Episodes
Heartbreak is a universal feeling, but everyone copes with it differently. Presenter, actor and singer Denise Van Outen tends to throw herself into work, keeping busy with exciting professional opportunities, to distract from any pain.In this chat with Fearne, Denise talks about how she’s learnt to accept being alone after heartbreak and acknowledge the stillness without constantly trying to fill the void. Close friends Fearne and Denise also share their experiences of raising blended families, and chat about how much of your heartbreak – or any other pain – you should share with your kids....
We can all feel paralysed by the guilt that we might not be doing enough to combat climate change, but actor, director, and environmental activist Bonnie Wright feels we should celebrate imperfect and in-process actions. A little can go a long way.In this chat with Fearne, Bonnie explains why it might be helpful to stop thinking about how we can make ourselves and our impact on the planet smaller, and instead think about how to make our positive impact even bigger. They also talk about how to find the best place to start making that impact in your own life, by concentrating on an area you’r...
Fearne is a Goodwill Ambassador for Mental Health and Wellbeing for The Prince’s Trust, a brilliant charity that helps people who have faced disadvantage and adversity to get their lives on track, supporting them into education, training, and jobs.In this special episode, Fearne chats to Emma-May about the role The Prince’s Trust has played in helping her grow in confidence, both practically and emotionally. Emma-May has been a carer for her parents since she was eleven-years-old, and struggled with her mental health after many years of personal challenges at school that left her with sever...
Who gets to decide who and what you are? Amanda de Cadenet quit the fame she’d found on British TV after being hounded by the press. She was seen through the eyes of others – journalists, photographers, and viewers – so she chose to reclaim her image by becoming a photographer herself, and reclaimed her voice by starting her own chat shows.In this chat with Fearne, Amanda talks about speaking up when you can’t hear the conversations you and others like you need in order to feel understood and supported. They also explore how ego can get in the way of allowing ourselves to learn and grow.Ama...
What do you feel the meaning of life is? Purpose? Happiness? Does it matter if we’re not sure? In this chat, Fearne and actor Minnie Driver explore how it might gently fluctuate as we go through different stages of our lives.Minnie also talks about her innate ability to articulate emotion, something that was often agony during her childhood, but has now allowed her to parent her own son in a deeply empathetic way.Minnie’s memoir(ish) is out now; it’s called Managing Expectations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Rugby player Jonny Wilkinson was once driven by a quest for perfection, and an obsession with becoming the best player in the world. Now though, he’s learning to be content with who he is in the present.In this chat, Jonny and Fearne explore the idea that sometimes our own imagination is what’s limiting our idea of success before we’ve even begun, and they wonder if our understanding of ‘ambition’ needs to be reframed to be more inclusive of the journey, not just the final outcome.Listen to Jonny’s podcast, ‘I Am’, wherever you’re listening to this right now. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/...
It’s been thirty years since brothers Isaac, Taylor, and Zac Hanson started making music together, but despite growing up under the spotlight they’ve retained an incredibly strong sense of self. In this chat with Fearne, they talk about the role their parents and faith played in helping them stay grounded in a turbulent world.They also give an insight into the unique role each of them plays in the band, and share their thoughts on social media and the way it drives us to feel we have to have opinions on things we might not be qualified to comment on.Hanson’s latest album, ‘Red Green Blue’ i...
We’ve been encouraged to suppress our intuition, to look to others for answers instead of trusting that we already have the answers within ourselves. Spiritual guide and teacher Giselle La Pompe Moore is determined to help us return to our authentic selves.In this chat, Fearne and Giselle share their belief that spirituality isn’t an elite club that centres around buying stuff. Physical items like crystals, sage, or tarot cards can be a wonderful addition if you ascribe meaning to them, but fundamentally being spiritual is about using your own mental power to find joy, bliss, and peace in e...
You might feel aware that the internet makes you feel strangely disconnected from others, but writer and podcaster Emma Gannon feels it makes us disconnect from ourselves too. In this chat, Emma and Fearne dissect cancel culture and why we’ve got to allow each other the space to learn and grow, as well as why our offline activity should take precedence, because actions speak louder than token words on a screen.They also talk about how the biggest crime now seems to be not having an opinion. Fearne and Emma believe it’s ok not to know, or have an opinion on, absolutely everything. In fact, t...
If you’re a high achiever, do you ever wonder if you sometimes use success to mask pain? Performer Will Young recognises this is something he did for many years. Now though, he’s discovered the importance of actively connecting to others and physically moving trauma out of his body when he finds himself in a low place.In this chat with Fearne he explains how he spent much of his career comparing himself to others in a way that was crippling for his mental health, and they both explore why they struggle to deal with rejection.Will’s podcast, The Wellbeing Lab, is out now and Will’s new book ...
