Made In Chaos with Ryan Curtis

A Cage Warriors World Champion on Visualising Victory, the Fear of Being Average, and the One Habit He Had to Give Up to Finally Chase the UFC.
Paddy McCorry is a Cage Warriors world champion from Belfast who found MMA almost by accident and went all in, driven by a fear of ending up average and a belief that he was meant for more. In this raw, honest and genuinely fascinating conversation, Paddy opens up about the mental tools that took him to the top, the mentors who kept him off the streets, and the sacrifice he finally had to make to become the full package.
Ryan sits down with Paddy for a conversation that’s as much about mindset and escape as it is about fighting.
What we get into:
Falling into MMA, and deciding on day one to give it ten years
Why the fear of being average drove everything he’s done
How he visualises in such detail he gets adrenaline rushes from it
Controlling the controllables: building certainty one visualised moment at a time
Why you should also visualise the bad positions, not just the wins
The Ultimate Fighter house, no phones, and learning everyone’s struggle
Why struggle breeds success, and how to channel it the right way
How mentors and combat sports saved him, and how kids get groomed by criminals
“How you do anything is how you do everything”
His honesty about cannabis, relapse, and every level demanding a new sacrifice
Delayed gratification, and why making mistakes doesn’t mean giving up the vision
Why he refuses to pretend he’s a perfect, superhuman athlete
Ryan Curtis is a former Irish MMA fighter who was paralysed from the neck down and told he would never walk again. Made in Chaos exists to platform guests who’ve turned adversity into hard-earned wisdom worth sharing.
If anything in this episode affects you, support is available in Ireland. The HSE Drugs and Alcohol Helpline is free and confidential on 1800 459 459, and Samaritans are available 24/7 on 116 123.
Follow: @madeinchaospod | @chaoscurtis
🖊️ Sponsored by The Ink Factory, Temple Bar. theinkfactory.ie | @theinkfactory

He Grew Up in the Flats With a Fishing Rod Made From a Tree Branch. He Went On to Race at the North Pole, Across Antarctica and Through the Sahara. John O’Regan’s Extraordinary Life.
John O’Regan is one of Ireland’s most accomplished endurance athletes, an ultrarunner who has competed in some of the most extreme races on the planet: the North Pole Marathon, Antarctica, the Marathon des Sables in the Sahara, the Yukon, the Spartathlon, and a run to Everest Base Camp. He’s also spent years guiding a blind runner, Mark, through many of these same brutal environments.
Ryan sits down with John for a genuinely inspiring, story-rich conversation about survival, endurance, mindset, and what a life lived at the edges actually teaches you.
What we get into:
Growing up in the Dublin flats, fishing with a branch, and the escape the outdoors gave him
Writing a letter to survival expert Ray Mears in 1988, and how it changed his life
Why the most important thing you can carry anywhere is knowledge, not kit
The Dunning-Kruger moment: going over thinking he knew it all, and getting humbled fast
The Sahara, the North Pole, the Yukon, Antarctica, and what each one demanded
Lending his spare snowshoes to explorer Ranulph Fiennes at the North Pole
Years guiding Mark, a blind runner, through deserts, ice and the Himalayas
The hardest thing he’s ever done: the race into Everest Base Camp
The accident in the desert, the first-aid kit lesson, and “cheating the system”
What 24-hour races teach you about rationing energy and the mind
The beginner’s mindset, and why “how you do anything is how you do everything”
Why there’s no finish line, and why we get old when we stop doing things
Ryan Curtis is a former Irish MMA fighter who was paralysed from the neck down and told he would never walk again. Made in Chaos exists to platform guests who’ve turned adversity into hard-earned wisdom worth sharing.
Follow: @madeinchaospod | @chaoscurtis
🖊️ Sponsored by The Ink Factory, Temple Bar. theinkfactory.ie | @theinkfactory

