Explore every episode of the podcast Dental Leaders Podcast
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mind Movers #50 — Jeff Foster | 06 nov. 2026 | 01:00:17 | |
Mind Movers is back after a long break, and Rhona and Payman mark the return with Doctor Jeff Foster, an NHS GP who stumbled into men's health almost by accident, after realising male patients kept assuming he'd know the answers to questions no one in medicine was really trained to handle. Two decades on, he's co-authored national guidance on testosterone deficiency and become one of the most recognisable voices in the space. Jeff makes the case that full-body MRI scans are largely a waste of money, that blood testing from your early thirties is a far better investment, and that testosterone has been culturally hijacked into meaning something it never actually measured. Along the way, Rhona pushes him on a genuinely difficult question: the recent Cornell case and whether hormones can ever explain away a failure of consent. Jeff's answer is blunt and leaves little room for the excuse. There's also a proper back-and-forth on looks-maxing and jaw aesthetics, the strange cultural logic that paints steroid-using bodybuilders as the testosterone ideal while they quietly wreck their own fertility and bone density, and a shared frustration about how disconnected dentistry, GP medicine and mental health care still are from one another, even when a patient's symptoms are clearly sitting across all three.
In This Episode 00:00:40 – Introduction 00:01:50 – Background in medicine 00:04:35 – Common myths about men's health 00:06:55 – The gender health gap 00:08:05 – Why men avoid healthcare 00:12:55 – Full body MRIs and over-screening 00:15:00 – Blood tests and testosterone 00:17:15 – Testosterone vs TRT 00:20:30 – Fertility and male infertility 00:27:25 – Accessing treatment 00:30:20 – Testosterone, consent and masculinity 00:39:15 – Looks maxing and jaw aesthetics 00:43:05 – What TRT involves 00:45:35 – Incel culture and role models 00:57:35 – Joined-up healthcare
About Jeff Foster Jeff Foster is an NHS GP and one of the UK's leading voices on men's health, specialising in testosterone deficiency, hormone health and sexual health. He co-authored the UK's 2023 national guidance on testosterone deficiency in men, is medical director at Voy, a private men's health service, and hosts the Man Alive podcast. | |||
| #367 The Naked Soul — Esther Shirin | 04 nov. 2026 | 01:28:05 | |
Esther Shirin returns to Dental Leaders under a new name, having first appeared as Sharon Walsh in episode 278 to talk about losing her practice, her marriage and her children during a breakdown that led to alcohol addiction and homelessness. This conversation picks up from there: she's written a book about everything that happened since, and Payman says plainly that reading it changed how he thinks about his own life. Esther talks about the voice she heard, lying on a sofa in 2022 having been given little chance of seeing Christmas, asking her whether she wanted to live or die, and the years of addiction, a GDC suspension and eventual recovery that followed her choice. She's open about where that recovery actually came from: an elderly man she met on a park bench who'd known the Kray twins, a sister who took her in when she had nowhere else to go, and a faith practice built from pieces of Sufism, the Lord's Prayer and Alcoholics Anonymous rather than any one tradition. There's also a frank account of her seven-year case with the GDC, including a misdiagnosis by an expert witness she successfully challenged, and her view on why the current system leaves clinicians feeling judged by people who've never done the job. Later in the conversation, Esther discloses that she was abused as a child, and talks about only uncovering that history in therapy decades later, once addiction had stripped away the ways she'd learned to cope with it.
In This Episode 00:00:40 – Introduction 00:02:50 – The name change 00:05:25 – Choosing life 00:15:00 – Who she is now 00:19:35 – Money and gratitude 00:25:15 – People who saved her life 00:35:35 – Learning to respond, not react 00:39:35 – The GDC process 00:49:10 – Returning to dentistry 00:53:50 – Yoga and recovery 01:02:40 – A three-week gut detox 01:10:50 – Fluoride and alternative oral care 01:17:05 – Public speaking and teaching 01:21:10 – Childhood abuse and therapy 01:26:40 – The book and what's next
About Esther Shirin Esther Shirin is a dentist who first appeared on Dental Leaders as Sharon Walsh in episode 278, discussing the breakdown that led to addiction, homelessness and the loss of her practice. She has since written a memoir, The Naked Soul of a Dentist, and is now rebuilding her career after a GDC suspension, alongside work as a qualified yoga teacher and public speaker on mental health and addiction. | |||
| #366 You Choose The Label — Rana Al-Falaki | 28 oct. 2026 | 01:50:38 | |
Rana Al-Falaki opens by telling Payman what she's still struggling with, even now: the gap between how put-together she looks from the outside and how much she still has to fight to let people see the rest of it. She joins him as a specialist periodontist and laser research pioneer who built two award-winning practices, sold them, and then rebuilt her entire career as a performance coach after her body forced the issue. The backstory is a lot. Her mother died of breast cancer when Rana was 24, a death she now ties directly to a lifetime of people-pleasing and swallowed stress. In her mid-twenties she moved in with a man who became physically and emotionally abusive, a relationship she couldn't find the strength to leave for years. By her late thirties, buried under a GDC complaint, a divorce and the demands of running two practices, her body gave out: a diagnosis of POTS, a condition that had already left other sufferers unable to walk, arrived at almost the same time as a quiet choice about which label she was going to wear. There's real clinical substance threaded through all of it too. Rana explains how she talked her way into becoming one of the first periodontists in the UK using erbium lasers for bone regeneration, entirely on instinct and with no studies to back her up, and how she eventually got the research published against a field she describes as deeply resistant to new ideas. She's just as direct about what it actually takes to build a referral practice patients and dentists both trust, and why building Breathe, a free wellbeing platform for the dental profession, became personal after a friend who introduced her to lasers died from an infection that followed a drinking spiral after his own GDC complaint.
In This Episode 00:00:50 – Introduction 00:02:40 – What she still struggles with 00:05:00 – Spirituality and belief 00:15:00 – Why she became a dentist 00:21:30 – Losing her mother 00:34:30 – Grief, addiction and abuse 00:43:00 – Pitfalls of high performers 00:50:40 – Burnout and chronic illness 00:57:30 – Getting into lasers 01:12:20 – Building a referral practice 01:17:40 – Marriage and divorce 01:24:45 – The Nail It coaching system 01:32:40 – Launching Breathe 01:35:55 – Blackbox thinking 01:41:25 – Favourite lectures 01:46:15 – Fantasy dinner party
About Rana Al-Falaki Rana Al-Falaki is a specialist periodontist and laser research pioneer who built and later sold two award-winning periodontal practices in London. She is now a leadership and performance coach, the creator of the Nail It coaching system, and co-founder of Breathe, a free wellbeing platform for the dental profession. | |||
| #365 Zero Bone Loss — Raid Ali | 21 oct. 2026 | 01:42:26 | |
Raid Ali arrived in Cardiff in 1998 because a friend told him it was cheaper than London, and never really left. He joins Payman as a specialist implantologist and founder of Restore Dental Group, a five-practice business built from the three practices he and two business partners bought from their old boss, having qualified in Baghdad in 1996 and sat his exams in the UK with no family connection to dentistry at all. He talks openly about ranking fourteenth in the whole of Iraq in his final school exams during wartime, about teaching himself English from scratch after arriving (he remembers struggling just to buy bread), and about the early advice from Chris Barrow that changed how he ran his business: stick to dentistry, delegate everything else. There's a genuinely candid account of his own clinical mistakes too, including an implant placed without enough restorative space, and six stressful months defending a legal claim over a mentee's work he wasn't even liable for. Raid also gets into the detail that's shaped his implant career: why he still refers every zygomatic case elsewhere despite being trained to do them, the French physiologist whose PRF technique changed how he thinks about healing, and why he now considers soft tissue, not implant design, the single most important factor in long-term success.
In This Episode 00:00:50 – Introduction 00:01:50 – Arriving in Cardiff 00:03:50 – Growing up in Baghdad 00:13:45 – Choosing dentistry 00:19:30 – Moving to the UK 00:21:00 – Sitting the exams 00:25:35 – First impressions of UK dentistry 00:28:35 – Buying his first practice 00:35:40 – Getting into implants 00:38:55 – Mentors who changed his thinking 00:50:00 – Advice for new implantologists 01:04:00 – Growing to five practices 01:12:35 – Blackbox thinking 01:24:35 – What grinds his gears 01:38:40 – Fantasy dinner party
About Raid Ali Raid Ali is a specialist implantologist and founder of Restore Dental Group, a five-practice business based in Cardiff. Originally from Baghdad, he qualified in Iraq before moving to the UK in 1998, and now sits on the board of the Association of Dental Implantology, teaches an 18-day implant diploma, and co-founded the Iraqi Dental Community. | |||
| #364 Beyond the Tools — Jameel Gardee | 14 oct. 2026 | 01:38:18 | |
Jameel Gardee joins Payman to reflect on more than three decades in dentistry, from qualifying in Glasgow to undertaking advanced restorative training at Boston University and building a private practice centred on digital dentistry. He looks back on the people and experiences that shaped his career, why American dentistry changed his outlook, and how his approach to restorative treatment has evolved. The conversation also explores the pressures facing younger dentists, the value of mentorship and why becoming an excellent clinician takes more than technical ability. Much of the discussion centres on the shift from analogue to digital dentistry. Jameel breaks down the workflows behind modern smile design, from facial scanning and treatment planning to guided preparations, 3D printing and restorative materials. But there's a distinction he keeps coming back to: owning the latest technology means very little if you don't know how to bring it all together. The conversation also takes a more personal turn as Jameel reflects on difficult patients, clinical mistakes and the emotional weight of complaints. With AI and robotics changing the profession, he considers what the next generation of dentists will need to learn and why human connection may become more valuable than ever. Expect honest reflections on clinical excellence, digital workflows, patient trust, innovation, mentorship and the changing relationship between technology and the people delivering care. In This Episode 00:00:50 – From Glasgow to Boston 00:05:05 – American dentistry and clinical philosophy 00:09:05 – Mentorship and younger dentists 00:21:25 – Funding further education 00:24:35 – Private practice and patient trust 00:31:20 – Empowering the dental team 00:34:05 – Discovering digital dentistry 00:38:00 – Workflows over equipment 00:41:25 – The digital first visit 00:44:25 – Facially driven treatment planning 00:51:30 – Mock-ups and smile design 00:53:50 – Guided restorative dentistry 00:57:45 – 3D printing and zirconia 01:04:25 – Research versus clinical experience 01:10:00 – Technology and patient communication 01:16:10 – Robotics and the future 01:21:40 – Blackbox thinking 01:29:15 – Learning and clinical development 01:31:20 – Fantasy dinner party 01:35:45 – Life outside dentistry About Jameel Gardee Jameel Gardee is a Glasgow-based dentist and educator known for his work in digital dentistry, aesthetic restorations and smile design. After qualifying from the University of Glasgow in 1995, he undertook advanced restorative and aesthetic training at Boston University. He has since built a career combining private clinical practice with digital education, helping dentists and their teams adopt modern treatment planning and restorative workflows. Through his work with Avant Garde Dentistry, he continues to champion the use of technology to make complex dentistry more predictable and accessible. | |||
| #363 The Dentown Special | 07 oct. 2026 | 01:17:46 | |
Dental Leaders goes live from Dentown for a special compilation episode bringing together seven voices from across dentistry, design, technology, entrepreneurship and beyond. Across a series of conversations with Payman, Galip Gürel explores the move from pioneering veneer techniques to developing robotic tooth preparation, and why precision matters more than speed. Nazariy Mykhaylyuk reflects on microscope dentistry, perfectionism and continuing to practise and run businesses in Kyiv during wartime. Millie Morrison discusses finding her place in orthodontics, the responsibility of mentorship and overcoming the feeling that she needed to stay in her original clinical lane. Pouyan Mehdizadeh looks beyond conventional clinic design to the complete patient experience, exploring how architecture, branding, scent, sound, lighting and temperature can shape the way a space feels. Sahil Patel takes the conversation far outside the surgery with the story of climbing Everest, from the six-week commitment and extreme conditions to summit fever and the reality that reaching the top is only halfway home. Victoria Sampson shares the less glamorous reality behind building a fast-growing business, fundraising, clinical dentistry and trying not to burn out. Finally, Dentown founder Mehy Lo Presti joins Payman at the end of the event to reflect on two years of planning, building a world-class speaker line-up and his determination to create a different kind of dental event. Expect robotics, clinical excellence, mentorship, design, Everest, entrepreneurship, burnout and a behind-the-scenes look at the ideas shaping dentistry's next chapter. In This Episode00:00:50 - Galip Gürel00:19:10 - Nazariy Mykhaylyuk00:21:20 - Millie Morrison00:35:10 - Pouyan Mehdizadeh00:49:35 - Sahil Patel01:01:20 - Victoria Sampson01:12:25 - Mehy Lo Presti About the Speakers Galip Gürel is an internationally renowned aesthetic dentist and educator whose work has helped shape modern veneer dentistry. At Dentown, he discusses his move into dental robotics and the development of technology designed to bring greater precision and automation to tooth preparation. Nazariy Mykhaylyuk is known internationally for microscope-enhanced dentistry and advanced digital workflows. Based in Kyiv, he continues to practise, teach and run his businesses while living through the realities of war in Ukraine. Millie Morrison is a general dentist with a major clinical and educational focus on orthodontics. Alongside treating patients, she mentors other dentists in treatment planning, biomechanics and building confidence in their own clinical decision-making. Pouyan Mehdizadeh is an architect, creative director and experience designer whose work spans healthcare projects internationally. His approach extends beyond interiors to consider every element of how patients experience a healthcare brand and physical space. Sahil Patel is an accomplished cosmetic dentist and mountaineer who recently summited Mount Everest. His conversation explores the preparation, risk, psychology and extraordinary logistics behind taking on the world's highest mountain. Victoria Sampson is a dentist, researcher and entrepreneur known for her work around saliva diagnostics and the oral microbiome. She discusses building her testing business, fundraising, maintaining clinical practice and managing the intense workload that comes with pursuing several ambitions at once. Mehy Lo Presti is the founder of Dentown. After two years of planning, he brought together leading clinicians and thinkers for an event designed to challenge the traditional dental conference format through education, experience and community. | |||
| #362 The Girl That Survived — Kathryn Bell | 30 sept. 2026 | 01:25:58 | |
Kathryn Bell was seventeen, six months into a school exchange trip to Kentucky, when a minor car crash jolted loose a brain tumour nobody knew was there. She joins Payman as a general dentist at Colosseum Dental in Chippenham and the group's key opinion leader for facial aesthetics, having spent over two decades qualified after a start to adult life that involved an emergency craniotomy, a coma, meningitis and hydrocephalus, largely without her parents in the room. She talks with real clarity about survivor's guilt, about repeating a year at school rather than falling behind her friends, and about the internal motivation that got her through GCSEs with headaches nobody could explain, years before anyone found the tumour causing them. There's a second, quieter story running alongside it too: a burnout so complete she couldn't get out of bed most mornings on the NHS, and the daughter whose birth, entirely by coincidence, pulled her out of it just in time. Kathryn also gets specific about the actual craft of facial aesthetics: polynucleotides, why subtlety beats a dramatic result every time, and the patient with suspected body dysmorphia who brought her own fifty-times magnifying mirror to a review appointment.
