Serendipity Soup
20 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 1 year ago -Have you ever heard someone tell their story of success and failure in a TED Talk, or a sports autobiography? Have you ever thought ‘that doesn’t sound like my life?’ That’s because it’s not. In fact, almost nobody has a life like that. The trouble is that the people who do are the ones we’re always hearing from. This podcast is for the rest of us.
It's intended as an antidote to tedious celebrity success drivel. Although I hope it will be more than just a podcast. I hope it will become a community where anyone listening who has something interesting to say about their brushes with serendipity; with success, failure, hard work and pure dumb luck, will be able to say it. There might be happy endings, or there might not, because life isn’t a story – it’s much more complicated and wonderful than that. So, wherever you are in the world and wherever you are in your life, I hope you’ll find something useful to take away from these conversations.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Homepage Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Episodes
Matt Georges
November 01, 2022 01:00 - 31 minutes - 29.1 MBThis month it’s a very special episode of Serendipity Soup because, although I haven’t completely decided yet, I think this is probably going to be the last one. It’s possible I will take a break and come back with a second series, but right now that’s not the plan, so how to round off the Serendipity Soup story neatly? Well, when I floated the idea of ending the podcast in the previous episode, several listeners suggested the idea of me giving my story as the final episode so I asked m...
Andrew Finlay
October 01, 2022 00:00 - 44 minutes - 40.4 MBWelcome to Serendipity Soup! The antidote to celebrity success podcasts. This month's guest is Andrew Finlay, the owner of Wildview Retreat (https://wildviewretreat.com/), an amazing wellness centre set in the middle of the hills of southern Portugal. He’s a nutritional therapist and has, at various times also been a dive master, environmental consultant and head of environmental protection for the Marshall Islands. Andrew readily admits that he has a strong need to feel that he’s doing...
Camilla Waterman
August 01, 2022 00:00 - 51 minutes - 47.5 MBWelcome to Serendipity Soup! The antidote to celebrity success podcasts. A lot of my guests define success in work as finding something that makes you happy. But this month’s guest, Camilla Waterman, added a really useful twist. Success is finding something that makes you happy at the time you’re doing it. The thing I envy about Camilla is her positive attitude to change. Just because a job makes her happy when she starts, doesn’t mean it will always make her happy. She seems so comfort...
Jo Bradshaw
July 01, 2022 00:00 - 53 minutes - 49.3 MBWelcome to Serendipity Soup! The antidote to celebrity success podcasts. Who are the champions of your life? The people who are there at just the right time, with just the right support, to supercharge your life and take you to whatever your next level is. This month my guest on Serendipity Soup is Jo Bradshaw: an outdoor instructor, mountain climbing expedition leader, public speaker and leadership coach. I learned a lot from my conversation with Jo, but I was particularly taken by two...
Zaid Ansari
June 01, 2022 00:00 - 51 minutes - 47.3 MBWelcome to Serendipity Soup! The antidote to celebrity success podcasts. Is it too risky to be playful at work? This month I’m talking to Zaid Ansari. I had the pleasure of interviewing Zaid face to face at my house and early on in the recording he says that he’s at the point in his career where he only wants to do stuff that’s fun. But actually that sense of fun and playfulness feels built in to his life so far. Zaid started off his career as an accountant at an advertising agency in ...
Oliver Dudley
May 01, 2022 00:00 - 1 hour - 57.3 MBWelcome to Serendipity Soup! The antidote to celebrity success podcasts. What can we learn from extremes? This month I’m talking to Oliver Dudley who has experienced probably the most extreme career I’ve covered to date in terms of its highs and lows. He’s a property developer who lost 95% of his wealth during the 2008 financial crash but has – if you’ll forgive the pun – rebuilt his company from the ground up. He’s an amateur sportsman who rowed across the Atlantic despite a deep-seated ...
Khrish Preston
April 18, 2022 00:00 - 53 minutes - 49.2 MBWelcome to Serendipity Soup! The antidote to celebrity success podcasts. Is this a make-or-break year for you? The pandemic and – in the UK at least – the huge rise in the cost of living has put a lot of people under severe pressure. It’s also making it tough to run a small business. And that’s where my guest for this special bonus edition of Serendipity Soup, Khrish Preston, finds herself. I interviewed Khrish in September 2021 after we met at a campsite in Somerset. Don’t know if any ...
Jo Behari
April 01, 2022 00:00 - 47 minutes - 43.7 MBWelcome to Serendipity Soup! The antidote to celebrity success podcasts. This month's guest is Jo Behari. Several years ago, Jo took the plunge, quit her office job and set up the UK’s first all-female home improvement and property maintenance company. From there her career developed into freelance project management, writing her own book on DIY, and television work including presenting a DIY series called ‘Make, Do and Mend’ and her current role on the British TV magazine show ‘Steph’s Pa...
Rebecca Alley
March 01, 2022 01:00 - 57 minutes - 106 MBWelcome to Serendipity Soup! The antidote to celebrity success podcasts. This month's guest is Rebecca Alley. Becca works as a project management officer at a large bank now, but she started out her career wanting to be a marine scientist studying dolphins and sea turtles. That didn’t work out, so she ended up in fast food, an industry she maintains builds skills that are generally under-recognised by society as a whole. She was diagnosed with autism relatively late in life and she and h...
