Why Achieving Your Biggest Goal Won't Always Make You Happy - Prof. Ross G. White

Why Achieving Your Biggest Goal Won't Always Make You Happy - Prof. Ross G. White

Real Strength Isn't Pushing Through Everything. It's Learning to Bend Without Breaking. A Clinical Psychologist Explains. Most people think mental strength means never slowing down, never breaking, never letting anyone see them struggle. Professor Ross G. White, clinical psychologist, author and performance specialist who works with the Irish Rugby Football Union, argues that this exact belief is why so many people are burnt out, anxious and quietly losing themselves. Ryan sits down with Ross for a conversation packed with usable frameworks on resilience, purpose, pressure and emotional avoidance, the kind of practical psychology that genuinely changes how you think about your own life. What we get into: * The get, threat and reset modes, and why high achievers neglect the one that keeps them well * Why being "relentlessly relentless" guarantees burnout * The arrival fallacy, why hitting your biggest goal won't make you happy * Shallow success vs deep success, focusing on values and process over outcome * Why you don't find your purpose, you form it * Treating emotions as messengers, and why there's no such thing as a negative emotion * The inner critic, where it comes from, and self-compassion as strength turned inward * Survivorship bias, why copying Michael Jordan's mindset won't make you Michael Jordan * Towards moves vs away moves, the one question that can change every decision you make * Strong intention, light attachment, protecting your identity beyond one pursuit * What burnout actually is, and why it's not your fault * "You're not broken, you're stuck", and how a flexible mind helps you get unstuck Ryan Curtis is a former Irish MMA fighter who was paralysed from the neck down and told he would never walk again. Made in Chaos exists to platform guests who've turned adversity into hard-earned wisdom worth sharing. Follow: @madeinchaospod | @chaoscurtis 🖊️ Sponsored by The Ink Factory, Temple Bar, Ireland's highest rated tattoo studio. theinkfactory.ie | @theinkfactory

From Being Homeless To World Champion & Losing My Best Friend to Suicide - Craig 'Coco' Coakley

He Built the Road for Irish Muay Thai Himself. Two Years Homeless. A Best Friend Lost. World Champion. Craig "Coco" Coakley is one of Ireland's most accomplished Muay Thai fighters a Dublin Combat Academy fighter who became Irish Fighter of the Year, won multiple titles including a world title, and fought for Yokkao, Muay Thai Grand Prix and ONE Championship. But what makes Craig's story remarkable isn't the trophy cabinet. It's everything that happened underneath it. Ryan sits down with Craig for an unfiltered conversation about growing up in Dublin's inner city, falling into fighting almost by accident, spending two years homeless while building a career at the same time, losing his best friend to suicide, and walking away from the security of the biggest promotion in the sport because his sanity mattered more than the contract. What we get into: * Growing up in Dublin 1, community, hardship and what people get wrong about "rough areas" * How Craig fell into Muay Thai after getting battered in his first boxing match * The brutal reality of fight week, fight camps and the sacrifices nobody sees * Two years homeless in a hotel room with a newborn while still actively competing * The loss that nearly broke him, his best friend James, and the system that failed him * Why fighting is more mental than physical, and what losing taught him about who's really in your corner * Walking away from ONE Championship and choosing his sanity over the biggest contract in the sport * Becoming a father and how it completely reshaped what he was fighting for * What he wants people to actually remember about Craig Coakley when it's all said and done Ryan Curtis is a former Irish MMA fighter who was paralysed from the neck down and told he would never walk again. Made in Chaos exists to platform guests who've turned adversity into hard-earned wisdom worth sharing. Follow: @madeinchaospod | @chaoscurtis 🖊️ Sponsored by The Ink Factory, Temple Bar. Ireland's highest rated tattoo studio. theinkfactory.ie | @theinkfactory

The Eating Disorder Expert Who Recovered After 22 Years and Why Ozempic Scares Her - Cara O'Loughlin

It's Not About the Food. A Life Coach Who Spent 22 Years in an Eating Disorder Explains What It's Really About. On the night her mum died, Cara O'Loughlin was 15 years old. That same night, she picked up her first eating disorder behaviour. What followed was 22 years of anorexia, bulimia, binge eating, exercise addiction, a stroke at 29, osteoporosis, infertility warnings, and eventually, full recovery. Today, Cara is a life coach specialising in eating disorder recovery, a yoga teacher, and one of the clearest and most credible voices on why these patterns start and what it actually takes to break them. This is one of the most important episodes Made in Chaos has ever recorded. What we get into: * Why eating disorders are never about food, and what they're really about * The genetic predisposition, the personality traits, and the trigger that sets it off * The physical toll most people never see: bone density, fertility, heart, thyroid, stroke * Why Cara was at her sickest when she looked her healthiest * What Ryan's own experience with weight cutting in MMA revealed about disordered eating in sport * The HALT framework, and why overwhelm was always Cara's trigger * Orthorexia: the unhealthy obsession with eating healthily that nobody is diagnosing yet * Why 98% of diets fail, and the set point theory that explains everything * Ozempic: who it's for, who it isn't, and what Cara is seeing in her clients * How to raise children with a healthy relationship with food without ever mentioning weight * The division of responsibility, and why finishing your dinner is doing more harm than you think * Men and eating disorders: Bigorexia, gym obsession and the conversation nobody is having * What someone struggling right now needs to hear, and where to get help Ryan Curtis is a former Irish MMA fighter who was paralysed from the neck down and told he would never walk again. Made in Chaos exists to platform guests who've turned adversity into hard-earned wisdom worth sharing. Follow: @madeinchaospod | @chaoscurtis 🖊️ Sponsored by The Ink Factory, Temple Bar - Ireland's highest rated tattoo studio. theinkfactory.ie | @theinkfactory

