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Trainee counsellor, actor and curly associate Lucy Hill joins me for a walk on Southwick Hill to talk about therapy training, personal growth, identity, and navigating life through challenge and change.

In this episode, Lucy reflects on her journey towards becoming a therapist — the realities of counselling training, the emotional weight of working with others, and how difficult life events during that process can either shake you or strengthen you. She speaks openly about building a “toolkit” — not just professionally, but personally — and how those tools are shaped through lived experience.

We also talk about her earlier ambitions as an actor, achieving that goal, and the complicated feeling of no longer wanting it in the same way. Questions of identity, imposter syndrome, and what it means to let go of one path while stepping into another run quietly through the conversation.

Family plays a strong role too — the positive influence of her parents, alongside an awareness of how other relationships and projections can shape, or sometimes distort, the direction of your life.

Set against the backdrop of Brighton — the place she calls home — this is a walk about self-awareness, resilience, and the ongoing process of becoming.

Season Two of the story pilgrim walks with people — their inner lives, their turning points, and the tools they gather along the way.

buen camino, and keep listening.

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Writer, mentor, and creative writing teacher Gary Mepsted joins me for a conversation in his garden to talk about writing craft, storytelling, observation, and a life shaped by instinct rather than plan.

Expelled from school early on, Gary’s path into writing was anything but straightforward. Later gaining a Master’s in English, he has spent decades teaching others, though he avoids calling it a “career.” For Gary, life has been a series of unplanned turns, each one met with a willingness to respond rather than control.

We talk about writing beyond your own life, stepping into other worlds, and the influence of writers such as Graham Swift and Maggie O'Farrell, alongside a line he once heard on the radio that has stayed with him ever since:

“As a novelist, I see myself in a kind of ornithological role…I note down what they do, but I can in no way influence their behaviour.”

That idea, observing without interfering, runs quietly through everything Gary does.

We also talk about ego in the creative arts, the role of mentorship, and why he finds more satisfaction in helping others find their voice than chasing recognition himself.

And there are stories, including his Uncle George, a larger-than-life character moving between worlds: chauffeur, joke writer, psychic, and something of a prototype for a certain South London spirit. A man who, in Gary’s words, understood him more than anyone else.

This is a walk about patience, perspective, and the craft of paying attention.

Season Two of the story pilgrim walks with people, their philosophies, their turning points, and the quieter forces that shape them.

buen camino, and keep listening.

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Award-winning football coach Jordan Stringer joins me for a walk around Upminster to talk about resilience, grassroots football, dyspraxia, and overcoming testicular cancer at a young age.

Jordan grew up in Upminster with a deep love for football. A game that didn’t come easily to him. Living with dyspraxia meant coordination was a constant challenge, but instead of stepping away, he found another way in. A teacher’s suggestion to help coach changed everything, setting him on a path that would shape his life.

We walk through the streets where it all began, talking about school, identity, and how setbacks can quietly redirect you towards something greater.

At 21, Jordan was diagnosed with testicular cancer — something he had been aware of since childhood. He speaks openly about that period, the mental battle alongside the physical one, and how he kept moving forward.

What runs through this conversation is football as community — not just a game, but a space where people find belonging, purpose, and connection.

This is a walk about resilience, perspective, and choosing to see something steady even when life throws everything off balance.

You can find more about Jordan here:
🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordan-stringer-4aa94812a/

🔗 https://www.instagram.com/jordy200897/

🔗 https://www.gofundme.com/f/jordan-stringer-private-procedure

Season Two of the story pilgrim walks with people — their challenges, their turning points, and the paths they build from them.

buen camino, and keep listening.

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Actor, life coach, and creative entrepreneur Sascha Cooper joins me for a walk through the Seven Sisters Nature Reserve at Cuckmere Haven to talk about acting, intuition, personal growth, and the winding path of a creative life.

Raised in Devon and later studying in Plymouth before training at The Courtyard Theatre Training Company, London, Sascha has spent more than two decades building a creative life in Brighton — balancing performance, coaching, and spiritual exploration.

Along the walk, we talk about her acting journey, the moments that shaped her confidence, and the people who helped her along the way. Sascha reflects on the women who influenced her life, the value of mentorship, and the quiet strength that comes from community.

Sascha also shares her long relationship with fortune-telling — something that began as playful entertainment and gradually deepened into a deeper exploration of intuition, insight, and guidance.

