share the latest episode of the Evolving Door podcast.

This is a very special guest and the very first interview I recorded for the podcast, please welcome Raghunath Yogi.

Raghunath is a bundle of love, of fierce wit, of hurricane-level energy and of piercing passion for personal growth, individual authenticity and spiritual progress. He is larger than life, extremely engaging and personally very inspiring.

We talk about his dissatisfaction with stereotyped life, going into Hew York as a young teenager and listening to alternative bands and then starting a band.

He shares his quick rise to fame, and his search for his heart's calling which led him through straight-edge music, punk, and then bhakti yoga, or the yoga of devotion (which he describes as punk to the punk).

Buckle up, tune in and enjoy.

Go to https://www.raghunath.yoga to find out about Raghunath's yoga training, retreats, podcast and much more.

I loved talking to Jonah Sachs.

He is an author, speaker and viral marketing pioneer. His new approaches to digital media have been critical in bringing the ideals of social change — such as equity, empowerment, responsibility and transparency — to the forefront of business and popular culture.

He had over 60 million views on his videos even before YouTube was a thing.

His first book 'Winning The Story Wars' catapulted him onto the global speaking scene talking about storytelling for brands and causes and how to be heard in a world of media noise and clamor.

He has a warmth about him which shows he cares deeply about people and the planet. He is also a deep thinker and strives to move beyond the comfortable and always into fresh and stimulating waters. His latest book 'Unsafe Thinking' How to Be Nimble and Bold When You Need It Most is a great example of this.

I hope you enjoy the conversation, I am sure you will find it stimulating in many ways.

You can find out more about Jonah and his books at www.jonahsachs.com

This is one of my favourite episodes. Although Madi and I had a very different start in life, we both spent many years completely absorbed in the culture, philosophy, and community of the Hare Krishna movement. We also both shared similar experiences in later life that helped us make sense of our experiences and broaden our minds on many issues.

At 5 years old Madi was taken to America from Ireland by his parents and told he was going for a sleepover at a boarding school there and when he woke up the next morning, his parents had gone and he was on his own.

At 7, he was put into another school, this time in India. The boys and girls were not allowed to speak to each other, so when he grew up and started to become more interested in girls, he felt like they were speaking a different language.

He is now married and has children. He and his wife used to exchange glances across the temple room floor but never really spoke. They exchanged letters for about 10 years before seeing each other again in person and starting their relationship. Madi's experiences as a young person growing up and with his own parents, who separated, led him to a fear of commitment and also of abandonment which he had to overcome as he embarked on his own journey into family life.

University in California was a huge culture shock for him and he started to reassess all of the cultural and philosophical beliefs he had been handed as a child.

One of these beliefs was that a son was more valuable than a daughter, which is something his father told him when Madi had a girl as his first child. Having a daughter whom he loved so much made him challenge many views he previously held, realising they were misconceptions and ideas he felt no longer served him or his growing family.

It inspired him to sponsor a girl to pursue her education in India through a charity called FFLV and later to produce a CD album of all female artists dueting with him on a variety of devotional songs called Bhakti Without Borders. The album broke new ground as typically it was only male singers that produced albums or that led the singing in the temples. It raised a lot of awareness about gender equity and also money for the girl's education charity, going on to get nominated for a Grammy which was epic.

Madi has now found his own place within the faith and also in the broader world. He talks about finding your rung and living an authentic life as your own person and I think he is an amazing example of this.

I hope you enjoy it.

If you do please leave a review for the podcast on Apple podcasts or let us know your thoughts by email at [email protected] or on social media.

Madi Brinkmann - @unfilteredmadi @Madi Brinkmann

Ravinol Chambers - @beinspiredrav @Ravinol Chambers

Shikha Uberoi is an amazing person.
She excelled at professional tennis (top 100 in the world, No.1 in India), went into TV and then Tech, and has done it all with such a great sense of purpose.
She is one of five sisters and her parents (especially her father) gave them tremendous self-belief that they really could do anything, and that there was no limit. They have each gone on to achieve amazing things in their lives.
Shikha has always embodied a sense of service and spirituality but she found it very difficult to move from professional tennis to her passion for TV and storytelling to make a difference.
It felt like she was giving up her dream for tennis until she understood she was just refocusing the passion inside her in a new direction.
We explore lots from:
The meaning of success
When to give up to not give up
The importance of embracing the journey
The power of your parents believing in you
Understanding a lot of conservative behaviour is driven by fear and it has its place
Ultimately the way forward is dialogue and understanding.
Hope you enjoy it, let us know what you think.

You can connect with Shikha on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/shikhauberoibajpai/

#evolvingdoorpodcast #lovethejourney #nolimitsperspective #parentsupport #BeyondLeftAndRight

Namarasa Das's parents became Hare Krishna when he was one year old. His dad got really into it and his mum was very unsure, especially since she saw it as a threat to stable family life. He grew up part of a spiritual community on weekends and a typical American high school kid Monday to Friday.

He started to have doubts about his faith and needed to figure it out for himself so he embarked on a life-changing trip to India to study philosophy there and came back ready to commit his life to spiritual ideals.

He talks about the importance of humour on the spiritual path, his love of memes and why we shouldn't take ourselves too seriously. We talk in-depth about having to grow up and mature in spiritual life, learning to let go of certain aspects of culture if they aren't helpful and definitely not letting anyone rule your life too much.

Fatherhood, marriage, progressive and traditional approaches are all in there too.

Have a listen. 

I so loved talking with Jacquline, it filled me with inspiration and hope and brought a few tears to my eyes. I hope it will do the same for you.

We recorded this conversation a few years back and with the release of my documentary 'A Girl Can Touch The Sky' the podcast episode got delayed. I am delighted to be able to release it now in time for International Women's Day 2023. 

Jacquline is an amazing human and an amazing woman and a powerhouse for good, having founded and built Acumen who has invested a billion dollars in entrepreneurs at the bottom of the pyramid.

In this episode she shares stories from her amazing life as well as stories from her new book 'Manifesto for a Moral Revolution'. The stories will blow you away.

I love her honesty and acknowledge of the monsters and angels within all of us and her commitment to making sure the angels win.

I hope you enjoy it, links to acumen and the book below.

Acumen Fund - Changing The Way The World Tackles Poverty - https://acumen.org

Manifesto For a Moral Revolution (book) - https://amzn.eu/d/eTPMID0

I loved the BAFTA award-winning show The Revolution Will Be Televised so much, with its cutting satire and hilarious pranks tackling serious issues it was the perfect combination of silly and serious all in one.

Jaz O'Hara is the amazing Founder of The Worldwide Tribe and Host of the Asylum Speakers podcast.

Moved by the refugee crisis in the Calais Jungle, she shared a post on social media and woke up in the morning to 65,000 shares and so many messages. 

It started her journey to better understand the issues facing Asylum seekers and for many years now she has been sharing stories and advocating for fair treatment and rights for those experiencing displacement and the many challenges that leaving your home to find a safer situation entails.

In this episode, we explore her work and learn about her amazing parents who have fostered 4 boys from Libya, Sudan, and Eritrea who were in need of asylum.

We also discuss amongst many things, the amazing response to the Ukrainian war and explore why the response to asylum seekers from other parts of the world has not been as enthusiastic. What is it in our own biases that can leave us vulnerable to propaganda about THE OTHER?