Podcasts about Gareth

Aya Cash joins Jake and Gareth and together they right a bear-sized wrong. Then, they form a collection agency.See Aya Cash perform in Giant now open on Broadway from March 23rd through June 28th.Want to call in? Email your question to helpfulpod@gmail.com.PATREON: https://patreon.com/heretohelppodMERCH: heretohelppod.comINSTAGRAM: @HereToHelpPodIf you're enjoying the show, make sure to rate We're Here to Help 5-Stars on Apple Podcasts.Advertise on We're Here to Help via Gumball.fmSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

(00:00-29:55) We all miss Tim. What a rich sports viewing evening. Sounds of the WBC. Bryce Harper's game tying homerun. Venezuela's eventual game winning hit in the 9th. Are people mad? Bryce Harper. Charles Barkley and Dicky V. Audio of Bruce Pearl and Charles Barkley chopping it up before the game. Biz is the Barkley of hockey. Blues alumni skates. Fighting on the golf course.(30:03-47:47) Woody Hayes. Tie Domi. Tips for playing Riverside. Doug's hole-in-one. Is Cam the greatest hockey movie ever? Unbelievable sports movies. Cam was supposed to be a part of Shoresy. Happy Gilmore 2. Jackson's got a little surprise lined up.(47:55-1:28:48) Who does Mark Milton root for if Illinois plays SLU? Joined on the show by the GREAT Tim McKernan. Tim's interest in the WBC. What's Tim excited about in the sports world? Looking forward to the local teams in the tournament. Over/Under 2.5 wins for Illinois, Mizzou, and SLU in the tournament. Ticket prices for the Mizzou game in St. Louis. Cam's not high on Six Flags. Chewing tobacco and carnival rides don't mix. Jackson's not gonna live stream. Gareth. Twilight rates at Grove XXIII. TGL in Jupiter. Golf bunnies. Cam's got Doug wanting to do this show for another 30 years. The Holy Trinity of litigation.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We were live tonight as me and Gareth talk a show heralded by some as one of the great AEW PPV's of all time, as we discuss our thoughts on MJF/Hangman, the returns of Will Ospreay, Kenny Omega and Cope & Christian, plus the debut of Ronda Rousey, and the rest of the mammoth card from Sunday night.Enjoy!BennoGRAPPL Spotlight is produced with support from our Patrons and YouTube members, with special thanks to Patreon Kings and Queen Of The Mountain - Conor O'Loughlin, Eddie Sideburns, Chris Platt, Carl Gac, Sophia Hitchcock, Simon Mulvaney & Marty Ellis!You can find all of our live shows on YouTube by becoming a Member at ⁠http://www.Youtube.com/@GRAPPL,⁠ or join us on Patreon for both live video and audio replays at ⁠http://www.patreon.com/GRAPPL!⁠You can also join us on the GRAPPL Discord for free at https://discord.gg/KqeVAcwctS⁠ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Gareth and Jake develop a brand-new fad diet. Then, they confront a roommate with sticky fingers. Plus, Mary Steenburgen drops by the show for some tough love and a follow-up to Ep 259 "Crochet Court!"Want to call in? Email your question to helpfulpod@gmail.com.PATREON: https://patreon.com/heretohelppodMERCH: heretohelppod.comINSTAGRAM: @HereToHelpPodIf you're enjoying the show, make sure to rate We're Here to Help 5-Stars on Apple Podcasts.Advertise on We're Here to Help via Gumball.fmSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What makes a character so compelling that readers will forgive almost anything about the plot? How do you move beyond vague flaws and generic descriptions to create people who feel pulled from real life? In this solo episode, I share 15 actionable tips for writing deep characters, curated from past interviews on the podcast. In the intro, thoughts from London Book Fair [Instagram reel @jfpennauthor; Publishing Perspectives; Audible; Spotify]; Insights from a 7-figure author business [BookBub]. This show is supported by my Patrons. Join my Community and get articles, discounts, and extra audio and video tutorials on writing craft, author business, and AI tools, at Patreon.com/thecreativepenn This episode has been created from previous episodes of The Creative Penn Podcast, curated by Joanna Penn, as well as chapters from How to Write a Novel: From Idea to Book. Links to the individual episodes are included in the transcript below. In this episode: Master the ‘Believe, Care, Invest' trifecta, how to hook readers on the very first page Define the Dramatic Question: Who is your character when the chips are down? Absolute specificity. Why “she's controlling” isn't good enough Understand the Heroine's Journey, strength through connection, not solo action Use ‘Metaphor Families' to anchor dialogue and give every character a distinctive voice Find the Diagnostic Detail, the moments that prove a character is real Writing pain onto the page without writing memoir Write diverse characters as real people, not stereotypes or plot devices Give your protagonist a morally neutral ‘hero' status. Compelling beats likeable. Build vibrant side characters for series longevity and spin-off potential Use voice as a rhythmic tool Link character and plot until they're inseparable Why discovery writers can write out of order and still build deep character Find the sensory details that make characters live and breathe More help with how to write fiction here, or in my book, How to Write a Novel. Writing Characters: 15 Tips for Writing Deep Character in Your Fiction In today's episode, I'm sharing fifteen tips for writing deep characters, synthesised from some of the most insightful interviews on The Creative Penn Podcast over the past few years, combined with what I've learned across more than forty books of my own. I'll be referencing episodes with Matt Bird, Will Storr, Gail Carriger, Barbara Nickless, and Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer. I'll also draw on my own book, How to Write a Novel, which covers these fundamentals in detail. Whether you're writing your first novel or your fiftieth, whether you're a plotter or a discovery writer like me, these tips will help you create characters that readers believe in, care about, and invest in—and keep coming back for more. Let's get into it. 1. Master the ‘Believe, Care, Invest' Trifecta When I spoke with Matt Bird on episode 624, he laid out the three things you need to achieve on the very first page of your book or in the first ten minutes of a film. He calls it “Believe, Care, and Invest.” First, the reader must believe the character is a real person, somehow proving they are not a cardboard imitation of a human being, not just a generic type walking through a generic plot. Second, the reader must care about the character's circumstances. And third, the reader must invest in the character's ability to solve the story's central problem. Matt used The Hunger Games as his primary example, and it's brilliant. On the very first page, we believe Katniss's voice. Suzanne Collins writes in first person with a staccato rhythm—lots of periods, short declarative sentences—that immediately grounds us in a survivalist mentality. We care because Katniss is starving. She's protecting her little sister. And we invest because she is out there bow hunting, which Matt pointed out is one of the most badass things a character can do. She even kills a lynx two pages in and sells the pelt. We invest in her resourcefulness and grit before the plot has even begun. Matt was very clear that this has nothing to do with the character being “likable.” He said his subtitle, Writing a Hero Anyone Will Love, doesn't mean the character has to be a good person. He described “hero” as both gender-neutral and morally neutral. A hero can be totally evil or totally good. What matters is that we believe, care, and invest. He demonstrated this beautifully by breaking down the first ten minutes of WeCrashed, where the characters of Adam and Rebekah Neumann are absolutely not likable, but we are completely hooked. Adam steals his neighbour's Chinese food through a carefully orchestrated con involving an imaginary beer. It's not admirable behaviour, but the tradecraft involved, as Matt put it—using a term from spy movies—makes us invest in him. We see a character trying to solve the big problem of his life, which is that he's poor and wants to be rich, and we want to see if he can pull it off. Actionable step: Go to the first page of your current work in progress. Does it achieve all three? Does the reader believe this is a real person with a distinctive voice? Do they care about the character's circumstances? And do they invest in the character's ability to handle what's coming? If even one of those three is missing, that's your revision priority. 2. Define the Dramatic Question: Who Are They Really? Will Storr, author of The Science of Storytelling, came on episode 490 and gave one of the most powerful frameworks I've ever heard for character-driven fiction. He explained that the human brain evolved language primarily to swap social information—in other words, to gossip. We are wired to monitor other people, to ask the question: who is this person when the chips are down? That's what Will calls the Dramatic Question, and it's what he believes lies at the heart of all compelling storytelling. It's not a question about plot. It's a question about the character's soul. And every scene in your novel should force the character to answer it. His example of Lawrence of Arabia is unforgettable. The Dramatic Question for the entire film is: who are you, Lawrence? Are you ordinary or are you extraordinary? At the beginning, Lawrence is a cocky, rebellious young soldier who believes his rebelliousness makes him superior. Every iconic scene in that three-hour film tests that belief. Sometimes Lawrence acts as though he truly is extraordinary—leading the Arabs into battle, being hailed as a god—and sometimes the world strips him bare and he sees himself as ordinary. Because it's a tragedy, he never overcomes his flaw. He doubles down on his belief that he's extraordinary until he becomes monstrous, culminating in that iconic scene where he lifts a bloody dagger and sees his own reflection with horror. Will also used Jaws to demonstrate how this works in a pure action thriller. Brody's dramatic question is simple: are you going to be old Brody who is terrified of the water, or new Brody who can overcome that fear? Every scene where the shark appears is really asking that question. And the last moment of the film isn't the shark blowing up. It's Brody swimming back through the water, saying he used to be scared of the water and he can't imagine why. Actionable step: Write down the Dramatic Question for your protagonist in a single sentence. Is it “Are you ordinary or extraordinary?” or “Are you brave enough to love again?” or “Will you sacrifice your principles for survival?” If you can't answer this with specificity, your character might still be a sketch rather than a person. 3. Get rid of Vague Flaws, and use Absolute Specificity This was one of Will Storr's most important points. He said that vague thinking about characters is really the enemy. When he teaches workshops and asks writers to describe their character's flaw, most of them say something like “they're very controlling.” And Will's response is: that's not good enough. Everyone is controlling. How are they controlling? What's the specific mechanism? He gave the example of a profile he read of Theresa May during the UK's Brexit chaos. Someone who knew her said that Theresa May's problem was that she always thinks she's the only adult in every room she goes into. Will said that stopped him in his tracks because it's so precise. If you define a character with that level of specificity, you can take them and put them in any genre, any situation—a spaceship, a Victorian drawing room, a school playground—and you will know exactly how they're going to behave. The same applies to Arthur Miller's Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman, as Will described it: a man who believes absolutely in capitalistic success and the idea that when you die, you're going to be weighed on a scale, just as God weighs you for sin, but now you're weighed for success. That's not a vague flaw. That's a worldview you can drop into any story and watch it combust. Will made another counterintuitive point that I found really valuable: writers often think that piling on multiple traits will create a complex character, but the opposite is true. Starting with one highly specific flaw and running it through the demands of a relentless plot is what generates complexity. You end up with a far more nuanced, original character than if you'd started with a laundry list of vague attributes. Actionable step: Take your protagonist's flaw and pressure-test it. Is it specific enough that you could place this character in any situation and predict their behaviour? If you're stuck at “she's stubborn” or “he's insecure,” keep pushing. What kind of stubborn? What kind of insecure? Find the diagnostic sentence—the Theresa May level of precision. 