The Be Braver Podcast

Today's guest is a familiar face and voice... it's Mark Foster. Mark swam competitively for 22 years, winning World Championships and European Championships as well as breaking world records in his sprint distance.
Mark's now a familiar pundit on BBC Sport, especially at Olympic time, where his partnerships with Clare Balding and Rebecca Adlington have been a real hit with TV viewers.
He's also been a popular guest on things like Strictly, Master Chef and House of Games.
The 5-time Olympian has just written a book - My Double Life. In the book and our chat he talks candidly about being openly gay and why it took him half a lifetime to come out.
Mark reflects on the challenges he faced over 30 years before deciding to embrace his true self. It's all about bravery, vulnerability and the transformation achieved when you're true to yourself.
It's a podcast full of warmth and humour from a man who was once the fastest swimmer on Earth.
Please follow us on insta @bebraverpod

Today we're joined by the brilliant Ed Clancy who won 3 Olympic gold medals along with a bronze during an amazing career. His success at the London Games was a real highlight. He's now the active travel commissioner for South Yorkshire.
We cover a lot of ground but some of the highlights are hearing how to make big challenges in life achievable which Ed does with what he describes as reverse engineering.
We also learn about resilience, teamwork and the pursuit of excellence. And we hear about the 'marginal gains' work that led to so much Olympic success and how this can be applied to every day life.
Ed's a really engaging talker and we hope you enjoy it as much as we did!
Follow us on insta @bebraverpod

Our guest this week is Paul Tonkinson, a stand-up comedian, radio presenter and a tv personality. He’s been in the limelight for nearly 35 years and performed worldwide with some of the top stars. He's also a runner and has written two books on the subject. 26.2 Miles to Happiness(he's run a marathon in under 3 hours) and Running through Sand, the latter about taking part in one of the world's most famous ultra races - the Marathon Des Sables(MDS).
Paul shares his experiences on the stage and there's a great chat about the deep connection between humour and resillience. We discus running as therapy, moving out of the comfort zone and we hear about performing to the troops overseas in the most harrowing of circumstances.
Thanks for listening. We would love to keep in touch with you via instagram on @bebraverpod and please drop us a message with any comments or stories.

Here's a special episode with Annie and Josie taking on some issues about being braver.
Josie has evidence to show working out with a buddy or training with a buddy is more effective than doing it alone. She talks about the work she did for a leading sportswear company and a dating app.
Annie airs her frustration at the big stores selling ultra processed food and calls for action. There's a conversation about the detrimental effects of processed foods on overall health and how to foster a well-being culture from a young age.
And Josie talks about the differenes between a winning mindset and a mastery mindset.
We'd love to hear from you, especially this week on the stories of your light-bulb moment, how you feel you're winning at life and how you found your 'thing'. Please keep in touch via Instagram @bebraverpod

Today's guest tells a remarkable story of resilience with so many valuable lessons about life.
In 2017 Phil Richards was working in HR for Tesco - a 39 year old with a big career and family. But overnight his world was turned upside down with a diagnosis of advanced incurable cancer of the kidney.
Phil tells how he has lived with this prognosis and how he has changed his life. His approach has been to change his mindset and now shares his life lessons speaking to businesses, charity and individuals.
It really is a special episode.
You can find out more about Phil and his work www.philrichardsmbe.com
Thanks for listening. We'd love you to follow us on insta @bebraverpod