Gobsmacked! – Details, episodes & analysis

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Gobsmacked!

Catherine Williamson

Business

Education

Society & Culture

Frequency: 1 episode/27d. Total Eps: 62

A Gobsmacked moment is one where the trajectory of our life changes perhaps forever. In a series of candid interviews, Catherine Williamson delves into those life flipping moments with her guests. She will glean the gold in the dark that builds our resilience and rigour for whatever life throws at us.

Visit Catherine's website here: https://gobsmacked.me

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Data updated on 06/08/2026

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https://www.alicesarc.org/arc/neive-warwick/
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https://gobsmacked.me
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https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-matt-gallagher-foundation-coventry-rugby-club
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Score global : 69%

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60: The Girl Who Couldn’t See Pictures

Season 1 · Episode 60

Tuesday, June 23, 2026 • Duration 39:50

Mia Walker belongs to an exclusive club: the one per cent club. For years, blissfully unaware, she lived with a condition that wasn’t normal – aphantasia. This revelation came as a shock when she discovered she couldn’t visualise pictures. Close your eyes and try to picture your front door, your mother’s face or a sunset. Most of us can. Mia can’t. There are no mental pictures at all.

As if that wasn’t enough, Mia’s teens were plagued by chronic anxiety, eventually leading to years of agoraphobia. She certainly faced her fair share of challenges.

However, running parallel to these struggles was another gift: poetry.

She’s published thirteen anthologies and is now a published author. Her debut novel earned her feted status in America. Now a dystopian writer, she spends much of her life inhabiting post-apocalyptic worlds.

It’s quite incredible for a woman who can’t visualise pictures in her head.

Yet, I wonder if there’s a utopian element quietly running beneath it all. While Mia writes about worlds that have fallen apart, she’s spent her own life imagining one that could be different.

Whatever label Mia has qualified for, it hasn’t defined her. She simply keeps innovating.

The moment she surrendered to fear and literally walked out of the house wasn’t just the day she went outside. It was the day she decided fear wouldn’t dictate the rest of her story.

This conversation explores imagination without pictures, fear, poetry, dystopia, utopia and what happens when you refuse to let a diagnosis become your identity.

Welcome to Gobsmacked!

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59. Narcolepsy to Jewelled Alchemy

Season 1 · Episode 59

Tuesday, May 12, 2026 • Duration 49:04

This episode of Gobsmacked! features Ruth Mary Chipperfield, an award-winning jeweller whose gold jewellery has sat alongside some of the most celebrated names in history.

Diagnosed with narcolepsy in her early twenties whilst studying chemistry at university, Ruth found herself facing a future very different from the one she had imagined. Powerful drug regimes solved one problem whilst creating others, and as a newlywed she was confronted with a stark reality, mainstream working life simply was not going to fit.

But Ruth has done something remarkable.

Instead of allowing narcolepsy to define the boundaries of her life, she transformed her scientific mind, her fascination with gemstones and her artistry into something beautiful. Today, she creates and repurposes exquisite jewellery, breathing new life into old treasures whilst building a life that works with her condition rather than endlessly battling against it.

Like the facets of a beautifully cut diamond, this conversation refracts in so many fascinating directions. Chemistry. Gemstones. Ketogenic living. Punishing medication. Endurance. Reinvention. Identity. Survival.

At one point Ruth says:

“I’ve chosen my hard.”

Blimey, she is articulate.

And this really is an absolute must-listen.

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58. Dear Person Behind Me

Season 1 · Episode 58

Tuesday, April 7, 2026 • Duration 49:48

This episode of Gobsmacked features Tony Deas, a very popular fellow indeed and a proper Leamington Spa legend, known for his big personality, big energy and big presence. So much so, a snap of the dear chap himself in a pink hoodie went viral. That’s Tony.

But what happens in the quieter moments? This conversation gets into loneliness and vulnerability when you’re the strong one for everyone else, the cheer-maker, the entertainer, whether that’s hospitality, personal training or just everyday life. And then it shifts. Tony talks openly about being floored by a cancer diagnosis, what that does to your head, the fear, the recalibration when life suddenly isn’t playing by the same rules. We also get into love, and the courage it takes to stay open to it, to choose vulnerability over safety, which sounds lovely until you actually have to do it.