4. Understand the Heroine's Journey: Strength Through Connection Gail Carriger came on episode 550 to discuss her nonfiction book, The Heroine's Journey, and it completely reframed how I think about some of my own fiction. Gail explained that the core difference between the Hero's Journey and the Heroine's Journey comes down to how strength and victory are defined. The Hero's Journey is about strength through solo action. The hero must be continually isolated to get stronger. He goes out of civilisation, faces strife alone, and achieves victory through physical prowess and self-actualisation. The Heroine's Journey is the opposite. The heroine achieves her goals by activating a network. She's a delegator, a general. She identifies where she can't do something alone, finds the people who can help, and portions out the work for mutual gain. Gail put it simply: the heroine is very good at asking for help, which our culture tends to devalue but which is actually a powerful form of strength. Crucially, Gail stressed that gender is irrelevant to which journey you're writing. Her go-to examples are striking: the recent Wonder Woman film is practically a beat-for-beat hero's journey—Gilgamesh on screen, as Gail described it. Meanwhile, Harry Potter, both the first book and the series as a whole, is a classic heroine's journey. Harry's power comes from his network—Dumbledore's Army, the Order of the Phoenix, his friendships with Ron and Hermione. He doesn't defeat Voldemort alone. He defeats Voldemort because of love and connection. This distinction has real practical consequences for writers. If you're writing a hero's journey and you hit writer's block, Gail said, the solution is usually to isolate your hero further and pile on more strife. But if you're writing a heroine's journey, the solution is probably to throw a new character into the scene—someone who has advice to offer or a skill the heroine lacks. The actual solutions to writer's block are different depending on which narrative you're writing. As I reflected on my own work, I realised that my ARKANE thriller protagonist, Morgan Sierra, follows a hero's journey—she's a solo operative, a lone wolf like Jack Reacher or James Bond. But my Mapwalker fantasy series follows a heroine's journey, with Sienna and her group of friends working together. I hadn't consciously chosen those paths; the stories led me there. But understanding the framework helps me write more intentionally now. Actionable step: Identify which journey your protagonist is on. Does your character gain strength by being alone (hero) or by building connections (heroine)? This will inform every plot decision you make, from how they face obstacles to how your story ends. 5. Use ‘Metaphor Families' to Anchor Dialogue and Voice One of the most practical techniques Matt Bird shared on episode 624 is the idea of assigning each character a “metaphor family”—a specific well of language that they draw from. This gives each character a distinctive voice that goes beyond accent or dialect. Matt explained how in The Wire, one of the most beloved TV shows of all time, every character has a different metaphor family. What struck him was that Omar, this iconic character, never utters a single curse word in the entire series. His metaphor family is pirate. He talks about parlays, uses language that feels like it belongs in Pirates of the Caribbean, and it creates this incredible ironic counterpoint against his urban setting. It tells us immediately that this is a character who sees himself in a tradition of people that doesn't match his immediate surroundings. Matt also referenced the UK version of The Office, where Gareth works at a paper company but aspires to the military. So all of his language is drawn from a military metaphor family. He doesn't talk about filing and photocopying; he talks about tactics and discipline and being on the front line. This tells us that the character has a life and dreams beyond the immediate scene—and it's the gap between aspiration and reality that makes him both funny and believable. He pointed out that a metaphor family sometimes comes from a character's background, but it's often more interesting when it comes from their aspirations. What does your character want to be? What world do they fantasise about inhabiting? That's where their language should come from. In Star Wars, Obi-Wan Kenobi is a spiritual hermit, but his metaphor family is military. He uses the language of generals and commanders, and that ironic counterpoint is part of what makes him feel so rich. Actionable step: Assign each of your main characters a metaphor family. It could be based on their job, their background, or—more interestingly—their secret aspirations. Then go through your dialogue and make sure each character is consistently drawing from that well of language. If two characters sound the same when you strip away the dialogue tags, this is the fix. 6. Find the Diagnostic Detail: The Diagonal Toast Avoid clichéd character tags—the random scar, the eye patch, the mysterious limp—unless they serve a deep narrative purpose. Matt Bird on episode 624 was very funny about this: he pointed out that Nick Fury, Odin, and eventually Thor all have eye patches in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Eye patches are done, he said. You cannot do eye patches anymore. Instead, look for what I'm calling the “diagonal toast” detail, after a scene Matt described from Captain Marvel. In the film, Captain Marvel is trying to determine whether Nick Fury is who he says he is. She asks him to prove he isn't a shapeshifting alien. Fury shares biographical details—his history, his mother—but then she pushes further and says, name one more thing you couldn't possibly have made up about yourself. And Fury says: if toast is cut diagonally, I can't eat it. Matt said that detail is gold for a writer because it feels pulled from a real life. You can pull it from your own life and gift it to your characters, and the reader can tell it's not manufactured. He gave another example from The Sopranos: Tony Soprano's mother won't answer the phone after dark. The show's creator, David Chase, confirmed on the DVD commentary that this came from his own mother, who genuinely would not answer the phone after dark and couldn't explain why. Matt's practical advice was to keep a journal. Write down the strange, specific things that people do or say. Mine your own life for those hyper-specific details. You just need one per book. In my own writing, I've used this approach. In my ARKANE thrillers, my character Morgan Sierra has always been Angelina Jolie in my mind—specifically Jolie in Lara Croft or Mr and Mrs Smith. And Blake Daniel in my crime thriller series was based on Jesse Williams from Grey's Anatomy. I paste pictures of actors into my Scrivener projects. It helps with visuals, but also with the sense of the character, their energy and physicality. But visual details only take you so far. It's the behavioural quirks—the diagonal toast moments—that make a character feel genuinely alive. That said, physical character tags can work brilliantly when they serve the story. As I discuss in How to Write a Novel, Robert Galbraith's Cormoran Strike is an amputee, and his pain and the physical challenges of his prosthesis are a key part of every story—it's not a cosmetic detail, it's woven into the action and the character's psychology. My character Blake Daniel always wears gloves to cover the scars on his hands, which provides an angle into his wounded past as well as a visual cue for the reader. And of course, Harry Potter's lightning-shaped scar isn't just a mark—it's a direct connection to his nemesis and the mythology of the entire series. The rule of thumb is: if the tag tells us something about the character's interior life or connects to the plot, it's earning its place. If it's just there to make the character visually distinctive, it's probably a crutch. Game of Thrones takes character tags further with the family houses, each with their own mottos and sigils. The Starks say “Winter is coming” and their sigil is a dire wolf. Those aren't just labels—they're worldview made visible. Actionable step: Start a “diagonal toast” notebook. Every time you notice something strange and specific about someone's behaviour—something that feels too real to be made up—write it down. Then gift it to a character who needs more texture. 7. Displace Your Own Trauma into the Work Barbara Nickless shared something deeply personal on episode 732 that fundamentally changed how I think about putting pain onto the page. While starting At First Light, the first book in her Dr. Evan Wilding series, she lost her son to epilepsy—something called SUDEP, Sudden Unexplained Death in Epilepsy. One day he was there, and the next day he was gone. Barbara said that writing helped her cope with the trauma, that doing a deep dive into Old English literature and the Viking Age for the book's research became a lifeline. But here's what's important: she didn't give Dr. Evan Wilding her exact trauma. Evan Wilding is four feet five inches, and Barbara described how he has to walk through a world that won't adjust to him. That's its own form of learning to cope when circumstances are beyond your control. She displaced her genuine grief into the character's different but parallel struggle. When I asked her about the difference between writing for therapy and writing for an audience, she drew on her experience teaching creative writing to veterans through a collaboration between the US Department of Defense and the National Endowment for the Arts. She said she's found that she can pour her heartache into her characters and process it through them, even when writing professionally, and that the genuine emotion is what touches readers. We've all been through our own losses and griefs, so seeing how a character copes can be deeply meaningful. I've always found that putting my own pain onto the page is the most direct way to connect with a reader's soul. My character Morgan Sierra's musings on religion and the supernatural are often my own. Her restlessness, her fascination with the darker edges of faith—those come from me. But her Krav Maga fighting skills and her ability to kill the bad guys are definitely her own. That gap between what's mine and what's hers is where the fiction lives. Barbara also said something on that episode that I wrote down and stuck on my wall. She said the act of producing itself is a balm to the soul. I've been thinking about that ever since. On my own wall, I have “Measure your life by what you create.” Different words, same truth. Actionable step: If you're carrying something heavy—grief, anger, fear, regret—consider how you might displace it into a character's different but emotionally parallel struggle. Don't copy your exact situation; transform it. The emotion will be