The Brave Man Project with Hamish Niven

Hamish Niven

This is not a podcast about fixing yourself. You are not broken machinery. The Brave Man Project is for the man who is brilliant at his job and dead behind the eyes - the one everyone swears is fine. Raw, unedited conversations with men who wore the mask so long they forgot their own face, and men who took it off and found the world in Technicolour. No formulas. No five-step plans. No burnout experts. Just the truth about what falling cost them, and what it actually took to build something real. The show moves through two lenses. The Mirror reflects the lie you've been telling yourself: "I'm alright, mate." Men who were Captain of the Universe, who loaded bricks onto their backs until the weight turned lethal - the heart attack at thirty-seven, the iron mask worn through a marriage, the three drinks needed to sleep. Then they fell. And they chose to look. Their story is your story, a few years back. And they got out. The Window expands the view. Men who woke up and saw in colour - not because their circumstances changed, but because they did. They don't reflect your collapse. They prove you were never broken to begin with. The Mirror asks, "is this you?" The Window asks, "could this also be you?" Your host, Hamish Niven, spent twenty-five years filming other people's lives while avoiding his own. Professional, reliable, the man who always showed up - all of it a performance. When addiction brought him down, he didn't find recovery. He found the man buried alive under his own competence. He holds the space here the way he wishes someone had held it for him: no judgement, no advice, no applause. This is for the man tired of the noise and the b******t. The man exhausted from carrying a mask. Whether the universe is currently kicking you into the foetal position, or you're simply sick of the black-and-white grind. The performance is over. The real work starts now.

  1. Episode 1

    John - "I'm all right mate." The lie every man has told

    John Milham, host of Kintsugi Heroes, had the successful life, the family, the script — until his wife's cancer diagnosis tore it up. What followed was grief, single fatherhood, parenting after loss, and the slow discovery that "I'm alright, mate" was the most expensive lie he'd ever told. "Life is simple — love, connection, stories, and a little silliness" "Does anyone even want to hear my story?" "The world doesn't have a lot of resources for men who are left on their own" John grew up in an Australian culture where men didn't do feelings. In this raw first episode, he shares what losing the life he'd built taught him about vulnerability, community, and why "I'm alright, mate" nearly cost him everything. What we explore: The moment of crisis: a cancer diagnosis, grief, and confronting mortalityHow masculine conditioning shuts down men's emotional expression — and what it costsVulnerability as the doorway to healing, not a weakness to hideThe power of community, elders and authentic conversation in recoveryMaslow's pyramid, self-actualisation and the simplicity of a life built on love, connection and a little silliness Connect with John: Website: kintsugiheroes.com.au Instagram: @kintsugi.heroes LinkedIn: Kintsugi Heroes YouTube: Kintsugi Heroes Facebook: facebook.com/kintsugiheroes A little about HamishI spent 25 years building a life that looked successful from the outside, but within, it was the opposite. Everything was falling apart, and I was throwing fuel on that fire. The joy of life had fallen away. Late November 2018, I had to make a choice: live or die. I chose to live, and everything changed. I had to confront the pain I was carrying, look at the stories, and change. I built The Brave Man Project because there was nothing like this when I needed it. Podcast website https://thebravemanproject.com/ Hamish's website https://hamishniven.com/ YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@TheBraveManProject LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/hamishniven/ TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@hamish.niven Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hamishniven/ Personal Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hamishniven

  2. Episode 2

    Joe - I woke up as a ticking clock, not as a ticking bomb

    I woke up as a ticking clock, not a ticking bomb Joe Henderson — former Brisbane police officer, survivor of a heart attack at 37, and a man living with a mechanical heart valve — was on the phone with his best mate Dan when the line went dead. Dan was killed on his police bike while they were still connected. "I couldn't even say I'm sorry for my behaviour." "I'm a ticking time bomb, pretty much." Joe Henderson lives with a mechanical heart valve — every beat an audible reminder of the surgeries that saved him. Add a heart attack at 37, the loss of his best mate, PTSD from police work, and 15 years as a single dad, and you have a man with every reason to break. Instead, he faced the mirror — literally — and changed. What we explore: Rebuilding life after multiple heart surgeries and a stress-driven heart attack at 37The weight of grief — losing his best mate — and what it did to his mental health and familyThe mirror exercise: brutal daily self-honesty as the engine of changeTalking to your children about mental health, and why honesty beats pretendingBreaking the cycle of toxic masculinity and what fathers model for the next generation Connect with Joe: Website: joe-betterdad.com LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/leaddontblame Facebook: facebook.com/leaddontblame Instagram: @leaddontblame A little about HamishI spent 25 years building a life that looked successful from the outside, but within, it was the opposite. Everything was falling apart, and I was throwing fuel on that fire. The joy of life had fallen away. Late November 2018, I had to make a choice: live or die. I chose to live, and everything changed. I had to confront the pain I was carrying, look at the stories, and change. I built The Brave Man Project because there was nothing like this when I needed it. Podcast website https://thebravemanproject.com/ Hamish's website https://hamishniven.com/ YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@TheBraveManProject LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/hamishniven/ TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@hamish.niven Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hamishniven/ Personal Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hamishniven