It’s a pacey, romping listen that moves between laughter, wisdom and real life, much like the man himself.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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57. Greg Weston ‘The Man Who Wouldn’t Stay Down’

Season 1 · Episode 57

Wednesday, March 11, 2026 • Duration 42:41

There are nights in life that divide everything into two halves.

Who you were before. And who you become afterwards.

Greg Weston knows that feeling better than most.

One evening out with friends ended in a moment that changed everything. His head struck a kerbstone. What followed was catastrophic. Greg was taken to hospital and very quickly slipped into a coma. At one point he was not expected to wake up.

This episode tells the story of what happened next.

Greg’s long and stubborn climb back from the brink. From the frightening prospect of a vegetative state to the slow work of learning again. Moving again. Speaking again.

And along the way, life had another surprise in store.

Greg found love.

The woman he now shares his life with carries her own story of a life altered in a single moment, giving them a rare understanding of just how suddenly everything can change.

And at the centre of this story sits one mighty man who connects our paths. The late Matt Gallagher.

Matt faced Motor Neurone Disease with a warrior spirit that left a mark on everyone who knew him. His courage and humour brought Greg and I into each other’s orbit.

This conversation reflects on friendship, love, and the strange truth that sometimes the worst night of your life becomes the moment that reshapes everything.

Greg Weston is a man who will not stay down.

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56. The Call That Changed Everything

Season 1 · Episode 56

Thursday, February 12, 2026 • Duration 58:21

When an interview begins with a gobsmacked moment, about needing to retreat to a “breakout room” to absorb the shocking news that your best friend is missing and her estranged husband is being arrested for murder, you know you are in for a gripping listen.

As Gobsmacked!, the podcast, celebrates its fourth year, nearly 60 episodes, and listeners in 128 countries, we bring you an episode that sits right at the heart of what this podcast is here to do.

We are proud to welcome Hetti Barkworth-Nanton.

Hetti is Co-Founder of the Joanna Simpson Foundation, Chair of Trustees at Refuge, a Pride of Britain Awards winner, and a CBE recipient for her work supporting people affected by domestic abuse and homicide. It is a formidable public record, earned in the hardest way imaginable.

She walked into the podcast studio with an extraordinary résumé. What follows is not a polished tour of achievements. It is a real conversation about as real as it gets. About what it takes to fight for justice without being absolutely destroyed in the process.

Hetti embodies what Gobsmacked! exists to amplify. She has created platforms for people who are overlooked, underrepresented, or treated unfairly by life, and she does so without platitudes, performance, or looking away. A must listen.

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55. Pornography, Rewiring a Generation

Season 1 · Episode 55

Monday, January 19, 2026 • Duration 45:29

There is a saying that into each life some rain must fall. For Larissa Astara Gray, the storm came early. At just thirteen, her life was thrown off course by an experience that no child should have to carry, and what followed was not a straight line but an absolutely wiggly one. There are points in Larissa’s life where she is very lucky to be alive to tell her story, and that truth matters.

This is an honest and challenging conversation, not because it is sensational, but because the problems are real. This is not an academic exercise or an intellectual debate for Larissa. This subject is written into her body, her relationships, and her life experience. Drawing on that lived reality, she speaks with clarity and courage about how pornography and online sexual content are shaping young people’s understanding of consent, intimacy, and what becomes normal. Her willingness to talk openly gives us a chance to learn, not to look away. Silence has not protected young people. Avoidance has not helped. This conversation exists because the damage is already happening, and because understanding is part of how we begin to do better.

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54. Be Someone not Everyone with Nicky Pattinson

Season 1 · Episode 54

Thursday, January 1, 2026 • Duration 51:46

So, as we power into a new year, 2026, Gobsmacked! serves up an incredibly compelling, and what will become a vintage episode to start us off.

You do not forget the day you meet Nicky Pattinson. She is impossible to overlook. She is life force embodied. From that flame-red hair, to those unmistakable, inimitable, deep Yorkshire tones, this is a woman forged on the anvil of life.

