I Guest-Starred in a New Podcast

On Saturday 31st October, I was asked to be a special guest on a brand new podcast, called “26 minutes with”, which has been created by Respect Mental Health and the amazing Benjamin Seal. It was an honour to be asked to e the first guest for the show and we are going to be taking a bit of a closer look at the podcast in today’s blog!

Hello and Welcome to Sweeney’s Blogs!

Today’s blog is going to be about a podcast that I recorded on Saturday night, called “26 minutes with James Sweeney”. The podcast is the first in a new series created by the Respect Mental Health group where Benjamin Seal, the founder, will be conducting podcasting style interviews, with each episode having a different guest. My episode was largely based on Stuttering, as well as Mental Health in this new COVID-19 world.

Here is the video for anybody that is interested in giving it a watch, I’ll talk some more about it below as well:

The podcast itself is heavily focused around Stuttering, the impact that my Stutter has had on my life, some of the ways that we can recognise and learn to live with a Stutter and more. You may notice that my Stutter is a lot worse in this, compared to what it has been before, but there is good reason for that. My Stutter usually worsens as it gets late into the night, when I have a lot on my mind and when I am nervous.

We had the call for this podcast at Midnight on Saturday see, so at this point I was already incredibly tired, which lead to an increase in the amount of times I stutter throughout. Adding in the extra issues that we faced tech-wise which caused some more stress, the pressure of speaking with a stutter on a podcast, as well as everything else that is going on in the world right now, and there’s no surprise that I stuttered a lot more in this than I normally would.

Managing a Stutter in normal circumstances can be difficult enough as it is you see, and with the COVID-19 pandemic still being at large, it does make trying to maintain good speech fluency that much more difficult, I hope that by watching the episode, you see that even though I did Stutter an awful lot, I still did do the podcast. My Stutter did not stop me from doing it, I wanted to do it so I did, and I am very proud that I did go through and record it.

In addition to the talks about Stuttering, we did also bring up some points surrounding Mental Health, particularly focusing around Mental Health in the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s a topic that I talk about daily in my different jobs and is one that really does cross my mind throughout each and every day, as if we do not continue to break the stigma, who knows what is going to happen to us Mentally post-lockdown.

I did really enjoy filming this podcast episode, and although I don’t think I will be able to watch the episode for a while, as I will be very conscious of my speech, but I hope for all of you who do watch it, that you learn something new and enjoy it. It was a great experience to be a part of and I cannot wait to do another one down the line, even more so for the fact that I will hopefully have greater control over my speech then.

We do also talk a little bit about my grandmother in the podcast, who is the person that I have been the closest to in my life. My grandmother does have very serious Alzheimer’s and is now in a specialist home for it, to ensure that she has the best possible care. We don’t go into too much detail about it but we do talk about the influence that she has had, and will continue to have, on my life.

I hope you do enjoy the podcast if you do decide to give it a listen! Be sure to let me know what you think!

That’s all I want to talk about in today’s blog, thank you all for reading! What do you think of the blog? Do you think you will give the podcast a listen? Is there something that is stopping you from doing what you want to do in life? What inspires you to better yourself? Let me know your answers to the questions above, as well as any thoughts you have about the podcast in the comments below!

Thank you all for reading and I hope you have a great day!