In This Episode 00:00:45 – Introduction 00:01:45 – The brain tumour story 00:17:40 – Survivor's guilt 00:20:25 – Choosing dentistry 00:22:45 – Losing time at school 00:28:30 – Master's in aesthetic medicine 00:31:05 – Social media and dysmorphia 00:33:00 – Introducing facial aesthetics 00:40:00 – Skin treatments vs injectables 00:45:30 – A facial aesthetics mistake 00:56:20 – Women in dentistry 01:02:50 – A career mistake 01:09:55 – Burnout on the NHS 01:14:30 – Best lecture: Callum Youngson 01:19:35 – Fantasy dinner party
About Kathryn Bell Kathryn Bell is a general dentist at Colosseum Dental in Chippenham and the group's key opinion leader for facial aesthetics across its 80 practices. She holds an MSc in Aesthetic Medicine, researching how social media shapes aesthetic patients' self-perception, and survived a brain haemorrhage and tumour removal at the age of seventeen. | |||
| #361 Unfinished Business — Dipali Dalia | 23 sept. 2026 | 01:41:32 | |
Dipali Dalia wanted to be a barrister at fourteen, became a periodontist instead, and then went back and trained as a barrister anyway, in her forties, while still practising three days a week. She joins Payman as a specialist periodontist at Emsworth Specialist Practice near Portsmouth, having qualified as a dentist, specialised in periodontics at Guy's, and then, nearly two decades into a successful referral practice, gone back to college to sit alongside twenty-somethings doing a law conversion course. She's honest about why the second career never quite happened. A scholarship from an Inn of Court, a year of criminal law that suited her better than the dry civil procedure rules, county court advocacy work to build experience, and still no pupillage by the time her father died of dementia at the end of a long, hardworking life. That loss changed everything, and Dipali talks with real clarity about the Hindu philosophy she leaned on afterwards, focused on the action rather than the outcome, and about coming back to periodontics with a settledness she didn't have before. Anyone considering the same leap gets something to work with too: referral relationships, the loneliness of the bar versus the immediacy of a dental chair, and Dipali's own conclusion that failure is better read as a redirect than a verdict on your worth.
In This Episode 00:00:50 – Introduction 00:01:56 – Choosing dentistry over law 00:14:53 – Maxillofacial training 00:17:57 – Deciding to specialise 00:24:52 – Becoming a periodontist 00:28:12 – Referral relationships 00:34:47 – Peri-implantitis management 00:46:31 – The itch to become a barrister 00:52:17 – Training as a barrister in her 40s 01:00:17 – Comparing dentistry and law 01:10:27 – Losing her dad 01:17:56 – Failure as redirection 01:22:20 – A happier periodontist now 01:29:23 – Fantasy dinner party 01:38:08 – Women in dentistry and law
About Dipali Dalia Dipali Dalia is a specialist periodontist at Emsworth Specialist Practice near Portsmouth, having trained at Guy's after an early spell in maxillofacial surgery. In her forties, she trained part-time as a barrister, completing a law conversion course and the bar course while continuing to practise periodontics, before returning to dentistry full-time. | |||
| #360 Was It Worth It — Bizhan Shokouhi | 16 sept. 2026 | 01:25:53 | |
Bizhan Shokouhi didn't set out to be an oral surgeon, or even to specialise at all. He joins Payman as a specialist oral surgeon and implantologist working across private practice and Guy's Hospital, and teaching on the Bristol MSc in Implants, having spent his first year qualified convinced he'd end up a restorative dentist. He talks openly about the one thing he tells every trainee before they touch an implant, which has nothing to do with surgery and everything to do with communication, and about a denture case that took twenty-odd visits over eighteen months before he admitted defeat and referred it on. There's a genuinely reflective stretch on ambition too: Bizhan's own answer to whether he'd want his own practice is a flat no, and his reasoning, built around contentment rather than potential, runs against almost everything you'd expect from someone this good at his job. Along the way, there's proper technical detail on soft tissue management, bone grafting, and why the first five minutes of a surgery matter more than anything that happens with a suture. And by the end, Payman more or less names the episode for him: was it worth it?
In This Episode 00:00:50 – Introduction 00:01:35 – A typical working week 00:04:20 – Becoming excellent 00:09:28 – Work-life balance 00:14:36 – Getting into implantology 00:21:00 – Communicating with patients 00:30:39 – Digital planning and AI 00:36:52 – Robots and the future 00:54:52 – Blackbox thinking 01:02:48 – Soft tissue lessons 01:05:11 – Building an Instagram following 01:12:04 – Mentors in implantology 01:14:44 – Why no practice of his own 01:19:59 – Best lecture: Martin Kelleher 01:22:36 – Fantasy dinner party
About Bizhan Shokouhi Bizhan Shokouhi is a specialist oral surgeon and implantologist working in private practice and at Guy's Hospital, and a tutor on the Bristol MSc in Implants. He is known for his educational Instagram content on oral surgery and soft tissue management, and previously trained in restorative dentistry and maxillofacial surgery before specialising. | |||
| #359 That One Day — Anita Pradan | 09 sept. 2026 | 01:25:26 | |
Anita Pradan pulled her car onto the hard shoulder of the motorway one day, cried, took her laptop out of the boot, and typed her resignation. She joins Payman as founder of Phoenix Dental Academy, having spent years running herself into the ground managing someone else's education business before deciding to build her own. She talks openly about the exam that took her five years longer than expected, the practice interview where a principal offered her £1,500 a month and shouted at her for turning it down, and the gap between what overseas dentists post on Instagram and what they're actually going through once they arrive in the UK. There's a properly moving thread here about her father too, a maxillofacial surgeon who treated Nepal's royal family, and what it took for Anita to build something that was hers rather than his. Along the way, Anita gets specific about which countries produce the best-prepared dentists, why crown preps are the one part of the ORE exam that actually matters, and the impression material disaster in her very first week that she still uses to teach students today.
In This Episode 00:01:05 – Introduction 00:01:30 – What the ORE involves 00:07:05 – Therapist-led routes into the GDC 00:10:55 – Exploitation and bad contracts 00:16:55 – Social media versus reality 00:19:30 – Building Phoenix Dental Academy 00:24:35 – Leaving a toxic workplace 00:32:15 – Growing up in her father's shadow 00:38:15 – Teaching hands-on courses 00:45:00 – The gap between passing and practising 00:52:25 – Ambition without a partner 00:57:20 – A typical week 00:59:00 – Which countries produce the best dentists 01:10:45 – Blackbox thinking 01:22:50 – Fantasy dinner party
About Anita Pradan Anita Pradan is a Nepalese, Indian-trained dentist and founder of Phoenix Dental Academy, which prepares overseas dentists for the Overseas Registration Examination. She also teaches at the College of Medicine and Dentistry in Birmingham, part of Ulster University, and works one day a week as clinical lead for overseas clinicians within a dental group. | |||
| #358 Trust Your Gut — Ben Barter | 02 sept. 2026 | 01:10:14 | |
Ben Barter has never drilled a tooth in his life, but he's spent more time in dental events than most dentists. He joins Payman as co-founder of Dental Assembly, the latest venture in a career built entirely on getting corporates and suppliers into the same room, first at Open Rooms, then Dental Forum, and now running his own show. In between, there's a properly strange detour: a price comparison app for beauty products, built with zero knowledge of beauty or technology, launched into a global pandemic, and later pitched successfully on Dragons Den. Ben talks candidly about what actually convinces an investor to back two people with no relevant experience, and the gut feeling he ignored right before a bus full of a hundred people failed to turn up in Dubai. There's a decent amount of shop talk here too, on why fun is a business strategy rather than an afterthought, and why splitting an event by practice size might be the most underrated idea in dental networking right now.
In This Episode 00:00:45 – Introduction 00:01:00 – Life running dental events 00:09:45 – Getting into events 00:12:55 – Lessons from Open Rooms 00:15:45 – Starting Skin during Covid 00:21:15 – Going on Dragons Den 00:26:20 – Raising money for the first time 00:28:30 – Launching Dental Assembly 00:33:00 – Structuring the events 00:37:35 – Why fun matters 00:48:45 – Touchpoints beyond the event 00:50:55 – Blackbox thinking 01:01:45 – Favourite resource and book 01:04:40 – Fantasy dinner party 01:08:05 – Growing up and life outside events
About Ben Barter Ben Barter is co-founder of Dental Assembly, an events business connecting dental groups with suppliers, and previously spent nine years at Open Rooms and Dental Forum. He also co-founded Skin, a price comparison app for beauty products that secured investment on Dragons Den, before returning to dental events full time. | |||
| #357 Sink Or Swim — Bashar Alturk | 26 août 2026 | 01:40:07 | |
Bashar Alturk has represented two countries at trampolining — Great Britain, then Jordan — and ruptured both his knees doing it, a year apart, once right before finals. He's also a final-year dental student at Leeds who bought his own phantom head and drill and set them up in his student room because the university wouldn't give him enough practice time. His ADHD diagnosis came late on purpose. His mum spotted it in primary school and refused to let it be labelled, worried about what that label would do to him; he didn't get assessed properly until Covid forced the question. He now credits the delay with making him work harder rather than lean on an excuse. There's a loupes business in here too, run out of that same student room, undercutting the market on price until his own dental school shut it down over a GDC conduct issue. And there's a longer, harder conversation about faith: what he actually believes about suffering and reasons, tested properly the first time his knee gave out weeks before an Olympic cycle. Payman keeps circling one question throughout: what happens when you take the "sink or swim" mentality that built an Olympic athlete and try to run a dental career on it too.
