Kent Bray is a counsellor and mentor who draws on a 35 year career in elite rugby, the intense world of City of London trading, and recovery from a serious cocaine addiction, to support others in need. He works with individuals, teams and corporations, particularly men struggling with a loss of identity, structure or confidence after life in professional sport.

This conversation was such a blessing. Thank you Kent for being so open and honest. We cover a wide expanse of ground - elite performance, manhood, addiction, death, vulnerability, surrender.

Kent played rugby for Australia U21, Queensland, New South Wales, Oxford University and Harlequins, and after retiring at 30 became a Director of Citibank. Kent explains how his descent into cocaine addiction that led to deep soul-searching, eventually awakened him to new clarity and a life of compassion and vital purpose after rehabilitation.

Kent would like anyone struggling with the issues we discuss in this conversation, to contact him confidentially for help or further guidance. He can be reached at:

[email protected]

www.kentbraycounselling.co.uk

Kent Bray - Linkedin

Here’s my conversation with Jane Davidson, the former Minister for Environment, Sustainability and Housing, and Assembly Member for Pontypridd in the Welsh Assembly, known as the Welsh Assembly/Senedd Cymru.

Jane’s stated mission is to mainstream sustainability and she lives this with conviction on her smallholding in West Wales. We get behind her stellar list of achievements as a politician, to understand the woman, her convictions, her drive to improve well-being for all, and where her deep-rooted passion for the natural world began.

Jane’s career demonstrated that conviction politicians can change things fundamentally, and for the good of everyone. She was Minister for Education and Lifelong Learning between 2000 and 2007), during which time she introduced transformative educational reforms including the Foundation Phase for 3-7 year-olds, the Welsh Baccalaureate, and integrated Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship into the Welsh curriculum.

As Minister for Environment, Sustainability and Housing between 2007 and 2011 Jane was the architect of groundbreaking legislation to make sustainable development the central organising principle of Welsh government, legislation which ultimately became the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015. This legislation has proved to be internationally significant well beyond the UK - a benchmark for the world.

Jane’s more publically known environmental initiatives included introducing the world’s first plastic bag charge, implementing recycling regulations that elevated Wales to second best in the world for municipal recycling, creating the Climate Change Commission for Wales, and establishing the Wales Coast Path.

https://janedavidson.wales/

Linkedin

This conversation about childhood and play was deeply personal and an absolute joy. Jesse Coffino is the CEO of Anji Education, Inc. He has spent the last decade developing the theory and practice of Anji Play on the world stage. Anji Play is a beautiful philosophy for childhood flourishing founded by Ms Cheng Xuequin in Anji County, China. A fluent Mandarin speaker and interpreter, Jesse has taught thousands of educators in every continent and is a sought after speaker at universities and organisations around the world. He is also a father, theorist, strategist, and complex problem solver.

Jesse would be happy to hear from anyone wanting to further explore the issues discussed during this conversation:

https://linktr.ee/coffino

https://www.anjiplay.co/

Linkedin

Henry Oliver is a writer, thinker and critic. He writes the popular literary Substack The Common Reader and his excellent 2024 book Second Act is a study of late-blooming talent. We discuss why the humanities matter, stoicism, separating great writing from the writer, routes to truth, and reading literature as a great way of thinking. Henry reads some poetry beautifully and I mangle some Chaucer.

Henry Oliver

The Common Reader

Todd Kashdan is insatiably curious. He is also a fabulous conversationalist with a mischievous, maverick streak.

Todd is a Professor of Psychology, and the founder and director of the Wellbeing Lab at George Mason University in Virginia, USA. Todd is the most highly cited psychologist working in the field of curiosity research in history, with over 56,000 citations. He is in the top 1% of global scholars. His lab has produced over 250 peer-reviewed journal articles on well-being and resilience, psychological flexibility, meaning and purpose in life, curiosity, and managing social anxiety.

Todd’s work has shown that being curious opens the door to more than just happiness - it is a powerful trait that is too often overlooked on the road to finding purpose and meaning in life. He says it leads to critical thinkers armed with courage, resilience, and a love of learning and discovery.

Todd is the author of a number books including Curious, The Art of Insubordination and The Upside of Your Dark Side: Why Being Your Whole Self Not Just Your “Good” Self--Drives Success and Fulfillment.