Why I Refused to Let Two Life-Threatening Illnesses Break Me - Dec Pierce

A Brain Haemorrhage. Then Breast Cancer. Same Man. Two Years Apart. Dec Pierce Gets Completely Honest. Most people know Dec Pierce as the voice of Block Rockin' Beats — the man who brought thousands together through music, through lockdown, through the nights they'll never forget. But behind the energy and the stage presence, the last three years of Dec's life have been extraordinary in the worst possible way. In 2023, Dec suffered a subarachnoid brain haemorrhage mid-run in Ringsend. In 2025, he was diagnosed with breast cancer — a condition so rare in men it accounts for just 1% of all cases. Two life-threatening illnesses in two years, in a man who doesn't drink, doesn't smoke, exercises, eats well and does everything right. Ryan sits down with Dec for one of the most important men's health conversations Made in Chaos has ever had. What we get into: * Growing up as a quiet, bullied kid and how music became his alter ego * Recording his own pretend radio shows at 8 years old from a ghetto blaster * Dutch courage, a garden shed in Ballybrack and how pirate radio changed his life * Why dance music and nostalgia connect with people on a deeper level than almost anything else * Starting Block Rockin' Beats at his lowest professional point — and doing it for free for six months * How the birth of his daughter Ava removed every roadblock and fear of failure overnight * The bomb that went off in his head mid-run — and the sliding doors moment that saved his life * What a subarachnoid haemorrhage actually does to the body, and the long road back * The lump he found in New York in the shower — and almost let sit there * The phone call he got on the first day of his holiday in Spain * Why men don't check themselves — and why that silence costs lives * The youngest male diagnosis his specialist had ever made — and the earliest detection * Telling his 9-year-old daughter about the mastectomy scar * The nights when catastrophic thinking takes over — and how he got through them * What two life-threatening illnesses gave him that nothing else could Ryan Curtis is a former Irish MMA fighter who was paralysed from the neck down and told he would never walk again. Made in Chaos exists to platform guests who have turned adversity into something worth sharing. Follow: @madeinchaospod | @chaoscurtis 🖊️ Sponsored by The Ink Factory, Temple Bar — Ireland's highest rated tattoo studio. theinkfactory.ie | @theinkfactory

Imposter Syndrome, Self-Sabotage & Why Getting Uncomfortable Is the Only Way - Dr. Brian Pennie

He Was Addicted to Heroin for 15 Years. Now He Has a PhD in Neuroscience. The Same Brain Did Both. Brian Pennie started using heroin at 16. By 20 he was chronically addicted, every single day for 15 years. He held down a job, sold drugs to fund his habit, and accumulated 50 grand in debt to dealers and money lenders. He had a violent seizure from benzo withdrawal, nearly died, and hit a moment of complete surrender in a hospital on a trolley at 35 years old. What happened next is one of the most extraordinary personal transformations Ryan has ever had on Made in Chaos. Brian went to detox, discovered the human mind, met a doctor who told him he had a sharp brain, and four years later was teaching in Trinity College. He now has a PhD in neuroscience and lectures across Ireland and the world on addiction, trauma, habits and change. What we get into: * The operation as a baby with no anaesthetic, and the trauma he didn't know he was carrying * Why heroin felt like "the anaesthetic I never got as a baby" * Why the choice theory of addiction is wrong, and what actually drives people to substances * The difference between Brian and his best mate who got addicted: two traumatised people in the same group * The ABC habit loop, why tackling the behaviour is completely the wrong starting point * Why the opposite of addiction is awareness, not sobriety * The eagle in the chicken coop, and why most people die thinking they're something they're not * Why your brain doesn't care about your happiness, it only cares about avoiding pain and chasing pleasure * Imposter syndrome reframed: it's not a warning sign, it's a compass pointing toward growth * Self-deception, limiting beliefs and building a wall of evidence instead of self-belief * Why motivation is bullshit, and what actually changes behaviour * Social media, AI and the terrifying perfect storm quietly destroying our ability to think * What Brian would say to someone who feels completely stuck right now Ryan Curtis is a former Irish MMA fighter who was paralysed from the neck down and told he would never walk again. Made in Chaos exists to platform guests who've turned adversity into hard-earned wisdom worth sharing. Follow: @madeinchaospod | @chaoscurtis 🖊️ Sponsored by The Ink Factory, Temple Bar — Ireland's highest rated tattoo studio. theinkfactory.ie | @theinkfactory