A short solo episode from Shane, on the current situation the whole world is living through, and what it might mean for us into the new future that is to come.

Shane goes through:

• The background to this perspective, out of the wreckage of the global financial crash and the years of austerity that followed
• The current reality facing us around the world
• Three ways we might respond as individuals to the pandemic

Here's hoping you find something valuable and worthwhile in this episode of the Life Well Lived Podcast.

You can subscribe to this podcast in all the usual places, like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or by searching for "Life Well Lived Podcast" wherever you listen to podcasts.

I’m very excited to bring this episode to you.

Today I speak with Tracey McCann, a young woman from Dublin in Ireland, who is making waves in the world in what I’m sure you’ll agree, once you hear this interview, is her own absolutely unique way.

A really big part of this Life Well Lived Project mission is to help in some small way to create a world where everyone is able to fully explore and express their own one time in history uniqueness, and bring it to the world with a full heart so that they can experience a life of energy, purpose and fulfilment. 

Tracey McCann is certainly doing that. She was a healthy and able-bodied child but at the age of eight her entire life was turned upside down. After going through a terrifying ordeal she was eventually diagnosed with a disability known as Rapid On-Set Muscular Dystonia, a rare neurological movement disorder which comes on abruptly and causes extensive muscular abnormalities which make it difficult to walk, talk, and carry out other normal activities of daily life.

Tracey suffered all of those, and for the past 20 years has been dealing with the effects of her condition. She is unable to speak, but that will never stop her from speaking. She may have no “voice” in the recognised definition of that word, but she is still using her voice to inspire people everywhere and advocate for the disabled and the voiceless. 

This interview is conducted through text-to-speech software. Tracey has used this software in other interviews and she is also building an impressive profile as an inspirational public speaker.

It was an honour for me to spend time with Tracey and her partner Patrick during this recording. Patrick is in the background all the time, helping to make sure everything happens. Words like inspiring are thrown around like confetti nowadays, but the dynamic between Tracey and Patrick is so humbling and inspiring.

They are incredible to be around, and I’ve no doubt will be positively impacting on the world for many, many years to come.

I really hope this interview does some justice to the obstacles Tracey has had to cross in her young life, and tells a part of the story she’s bringing to the world.

Among other things, we talk about:

• 5:00: Her memories of falling ill with the condition that would change everything about her entire life
• 11:30: The most important lesson she learned from her illness and the years since then
• 13:00: How she decided to overcome her physical voicelessness to become an inspirational public speaker
• 15:50: How she overcame negative self-talk
• 16:35: Social media and technology - the pros and the cons
• 18:10: Her relationship with partner Patrick
• 22:35: Her fervent belief that she will overcome her physical disability and speak again, and where this deep faith comes from

Hi there and welcome to another episode of the Life Well Lived podcast. This is Episode 25, and it's also the second part of my short series on a topic that's of particular interest to me: problem gambling.

Problem Gambling Series Overview

Problem gambling is really interesting to me because of my own experiences, which I touch across this short interview series.

As regular listeners will know, the mission of this podcast, and everything I’m doing in the Life Well Lived Project, is to try to offer guidance, support and inspiration for anyone — no matter what your stage of life or the situation in which you’re in right now — to navigate and overcome the challenges that life inevitably throws at you, and thereafter to explore, embrace and fully express your own absolutely unique individuality and live a life of energy, purpose, and fulfilment.

I firmly believe the modes and mechanisms of gambling are a major cause for a lot of the unhappiness, depression and anxiety that lies around us. Problem gambling can be a very hidden issue … problem gamblers can lose vast sums of money and yet keep their problem hidden from almost everyone.

It is an issue made so much worse by the pervasive power of the Internet, which allows us to bet money we don’t have on whatever we want, 24 hours a day, without ever having the cash in our hands and without having to leave our house.

There’s no doubt in my mind that gambling has caused untold heartache and stress in the lives of countless people and their families, and this series of podcasts is my small attempt to explore it a bit more so that people might better understand how gambling works in the Internet age, how it can hijack our neurobiological pathways, and maybe most importantly what we might be able to do about it when it gets out of hand or before it reaches crisis stage.

