Performance People

Helen Glover is a two-time Olympic rowing gold medallist, triple World champion, quintuple World Cup champion and quadruple European champion. Helen only took up rowing in 2008, aged 21. She won Olympic gold just four years later at London 2012. After Rio 2016 she stepped away from rowing to get married and have children. A delayed Tokyo Olympics saw Helen get back in the boat in 2021 and become the first mum to compete for GB Rowing, finishing fourth in the pairs.Alongside Helen is her wildlife TV presenter husband, Steve Backshall. Best known for BBC's Deadly 60 series, Steve is also an adventurer, environmental campaigner and author. Steve and Helen co-wrote, Wildlings: How to Raise Your Family in Nature, in 2022, a book encouraging children to spend time in the great outdoors.Together they talk about Helen’s lockdown decision to return to elite sport with three kids in tow, the brutal reality of training for the Olympics, re-assessing the risks of a life in the wild and why a King Cobra is a safer bet than a night out on the town.This four way conversation was recorded on 5th September 2022. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Alastair Campbell + Fiona MillarSpin doctor/journalist/mental health campaigner + Journalist/educational campaignerLife partner + Life partnerAlastair Campbell is a journalist and author but is best known as Tony Blair’s formidable former press secretary and director of communications and strategy. Since leaving No.10, Alastair has been a vocal advocate for mental health charities following his own 2005 diagnosis of depression. Along the way he has written seventeen books on politics, mental health and sport, all while traversing the country in pursuit of his beloved Burnley F.C.Alongside Alastair is his life partner, Fiona Millar. Fiona is a journalist and campaigner on education and parenting issues. While Alastair was advising Tony Blair, Fiona was also in Downing Street, as advisor to Cherie Blair. Fiona currently contributes to The Guardian and the Local Schools Network website.Together they lift the lid on working with the Blairs, living as a family with mental illness and how they would advise the Royals.If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health, you can contact the charity, Mind, at  https://www.mind.org.uk/need-urgent-help/using-this-tool/ or call them on 0300 123 3393.This four way conversation was recorded on 20th September 2022. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Michael Johnson is widely regarded as one of the greatest sprinters of all time. In the 1990s, he dominated both the 200m and 400m, winning 12 Olympic and World Championship gold medals and breaking world records in the 200m, 400m and the 4 X 400m relay. Since retiring from the track he has forged a successful broadcasting career while running his own sports performance business.Alongside Michael is the coach who guided him throughout his amateur and professional career. He was never coached by anyone else, ever. ‘Coach’ Clyde Hart was the Head Coach of Track and Field at Baylor University from 1963-2005, then Director of Track and Field until he retired in 2019. Coach Hart has coached nine Olympians who have won a total of 13 Olympic gold medals.Together they talk about why the historic Olympic double almost didn’t happen, how they worked together to win multiple gold medals and what happened when Michael suffered a stroke and had to learn how to walk again.This four way conversation was recorded on 4th November 2022. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Fran Millar built her reputation as a highly accomplished sports executive alongside Sir Dave Brailsford with Team Sky, rising through the executive peloton from Director of Business Operations to Head of Winning Behaviours and ultimately Chief Executive of the Ineos Grenadiers. In 2020 she traded cycling tours for catwalks, with her appointment as CEO of British fashion brand, Belstaff.Alongside Fran is her former pro-cyclist brother, David Millar; a rising star of the sport until he confessed to doping and was banned in 2004. David came back to cycling as a competitor but also as a committed and vocal campaigner for clean sport. He now splits his time between broadcasting duties and his cycling apparel company, CHPT3.Together in an interview for the first time, they talk candidly about living in the maelstrom of a doping scandal, how their sometimes conflicting approaches to clean cycling led to fractures in their relationship and about the crucial life lessons they learned from their shared experience.This four way conversation was recorded on 16th August 2022. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

One of the UK’s most charismatic TV presenters, Jeremy Clarkson has been entertaining the nation for some 40 years with his uncompromising take on the car industry and life in general. At 62 and with no fewer than 10 jobs at the last count, Clarkson is now trying his hand at farming. Joining Clarkson is Kaleb Cooper, Jeremy’s sidekick from the smash-hit reality TV show, Clarkson’s Farm. On the show, Kaleb is the young man tasked with teaching Clarkson how to farm, earning his ‘break-out star’ status by telling Clarkson what he really thinks about his farming prowess. Alongside his day job on the Diddly Squat Farm, Kaleb has built up his own agricultural business in the Cotswolds, while gathering 1.1 million followers on Instagram.Together, in a podcast first, they talk about their sometimes confusing master/apprentice dynamic, how David Cameron broke Jeremy’s vintage tractor and why sheep are afflicted with an existential death wish.This four way conversation was recorded on 25th October 2022 at Diddly Squat Farm.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lewis Pugh was the first person to complete long-distance swims in every ocean of the world, leveraging publicity to, as he puts it, ‘shake the lapels of world leaders’. An ocean advocate and campaigner, Lewis pioneers swims in the most vulnerable ecosystems on Earth to call for their protection. He has been instrumental in protecting over 2 million km2 of vulnerable ocean – an area larger than Western Europe. His life’s ambition is to help protect 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030. He is known as, ‘the Speedo diplomat.’David Becker is a performance mind coach, sports lawyer, author and award winning screenwriter. David is a long-time friend of Lewis and also serves as his adviser and mental performance coach. He has supported Lewis on expeditions including those to Svalbard, the North Pole and Mt. Everest and been a consistent source of support throughout Lewis’ career.Together, they talk about winning over Putin’s inner circle, the day Lewis surprised the Queen, meeting Tony Blair in a pair of Speedos and how to significantly raise your body temperature through sheer force of will.This four way conversation was recorded on 6th September 2022.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Toto Wolff + Susie Wolff.Team Principal/CEO - Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 + Former Williams F1 test driver/CEO Venturi Racing Formula EHusband + wife. Toto Wolff is one of the most influential team principals in the history of Formula 1.  Under his leadership, Mercedes disrupted the established order in the paddock, winning seven consecutive Drivers’ Championships and eight consecutive Constructors’ Championships.Susie Wolff is a former professional racing driver, entrepreneur and campaigner for gender equality in sport. She is also one of a handful of women to have driven for an F1 team. Together, they talk about not taking success for granted and learning from failure, what Lewis Hamilton will do next and why donkeys should never be underestimated.This four way conversation was recorded on 6th September 2022. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Eddie Hearn + Barry Hearn.Chairman of Matchroom + President of Matchroom.Son + Father.Eddie Hearn is one of the leading boxing promoters in the fight game. Representing world class athletes Anthony Joshua and Katie Taylor he has staged some of the biggest events in recent boxing history.Barry Hearn spent four decades transforming sports like snooker, boxing, fishing and darts. He is still very active in the family business he founded despite being recently ‘retired’. Together they talk about why being competitive with each other works for them, why Sunday lunch matters and sleeping with one eye open.This four-way conversation was recorded on October 3rd 2022. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.