The BEYOND Podcast

Content note: this episode includes discussion of drug addiction, childhood sexual abuse and suicidal thoughts. Support is available:UK: Samaritans 116 123 (free, 24/7), NAPAC 0808 801 0331, FRANK 0300 123 6600US: call or text 988, SAMHSA 1-800-662-4357, RAINN 1-800-656-4673Elsewhere: https://findahelpline.com/Correction (41:00): Canada legalised cannabis in October 2018, not 2015, and Health Canada's survey shows past-year use rose from 22% (2018) to 26% (2024).Neil Woods spent thirteen years undercover for the police, buying heroin and crack to get inside drug gangs in Nottingham, Leicester and elsewhere. His most effective technique was empathy. He joins Aleksandra King, host and producer, on The BEYOND Podcast to describe what it costs to make people trust someone who does not exist.Neil Woods, author of Good Cop, Bad War, explains why he sees problematic heroin use as self medication for childhood trauma, how children came to make more than half of heroin and crack deals, and why he argues the war on drugs makes the harms it targets worse, drawing on Switzerland, the Netherlands, Canada and Sweden. The Neil Woods podcast episode does not spare him: complex PTSD, moral injury, and the man he manipulated who became suicidal because he believed he had found a friend.In this conversation: what the first knock on a dealer’s door is like; why empathy became his sharpest tool and what it took from him; the United Nations figure he cites, that 75 per cent of people who use heroin never develop a problem with it; how children were drawn into county lines; the operation that nearly exposed him.Watch the full episode: Neil Woods on The BEYOND Podcast, on YouTubeGuest: Neil Woods, Good Cop, Bad WarHost: Aleksandra King, host and producer of The BEYOND Podcast and co-author, with Elliott King, of Marketing Wins.The BEYOND Podcast is fearless long-form conversation about power, resilience and the truth behind success, hosted and produced by Aleksandra King. New episodes every two weeks at thebeyondpodcast.com.

Andy Hayler is the first person to have eaten at every three-star Michelin restaurant in the world, and his website carries a hundred reviews of Tokyo restaurants alone. He joins Aleksandra King, host and producer, on The BEYOND Podcast to explain how the Michelin Guide works, what a three-star kitchen has to deliver, and where diners pay too much for food that is not worth it.Founded in 1900 as a handbook for French motorists, the guide uses full-time anonymous inspectors and takes no money from restaurants, which is why chefs trust it above paid review sites. There are roughly 150 three-star restaurants in the world, and Andy Hayler rates Japan as the best country for food, from a Tokyo ramen chef who sleeps on the restaurant floor to tend the stock overnight to a restaurant on the rim of an extinct volcano. The Andy Hayler podcast episode turns at the end to wine and to where AI is starting to show up in restaurants.In this conversation: what one, two and three Michelin stars mean, and what a three-star meal costs; why a one-star restaurant can beat a three-star; the German kitchens he ranks among the best in the world; raw fish, tapeworms and the Parasite Museum in Tokyo; the most common mistake people make when cooking for guests at home.Watch the full episode: Andy Hayler on The BEYOND Podcast, on YouTubeGuest: andyhayler.comHost: Aleksandra King, host and producer of The BEYOND Podcast and co-author, with Elliott King, of Marketing Wins.The BEYOND Podcast is fearless long-form conversation about power, resilience and the truth behind success, hosted and produced by Aleksandra King. New episodes every two weeks at thebeyondpodcast.com.

Sue Stockdale answered a newspaper advertisement that asked whether she was man enough for the ultimate challenge. In 1996 she became the first British woman to ski to the Magnetic North Pole, thirty days and 350 miles across moving ice, and she joins Aleksandra King, host and producer, on The BEYOND Podcast to describe what the cold, the silence and the fear did to her thinking.What she brought back matters more than what she achieved: the next small step as the only plan that survives something impossible, the team mates you want when everyone is a novice and nobody can leave, and the flat truth that reaching the Pole was an anticlimax. A polar explorer, executive coach and author who co-founded Access to Inspiration, Sue Stockdale also crossed the Greenland ice cap and led young people on expeditions in Chile and Antarctica. The Sue Stockdale podcast episode closes on asking for help, and why she now calls that a strength.In this conversation: what thirty days of silence does to your thinking, and how to stop catastrophising; why she calls the Arctic an environment that wants you dead; the next small step rule for a goal that looks impossible; why good team mates beat star performers when survival is shared; how to sit with discomfort when there is nowhere to go.Full episode page: Sue Stockdale on The BEYOND PodcastWatch the video episode: Sue Stockdale on YouTubeGuest: suestockdale.com and Sue Stockdale on LinkedInHost: Aleksandra King, host and producer of The BEYOND Podcast and co-author, with Elliott King, of Marketing Wins.The BEYOND Podcast is fearless long-form conversation about power, resilience and the truth behind success, hosted and produced by Aleksandra King. New episodes every two weeks at thebeyondpodcast.com.

