Antifragile Radio: Recent Episodes
Dan Spinks
Discussions on the concept of 'antifragility' through various lenses, experiences and viewpoints. Mental and physical health and performance, skateboarding, music, culture and whatever else is on my mind.
Stories over information Experiences over answers
Kicking off season 3 (even though season 2 only had 2 episodes). Since I've taken a different direction in what I do, this seemed like a perfect way to start the podcast again.
Tion Torrence or @bukueone as he's also know as is as creative as it gets. Been skating since the mid 80's, sponsored by Alva and then New School, MC, graffiti writer, music promoter and manager, he's been a pretty busy dude.
We talked about the shift in music and culture during the street skating boom in the late 80's/early 90's, growing up skating EMB and being surrounded by legends. Managing and touring artists, along with his own documentary that he is still working on called 'Master The Ollie'
Be sure to follow him on instagram
@bukueone and @mastertheollie
Check out the trailers for his doc
Original trailer
https://youtu.be/IYclunmN0CI?si=3ZFChJIvWAXeeqCj
Updated trailer
https://youtu.be/9gSx5lxOOoc?si=9pHZZnQGx2jeMPUi
3rd time having Michael on and it's always a treat to catch up.
This one is a special one, where we talk about Michael's amazing new venture 'Roll to Recovery', which is a charity organisation created to help people in recovery from alcohol and substance misuse using the art of submission grappling.
Listening to his passion about this amazing program is utterly inspiring.
Follow the program and Michael and get in touch if you think you or anyone you know might benefit from becoming part of it
@rolltorecovery
@mwtrainingsystems
The difficult follow up season, after the runaway success of season1, is it possible to maintain the high quality and output?
I bring up the concept of vulnerability vs authenticity, are they different? Is one easier to be than the other?
Round 2 with Michael and it's always a pleasure to chat.
I actually wanted to base this conversation around training as Michael works with both high level competitive fighters as well as everyday folk who just want to move and feel better. I'm sure we do actually cover that for a bit but as all good conversations we drift off into other realms of life.
We also touch on addiction as Michael has recently set up a program for addicts called 'Roll to Recovery' which is 'an CIC created to help people recover from substance misuse'.
I really think you'll enjoy this one if you are at all interested in being a good human
You can follow Michael here
@mwtrainingsystems
@rolltorecovery
Ricky is a skateboarder, a writer and individual with considerable life experience. A incredibly tough and tumultuous start in life, to nearly dying on a hospital bed from being stabbed 9 times finally to a life being turned around thanks to discovering a skateboard for the first time.
He is the author of 8 books and is working on his 9th. A champion of being open about mental struggles and sharing experiences.
We both share a deep love and connection to skateboarding and discuss what and why we think that is. He is living proof of the human spirit and we highly recommend reading his latest book 'Thankyou Skateboarding' to fully understand how a plank of wood with wheels can help save someones life.
Follow Ricky here @rickyrobertsiii
Pick up his book here www.amazon.com/Thank-You-Skateboarding-Ricky-Roberts/dp/0578626233
Martin McPhilimey is an accredited and experienced Respiratory and Sleep Scientist, Exercise Physiologist, Behavioural Science Practitioner, Coach and Mentor. With his qualifications, passion and 15 years of experience in research, clinical work, and training, Martin's mission is to create a world of high performing individuals with healthy minds and bodies. (text from his website)
He has a wealth of knowledge and experience and I have learnt a lot by following him as he puts out such great information.
I had a great time chatting with Martin (once I remembered to press record) and it was apleasure hearing his story of his journey from Coventry lad to Australia and building his successful online practice of helping people all over the world not only reduce their often crippling stress but guiding them to thrive and truly find enjoyment their lives.
You can follow Martin here
https://performancethroughhealth.com/
https://www.instagram.com/performancethroughhealth/
https://www.facebook.com/performancethroughhealth/
Nathan's story is nothing short of miraculous, actually miraculous is doing him an injustice.
This is the power of the human spirit in it's rawest form.
A horrific accident during a triathlon in Scotland in 2021, where he spent over a week in a coma, then upon waking up being told his spinal injury would almost certainly have him spending the rest of his life in a wheelchair.
Before the accident Nathan was an very accomplished swimmer and naturally moved on to compete in distance events, mostly triathlons and ironman finishing 1st in his age group and 8th overall in the brutal Ironman Wales in 2019.
Since the accident he has proved pretty much every consultant and surgeon wrong, he has risen to the insurmountable challenges that faced him, learning to breathe again unaided, talk, move, everything we take for granted.
There are a very small number of people on this planet that are put here to show everyone else what self belief actually looks like
Nathan is one of those
Listen, be inspired and get ready to dust of the running shoes to join him when he does what he says he's going to do during our conversation
Follow him here:
https://www.instagram.com/nathanfordtriathlon/
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/nathan.ford.94
I came across Bill and his work through some mutual online friends and what he did immediately intrigued me.
In his own words:
"I'm a Special Forces Veteran, a Therapist, and a gym owner on a mission to serve through building physical, mental and emotional fitness."
He uses physical challenges to help people discover more about themselves, and I love that he uses his knowledge and experience of extreme stress and life or death situations to create an environment to allow individuals he works with in person to feel safe yet push themselves and discover who they are and can be.
He is a deep thinker and backs it all up with action.
His mission to genuinely want to help others is impossible to ignore, we could certainly do with more people like Bill in the world.
