Squid Game is a absolute breakaway hit currently sitting as the most popular show to ever grace the selection on Netflix. In this epsiode of The Mindset By Dave Podcast I am joined by Gambling Guard as we examine this phenomenon and ask what can Squid Game teach us about Gambling Addiction?

Needless to say HUGE Squid Game spoilers throughout this interview.

Dan King (aka King's Court) and his wife are both an amazing pair of content creators I have met through Twitch, but also the wonderful parents of Dante and Aurora, two children who both have autism and both have extremely different experiences with it.

If there is one averarching message to this interview it is that just like no two neurotypical people are alike, no two people with Autism are alike too. Autism awareness is only just begining to take a foothold in the minds of those who are not directly impacted by it and often the world's idea of what autism "looks like" follows some very specific stereotypes. We hope to broaden people's understanding of just how much of a spectrum there is within autism and other neurodivergencies.

In this episode King (with some awesome input from Queen) shares their experience of raising two children with very different needs, along with the exploration of our own minds that comes when we begin to notice neurodivergent traits in ourselves that have maybe just been chalked of to being "lazy", "too loud" or "easily distracted" during our own upbringings.

This may be a more agressive title than you are used to from me, but I think this is a topic that needs addressing in a very direct way. We talk a lot about burning out and needing breaks for things when it comes to US and we are constantly telling other people to take it easy... but at the same time we can often be guilty of assuming that any person that doesn't have other plans is free and available and should be giving their attention to us!

If we see a friend online when they haven't responded to a message we sent them earlier it can leave us feeling neglected. It's hard enough to assume that the person is  busy when they haven't checked their phones in a while, but when we see that "last online 14:37" and we sent a message at 10am it can be hard not for us to think "well they've been online, so why haven't they responded to ME?"

The long and short of it is this, YOU are entitled to your own downtime, without having to justify or explain it to others. But the same is true the other way around. Your friends are also entitled to spend THEIR downtime however they please, and if that involves leaving you "on read" for a little while longer, it's on US to respect that and that my friends is why the more aggressive title, because I believe the responsibilty for changing this situation lies with us!

Justin Gonzalez found success with his singing very early on in his career. Being invited as a headlining soloist across Europe as a teenager it seemed as though he was set for a career with a phenomenal upward trajectory. His health on the otherhand had other plans.

Having grown up with his mother wheelchair bound through MS (multiple sclerosis) it always existed in the back of his mind that he may have the life altering condition too. Then one day after experiencing some serious problems with his vision, these fears were confirmed.

Living with MS has forced Justin to adapt in many ways in order to continue his passion of singing and performing and his journey has not been without it's fair share of mental health difficulties too. However this man is an absolute warrior who is obsessed with human connection and interaction and now works tirelesly to connect with his audiences through music, comedy and storytelling.

A true MS warrior and an absolute hero!

Dan Cleaver known more as the Beatboxer Beat Cleaver is someone who has lived with neurodivergence his entire life, but by being "different" himself he has been able to connect with so many others who the world consider different too.

Having struggled at school, Beat stumbled into a job working with people with Autism and was exposed to many wonderful people who just could not communicate in the same way we consider to be "nromal" but had been labeled as not being able to communicate at all.

As someone who had always liked to communicate in a different way - through the medium of music - beat was able to find different methods of communication that allowed him to connect with those who had been previously unconnected.

Now as an international Beat Box artist and stream host he extends this same concept of new forms of communication to people accross the world, touching the hearts of many, including your humble podcast host!

I'm going a little bit Nike, or maybe even Shia LaBeouf today and screaming "JUST DO IT!" from the top of my lungs! But seriously I want to talk about why the first step really is the hardest and why we do need to get going if we ever want to overcome this.

We are going back to basics here and discussing stress, one of the most important concepts in mental health, that although is not the sole CAUSE for mental illness, is an exacerbating factor in all of them.

Lobow is someone who I had the pleasure of being on his podcast recently and you know when you just CLICK with a person? Well that was the case here.

I found his approach to absolutely everything and his unique takes on many things to be extremely empowering so I just had to bring him to each of you.

In this interview Lobow talks about how to get where he wanted in life he needed to figure out an alternative strategy from the one traditional school promotes and that is how he came up with the S.P.A.R.K. acronym.

We laugh, we cry, we share stories and we HOPE together for a brighter future. If you enjoy this half as much as I did then you will love it!

Amy West at the time of publishing is a proud mother of a gorgeous 1 day old girl, but the path to get here was long, convoluted and often seemingly hopeless. Fertility is often something people take for granted, until struggles arise. For many people out there it is a difficult process and for others it is impossible.

On this episode Amy - who is also a personal trainer and keen anti-diet culture advocate - talks about fertility, fitness and food and we draw some interesting comparisons with weight stigma/diet culture and people's entitlement to knowing the ins and outs of your family choices!

What is ADHD? Geraint Evans answers this question daily in witty and insightful ways, sharing his own lived experience with Neurodivergence. On this episode of the Mindset By Dave Podcast we get together and share stories of our neurodiverse experiences and talk about different ways which neurodiversity could be accomodated for.