LATE BLOOMERS

Do you have ADHD and spend money you don't have? This week on LATE BLOOMERS, Rich and Rox run through ten ways to get the dopamine hit without the overdraft, half from Rox's own life and half from the best of Reddit.

There's the shopping casket (fill a £1,000 basket, then never press buy), the two-week graveyard, and the hobby commitment bar Rox invented after one hot Pilates class and a couple of hundred quid of kit she never used again. She's opened her first ever savings account, accidentally saved £100 by being too lazy to find her bank card, and picked a £50 Crocs backpack over a posh handbag to celebrate her album charting. She still hasn't bought the limited edition golf bag, and Rich would like everyone to know what it costs.

Ex-bank manager Rich adds his own rule to finish: it doesn't have to be the best one on the market, and second hand is fine.

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Usually on LATE BLOOMERS, Rich and Rox talk about what's hard about having an ADHD or autistic brain. This week they flip it: ten things each of them genuinely envies about the other's.

Rox would give anything for Rich's ability to follow IKEA instructions, find the car in a Tesco car park and keep a perfect credit score. Rich envies Rox's endless ideas, her 400% excitement over a Crocs bag, and a delusion so strong it becomes reality, which is how they ended up with a body doubling app, bestselling books and a house five minutes from his daughter.

It gets real too, as Rox admits that at almost 42 she's never felt like a functioning adult. Funny, sweet, and a reminder that the other brain in the house isn't just the problem. Sometimes it's the answer.

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Are you working a job you love—or staying in one that’s slowly making you miserable? This week, Rich and Rox dig through their entire career histories: first jobs, bad bosses, promotions, burnout, quitting, career pivots, failed dreams and the strange ways neurodivergence shaped what work did and didn’t suit them. Rox talks about going from thriving in fast-paced service jobs to feeling completely out of her depth in a graduate accountancy role, before eventually leaving banking for music; Rich reflects on spending 20 years at Barclays, the managers who shaped him and what finally made him change direction. 

It’s really about career shame, starting again and the idea that job-hopping, quitting or getting it wrong doesn’t mean you’ve failed—you might just be collecting the pieces that eventually lead you somewhere that fits.   

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CHAPTERS  
00:00 The Career Graveyard  
01:24 Rich’s first job at Sainsbury’s  
03:52 Rox starts “Helping Hands”  
06:06 Rox’s first proper job  
09:27 Rich becomes a manager at 19  
13:27 Why ADHD can make interviews easier than the actual job  
14:49 “Something was missing in me”  
16:06 “You need to go home”  
18:59 Rox moves into banking  
21:28 Mixing up BUY and SELL on a trading floor  
22:32 Loop Earplugs  
23:22 Rich’s life at Barclays during the credit crisis  
25:22 The bosses you never forget  
27:55 Rox starts writing songs  
29:21 Leaving the bank for music  
30:33 The record label collapses  
33:30 Starting again in Amsterdam  
34:31 The beginning of ADHD Love  
35:13 What old jobs still teach you  
37:47 “Every wrong turn was actually a right turn”  
38:55 Why messy career paths are completely normal  
39:45 Rich’s forgotten childhood dream  
42:10 Final thoughts

Are you tired all the time, even when it feels like you haven’t done much? This week, Rich and Rox unpack ten everyday things that can drain their neurodivergent batteries: masking, disrupted sleep, sensory overload, basic self-care, hyperfocus, social hangovers and the effort of feeling everything so intensely. Rich reflects on the exhaustion of pretending all day at the bank and why losing his routine has made looking after himself harder; Rox explains why everyday tasks rarely feel automatic, her brain switches on the moment she wakes up and an exciting plan can become an exhausting commitment.

It’s really about the effort other people don’t see, recognising when you’re running on empty and giving yourself permission to rest. Along the way, there’s a dispute over bedroom boundaries, an unexpectedly deep dive into golf balls and a shared decision that the next activity should probably be a nap.

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Your partner turns up late to a date. Red flag, or ADHD? They correct every tiny detail in your stories. Red flag, or autism? This week on LATE BLOOMERS, Rich and Rox play Red Flag or Neurodivergent, working through ten dating behaviours the internet loves to call toxic and asking what's really going on underneath.

Most of it comes straight from their own relationship. Rox has forgotten their anniversary more than once (one year she apologised with a song on TikTok) and used to go eight hours without a text during songwriting sessions. Rich shuts down mid-argument, corrects her stories because "I don't need to be right, I just need it to be right", and admits he's disgustingly neutral when she's venting about someone who's upset her. They also get honest about a recent wobble where Rox felt Rich didn't fancy her anymore, and how one awkward conversation fixed it.