Grant Murrell can tell a great deal about what you are thinking from the direction of your feet. A specialist in hypnotherapy, neuro-linguistic programming and human behaviour, he joins Aleksandra King, host and producer, on The BEYOND Podcast to explain what the signals people cannot easily control reveal about attention, interest and intention.The conversation goes well past body language into why capable people still underperform: how fear can disguise itself as ego, why procrastination is really the tribe protecting you, and why lasting change is about who you are prepared to become rather than the techniques you pick up. Founder of Success Is A Formula, Grant Murrell has studied success since the age of fourteen. The Grant Murrell podcast episode closes on trust, congruence and the lane you choose to drive in.In this conversation: what the feet and hips give away when the face does not; why the calmest person in the room holds the power; how fear can look like ego; what builds trust and what quietly destroys it; why ambitious goals become achievable once they are broken into smaller wins.Full episode page: Grant Murrell on The BEYOND PodcastWatch the video episode: Grant Murrell on YouTubeGuest: successisaformula.com and Grant Murrell on LinkedInHost: Aleksandra King, host and producer of The BEYOND Podcast and co-author, with Elliott King, of Marketing Wins.The BEYOND Podcast is fearless long-form conversation about power, resilience and the truth behind success, hosted and produced by Aleksandra King. New episodes weekly at thebeyondpodcast.com.

Anna Hemmings MBE knows the start line better than most: six world titles as a marathon kayaker, two Olympic Games, and the seconds before the starting gun when everyone has trained hard and everyone has talent. What happens in the mind on race day, she says, is what separates the good from the exceptional. On The BEYOND Podcast she joins Aleksandra King, host and producer, to turn race-day psychology into a repeatable system for leaders, founders and anyone who must stay consistent under pressure.Now a high performance and resilience specialist and the founder of Beyond the Barriers, Anna Hemmings was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome at the peak of her career and told she might never race again; she recovered and won three more world titles. The Anna Hemmings podcast episode ends on the lesson that illness taught her: recovery is a strategy for high performance, not a reward.In this conversation: what goes through Anna Hemmings's head in the seconds before the starting gun; why fear lives in the outcome and how the process takes it away; controlling the controllables, down to the breath you can always control; why visualisation is rehearsal, not manifesting; how to question a limiting belief and rewrite it in an increment you can believe, the reframing behind three world titles won on a sprint finish.Full episode page: Anna Hemmings on The BEYOND PodcastWatch the video episode: Anna Hemmings on YouTubeGuest: annahemmings.com and Beyond the BarriersHost: Aleksandra King, host and producer of The BEYOND Podcast and co-author, with Elliott King, of Marketing Wins.The BEYOND Podcast is fearless long-form conversation about power, resilience and the truth behind success, hosted and produced by Aleksandra King. New episodes weekly at thebeyondpodcast.com.

