Conversations with My Mind: The Learning Podcast
Conversations with My Mind: The Learning Podcast
Ance Vanaga
Conversations with My Mind is here to create a space for curious, inclusive and sometimes anxious minds where we can think critically, learn together and grow our empathy towards each other. Together with local and international guests the podcast host Ance Vanaga explores various topics linked to mental health, inclusion & diversity and personal growth.
How Worried Should We Be about Our Safety Online? with Gareth Thomas | S2 Ep13
The more time we spend online, the more thoughtful I become about how we approach connecting to this wonderful, virtual world. In the next two episodes, with the help of my guests, I will be exploring what impact an unsafe use of the internet can bring, what we should be aware of and how we could better navigate online to feel safer, more protected and more in control. Today, I start by tackling the challenge of online safety. To help me with this, I am joined by a brilliant speaker and cybe...
Mar 6, 2023
52 min
On a Mindful Ride Managing Living with Cancer with Steve Ryder | S2 Ep12
Just a week ago, on the 4th of February, we marked an International World Cancer Day, a global initiative created to raise awareness of cancer and to encourage its prevention, detection, and treatment. NHS in the UK currently states - 1 in 2 people will develop some form of cancer during their lifetime. But what does it really mean? Why is it becoming even more important to pay attention to your own body? And what could future cancer treatment potentially look like? My guest Steve Ryder is a...
Feb 11, 2023
1 hr 12 min
‘New Year, Same Me’ and Other Goals with Nick Elston | S2 Ep11
Nick Elston is one of the leading inspirational speakers on the lived experience of mental health. He is described as a big man with a big heart and a big story, who is incredibly honest. Nick strives to encourage individuals as well as businesses to engage and open up talking about mental health by showing how to harness the same energy that could bring us down into a catalyst that can help us achieve our success. As I return from a longer podcasting break, I am right on time for us to refle...
Jan 25, 2023
52 min
The Uncomfortable Truth About How We Waste Our Time with Paul Holbrook | S2 Ep10
Paul Holbrook left his corporate career to become a leadership coach and in the process realised that almost everyone he talks to struggles with time. He decided to tackle this challenge by creating a self-leadership programme Diary Detox focusing on healthier distribution of time and published a book ‘What Are You Doing? The uncomfortable truth about how you waste time at work’. Instead of being a CEO, Paul chooses to call himself a Chief Management Rebel. In this episode Paul and I ex...
Aug 1, 2022
1 hr 6 min
What Sports and Success can Teach us about Mental Health with Dean Allen | S2 Ep9
Dean Allen is the kind of lecturer you’d like to have in your university - friendly, down to earth, all for encouraging everyone to use their critical thinking and a genuinely good person. He’s been building his career between the UK and South Africa, but in the past few years his heart and opportunities have grounded him and his family in the Eastern Cape. As a historian and an author of the bestselling book “Empire, War & Cricket” Dean has been giving lectures and speaking extensively...
Jul 18, 2022
1 hr 14 min
Am I a Boss Babe or a Cult Member? with Roberta Blevins | S2 Ep8
Brace yourself for laughter, disbelief, behind the scenes of making an Amazon Prime documentary and learning why someone most likely is a victim of cult tactics rather than a boss babe, if they have joined a multi-level marketing company. My guest on this episode is the one and only Roberta Blevins! If you are a documentary binge-watcher like myself, you might recognise her from the series of LuLaRich. However, Roberta is much more than that. She is also a mother, a great friend, a hair styl...
Jun 29, 2022
1 hr 41 min
The Voice that Influenced a Nation with Karlis Streips | S2 Ep7
A conversation with Karlis Streips has been on my mind since I decided to launch my own podcast. What held me back was finding the right moment and the right topic to speak about. Where does one start with such a living legend as Karlis? He is a journalist, who has influenced many political conversations in Latvia, has been a voice of The Eurovision Song Contest and The Oscars and has participated in many historic events in Latvia, including the restoration of its independence, setting up the...
Jun 11, 2022
1 hr 14 min
Defending Democracy: Ukraine’s Fight of the Century with Maria Kuchapski | S2 Ep6
On the day this episode is released it has been 91 days since Russia launched a full-scale attack on Ukraine. For three months Ukraine has been fighting with all it has to remain independent and democratic. The ongoing support it is receiving from all over the world, even from the previously neutral countries, says a lot about the importance of how this ends. As a Latvian, I struggle to stay impartial. This war is too close to home and it has shaken up my own values as well. Along with the p...
May 25, 2022
1 hr 18 min
Comically Serious Conversation About Suicide Prevention with Frank King | S2 Ep5
Mental health is no laughing matter. However, many of us who live with a mental illness, experience some mental health struggles or maybe have a neurodivergent brain will know that sometimes we just want to have a bit of a laugh about what our minds have come up with again. This is exactly what Frank King does. On his journey from a professional comedian to motivational speaker Frank also found out that there’s a reason why suicide runs in his family and that he is living with something call...
Apr 20, 2022
56 min
How to Break the Cycle and Heal Our Mother Wound? with Michaila Tyson | S2 Ep4
We know that the way we have been raised will impact the way we are as adults. A less known fact is that, if a mother does not heal her own emotional wounds, there is a high likelihood that her trauma can then be transferred onto her children, especially her daughters. I have invited a maternal narcissistic abuse recovery coach Michaila Tyson to help me explore this sensitive subject. Michaila herself has spent a significant amount of time healing her own mother wound and exploring generation...
Apr 8, 2022
1 hr
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