genuine, and the reader will feel it. 8. Write Diverse Characters as Real People When I spoke with Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer on episode 673—Sarah is Choctaw and a historical fiction author honoured by the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian—she offered a perspective that every fiction writer needs to hear. The key message was to move away from stereotypes. Don't write your American Indian character as the “Wise Guide” who exists solely to dispense mystic wisdom to the white protagonist. Don't limit diverse characters to historical settings, as though they only exist in the past. Place them in normal, contemporary roles. Your spaceship captain, your forensic scientist, your small-town baker—any of them can be American Indian, or Nigerian, or Japanese, and their heritage should be a lived-in part of their identity, not the sole reason they exist in the story. I write international thrillers and dark fantasy, and my fiction is populated with characters from all over the world. I have a multi-cultural family and I've lived in many places and travelled widely, so I've met, worked with, and had relationships with people from different cultures. I find story ideas through travel, and if I set my books in a certain place, then the story is naturally populated with the people who live there. As I discuss in my book, How to Write a Novel, the world is a diverse place, so your fiction needs to be populated with all kinds of people. If I only populated my fiction with characters like me, they would be boring novels. There are many dimensions of difference—race, nationality, sex, age, body type, ability, religion, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, class, culture, education level—and even then, don't assume that similar types of people think the same way. Some authors worry they will make mistakes. We live in a time of outrage, and some authors have been criticised for writing outside their own experience. So is it too dangerous to try? Of course not. The media amplifies outliers, and most authors include diverse characters in every book without causing offence because they work hard to get it right. It's about awareness, research, and intent. Actionable step: Audit the cast of your current work in progress. Have you written a mono-cultural perspective for all of them? If so, consider who could bring a different background, perspective, or set of cultural specifics to the story. Not as a token addition, but as a real person with a real life. 9. Respect Tribal and Cultural Specificity Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer on episode 673 was emphatic about one thing: never treat diverse groups as monolithic. If you're writing a Native American character, you must research the specific nation. Choctaw is not Navajo, just as British is not French. Sarah described the distinct cultural markers of the Choctaw people—the diamond pattern you'll see on traditional shirts and dresses, which represents the diamondback rattlesnake. They have distinct dances and songs. She said that if she saw someone in traditional dress at a distance, she would know whether they were Choctaw based on what they were wearing. She encouraged writers who want to write specifically about a nation to get to know those people. Go to events, go to a powwow, learn about the individual culture. She noted that a big misconception is that American Indians exist only in the past—she stressed that they are still here, still living their cultures, and fiction should reflect that present reality. I took a similar approach when writing Destroyer of Worlds, which is set mostly in India. I read books about Hindu myth, watched documentaries about the sadhus, and had one of my Indian readers from Mumbai check my cultural references. For Risen Gods, set in New Zealand with a young Maori protagonist, I studied books about Maori mythology and fiction by Maori authors, and had a male Maori reader check for cultural issues. Research is simply an act of empathy. The practical takeaway is this: if you're going to include a character from a specific cultural background, do the work. Use specific cultural details rather than generic signifiers. Sarah talked about how even she fell into stereotypes when she was first writing, until her mother pointed them out. If someone from within a culture can fall into those traps, the rest of us certainly can. Do the research, try your best, ask for help, and apologise if you need to. Actionable step: If you're writing a character from a specific culture, identify three to five sensory or behavioural details that are particular to that culture—not the generic version, but the real, researched, lived-in version. Consider hiring a sensitivity reader from that community to check your work. 10. Give Your Protagonist a Morally Neutral ‘Hero' Status Matt Bird was clear about this on episode 624: the word “hero” simply means the protagonist, the person we follow through the story. It's a functional role, not a moral label. We don't have to like them. We don't even have to root for their goals in a moral sense. We just have to find them compelling enough to invest our attention in their problem-solving. Think of Succession, where every member of the Roy family is varying degrees of awful, and yet the show was utterly compelling. Or WeCrashed, where Adam Neumann is a narcissistic con artist, but we can't look away because he's trying to solve the enormous problem of building an empire from nothing, and the tradecraft he employs is fascinating. As I wrote in How to Write a Novel, readers must want to spend time with your characters. They don't have to be lovable or even likable—that will depend on your genre and story choices—but they have to be captivating enough that we want to spend time with them. A character who is trying to solve a massive problem will naturally draw investment from the audience, even if we wouldn't want to have tea with them. Will Storr extended this idea by pointing out that the audience will actually root for a character to solve their problem even if the audience doesn't actually want the character's goal to be achieved in the real world. We don't really want more billionaires, but we invested in Adam Neumann's rise because that was the problem the story posed, and our brains are wired to invest in problem-solving. This connects to something deeper: what does your character want, and why? As I explore in How to Write a Novel, desire operates on multiple levels. Take a character like Phil, who joins the military during wartime. On the surface, she wants to serve her country. But she also wants to escape her dead-end town and learn new skills. Deeper still, her father and grandfather served, and by joining up, she hopes to finally earn their respect. And perhaps deepest of all, her father died on a mission under mysterious circumstances, and she wants to find out what happened from the inside. That layering of motivation is what turns a flat character into a three-dimensional one. The audience doesn't need to be told all of this explicitly. It can emerge through action, dialogue, and the choices the character makes under pressure. But you, the writer, need to know it. You need to know what your character really wants deep down, because that desire—more than any external plot device—is what drives the story forward. And your antagonist needs the same depth. They also want something, often diametrically opposed to your protagonist, and they need a reason that makes sense to them. In my ARKANE thriller Tree of Life, my antagonist is the heiress of a Brazilian mining empire who wants to restore the Earth to its original state to atone for the destruction caused by her father's company. She's part of a radical ecological group who believe the only way to restore Nature is to end all human life. It's extreme, but in an era of climate change, it's a motivation readers can understand—even if they disagree with the solution. Actionable step: If you're struggling to make a morally grey character work, make sure their problem is big enough and their methods are specific and interesting enough that we invest in the how, even if we're ambivalent about the what. 11. Build Vibrant Side Characters Gail Carriger made a point on episode 550 that was equal parts craft advice and business strategy. In a Heroine's Journey model, side characters aren't just fodder to be killed off to motivate the hero. They form a network. And because you don't have to kill them—unlike in a hero's journey, where allies are often betrayed or removed so the hero can be further isolated—you can pick up those side characters and give them their own books. Gail said this creates a really voracious reader base. You write one series with vivid side characters, and then readers fall in love with those side characters and want their stories. So you write spin-offs. The romance genre does this brilliantly—think of the Bridgerton books, where each sibling gets their own novel. The side character in one book becomes the protagonist in the next. Barbara Nickless experienced this firsthand with her Dr. Evan Wilding series. She has River Wilding, Evan's adventurous brother, and Diana, the axe-throwing research assistant, and her editor has already expressed interest in a spin-off series with those characters. Barbara described creating characters she wants to spend time with, or characters who give her nightmares but also intrigue her. That's the dual test: are they interesting enough for you to write, and interesting enough for readers to demand more? As I wrote in How to Write a Novel, characters that span series can deepen the reader's relationship with them as you expand their backstory into new plots. Readers will remember the character more than the plot or the book title, and look forward to the next instalment because they want more time with those people. British crime author Angela Marsons described it as readers feeling like returning to her characters is like putting on a pair of old slippers. Actionable step: Look at your supporting cast. Is there a side character who is vivid enough to carry their own story? If not, what could you add—a specific hobby, a distinct voice, a compelling backstory—that would make readers want more of them? 12. Use Voice as a Rhythmic Tool Voice is one of the most important elements of novel writing, and Matt Bird helped me think about it in a technical, mechanical way that I found really useful. He pointed out that the ratio of periods to commas defines a character's internal reality. A staccato rhythm—lots of periods, short sentences—suggests a character who is certain, grounded, or perhaps survivalist and traumatised. Katniss in The Hunger Games has a period-heavy voice. She's in survival mode. She doesn't have time for complexity or qualification. A flowing, comma-heavy style suggests someone more academic, more nuanced, or possibly more scattered and manipulative. The character who qualifies everything, who adds sub-clauses and digressions, is a different kind of person from the character who speaks in declarations. This is something you can actually measure. Pull up a passage of your character's dialogue or internal monologue and count the periods versus the commas. If the rhythm doesn't match who the character is supposed to be, you've found a mismatch you can fix. Sentence length is the heartbeat of your character's persona. And voice extends beyond rhythm to the words themselves. As I discussed in the metaphor families tip, each character should draw from a distinctive well of language. But voice also encompasses their relationship to silence. Some characters talk around the thing they mean; others say it straight. Some are self-deprecating; others are blunt to the point of rudeness. All of these choices are character choices, not just style choices. I find it useful to read my dialogue aloud—and not just to check for naturalness, but to hear whether each character sounds distinct. If you could swap dialogue lines between two characters and nobody would notice, you have a voice problem. One practical test: cover the dialogue tags and see if you can tell who's speaking from the words alone. Actionable step: Choose a key passage from your protagonist's point of view and read it aloud. Does the rhythm match the character? A soldier under fire should not sound like a philosophy professor at a wine tasting. Adjust the ratio of periods to commas until the voice feels right. 