Nicky is a woman who has lived her life on the spin cycle. She has experienced deep tragedy, child loss, visceral grief. The kind of grief that poleaxes you. The kind that rewrites who you are.

And yet. And this matters.

What this conversation reveals is not just reflection, but momentum. Not just insight, but intent. Not just survival, but a unique perspective.

Nicky holds a worldview that is both fierce and generous. She speaks openly about how the darkest moments of unimaginable loss, resource us and can define who we choose to be

It whips along at pace. It is funny. And this is a conversation between two women who have grown in both admiration and depth, because there is no getting away from it. Our lived experience shapes us. It changes us. It forges who we are.

And as we reset, and set our course for a new year, there is no finer woman to share some wisdom with than this incomparable Yorkshire lass.

This is Gobsmacked.

And this is where we begin.

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53. Zelda Wilson…After the Podcast

Season 1 · Episode 53

Thursday, December 11, 2025 • Duration 45:18

There’s a lot in a given name.

When Zelda’s mum chose that name for her little baby girl, who could have known just how completely she would go on to embody it. Zelda is often said to derive from an old Germanic name meaning battle or warrior, sometimes described as a battle maiden, so calling her a warrior princess feels anything but accidental.

Zelda has been battling various forms of breast cancer for eighteen years. After inheriting the BRCA2 gene from her dad, she has been fighting and thriving for over a third of her life.

As Gobsmacked! approaches its fourth year, Catherine sets out in the Gobsmacked podcast van to revisit previous guests and discover what has unfolded since they last pressed record.

And for Zelda, there has been a lot. A staggering amount of life for a true warrior.

This is Gobsmacked… After the Podcast.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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52. A Scandal, A Choir, A Revelation with Mark Smutz Smith

Season 1 · Episode 52

Monday, November 10, 2025 • Duration 46:24

At first glance this promised to be a full blown Britain’s Got Talent conversation, a look behind the scenes at what it’s like to step onto that famous stage, to meet Simon, Amanda, Alesha and Bruno, and to experience the whirlwind of television fame.

But this story sits somewhere else entirely.

When Mark Smutz Smith, respected artist manager, lecturer, songwriter and creative mentor, heard about the Post Office scandal and the plight of those caught up in it, he couldn’t just stand by. A life immersed in music became the catalyst for something far greater, a mobilisation of people and places from his past. Reaching back through friendships and old connections, he found himself part of a movement that, almost instinctively, helped to form a choir that would lift not only voices but spirits.

Through those connections runs a thread that leads to Bequia, the small Caribbean island that anchors friendships and emboldens connections, an idyllic backdrop to the tumultuous life events that unfold in this compelling interview.

The Gobsmacked! moment comes when the conversation shifts. What begins in the world of showbiz and performance opens into something deeply human. When family stories surface and truth begins to settle, this becomes a story about redemption, belonging, and the power of song to bring people home to themselves, even when grief and disorientation still reverberate.

This podcast is dedicated to Avril Teresa Smith.

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51. When the Rat Race Meets the Stars with Wendy Boast

Season 1 · Episode 51

Monday, October 6, 2025 • Duration 56:00

This episode of Gobsmacked features Wendy Boast a woman who left school at 16, when the world of work beckoned brighter than the underwhelm of the classroom. Later discovering she has a remarkable IQ, and went on to build a career in the City with big jobs in complex information systems and major corporate achievements.

Wendy’s journey hasn’t been without heartbreak and betrayal, but she has come through wiser, sharper, and more grounded — the most informed and insightful friend you could ever hope for.

Her worldview is vast and surprising, flipping perspectives a full 180. In this conversation she takes us from the rat race to aliens, from ancient wisdoms to global jitters, from Shakespeare to Plato, with the 2012 Olympics woven in along the way.

Bright, centred, and compelling, Wendy Boast will put your brain in shaker-maker mode. This is an episode that will stretch your thinking, shake your assumptions, and leave you wide awake to possibility.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Gobsmacked! – Details, episodes & analysis

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Gobsmacked! – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

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RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Similar podcasts and content

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Other3

Apple Podcasts

Spotify