DON'T LET THE OLD MAN IN
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DLTOMI is a podcast brought to you by Pod O’Sullivan, where he has real and candid conversations with experts, celebrities and ordinary men about navigating midlife. The ups, the downs, the surprises, the opportunities, the secrets and how to do it on your terms, gracefully or even disgracefully!
Pod will explore ways to take charge of your health, to divorce well, to reinvigorate your sex life, to find ways to lift your spirit, to join new communities, to make sure you have enough money for retirement, to laugh, to cry if needed, to change perspectives, and most importantly, to ensure your second act is even better than the first.
Pod O’Sullivan has been fascinated with transitions and personal reinventions for most of his life. His career has seen him in the medical industry, in sales and marketing, consulting industries, being self-employed, being an entrepreneur who successfully sold businesses, being an educator at Sydney Business School, an author, an Executive Coach to 100’s of CEO’s all over Asia, a podcaster, the owner of a failed tech start up and now the co-founder of The Wisdom Vault and host of this podcast.
Migrating from Ireland and England to Australia taught him many lessons. Divorcing with two young kids threw a few more his way. Remarrying and creating the ‘Brady Bunch’ with Carole, his two children and three new daughters, topped off many great life lessons. Pod knows the harsh reality of life’s ups and downs and firmly believes that mid-life, whilst tough on many levels, lonely on other levels and downright confusing on even others, can also include the best stages in life. He is here to explore and find those!
Episodes
Understanding Shame and Midlife Transformation: Ben Larke
For midlife men, shame often lurks beneath the surface of our carefully constructed lives. We’ve built the career, bought the house, raised the kids. From the outside, everything looks sorted. But inside? There’s often a different story playing out—one we’ve been keeping secret, sometimes even from ourselves.
Ben Larke is a clinical psychologist who specialises in working with men navigating midlife transitions. He understands shame not just as a clinician, but as someone who’s done his own deep work.
Why successful men at midlife still feel like frauds: Erin Buttermore
You’ve climbed the ladder. Built the career. Earned the respect. So why does that voice in your head keep whispering you don’t deserve it? That any moment now, someone’s going to figure out you’ve been faking it all along?
In this conversation, we sit down with Erin Buttermore, a strategy consultant, executive coach and PhD candidate researching the imposter phenomenon at the University of Sydney.
Crossing the bridge: rethinking retirement with Dr Jon Glass
What if retirement isn’t really about golf and chilling out? What if it’s actually one of the most significant identity transitions you’ll ever face?
Dr Jon Glass knows this territory intimately. Starting his working life with a PhD in pure mathematics from Cambridge University, he’s made several major career transitions himself. Now, as a retirement coach, he’s on a mission to change the paradigm of what retirement actually means.
When life makes you confront mortality at 23: Dr Merran Cooper on advanced care planning and living with purpose
What happens when death arrives at your doorstep decades before you’re ready? For Dr Merran Cooper, it came when she was just 21 years old, watching her 22-year-old husband battle terminal leukaemia. But rather than breaking her, that experience set her on an extraordinary path that would eventually lead to becoming a doctor at 51 and an entrepreneur in her 60s.
Professor Virginia Cha: thriving beyond retirement in Singapore's engineered blue zone
What if the best educated, most experienced generation in history simply stopped contributing at 65? What if all that knowledge, those networks, that hard-won wisdom just… retired?
Training for Your Last Decade – with Dr. Gordon Spence
Just One Reason: Stuart O’Neill on Survival, Hope and the Power of Connection
When life falls apart, most of us search for a way through. For Stuart O’Neill, that search began in the darkest moment of his life — a moment that nearly ended it. What emerged instead was Just One Reason, a small, unassuming book that has since saved lives across the world.
Weight Loss Drugs: Miracle or Mistake?
Midlife often brings unwelcome surprises: slower metabolism, creeping weight gain, and the frustration that “what worked before” suddenly doesn’t. Dr. Kwong helps us understand why—and shows how to think beyond quick fixes toward sustainable, holistic health.
How to master the Life Reinvention Playbook with Michael Bungay Stanier
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