The conversation moves candidly through identity and self-image, too. Sascha speaks openly about being a plus-size woman in the performing arts industry, how that has shaped her career, and the ways she has learned to own her presence rather than shrink it.

This is a walk about creative courage, intuition, and the many routes that lead us back to ourselves.

You can find Sascha’s work here:

🔗 https://www.saschacooper.co.uk/

🔗 https://www.facebook.com/sascha.cooper/

🔗 https://www.instagram.com/saschacooperentrepreneur/

Season Two of the story pilgrim walks with people — their histories, their work, and the paths that shaped who they are.

buen camino, and keep listening.

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Intimacy Coach for women and embodiment practitioner Daria Lebedeva walks with me along the River Thames to talk about spirituality, healing, embodiment, and finding meaning through nature, ritual, and self-trust.

Born in Russia and raised partly in the UK from the age of ten, Daria grew up close to rivers, forests, and open ground. A childhood shaped by movement, mud, and curiosity. That early closeness to nature still informs how she lives, works, and walks today.

This route along the Thames is one she walks every Sunday with her mum, and it becomes the setting for a wide-ranging conversation about magic, not as fantasy, but as attentiveness. We talk about Bali, shamanic drumming, spirit guides, and how different spiritual paths speak to different people. There is no single method here, only what resonates.

Daria also shares her time working in a prison with people facing addiction, describing the strain of holding space in systems under pressure, and how constant emotional labour can quietly wear you down.

We talk candidly about her health journey with hypothyroidism, resisting a medication-only approach, and rebuilding strength through nutrition, awareness, and listening to the body, drawing on ideas from The Body Keeps the Score and embodiment practice.

This is a grounded, open conversation about healing, belief, and learning to hear parts of yourself that were once hidden.

You can find Daria’s work at:
🔗 https://enlightenedsoultribe.com/

🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/in/darialebedeva1996/

Season Two of the story pilgrim walks with people — their histories, rituals, and inner landscapes.

buen camino, and keep listening.

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Actor and funeral director Abi Pattenden joins me for a walk to Old Hamsey Church, where her grandparents are buried, and where memory refuses to stay still.

We walk just north of Lewes, tracing the path her grandparents took when they moved from Wales after her grandfather found work nearby as a signalman. We pass the house Abi remembers from childhood, before arriving at the churchyard that still holds her family story in the ground.

Along the way, we talk about her work as a funeral director, how death is handled and avoided in modern life, and what happens when grief becomes part of your working day rather than something whispered about behind closed doors.

This is a walk about work, ancestry, and the strange calm that arrives when death is no longer treated as a stranger.

Season Two of the story pilgrim walks with people — their histories, their callings, and the places that shaped them.

buen camino, and keep listening.

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James Harkin, co-host of the hit podcast No Such Thing As A Fish and Head Researcher on BBC’s QI, joins me for a walking, and golfing, conversation about curiosity, childhood, and how a life quietly takes shape.

We met at Deane Golf Club, the course where James learned the game as a boy, and played a round while talking through his early years in Bolton, school days, falling sideways into research, and ending up at the sharp end of British comedy and television.

Between missed putts and gentle rivalry, James reflects on how curiosity becomes a craft, how knowledge and passion turns into a career. The power of saying no, and taking a risk can be a good thing.

This is not a studio interview. It’s a walk, a game, a life in motion.

Season Two of the story pilgrim turns towards people, walking with those who shape how I think, work, and notice the world.

buen camino, and keep listening.

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Lagos: Between Things is a quiet walking reflection recorded on the edges of a hotel, between flights, between seasons, between certainty and whatever comes next.

There’s nothing performative about this walk. No attempt to decode Lagos or turn the city into a backdrop for insight. Instead, this episode sits in the in-between: raising the bar for the story pilgrim, wondering why connection is harder to cultivate than ideas, and asking what it really takes to invite people to walk and talk without hiding behind roles, status, or polish.

This is a conversation about momentum, hesitation, and the strange vulnerability of asking others to join you when the path isn’t clearly marked. It’s also a gentle invitation — to listeners, to future walkers, to anyone who’s been circling a question rather than answering it.

If you’re standing between what was and what might be, this one walks beside you rather than ahead.

buen camino, and keep listening.