Does being happy make us healthier, not only mentally, but physically too? Dr Rangan Chatterjee explains the very real effect chronic mental stress can have on our bodies. 80% of ailments he sees as a GP are due to our collective modern lifestyle – that’s not to shame anyone, it’s to help us understand the lifestyle changes we can all make to alleviate both mental and physical symptoms. In this chat, he and Fearne talk about why core happiness isn’t the billboard image of a smiling family on the beach, and why the truth often doesn’t matter when it comes to our happiness, it’s about the sto...
Actor Ruth Wilson feels she can’t help but bring the essence of herself to all the characters she plays. She’s learnt that in both her professional and personal life the most rewarding moments come from being the most authentic version of herself.In this chat with Fearne, Ruth wonders whether embodying so many different characters has helped her be less judgemental of other people and herself in real life, and they both explore how we can learn more about ourselves through our relationships with others.True Things is out in UK cinemas on April 1st. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for...
Why can it feel more difficult to talk about mental health with the people you’re related to? In this Mother’s Day special of Happy Place, Fearne and her mum Lin explore their shared ancestry, wondering how much of who they are and what they feel is down to nature, and how much is nurture.In this chat, Fearne hears about her maternal grandmother, who she’s always known suffered mentally, but has only recently learnt more of the details from her own mum. They also touch on how Lin inspired Fearne’s connection to spirituality and the idea that there’s something bigger at play in the universe....
Death is often viewed as something dark and muted, but after the death of her beloved sister, author Clover Stroud began to see the world in vivid colour. In this chat Fearne and Clover explore how death can teach us that it’s the tiny moments in life that truly matter; it’s the in jokes and funny glances that we remember about people. That realisation should be liberating for us in the here and now: we can slow down, stop seeking grand success, and focus on the little things.They also talk about their take on signs after someone’s died. Can they be mentally and emotionally helpful even if ...
At 18 years old, Sophie Morgan was in a car crash, and was instantly paralysed from the chest down. Eighteen years on, she is now one of the only TV presenter’s in the world with a physical disability. She’s also an artist and an award-winning disability advocate. Sophie speaks passionately about how adversity influences her life to be filled with more gratitude.In this chat with Fearne, Sophie talks about how, after her injury, she felt as paralysed by fear as she was by her physical body, but as she adapted to her body, and the inaccessible world around her, she found ways to embrace her ...
Are you an introvert or an extrovert? Actress Tuppence Middleton is very clear that as an introvert, she is overwhelmed by being around other people and needs time alone to recharge. In this chat with Fearne, Tuppence discusses her OCD. Mental counting, checking lights, and checking taps are all current manifestations of it, but she acknowledges that her panic has taken different forms across different periods of her life. They also explore the themes touched upon in her new ITV show Our House, such as the practical aftermath of a relationship breakdown, particularly when there are shared h...
Do you ever stop and ask what’s driving your behavioural patterns? New York Times bestselling author and self-confessed spiritual junkie Gabby Bernstein has spent the last few years thinking about how traumas from her past were manifesting in the present as workaholism, drug abuse, and alcoholism. In this chat with Fearne, Gabby talks through how we use things like work, substances, or even spirituality to numb parts of ourselves that we don’t want to look at, but that they do serve a purpose in protecting us. She also explains how trauma can lead to us dissociate from, and even erase, memo...
For 17 years Björn Natthiko Lindeblad lived in Thailand’s jungle as a forest monk. He learnt how calm can encourage clarity of thought, that he preferred walking meditation to sitting, and that freedom can come from not being bound to material possessions.At the time of recording, Björn was very ill; he had ALS, a progressive nervous system disease. He knew that he would not be alive when this episode was released. In this chat with Fearne, he talks about how his time as a Buddhist monk helped him make peace with the idea of death.Björn’s book is called I May Be Wrong: And Other Wisdoms fro...
There’s bravery in wanting to connect with people in a truly authentic way. Musician Johnny Marr has found that across his career the songs people resonate with most are his most vulnerable, autobiographical tracks. Outside of music, there are lessons to be learnt there about how we might all best connect with each other.In this chat with Fearne, Johnny explains why it’s more valuable to be an expert than be famous, and why his best creative work often comes in the moments he’s not putting any pressure on himself to write a masterpiece.Johnny’s new double album ‘Fever Dreams Pts 1-4’ is out...
What would you try if you didn’t have to do it perfectly? Best-selling author, and the ‘High Priestess of creativity’ Julia Cameron feels perfectionism is a stalling device. When we deny ourselves the right to attempt something, we in turn deny ourselves pleasure and joy.In this chat with Fearne, Julia explains why jealousy tells you what you really want and care about, and how this can be positively harnessed to shape your future. Plus she talks through non-religious prayer, and how getting in touch with a benevolent higher power – you might call this God, the universe, or something else –...