In This Episode 00:00:50 – Introduction 00:02:10 – Growing up in Manchester 00:06:40 – Getting into trampolining 00:11:53 – ADHD diagnosis 00:18:35 – Injuries and setbacks 00:33:00 – Sacrifice and family 00:41:52 – Faith and meaning 00:46:25 – The phantom head 00:48:28 – The loupes business 01:02:41 – Delegation 01:11:56 – Wanting to be known 01:19:36 – Choosing a path 01:20:41 – Blackbox thinking 01:29:47 – Fantasy dinner party 01:36:57 – Post-competition blues
About Bashar Alturk Bashar Alturk is a final-year dental student at the University of Leeds and an Olympic-level trampolinist, having represented both Great Britain and Jordan internationally. Alongside his studies, he founded a student loupes company, served as president of his dental society, and helped organise one of the UK's largest undergraduate dental conferences. | |||
| #356 Win The Day — Afzal Haque | 19 août 2026 | 01:50:38 | |
Afzal Haque joins Payman as a specialist endodontist and owner of Stretford Road Dental Practice, along with its referral clinic M41 Indo, in South Manchester, having spent ten years as a general dentist before making the switch. He talks candidly about hating endodontics as a young dentist, the wife who talked him into rotary instrumentation and then, years later, into selling their house to fund three years of specialist training in Liverpool. There's a properly moving stretch on the sacrifice that decision demanded of his young family, and on the culture of fear he encountered as an undergraduate that still shapes how he teaches today. This is also a masterclass in referral dentistry: building trust with generalists, pricing endodontic treatment simply, and why the happiest dentists are the ones who communicate well rather than the ones who never make mistakes. Expect sharp thinking on bioceramics, root canal myths, AI in the surgery, and a properly honest account of growing up as the only brown kid in his primary school class.
In This Episode 00:00:45 – Introduction 00:02:10 – Family background and choosing dentistry 00:13:30 – Falling into endodontics 00:15:50 – Selling the house for specialist training 00:22:55 – Why endo suits him better than general dentistry 00:28:25 – Building a referral-based practice 00:40:45 – Team, AI and running the practice 00:45:35 – Endo heroes and technique 00:59:15 – Bioceramics and modern materials 01:01:50 – Root canal myths and AI search 01:08:45 – Toxic teaching culture 01:15:50 – Specialist training and family sacrifice 01:24:05 – Blackbox thinking 01:35:25 – Robots and the future of dentistry 01:38:15 – Fantasy dinner party and growing up in Manchester
About Afzal Haque Afzal Haque is a specialist endodontist and owner of Stretford Road Dental Practice and its referral clinic, M41 Indo, in South Manchester. He spent ten years as a general dentist before training as an endodontist at the University of Liverpool, and now also works as a senior lecturer at UCLan and as a specialist adviser for the CQC. | |||
| #355 The Caesar Method — Patrycja Galonzka | 12 août 2026 | 01:39:06 | |
Patrycja Galonzka joins Payman as business manager at Aspire Smiles in Warwick, having worked her way up from trainee dental nurse to the top of the practice after moving to the UK from Poland at nineteen. She talks candidly about the loss that pushed her to stay in the UK rather than go home, and how years spent as a barista and waitress taught her more about handling people than any qualification could. This is also a masterclass in practice culture: Patrycja walks through her own Caesar framework for running a team, why "anti-values" like blame and gossip do more damage than any missing policy, and why she'd rather build a team like a sports squad than a family. Expect sharp, practical thinking on KPIs, AI in the day-to-day of a practice, and why taking the blame for everything that goes wrong might be the happiest way to lead.
In This Episode 00:00:50 – Introduction 00:01:50 – From Poland to dental nursing 00:09:00 – Ambition, patience and advice to her daughter 00:12:00 – Awards and ego 00:17:00 – Finding your why 00:19:00 – Anti-values and team culture 00:22:00 – The Caesar framework 00:35:00 – Empowerment and learning from mistakes 00:48:00 – KPIs that matter 00:52:00 – AI in the practice 01:01:00 – Robots and the future of dentistry 01:07:00 – Alternative business models 01:21:00 – Blackbox thinking 01:26:00 – Time management, boundaries and the five-year vision
About Patrycja Galonzka Patrycja Galonzka is business manager at Aspire Smiles in Warwick, having progressed there from trainee dental nurse through lead nurse and practice manager. She moved to the UK from Poland at nineteen, is the creator of the Caesar leadership framework, and now runs her own consulting business helping dental teams build stronger culture and systems alongside her practice role. | |||
| #354 Connect The Dots — Agne Malisauskiene | 05 août 2026 | 01:32:56 | |
Agne Malisauskiene joins Payman as the clinical lead at the Baltic Academy of Aesthetic Dentistry and one of the world's best-known minimally invasive composite teachers, having trained thousands of dentists from her purpose-built facility in Vilnius. She talks candidly about swapping punishing NHS-style hours in Lithuania for a much gentler introduction to UK private dentistry, and how a year at a US military boarding school as a teenager shaped the discipline and leadership instincts she still relies on today. This is also a conversation about ambition and what it costs. From the competitive streak that pushed her toward the hardest degree to get into, to the guilt and logistics of teaching abroad most weekends while raising two young boys, Agne is refreshingly honest about the trade-offs behind a career built on repetition, pattern recognition and constant travel. Expect sharp reflections on gender and ambition in dental education, why composite bonding took off early in Lithuania, and a clinical mistake that changed how she treats every tooth since. In This Episode 00:00:50 – Introduction 00:02:40 – Building the Vilnius teaching facility 00:11:57 – Moving to the UK 00:18:27 – Boarding school in America 00:30:57 – Family background and choosing dentistry 00:39:41 – Ambition, competitiveness and sacrifice 00:46:47 – Family life and growing up in Soviet-era Lithuania 00:53:12 – A typical teaching week and travel logistics 01:02:32 – Joining Biomimetic 01:07:33 – Gender, ambition and teaching 01:15:53 – Filming through the loupe camera 01:22:47 – Blackbox thinking 01:26:32 – Favourite resource: Layers 2 01:30:27 – Fantasy dinner party About Agne Malisauskiene Agne Malisauskiene is an internationally recognised minimally invasive direct composite expert and the clinical lead at the Baltic Academy of Aesthetic Dentistry in Vilnius, where she trains dentists from around the world. She is a member of Biomimetic and Enlighten's distributor in Lithuania, and splits her time between her own patients and a busy international lecturing schedule. | |||
| #353 The Conference Kid — Shyun Patel | 29 juil. 2026 | 02:09:27 | |
Shyun Patel joins Payman as a final-year dental student at Liverpool, best known for founding BDSA, the biggest undergraduate dental conference the UK has seen, and for buying his own practice before he's even qualified. He talks candidly about losing the Dental Society presidency election, the autoimmune diagnosis that reshaped how he thinks about time, and the fridge-flipping side hustle that helped fund his first practice. This is also a conversation about ambition and its cost. From the cathedral gamble that saved BDSA's gala dinner to the balance between depth and breadth of impact, Shyun's reflections on business are as sharp as his reflections on himself. Expect thoughtful exchanges on hubris, communication as a clinical skill, sacrifice, and what it means to build something at 23 that most people wait decades to attempt. In This Episode 00:00:50 – Introduction 00:01:30 – Growing up in Liverpool 00:06:14 – Communication vs skill 00:08:36 – Teaching communication 00:14:00 – Public misconceptions 00:22:38 – Hubris 00:22:52 – Insecurity and upbringing 00:32:57 – Losing DentSoc presidency 00:41:20 – Autoimmune diagnosis 00:50:07 – Building a dating app 00:58:00 – Business by osmosis 01:01:26 – The value of asking 01:04:32 – Scale of BDSA 01:07:26 – Funding BDSA 01:17:07 – Leadership and delegation 01:21:00 – Sales and sponsorship 01:25:10 – The cathedral gamble 01:29:47 – The fridge hustle 01:41:07 – Ambition and sacrifice 01:47:43 – Blackbox thinking 01:52:41 – Clinical vs business 01:59:35 – Depth vs breadth 02:01:11 – Heroes and resources 02:05:29 – Fantasy dinner party 02:07:31 – Five-year vision About Shyun Patel Shyun Patel is a final-year dental student at the University of Liverpool and the founder of BDSA, the largest undergraduate dental conference staged in the UK to date. Alongside his studies he already owns a dental practice, works as a dental rep for Bryant, and is building a compatibility-focused dating app in his spare time. | |||
| #352 Lift the Shield — Adrian Dray & Kautham Haran | 22 juil. 2026 | 01:43:20 | |
Two CareStack men, one origin story that starts in a Covid ward. Adrian Dray talks Payman through the lead-management deal that nearly bankrupted him, and how that near-miss set him up to bring an American cloud practice management system into a UK market that, by his own admission, "really dislikes change." Kautham Haran, the ops brain to Adrian's front-of-house energy, explains how a fintech Start-Up background prepared him for the mess of onboarding whole dental groups onto new software. Between them they cover why CareStack bet big on a market the size of Oregon, what Rory Sutherland taught them about friction and the "doorman fallacy," and why AI receptionists might be dentistry's answer to the hoverboard fire hazard. It's a conversation about building a company from scratch inside an industry built on habit, and what happens to your ego when the whole thing goes a bit public and a bit personal. In This Episode 00:01:00 - Introductions 00:01:35 - Covid and crisis 00:07:25 - Meeting Abby 00:11:25 - Kautham's fintech past 00:14:15 - The leadership trio 00:16:00 - Opportunity, defined 00:23:10 - Cracking the UK 00:31:55 - Straumann and strategy 00:36:35 - Built-in payment plans 00:39:55 - Onboarding challenges 00:44:55 - Surprises in dentistry 00:50:25 - Software's weak spot 00:54:50 - Regulation as moat 00:56:20 - Shaking up events 01:03:55 - Rory's insights 01:14:15 - Voice Stack AI 01:17:45 - AI receptionist risks 01:22:45 - Blackbox thinking 01:32:25 - Fantasy dinner party 01:40:55 - Closing thoughts About Adrian Dray and Kautham Haran Adrian Dray is director of demand generation at CareStack, a cloud-based dental practice management system, having previously worked as a data protection officer within dentistry. Kautham Haran is CareStack's head of implementation, joining from a peer-to-peer invoice finance Start-Up he co-founded straight out of the University of Warwick. Together they lead CareStack's UK operation alongside Shamanth, their head of customer success. | |||
| #351 The Legacy Builder — Neil Sikka | 15 juil. 2026 | 01:32:34 | |
Neil Sikka joins Payman to reflect on a career that has moved from single-surgery NHS dentistry in Bethnal Green to building a ten-practice London group, selling to Bupa, and now helping shape clinical strategy across one of the UK’s biggest dental organisations. He talks candidly about the Barbican Dental Care years, why he chose cultural fit over the highest offer when selling, and why he still practises one day a week after decades in the profession. This is also a conversation about service. From funding a dental carriage on India’s Lifeline Express to supporting Dentaid and Mercy Ships, Neil’s work outside the surgery is just as revealing as his business story. Expect thoughtful reflections on the mouth-body connection, Bupa’s future, clinical excellence, personal branding, charitable dentistry and the quiet art of getting on with people. In This Episode 00:01:00 - Bupa, leadership and clinical voice 00:02:45 - From Bethnal Green to Barbican 00:06:40 - Growing ten practices 00:10:30 - Selling the business 00:14:00 - Risk, reward and optimism 00:16:10 - Lifeline Express 00:21:35 - Mercy Ships and Dentaid 00:28:20 - Childhood and family 00:35:15 - Why he still practises 00:37:30 - Blackbox thinking 00:45:30 - Life inside Bupa 00:52:00 - Bupa Training Academy 00:57:00 - Mouth-body connection 00:59:15 - Personal branding 01:07:25 - A week in Neil’s life 01:18:15 - Dental learning and mentors 01:22:30 - Music, golf and real tennis 01:25:45 - Fantasy dinner party 01:28:40 - Last days and legacy About Neil Sikka Neil Sikka is Chief Dental Officer for Bupa Dental Insurance and Director of Dentistry at Bupa Dental Care. Before joining Bupa, he founded and grew Barbican Dental Care into a ten-practice London group, building a corporate dental plan model for major employers. He continues to practise one day a week and has long supported access-to-care projects through Dentaid, Mercy Ships and India’s Lifeline Express. | |||