After Years Walking With Couples, a Relationship Coach on What Most People Get Wrong, How to Fight Well, and Why the Grass Is Greener Where You Water It.
Lisa McFarland is a relationship coach who has spent years helping couples move from disconnection back to closeness, and who went on her own marriage journey over a decade ago before doing this work. In this warm, funny and genuinely useful conversation, she breaks down why relationships drift, how to argue without damage, and the small daily habits that keep love alive.
Ryan sits down with Lisa for a conversation that anyone in a relationship, or wanting one, will take something from.
What we get into:
Why relationships take conscious effort once the honeymoon chemicals fade
The "mental load," and the conversation couples need to have about it
Why 80% of arguments are never actually resolved, and what to do instead
Attachment styles, and why we're sometimes drawn to chaos over security
How to do "healthy conflict," and the ten-minute rule that stops fights escalating
Why "I'm sorry you feel that way" is not an apology
Why you should never make the big decisions at 10 at night
Why men and women often need connection in different orders
The daily micro-habits: the six-second kiss, the daily hug, the drip-drip of care
Love languages, responsive desire, and why good intimacy starts long before the bedroom
Loving someone versus being in love, and why that moves up and down
The one thing that predicts whether a couple will still be happy in 20 years
Ryan Curtis is a former Irish MMA fighter who was paralysed from the neck down and told he would never walk again. Made in Chaos exists to platform guests who've turned adversity into hard-earned wisdom worth sharing.
Follow: @madeinchaospod | @chaoscurtis
🖊️ Sponsored by The Ink Factory, Temple Bar. theinkfactory.ie | @theinkfactory

Ireland's Best-Known Financial Advisor on What We Get Wrong About Money, and Why You're Probably Doing Better Than Social Media Tells You.
Paul Merriman, better known as Ask Paul, is one of Ireland's most recognisable financial advisors and CEO of Fairstone Ireland. In this conversation he cuts through the noise, the viral "skip your coffee" advice, the pressure to be a millionaire by sixty, the panic about pensions, and gives a refreshingly honest, jargon-free take on money in Ireland.
Ryan sits down with Paul for a genuinely useful conversation about planning, property, pensions, investing and why the best investment most people can make is in themselves.
What we get into:
Why we don't plan enough, and the one habit that quietly changes everything
Financial literacy in Ireland versus the US, and why we're actually good savers
Good debt versus bad debt, and what wiped the country out in 2008
Why he pushes back on the "cut out the coffee" advice, and when a "money diet" does make sense
The housing crisis, developers, planning, and why there's no will to fix it
Why you're probably doing better with money than social media makes you feel
The real biggest asset most people have, and it isn't their bank balance
Pensions, tax relief, ETFs and why there's no one-size-fits-all answer
Deemed disposal, the savings account changes coming, and the noise around both
Why investing in yourself beats an ETF in your twenties
Looking wealthy versus being wealthy, lifestyle creep and "Die With Zero"
After 20 years, the one thing he's determined not to get wrong in his own life
Ryan Curtis is a former Irish MMA fighter who was paralysed from the neck down and told he would never walk again. Made in Chaos exists to platform guests who've turned adversity into hard-earned wisdom worth sharing.
This conversation is general information, not personal financial advice. For advice specific to your situation, speak to a qualified financial advisor.
Follow: @madeinchaospod | @chaoscurtis
🖊️ Sponsored by The Ink Factory, Temple Bar. theinkfactory.ie | @theinkfactory

A Professional Poker Player on Risk, Luck, Reading People and Why You Can Make the Perfect Decision and Still Lose.
Chris Dowling has spent well over a decade making a living at the poker table, from local card rooms in Ireland to the high-stakes rooms of Las Vegas. But this conversation is about far more than cards. It is about how to think clearly under pressure, how to read people, how to manage risk and emotion, and how to keep making good decisions when the outcome is out of your hands.
Ryan sits down with Chris for a genuinely fascinating look inside the mind of a professional, and the mental habits that apply to anyone's life, whether you have ever played a hand or not.
What we get into:
How Chris went from the electrical trade to professional poker after the recession
The three levels of poker, and where the real money and the real pros actually are
Why films get poker completely wrong, and how cheating really works
Why poker is not gambling, and the maths that makes the house always win
Reading people: what you can actually tell from how someone acts, dresses and bets
Game theory, exploiting mistakes, and the rock paper scissors trick that explains it all
Why the best players randomise their decisions using their watch
Going on tilt, and how the same emotional spiral shows up everywhere in life
Why most people badly misunderstand luck and probability
What separates a calculated risk from being reckless, and when to walk away
How experience, not talent, lets the best stay calm playing for millions
The single most useful thing poker can teach you about decisions in real life
Ryan Curtis is a former Irish MMA fighter who was paralysed from the neck down and told he would never walk again. Made in Chaos exists to platform guests who've turned adversity into hard-earned wisdom worth sharing.
Follow: @madeinchaospod | @chaoscurtis
🖊️ Sponsored by The Ink Factory, Temple Bar. theinkfactory.ie | @theinkfactory