This week I talk through the strange feeling of building something slowly from nothing, after launching Second Wind properly as a podcast and watching the first real signs of life appear on Spotify and Apple.

We get into the reality behind “durability over virality”, why 99 listens and a genuine first comment meant more to me than chasing explosive numbers, and what it feels like trying to rebuild a life publicly at 48 after redundancy, grief, and leaving the UK behind.

There’s also a full finance update covering the Spire trade finally closing in profit, writing new cash-secured puts for income, and the latest twist in the GameStop and eBay saga as institutional ownership quietly increases behind the scenes.

On the legal side, the £6,500 insurance arbitration linked to my Kuala Lumpur hospital stay has officially moved into the next phase, with Scotland unexpectedly chosen as the arbitration location while I continue travelling Southeast Asia carrying hundreds of pages of hospital paperwork in a suitcase.

And then there’s the completely ridiculous part of this week:
a Malaysian shopping mall, a lubricated forearm, a gold bar trapped inside a plastic box, and two failed attempts to win what was basically a month’s rent while slowly removing skin from my knuckles in public.

There’s also train journeys across Malaysia, strange apartment blocks that feel like The Shining, tourism tax arguments at hotel check-in, reflections on sales, comments, identity, and why sometimes the quiet work of showing up every week matters more than going viral once.