| #350 Dentistry 2040 — Andrew Bower | 08 juil. 2026 | 00:56:41 | |
Recorded live at Bupa Dental Health Is Live, this Dental Leaders episode sees Payman joined by Andrew Bower from Philips Oral Healthcare for a sharp look at dentistry in 2040. The conversation moves from AI, robotics and connected toothbrushes to the bigger question of how oral health can become part of everyday whole-body care. Andrew explores Philips’ long-term view on prevention, consumer behaviour, clinical evidence and the challenge of making oral care feel less like a chore and more like a daily ritual. There’s also a grounded reminder that, even with smarter tools and faster data, dentistry still comes back to care, trust and human connection. In This Episode 00:02:05 - Dentistry in 2040 00:04:15 - Predictions and connectivity 00:05:00 - Oral care apathy 00:08:00 - Power toothbrush adoption 00:10:30 - Global dental differences 00:12:20 - Mouth-body connection 00:14:00 - Diagnostics and data 00:15:35 - Robots and clinicians 00:22:20 - Connected toothbrushes 00:40:20 - AI and productivity 00:47:25 - Last days and legacy 00:48:00 - Fantasy dinner party About Andrew Bower Andrew Bower is the global product category lead for Philips Oral Healthcare. With more than 20 years at Philips across consumer health, women’s health and oral care, he brings a global view of how technology, prevention and behavioural change are shaping the future of healthcare. | |||
| #349 Doing the Right Thing — Ian Dunn | 01 juil. 2026 | 01:57:17 | |
Ian Dunn didn't set out to become a periodontist. A chance encounter with a stranger in a hospital corridor, a course he took on a whim, and the absence of anyone else doing the job in Liverpool — that's how a specialism was born. In this episode, Payman sits down with Ian to trace a career shaped as much by happy accidents as by hard graft; from a comprehensive school kid who retook his A-levels, to one of the most respected perio voices in the north west. They cover the state of the profession — social media's double edge, the case for CPD reform, awards culture, and the strange silence around perio's role in systemic health. Ian is candid about a GDC case that cost him eleven months of sleep, and equally candid about why he'd never swap his associate chair for a principal's desk. In This Episode 00:01:25 — Growing up in Liverpool 00:02:10 — Student life at Leeds 00:05:35 — Route into dentistry 00:11:50 — Ethics and professionalism 00:18:50 — Life as a GDP 00:19:25 — Route into periodontics 00:29:30 — How perio has changed 00:41:35 — The mouth-body connection 00:46:00 — What's changed in perio 00:52:55 — Good vs great periodontists 00:56:35 — Industry, big pharma and public education 01:00:25 — What grinds your gears 01:05:00 — Social media, awards and measuring success 01:15:25 — Teaching and self-promotion 01:16:30 — Hygienists, teamwork and hierarchy 01:20:25 — Liverpool 01:24:15 — Blackbox thinking 01:27:45 — GDC complaint 01:39:50 — Associate life and practice ownership 01:46:05 — Best lectures and resources 01:53:25 — Fantasy dinner party 01:56:15 — How Ian wants to be remembered About Ian Dunn Ian Dunn is a specialist periodontist based at Rose Lane Dental Practice in Liverpool, where he has worked for over 15 years. A graduate of Leeds, he spent a decade as an NHS GDP before finding his way into perio through a combination of luck, timing and relentless curiosity. Alongside his clinical work, Ian teaches on perio courses and has been active with the British Society of Periodontology, where he is a vocal advocate for hygienists, therapists, and anyone who believes the gums are everyone's business. | |||
| #348 Agony Uncle — Sina Gilannejad | 24 juin 2026 | 01:45:05 | |
From pizza shop to Maxfax theatre — Sina Gilannejad's route into dentistry is anything but straightforward. Born in Northern Ireland to Iranian parents, Sina brings a rare blend of warmth, self-awareness, and hard-won clinical confidence to this conversation. He opens up about the anxiety that drove him towards DCT, the perfectionism that almost derailed him, and how a stint in maxillofacial surgery — confronting cancer, mortality, and the limits of medicine — fundamentally changed his relationship with the job. It's an honest, searching episode about what it actually means to become a dentist, and what to do once you've got there. In This Episode 00:01:10 - Extraction anxiety and the road to DCT 00:02:10 - Growing up in Northern Ireland 00:03:45 - Working in his dad's pizza shop 00:08:30 - Dental school in Bristol 00:16:45 - Politics, cancel culture and the Overton window 00:24:00 - "Most Presenting Complaint" — the podcast with Adam 00:25:25 - The FD year: imposter syndrome and mental health struggles 00:35:35 - Practitioners Health and CBT 00:39:20 - Patient communication and dentistry's image problem 00:41:45 - DCT explained — the case for and against 00:44:50 - DCT1 in Cardiff: oral medicine, oral surgery and Mike Lewis 00:50:05 - Choosing Maxfax — Chesterfield and DCT2 00:53:35 - Advice bias: the responsibility of giving career guidance 00:57:05 - To specialise or not to specialise 01:02:00 - General practice at Dental Beauty 01:04:10 - Wisdom teeth, retained roots and the perils of perfectionism 01:05:20 - Implants: the next step? 01:11:00 - Practice ownership, the super associate and social media 01:14:50 - Maxfax, mortality and perspective 01:22:10 - Blackbox thinking 01:26:50 - Teaching, favourite resources and DCT study budgets 01:38:50 - Fantasy dinner party 01:42:25 - Last days and legacy About Sina Gilannejad Sina Gilannejad is a dental core trainee who completed DCT1 in oral surgery and oral medicine at Cardiff and DCT2 in maxillofacial surgery at Chesterfield. A Bristol dental school graduate and former dental school president, he now works as an associate at Dental Beauty practices in Dalston and Basildon, with a particular interest in oral surgery and conscious sedation. He is also co-host of the Most Presenting Complaint podcast alongside fellow dentist Adam. | |||
| #347 Bring the Energy — Meghan Chard | 17 juin 2026 | 01:47:32 | |
Meghan Chard is many things at once — principal dentist, practice owner, mum of three, and quietly passionate evangelist for childhood airway health. In this episode, she sits down with Payman for a wide-ranging conversation that takes in meeting her husband Simon at dental school, buying his family's Leicestershire practice a month before their first child arrived, and the very particular chaos of juggling clinical work, business ownership, and family life. Then there's the airway thread — and once Meghan gets going, you can see why she's hooked. Sleep disordered breathing in children is, she argues, a dramatically underscreened problem, and dentists are uniquely placed to spot it. In This Episode 00:00:55 — Introductions and Rothley Lodge 00:02:30 — Meeting Simon at King's 00:05:10 — Life as associates, then buying the practice 00:06:05 — Running the practice: ops vs. direction 00:08:25 — The dental family advantage 00:12:45 — Learning the numbers — and how Pärla helped 00:13:00 — Staff management and the art of delegation 00:15:30 — Superpowers and self-awareness 00:17:35 — The juggle: three kids, two clinical days, one nanny 00:20:00 — Something has to give 00:26:10 — Mary McAleese, Belfast, and family roots 00:30:05 — Childhood airway obstruction: signs, symptoms and the dentist's role 00:40:05 — Treatment: referral, palatal expansion and the habit-corrector appliance 00:54:10 — Case studies and outcomes 00:58:35 — Pärla: the emotional roller coaster of consumer business 01:05:35 — Covid and the darkest days of practice ownership 01:08:20 — Dental school, inferiority, and graduating second in the year 01:16:30 — Blackbox thinking 01:26:25 — Faith, spirituality, and community 01:30:50 — Succession planning 01:35:10 — How Meghan ended up in dentistry 01:39:15 — Best lecture: Malcolm Levinkind on teeth, posture and the body 01:41:50 — Favourite resources: Breath, Breathe Sleep Thrive, Saved by the Mouth 01:42:45 — Sauna obsession and longevity habits 01:43:55 — Fantasy dinner party 01:45:40 — What she'd do differently About Meghan Chard Meghan Chard is a principal dentist and co-owner of Rothley Lodge Dental Practice in Leicestershire, which she and her husband Simon Chard took over from his family in 2018. Alongside clinical practice and running the business, she has developed a keen interest in childhood sleep disordered breathing and consults for a paediatric airway appliance brand. She is also a niece-in-law of Mary McAleese, former President of Ireland. | |||
| #346 First Principles — Henry Totterdell | 10 juin 2026 | 01:25:07 | |
What happens when a mechanical engineer spends a decade fixing factories, then walks away from it all to start dental school at 34? Henry Totterdell joins Payman to tell that story. He talks about the years spent solving problems on aircraft carriers and chemotherapy production lines, the slow-burning itch to do something with his hands, and why he finally took the plunge. Along the way they get into first principles, the magic of human connection over Zoom, where robots might fit into the chair one day, and the quiet privilege of a patient simply saying thank you. It's a conversation about taking the long way round — and arriving exactly where you meant to. In This Episode 00:01:55 - Travel and adventure 00:05:20 - Childhood in Stroud 00:06:15 - Choosing engineering 00:07:35 - Loughborough years 00:08:45 - Engineering versus dentistry 00:10:00 - First principles thinking 00:12:10 - Life as a consultant 00:17:15 - Losing his purpose 00:18:35 - The pharmaceutical world 00:21:00 - The itch to do medicine 00:22:15 - Working with his hands 00:23:50 - The leap to dental school 00:31:50 - The Innovations Hub 00:36:05 - First extraction 00:38:40 - Blackbox thinking 00:43:45 - Starting a business 00:44:55 - Lectures that stuck 00:48:10 - What makes a course brilliant 00:50:25 - The magic of being in the room 00:52:15 - Soft skills and integrity 00:54:20 - Reading the patient 00:57:45 - Regrets 01:01:45 - Robots in the chair 01:06:00 - Relentless optimism 01:06:45 - Darkest days 01:10:20 - Nervous patients 01:13:40 - Awards and recognition 01:16:20 - Confidence and family 01:18:35 - Fantasy dinner party 01:20:45 - Last days and legacy About Henry Totterdell Henry Totterdell is a third-year dental student at Bristol, having come to dentistry after a decade as a mechanical engineer and consultant. A Loughborough graduate, he worked across defence, pharmaceuticals and manufacturing before retraining at 34. Alongside his studies he runs a Dental Innovations Hub at Bristol, introducing students to the technology and business side of dentistry that the course doesn't cover. | |||
| #345 Do the Thing — Ali Al-Hassan | 03 juin 2026 | 02:02:55 | |
Ali Al-Hassan is the walking embodiment of work hard, play hard — a young dentist who's gone from associate to super associate, practice co-owner and globe-trotter, all while building a following that brings patients straight to his chair. In this episode, he and Payman get into what really separates an ordinary associate from a "super" one: bringing in your own patients, owning your fees, and treating social media as your digital shop front. There's honest talk about outworking self-doubt, the awards debate, a vexatious GDC referral that came out of nowhere, and a wild Covid-era trading story that took a £50k bounce-back loan to seven figures and most of the way back down again. Threaded throughout is a simple philosophy — do the thing, do it thousands of times, and let it compound. You'll come away with plenty to think about, whether you're weighing up your own brand or just wondering how one person fits in this much living. In This Episode 00:02:30 - Work hard, play hard 00:08:10 - Growing up and family 00:14:30 - The inflection point 00:17:30 - Associate vs super associate 00:24:40 - Social media and the first Invisalign open day 00:33:15 - Tenacity and outworking self-doubt 00:39:05 - Niching down 00:49:50 - Cornerstones of safe GDP ortho 00:53:50 - Blackbox thinking 00:59:30 - The GDC referral 01:08:45 - Compounding and word of mouth 01:09:45 - Dental Opulence 01:18:55 - The awards debate 01:25:35 - Travel and friendships 01:29:25 - Working with Robbie 01:32:05 - The Covid trading story 01:42:25 - Examinations and case acceptance 01:48:05 - Composite bonding approach 01:54:50 - Finishing teeth upside down 01:56:25 - Fantasy dinner party 02:00:25 - Last days and legacy About Ali Al-Hassan Ali Al-Hassan, known online as Doctor Ali, is a Cardiff-trained dentist working across practices in Swindon, the Midlands and London, with a focus on Invisalign and composite. He's a super associate who built his patient base through years of consistent social media, and co-owns the Dental Opulence clinic in the Midlands. Away from the chair, he travels monthly, invests, and is renovating a house back home in Swindon. | |||