13. Link Character and Plot Until They're Inseparable Will Storr made the case on episode 490 that the number one problem he sees in the writing he encounters—in workshops, in submissions, even in published books—is that the characters and the plots are unconnected. There's a story happening, and there are people in it, but the story isn't a product of who those people are. He said a story should be like life. In our lives, the plots are intimately connected to who we are as characters. The goals we pursue, the obstacles we face, the same problems that keep recurring—these are products of our personalities, our flaws, our specific ways of being in the world. His framework is that your plot should be designed specifically to plot against your character. You've got a character with a particular flaw; the plot exists to test that flaw over and over until the character either transforms or doubles down and explodes. Jaws is the perfect example. Brody is afraid of water. A shark shows up in the coastal town he's responsible for protecting. The entire plot is engineered to force him to confront the one thing he cannot face. Will pointed out that the whole plot of Jaws is structured around Brody's flaw. It begins with the shark arriving, the midpoint is when Brody finally gets the courage to go into the water, and the very final scene isn't the shark blowing up—it's Brody swimming back through the water. Even a film that's ninety-eight percent action is, at its core, structured around a character with a character flaw. This is the standard I aspire to in my own work, even in my action-heavy thrillers. The external plot should be a mirror of the internal struggle. When those two are aligned, the story becomes irresistible. Will also made an important point about series fiction, which is where most commercial authors live. I asked him how this works when your character can't be transformed at the end of every book because there has to be a next book. His answer was elegant: you don't cure them. Episodic TV characters like Fleabag or David Brent or Basil Fawlty never truly change—and the fact that they don't change is actually the source of the comedy. But every episode throws a new story event at them that tests and exposes their flaw. You just keep throwing story events at them again and again. That's a soap opera, a sitcom, and a book series. As I wrote in How to Write a Novel, character flaws are aspects of personality that affect the person so much that facing and overcoming them becomes central to the plot. In Jaws, the protagonist Brody is afraid of the water, but he has to overcome that flaw to destroy the killer shark and save the town. But remember, your characters should feel like real people, so never define them purely by their flaws. The character addicted to painkillers might also be a brilliant and successful female lawyer who gets up at four in the morning to work out at the gym, likes eighties music, and volunteers at the local dog shelter at weekends. Character wounds are different from flaws. They're formed from life experience and are part of your character's backstory—traumatic events that happened before the events of your novel but shape the character's reactions in the present. In my ARKANE thrillers, Morgan Sierra's husband Elian died in her arms during a military operation. This happened before the series begins, but her memories of it recur when she faces a firefight, and she struggles to find happiness again for fear of losing someone she loves once more. And then there's the perennial advice: show, don't tell. Most writers have heard this so many times that it's easy to nod and then promptly write scenes that tell rather than show. Basically, you need to reveal your character through action and dialogue, rather than explanation. In my thriller Day of the Vikings, Morgan Sierra fights a Neo-Viking in the halls of the British Museum and brings him down with Krav Maga. That fight scene isn't just about showing action. It opens up questions about her backstory, demonstrates character, and moves the plot forward. Telling would be something like: “Morgan was an expert in Krav Maga.” Showing is the reader discovering it through the scene itself. Actionable step: Look at the main plot events of your novel. For each major turning point, ask: does this scene specifically test my protagonist's flaw? If not, can you redesign the scene so that it does? The tighter the connection between character and plot, the more powerful the story. 14. The ‘Maestra' Approach: Write Out of Order If you're a discovery writer like me, you may feel like the deep character work I've been describing sounds more suited to plotters. But Barbara Nickless gave me a beautiful metaphor on episode 732 that reframes it entirely. Barbara described her evolving writing process as being like a maestra standing in front of an orchestra. Sometimes you bring in the horns—a certain theme—and sometimes you bring in the strings—a certain character—and sometimes you turn to the soloist. It's a more organic and jumping-around process than linear writing, and Barbara said she's only recently given herself permission to work this way. When I told her that I use Scrivener to write in scenes out of order and then drag and drop them into a structure later, she was genuinely intrigued. And this is how I've always worked. I'll see the story in my mind like a movie trailer—flashes of the big emotional scenes, the pivotal confrontations, the moments of revelation—and I write those first. I don't know how they hang together until quite late in the process. Then I'll move scenes around, print the whole thing out, and figure out the connective tissue. The point is that discovery writers can absolutely build deep characters. Sometimes writing the big emotional scenes first is how you discover who the character is before you fill in the rest. You don't need a twenty-page character worksheet or a 200-page outline like Jeffery Deaver. You need to be willing to follow the character into the unknown and trust that the structure will emerge. As Barbara said, she writes to know what she's thinking. That's the discovery writer's credo. And I would add: I write to know who my characters are. Actionable step: If you're stuck on your current chapter, skip it. Write the scene that's burning in your imagination, even if it's from the middle or the end. That scene might be the key to unlocking who your character really is. 15. Use Research to Help with Empathy Research shouldn't just be about factual accuracy—it's a tool for finding the sensory details that create empathy. Barbara Nickless described research as almost an excuse to explore things that fascinate her, and I feel exactly the same way. I would go so far as to say that writing is an excuse for me to explore the things that interest me. Barbara and I both travel for our stories. For her Dr. Evan Wilding books, she did deep research into Old English literature and the Viking Age. For my thriller End of Days, I transcribed hours of video from Appalachian snake-handling churches on YouTube to understand the worldview of the worshippers, because my antagonist was brought up in that tradition. I couldn't just make that up. I had to hear their language, feel their conviction, understand why they would hold venomous serpents as an act of faith. Barbara also mentioned getting to Israel and the West Bank for research, and I've been to both places too. Finding that one specific sensory detail—the smell of a particular location, the specific way an expert handles a tool, the sound of a particular kind of music—makes the character's life feel lived-in. It's the difference between a character who is described as living in a place and a character who inhabits it. As I wrote in How to Write a Novel, don't write what you know. Write what you want to learn about. I love research. It's part of why I'm an author in the first place. I take any excuse to dive into a world different from my own. Research using books, films, podcasts, and travel, and focus particularly on sources produced by people from the worldview you want to understand. Actionable step: For your next piece of character research, go beyond reading. Watch a documentary, visit a location, talk to someone who lives the experience. Find one sensory detail—a smell, a sound, a texture—that you couldn't have invented. That detail will make your character feel real. Bonus: Measure Your Life by What You Create In an age of AI and a tsunami of content, your ultimate brand protection is the quality of your human creation. Barbara Nickless said that the act of producing itself is a balm to the soul, and I believe that with every fibre of my being. Don't be afraid to take that step back, like I did with my deadlifting. Take the time to master these deeper craft skills. It might feel like you're slowing down or going backwards by not chasing the latest marketing trend, but it's the only way to step forward into a sustainable, high-quality career. Your characters are your signature. No AI can replicate the specificity of your lived experience, the emotional truth of your displaced trauma, or the sensory details you've gathered from a life of curiosity and travel. Those are yours. Pour them into your characters, and they will resonate for years to come. Actionable Takeaway: Identify the Dramatic Question for your current protagonist. Can you state it in a single sentence with the kind of specificity Will Storr described? Is it as clear as “Are you ordinary or extraordinary?” or “Are you the only adult in the room?” If you can't answer it with that kind of precision, your character might still be a sketch. Give them a diagonal toast moment today. Find the one hyper-specific detail that proves they are not an imitation of life. And then ask yourself: does your plot test your character's flaw in every major scene? If you can align those two things—a precisely defined character and a plot that exists to test them—you will have a story that readers cannot put down. References and Deep Dives The episodes I've referenced today are all available with full transcripts at TheCreativePenn.com: Episode 732 — Facing Fears, and Writing Unique Characters with Barbara Nickless Episode 673 — Writing Choctaw Characters and Diversity in Fiction with Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer Episode 624 — Writing Characters with Matt Bird Episode 550 — The Heroine's Journey with Gail Carriger Episode 490 — How Character Flaws Shape Story with Will Storr Books mentioned: The Secrets of Character: Writing a Hero Anyone Will Love by Matt Bird The Science of Storytelling by Will Storr The Heroine's Journey by Gail Carriger How to Write a Novel: From Idea to Book by Joanna Penn You can find all my books for authors at CreativePennBooks.com and my fiction and memoir at JFPennBooks.com Happy writing! How was this episode created? This episode was initiated created by NotebookLM based on YouTube videos of the episodes linked above from YouTube/TheCreativePenn, plus my text chapters on character from How to Write a Novel. NotebookLM created a blog post from the material and then I expanded it and fact checked it with Claude.ai 4.6 Opus, and then I used my voice clone at ElevenLabs to narrate it. The post Writing Characters: 15 Actionable Tips For Writing Deep Character first appeared on The Creative Penn.