Episodes

In the first episode of this special podcast series I spoke with Dr Venetia Leonidaki, a clinical psychologist with the National Problem Gambling Clinic in the UK.

This episode is an interview with Declan Lynch, a journalist and writer with the Sunday Independent in Ireland.

Declan has been writing about gambling and its effects for a number of years, including the acclaimed and award-winning Tony 10, the story of Tony O'Reilly, a post office manager and fairly ordinary and typical Irishman who served time in prison after pleading guilty to stealing €1.75m from An Post, the Irish postal service, to fund his gambling addiction.

We chat about the origins of Declan’s interest in the subject of gambling, how world economics are built on gambling methodologies and behaviours, the part that the media and Government have played in the explosion of the betting industry in recent years, and what the future might hold as we get to grips with the magnitude of the problems it might be causing in the lives of ordinary people around ireland and all over the world.

I hope you enjoy this interview with Declan Lynch, and that you go back also to check out the previous interview in this series with clinical psychologist Dr Venetia Leonidaki.

Welcome to another episode of the Life Well Lived Podcast.

This is the first of a three-part series on a topic that's of particular interest to me: problem gambling.

It's of personal interest to me because of my own experiences with gambling a number of years ago, which I touch on across this interview series.

As any regular listeners will know, the mission of the Life Well Lived podcast, and everything I’m doing in the Life Well Lived Project, is to try to offer guidance, support and inspiration for anyone, no matter what your stage of life or the situation in which you’re in right now, to navigate and overcome the challenges that life will inevitably throw at you, and thereafter explore, embrace and fully express your own absolutely unique individuality and life a life of energy, purpose, and happiness.

It's my belief that the modes and mechanisms of gambling, especially the ease of access and programmed addictiveness of online gambling, is a major cause for the unhappiness, depression and anxiety that lies around us in so many places.

Problem gambling is, typically, an unseen issue.

Problem gamblers can lose thousands of euros or tens or even hundreds of thousands of euros and keep their problem hidden from almost everyone around them.

This issue has caused untold heartache and stress in the lives of countless people and their families, and this series of podcasts, which starts with this interview with Dr Venetia Leonidaki, a clinical psychologist at the National Problem Gambling Clinic in the UK, is my small attempt to explore it a bit more so that people might better understand

• how gambling works in the Internet age
• how it can hijack our neurobiological pathways
• and maybe most importantly what we might be able to do about it when it gets out of hand or before it reaches crisis stage.

Some resources mentioned in this episode:

• Gamban software to block access to gambling sites, apps and software
• Book "Overcoming Compulsive Gambling" by Alex Blaszczynski
• The Samaritans helpline can be a great first step for anyone with a problem to start talking. The helpline is open in the UK and Ireland 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Call 116 123 or email [email protected]
• Visit the National Problem Gambling Clinic website or email [email protected]

See Also:
Episode 25: Problem Gambling Series, Part 2: With Declan Lynch, journalist and author of Tony 10: The Astonishing Story of the Postman who Gambled €10,000,000 ... and Lost it All

Almost every one of the 22 previous episodes of this podcast has been an interview with  people who have inspired me, people who have overcome their own life challenges and are now dedicating their work to helping others overcome similar obstacles, people whose stories and message I wanted to bring to a new audience.

This episode is different. It's a personal indulgence, and I hope you'll forgive me for it.

In this special Christmas week episode, I read one of my favourite pieces of writing: "A Child's Christmas in Wales", by Dylan Thomas.

In this short piece there are countless components of a happy and fulfilled live: meaningful connection, to the people around us and to our sense of place; groundedness to the land and the landscape; being present in the Now, without thinking of what has been or what's to come; movement of our limbs and our perspective.

Above all, perhaps, there is playfulness. A life without play is surely a life less worthwhile, and this short blast of one child's Christmas has play and fun and mischief in almost every line.

I hope you enjoy this indulgent episode. For Christmas week, my reading of "A Child's Christmas in Wales", by Dylan Thomas.

Shane