If you are looking for a challenge, his Sisyphus Gauntlet that we discuss could be just what you are looking for.
Follow Bill here:
@billanthes
@btwntheears
@btwntheearsfitness
There's a saying that goes something like 'never meet your idols as you're sure to be disappointed'
Well I'm extremely glad I decided to ignore that piece of advice and reach out to a true legend of the skateboard world, Ron Allen.
The first black professional street skater
Musician
Multiple company owner
A whirlwind of positive energy
At 60 (actually 59 and a half) his boundless energy and deep love and connection for skateboarding, music and life in general is something to behold. I HAD to record the video for this one as you need to not just listen to Ron but witness his energy with your own eyes. Whether you are into skate culture or not it's impossible not to feel a connection through Ron's stories of the last 5 decades doing something that he loves as much now as he did when he discovered it for the first time.
I urge you to follow him on instagram as you will discover he is the definition of 'Antifragility' and I believe most of this comes not from training in the gym, following the perfect nutrition program or meditating for an hour a day. It comes from finding your purpose, something you deeply love to do and want to share with others. No ulterior motive, just because you want others to find the enjoyment and experiences you have.
I really hope you get as much enjoyment listening to Ron as I did, you can follow him here:
Instagram: @ronallensk8
Music: www.emceeintelligence.com
I contacted James to ask if he'd like to be a guest on my podcast with zero expectations. He has his own extremely successful podcast (6 years and 635 episodes so far). When I say 'successful', I don't mean from a monetary or amount of followers point of view, it's more the quality of guests and amazing thought provoking and life affirming conversations he has had with some of the finest people in the human health/fitness/strength world as well as other incredible people with amazing stories to tell of human kindness, vulnerability, will and so much more.
Author
Firefighter
Paramedic
CrossFit coach
Bachelor's in Exercise Physiology and Kinesiology
His story is fascinating and life affirming, as is his ability to focus on positives whilst at the same time accepting life is not all sunshine and rainbows and it's often those negative elements that can end up teaching us the most. He is incredibly easy to talk to and I had a wonderful afternoon chatting to him through the magic of the interwebz with his home being in Florida USA.
We briefly talk about his book 'One More Light' that I began reading almost straight after our conversation and it is quite beautifully written, tackling subjects that although difficult make you view your life through a very different lens and ultimately more positive way.
You can follow James Here
https://www.jamesgeering.com/
@behindtheshield911
Sean is someone with not just many strings to his bow but just as many arrows
Dad
Rapper
CrossFitter
Deadlifter
Strongman
Brazilian Jiu Jitsuer
It was fascinating to hear how he honed his creativity for writing and performing lyrics then how he managed to seamlessly weave that process through almost everything else he's done. Had so much fun chatting about our mutual love of hip hop culture and it's endless creativity. Once again we managed to (almost) completely avoid talking about anything strength or fitness related.
I strongly recommend listening to some of his music from the last decade or so (particularly 'Hold That' by P.L.O, both video and song need to be enjoyed together, HUGE track) links below.
Hold That (video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iU1wrLVO3FQ
Seans Bandcamp
https://ralphripshit.bandcamp.com/
Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/artist/6EMDgUG6DbWLq6hwzAeseL?si=IN9HwkZkRFCC3kZ_rQPefQ
OCDC FREE download
https://ocdc-one.bandcamp.com/
Associated Minds (record label he was signed to)
https://associatedminds.bandcamp.com/
Andrew Tracey really is a champion of sharing, if you've been following him you'll have seen his constant rhetoric of showing what you CAN do rather than focusing on what you can't. Can't get to a gym? His early #YouAreNotYourGymMembership hashtag was a call to arms for anyone who couldn't get to a gym, hated the gym, maybe couldn't afford the gym. He was a champion for getting people moving, no ulterior motives.
He's also built a reputation of completing some pretty impressive challenges, one of them being an annual 24 'hero' workouts in 24 hours to help raise money for various charities, amongst many others.
We talk philosophies around physical training, Andrews take on the concept of antifragility, how his days of BMX, skateboard and being a young street urchin have helped his physical ability and also shaped his journey to present day.
He has many strings to his bow
Coach
Mens Health UK fitness editor
Adultpe.life co conspirator
Bulldog Gear collaborator
Really think you'll enjoy listening to this conversation as much as I did having it
Follow Andrew:
@theandrew.tracey
@adultpe.life
@bulldoggear
@menshealthuk
What a thoroughly enjoyable conversation with a solid human who holds many of the qualities that I one day hope to have.
Honest, authentic and humble, but along with that a huge amount of knowledge not only about strength training (which we manage to completely avoid talking about) but about life, growth and everything in between.
You can follow Michael on instagram
@mwtrainingsystems
@gointo_the_wild
Michael C Weetman
If you take one thing from this chat it's this:
'You're probably going to be alright'
From a young rapscallion growing up in a rural West country village in the 1970s to present day gym co owner in Swansea, Wales and all the nonsense that happened in between.
My journey from then to now.
We're told to write/talk about what we know, well one of the things I know is anxiety, 35 years of it to be precise. So I'm kicking off episode 1 of this podcast with when mine began up to present day.
This is not a cry for help, neither am I fishing for virtual hugs, this is my experience of anxiety and how I believe there are many positives that can come from statistically the most common form of mental disorder, globally. If any of what I talk about makes sense to you, feels familiar I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Also, what does 'antifragility' mean to you?