Episodes
Craig Williams: From Royal Marine sniper to prison — and back. Resilience, reinvention and running
What does it take to rebuild your life from the ground up? For Craig Williams, a former Royal Marine sniper with 15 years of elite military service, the answer involved surviving combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, serving time in prison, and discovering — in a prison yard, running laps in flip flops — that movement could be medicine. His story is one of the most extraordinary we’ve featured on Don’t Let The Old Man In, and it speaks directly to something many men in midlife know all too well: the weight of a past mistake, and the question of whether reinvention is really possible.
Tim Hewson: Why Men Need Mates More Than Advice
For many men in midlife, the question isn’t just about surviving the pressures of work and family — it’s about whether there’s something more. Tim Hewson knows that territory better than most. After 27 years in high-pressure banking and finance, navigating panic attacks in corporate bathrooms, a marriage breakdown, and the slow unravelling of everything he thought defined him, Tim didn’t just rebuild. He created something remarkable: a movement that is changing the way Australian men think about mental health, community, and what it means to be a bloke.
Matt Bunker: Do you have the courage and strength a man in midlife needs?
We often think courage is charging into battle or standing on a podium. But the hardest kind of masculine strength? It’s quiet. It’s choosing to start over when everyone thinks you’re crazy. It’s admitting you’re struggling when you’re supposed to have it together. It’s walking away from success that might actually be killing you inside.
Gillian Coote: Navigating Divorce with Wisdom and Compassion
When your marriage ends in your forties or fifties, you’re not just losing a relationship. You’re losing the future you imagined: retirement plans, grandchildren gatherings, the life you built together. Everything suddenly vanishes, leaving you wondering who you are without it all.
Gillian Coote has spent more than 30 years helping people navigate this transition.
Matthew Lumsden: When the call gets too loud: finding simplicity in midlife
Sometimes the universe forces us to pause. For Matthew Lumsden, that moment came during the COVID-19 lockdowns when the constant travel and relentless pace of his corporate career suddenly stopped. What began as an enforced break became a profound reckoning with what truly mattered. After 13 years at Vanguard, including roles in London, Hong Kong, Japan, and Australia, Matthew faced a choice at the fork in the road: return to the office as if nothing happened, or embrace the gift of introspection and choose a different path.
Dr Andy Tay: If you could reduce your chance of dying from cancer by 28% would you?
Here’s a fascinating statistic, studies from all over the world suggest a better educated person can add years to their life if they ever get cancer. And if you’re a guy in midlife, understanding why could literally save you. Education doesn’t cure cancer. Let’s be clear about that. A university degree won’t shrink a tumour. But here’s what research shows: people with higher education have significantly better cancer survival rates. We’re talking about a 28% reduction in mortality compared to those with the lowest education levels.
Professor Andrea Maier: Why Healthspan vs Lifespan Matters
Is it possible to slow down time? What if you could measure your body’s true age and understand exactly which parts are aging faster? For Professor Andrea Maier, a global expert in longevity and a leading voice in geroscience and precision medicine, the future of healthy aging isn’t about extending lifespan — it’s about maximising the years where we can do what we love, pain-free and fully engaged.
Aldo Grech: From Love Addiction to Authentic Living. When success becomes your prison
What happens when everything you’ve worked for—the career, the partner, the material success—suddenly feels hollow? For Aldo Grech, it took losing everything to discover he’d never really had himself.
Bill Ang and Richard Bleasdale: Composing Your Symphony - Finding Purpose in the Third Transition
What happens when you’ve built a successful career and suddenly find yourself asking, “What now?” For most men in their 50s and 60s, this question can feel daunting. But what if this moment isn’t an ending—it’s actually the beginning of your most important act?
Ross Youngman: swimming beyond limits, finding purpose through challenge
What drives a man in his sixties to swim 15 hours across the English Channel, battle currents around Manhattan, and traverse freezing Tasmanian rivers? For Ross Youngman, the answer isn’t about proving anything to anyone else. It’s about staying curious, building connections, and discovering what’s possible when you refuse to let age define your limits.
Don't Let The Old Man In: 2025 Highlights
This isn’t your typical podcast episode. Instead of one conversation, Pod O’Sullivan brings you 13 pivotal moments from the most powerful interviews of 2025. These are the insights that stopped him in his tracks, the conversations that made him think, “everyone needs to hear this.”
Understanding Shame and Midlife Transformation: Ben Larke
For midlife men, shame often lurks beneath the surface of our carefully constructed lives. We’ve built the career, bought the house, raised the kids. From the outside, everything looks sorted. But inside? There’s often a different story playing out—one we’ve been keeping secret, sometimes even from ourselves.
Ben Larke is a clinical psychologist who specialises in working with men navigating midlife transitions. He understands shame not just as a clinician, but as someone who’s done his own deep work.
Why successful men at midlife still feel like frauds: Erin Buttermore
You’ve climbed the ladder. Built the career. Earned the respect. So why does that voice in your head keep whispering you don’t deserve it? That any moment now, someone’s going to figure out you’ve been faking it all along?
In this conversation, we sit down with Erin Buttermore, a strategy consultant, executive coach and PhD candidate researching the imposter phenomenon at the University of Sydney.
Crossing the bridge: rethinking retirement with Dr Jon Glass
What if retirement isn’t really about golf and chilling out? What if it’s actually one of the most significant identity transitions you’ll ever face?
Dr Jon Glass knows this territory intimately. Starting his working life with a PhD in pure mathematics from Cambridge University, he’s made several major career transitions himself. Now, as a retirement coach, he’s on a mission to change the paradigm of what retirement actually means.
When life makes you confront mortality at 23: Dr Merran Cooper on advanced care planning and living with purpose
What happens when death arrives at your doorstep decades before you’re ready? For Dr Merran Cooper, it came when she was just 21 years old, watching her 22-year-old husband battle terminal leukaemia. But rather than breaking her, that experience set her on an extraordinary path that would eventually lead to becoming a doctor at 51 and an entrepreneur in her 60s.
Professor Virginia Cha: thriving beyond retirement in Singapore's engineered blue zone
What if the best educated, most experienced generation in history simply stopped contributing at 65? What if all that knowledge, those networks, that hard-won wisdom just… retired?
Training for Your Last Decade – with Dr. Gordon Spence
Just One Reason: Stuart O’Neill on Survival, Hope and the Power of Connection
When life falls apart, most of us search for a way through. For Stuart O’Neill, that search began in the darkest moment of his life — a moment that nearly ended it. What emerged instead was Just One Reason, a small, unassuming book that has since saved lives across the world.
Weight Loss Drugs: Miracle or Mistake?
Midlife often brings unwelcome surprises: slower metabolism, creeping weight gain, and the frustration that “what worked before” suddenly doesn’t. Dr. Kwong helps us understand why—and shows how to think beyond quick fixes toward sustainable, holistic health.
How to master the Life Reinvention Playbook with Michael Bungay Stanier
Watch or Listen on your favourite platform
Subscribe
Sign up to receive alerts for:
- New podcast episodes from Don't Let The Old Man In
- A weekly newsletter
- To be invited to live events
- To hear about new podcasts that are launching in early 2026
- To hear about other new products planned for launch in 2026