Made In Chaos with Ryan Curtis

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

I Knew I Had Cancer Before The Doctors Told Me - Carly Mahady

She Knew Before the Doctors Did. Carly Mahady on Cancer, Being Dismissed & Why Pity Never Saved Anyone. At 16, Carly Mahady found a lump and was told she was fine. At 22, she noticed something else, and this time the doctors listened. What followed was a diagnosis of secretory carcinoma, a cancer so rare only 0.02% of people in the world have it, a mastectomy scheduled for her 25th birthday, chemotherapy during COVID, and a fight that most people never saw the full picture of. In this episode, Ryan sits down with Carly for one of the most honest, funniest and most unexpectedly deep conversations Made in Chaos has ever had, about identity, illness, ADHD, avoidance and what it really means to come back as yourself. What we get into: * Noticing a lump at 16 and being completely dismissed by her GP * How she decoded the body language of medical staff before they said a word * The man in the suit — how she figured out the waiting room system before anyone told her * Being diagnosed with secretory carcinoma: 0.02% of the world, no clear playbook * Scheduling her mastectomy on her 25th birthday and why she insisted * When the cancer spread to her lymph nodes — the second blow * Chemotherapy during COVID and finding genuine joy on the ward * Whether suppressed emotion and carried resentment caused her cancer — and why she believes it did * Pity vs results: you can have one, but you can't have both * ADHD, object permanence, protective pessimism and being violently avoidant of herself * Why she stopped talking about her cancer online — and what people misunderstood about that * Trauma porn, oversharing and finding the right delivery for a story that's still yours 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 wisdom worth sharing. Follow: @madeinchaospod | @chaoscurtis 🖊️ Sponsored by The Ink Factory, Temple Bar — Ireland's highest rated tattoo studio. theinkfactory.ie | @theinkfactory

Recession, Paralysis & 90 Grand in Debt. - How Niall McMahon Survived It All

Less Than 1% Chance of Walking Again. Three Doctors. Three Hammer Blows. One Decision to Never Give Up. Niall McMahon opened Alfie's on South William Street in Dublin in 2008, the same year the recession began. He survived debt, pandemics, rising costs and 18 years of one of the toughest industries in the world. Then, in November 2023, a blood vessel in his spine burst without warning. Within days, he was paralysed. In this episode, Ryan sits down with Niall for one of the most powerful conversations Made in Chaos has ever had, two men who've been through near-identical journeys comparing notes on paralysis, recovery, mindset and what it really takes to come back from the unthinkable. What we get into: * Growing up in the restaurant business, his parents built Joelle's from a trucker café * Opening Alfie's the day before his 30th birthday during the worst recession in living memory * 90 grand in debt with nothing in his pocket, and the walk on Bray beach that changed everything * The Japanese TV show that saved his menu and his business * The cavernoma, the blood vessel he was born with that nobody knew was there * Three consultants, three hammer blows: wheelchair for life, less than 1% chance, permanent bladder damage * The moment he lifted his knee 2 inches and said goodbye to the Bentley wheelchair * Pat, the roommate who gave him everything and was dead 4 months later * The hill, the biscuits and the last day at the NRH * Why the doctors who deliver bad news need to think about how they deliver it * What both Ryan and Niall believe is the real difference between people who come back and those who don't Ryan Curtis is a former Irish MMA fighter who was paralysed from the neck down and told he would never walk again. He rebuilt his life from the ground up. Made in Chaos exists to platform guests who've faced real adversity and come out with wisdom worth sharing. Follow: @madeinchaospod | @chaoscurtis 🖊️ Sponsored by The Ink Factory, Temple Bar — Ireland's highest rated tattoo studio. theinkfactory.ie | @theinkfactory