  3. Episode 3

    Al - He laughed so loud the nurses came to check, he just lost his leg

    Al Richards woke up with one leg missing. And yet his room was the one full of laughter. New staff were warned about laughter in a room - if you hear a room having a good time, that's Al's. What made it remarkable was everything he was laughing in the middle of. "There's nothing we can do. Your foot will continue to die." "I'm done. I'm having him take it. The pain I'll go through is going to be healing pain." Al is a podcaster, speaker, co-founder of the Healing Utah Success Summit and a newly certified crisis and recovery coach. In 2025, a plaque blockage cut off the blood supply to his right foot until it began to die beneath him. He chose amputation over a dying limb. Barely out of hospital, four weeks later, addiction took his wife. This episode is about surgical choice, grief, and what it takes to turn towards the storm like the bison instead of running from it. What we explore: The two-hour ultimatum — choosing amputation over a foot that was dying underneath himWhy ego is a man's worst enemy: not crying, not asking for help, not seeing the doctorThe "message in the mirror" — Al's morning routine of gratitude and self-loveLosing his wife four weeks after losing his leg, and refusing to let grief become identityVessels, not victims — the Drama Triangle, paying it forward to new amputees, and walking towards the storm like the bison Connect with Al: Podcast: The Other Side of Addiction (Apple) YouTube: The Other Side of Addiction Instagram: @mralrichards TikTok: @alrichards780 LinkedIn: Al Richards Facebook: Al Richards A little about HamishI spent 25 years building a life that looked successful from the outside, but within, it was the opposite. Everything was falling apart, and I was throwing fuel on that fire. The joy of life had fallen away. Late November 2018, I had to make a choice: live or die. I chose to live, and everything changed. I had to confront the pain I was carrying, look at the stories, and change. I built The Brave Man Project because there was nothing like this when I needed it. Podcast website: thebravemanproject.com Hamish's website: hamishniven.com YouTube: The Brave Man Project LinkedIn: Hamish Niven TikTok: @hamish.niven Instagram: @hamishniven Personal Facebook: Hamish Niven

  4. Episode 4

    Tim - And Everything Goes From Black and White to Colour

    Tim Freke — philosopher, spiritual pioneer, and international bestselling author of 35 books — describes the single 'Technicolour' moment that launched a lifetime of inquiry. In this conversation, he frames bravery as the courage to follow your highest calling, shows how spiritual awakening is the shift from black-and-white to colour, and reveals why reflection and conscious choice open the door to a life that feels vividly alive. "Life is mind-blowingly amazing." "The universe is a process made of the past." What we explore: Wisdom as the courage to do what's right — and how reflection builds it over a lifetimeSpiritual awakening as seeing in colour, and simple practices for switching it back onThe evolution of consciousness, and Tim's idea of a super-soul and collective intelligenceChoice and agency: taming the instinctual self and creating your own journeySoul-to-soul connection as the most radical act a man can offer in a world trained in distraction. Connect with Tim: Podbook & Podcast: youtube.com/timfreke Website & Events: timfreke.com Substack: timfreke.substack.com Instagram: @timfreke Facebook: facebook.com/TimFreke X: @timfreke A little about HamishI spent 25 years building a life that looked successful from the outside, but within, it was the opposite. Everything was falling apart, and I was throwing fuel on that fire. The joy of life had fallen away. Late November 2018, I had to make a choice: live or die. I chose to live, and everything changed. I had to confront the pain I was carrying, look at the stories, and change. I built The Brave Man Project because there was nothing like this when I needed it. Podcast website https://thebravemanproject.com/ Hamish's website https://hamishniven.com/ YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@TheBraveManProject LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/hamishniven/ TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@hamish.niven Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hamishniven/ Personal Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hamishniven

