Cold Water for Resilience, Creativity and Learning to See Yourself with Love | Sara Barnes

Cold Water for Resilience, Creativity and Learning to See Yourself with Love | Sara Barnes

Sara Barnes is a published author, a Level 2 Open Water Swim Coach and one of the UK's most recognised voices on cold water immersion. Based in the Lake District for nearly three decades, she has written three books, The Cold Fix (Vertebrate Publishing), The Winter of Our Lives (HarperCollins) and Where the Beck Flows, the first release on her own independent press CROOKED LAKE. She has written for Outdoor Swimmer magazine and the Outdoor Swimming Society, made three short films including the award-winning Dear Heart and Skinny, and was featured on the 2021 BBC series The Lakes with Simon Reeve. She has been swimming in cold water every single day for nine years. In 2025, she nearly died twice. Her doctors told her that cold water swimming is the reason she is still alive. In this conversation, Sara opens up about the surgery that broke her body and her identity, the moment she realised she could float when she could not walk, and how cold water became a daily practice that brought her back to herself. We talk about creativity, ageing, desire, body confidence, the loneliness of working from home, the courage to self-publish at 64, and what nearly dying twice taught her about being truly alive. This episode is a love letter to anyone who has had to rebuild themselves from the inside out, and a reminder that the most powerful transformations often begin with one small act of saying yes to your own life. In this episode: * Growing up an island girl in Trinidad and swimming before she could walk * The surgery that broke her body and stripped her identity * The moment her kids drove her to the lake and she realised she could float * Cold water as medicine, daily ritual and creative fuel * Why one minute per degree and other cold water rules are rubbish * The five archetypes that shaped her first book * Falling in love in a frozen ice barrel in Norway * Writing as a way of speaking to her younger self * Self-publishing at 64 and refusing to be silenced by the industry * Nearly dying twice and what it taught her about life * The little girl called Silly Sarah and finding her voice * What cold water, breathwork and nature can do together Sara on Instagram: @bumblebarnes Her books and films: sarabarnesauthor.co.uk Follow @olivierpassebecq on Instagram and visit olivierpassebecq.com

“What Growing Up in Iran Taught Me about Freedom and Desire” | Safa

Safa grew up in Tehran in a deeply religious and restrictive culture where desire was taboo and her body never felt like her own. Today she coaches bold leaders to transform their relationship with intimacy, recognising it as the untapped key to their power, creativity and impact, and she is writing a book about it. This conversation is about what we inherit, what we carry in silence, and what becomes possible when we finally stop. Chapters 00:00 Intro 01:28 Growing up in Tehran 06:18 Quietly rebelling 08:37 Religion and the bubble 15:46 Sexuality and silence 19:56 Unwanted experiences and the body as duty 23:46 Parents as danger, society as danger 24:38 Compassion and breaking the secrecy 29:36 University, boys and falling in love 34:20 Marriage, leaving Iran and the divorce 45:33 Freedom in the Netherlands and depression 49:16 Therapy, NVC and the beginning of change 57:19 The improv breakthrough and writing a book about intimacy 1:06:11 Identity, religion and being human 1:09:23 Her parents and their dynamic 1:14:13 How we see others through our own filters 1:17:06 Iran, war and holding contradictions 1:26:37 Closing reflections Follow Safa on Instagram @safaxperienx and visit safaxperienx.com Follow me on Instagram @olivierpassebecq and visit olivierpassebecq.com

"Men Are Wired to Fail in Bed Without Knowing It !" This is How to Transform Your Intimacy | Nico Kars

Most men have been running the same script their whole lives. They just don't know it. Nico Kars is a conscious kink facilitator and co-founder of kinkHEARTED — "from the heart, from the start." But this conversation goes somewhere much deeper than kink. ◼ Why most men are wired to fail in bed without knowing it ◼ What slowing down completely changes in intimacy ◼ The one practice that transforms most relationships ◼ How to discover what you actually want ◼ Why the goal in sex is the problem ◼ The conversations he will never get to have with the people who shaped him most Nico: @nicodepiko | kinkhearted.com Olivier: @olivierpassebecq | olivierpassebecq.com

"Attention Is a Form of Nutrition" Why Having Less Is the Only Way to Create More | Khandiz Joni Towill

Khandiz Joni is a Chartered Environmentalist, systems designer, multidisciplinary artist and founder of REGENASYST, a pioneering set of imagination games helping organisations move beyond sustainability towards genuinely regenerative ways of being. She holds a certificate from Cambridge University's Institute for Sustainability Leadership and has spent over two decades working at the intersection of creativity, ecology and systems change.Her path here was extraordinary. From growing up on South African film sets to working on Blood Diamond at twenty-three. From pioneering eco-ethical beauty in the UK to building an agency representing eco-ethical creative talents and production. From traditional sustainability consulting to creating card-based imagination games that unlock the kind of thinking no compliance framework ever could.Think of her as a personal trainer for organisations. She can't build the muscle but she adjusts the position. And she goes in as the outsider, which turns out to be her greatest asset.In this conversation with Olivier she explores why attention is a form of nutrition and everything in society is stealing it, why constraints are the secret to creativity, and why reconnecting with your neighbour might be the most urgent thing any of us can do right now.Rigorous, human and genuinely surprising.⬩ KHANDID.STUDIO: https://khandid.studio⬩ REGENASYST: www.regenasyst.com⬩ IAM IMPACT PROJECT: www.iamimpactproject.org⬩ Instagram: @khandizolivierpassebecq.com | @olivierpassebecq

"I Ticked All the Boxes and Was Deeply Unhappy" What Nature and the Seasons Can Teach You - Simon J Lamb

What happens when you build the perfect life and feel completely empty inside? Simon J Lamb had the flat, the relationship, the well-paid job. He had done everything right. And he was experiencing the worst depression of his life. This conversation traces his journey back to aliveness. Through a seven day silent retreat where he discovered that depression is just anger without enthusiasm. Through a chance encounter with an 80 year old wanderer at the end of the Camino de Santiago who stopped one in 500 pilgrims. And through an ancient Chinese movement practice that changed how he makes every decision. Expect to learn: ▪️ Why the body knows what the mind refuses to admit ▪️ What depression is actually trying to tell you ▪️ How the seasons can become a map for your inner life ▪️ What 5,000 years of Qigong practice understands about human energy ▪️ Why belonging is the thing most of us are quietly starving for ▪️ How cold water and ritual can rebuild a community of men Simon J Lamb is a Qigong teacher, breathwork and nature connection facilitator, and leader of Icebreakers, a UK charity supporting men's mental health through cold water rituals. Find Simon: Instagram: @simon_j_lamb Website: simonjlamb.com The Unfolding with Olivier explores connection, meaning and staying human in the digital age. New episodes every week. Follow @olivierpassebecq on Instagram and visit olivierpassebecq.com