This episode of Resilience Unravelled discusses “waiting well,” drawn from long UK healthcare waits and delays in the judicial system, and argues that in a culture of speed, waiting feels like a rude interruption but is inevitable.

Waiting well is framed as an intentional mindset—responding to uncertainty with resilience, self-kindness, curiosity, hope, and purpose—rather than passively complaining or catastrophising.

Examples include using healthcare waits to seek reputable information, practice mindfulness, and build support, and using career or milestone delays to hone skills and set smaller goals.

Not waiting well can increase stress and helplessness, lead to rash decisions, erode trust in institutions, and waste opportunities for growth. Factors that worsen waiting include cultural productivity pressure, uncertainty, poor communication, perfectionism, and digital-age expectations.

Strategies include reframing, mindfulness, micro-goals, supportive communities, limiting rumination, meaningful distraction, self-advocacy, and focusing on controllables.

00:00 Why Waiting Matters

01:33 What It Means to Wait Well

03:21 The Costs of Waiting Badly

05:22 Why Waiting Feels Hard Today

09:05 Practical Strategies to Cope

12:47 Advocate and Take Agency

14:45 Make Waiting Part of Life

15:08 Final Takeaways

You can contact us at info@qedod.com

Resources can be found online or link to our website https://resilienceunravelled.com

#resilience, #burnout, #intuition

In this Resilience Unraveled episode, Dr Russell Thackeray interviews San Diego-based IT and AI services entrepreneur Ephraim Ebstein, who shares his background growing up in California with frequent trips to Germany and an early interest in entrepreneurship.

They discuss why California produces many startups despite high taxes and regulation, and how networks of smaller businesses create opportunity.

Ebstein argues AI is transformative but overhyped, noting an MIT-cited finding that over 95% of AI implementations delivered no ROI and that AI-generated code can increase error rates and hurt long-term scalability, leading some companies to rehire engineers.

They cover AI’s tendency to degrade when trained on AI outputs, copyright and likeness risks, the need for balanced regulation, and concerns that AI and social media reduce deep reading and critical thinking. Epstein advises personal accountability, skill-building, and considering blue-collar trades and entrepreneurship as resilient paths.

00:00 Welcome and Introductions

00:14 Old World Office Tour

01:40 Backstory and Roots

02:44 Why California Breeds Startups

06:19 AI Hype vs Reality

09:25 Jobs Skills and Inequality

12:26 AI Slop and Copyright Fights

15:51 Regulation Ethics and Deepfakes

18:38 Brains Social Media and Thinking

20:42 Work Builds Resilience

23:07 Adapting Careers in the AI Era

24:43 Blue Collar Paths and Entrepreneurship

27:11 Risk Failure and Resilient Mindset

28:06 Where to Find Ephraim Ebstein

28:44 Closing Thanks

You can contact us at info@qedod.com

Resources can be found online or link to our website https://resilienceunravelled.com

#resilience, #burnout, #intuition

In a solo episode of Resilience Unravelled, Dr Russell Thackeray reflects on whether UK democracy is resilient amid events in America and stresses that democratic resilience means absorbing shocks, adapting, upholding rule of law, and maintaining trust.

They outline UK strengths: deep-rooted institutions, rule of law, civil society, a relatively free press (including BBC impartiality rules), civic participation, and the Supreme Court’s 2019 ruling against Boris Johnson’s prorogation as evidence of checks on executive power.

Key vulnerabilities include Brexit-driven hyperpolarisation, online misinformation, outdated electoral laws, an unwritten constitution reliant on norms, centralisation of executive power, economic stagnation and regional inequality, voter ID concerns, loose campaign finance, data vulnerability, and collapsing public trust after scandals.

They argue renewal requires modernising Parliament and legal frameworks, cross-party reform, civic education, and courageous leadership to rebuild trust and accountability.

00:00 Intro and Context

00:25 Is UK Democracy Resilient

01:41 Defining Democratic Resilience

02:13 Institutional Strengths

04:10 Polarisation After Brexit

05:05 Misinformation and Digital Threats

06:08 Unwritten Constitution Exposed

06:40 Executive Power Creep

07:26 Inequality And Alienation

08:23 Electoral Integrity Risks

09:16 Reform Needs Political Will

10:22 Trust and Scandals and the myth of Populism

11:35 Modernise And Renew Democracy

12:51 Solutions from Leadership to Education

14:14 Final Call To Action

You can contact us at info@qedod.com

Resources can be found online or link to our website https://resilienceunravelled.com

#resilience, #burnout, #intuition

In this Resilience Unravelled episode, Dr Russell Thackeray meets Jerzy Gregorek, born in Poland, recounts becoming a firefighter at 19, studying fire protection engineering, and joining Solidarity during the 1981 crackdown, including a crushed 10-day strike and three years underground after the murder of a priest he knew. A

fter warnings he could be captured, he left Poland in 1985 and later moved to the U.S., where he was rejected by the fire department as “overeducated.”