  5. Episode 5

    Four Suicide Attempts and the Avocado That Saved Him

    Four suicide attempts. A father with schizophrenia. And the avocado that saved his life. "Stop carrying masks — be comfortable with being naked." "The only way to get rid of the chatter is to listen to it." Gareth Stubbs grew up around suicide and mental illness before he had words for either. By eighteen he'd made his first attempt. Two more followed. Today he lives in southern Spain, running retreats and teaching what he calls the Avocado Philosophy — a blunt, often funny look at what's really underneath the mask. What we explore: Growing up around schizophrenia and suicide, and what it did and didn't teach him about mental healthThe masks we wear to survive trauma, and why dropping them feels like being "naked"Humour as a coping mechanism — and where it stops workingThe Avocado Philosophy: what's actually underneath when you cut yourself openBuilding a new life and a retreat business in Spain after three suicide attempts Connect with Gareth: Facebook Community – Our Space to Talk: facebook.com/groups/ourspacetotalk Instagram: @theavocadophilosophy Personal Facebook: facebook.com/gareth.stubbs2 Website: theavocadophilosophy.com A little about HamishI spent 25 years building a life that looked successful from the outside, but within, it was the opposite. Everything was falling apart, and I was throwing fuel on that fire. The joy of life had fallen away. Late November 2018. I had to make a choice: live or die. I chose to live, and everything changed. I had to confront the pain I was carrying, look at the stories, and change. I built The Brave Man Project because there was nothing like this when I needed it. Podcast website: thebravemanproject.com Hamish's website: hamishniven.com YouTube: @TheBraveManProject LinkedIn: hamishniven TikTok: @hamish.niven Instagram: @hamishniven Facebook: facebook.com/hamishniven

  6. Episode 6

    Kasper - Do you know any stories about Ugly Princesses?

    Do you know any fairy tales about ugly princesses?A 14-year-old girl in the burns unit, scarred for life, asks Kasper for a story about an ugly princess. He didn't know one. So he made one up on the spot — and kept going back for sixteen years. "Stories convey more than numbers.""Speak your truth, keep it real." Kasper Sørensen is a Danish storyteller who works in hospitals, sitting with children who are seriously ill and sometimes dying. He started at eighteen, scared of thirty kids in a kindergarten, and found that a story was the only thing that worked. What began there became a vocation built on truth, presence and the willingness to stay in the room. What we explore: What storytelling actually does in a hospital ward — and why it isn't a distraction from the hard stuffThe girl in the burns unit, and answering a 15-year-old's question about what comes after deathWhy truth is non-negotiable: kids know instantly when you're performingWhat children facing death say about how to live — and how consistently they say the same thingHolding it together and letting it go: what Kasper does after an afternoon in intensive care Connect with Kasper: A little about HamishI spent 25 years building a life that looked successful from the outside, but within, it was the opposite. Everything was falling apart, and I was throwing fuel on that fire. The joy of life had fallen away. Late November 2018, I had to make a choice: live or die. I chose to live, and everything changed. I had to confront the pain I was carrying, look at the stories, and change. I built The Brave Man Project because there was nothing like this when I needed it. Podcast website https://thebravemanproject.com/ Hamish's website https://hamishniven.com/ YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@TheBraveManProject LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/hamishniven/ TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@hamish.niven Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hamishniven/ Personal Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hamishniven SEO Title: Kasper Sørensen on Hospital Storytelling, Truth and Dying Children | The Brave Man Project SEO Description: Danish storyteller Kasper Sørensen on 16 years telling stories to seriously ill children, and what they taught him about living.