It’s often the case that fear is running the show. Dr Pippa Grange says it’s not always obvious that you’re afraid – you might be more familiar with the kind of fear you feel in the moment, like taking a driving test or giving a presentation – but it can in fact sneakily manifest as the chronic fear of not being good enough, and of being rejected.In this chat with Fearne, psychologist Pippa explains why you have to fail before you succeed. As the woman who supported the England football team during the 2018 World Cup, she explains when it’s important to set performance based goals, and when...
Do you find fitness and keeping your body healthy fun? Twins Dave and Steve Flynn – perhaps better known as The Happy Pear – love keeping fit in a way that feels like play. They listen to their bodies; they move intuitively. Sometimes that means handstands, sometimes it means yoga, and a lot of the time it means a cold morning swim in the Irish Sea.In this chat with Fearne, Dave and Steve explain why they feel community is the antithesis of loneliness, as all human beings ultimately have the same needs: to be accepted, seen, and loved. Plus, as fellow vegans, the three discuss getting more ...
Audiobook exclusive: Bigger Than Us.Calm anxiety through connection. Find happiness through purpose. Feel comfort in the universal. Think bigger to unlock you.In her new book, Bigger Than Us, Fearne Cotton seeks out the insight and advice of wise minds to explore what they can teach us to achieve happiness, connection and hope. Here, Fearne exclusively shares the introduction and first chapter of the book with Happy Place listeners.Bigger Than Us is available as a hardback, an ebook, and an audiobook from the 20th of January: https://smarturl.it/biggerthanusbookYou can get your audiobook ve...
It’s important to take time to figure out how to trust your own opinions of yourself rather than believing other peoples’ opinions of you. This is something author Freya North has been meditating on recently.In this chat, she and Fearne talk about how many of us are used to functioning at an extremely high level of stress without realising we’re pushing ourselves to breaking point, and Freya explains why she now gives as much attention to her emotional self as her physical self.Freya’s 15th novel, Little Wing, is published on 20th January by Welbeck, and is available in hardback or ebook. H...
You shouldn’t always believe your thoughts. Psychotherapist and meditation teacher Tara Brach feels freedom comes from understanding that you are not your thoughts; they’re real, but they’re not necessarily true. In this chat with Fearne, Tara explains how to challenge what you think your mind is telling you, especially about yourself. Plus, they discuss how gratitude and compassion towards others can alleviate suffering.Trusting the Gold is Tara’s new book, and it’s available now in hardback. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Are you conscious of where the pressures you feel are coming from? Are they external or internal? Diver Tom Daley has been meditating on these different types of pressures recently, so in this chat he and Fearne discuss the power of validating ourselves rather than waiting for others to tell us we’re doing well. Plus, he explains the process he and husband Lance had to go through to adopt as a same sex couple, and how having a son has changed his view on chasing perfection.Tom’s book is called Coming Up For Air, and it’s out now. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In this special episode, Fearne is joined by Jake Humphrey and Damian Hughes from The High Performance Podcast. They all share their favourite moments from Happy Place and High Performance in 2021, and discuss the impact those chats had on them, as well as reflecting on what their guests have taught them this year. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Reflecting on experiences from childhood can help us understand who we are today. Radio 1 presenter Matt Edmondson has been learning music production – an entirely new skill for him – and has been using it to explore feelings about his past.In this chat with Fearne, he opens up about being diagnosed with cyclothymia and how this new knowledge of his moods has changed his life for the better, and how he’s learnt to control his flow states, rather than them controlling him.Matt’s podcast, Not Another Love Song, is available to listen to on all podcast platforms.CONTENT WARNING: This episode c...
Treating our soil differently could have a knock on effect on our physical and mental health, as well as the health of the environment. As one half of Groove Armada, Andy Cato travelled the world playing music, but for the last 15 years his MO has been revolutionising the way we grow food. In this chat with Fearne, he talks about the importance of re-connecting with nature and how we can all positively impact the planet via the food we eat. Discover more about Andy’s work at Wildfarmed: https://wildfarmed.co.uk/ and watch their short 7-minute film: "A Story About Bread" Click here to book y...
There’s never going to be anything comfortable about facilitating change, but if we deeply care about a cause we should do it nonetheless. As well as entertaining the nation on TV, Jamie Oliver has spent decades learning about, and fighting for, healthier food policies. In this chat, Fearne and Jamie explore how failure can ignite more fire in your belly, and why a little optimistic naivety might initiate more ground-breaking change than a measured approach.Jamie’s new recipe book is called Together: Memorable Meals Made Easy, and is available to buy now.Click here to book your ticket for F...