Dave Mason has survived two crises most people never face: being held hostage in Beirut while reporting on a war zone, and every single client cancelling in one afternoon when COVID hit. In this episode, he traces a 30-year media career, from a maths-obsessed teacher's put-down and a bedroom full of taped radio charts, to founding the legendary Orchard FM, to financing a management buyout against his own pension. Then he rebuilt in 48 hours and spun out Splutter, a real-time social media crisis simulator now used in one of the world's largest financial-sector crisis exercises. Honest, raw, and full of hard-won lessons on resilience, AI, freelancing, and why your health is the real wealth.