  7. Episode 7

    Matt - Six Years Sober and Still Not Settling for Average

    Matt Evans — Six Years Sober and Still Not Settling for Average There's a photograph of Matt taken a few weeks before his arrest. He's in the kitchen with his kids. He is smiling. You can see it is half-arsed. 6 years later, he has built a life the old him could not have imagined, and he still refuses to call it finished. Sound Bites "I was literally in the shadow of myself going, I should be more.""It's soul-destroying, mate. It's Jekyll and Hyde in your own brain.""I don't want to ever settle for average, and I don't want her to settle for average.""Sometimes burning stuff to the ground and rebuilding it can be the most perfect option." Matt Evans spent years being the man everyone came to when something needed fixing. Life and soul of the party. Always happy. When it all came apart, the guys who worked for him said the same thing — we would never have known. Six years sober now, and the difference is not that he stopped drinking. It is that he stopped performing. This conversation is about what comes after. Rebuilding trust with a wife who had heard the promises before. Writing down who you are on purpose, because the old story was written for you. And refusing, point blank, to settle for an average marriage, an average life, an average anything. What We Explore Why white-knuckling isn't sobriety, and what "eyes wide open" actually costsCognitive dissonance; screaming inside while telling the world you're fineRebuilding trust when your word already has a track record, and why "just because I said it" changed nothingIdentity as a conscious choice — declarations, not affirmations, and clearing the old judgement firstGrowing up with no masculine role model, and what his daughter absorbed about who pays the billBurning down a charity event five months out and rebuilding it from nothing Mentioned in This Episode The Ultimate Coach — the book about Steve Hardison that Matt credits with shifting his life more than getting sober did.Les Brown — the quote Matt leaned on in early sobriety "Find someone to believe in you when you find it hard to believe in yourself" Connect with Matt Matt's coaching lives on LinkedIn. Facebook and Instagram are just his life, as he put it, "they're not like my coaching world, they're just me." Linktree: linktr.ee/mattevansdfc LinkedIn: mattevansdfc Facebook: matt.evans.3517563 Instagram: @matt_lovin_life Website: differentfocus.co.uk A little about Hamish Niven For 25 years, I lived a life that looked successful from the outside. Inside it was falling apart, and I was throwing fuel on the fire — addiction, alcohol. I was on a steep path to self-destruct. November 2018. I chose life, and had to change everything. I built The 13th Room because nothing like that existed when I needed it. The Brave Man Project — this podcast. It is about men, but not just for men. Men who broke under the weight of their own performance. Men who rebuilt and climbed so much higher. The 13th Room is a space for the successful man who needs to change and knows it. 13 sessions, you and me. No fixing. Pure witnessing. Starts with a free 20-minute conversation. Podcast website: thebravemanproject.com Hamish's website: hamishniven.com YouTube: @TheBraveManProject LinkedIn: hamishniven TikTok: @hamish.niven Instagram: @hamishniven Facebook: facebook.com/hamishniven

  8. Episode 8

    Pasco – I Went to Mexico to Expose Corruption and Came Back to Fix Myself

    Pasco – I Went to Mexico to Expose Corruption and Came Back to Fix Myself Pasco sold everything, flew to Central America with a backpack full of camera kit, and set out to break a corruption story that would make his name. Somewhere in Mexico, he realised the story was about him — and that shaming people changes nothing. Sound Bites "I was reliant on weed to relax me. I was reliant on it to go to sleep. I was reliant on it to come down off an energetic day.""the more I do this work of practicing self-reflection and witnessing others, I realised the more it is all about the stories we tell ourselves, our identity, who we are is made up of these stories""the sustainable change is the slow one, it's the hard graft, it's the individual, it's never gonna be these big, big changes""In fact, I've not been in a Men's Circle where a man has decided not to share." Pasco Ashton 6 men on Hackney Downs, sitting on the grass through the summer of 2020 because it was the only place they were allowed to meet. Pasco had been to one men's circle, liked what it did for him, and asked his mates if they were up for it. They said yes. 4 ½ years later, there are now 55 trained facilitators, running Circles across Europe, 1 Circle in the USA and 1 on the way in Asia. Ashton got there the long way around; ecology, photography, Al Jazeera, chasing a career of service he couldn't quite name. 2 close friends took their own lives. He was smoking weed every day to get to sleep. And the big-systems change he'd spent his twenties mapping turned out, in the end, to run through one man at a time. What We Explore Losing two friends to suicide, and the internal loneliness of being a man with no one to talk to.The "cheeky" joint, the "social" cigarette — the small words we use to shrink our own behaviourWhy macro-scale greed and power struggles are just someone's internal fear, scaled upWhat actually makes a room psychologically safe, and why "safe space" has stopped meaning anythingRejecting money for four years, then realising it's the water of the system and just needs to flow Mentioned in This Episode No More Mr. Nice Guy — the classic men's workbook where a lot of men first find the words "Men's Circle"Vice and Al Jazeera — where he worked as a journalist before walking away from that pathMexico — the assignment where he realised blaming and shaming doesn't create sustainable changeHis Dads' Club in Sheffield. Where 350 local dads joined, inside a year Connect with Pasco Free trial: four circles, no cost, no obligation — and the circles are the core of it. Members also get the two annual UK hikes and ad hoc London events. Pasco's note on finding them: just search "Men's Circle" and they're there. Website: https://menscircle.club/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/menscircle.club/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@menscircle_club TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@menscircle.club LinkedIn – Pasco: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pasco/ LinkedIn – Men's Circle: https://www.linkedin.com/company/menscircle/ A little about Hamish NivenFor 25 years, I lived a life that looked successful from the outside. Inside it was falling apart, and I was throwing fuel on the fire — addiction, alcohol. I was on a steep path to self-destruct. November 2018. I chose life, and had to change everything. I built The 13th Room because nothing like that existed when I needed it. The Brave Man Project — this podcast. It is about men, but not just for men. Men who broke under the weight of their own performance. Men who rebuilt and climbed so much higher. The 13th Room is a space for the successful man who needs to change and knows it. 13 sessions, you and me. No fixing. Pure witnessing. Starts with a free 20-minute conversation. Podcast website: https://thebravemanproject.com Hamish's website: https://hamishniven.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheBraveManProject LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hamishniven/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@hamish.niven Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hamishniven/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hamishniven