The takeaway: neurodivergence explains a lot, but it doesn't excuse everything. A partner who listens, talks and adapts is the real green flag.

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This week on LATE BLOOMERS, Rich and Rox sit the Great Adulting Test: 20 questions pulled from Reddit and the internet about what actually makes someone a functional adult, with producer Max keeping score.

Rox lost her licence in her 20s for running red lights, thinks "important mail" means her skincare deliveries, and has 350 unread WhatsApp chats. Rich has never paid a bill late in his life but will not do small talk with strangers, full stop. Neither of them knows their bank balance within £100, and nobody can agree who actually booked the dentist.

It's ADHD vs autism at its most petty, and one of them wins comfortably. Keep score at home and let us know in the comments.

Get our book THE CHERRY TREE THEORY
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Listen to the audiobook
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Shame doesn’t say you did something bad. It says you are bad—and that belief can quietly ruin your whole life. This week, Rich and Rox confront ten things they’ve struggled to forgive themselves for, including addiction, debt, divorce, executive dysfunction, parenting mistakes and feeling like they’d wasted their lives.

Rich shares the darkest consequences of his gambling addiction, while Rox opens up about the shame of being unable to manage basic tasks and believing she couldn’t trust herself. It’s raw, occasionally brutal and somehow still funny—because your worst mistake doesn’t have to become your entire identity.

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CHAPTERS
00:00 The difference between shame and guilt
01:38 “I can’t let anybody see how I live”
03:03 “What’s that smell?”
05:03 “My mistakes are unforgivable”
05:50 Rich’s gambling addiction
07:30 Why everyone needs a redemption story
08:13 “I’ve wasted my life”
11:02 “I’ve failed in relationships”
14:03 “I’m a terrible friend”
16:06 Loop Earplugs
17:08 “Why don’t I want to be touched?”
18:40 “I can’t trust myself”
21:27 Being an emotionally unavailable father
23:23 “I’m scared I’m a bad parent”
26:13 Shame about autistic sensitivities
27:41 Final thoughts

You might take the mask off after work—but are you actually taking it off at home? This week, Rich and Rox expose ten ways ADHD and autistic people can still perform around the people they trust most, from saying “I’m fine” and agreeing to plans you secretly dread to hiding sensory overwhelm, exhaustion and chaos.

They talk fake facial expressions, panic-cleaning, apologising for moods that have nothing to do with you and why “I’ll do it later” often means something completely different. It turns out feeling safe enough to be honest can involve more awkward conversations—and fewer forced cuddles.

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The ADHD brain can generate approximately 900 brilliant ideas before breakfast. Finishing one of them is where things get complicated. This week, Rich and Rox share ten ways to harness ADHD creativity without losing the plot, abandoning the project or accidentally bankrupting yourself.

They talk hyperfocus, impossible goals, “dopamine dollars,” building the team your brain is missing and why confidence comes after you start—not before. Rox also discovers she may have leaked the title of another album, which rather proves one of the points.

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CHAPTERS
00:00 ADHD and creativity
02:18 When lightning strikes, run towards it
06:07 Make the goal feel impossible
08:43 Don’t spend your dopamine dollars
10:35 Rox accidentally leaks another album
11:27 Keep your creative project shiny
13:17 Nobody starts confident
15:16 Loop Earplugs
16:22 Build the team your brain is missing
20:54 Don’t become your own bottleneck
23:29 Don’t make permanent decisions in temporary emotions
25:59 Market like you don’t have ADHD
29:45 Don’t bankrupt yourself
33:07 Final thoughts

For years, Rich and Rox told everyone they were "the couple that never argued." Not true anymore. They argue all the time now, they're just better at it. This week they're breaking down exactly how to argue well so it doesn't end in a break-up, using a real recent row of theirs as the case study, plus a few cringe lessons from watching The Ultimatum.

If you're in a relationship, this is the episode you need. Rich and Rox talk through the five rules that stop an argument turning into a breakup: why screaming shuts down all communication, why you can't demand your partner love you the way you love them, why trying to "win" an argument means you've already lost, why calling out your own bullshit disarms a row faster than anything else, and the biggest one, learning to translate what your partner actually means instead of just what they're saying. They also redo one of their worst arguments live, so you can hear exactly what it should have sounded like the first time.

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