Explore every episode of the podcast The Brave Man Project with Hamish Niven

A 14-year-old girl in the burns unit, scarred for life, asks Kasper for a story about an ugly princess. He didn't know one. So he made one up on the spot — and kept going back for sixteen years.

• "Stories convey more than numbers."
• "Speak your truth, keep it real."

Kasper Sørensen is a Danish storyteller who works in hospitals, sitting with children who are seriously ill and sometimes dying. He started at eighteen, scared of thirty kids in a kindergarten, and found that a story was the only thing that worked. What began there became a vocation built on truth, presence and the willingness to stay in the room.

What we explore:

• What storytelling actually does in a hospital ward — and why it isn't a distraction from the hard stuff
• The girl in the burns unit, and answering a 15-year-old's question about what comes after death
• Why truth is non-negotiable: kids know instantly when you're performing
• What children facing death say about how to live — and how consistently they say the same thing
• Holding it together and letting it go: what Kasper does after an afternoon in intensive care

Connect with Kasper:

I spent 25 years building a life that looked successful from the outside, but within, it was the opposite. Everything was falling apart, and I was throwing fuel on that fire. The joy of life had fallen away. Late November 2018, I had to make a choice: live or die. I chose to live, and everything changed. I had to confront the pain I was carrying, look at the stories, and change. I built The Brave Man Project because there was nothing like this when I needed it.

Podcast website https://thebravemanproject.com/

Hamish's website https://hamishniven.com/

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@TheBraveManProject

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/hamishniven/

TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@hamish.niven

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hamishniven/

Personal Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hamishniven

SEO Title: Kasper Sørensen on Hospital Storytelling, Truth and Dying Children | The Brave Man Project

SEO Description: Danish storyteller Kasper Sørensen on 16 years telling stories to seriously ill children, and what they taught him about living.

Four suicide attempts. A father with schizophrenia. And the avocado that saved his life.

"Stop carrying masks — be comfortable with being naked."

"The only way to get rid of the chatter is to listen to it."

Gareth Stubbs grew up around suicide and mental illness before he had words for either. By eighteen he'd made his first attempt. Two more followed. Today he lives in southern Spain, running retreats and teaching what he calls the Avocado Philosophy — a blunt, often funny look at what's really underneath the mask.

What we explore:

• Growing up around schizophrenia and suicide, and what it did and didn't teach him about mental health
• The masks we wear to survive trauma, and why dropping them feels like being "naked"
• Humour as a coping mechanism — and where it stops working
• The Avocado Philosophy: what's actually underneath when you cut yourself open
• Building a new life and a retreat business in Spain after three suicide attempts

Connect with Gareth:

Facebook Community – Our Space to Talk: facebook.com/groups/ourspacetotalk Instagram: @theavocadophilosophy

Personal Facebook: facebook.com/gareth.stubbs2

Website: theavocadophilosophy.com

I spent 25 years building a life that looked successful from the outside, but within, it was the opposite. Everything was falling apart, and I was throwing fuel on that fire. The joy of life had fallen away.

Late November 2018. I had to make a choice: live or die. I chose to live, and everything changed. I had to confront the pain I was carrying, look at the stories, and change. I built The Brave Man Project because there was nothing like this when I needed it.

Podcast website: thebravemanproject.com

Hamish's website: hamishniven.com

YouTube: @TheBraveManProject

LinkedIn: hamishniven

TikTok: @hamish.niven

Instagram: @hamishniven

Facebook: facebook.com/hamishniven

Tim Freke — philosopher, spiritual pioneer, and international bestselling author of 35 books — describes the single 'Technicolour' moment that launched a lifetime of inquiry. In this conversation, he frames bravery as the courage to follow your highest calling, shows how spiritual awakening is the shift from black-and-white to colour, and reveals why reflection and conscious choice open the door to a life that feels vividly alive.

"Life is mind-blowingly amazing."