  9. Episode 9

    Hubert - Only Zero or One There's No In-Between in an Autistic Brain

    They call it high-functioning. It just means you can't see the cost. He's had some days when he couldn't speak at all, and his mother sat beside him reading Nietzsche aloud until something switched back on. This is a conversation about what it costs to look like you are coping. Sound Bites "There is a physical sensation of discomfort when I lie. I feel physically sick.""What a high functioning autist is, is someone who's just as autistic as every other autist, but someone who can hide it more for the benefit of neurotypical people.""We can pay the ultimate price for fitting in apparently so well, when actually inside we're feeling absolutely out of sync with the rest of society.""It's like a computer that's overheating, the mouse thing starts to jump from place to place, and suddenly it's not moving at all. That's autism for you.""Veracity is the need for truth, order, and things making sense.""We're not a mistake. We're meant to be here. We're doing our job." Hubert found out he was autistic at forty-two. He calls his lot the lost generation — men who got through school, work and relationships playing a game nobody gave them the rules to. He has been a European Parliament intern, an award-winning entrepreneur and a van man. He has also spent days unable to speak, his mother sitting beside him reading Nietzsche aloud until something switched back on. This is a conversation about what it costs to look like you are coping. What We Explore Why a white lie causes physical pain, and what that does to small talk, work and friendship"High functioning" — what the label hides, and who it is actually forThe bridge between neurotypical and neurodivergent minds, and why Hubert thinks everything ahead of us gets built on it Mentioned in This Episode Quinn, and the Autistamatic YouTube channel — where Hubert takes the idea of veracity, which he uses to hold truth, order and physical discomfort in one wordNikki Stevenson, writing in The Guardian in 2015 — called prejudice against neurodiverse people the last great prejudiceNikola Tesla — died penniless, and is Hubert's example of what a society wastes when it will not accommodate the people it depends onStar Trek — the version of a future human he was drawn to as a child and still isElon Musk'sremark that nobody who spent an hour in his head would want anything he has Connect with Hubert Hubert is not on social media. He can be contacted through me via this email address: hamish@thebravemanproject.com The autism education channels Hubert recommends: Autistamatic: https://www.youtube.com/@AutistamaticAutistic AF: https://www.youtube.com/@Autistic_AFThat Autistic Guy: https://www.youtube.com/@orionkelly A little about Hamish Niven For 25 years, I lived a life that looked successful from the outside. Inside it was falling apart, and I was throwing fuel on the fire — addiction, alcohol. I was on a steep path to self-destruct. November 2018. I chose life, and had to change everything. I built The 13th Room because nothing like that existed when I needed it. The Brave Man Project - this podcast. It is about men, but not just for men. Men who broke under the weight of their own performance. Men who rebuilt and climbed so much higher. The 13th Room is a space for the successful man who needs to change and knows it. 13 sessions, you and me. No fixing. Pure witnessing. Starts with a free 20-minute conversation. Podcast website: https://thebravemanproject.com Hamish's website: https://hamishniven.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheBraveManProject LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hamishniven/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@hamish.niven Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hamishniven/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hamishniven