Turning to weightlifting and early personal training in gyms, he built a successful coaching career focused on customised, measurable progression in flexibility, strength, posture, and bodyweight. He describes developing the “Happy Body Program” over 10 years as “athletic lifestyle medicine,” emphasising numbers, micro-progression, and long-term goals to combat aging, improve health, and avoid entertainment-only exercise.

00:00 Meet Jerzy Gregoreck

00:27 Firefighter Roots in Poland

01:12 Solidarity Strike and Crackdown

02:50 Losing Everything Finding Love

05:57 Alcoholism to Empathy

07:25 New Life in America

09:25 Personal Training Breakthrough

12:40 Engineering a Training Method

14:56 Making Progress Fun

18:52 Coaching Culture and Mentors

21:08 Happy Body Lifestyle Medicine

24:36 Aging Proof Strength Stories

28:59 Big Goals and Resilience

29:40 Where to Learn More

30:12 Closing

You can contact us at info@qedod.com

Resources can be found online or link to our website https://resilienceunravelled.com

#resilience, #burnout, #intuition

Will Steel joins Resilience Unravelled and shares a business lesson from investing £50,000 in a shirt venture that failed after the designer overcharged and manipulated import paperwork, which Steele links to Keith Cunningham’s idea that leadership failures stem from lack of courage.

He introduces himself as a coach for business owners and entrepreneurs, helping them grow while reducing time spent working in the business, after a 27-year background leading transformational programs and a prior career as an Air Force and airline pilot.

Steele distinguishes his ontological coaching from curriculum-based mentoring, illustrating with a client avoiding a pay conversation with his brother/employee. He discusses limiting beliefs and confirmation bias, gives a personal spelling example, and explains writing his book, Free To Lead, to support leadership programs in the Middle East—especially for women—framing leadership as speaking up in the moment. He notes the book’s availability via Amazon and his website.

00:00 Intros

00:26 Shirt Business Betrayal

00:59 Courage and Leadership Lesson

02:32 Working With Creative Egos

03:50 Meet Will Steele

04:44 From Pilot to Transformation Work

05:38 Pandemic Pivot to Coaching

06:56 What Real Coaching Is

08:00 Brother Employee Breakthrough

09:53 Limiting Beliefs and Bias

11:33 Spelling Story Mindset Shift

13:06 Why He Wrote Free to Lead

16:34 Leadership for Everyone

18:24 Where to Get the Book

19:33 Closing Thanks

You can contact us at info@qedod.com

Resources can be found online or link to our website https://resilienceunravelled.com

In this Resilience Unravelled episode, Alexis Sikorsky, a Swiss entrepreneur based in London, recounts building an internet café/ISP in Senegal, fleeing the country with only a suitcase, then returning to Geneva to grow a banking software and internet development business to about $10–11M revenue before the 2008 financial crisis cut 75% of revenue in a day.

After years of survival, he rebuilt to breakeven and sold to private equity on an 11x EBITDA deal with 85% cash and 15% earnout, emphasising that PE deals involve uneven information and founders should do diligence on acquirers by speaking to prior CEOs.

He discusses why most people shouldn’t be entrepreneurs, differentiates “having a job” from owning a company, advises seeking free mentors who’ve done what you’re doing, warns about conflicts with PE-paid advisors and small-company investment banks, explains when to avoid investment unless necessary, and describes his book Cashing Out and his initiative Night Scale to help firms stuck at $5–50M revenue using mission-based, part-time C-level expertise.

00:00 Welcome

00:43 From Geneva to Dakkar

02:03 Building and Losing It All

03:20 Private Equity Exit Playbook

06:24 Chairman Life and Retirement

09:23 Who Should Be Entrepreneur

11:57 Mentors and Real Advice

16:14 Due Diligence on Buyers

21:30 Investment vs Exit Decisions

24:00 Why I Wrote Cashing Out

26:05 Night Scale and Growth Plateaus

27:49 Social Media Reality Check

28:47 Final Thoughts and Goodbye

You can contact us at info@qedod.com

Resources can be found online or link to our website https://resilienceunravelled.com

On the podcast Resilience Unravelled, Russell speaks with Susan Inouye in Los Angeles about resilience themes in homes, products, and organisational culture, including companies that post values but don’t live them.

