HWOM with Dan Oliver

HWOM with Dan Oliver

Curious about how others navigate their sobriety journey? This chat between host Stuart Butler and returning guest Dan Oliver feels like dropping into a long overdue catch-up between old mates, with mental health sitting quietly at the centre of it all. The tone is loose, sweary and honest, as Stuart and Dan talk about winter evenings, wobblier moods and why open conversations with good friends matter so much.

Dan reflects on family life with grown-up kids, one moving out to university, and how that strange mix of pride and absence messes with your head even when "nothing's really changed" on the surface. You’ll hear them joke about golf clubs, redundancy scares and too many trips to Dublin, but beneath the banter sits a serious look at mental workload: being a parent, partner, employee and friend, while cramming 40 hours of work into a week that already feels full.

Dan admits he relies on exercise to stay steady, yet laughs at how skipping one run can cause more stress than five weeks off. A big chunk of the chat tackles phones, social media and what Dan simply calls "bullshit" – the pressure to perform a perfect life online, the hours lost to pointless scrolling, and the spike in mental health issues they link to constant screen time.

They swap stories about parenting in the smartphone era, setting limits for kids, and lying to themselves about "needing" the phone for tiny tasks. The most powerful moments come when they talk about health, privilege and checking in on people. As Dan puts it, "deep down we know ourselves, just don’t lie to yourself", and Stuart ends by urging everyone to text someone they haven’t spoken to for a while.

If you fancy an unfiltered chat about life, stress, phones, friendship and staying vaguely sane, this one might be exactly what you need today. Who’s the first person you’re going to check in with after listening?