| #344 The Package Deal — Ashley King & Sophie Lovett | 27 mai 2026 | 01:57:15 | |
Ashley King and Sophie Lovett run the international side of Pearl, the AI company that reads dental radiographs — and they turn up as a self-confessed package deal. The chat starts with what the tech actually does (a second opinion for clinicians, and a way to help patients finally see what's going on in their own mouths), but it doesn't stay there for long. Payman, Ashley and Sophie get into US versus UK dentistry, the state of the NHS, why trust beats price every time, and how AI is creeping into everyday work. Then it gets personal: women and AI, the awkwardness of asking for a pay rise, what happens when a woman out-earns her partner, and whether having children is selfless or selfish. Honest, funny and occasionally controversial — this one wanders well beyond the X-ray. In This Episode 00:00:50 - Life at a start-up 00:02:20 - Life on the road 00:04:35 - Distributors or your own office 00:06:05 - What Pearl does 00:09:30 - Accuracy and limits 00:10:45 - A controversial take 00:12:45 - AI and the future 00:18:35 - A cottage industry 00:21:20 - US vs UK dentistry 00:24:40 - NHS vs private 00:30:20 - Getting set up 00:34:00 - The price 00:35:40 - Why trust is everything 00:37:45 - The word "sell" 00:40:35 - Living in London 00:46:50 - The worst of America 00:51:50 - Politics 00:56:05 - AI in their own work 01:00:50 - Women and AI 01:02:30 - The pay rise problem 01:05:20 - The gender pay gap 01:08:25 - Femininity as power 01:11:00 - Relationships and self-reliance 01:13:55 - Children 01:16:30 - Out-earning a partner 01:25:10 - "I'm just a hygienist" 01:26:30 - Business influences 01:33:50 - Biggest business mistakes 01:38:40 - Competitors and USP 01:45:40 - Guilty pleasures 01:49:05 - Fantasy dinner party 01:54:00 - Ministry of Sound About Ashley King & Sophie Lovett Ashley King leads international partnerships at Pearl, having started out in dental back in 2018 at VOCO; she's from North Carolina and now calls London home. Sophie Lovett heads up Pearl's international market development and, despite only three years in dentistry, talks the clinical language like a native. The two are best friends as much as colleagues — which is exactly why they turned up to record together. | |||
| #343 Serendipity — Tara Renton | 20 mai 2026 | 02:10:21 | |
Professor Tara Renton OBE brings four generations of dental history — and a career built on curiosity rather than ambition — to her conversation with Payman. From navigating undiagnosed dyslexia and a father who begged her not to follow him into dentistry, to becoming the first female chair of oral surgery at King's College London, her story is one of serendipity, resilience, and an almost obsessive interest in the patient behind the pain. She shares remarkable insights into orofacial pain — nerve injuries, psychosocial histories, patients whose chronic pain only begins to shift when someone finally takes the time to ask the right question — and makes a compelling case for multidisciplinary thinking in a profession she feels has been far too siloed for far too long. Sharp reflections on surgical safety, local anaesthetic technique, and the state of dental education sit alongside something warmer: a life philosophy that's disarmingly simple. Stay curious. In This Episode 00:02:50 - Four generations of dentists 00:06:05 - Child dental health crisis 00:07:20 - New grandmother 00:10:00 - Choosing dentistry 00:17:05 - Serendipity over ambition 00:37:15 - The juggle: three kids and a PhD 00:41:00 - Bullying and misogyny in surgery 00:44:45 - King's: first chair in oral surgery 00:47:35 - Multidisciplinary pain clinic 00:49:25 - The Iranian patient 00:56:00 - Trust underpins consent 01:00:00 - Classifying orofacial pain 01:07:05 - When grief resolves chronic pain 01:12:15 - Blackbox thinking 01:17:00 - Local anaesthetic tips 01:22:00 - Wrong site surgery 01:25:30 - Dental student selection 01:27:15 - Redesigning the dental course 01:47:50 - Bruxism: rethinking the evidence 01:50:15 - Fantasy dinner party 01:53:45 - Last days and legacy About Professor Tara Renton OBE Professor Tara Renton OBE is Emeritus Professor of Oral Surgery at King's College London Dental Institute, where she became the first female chair of oral surgery — and one of the world's leading authorities on orofacial pain and nerve injury. Over a career spanning more than 40 years, she has authored over 250 research papers, completed a PhD centred on morbidity following third molar surgery, established a pioneering multidisciplinary pain clinic at King's, and carried out extensive medico-legal work in surgical safety. She is the co-founder of the patient resource orofacialpain.org.uk. | |||
| #342 Looking for the Edge — Mike Gray | 13 mai 2026 | 01:53:37 | |
Mike Gray's path to dentistry was anything but straightforward — and that's precisely what makes this conversation so compelling. A former semi-professional mountain biker who raced the World Series across three disciplines, a musician who once had the head of Universal Publishing sitting in his living room in rural Wales, and a dentist who spent years doing everything he could to avoid dentistry, Mike has lived several lives before arriving at the one he clearly loves. Payman and Mike cover the full sweep — grief, therapy, surgical war stories, and an obsessive, self-taught approach to digital restorative dentistry that culminates in his POISE Protocol: a no-prep veneer workflow that he believes makes truly minimally invasive ceramics available to the vast majority of patients, not just a lucky five per cent. In This Episode 00:00:55 – Introductions and first impressions 00:01:20 – Mountain biking career 00:09:15 – A friend's suicide, guilt and stepping back from maxfax 00:12:15 – Therapy 00:14:10 – Life on the World Series circuit 00:19:25 – From maxfax to music 00:28:10 – Blackbox thinking 00:33:45 – Music career — Alabama Three, Peppa Pig and Covid 00:49:25 – NHS dentistry debate 00:51:50 – Falling in love with dentistry 00:54:40 – Self-taught restorative and the digital workflow 01:00:25 – Ditching the articulator 01:01:20 – Prototypes, not temporaries 01:05:10 – Into implants 01:11:00 – Compassion fatigue 01:13:40 – POISE protocol and no-prep ceramics 01:25:10 – The Lodge and the course 01:29:05 – Resilience and failure 01:34:20 – Practice ownership 01:41:10 – Instagram 01:49:20 – Fantasy dinner party About Mike Gray Mike Gray is a dentist based in Wales, working at Parkway Clinic in Swansea and The Lodge — a referral and education centre where he hosts his sold-out POISE Protocol course on minimally invasive ceramic veneers. His background spans maxillofacial surgery, semi-professional mountain biking at World Series level, and a music career that attracted interest from Universal Publishing and, improbably, Peppa Pig. He teaches himself CAD, machines his own surgical instruments, and has spent five years developing a digital workflow for no-prep ceramic restorations that he believes renders feldspathic and heavy preparation largely redundant. | |||
| #341 Underestimated — Rawa Jawad Quinn | 06 mai 2026 | 01:54:52 | |
Rawa Jawad Quinn is a dentist-turned-tech founder whose restless energy and refusal to be underestimated have shaped every chapter of her career. In this episode, she tells Payman about growing up in Chelsea after her Iraqi family fled Kuwait with nothing, studying in Liverpool, and working across 16 dental practices before channelling her frustrations into Medicube — a consent and patient communication platform built to give associates the consistency they've never had. The conversation takes some wonderfully unexpected detours into quantum physics, telepathy, AI-driven futures and the spiritual experiences that Rawa can't quite explain but absolutely trusts. There's also plenty of practical wisdom on occlusion, practice culture and what it really takes to bootstrap a dental tech start-up while raising a three-year-old without a nanny. In This Episode 00:00:45 – Introduction and welcome 00:01:25 – Growing up on the Kings Road and childhood in Chelsea 00:03:30 – Studying dentistry in Liverpool and reinvention 00:07:00 – Dyslexia diagnosis and learning differently 00:10:10 – The itch beyond dentistry 00:14:00 – Fleeing Kuwait, starting over in the UK 00:16:25 – Why her parents' medical careers put her off medicine 00:18:05 – Ambition, being underestimated and self-belief 00:23:15 – Spirituality, connectedness and trusting intuition 00:26:10 – Wanting it all — motherhood, marriage and a start-up 00:31:00 – Lessons from 16 dental practices 00:36:25 – Working in corporates and at Bupa 00:41:20 – NHS vs private practice 00:45:15 – The birth of Medicube 00:48:30 – How Medicube works and pilot results 00:55:55 – Finding a co-founder and the UCL connection 00:58:50 – Funding through grants, awards and bootstrapping 01:03:25 – AI, the Turing test and the future of work 01:10:25 – Robots, relationships and what makes us human 01:22:55 – Physics, multiverse theory and keeping an open mind 01:28:40 – Blackbox thinking 01:33:40 – A patient with buyer's remorse after crown preps 01:36:55 – Occlusion, full mouth rehabs and the Dawson Academy 01:43:20 – Tech conferences and the reality of being a founder 01:47:05 – Fantasy dinner party About Rawa Jawad Quinn Rawa Jawad Quinn is a dentist based in Belfast, currently working at Bupa, with a particular interest in full mouth rehabilitation cases. She is also the co-founder of Medicube, a dental tech platform that streamlines consent, treatment planning and patient communication. Rawa trained at the Dawson Academy and Chris Hall's programme, and has worked across 16 practices spanning NHS, private and corporate settings. | |||
| #340 Exit at the Peak — Andy Acton | 29 avr. 2026 | 01:36:19 | |
Andy Acton returns to the Dental Leaders hot seat for a proper deep-cut conversation about the business of owning a dental practice — from first purchase right through to the exit. Payman and Andy cover the current market (spoiler: banks still love dentists, and buyers far outnumber sellers), before getting into the real meat of the episode: owner fatigue. Andy breaks down the five categories of burnout he's observed across 25 years of working with practice owners, and it's the kind of honest, unglamorous stuff that rarely gets aired. There's also a brilliant success story about a single-surgery practice that became a near-£2 million sale in four years, plus some sharp advice on what not to do in your first month of ownership. Whether you're thinking about buying, selling, or just trying to work out why you're so tired, this one's well worth your time. In This Episode 00:00:50 – Andy's business portfolio and the FTA family of companies 00:03:10 – Market snapshot: supply, demand and the state of play in December 2025 00:04:15 – Squats vs acquisitions 00:07:35 – What buyers are really looking for 00:10:15 – Occupancy levels and the case for maximising before expanding 00:13:10 – Corporates vs independents: deal structures and flexibility 00:17:10 – Patient attrition when the owner leaves 00:20:25 – Horror stories and success stories: flipping practices 00:28:15 – Young dentists buying early and the bank of mum and dad 00:31:05 – Would Andy encourage his kids to become dentists? 00:33:20 – Owner fatigue: five categories of burnout 00:35:25 – How valuation methods have evolved over 25 years 00:42:45 – Raising finance and banking terms 00:45:45 – The ownership lifecycle and signs of fatigue 00:55:55 – Sales readiness: the checklist 01:05:30 – Business education and the case for teaching it at school 01:13:05 – Understanding financial accounts and key KPIs 01:18:25 – Quick-fire: favourite business book, business hero, and the green lights philosophy 01:25:15 – Dental leaders who inspire Andy 01:32:25 – Fly on the wall moment: the Man United treble changing room About Andy Acton Andy Acton is co-founder of Frank Taylor Associates, one of the UK's leading dental practice sales and valuation firms. Alongside his business partner Chris, Andy has built a portfolio of dental-focussed businesses, including FTA Finance, FTA Media, FTA Wealth, and the Principals Club — a members-only community for independent practice owners. He has worked in the dental sector for over 25 years. | |||
| Mind Movers #49 — Vanita Rattan | 24 avr. 2026 | 01:07:09 | |
In this lively and layered episode of Mind Movers, Vanita Rattan joins Rhona and Payman to talk about medicine, entrepreneurship, motherhood and the sheer force of personality it takes to build something different. She traces her path from UCL medical school to formulating skincare for skin of colour, then opening clinics around the world before Covid forced a brutal pivot into social media and direct-to-consumer growth. What follows is not just a business story. It is a conversation about dyslexia, immigrant pressure, obsession, sacrifice, miscarriage, ambition and the cost of always operating in warrior mode. Honest, sharp and occasionally uncomfortable, this one goes well beyond skincare.
