Just the Beginning
What 13 Conversations About Men’s Mental Health Taught Me
A solo episode with Dom Fiore
Episode Description
This episode wasn’t planned. A guest asked Dom to hold their episode back at short notice — for good reason — and rather than fill the gap with something formulaic, Dom used it to reflect on what thirteen conversations with men about pressure, identity and connection have actually taught him.
It’s also almost exactly a year since Dom had an accident that resulted in a brain injury — the event that led directly to this podcast existing. This episode is the first time he talks about it publicly.
Dom reflects on the thread that runs through every conversation so far: the gap between the version of ourselves we show the world and the version we actually are. Where that gap shows up. What it costs. And what it takes to begin to close it.
He also talks about David ‘Jacko’ Jackson — a former professional rugby player who sustained a brain injury and is currently running 100 consecutive ultra marathons for Headway, the brain injury charity — and what Jacko’s challenge says about the human capacity to find purpose in the hardest circumstances.
The episode ends with a direct message to the listener: you have the power and the agency to write your own story. This is just the beginning.
Timestamps
00:00 Why This Episode Is Different — A Guest Asked to Hold Their Episode Back
00:53 What It Means — A Chance to Reflect on 13 Conversations
01:00 13 Episodes, 13 Conversations With Men About Life Under Pressure
01:25 Why This Show Exists — The Brain Injury Anniversary
01:39 What the Brain Injury Changed — Physically, Cognitively, and How Dom Connects
02:03 Talk Came Out of the Accident, Not in Spite of It
02:37 David ‘Jacko’ Jackson — 100 Ultra Marathons for Headway
03:17 What Jacko’s Challenge Says About Finding Purpose in Hard Circumstances
03:29 The Thread — The Gap Between the Version We Show and the Version We Are
03:50 How the Gap Shows Up Differently Across Every Episode
04:26 What the Men in These Conversations Have in Common
04:43 Reflection 1 — Most Men Are Carrying Something They Haven’t Named
05:26 Reflection 2 — The Gap Between the Outside and the Inside
05:53 Freddie at the Olympics Feeling Like a Fraud. Jason Feeling Invisible.
06:01 Connection Is the Answer — Not Therapy or a Programme or a Book
06:18 The Moment Things Usually Change — Feeling Heard for the First Time
06:33 The Well Actually There Is Something Moment
06:51 Identity — Who Are You When the Job, the Sport, the Title Disappears?
07:11 What Every Guest Has Had in Common — Willing to Find Out What’s on the Other Side
07:21 This Has Been a Journey of Discovery and It’s Far From Over
07:31 The Brain Injury — What It’s Taken Away and What It’s Given
07:53 Lower Tolerance for the Superficial Version of Connection
08:00 Here’s How to Connect Properly
08:13 I’m Not Willing to Let the Accident Be the End of My Story
08:25 You Have the Power and the Agency to Write Your Own Story
08:36 The Pressure Men Feel — Real, But Not Fixed
08:48 It Shifts When We Talk. It Shifts When We Listen.
09:05 Thank You — 48 Countries, 13 Episodes, Just the Beginning
About Jacko
David ‘Jacko’ Jackson sustained a brain injury during his career as a professional rugby player. He is currently running 100 consecutive ultra marathons to raise money for Headway, the brain injury charity. He is also a running coach. Find him on Instagram
Headway is the UK’s leading brain injury charity: Headway - the brain injury association | Headway