"The universe is a process made of the past."

What we explore:

• Wisdom as the courage to do what's right — and how reflection builds it over a lifetime
• Spiritual awakening as seeing in colour, and simple practices for switching it back on
• The evolution of consciousness, and Tim's idea of a super-soul and collective intelligence
• Choice and agency: taming the instinctual self and creating your own journey
• Soul-to-soul connection as the most radical act a man can offer in a world trained in distraction.

Connect with Tim:

Podbook & Podcast: youtube.com/timfreke

Website & Events: timfreke.com

Substack: timfreke.substack.com

Instagram: @timfreke

Facebook: facebook.com/TimFreke

X: @timfreke

I spent 25 years building a life that looked successful from the outside, but within, it was the opposite. Everything was falling apart, and I was throwing fuel on that fire. The joy of life had fallen away. Late November 2018, I had to make a choice: live or die. I chose to live, and everything changed. I had to confront the pain I was carrying, look at the stories, and change. I built The Brave Man Project because there was nothing like this when I needed it.

Podcast website https://thebravemanproject.com/

Hamish's website https://hamishniven.com/

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@TheBraveManProject

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/hamishniven/

TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@hamish.niven

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hamishniven/

Personal Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hamishniven

Al Richards woke up with one leg missing. And yet his room was the one full of laughter. New staff were warned about laughter in a room - if you hear a room having a good time, that's Al's. What made it remarkable was everything he was laughing in the middle of.

"There's nothing we can do. Your foot will continue to die."

"I'm done. I'm having him take it. The pain I'll go through is going to be healing pain."

Al is a podcaster, speaker, co-founder of the Healing Utah Success Summit and a newly certified crisis and recovery coach. In 2025, a plaque blockage cut off the blood supply to his right foot until it began to die beneath him. He chose amputation over a dying limb. Barely out of hospital, four weeks later, addiction took his wife.

This episode is about surgical choice, grief, and what it takes to turn towards the storm like the bison instead of running from it.

What we explore:

• The two-hour ultimatum — choosing amputation over a foot that was dying underneath him
• Why ego is a man's worst enemy: not crying, not asking for help, not seeing the doctor
• The "message in the mirror" — Al's morning routine of gratitude and self-love
• Losing his wife four weeks after losing his leg, and refusing to let grief become identity
• Vessels, not victims — the Drama Triangle, paying it forward to new amputees, and walking towards the storm like the bison

Connect with Al:

Podcast: The Other Side of Addiction (Apple)

YouTube: The Other Side of Addiction

Instagram: @mralrichards

TikTok: @alrichards780

LinkedIn: Al Richards

Facebook: Al Richards

I spent 25 years building a life that looked successful from the outside, but within, it was the opposite. Everything was falling apart, and I was throwing fuel on that fire. The joy of life had fallen away. Late November 2018, I had to make a choice: live or die. I chose to live, and everything changed. I had to confront the pain I was carrying, look at the stories, and change. I built The Brave Man Project because there was nothing like this when I needed it.

Podcast website: thebravemanproject.com

Hamish's website: hamishniven.com

YouTube: The Brave Man Project

LinkedIn: Hamish Niven

TikTok: @hamish.niven

Instagram: @hamishniven

Personal Facebook: Hamish Niven

Joe Henderson — former Brisbane police officer, survivor of a heart attack at 37, and a man living with a mechanical heart valve — was on the phone with his best mate Dan when the line went dead. Dan was killed on his police bike while they were still connected.

"I couldn't even say I'm sorry for my behaviour."

"I'm a ticking time bomb, pretty much."

Joe Henderson lives with a mechanical heart valve — every beat an audible reminder of the surgeries that saved him. Add a heart attack at 37, the loss of his best mate, PTSD from police work, and 15 years as a single dad, and you have a man with every reason to break. Instead, he faced the mirror — literally — and changed.