About Vanita Rattan | |||
| #339 Crack On — Ali Hashemizadeh | 22 avr. 2026 | 01:32:14 | |
At just 27, Ali Hashemizadeh is doing things most dentists twice his age haven't managed — two private associate roles, a growing reputation as an endodontist, and the kind of self-awareness that usually takes a decade to develop. In this episode, Payman sits down with the Newcastle-based, Aberdeen-raised, Iranian dentist to trace the path from a rocky first year on the NHS to finding his feet in private practice. Ali talks candidly about the complaint that rocked him early in his career, the perspective shift it forced, and why he's genuinely glad it happened. It's a conversation about curiosity, resilience, and the quiet power of just cracking on. In This Episode 00:00:50 – Introduction: Ali Hashemizadeh 00:03:45 – Lifelong learning 00:07:25 – The future of dental events 00:14:30 – Optimism as a work philosophy 00:15:35 – NHS complaint, first job 00:19:40 – Resilience and perspective 00:21:10 – Going private early 00:22:25 – Becoming the endo guy 00:25:55 – Generalist or specialist? 00:26:50 – The disease of the twenties 00:28:30 – Iranian roots in Aberdeen 00:38:15 – Foundation year in London 00:40:55 – Outdoor pursuits and Ironman training 00:46:10 – CBCT and safe-ended files 00:50:05 – Endo, implants and aesthetics under one roof 00:52:00 – Treatment coordinators and ethical selling 00:57:15 – The value of mentorship 00:59:00 – Networking and landing the jobs 01:02:55 – The two practices compared 01:07:35 – Lucas Lassman and the most inspiring lecture 01:10:40 – Dental resources: YouTube and Instagram 01:15:10 – Being Mortal and Man's Search for Meaning 01:16:30 – Modern Wisdom and guilty pleasures 01:22:35 – Ten-year plan 01:27:40 – Fantasy dinner party About Ali Hashemizadeh Ali Hashemizadeh is a 27-year-old private associate dentist working across two practices in the northeast of England — Middleton Saint George Dental in Darlington and Ken Harris's clinic in Sunderland — where he has developed a particular focus on endodontics. Born and raised in Aberdeen to Iranian parents, he qualified from Newcastle University and completed his foundation year in London before heading back north. | |||
| #338 Show, Don’t Tell — Grant Goodstein | 15 avr. 2026 | 01:37:06 | |
Grant Goodstein isn't a dentist — and that might be exactly why this episode is so refreshing. An American tech exec turned practice owner, Grant moved to London for love (a Hannah Montana-inspired trip to LA, a dating app, and a last-minute Vegas concert, if you can believe it) and ended up buying a mixed NHS practice in Fulham with his wife, Leah. What follows is a masterclass in what happens when someone with zero clinical background but serious business chops walks into a neighbourhood dental practice and starts asking, "What do patients actually want?" From GBT machines and AI phone systems to living wage accreditation and obsessing over Wi-Fi signal strength in the toilet, Grant's approach is equal parts Silicon Valley hustle and genuine community spirit. In This Episode 00:01:00 – Meeting Leah: dating apps, Hannah Montana and a spontaneous trip to Vegas 00:06:15 – London vs Los Angeles 00:08:25 – Growing up sports-obsessed and working for Michigan basketball 00:13:10 – Coaching rituals and building team enthusiasm 00:15:25 – Buying the practice: staff turnover, evolution vs revolution 00:19:35 – Practice valuations then and now 00:22:05 – Listening to patients and expanding hygiene 00:26:10 – Running a mixed practice: the case for keeping NHS 00:32:20 – Growing Invisalign from 20 to 100 cases a year 00:34:10 – Genuine interest, patient conversations and the "daughter test" 00:36:10 – The search for the right practice 00:41:20 – Nervous patients and the patient experience 00:43:35 – Investing in GBT and premium hygiene 00:49:40 – Learning when and how to say no 00:55:25 – Tech stack: CareStack, VoIP, AI transcription and remote hiring 01:02:45 – Reception as a revenue driver 01:06:25 – Training, role plays and AI for SOPs 01:09:20 – High-performing teams: sports analogies in practice 01:11:30 – Blackbox thinking 01:15:20 – Refurb lessons and driving urgency 01:18:50 – Finding purpose after tech burnout 01:21:15 – Favourite business books 01:24:50 – Fantasy dinner party 01:31:15 – Leah's fearless flyer course and treating nervous patients About Grant Goodstein Grant Goodstein is the managing director of Pearly Whites dental practice in Fulham, London, which he co-owns with his wife, dentist Leah Goodstein. A University of Michigan economics graduate, Grant previously worked in tech — including a stint at Twitter — before moving to the UK and channelling his business background into practice ownership. | |||
| #337 Extraordinary Experiences — Mehy Lo Presti | 08 avr. 2026 | 01:50:08 | |
Mehy Lo Presti joins Payman on the podcast for a wide-ranging conversation that's equal parts origin story and quiet manifesto. Raised in the heartland of La Mancha by a Palestinian father and Italian mother, Mehy arrived in London in 2015 with barely any English, no NHS number, and — as it turns out — very little interest in following the conventional path. He's since built a reputation not just as a restorative associate but as one of dentistry's most creative event and experience designers, currently channelling that energy into Dent Town, a major immersive dental conference launching this September. The conversation ranges freely across the fear culture surrounding the GDC, the science of patient experience design, and the painful economics of putting on events that are actually good — before landing somewhere unexpectedly personal, as Mehy opens up about the impact of October 7th on his family and his mental health in the weeks surrounding his daughter's birth. In This Episode 00:00:55 - Introductions 00:01:50 - The outsider mentality 00:03:05 - Palestinian-Italian roots and growing up in La Mancha 00:07:15 - On parenting and giving children freedom 00:10:30 - Problems with conventional education 00:30:55 - GDC fear culture vs Spain 00:37:10 - Moving to London from scratch 00:40:20 - First steps in private practice 00:41:25 - Master's in aesthetic restorative dentistry at King's 00:43:20 - College of Extraordinary Experiences 00:48:00 - Patient Experience Design 00:49:30 - Designing the ideal squat 00:52:55 - Reception as the heart of the practice 01:02:10 - Google reviews and the "feel" factor 01:04:05 - Associate vs clinic owner 01:09:15 - The economics of running events 01:17:15 - Events mistakes 01:20:50 - Blackbox thinking 01:25:00 - Setting patient expectations 01:29:20 - Favourite resources 01:32:05 - Fantasy dinner party 01:36:25 - October 7th, Gaza, and personal impact 01:43:00 - Faith, karma, and identity About Mehy Lo Presti Mehy Lo Presti is a London-based associate dentist with a master's degree in aesthetic and restorative dentistry from King's College London, currently practising at The Kensington Dentist. A son of Palestinian and Italian parents who met in Egypt and settled in Spain, he grew up in La Mancha before relocating to London in 2015. He is probably best known as the creative force behind Global Dental Collective and the Dental Rama brand, and is now co-founder of Denttown — an immersive two-day dental conference launching in September 2026. | |||
| #336 Boss Moves: Doing Good by Doing Well — Andy Sloan | 01 avr. 2026 | 01:41:28 | |
Prav is back in the host's chair for a conversation that's quite literally close to home — Andy Sloan is his boss. Andy is the MD of Agilio, the dental software and compliance platform, and a man who has overseen well over a hundred practice acquisitions throughout his career. But before any of that, he was a council house kid from the Wirral, running paper rounds at 14, pulling pints at 18, and somehow landing — by his own admission — in dentistry entirely by accident. This episode traces that unlikely path through hospitality, banking, accountancy and private equity, unpicking the one constant that runs through all of it: relationships. Andy opens up about the dark periods too — fertility struggles, the pressure of simultaneous transactions, and the moments where burnout lurked closer than he'd care to admit. Honest, warm and genuinely self-aware, it's a cracking listen—or catch the video on whichever platform you usually get your weekly Dental Leaders dose. In This Episode 00:00:20 - Introducing Andy Sloan - Prav's boss 00:02:15 - Early life 00:12:10 - Hospitality years 00:26:40 - Meeting Lynette; buying the pub 00:27:00 - Banking and sales 00:38:15 - Into dentistry — DBG 00:43:50 - Henry Schein Business Solutions and Europe 00:46:45 - Portman Dental 00:59:05 - Joining Julio; building the tribe 01:04:00 - Julio's growth — 17 acquisitions in under five years 01:07:35 - Relationships as the common thread 01:13:20 - Blackbox thinking 01:15:45 - Practice valuations — the levers that matter 01:27:25 - Dark moments 01:34:55 - Julio's future and the Dental OS vision 01:37:10 - Dentistry Reimagined 01:41:25 - Last days and legacy About Andy Sloan Andy Sloan is the Managing Director of Agilio, the dental software and compliance group that has completed 17 acquisitions in under five years. His career spans hospitality, banking, private equity and dental M&A — including a spell as Business Development Director at Portman Dental Care, where he oversaw the acquisition of more than 120 practices. He is also the founder of Dentistry Reimagined, an independent industry event focused on the conversations dentistry has been too cautious to have. | |||
| #335 Hard Reset — Zain Remy | 25 mars 2026 | 01:51:55 | |
This week, Payman sits down with Zain Remy, a Newcastle-based practice owner whose path to dentistry was anything but straightforward. After missing out on dental school the first time round, Zain took the pharmacology route, grafted his way through eight years of study, and eventually qualified from King's College London in 2016. What followed was a decade of pivotal decisions — a golden handshake from a corporate, a restorative diploma that nearly cost him his job, and a mental health crisis serious enough to land him in hospital for two months. Rather than shy away from any of it, Zain unpacks each chapter with an honesty that's genuinely refreshing. By October 2023, he'd bought his own private practice in Newcastle — and the lessons he's drawn from every stumble along the way are, frankly, worth the listen alone. In This Episode 00:00:50 - Introduction 00:01:35 - Growing up in London 00:02:00 - Dad the dental technician 00:04:40 - Dental school reflections 00:14:45 - The pharmacology detour 00:20:30 - Heading northeast 00:22:40 - Foundation year 00:24:20 - The corporate golden handshake 00:30:05 - Restorative diploma and CPD 00:40:05 - Burnout 00:43:05 - Mental health crisis 00:50:35 - Recovery and talking therapy 00:57:25 - Buying the practice 01:00:30 - Practice ownership: the hard reality 01:05:10 - The associate–principal relationship 01:10:25 - Social media as a clinical tool 01:16:05 - Diary of Dental Practice Owners 01:20:15 - The awards debate 01:29:35 - Hiring and firing 01:33:05 - Blackbox thinking 01:40:05 - Fantasy dinner party 01:44:30 - Favourite and least favourite treatments 01:46:10 - Future vision About Zain Remy Zain Remy is a dental practice owner based in Newcastle, who qualified from King's College London in 2016 after first completing a pharmacology degree. Having worked across NHS and mixed practices in the northeast, he acquired his own fully private practice in October 2023. He holds a postgraduate diploma in restorative dentistry and runs the Diary of Dental Practice Owners community on Facebook, offering an unfiltered look at life as an independent practice principal. | |||
| #334 A Little Jesus — JW Oliver | 18 mars 2026 | 01:16:02 | |
This week, Payman chats with JW Oliver — serial entrepreneur, author, philanthropist, and the man behind Support DDS, the largest dental insourcing company in the US. JW's story begins well below the poverty line in Texas and winds through dental equipment, bankruptcy, and a fateful meeting at a Christian marriage conference that led him to Zimbabwe — and ultimately to building a 1,700-strong operation across Africa and Costa Rica. It's a conversation about purpose, resilience, and why answering the phone might be the most underrated skill in dentistry. Along the way, JW opens up about faith, failure, fatherhood, and why giving away 51% of your profits doesn't feel nearly as crazy once the cheques start to mean something. In This Episode 00:00:40 - Welcome and introductions 00:02:00 - Growing up poor; early entrepreneurial instinct 00:04:50 - From dental equipment to Zimbabwe; the chance meeting that started Zim Works 00:09:00 - Purpose over profit; donating 51% and building a philanthropy operation 00:12:20 - Insourcing vs outsourcing; what Support DDS actually does 00:19:30 - A typical UK dental practice use case; why unanswered calls kill marketing spend 00:25:00 - The real challenge; onboarding, training timelines, and setting expectations 00:28:10 - Faith; how it evolved, when it was tested, and the summer of 1994 00:40:25 - Blackbox thinking; not reacting fast enough to a changing market 00:43:20 - Resilience as both superpower and blind spot; when to hold, when to fold 00:51:15 - Writing books; creative process, ghostwriting, and books as authority tools 01:00:10 - Immigration, assimilation, and understanding the other side 01:08:50 - Fantasy dinner party 01:11:00 - Darkest day; bankruptcy, Disney, and a wife who said "I trust you" 01:13:55 - Treating everyone the same; from the excellence team to the C-suite About JW Oliver JW Oliver is a serial entrepreneur, author, and philanthropist based between Texas and Zimbabwe. He is the founder of Zim Works and Support DDS — the largest dental insourcing company in the United States — which employs over 1,700 people across Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Costa Rica, and donates 51% of its profits to charitable causes. A former dental equipment entrepreneur turned global business builder, JW is driven as much by faith and purpose as by commercial ambition. | |||
| #333 The Four Pillars — Mike Hesketh | 11 mars 2026 | 02:28:26 | |
What happens when a Royal Marine Commando dentist who spent six months being ambushed on every patrol in Helmand Province turns his hand to building dental businesses? You get Mike Hesketh: serial practice owner, consultant, and one of the more quietly formidable figures in UK dentistry. In this episode, Payman sits down with Mike to trace a story that runs from a North Wales council estate and the loss of his father at eight years old, through the front lines of Afghanistan, to a 10x practice exit and the creation of Dartmoor Dental — a 200-year-old manor house turned thriving, NHS-inclusive, ten-surgery practice. Mike talks with real candour about the four pillars he uses to build and consult on dental businesses, why he treats his NHS contract as a social obligation rather than a commercial one, and how the Royal Marines' mantra ‘cheerfulness in the face of adversity’ translates surprisingly well to practice ownership. In This Episode 00:02:00 — Growing up in North Wales; losing his father at eight 00:07:40 — Deploying to Helmand Province with 40 Commando Royal Marines 00:12:05 — Leaving the military; getting ripped off on day one as a civilian dentist 00:13:05 — Buying his first practice with £20,000 and a devil-may-care attitude 00:51:35 — Selling Exeter and the year-long family world trip 00:54:25 — Laura and the brand; how Dartmoor grew from £700K to £2.5M 00:56:00 — The NHS contract as a social obligation 01:07:40 — Barriers to entry, squat risks, and buying underperforming practices 01:19:00 — Appointing the youngest clinician as clinical lead 01:27:00 — Military-derived leadership principles; letting the ship sail without you 01:33:15 — Fee guides as windows to the soul 01:39:55 — The four pillars: leadership, infrastructure, branding, financial command and control 01:53:35 — Darkest days in business 01:57:30 — KPIs: one metric, embed the culture, then move on 02:11:55 — Fantasy dinner party About Mike Hesketh Mike Hesketh is a practice owner, dental business consultant, and founder of Hesketh Healthcare Accounting. He qualified as a dentist whilst serving as an officer with 40 Commando Royal Marines, completing the commando course and deploying to Helmand Province, Afghanistan. After leaving the military, he built and sold Exeter Dental Centre before buying and transforming Dartmoor Dental — a ten-surgery practice in Tavistock — from a £700K turnover to £2.5M in three years. Mike holds an MBA and a coaching qualification from Henley Business School, and works with a small number of practices on a bespoke, year-long consultancy basis. | |||