They discuss generational differences at work, with Susan describing shifts from command-and-control leadership toward belonging, meaning, and authenticity, and noting that millennials are now a large portion of the workforce.

Susan also shares that millennials are complaining about Gen Z, arguing it’s often about age and development, and references brain development and the influence of how generations were raised.

She emphasises that leadership change requires embodied practices, not just advice, explaining that transformation happens through the body and somatic intelligence, with HeartMath Institute research as an example.

Susan tells a client story about an event-production leader whose gift for planning became controlling behaviour; using the Sawubona (“I see you”) gift-centered approach, rituals for letting go, and trapeze lessons, the client replaced fear with freedom and became more trusting at work. Susan’s book, "Leadership’s Perfect Storm: What Millennials Are Teaching Us About Possibility, Passion, and Purpose," is aimed at leaders, includes stories and a coach’s corner with practices, is used in over 30 countries, is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and donates all proceeds to the nonprofit Youth Mentoring Connection.

She notes Sawubona Leadership originated in South Central Los Angeles through Tony LeRae’s mentoring work.

00:00 Welcome

01:05 Resilience, building standards & planned obsolescence

03:00 Corporate values vs reality: authenticity and truth-telling at work

04:47 Millennials & Gen Z reshape leadership expectations

06:28 Are generational stereotypes real? Command-and-control vs belonging

10:24 Brain science, upbringing & why each new cohort gets judged

15:40 From advice to embodiment: practices, somatics & emotional intelligence

19:17 Client story: planning as a gift—and learning to let go (trapeze breakthrough)

25:49 The book: Leadership’s Perfect Storm—who it’s for & what’s inside

27:21 Where to buy + proceeds to youth mentoring; Sawubona ‘I see you’ origins

28:34 Wrap-up

You can contact us at info@qedod.com

Resources can be found online or link to our website https://resilienceunravelled.com

In this Resilience Unravelled episode, host Russell interviews Brad Ley in Texas about oxygen and exercise with oxygen therapy (EWOT). Ley explains he turned to oxygen therapy about a decade ago after chronic illness and autoimmune conditions, including psoriasis and autoimmune arthritis, when standard drugs carried serious risks and he developed melanoma.

He contrasts EWOT with hyperbaric oxygen therapy, noting hard-shell hyperbaric treatments were recommended to him but were too expensive and time-consuming. Ley describes “inflammaging,” where inflamed blood vessels and swollen capillaries restrict oxygen delivery, pushing cells into anaerobic respiration, lowering energy production and increasing inflammation; he says delivering a high dose of oxygen during exercise can reduce inflammation and help reestablish blood flow in capillaries. He addresses concerns about oxygen and oxidative stress, stating oxygen is also important for detoxification and that research does not show increased oxidative stress from EWOT.

Ley outlines the origins of EWOT research from Manfred von Ardenne and explains how oxygen therapy relates to inflammation and hypoxia, comparing it to hydrogen-based approaches. He discusses founding 1000 Roads after building his own system as an engineer and then producing units for patients, with a focus on affordable at-home use and a protocol of about 15 minutes of cardio with a mask, three to five times per week.

Ley shares a customer anecdote about osteoarthritis improvement and notes response times vary. The conversation also covers red light therapy, which he says targets mitochondria to increase oxygen demand and pairs with EWOT by boosting oxygen supply then uptake, with claimed benefits including healing, cognitive function, reduced inflammation, skin and collagen support, and recovery. Ley notes the company ships from the US and internationally, with tariffs varying by country, and directs listeners to 1000roads.com and the 1000 Roads HQ YouTube channel for weekly videos on EWOT and red light therapy.

00:00 Welcome & meet Brad Ley (Texas)

01:04 Why more oxygen can reduce inflammation: ‘inflammaging’, capillaries & hypoxia

02:42 Is oxygen ‘rusting’ us? Oxidative stress vs detox benefits

03:51 Brad’s autoimmune journey & why he needed a third option

05:01 Hyperbaric oxygen vs exercise-with-oxygen: cost, time, practicality

06:32 The origins of EWOT: von Ardenne’s research & Brad builds his own device

08:32 Oxygen vs hydrogen therapy: how both target inflammation

10:01 Oxygen is ‘multimodal’: energy, anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer & detox

11:28 At-home EWOT systems: 15 minutes, 3–5x/week, accessible pricing

13:11 Can it help osteoarthritis? Early user results & what to expect

14:17 Red light therapy explained — mitochondria, oxygen demand & synergy with EWOT

17:18 Shipping worldwide, 1000 Roads links & final wrap-up

You can contact us at info@qedod.com