Chris Grimes
February 01, 2022 01:00 - 52 minutes - 60.2 MBWelcome to Serendipity Soup! The antidote to celebrity success podcasts. This month's guest is Chris Grimes. Chris talks eloquently about what it means to be a motivational comedian; the phrase coined by a friend to try to describe what on earth it is that Chris spends all day doing. It means he’s an actor, a teacher, a trainer, a comedy improviser and a coach. He and I first met on a training course, where he was role playing a person I was having trouble dealing with at work. Over ...
Allan Butler
January 01, 2022 01:00 - 54 minutes - 100 MBMy first guest of 2022 is Allan Butler, who has at various times been an economist, a primary school teacher and a herdsman on a dairy farm, amongst many other jobs. A lot of our conversation revolves around ‘forks in the road’. The times when, because of personal or work circumstances, Allan has found himself having to choose between very different paths towards his future. But Allan is also very open about his recent diagnosis of dyslexia and how that undiagnosed condition has shaped hi...
Kate Cousens
December 01, 2021 01:00 - 53 minutes - 61.3 MBKate Cousens is my guest for this episode of Serendipity Soup - the antidote to celebrity success podcasts - and the question of ambition is central to our discussion. Kate is an author, podcaster, entrepreneur and all round high achiever. But it’s that level of achievement and ambition that we spend quite a bit of time talking about. Kate, like all my guests, is brutally honest about what it takes out of you as a person to achieve the goals you have set for yourself. That there’s a cost t...
Bonus episode!
November 19, 2021 14:41 - 45 minutes - 51.9 MBShopping without Amazon Challenging Amazon report The Trussell Trust Metabunk Goliath: The 100-Year war between monopoly power and democracy By Matt Stoller Why We Sleep By Matthew Walker Extreme Economies By Richard Davies The Official History of Britain By Boris Starling Wilding By Isabella Tree Exposure By Robert Bilott Winners Take All By Anand Giridharadas Rebels at Work By Carmen Medina Escaping the Rabbit Hole By Mick West Ordinary Men By Christopher R. Browning How...
Tom Saunders
November 01, 2021 01:00 - 1 hour - 112 MBIn this episode of Serendipity Soup – the antidote to celebrity success podcasts – I talk to Tom Saunders; a man who seems to have done every job possible before becoming a successful publisher of consumer hobby magazines. Especially for those listeners outside the UK I thought a little bit of info about Croydon might be useful in case some of Tom's references sound a bit mysterious. I've also put in links to his various magazines in case they sound like your scene. Croydon - Wikipedia Sil...
Julian Watkins
October 01, 2021 00:00 - 50 minutes - 92.2 MBIn this episode of Serendipity Soup – the antidote to celebrity success podcasts – I talk to Julian Watkins, a professional sailor turned social scientist who is searingly honest about the interactions between his mental health and his career. Julian has done amazing things in his life and so I’ve put some links below in case you want to follow up on any of them. He’s also spent a lot of time coming to terms with a number of mental health conditions so if you want to find out more, or ac...
Anuj Desai
September 01, 2021 00:00 - 37 minutes - 68.4 MBIn this episode of Serendipity Soup – the antidote to celebrity success podcasts – I talk to Anuj Desai, a former media lawyer turned legal cannabis industry commentator, because why wouldn't you make that step right? Anuj is a fascinating guy and, in case you want to follow up on some of the topics he mentions, or you'd like to find out more about what he's doing, I've put some links in below. I'd especially recommend listening to his brilliant podcast, 'The Cannabis Conversation'. Even ...
Anna Gunn
August 01, 2021 09:28 - 51 minutes - 94.9 MBIn this episode of Serendipity Soup – the antidote to celebrity success podcasts – I talk to Anna Gunn, Director and Founder of the Porto Photography Festival and her own company McGunn Media, photographer, artistic mentor, content creator... the list goes on! But how did Anna get to where she is now? Why did she take a four year aerospace engineering degree? And just how should you react when your workmates weld shut the ends of your steel-toed boots so you can't wear them any more? As ...
Nicole Shamier
June 30, 2021 23:01 - 51 minutes - 95 MBIn this episode of Serendipity Soup – the antidote to celebrity success podcasts – I talk to Nicole Shamier, Chief Economist of the island of St. Helena; one of the most remote places on the planet. What would make you leave everyone you know to work on a tiny island a five-day boat journey from the nearest port? How difficult is it when what you want from your career doesn’t fit into a neat box? What it’s like when your boss can call the local hospital to find out why you didn’t com...
Simon Oliver
June 06, 2021 21:00 - 53 minutes - 97.9 MBThe first ever episode of Serendipity Soup - the antidote to celebrity success podcasts! This one is with Simon Oliver, Digital Play Discovery Lead at Lego's Creative Play Lab, who talks about the highs and lows of his work in the video games industry, his love of duck-billed platypuses and why 'Jodorowsky's Dune' contains a great message for striving creatives and anyone else who needs to balance vision with practicality. There is some discussion of depression in the last 10 minutes or so...
Trailer
April 26, 2021 20:08 - 3 minutes - 7.29 MBA short introduction to 'Serendipity Soup' - the antidote to celebrity success podcasts. Serendipity Soup | LinkedIn Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.