In this episode I sit down with Andrew Flynn, a Jiu Jitsu black belt, Tai Chi Chuan advocate and accidental fightwear company owner.

Andrew is one of the guys behind alchemical fightwear (https://www.alchemical.com.au/) a healthy living company that also sells natural, plastic free option for martial arts / grappling apparel.

It was a fun conversation as we also went deep on Andrew's journey, from project management to Tai Chi Chuan, to Jiu Jitsu, cafe's and more.

Traditional martial arts often get a bad rap in modern martial arts discussions and it was nice for Andrew to articulate his experience with it.

We also go through his experience in building up a business to selling it, engineering / project management and of course the reasons why Alchemical focuses on Hemp / natural fibred fight wear.

Links:

https://www.alchemical.com.au/

Alchemical Fightwear on Socials: https://www.instagram.com/alchemicalfightwear/

Hemp history, uses, benefits and more.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15440478.2024.2435047#d1e199

Invention of Synthetic fibres and textiles

https://www.greenhive.io/blog/synthetic-fabrics

Chemicals From Textiles to Skin

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6133113/

What Does Plastic Do To The Endocrine System

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-do-chemicals-in-plastics-impact-your-endocrine-system/

Microplastics found in artery plaque buildup of stroke survivors

https://www.heart.org/news/2025/04/22/plaque-buildup-in-the-necks-of-stroke-survivors-may-be-loaded-with-microplastics

Nanoplastics that enter human cells cause cell death via trojan horse principle

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32786567/

In this episode I sat down with Anouska Firth to talk about her experiences battling her insecurities around self worth, eating disorders, drug addiction and also coming to terms with the consequences of her actions from the choices she had made.

It's a fairly contentious topic to discuss some of the things we do in this episode, however I hope people can enjoy this episode for it's openness to dealing with some difficult topics. Anouska is someone who has really felt the brunt of her choices and part of her journey to finding peace with those choices has been through facing them, having close friends who have told her some fairly uncomfortable truths and having the willingness to try pull herself out of the pit she had fallen into.

No matter how difficult the challenges your facing, there is always someone who has probably had it worst. The great news is that you can get through it and I hope this episode is an example of this.

Links:

Bird Flip: https://www.instagram.com/birdfliporg/

Anouska on Socials: https://www.instagram.com/__anouska/

Dr Joanna Howe: https://www.instagram.com/drjoannahowe/

In this episode I sat down with Ben Smith of Deepwater Performance to chat about life, jiu jitsu and his experience with Testicular Cancer.

Turns out, April is actually Testicular cancer awareness month so it’s kind of fitting for us to talk about this issue.

That said, I hope you can enjoy this episode, and laugh along with us as Ben recounts his story and shares some valuable information everyone should be aware of. For such a heavy topic I’m glad that Ben can talk about it so openly and share his experience with the whole process.

We go through the whole thing from synthetic nuts to hormone replacement therapy, chemotherapy as well as Ben’s work, from the NRL to his coaching business and how watching a schoolyard fight in the toilets helped him to find Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

Enjoy!

Links:

Deepwater Performance: https://www.instagram.com/deepwater.performance/

Know Thy Nuts: https://au.movember.com/men-s-health/testicular-cancer?gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAAD-yxMzbD8A6YGhu-N0M1fiUCyHIs&gclid=Cj0KCQjw2ZfABhDBARIsAHFTxGyDkN_Qkumu1s495NbYJUU3sDj5izvcVZbZgdSOvUIY1sHEqqvvqOoaAjOQEALw_wcB

SMH Article on Orchidectomy: https://www.smh.com.au/national/cancer-patient-ben-smith-lucky-to-be-alive-after-gp-told-him-he-was-fine-20180616-p4zlu5.html

Feel Good Nation: https://feelgoodnation.com.au/

Nuts & Bolts: https://nutsandbolts.movember.com/