| Mind Movers #48 — Neelima Patel | 06 mars 2026 | 01:06:48 | |
Mind Movers is back — and what a return. Rhona is fresh from maternity leave (and a rather eventful ICU stay) and she's brought a guest who needs little introduction: cosmetic dentist Neelima Patel, known to fans of Married at First Sight UK as the woman who handled an absolute car crash of a match with extraordinary grace. This episode covers a lot of ground. From Neelima's route into dentistry and Kailash Solanki's famous mentorship programme at Kiss Dental, to the full, unfiltered story of her time on MAFS — the honeymoon that promised everything, the energy shift that followed, the Hinge bombshell, and the trolling she endured throughout. But this isn't just a reality TV debrief. It's a genuinely honest conversation about self-worth, the bruising reality of modern dating, what it means to be a high-achieving woman looking for a partner who matches your pace — and how to come out the other side stronger. In This Episode 00:00:25 – Rhona's return & introducing Neelima 00:02:05 – Choosing dentistry over medicine 00:03:25 – Finding Kiss Dental & Kailash's mentorship programme 00:05:10 – What makes Kiss Dental unique 00:06:10 – Cosmetic dentistry aesthetics: Manchester vs London 00:10:25 – How Neelima ended up on MAFS 00:11:40 – Going against everyone's advice 00:13:50 – Why she wanted to find love on TV 00:16:30 – The wedding day: what you do (and don't) get to choose 00:20:05 – First impressions of Stephen 00:21:35 – The honeymoon — and the moment things shifted 00:25:35 – Internalising doubt: gaslighting in real time 00:27:05 – The trolling, and trusting her own intuition 00:31:25 – The earnings conversation that changed everything 00:38:25 – His true colours: recognising the venom 00:44:30 – The Hinge incident 00:50:20 – Traumatic, enlightening — or both? 00:53:05 – The modern dating landscape & the male loneliness debate 00:58:10 – Balancing dentistry with a media career 01:01:00 – Mental health pressures in the profession 01:04:10 – What she'd do differently About Neelima Patel Neelima Patel is a cosmetic dentist at Kiss Dental in Manchester, working alongside Kailash Solanki after completing his two-year mentorship programme in 2020. She qualified from the University of Sheffield in 2017 and has since built a reputation for high-end cosmetic work in one of the north's most sought-after practices. In 2024, she appeared on Channel 4's Married at First Sight UK. | |||
| #332 Action, Result — Bilal Ahmed | 04 mars 2026 | 01:37:27 | |
Most dentists are brilliant clinicians and hopeless with numbers — and Bilal Ahmed has built a career filling exactly that gap. A chartered accountant and tax adviser who stumbled into the dental world through his wife's professional circle, Bilal brings a corporate finance sharpness to a profession that's long been underserved by the accounting industry. In this episode, Payman and Bilal cover the full financial landscape for dentists: from the quirks of associate contracts and HMRC tax investigations to the thorny arithmetic of Invisalign, the hidden traps in popular tax schemes, and the long game of inheritance tax planning. Honest, direct, and refreshingly unafraid to say when something just doesn't work — this one's a must-listen for any dentist who's ever wondered if they're paying more tax than they should. In This Episode 00:00:50 - Introduction 00:01:05 - Finding dentistry 00:03:05 - Nuances of dental accounting 00:08:35 - Tax investigations 00:19:25 - Good accountant vs great accountant 00:21:05 - Practice valuations and the post-Covid hangover 00:59:00 - Pricing strategy 01:07:05 - Making Tax Digital 01:09:30 - Expensing and entertainment 01:23:00 - Tax avoidance schemes 01:28:25 - Inheritance tax planning 01:34:05 - Last days and legacy 01:36:05 - Being an outlier About Bilal Ahmed Bilal Ahmed is a chartered accountant, tax adviser, and business consultant working exclusively with dental professionals. He came to dentistry by accident — through his wife's network — and recognised quickly that dentists were operating in a financial vacuum, using accounts only at tax time rather than as a tool for planning and growth. Drawing on a background in corporate finance, Bilal now helps dentists make sense of their numbers, structure their businesses correctly, and plan for long-term wealth — all while keeping things firmly on the right side of the line. | |||
| #331 The Minefield — Nasser Syed & Chez Bright | 25 févr. 2026 | 01:27:56 | |
Nasser Syed is a man who doesn't really do stillness. With a background in oral surgery and conscious sedation, he's pivoted from five clinical days a week to running a growing group of practices, training dentists, and launching a brand new facility hire venture aimed at super associates who'd rather focus on their dentistry than deal with the headaches of practice ownership. Joining him is Chez Bright, his PA and right-hand collaborator, who offers a candid view of what it's actually like to work alongside someone whose brain, in her words, is "a minefield." Payman talks with them both about building teams, backing yourself, and knowing when to say no — plus the early clinical mistake that still sits with Nasser decades later and the personal losses that have shaped his faith and his drive. In This Episode 00:01:00 — Practice ownership 00:05:20 — Developing associates 00:09:00 — Picking a lane 00:16:00 — Meeting Chez Bright 00:17:45 — Running projects 00:24:30 — AI and the future of dentistry 00:31:10 — Manchester Sedation Course 00:37:45 — HireADentalSurgery.com 00:52:20 — Branding and virality 00:57:15 — Blackbox thinking 01:04:15 — Clinical communication 01:13:00 — Lowest point 01:15:20 — Faith and loss 01:22:25 — Memorable lecture 01:25:00 — Fantasy dinner party About Nasser Syed Nasser Syed is a Liverpool-born dentist with a background in oral surgery and conscious IV sedation, currently working across a growing group of practices in the North West. He founded the Manchester Sedation Course in 2015 — SDC-accredited and open to both beginners and more experienced clinicians — and now runs it alongside his clinical and business commitments. His latest project is HireADentalSurgery.com, a dedicated facility hire model in Hale, Cheshire, offering super associates the equipment and flexibility to treat their own patients without the overheads of practice ownership. | |||
| Everyone Else Is Taken - NAIL-IT with Payman Langroudi | 21 févr. 2026 | 00:41:24 | |
What happens when you turn the microphone on the man who's spent years behind it? In this episode of the NAIL-IT podcast, Rana and Bav get Payman Langroudi — host of Dental Leaders and Clinical Director at Enlighten — firmly in the hot seat. It's a wide-ranging, refreshingly candid conversation that moves from the origins of Enlighten and the relentless pursuit of world-class quality to the very real mental health pressures that underpin life in dentistry. Payman reflects on leaning into his strengths, trusting his instincts, and why, after 320 episodes, the Dental Leaders podcast has become the thing he's most proud of. Find Rana on Instagram at @drranaalfalaki, and on Facebook and LinkedIn as Dr Rana Al-Falaki. Follow Bav on Instagram at @drbav83. You can also follow the NAIL-IT podcast at @nailit_podcast. In This Episode 00:01:05 — Introductions and the Dental Leaders origin story 00:02:10 — Why Payman started a podcast — and what it's become 00:05:20 — Leaning into strengths, owning your quirks 00:07:00 — Starting Enlighten at 28 and the philosophy of doing one thing brilliantly 00:10:25 — The sacrifices behind world-class quality 00:14:10 — Being number two — and the decision to become the best 00:16:15 — Favourite quote: Oscar Wilde and the art of being yourself 00:20:25 — Identity, self-awareness and shedding the layers 00:21:50 — Dentistry as a kingdom — and why practices are anything but the same 00:23:10 — Mental health in dentistry: burnout, suicide and the stress bucket 00:27:40 — The emotional drain of being "on show" all day 00:30:20 — Kids, careers and the realities of dentistry as a profession 00:35:40 — Knowing yourself before you can lead others 00:36:10 — Intuition as a leadership skill — and how to train it About Dr Rana Al-Falaki and Dr Bhavin Patel Dr Rana Al-Falaki is a periodontist and internationally recognised pioneer in the use of lasers in periodontal treatment, having presented her research to audiences from the British Society of Periodontology to the American Academy and European Federation. After pushing herself to the point of chronic illness in pursuit of excellence, she channelled that experience into developing the NAIL-IT programme — a performance and leadership system built around optimising energy and helping dental professionals truly thrive. Dr Bhavin Patel is a dentist and educator who ran a practice on Wimpole Street for nearly eight years before stepping back to prioritise family life. Together, they host the NAIL-IT podcast — a show dedicated to helping dental professionals live fully, lead better, and laugh more. | |||
| #330 Analytics and Aortas — Daniel Jones | 18 févr. 2026 | 01:22:29 | |
Payman chats with Daniel Jones, the Cambridge-educated entrepreneur who's bringing analytical rigour to dental practice management. Daniel shares the dramatic health journey that redirected his path from investment banking into healthcare innovation, revealing how a near-miss diagnosis of a life-threatening heart condition shaped his mission. The conversation explores the technical challenges of building software that actually talks to the chaotic ecosystem of dental systems, from practice management platforms to lab invoices trapped in PDFs. You'll hear about the realities of fundraising, the loneliness of startup life, and why Daniel thinks the best entrepreneurs operate with surprisingly simple rules—even when solving complex problems.` In This Episode 00:01:05 - What Medfin does 00:03:05 - Associate performance metrics 00:04:00 - Connecting disparate systems 00:04:50 - Single practice viability 00:05:40 - Why dentistry? 00:06:10 - The blood pressure discovery 00:08:20 - Coarctation diagnosis 00:09:05 - Healthcare system chaos 00:10:40 - Economics at Cambridge 00:12:25 - Investment banking to startups 00:15:50 - First startup lessons 00:18:55 - Finding the dental opportunity 00:22:40 - Building the founding team 00:25:15 - Technical architecture challenges 00:29:30 - Onboarding process evolution 00:33:10 - Product development philosophy 00:36:45 - Pricing strategy and models 00:40:20 - Fundraising journey 00:44:35 - Investor relationships 00:48:50 - Multi-practice versus single site 00:52:15 - NHS versus private analytics 00:56:30 - Clinical efficiency debates 01:00:45 - Competition and market positioning 01:04:20 - AI integration plans 01:08:35 - Team building challenges 01:12:50 - Work-life balance realities 01:16:15 - Fantasy dinner party 01:18:40 - Last days and legacy About Daniel Jones Daniel Jones is the founder and CEO of Medfin, an analytics platform that helps dental practices and groups optimise their operational and financial performance. A Cambridge economics graduate who moved from investment banking into the startup world, Daniel has built software that connects the fragmented ecosystem of dental practice systems—from practice management platforms to accounting software—giving practice owners the insights they need to improve profitability. | |||
| #329 Sandhurst to Scotland — Amber Aplin | 11 févr. 2026 | 01:36:13 | |
Payman chats with Amber Aplin, who's carved out something genuinely different in the Scottish Borders. From military dentist to biomimetic practice owner, Amber's journey takes in Germany, Iraq, private equity, and ultimately building a practice that puts prevention and patient education at its core. She talks candidly about the realities of military life, the loneliness of early practice ownership, and why she now trains therapists and other dentists in minimally invasive techniques. There's also a refreshing honesty about perfectionism, work-life balance, and what happens when you stop chasing the next big thing and start appreciating what's already there. In This Episode 00:00:40 - Military beginnings 00:02:05 - Sandhurst training 00:03:55 - Germany posting 00:06:50 - Iraq deployment 00:09:25 - Leaving the forces 00:10:45 - Moving to Scotland 00:12:30 - Early practice ownership struggles 00:15:20 - Private equity involvement 00:19:10 - Buying the practice back 00:22:15 - Building a biomimetic practice 00:26:40 - Therapist-led model 00:31:20 - Teaching and courses 00:36:45 - Microscope dentistry 00:42:10 - Direct bonding techniques 00:48:25 - Patient communication 00:53:30 - Practice culture 00:58:15 - Work-life balance challenges 01:04:20 - Pascal Magne influence 01:09:40 - Preventive dentistry philosophy 01:15:50 - Social media approach 01:21:35 - Business versus clinical focus 01:26:45 - Blackbox thinking 01:28:50 - Fantasy dinner party 01:30:15 - Last days and legacy About Amber Aplin Amber Aplin is a biomimetic dentist and practice owner in the Scottish Borders who served six years as a military dentist, including deployments to Germany and Iraq. She now runs a prevention-focused practice where therapists deliver the majority of patient care, and teaches minimally invasive dentistry techniques to other practitioners. | |||
| #328 No Ego Zone — Payvand Menhadji | 04 févr. 2026 | 01:18:05 | |
This week Payman chats with Payvand Menhadji, a newly qualified specialist periodontist who's navigating the delicate balance between clinical excellence and impending motherhood. At 30 weeks pregnant, Payvand reflects on her journey from general dentist to specialist—driven by a competitive streak and a love for surgical challenge that emerged during her VT year. The conversation weaves through everything from the realities of private practice economics to why she'd rather perfect her surgical skills than chase Instagram fame, touching on mentorship, imposter syndrome, and the art of staying humble when success comes knocking. In This Episode 00:01:00 - Finishing specialist training whilst pregnant 00:04:20 - Why four days feels necessary 00:05:10 - The moment surgery clicked 00:07:10 - Competitive from birth 00:08:20 - Hospital jobs and surgical confidence 00:11:45 - Decision to specialise 00:14:50 - Choosing between ortho and perio 00:18:30 - Training structure and challenges 00:22:15 - Learning from the best 00:26:40 - Private practice reality 00:30:20 - What patients actually pay 00:34:45 - Imposter syndrome 00:38:20 - Building a reputation 00:42:15 - Surgical complications 00:46:30 - Blackbox thinking 00:51:45 - Treatment planning philosophy 00:56:20 - Working with implantologists 01:00:15 - Referral relationships 01:04:30 - Social media approach 01:08:45 - Learning from Instagram 01:13:35 - Fantasy dinner party 01:15:20 - Last days and legacy About Payvand Menhadji Payvand Menhadji is a specialist periodontist who completed her training in September 2024. She works across multiple specialist practices focusing on periodontal surgery and implantology, having developed her surgical interest during VT under the mentorship of implantologist Victor Keyhani. | |||
| #327 Start, Scale Exit & Life — Prav Solo | 28 janv. 2026 | 00:34:46 | |
In this solo episode, Prav Solanki shares a no-nonsense reflection on business, health, family and personal discipline as he looks ahead to 2026. After a turbulent end to the year involving a family health scare, he talks through the non-negotiables shaping his daily life, from strength and cardio to carving out space for strategy. But the real centrepiece is business — specifically his Start, Scale, Exit model, which underpins everything he’s building this year. Whether you’re a founder in the trenches or a parent trying to balance your time, there’s something here that hits home.