  10. Episode 10

    Ivan - Every Angry Man I Turned Away Made Me A Wiser One

    Half three in the morning, fifteen years into working nightclub doors, Ivan stopped saying "members only" and told an angry man the truth instead. He says it landed like a punch in the face — and the bloke came back a fortnight later and shook his hand. Sound Bites "Tough guys don't like to be bullshitted to.""Because they respected that I was upfront, I was honest, and I told them the truth about why I'm not letting them in.""When you explain to them the reasons why before they ask, you'll get much further with people.""If you're not willing to face anyone, you're no good to me.""I therapise in class.""I'm just helping you open doors within your own mind to explore places that you might not have looked.""We've got a pharmacy of emotions and feelings.""You're enough, but you've just forgotten it." Ivan Rakitic was eighteen and working backstage when Billy Joel drove through the gate and waved at him. That settled it — thirty-six years in security followed, fifteen of them on nightclub doors. One morning after a bad shift, he sat down and asked himself why he turned men away at all, then rewrote what he said to every one of them. What the door taught him — that no man does what he is told until he is told why — is what he works with now as a therapist, and on the mats teaching Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. What We Explore Why "members only" starts a fight and "mate, you look like you're angry" ends oneWhat fifteen years of reading angry men at 3am gave him that no training course couldTherapising in the dojo — an eighth-degree black belt who will not teach you to hurt anyone Mentioned in This Episode Billy Joel — Ivan was eighteen, backstage, when Joel drove through the gate and waved at him. That was the moment security work won him over. Cus D'Amato and the book about Mike Tyson's life, written with the men who trained him, told Ivan that D'Amato took his fighters to a hypnotherapist. That single detail set him off down the path that became his second career. Dr Bob Johnson — UK psychiatrist who worked at Parkhurst prison with men who had done serious harm. Now 89 and retired, he and Ivan still speak every month. Sugar Ray Robinson — nicknamed Sugar because he was so sweet. Ivan points people to the documentary Pound for Pound. Connect with Ivan Rakitic Free strategy call with Ivan: https://calendly.com/ivanrakitic2069/free_strategy_call_with_ivan_rakitic Website: https://ivanrakitictherapy.com.au/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ivanrakitictherapy/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ivan.rakitic.802297 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ivan_rakitic_mens_therap A little about Hamish Niven For 25 years, I lived a life that looked successful from the outside. Inside it was falling apart, and I was throwing fuel on the fire — addiction, alcohol. I was on a steep path to self-destruct. November 2018. I chose life, and had to change everything. I built The 13th Room because nothing like that existed when I needed it. The Brave Man Project - this podcast. It is about men, but not just for men. Men who broke under the weight of their own performance. Men who rebuilt and climbed so much higher. The 13th Room is a space for the successful man who needs to change and knows it. 13 sessions, you and me. No fixing. Pure witnessing. Starts with a free 20-minute conversation. Podcast website: https://thebravemanproject.com Hamish's website: https://hamishniven.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheBraveManProject LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hamishniven/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@hamish.niven Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hamishniven/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hamishniven

About

This is not a podcast about fixing yourself. You are not broken machinery. The Brave Man Project is for the man who is brilliant at his job and dead behind the eyes - the one everyone swears is fine. Raw, unedited conversations with men who wore the mask so long they forgot their own face, and men who took it off and found the world in Technicolour. No formulas. No five-step plans. No burnout experts. Just the truth about what falling cost them, and what it actually took to build something real. The show moves through two lenses. The Mirror reflects the lie you've been telling yourself: "I'm alright, mate." Men who were Captain of the Universe, who loaded bricks onto their backs until the weight turned lethal - the heart attack at thirty-seven, the iron mask worn through a marriage, the three drinks needed to sleep. Then they fell. And they chose to look. Their story is your story, a few years back. And they got out. The Window expands the view. Men who woke up and saw in colour - not because their circumstances changed, but because they did. They don't reflect your collapse. They prove you were never broken to begin with. The Mirror asks, "is this you?" The Window asks, "could this also be you?" Your host, Hamish Niven, spent twenty-five years filming other people's lives while avoiding his own. Professional, reliable, the man who always showed up - all of it a performance. When addiction brought him down, he didn't find recovery. He found the man buried alive under his own competence. He holds the space here the way he wishes someone had held it for him: no judgement, no advice, no applause. This is for the man tired of the noise and the b******t. The man exhausted from carrying a mask. Whether the universe is currently kicking you into the foetal position, or you're simply sick of the black-and-white grind. The performance is over. The real work starts now.