What we explore:

• Rebuilding life after multiple heart surgeries and a stress-driven heart attack at 37
• The weight of grief — losing his best mate — and what it did to his mental health and family
• The mirror exercise: brutal daily self-honesty as the engine of change
• Talking to your children about mental health, and why honesty beats pretending
• Breaking the cycle of toxic masculinity and what fathers model for the next generation

Connect with Joe:

Website: joe-betterdad.com

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/leaddontblame

Facebook: facebook.com/leaddontblame

Instagram: @leaddontblame

I spent 25 years building a life that looked successful from the outside, but within, it was the opposite. Everything was falling apart, and I was throwing fuel on that fire. The joy of life had fallen away. Late November 2018, I had to make a choice: live or die. I chose to live, and everything changed. I had to confront the pain I was carrying, look at the stories, and change. I built The Brave Man Project because there was nothing like this when I needed it.

Podcast website https://thebravemanproject.com/

Hamish's website https://hamishniven.com/

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@TheBraveManProject

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/hamishniven/

TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@hamish.niven

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hamishniven/

Personal Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hamishniven

John Milham, host of Kintsugi Heroes, had the successful life, the family, the script — until his wife's cancer diagnosis tore it up. What followed was grief, single fatherhood, parenting after loss, and the slow discovery that "I'm alright, mate" was the most expensive lie he'd ever told.

"Life is simple — love, connection, stories, and a little silliness"

"Does anyone even want to hear my story?"

"The world doesn't have a lot of resources for men who are left on their own"

John grew up in an Australian culture where men didn't do feelings. In this raw first episode, he shares what losing the life he'd built taught him about vulnerability, community, and why "I'm alright, mate" nearly cost him everything.

What we explore:

• The moment of crisis: a cancer diagnosis, grief, and confronting mortality
• How masculine conditioning shuts down men's emotional expression — and what it costs
• Vulnerability as the doorway to healing, not a weakness to hide
• The power of community, elders and authentic conversation in recovery
• Maslow's pyramid, self-actualisation and the simplicity of a life built on love, connection and a little silliness

Connect with John:

Website: kintsugiheroes.com.au

Instagram: @kintsugi.heroes

LinkedIn: Kintsugi Heroes

YouTube: Kintsugi Heroes

Facebook: facebook.com/kintsugiheroes

I spent 25 years building a life that looked successful from the outside, but within, it was the opposite. Everything was falling apart, and I was throwing fuel on that fire. The joy of life had fallen away. Late November 2018, I had to make a choice: live or die. I chose to live, and everything changed. I had to confront the pain I was carrying, look at the stories, and change. I built The Brave Man Project because there was nothing like this when I needed it.

Podcast website https://thebravemanproject.com/

Hamish's website https://hamishniven.com/

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@TheBraveManProject

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/hamishniven/

TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@hamish.niven

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hamishniven/

Personal Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hamishniven

The Brave Man Project - Launch Teaser

This is not a podcast about fixing yourself.

The Brave Man Project is a sanctuary for the modern man caught between the suffocating mask of performance and the silent weight of unaddressed trauma. A dual-lens journey. Mirrors and windows.

The Mirror reflects the lie you've been telling yourself. "I'm alright, mate." Men who were Captain of the Universe, who wore the mask so long they forgot their own face, who loaded bricks onto their backs until the weight became lethal. Then they fell. And they chose to look.

The Window expands your vision. Men who woke up and saw the world in Technicolor. Men who lead others through blue doors. They do not reflect your collapse. They prove you were never broken to begin with.

In this teaser, you'll hear fragments of what's coming. The unvarnished truth about what it actually took.

This is for the man tired of the noise and the bullshit. The man exhausted from carrying a mask. Whether you're currently being kicked by the universe or simply tired of the black-and-white grind.

Five men. Five falls. Five ways through. And two men who will show you the colour.

Launching 15 July.

hamishniven.com/the-brave-man-project