Gareth and Lauren are joined by former Wales hooker Scott Baldwin and rugby journalist Alex Bywater to reflect on the 2026 Six Nations, the players of the tournament and Wales's win over Italy

Join us this week where Aaron is alone in the cupboard as Gareth is ill. Aaron takes this opportunity to tick off another Jurassic Park species by kdelving in to all things Gallimimus. In the news, Aaron looks at the upcoming changes to the UK's bank notes. All this and more. The cupboard is open, come on in!Check out our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/TheNaturalHistoryCupboardPodcast343And our Teemill store here: thenaturalhistorycupboard.teemill.com

Welcome back to Movie Boi! This podcast will feature discussions on movies, new and old alike, as well as some broader movie topics and conversations.In this episode:Gareth and I preview all the major categories of the 2026 Oscars. We give out who we think should win and also who we think will win. If you want to share your thoughts on the movie or send in a mailbag question, contact MovieBoyJack@gmail.com.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

It's time for the the 98th Academy Awards friends! In this episode we talk directors, cinematographers, editors, actors, actresses and a lot more, including all the Best Picture Nominees: Bugonia, F1, Hamnet, Frankenstein, Sentimental Value, Marty Supreme, Sinners, One Battle After Another, Train Dreams and The Secret Agent. Subscribe on Patreon Apple - The Film Talk Spotify - The Film Talk Facebook.com/TheFilmTalk To contact Jett and Gareth go to: info@thefilmtalk.com

Coldwired Podcast (Come and say hello facebook.com/ColdwiredMusic). Live every Tuesday 8PM (UK)! www.twitch.tv/coldwired 'FriDaze' #007: Live Stream 13/3/26. Tracklisting: [00:00] 01. Odessi - Moments Of Space [Primal Recordings] [07:32] 02. Grum - Mind Over Matter (Extended) [Deep State] [12:09] 03. BT - Believer [Sony] [16:42] 04. Mohawk - Previous Years (Extended Mix) [Free For All] [22:26] 05. Vibrasphere - In Control [Tribal Vision Records] [28:14] 06. JS16 - Hale Bopp (Orkidea Remix) [Solaris] [34:35] 07. Oliver Prime - Radiance (Scratch Bandicoot Deep Mix) [Reset Records] [39:53] 08. Anthony Syfer - Verona [Power House Records] [44:51] 09. Atico Corp. - AT2097 [UFC] [49:39] 10. Long Island Sound - Stung [Signs Of Space] [52:41] 11. Blue Alphabet - Cybertrance (Airwave's Cyberbreaks) [Bonzai Progressive] [57:47] 12. Corellian - The Fallen [Fire] [1:01:30] 13. J Lauda, D.J. MacIntyre - Strange Wonders (Nomas Remix) [SLC-6 Music] [1:06:34] 14. SFX - Y-Salem (Astral Projection Remix) [Dacru Records] [1:12:08] 15. Colltrix - Entry Protocol [Colph Records] [1:15:48] 16. Paragliders - Lithium 2 [Solieb Digital] [1:20:24] 17. Project X - Under Siege [Rain Forest Records] [1:26:34] 18. Alex M.O.R.P.H., Liquid Soul - The Journey [Universal Nation] [1:32:31] 19. Desert Moon - Galbi (Jez and Choopie Remix) [Dos Or Die Recordings]

Gareth kicks off the show with a fiery rant about the current state of government and South Africa's global alliances. Ben joins the conversation to break down the latest in sport, including the buzz around the first LIV Golf event on South African soil. Mash dives into the property market in Orania and unpacks the curious trend of “Ozempic Face,” with some well-known celebrities showing the effects. And, Beverly Stock, mother of the late Warrick “DJ Warras” Stock, joins the show to reflect on the loss of her son and the profound impact his life — and passing — has had on South Africans. The Real Network

Send a textEver wondered how spiritual energy can transform your life? Here's the hidden truth about Authentic Shaktipat and Kundalini!  Join Gareth as he discusses Shaktipat as a powerful transmission that awakens the Kundalini energy within you. This ancient practice isn't just casual energy work; it's a sacred process meant for serious seekers on their spiritual journey.When Kundalini rises, it purifies your energy centers, opening pathways to self-realization and deep insight. Think of it as a divine push that helps you step into your true self, but readiness and purity of intention matter.Are you ready to embrace this journey? Remember, it's not about forcing awakening but surrendering to the divine flow.May the grace of Kundalini unfold in beauty and safety for you.What is Shaktipat and how it worksThe role of the Guru and divine timingMechanisms of energy transmission (touch, mantra, gaze)Stages of Kundalini awakening and signsSafety, discernment, and authentic transmission 

Please join us at patreon.com/tortoiseshack In this episode of Shrapnel Sam and Gareth were joined by community worker and host of the Made to Parade podcast, Glenn Millar. They chatted about the band scene, its evolution, traditions, and work in the community especially around mental health. Glenn discussed the impact of oral history and preserving the legacy for generations to come. Shrapnel is hosted by Gareth and Sam and produced by Tony Groves @ the tortoise shack

Coldwired Podcast (Come and say hello facebook.com/ColdwiredMusic). Live every Tuesday 8PM (UK)! www.twitch.tv/coldwired March 2026 Selection pt III. Tracklisting: [00:00] 01. Samuel (LK) - Chemicals [SLC-6 Music] [05:04] 02. R/Tistique - After the After [Electric Eden Records] [08:38] 03. C-Jay, Yves Eaux, Maurice Caron - RompSlomp [onedotsixtwo] [13:58] 04. R/Tistique - Resistance [Wise Jester Records] [18:32] 05. CRW, Kamilo Sanclemente - I Feel Love (Extended Mix) [Armada Music] [24:35] 06. Quivver - Keep on Runnin' [Bedrock Records] [28:13] 07. Tim French, Mallinder - Frisson [Hooj Choons] [33:43] 08. Framewerk - Crazy [Capital Heaven] [38:09] 09. Sebastian Feldmann - Crickets In May (After Midnight Extended Mix) [Natura Viva] [41:40] 10. Booka Shade - Your Command (Pig and Dan Remix) [Blaufield Music] [44:57] 11. Perry O'Neil - South-West Saga [Electronic Elements (Armada)] ***Defrosted from 2006*** [52:04] 12. F4T4L3RR0R - Cold Like That (BAIRES Extended Remix) [Addictive Sounds] [58:24] 13. Junkie XL - Beauty Never Fades (Polux Mac 2k26 Rework) [Bootleg] [1:02:49] 14. JGR - Flaming Trip (CLOSE PROXIMITY Journey Mix) [Rotten City Files] [1:07:18] 15. NIGHT manoeuvres - This Life (Maruwa Remix) [fabric Records] [1:10:56] 16. UNWA - Voiceovers [Inspired Virtu] [1:16:10] 17. Anthony Syfer - Verona [Power House Records] ***Gold Star Track*** [1:21:00] 18. Viikatory - Time Machine [Unknown To The Unknown] [1:25:06] 19. L.S.G. - Risin' (Pads) (2026) [Superstition Records]