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| The Horton Hangout — Laura Horton & Leanna Best | 21 janv. 2026 | 01:31:06 | |
The tables turn this week as Payman hangs out with Laura and Leanna on The Horton Hangout. What starts as a chat about the challenges of being interviewed rather than interviewing quickly evolves into something deeper—an honest exploration of ambition, sacrifice, and what it means to build something meaningful whilst trying to hold onto the people you love. From managing business partnerships and navigating the tension between legacy and presence, to the surprisingly simple power of just showing up, this conversation touches on the parts of success no one really talks about until they're living through it. In This Episode 00:01:25 - Hosting versus guesting 00:02:55 - How Laura and Leanna met 00:06:40 - Having it all as ambitious women 00:10:50 - Balancing work travel with family life 00:14:30 - Partnership dynamics and business relationships 00:19:45 - The Enlighten story and business evolution 00:28:15 - Marketing philosophy and brand building 00:35:20 - Working with your best mate 00:41:10 - The reality of business partnerships 00:47:25 - Managing conflict and difficult conversations 00:52:40 - Learning to say no and setting boundaries 00:58:15 - Legacy versus being present 01:03:30 - Parenting and guilt 01:09:45 - The immigrant work ethic 01:16:20 - Competition in dentistry 01:21:35 - Advice for younger dentists 01:25:00 - Meeting strangers from the internet 01:28:20 - Remote teams and South African operations About Laura Horton & Leanna Best Laura Horton is a dental hygienist, educator, and founder of multiple dental businesses including Brush, whilst Leanna Best is a treatment coordinator and educator who worked alongside Neil and Fiona Gerrard before launching her own training ventures. Together they co-host The Horton Hangout—a podcast that strips away the polish and gets into the real conversations about life, work, and everything in between within the dental world. | |||
| #326 True Kindness — Niki Keyhani | 14 janv. 2026 | 01:30:53 | |
This week, Payman chats with Niki Keyhani, a newly qualified specialist prosthodontist who's already built something remarkable. Seven years out from qualification, she's opened a squat practice, completed her specialist training at King's, and somehow managed to do both simultaneously during a pandemic. What really stands out isn't just the clinical achievement—it's the way she talks about passion versus ambition, about choosing to do everything at once rather than waiting for the "right time." There's a refreshing honesty here about being underestimated as a young woman in dentistry, about that first complaint that knocked her sideways, and about why true kindness matters more than just going through the motions. Whether she's discussing optimal achievement over high achievement or explaining why she'd rather wait for the right person than rush into marriage, Niki brings a perspective that feels both grounded and aspirational. In This Episode 00:01:15 - Introduction and background 00:01:55 - Passionate versus ambitious 00:03:00 - Sibling dynamics and guidance 00:04:40 - The "wanting it all" approach 00:05:50 - Sacrifice and balance in career building 00:10:00 - Growing up as a dentist's daughter 00:15:00 - Starting a squat practice during COVID 00:21:15 - Opening during the pandemic 00:22:20 - Decision to pursue specialist training 00:24:00 - Neil Nathwani's encouragement to specialise 00:25:30 - Getting into specialist training first try 00:27:45 - Clinical capabilities and full mouth rehabs 00:36:00 - Patient selection red flags 00:37:40 - Blackbox thinking 00:56:15 - Challenges as a woman in dentistry 01:06:15 - Business development mindset 01:07:10 - High achievers versus optimal achievers 01:09:15 - Child of a dentist privilege 01:10:10 - Building the perfect patient journey 01:13:50 - Spanish lessons and tennis 01:15:30 - Best lectures and courses 01:16:50 - Creating a thousand-page prosthodontic textbook 01:21:25 - Fantasy dinner party 01:24:00 - Last days and legacy About Niki Keyhani Niki Keyhani is a newly qualified specialist prosthodontist who graduated from King's College London in 2017. She completed her postgraduate diploma at the Eastman and her specialist training at King's whilst simultaneously opening and running her own squat practice from 2020. The daughter of a dentist, she's passionate about prosthodontics, teaching, and breaking down perceptions of what young women in dentistry can achieve. | |||
| #325 Clinical Psychology — Richard Porter | 07 janv. 2026 | 02:12:31 | |
Richard Porter joins Payman to explore the meeting point of clinical dentistry and psychology. From his early struggles adapting to London dental school after growing up in rural Kent, to his current work exploring personality psychology and emotional intelligence in practice, Richard challenges conventional thinking about what makes a truly skilled dentist. He argues that feelings are the currency of human existence—and understanding them is as critical as clinical competence. The discussion moves through burnout, the dark triad of difficult patient personalities, and the tension between contentment and progress, before landing on Richard's passion for helping dentists understand their own minds. It's a conversation that questions everything from dental education to the nature of expertise itself. In This Episode 00:01:20 - Backstory 00:06:05 - Six pillars of good dentistry 00:08:20 - Emotional intelligence and motivation 00:13:35 - Psychology journey 00:38:25 - Restorative dentistry career 00:39:05 - Why implants matter 00:41:25 - Hallmarks of expertise 00:44:45 - Contentment vs progress 01:17:20 - Blackbox thinking 01:23:50 - Minimal vs proper tooth preparation 01:29:35 - Dentistry's systemic health impact 01:34:05 - Green button philosophy 01:42:35 - Dentist suicide and burnout 01:45:35 - Neuroticism and the N-score 01:52:00 - Best lectures, books and courses 02:02:30 - Fantasy dinner party 02:03:40 - Last days and legacy About Richard Porter Richard Porter is a restorative dentist with specialist registrations in prosthodontics, endodontics, restorative dentistry, and special care dentistry. Having trained at Guy's Hospital and worked in maxillofacial surgery, Richard now combines clinical teaching with his deep fascination for personality psychology, focusing on how emotional intelligence shapes patient outcomes and professional wellbeing. | |||
| #324 Course Correction — Zaid Esmail | 31 déc. 2025 | 01:35:25 | |
In this episode, orthodontist Zaid Esmail opens up about what really matters in patient care—and it's not just straight teeth. From calling every patient the week after fitting braces to navigating the tension between NHS pragmatism and private practice perfectionism, Zaid reveals why communication trumps technique every time. He shares the terrifying moment a patient swallowed a spring mid-treatment, the legal nightmare of inventing an orthodontic device, and why he built an online academy to teach GDPs the skills they're inevitably going to use anyway. Plus, there's an honest take on conference culture, overtreatment trends, and why he refuses to become the kind of orthodontist who needs cases to pay bills. Want 10% off Zaid's Online Orthodontic Academy course and mentorship? Use code DLPOD10 at https://onlineorthodonticacademy.co.uk/ In This Episode 00:01:20 - What makes a great orthodontist 00:06:25 - Why he'll never own a fully private practice 00:14:40 - From Iraq to Wales via dental school 00:28:00 - Teaching philosophy and the dangers of weekend courses 00:37:50 - Where GDPs go wrong with orthodontics 00:41:45 - Building the Online Orthodontic Academy 00:52:50 - Blackbox thinking 00:58:05 - Inventing the Eruptor device 01:16:45 - Conference culture and the problem with celebrity orthodontists 01:24:10 - Fantasy dinner party 01:27:10 - Last days and legacy About Zaid Esmail Zaid Esmail is an orthodontist working at Grosvenor House Orthodontic Practice in Tunbridge Wells, part of the Bupa Dental Care group. He runs the Online Orthodontic Academy, providing diploma-level training and case mentorship for dentists looking to incorporate orthodontics into their practice. Zaid also invented the Eruptor, a device for managing partially erupted teeth. Follow him on Instagram at @onlineorthoacademy and @zaid_mails. | |||
| Mind Movers #47 - Anne-Sophie Flury | 26 déc. 2025 | 01:37:07 | |
This expansive and deeply reflective episode features Anne-Sophie Flury — neuroscientist, psychology graduate, former PhD researcher, and wellness educator — whose work bridges hard science with lived human experience. Known online as “Coochie by Gucci,” Anne-Sophie brings rare honesty and intellectual clarity to conversations about the brain, trauma, intuition, and emotional agency.Rhona and Payman explore Anne-Sophie’s unconventional academic journey, from leaving a business degree for psychology to working in experimental neuroscience and neuropsychopharmacology alongside leading researchers. Together, they unpack why understanding the brain isn’t enough — and how learning that the brain can change became the turning point in Anne-Sophie’s own mental health and sense of agency.The conversation moves fluidly through modern overwhelm: social media burnout, dopamine addiction, emotional over-identification, and the spiritualisation of feelings. Anne-Sophie offers a grounded, science-based perspective on meditation, psychedelics, mindfulness, and nervous system regulation — cutting through both clinical detachment and performative spirituality.What emerges is a powerful discussion about responsibility without shame, emotional awareness without indulgence, and why separating yourself from your thoughts may be the most liberating skill of all.In This Episode00:00:25 – Returning to Mind Movers & meeting Anne-Sophie00:01:45 – From business to psychology: finding intellectual purpose00:04:15 – Neuroscience, VR research & leaving the PhD00:07:20 – Failure, resilience & unconventional career pivots00:08:30 – “Coochie by Gucci”: identity, grief & online personas00:10:20 – Social media, activism & burnout00:12:30 – Doomscrolling, empathy fatigue & loss of motivation00:14:40 – Perfection culture, comparison & digital disconnection00:18:45 – Psychology vs neuroscience: understanding the brain00:20:05 – Psychedelics, policy & political suppression00:23:00 – What psychedelics actually do to the brain00:27:20 – Mental health, loneliness & early emotional struggles00:30:40 – The moment everything changed: “I can change my brain”00:31:50 – Meditation, neuroplasticity & emotional regulation00:34:00 – Agency, awareness & visualising a different life00:36:00 – Relationships, values & evolving identities00:38:10 – Can core values really change?00:40:10 – Trauma, intuition & emotional misinterpretation00:42:25 – Are we over-validating emotions?00:44:30 – Spiritual bypassing vs real growth00:45:00 – Float tanks, meditation & separating from thought00:48:20 – Anxiety vs intuition: learning the differenceAbout Anne-Sophie FluryAnne-Sophie Flury is a neuroscience and psychology specialist whose work focuses on emotional regulation, nervous system awareness, and personal agency. After completing a psychology degree, a master’s in experimental neuroscience, and publishing research during her PhD, she stepped away from academia to make science accessible in the real world.Blending research, lived experience, and practical tools, Anne-Sophie helps people understand not just why they feel the way they do — but how to change it. Her work challenges emotional fatalism, encourages responsibility without self-blame, and reframes mental health as something dynamic rather than fixed. | |||