What lies beneath the cities we walk through every day, and what drives someone to explore the places the rest of us are told to stay out of? Bradley Garrett, the outlaw geographer, urban explorer, photographer and author of Explore Everything, joins Aleksandra King, host and producer, on The BEYOND Podcast for a journey through the world's hidden and off-limits spaces: London's buried rivers, abandoned asylums, the Chernobyl exclusion zone and the top of the Shard.Bradley also opens up about the consequences of pushing boundaries, from being arrested and spending two years on bail to being treated as a security risk, and the philosophy that shaped his unconventional life: weighing risk against reward, following curiosity, and refusing to spend his limited time working on someone else's project. The Bradley Garrett podcast episode closes inside the growing world of doomsday prepping and the vast tunnel systems that quietly make modern life possible.In this conversation: how an archaeologist becomes an outlaw geographer; what actually exists beneath a modern city; the Shard climb, and what happened when the police boarded his plane; how he weighs risk against reward, and when a risk stops being worth it; why people are investing millions in underground survival spaces.Full episode page: thebeyondpodcast.comGuest: bradleygarrett.comAleksandra King, host and producer: aleksandraking.comNothing in this episode is encouragement or instruction to trespass, enter restricted or hazardous locations, evade security, or undertake dangerous or unlawful activities. Always respect local laws, access restrictions and safety guidance. This podcast is for entertainment and general information only; neither The BEYOND Podcast nor its host accepts responsibility for actions taken based on it.

What happens when you come face to face with death and survive? Alex Staniforth, the record-breaking ultra-endurance athlete, adventurer and founder of Mind Over Mountains, joins Aleksandra King, host and producer, on The BEYOND Podcast. Before the age of 20 he survived the two biggest disasters in the history of Mount Everest, and the experiences changed how he thinks about fear, resilience and purpose.The Alex Staniforth podcast episode goes from the 2015 avalanche, moment by moment, to the childhood of epilepsy, bullying and a stammer that sent him to the mountain in the first place, hypothermia on the Bob Graham Round, and the walking charity he now leads to help others restore their mental health in the outdoors.In this conversation: the 2015 avalanche, moment by moment; why a teenager with epilepsy, bullying and a stammer chose Everest; whether Everest has lost its magic; why resilience is the ability to recharge; why the biggest barrier is so often ourselves.Full episode page: thebeyondpodcast.comGuest: alexstaniforth.comAleksandra King, host and producer: aleksandraking.com

Most people spend their lives avoiding discomfort, and former British Army officer Steve Featherstone believes that is exactly why they struggle when life turns difficult. He joins Aleksandra King on The BEYOND Podcast to share the mindset lessons that transformed his life, from deliberately confronting childhood fears to serving in the military and helping leaders develop resilience under pressure.If you have been looking for a Steve Featherstone podcast conversation on mental strength, this one offers practical strategies you can apply immediately, whether you are leading a business, navigating uncertainty or simply working to become mentally stronger.In this conversation:Why comfort quietly weakens resilience.A practical framework for overcoming panic.How fear can become your greatest teacher.Why purpose matters more than motivation.What military leadership teaches about thriving under pressure.Aleksandra King, host and producer.

Before you have said a word, you have already made an impression, and behaviour and financial expert Anthony Flynn has spent years studying why. He joins Aleksandra King on The BEYOND Podcast to explore the psychology behind style, confidence and first impressions, and how the way we present ourselves can open or close doors before we speak.Far from a conversation about fashion, this Anthony Flynn podcast episode examines how clothing influences perception, shapes identity and changes how we carry ourselves, and why dressing with intention can help you show up with greater confidence and purpose.In this conversation:Why first impressions form so quickly.How style influences confidence, behaviour and self-perception.The psychology behind luxury brands, status and identity.Whether success really has a dress code.Why authenticity is more powerful than following trends.Aleksandra King, host and producer.

Investigative journalist Geoff White has interviewed fraudsters and money launderers the world over, and he joins Aleksandra King on The BEYOND Podcast to reveal how hacking has evolved into a sophisticated global industry worth billions. This is a journey inside the hidden world of organised cybercrime, from the gangs behind ransomware to the laundering networks that clean their profits.Drawing on years of investigative reporting for the BBC, Channel 4 and The Sunday Times, Geoff explains how cyber weapons once developed by governments found their way into criminal hands, why ransomware has become one of the world's most lucrative crimes, and how today's cyber criminals operate more like multinational businesses than lone hackers. If you want a Geoff White podcast conversation that goes past the headlines into the economics, psychology and infrastructure of cybercrime, this is it.In this conversation:How cybercrime became a billion-dollar global industry.The rise of organised cyber criminal networks.Ransomware and the mechanics of digital extortion.Government cyber tools now in criminal hands.Practical lessons for protecting yourself online.Full episode page: https://www.thebeyondpodcast.com/cybercrime-nothing-is-missing-everything-is-compromised/Aleksandra King, host and producer.