Ickonic.combit.ly/garethickonicInstagraminstagram.com/garethicke/?hl=enXx.com/garethicke?lang=enLinktreelinktr.ee/garethickeChannel Sponsorickonic.thegoodinside.comSupport Ron's Shows Here - https://linktr.ee/projectrooqLIVE STREAM TTS DONATIONS - https://streamlabs.com/projectrooq/tipProject ROOQ Website MORE CONTENT - https://www.projectrooq.com/My Patreon - patreon.com/projectrooqInstagram - www.instagram.com/projectrooq/#PODCAST #YOUTUBE #DISCLOSURE #SHAUNATTWOOD #PROJECTROOQ #NEWS*****************************

Jake and Gareth stumble onto a shocking bathroom situation. Then, they help an accountant get what she's owed at tax season. Plus, a follow-up from Ep 255 "Monitor Swap (with David Krumholtz)."Want to call in? Email your question to helpfulpod@gmail.com.PATREON: https://patreon.com/heretohelppodMERCH: heretohelppod.comINSTAGRAM: @HereToHelpPodIf you're enjoying the show, make sure to rate We're Here to Help 5-Stars on Apple Podcasts.Advertise on We're Here to Help via Gumball.fmSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Stephen, Gareth and Eleanor discuss Sunderland's cup disaster at Port Vale. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ade and Gareth look back on a win for Jai Opetaia over Brandon Glanton which saw the Australian become the first ever Zuffa Boxing Champion!There remains question marks over Opetaia's IBF belt, the sanctioning body are adamant the he will will be stripped but the fighter himself says he is still the IBF champ and Dana White has suggested he may take legal action if they decide to strip his fighter.Speaking of Dana White, his cold war with Eddie Hearn took an interesting turn last week when Hearn signed UFC Heavyweight Champion Tom Aspinall to his new Matchroom talent agency, we hear from Aspinall who tells us how the deal came about and if it effects his relationship with White.PLUS, we hear from Jazza Dickens ahead of his fight with Anthony Cacace live on talkSPORT! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Kathryn, Gareth and Ron discuss recent events in politics including New Zealand's response to conflict in the Middle East. Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

With Mother's Day fast approaching, resident chef, Gareth Mullins, Executive Chef of The Anantara Marker Hotel, joins Pat to talk all things brunch.

Gareth and Leigh-Ann unpack the shifting landscape of global geopolitics and what South Africa's potential role could look like in the event of a wider global conflict. Hanan delivers a powerful monologue on eating disorders, questioning whether society truly treats them as the serious mental health issue they are. Simon Wilkins from Galetti joins the conversation to discuss his incredible 36km swim across the icy English Channel, and Gideon Joubert weighs in on a major issue facing South Africans right now — the proposed new gun laws and what they could mean for personal safety and security. The Real Network

Gareth and Justin at Skewed and Reviewed look at PlayStation, The Orville, Assassin's Creed, Game Of Thrones, Alien: Earth And More on a new Skewedcast

In this episode of the Shrapnel Podcast, hosts Sam and Gareth discuss their return after a long hiatus due to personal challenges, including Gareth's loss of both parents. They reflect on the stagnation of societal and political issues in 2025, the importance of legacy discussions, and the hope and need for future dialogue. The lads talk resilience, the soapbox and the value of revisiting oral histories from the past. Next Episode with Glenn Millar -Made to Parade is out now here:https://www.patreon.com/posts/patron-exclusive-151665617

(00:00-22:58) Jimmy Farmer will join us today. Colton Parayko off to Buffalo? Audio of Joey Vitale and Chris Kerber on Kerbside talking about the move being a huge shakeup. Doug didn't have RBF when Parayko debuted with the Blues. Dylan Holloway talking about playing through this award time in the season.(23:06-44:36) A nice little Doug laughing fit. Mark ass buster. Gareth isn't happy about the download numbers of Movie Boi. Doug's out of his depths when it comes to the animal kingdom. Does anything good come in the mail? Big college hooprock Saturday. Is No Vaseline the George Washington of diss tracks?(44:46-1:01:27) Doug's got a big subwoofer. Low hanging fruit and dry powder. Elliotte Friedman talking about Doug Armstrong's message to the team during the trade deadline. Sounds like Chris Pronger wants to come on. And just like that, we got him. Morning Prongs. Getting Pronger's view on the Parayko situation. No movement clauses. Does this signal a total teardown? Yuckin' it up with Joe Buck and John Hamm.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Gareth Sapstead, my long time T-Nation writing peer joins me to talk about his new book (which I contributed to) and share wisdom and experience about:-Where to start if you look in the mirror and you're not happy with what you see-How to approach your training and nutrition if you want to change your life-How social support matters if you're aiming to change your life and health-Thinking in terms of “architecture for your life”-What his new book - 100 Best Physique Workouts offers-And much moreIG: @thefitnessmaverickCHAPTERS01:00 Why In Person Events02:34 Connections Create Careers03:41 Transformation Starting Point04:02 Assessments Online Vs In Person11:16 Gen Pop Transformation Tactics13:14 Output First Nutrition Plan15:52 Strength Training Guardrails19:55 Sustainable Deficits21:30 Sponsor Break RP Strength22:54 Environment Biggest Loser24:34 NEAT And Diet Adaptation27:02 Muscle Loss Expectations29:34 Milo And Load Bearing30:08 Fat Loss Muscle Tradeoff31:24 Skinny Fat Metabolic Health32:09 Education Over Extremes33:25 Flexible Dieting Macros34:27 Tracking To Intuition36:41 Training Structure Levels38:38 Meal Prep Lifestyle Hack41:57 Maintenance Training Phase42:55 Sponsor TrainHeroic44:15 Cardio While Learning46:59 Make Cardio Enjoyable50:49 Transformation Basics Structure53:23 100 Physique Workouts Book55:53 How To Use WorkoutsSUPPORT THE SHOWIf this episode helped you think more clearly about transforming your physique or your life, you can support the show by:• Subscribing and checking out more episodes• Sharing it on your social media (tag me — I'll respond)• Sending it to someone starting their transformation journeyFOLLOW ANDREW COATESInstagram: @andrewcoatesfitnesshttps://www.andrewcoatesfitness.comPARTNERS AND RESOURCESRP Strength App (use code COATESRP)https://www.rpstrength.com/coatesJust Bite Me Meals (use code ANDREWCOATESFITNESS for 10% off)https://justbitememeals.comMacrosFirst – FREE Premium TrialDownload MacrosFirst and during setup you'll be asked “How did you hear about us?”Type in: ANDREWKNKG Bags (15% off)https://www.knkg.com/Andrew59676Versa Gripps (discount link)https://www.versagripps.com/andrewcoatesTRAINHEROIC – FREE 90-Day Trial (2 steps)Go to https://www.trainheroic.com/liftfreeReply to the email you receive (or email trials@trainheroic.com) and let them know Andrew sent you

Coldwired Podcast (Come and say hello facebook.com/ColdwiredMusic). Live every Tuesday 8PM (UK)! www.twitch.tv/coldwired March 2026 Selection pt II. Tracklisting: [00:00] 01. Busy Mind - In Motion [Late Night Music] [05:20] 02. Glenn Morrison, Night Waves (UK) - Over My Head [Fall From Grace Records] [09:39] 03. Satoshi Tomiie, Kelli Ali - Love In Traffic (Brian Creao Edit) [Bootleg] [14:44] 04. Rentier - L'amour (Instrumental) [Get High Records] [19:01] 05. Mixomatic - Remember [Univack] [24:31] 06. Tim French, Mallinder - Frisson [Hooj Choons] ***Gold Star Track*** [29:01] 07. Airwave - Buzzer (2020 Re-Invented Mix) [Bonzai Progressive] ***Defrosted from 2020*** [34:29] 08. Efreet - Seminal [Creatus Flow] [39:10] 09. Alcatraz - Giv Me Luv (Jerome Isma-Ae Remix) [Yoshitoshi Recordings] [44:14] 10. Casper Nederhoff - Greetings From Space (Extended Mix) [2Rock Electronic] [49:24] 11. Paul James Nolan - Transmute (Extended Mix) [UV] [54:47] 12. Basil O'Glue - What Never Happened (F-Act Remix) [BAGRUHM] [1:00:53] 13. Sublee - Loneliness [UVAR] [1:07:01] 14. Maruwa - On The Same High [Planet Strangelove] [1:11:41] 15. Sunda - Emotional Frequency (Extended Mix) [Borderline] [1:16:47] 16. Jens Jakob - 1999 [Lost Language] [1:18:32] 17. Jens Jakob - On A Rainy Day [Lost Language] [1:25:44] 18. Belik - Never Enough [Monstercat]