He also writes prodigiously at his Substack newsletter Provoked.

https://toddkashdan.com/

Josh Connolly is a coach who uses embodiment practices, breath-work, and his own deeply personal experiences, to help build resilience in others. Josh is a passionate supporter of those affected by parental alcohol issues, an advocate for tapping into, and connecting profoundly with, our emotions and intuition as a way to heal trauma, and he’s a wonderful conversationalist.

We connected over a shared frustration with aspects of the widely publicised debate between Gary Stevenson and Daniel Priestley about the economy. Our conversation became much richer – we talk about being a man, role models, vulnerability, stoicism, community, unfashionable opinions, doubt and bad therapy.

https://www.joshconnolly.co.uk/about-josh

Josh’s book - It’s Them Not You: How to Break Free from Toxic Parents and Reclaim Your Story

Josh’s Do Lectures talk

Books etc. referenced in our discussion

Diary of a CEO: Gary Stevenson and Daniel Priestley debate

Bad Therapy: Why The Kids Aren’t Growing Up - Abigail Shrier

Future Tense: Why Anxiety is Good For You (Even Though It Feels Bad) – Tracy Dennis-Tiwary

I May Be Wrong - Björn Natthiko Lindeblad

My conversation with John Pardey, an architect of unparalleled skill in the field of housing design.

A serial winner of the UK’s most respected architecture awards, John has been a Chair and member of the RIBA Awards Group and CABE's National Design Review Panel, and has held lecturing posts at the London South Bank, Westminster, Canterbury and Portsmouth Schools of Architecture and is an external examiner at both Cardiff and Oxford Brookes.

An unashamed fan of Jørn Utzon, the master architect of the Sydney Opera House, John has been inspired by the man to such an extent that he paid homage with a pilgrimage to Majorca to visit him and his wife. John has also written and lectured widely about Utzon and his genius.

Open-minded about the drivers for good architecture, John is driven by genius loci - the spirit of place - and is an inveterate traveller, regularly visiting significant works of architecture around the world. Humble and ever ready to change, John’s work is driven not by style, but by how his clients want to live.

John has also written what for me and for many, is the definitive book on the greatest houses of the 20th Century.

https://www.johnpardeyarchitects.com/

Marc A. Ross is a geopolitical strategist and communications expert. He’s the founder of Caracal Global and Brigadoon, and a passionate advocate for his home City of Detroit, its sports teams, its music scene, its architecture and its urban renaissance.

A current resident of Washington DC, Marc is at the sharp end of the political shenanigans of US politics and advises companies around the world on geopolitical intelligence and corporate diplomacy. Who better to speak to about the shattering of the old world order in these chaotic times?

He’s also an inveterate traveller and a negroni afficionado.

Marc writes daily with sharp insight and international perspective on Linkedin, and has one of the very best visual feeds you’ll ever find over on Instagram. For corporate communications enquiries he can be contacted at Caracal, and his salon for thought leadership at Brigadoon.

My second conversation with the lovely Anna Koska. This one is all about space, creativity, the natural world and where we draw inspiration from.

Anna is an artist specialising in fruit, vegetables and the natural world, and alongside her book illustration work, Anna is regularly commissioned by chefs and restauranteurs for food and botanical art.

Working in egg tempera, watercolour, pen & ink and oils, Anna’s deeply intuitive sensibility as a natural historian shines through in all her creative outputs which more recently include writing. Her books From Field and Forest and From Coast and Cove, which both document an artist’s year in paint and pen, and are published by Pavilion.

For more than 20 years Anna was based in rural Sussex, with her family. There she grew a bounteous quantity of fruit and vegetables and cared for three bee hives and a happy handful of chickens. I caught up with her just after she and her family uprooted and moved to a sheltered combe just inland from the tree-lined coast of South Devon, in search of new adventures.

http://www.annakoskaillustration.com/

https://www.instagram.com/gremkoska/

Ben Derbyshire is a Past President of the Royal Institute of British Architects. He is the Chair of the acclaimed architecture practice HTA Design LLP and a Commissioner of Historic England.

A wonderfully erudite, engaging and deeply thoughtful man, Ben shares his principles for good architecture and place-making and a wide array of valuable insights, relevant not just to those active in the formation of the built environment, but to anyone with an interest in vibrant, inclusive community.