Gareth and Jake are joined by Kyle Mooney for this bonus episode. First, they foster grocery store jealousy. Then, they broach a sensitive fashion conversation.Make sure to check out "What's Our Podcast?" hosted by Kyle Mooney and Beck Bennett.Want to call in? Email your question to helpfulpod@gmail.com.PATREON: https://patreon.com/heretohelppodMERCH: heretohelppod.comINSTAGRAM: @HereToHelpPodIf you're enjoying the show, make sure to rate We're Here to Help 5-Stars on Apple Podcasts.Advertise on We're Here to Help via Gumball.fmSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The conversation continues for our Supporters! These Spotlights offer the first word, and then it's your turn. Become a Supporter of the Real Science of Sport by making a small monthly pledge, and get access to our world-famous, and very stimulating, Discourse community!Show notesThis week's show kicks off in London, where Ross recently attended World Rugby's Annual Shape of the Game meeting. he shares some insider insights on topics including law change in the sport, what fans want, and the tensions rugby bosses are facing to grow the game. Staying on rugby, we discuss head injury management, after a few stories popped up in the world of rugby. In the first, a player was allowed to continue playing by the team doctor, but the referee stepped in to have the player removed with a concussion. In the second, a player admitted to 'cheating' the Head Injury Assessment screen back in 2017 to keep playing with a concussion. We discuss whether Rugby's policies to manage head injuries are working?Shifting gears, we return to the snow of Milan Cortina, as Gareth noticed some interesting discussion about cross-country skiing, and whether 50km was too long because of the challenges it creates for athletes who run out of fuel. We talk about "hitting the wall", and the truth about how our bodies use carbohydrates versus fat during endurance exercise.Then we talk doping. First, the UCI have asked its Testing Agency to catch a big name doper, with a feeling that the absence of positive tests isn't necessarily indicative of a clean sport, and their desire to catch a higher level rider apparently reflecting that realization. Staying on doping, Tara Moore is suing the WTA for $20 million after a series of bans, appeals and eventual bans for doping that she believes was inadvertently caused by meat contamination.Our final doping conversation comes from Athletics, where a Member asks whether the records should be reset when they are suspected of being the result of doping. This would particularly affect the Women's record books. We discuss that, offering some insights into how they might justify the removal of some, but not all records, and whether it can feasibly be done.And finally, there was drama in the USA last weekend, where race leaders followed the lead car off course, and eventually lost podium spots and prize money. Calls to award those athletes the prize money and places at the World Champs have been growing in volume, and we discuss why the logical solution is not all that tricky, despite the letter of the law standing in the way.LinksAnthony Watson admits to cheating the Concussion protocols to continue playingI mentioned the World Rugby Player Welfare Symposium, it's next week (9 to 11 Mach), it's online and it's free to everyone. Here are the details and programmeSexias power analysis - these guys generally get it pretty closeCycling is looking to catch a big name doper, according to the NYTTara Moore's case against the WTAKeely Hodgkinson's interview with The TimesVideo of athletes going the wrong way in Atlanta Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ade Oladipo and Gareth A Davies get stuck into another eventful week outside the ring!Conor Benn, has his first opponent lined up since leaving Matchroom, he will fight former Super Lightweight champ Regis Prograis on the undercard of Fury vs Makhmudov. We hear from Prograis who tells us Benn has only got to where he is in the sport due to his surname.Elsewhere we discuss the growing influence of the Sela and Turki Alalshikh who is staging an event on UK soil with two of the sports biggest stars, and neither Eddie Hearn or Frank Warren is involved.Gareth brings us up to date with the ongoing dispute between Frank Warren and Sela after Warren threatened legal action against themAnd Oleksandr Usyk will be defending his WBC Heavyweight title in Egypt against former kickboxing World Champ Rico Verhoeven Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the criminal justice system, piggly wiggly stuff is considered especially heinous. The dedicated detectives who investigate these vicious felonies are known as Jake and Gareth. These are their stories.Meet Stone for the first time on Ep. 161 - Memaw's Wig & That's the Sauce (with Justin Long) and Ep. 168 - I Feel Barfy & An I Love You Man Situation.Want to call in? Email your question to helpfulpod@gmail.com.PATREON: https://patreon.com/heretohelppodMERCH: heretohelppod.comINSTAGRAM: @HereToHelpPodIf you're enjoying the show, make sure to rate We're Here to Help 5-Stars on Apple Podcasts.Advertise on We're Here to Help via Gumball.fmSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Steff, Gareth and Milo discuss our loss at Fulham, the Champions League draw and Scott Munn getting his excuses inWebsite: https://thegameisaboutglory.co.uk/Bluesky: @thegameisaboutglory.co.uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A draw at Bournemouth and a decent display. A shocking and disgraceful refereeing/VAR performance is an unavoidable topic. So Stephen, Gareth and Jonathan discuss it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on PaddyTalks Golf, powered by ForeGolf Custom, I sit down with Gareth Raflewski, PGA professional, elite short game coach, and one of the sharpest performance minds in Irish golf.From early memories of golf in Omagh to committing fully to the game, Gareth's journey has taken him through competitive golf, elite coaching environments including Augusta and back home to build a performance focused academy centred around one thing: scoring.Known for his deep understanding of the short game, Gareth does not just teach technique. He teaches golfers how to think under pressure.We dive into:⛳ Gareth's earliest memory of golf and the compelling moment that made him go all in.

Hosts Dave and Dharmesh explore how artificial intelligence, later-life lending, and turnkey core platforms are reshaping the future of UK financial services with Gareth Richardson, Finova's CEO. In this week's episode of the Demystify Podcast, Dave and Dharmesh are joined by Gareth Richardson, CEO of Finova, for a wide-ranging and candid conversation about the forces quietly transforming UK core banking, and why AI may have a far bigger impact inside financial institutions than customers realise. Gareth, a former senior leader at Thought Machine and now head of one of the UK's most embedded lending and mortgage technology providers, explains why community banking and building societies face a very different challenge from Tier 1 banks. While global institutions chase configurability and scale, smaller lenders need turnkey infrastructure, effectively a fully outsourced technology engine that allows them to compete without massive internal teams. A central theme of the episode is equity release and later-life lending, a market poised to grow rapidly as demographics shift and homeowners hold significant untapped property wealth. Gareth unpacks why this space has evolved beyond its historical reputation and how smarter underwriting, better data, and modern infrastructure are making it more sophisticated and accessible. The conversation then turns to AI, cutting through the hype. Rather than focusing purely on flashy chatbots, Gareth outlines where AI is already delivering real value: broker research automation, document verification, underwriting acceleration, and operational efficiency. In many cases, AI is removing friction and reducing cost long before it becomes customer-facing. The episode also tackles the bigger question: how far, and how fast, will regulation allow AI to reshape financial decision-making? While generative models are advancing rapidly, explainability, governance, and trust remain critical guardrails in regulated environments. For anyone interested in mortgages, community banking, AI-driven transformation, and what's really changing behind the scenes in UK financial services, this is a conversation not to be missed.

Welcome back to Movie Boi! This podcast will feature discussions on movies, new and old alike, as well as some broader movie topics and conversations.In this episode:I'm joined by Gareth as we draft 6 of our favorite coming-of-age films. If you want to share your thoughts on the movie or send in a mailbag question, contact MovieBoyJack@gmail.com.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

‘Small Prophets' has quietly taken the world by storm. A whimsy, magical and gentle show providing a tonic to modern life. Its creator, Mackenzie Crook, could arguably described in a similar way. Born in Sutton-on-hone a village near Dartford in 1971, his creative brilliance was evident to friends early on but instead of drama school he started work at Pizza Hut. Moving to London in his early twenties he shared a flat where dry rot led to the stairs collapsing. But his luck began to change when he took his stand up comedy routine to Edinburgh. He caught the eye of comedian Bob Mortimer and shortly after was cast as Gareth in ‘The Office' the oddball Territorial Army reservist with one of the worst haircuts on television. Crook went on to star in quirky independent and blockbuster Hollywood films alike, but aged forty he decided he wanted to write his own material and move behind the camera to direct. His first offering was the critically acclaimed series ‘The Detectorists'. So who is the man behind the magic? Production team: Presenter: Becky Milligan Producers: Annabel Deas, Tom Gillett and Katie Solleveld Production Coordinators: Maria Ogundele and Gemma Ashman Sound: Neil Churchill Editor: Justine LangArchive: BBC Television Treasure Trove Productions Blue House Productions Crooksite

Joe, David, Gareth and Dan all meet up in London for the day and of course had to do a bookclub recording - so we add to our original top and bottom tens with four more books we love and hate! Due to recording outside, a nearby crowd can be heard joining in the fun!

In this episode, Gareth Everard, founder of Rockwell Razors and co-creator and former CMO of Lomi ($100M+ in 2 years), explains why revenue growth can be misleading and what serious DTC operators track instead. We unpack Gareth's 4-lever framework for building a profitable eCommerce business, how to calculate allowable CAC before you truly know LTV, and why relying on future LTV assumptions can quietly break your financial model. We also get into his preference for funding via revenue over venture capital, why bundling often beats subscriptions, and the launch mechanics that helped Lomi generate $3M in its first 72 hours on Indiegogo.   Key Takeaways (00:00) Intro (01:27) Crowdfunding Vs. Venture Capital Funding (03:25) Why Revenue Growth Can Kill a DTC Brand (06:45) The Real Math Behind SaaS vs. DTC Valuations (14:18) The 4 Levers of eCommerce (22:54) Why He Won't Build Below 80% Gross Margin (26:23) Difficult Business Models (30:26) Is the Subscription Model the Right Move? (35:40) When Bundles Beat Subscriptions for LTV (39:50) How Lomi Did $3M in 72 Hours (43:48) Using Crowdfunding for Product Feedback (Carefully) (47:04) Contribution Margin Creates Optionality     Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/7NPXMBRuTXE     Let's Connect: Website | Instagram | YouTube | TikTok | Twitter | Facebook

It's TIME!Matty, Gareth and Liam head back to that rarely discussed year on GRAPPL of 1997, with a look at what was going on in February across the FOUR PILLARS OF LIFE.Join them as they chat….TV (The launch of Trouble, Paramount and Channel 5; The Simpsons on BBC and the big 3 soaps).MUSIC (The Top 10 and Feb album launches).SPORT (Lewis/McCall 2; Naseem/Johnson; UFC 12; FA Cup 4th round)FILM (Mars Attacks + some others that nobody cares about)Share your thoughts and memories below!Follow us: Matty @MattyEdwards86 Liam: @LFDOOM Gareth: @GRAPPLGareth Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Coldwired Podcast (Come and say hello facebook.com/ColdwiredMusic). Live every Tuesday 8PM (UK)! www.twitch.tv/coldwired March 2026 Selection. Tracklisting: [00:00] 01. Leandro Murua - Dimension [Hoomidas] [05:05] 02. Pole Folder and CP - Apollo Vibes (FM and Maze 28 Reform) [Bootleg] [10:40] 03. Glenn Morrison, Gai Barone, Jenner (CA) - Obsidian [Stripped Recordings] [15:45] 04. Rodrigo Pochelu, Fefo Carfagna - Heaven's Gate [Hoomidas] [19:33] 05. UnbrokenOne - Wilderness [Selador] [24:55] 06. S.Y.M - Blade Runner [COMET Records] [29:13] 07. Norman H, Ranj Kaler - Whales (Framewerk Remix) [Stripped Recordings] [34:43] 08. Kay-D - Dogma [onedotsixtwo] [40:43] 09. Efreet - Seminal [Creatus Flow] ***Gold Star Track*** [44:41] 10. Deep Dish, Nicole Moudaber, Skunk Anansie - Love Someone Else (Extended Mix) [Factory 93 Records] [50:08] 11. Simon Firth - Continuum [Mirabilis Records] [55:16] 12. Novacode - Broken Soul (Extended Mix) [Pure Progressive] [1:00:13] 13. Long Island Sound - Searching (Live Mix) [Signs of Space] [1:05:30] 14. Grum - Primal (Extended) [Deep State] [1:08:50] 15. Super8 and Tab - Helsinki Scorchin' [Anjunabeats] ***Defrosted from 2006*** [1:11:56] 16. Dan Stone - Utopia (Extended Mix) [Enhanced Progressive] [1:16:24] 17. Marcelo - Bazuka [Cavilar] [1:20:35] 18. Rambal Cochet - Medic Paranoic [Analog Concept]

#540 Anticipation, Hope & Glee. Stevie Sackin joins Gareth & Zog to make our final guesses to the pecking order of the forthcoming F1 season. Plus: what is Sigur Rós recorded an On Speed sting?

Guest Helper Michael Angarano helps Jake and Gareth conceal a caller's inconvenient erection. Then, they hatch a polka surprise.Check out Michael now starring in Devil In Disguise on Peacock.Want to call in? Email your question to helpfulpod@gmail.com.PATREON: https://patreon.com/heretohelppodMERCH: heretohelppod.comINSTAGRAM: @HereToHelpPodIf you're enjoying the show, make sure to rate We're Here to Help 5-Stars on Apple Podcasts.Advertise on We're Here to Help via Gumball.fmSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this conversation, Stephan Livera and Gareth Grobler discuss the innovative features of the Layerz Wallet, focusing on its multi-layered approach to cryptocurrency transactions, the importance of stablecoins for Bitcoin adoption, and the technical challenges of integrating various blockchain technologies. They explore user experience, onboarding strategies, and the future of stablecoins in the context of global markets, while emphasizing the need for a user-centric design that simplifies the process for everyday users.Takeaways:

As mentioned, if you want to be a supporter of the podcast, and enjoy the insight that Gareth and I share with listeners on our world-best sports science forum, you can become a member by clicking this link to make a small monthly donation.Show notesThe Milan Winter Olympics concluded last weekend, and in this wrap show, Gareth and Ross look back at the overachievers, the underachievers, and the big stories from Milan, offering insights on who won, lost and captivated our attention. We crown the King of the Games, the best and worst-performing countries, nominate our best performances across the range of sports, from endurance to figure skating (via "stoke"). We also share our biggest disappointments, reflections on what the Winter Games need most, and give our overall ratings to an excellent, thoroughly enjoyable Games.LinksAn article on the waxing woes of every team apart from Norway'sItalian article on Tommaso Giacomel's cardiac arrhythmia and ablazione cardiaca (google translate do your thing)Some Mikaela Shiffrin interviews - speaking about winning without her influential father and a more upbeat one on the US morning talk show sceneFederica Brignone on her injury and comeback to win Olympic goldGareth said not to watch this, but in case you wish to ignore his advice, here's Kirsty Coventry and Bugs BunnyThe highest paid female athletes in the world - Eileen Gu is 4, but look at the split on vs off Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After days of panic selling and extreme fear, the crypto market has suddenly flipped green.~This episode is sponsored by BTCC~BTCC 10% Deposit Bonus! ➜ https://bit.ly/PBNBTCCGuest: Gareth Soloway Chief Market Strategist of InTheMoneyStocks.comJoin Gareth's Stock & Crypto course using our link! ➜ https://www.verifiedinvestingeducation.com/paulbarron00:00 Intro00:20 Sponsor: BTCC00:50 Gareth: Low is not in01:30 What happens first?03:00 $85K vs $80K04:30 State of the Union05:15 Trump's first year in office06:50 Bloomberg: Jamie Dimon sees dumb things happening09:10 S&P crash catalyst?10:30 S&P analysis13:30 ETH analysis15:20 Tokenization narrative16:15 ETH or SOL right now?17:45 BMNR analysis19:15 SUI analysis20:30 AVAX analysis21:40 XRP analysis23:00 Crypto Summit#crypto #bitcoin #ethereum~Epic Surge Incoming?

Jake and Gareth help a Mormon break into the local Church Ball league. Then, a teacher helps the class clowns control the funny. Plus, a follow-up from Ep 247 "Doormat Drama (with Jenny Slate)."See images from the episode here: https://www.heretohelppod.com/post/episode-264 Want to call in? Email your question to helpfulpod@gmail.com.PATREON: https://patreon.com/heretohelppodMERCH: heretohelppod.comINSTAGRAM: @HereToHelpPodIf you're enjoying the show, make sure to rate We're Here to Help 5-Stars on Apple Podcasts.Advertise on We're Here to Help via Gumball.fmSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Before the gold, before the main event, they were NOTHING...Andy, Gareth & Simon present 41 WWE Nobodies Who SOMEHOW Became World Champion...ENJOY!Follow us on Twitter:@AndyHMurray@GMorgan04@SimonMiller316@WhatCultureWWEFor more awesome content, check out: whatculture.com/wwe Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Gareth and Jake are joined by Karley Sciortino for this extra-sexy episode. First, a daughter wants to buy her mother a vibrator. Then, an American in Germany creates a flirty alter-ego.Want to call in? Email your question to helpfulpod@gmail.com.PATREON: https://patreon.com/heretohelppodMERCH: heretohelppod.comINSTAGRAM: @HereToHelpPodIf you're enjoying the show, make sure to rate We're Here to Help 5-Stars on Apple Podcasts.Advertise on We're Here to Help via Gumball.fmSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Jake and Gareth go spelunking in a suburban basement. Then, they set firm boundaries with a piano teacher.Vote for the theme song: https://weneedtopick.com/themesongSee images from the episode here: https://www.heretohelppod.com/post/episode-261 Want to call in? Email your question to helpfulpod@gmail.com.PATREON: https://patreon.com/heretohelppodMERCH: heretohelppod.comINSTAGRAM: @HereToHelpPodIf you're enjoying the show, make sure to rate We're Here to Help 5-Stars on Apple Podcasts.Advertise on We're Here to Help via Gumball.fmSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.