Looking Sideways Action Sports Podcast

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Episode 265: Dan O'Neill Oct 07, 2026

Show notes

Wildlife filmmaker and presenter Dan O’Neill has spent his career exploring an important question: who gets to tell the story of a wild place? And that’s one of the key themes of this conversation, recorded live at Kendal Mountain Festival in November 2025.

Access was a key topic across the entire weekend. The day before, the Oscar-winning filmmaker Orlando von Einsiedel had explained to me that the ethics of access are among the most important parts of his work. On the Sunday, Dan picked up the same thread through the lens of his pioneering wildlife filmmaking.

For him, working with the communities he films among isn’t just part of the job: “That is the work.”

A lot has happened for Dan in the months since our chat. In June, his show Tiger Island went out on BBC One. How to Live on Earth, presented by Benedict Cumberbatch, is out now on YouTube, and has further boosted Dan’s profile.

In this riotous conversation, recorded in front of a very game audience, as the rain hammered on the roof, myself and Dan talked snow leopards, his pet hawk, who pays for wildlife TV now, the BBC, AI, and what it meant to be the first openly gay presenter to front a wildlife series for a major network. Then the audience took over.

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00:00 Introduction

02:45 Snow Leopards and Mongolia

22:33 The Pet Hawk

31:49 Paying for Wildlife TV

38:17 AI and Advocacy

48:51 Audience Questions

1:00:45 Housekeeping Corner

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wearelookingsideways.com/subscribe

Episode 264: Johno Verity - The Man in the Pink Hat Sep 30, 2026

Show notes

If you’ve spent any time on the internet recently you will have no doubt seen the man in the pink hat, Johno Verity.

As it happens, Johno is one of my oldest and dearest friends. We first met back in 1998, in the first weeks of my first season in Meribel, and he’s been one of my closest friends ever since.

Not that it’s always been smooth sailing. Me and Johno are both big personalities, with plenty of ego and vulnerabilities, and there have been times we’ve really clashed, and almost fucked it up.

But one of the great joys of getting old are the consolations of old friendships, and in the past couple of years myself and Johno have dealt with all that and come out of it stronger and better friends than ever.

And this latter period has also coincided with the unlikely season of his great recent internet fame. We’ve been chatting about recording a Looking Sideways x Man in the Pink Hat episode for a while now, in London, or Croyde at various points. In the end we made it happen in mid August 2026, in my new hometown of Bracklesham, at the height of the fifth heatwave, and during a particularly febrile and emotional week for me.

So it was that at 5.30am one hot morning we set off on a cycling and walking mission around Bracklesham and East and West Wittering, recording this conversation as we went.

And it was a beautiful and, for me, vital morning: emotional, life-affirming, and a reminder of the great power of the consolation of lifelong friendship, with the Solent, the Isle of Wight, Hayling Island and Portsmouth in the distance, all burnished by the rising sun as myself and Johno chatted.

We laid some ghosts to rest, reminisced about our shared history, and I got to find out more about this long, strange recent trip Johno is on as the man in the pink hat.

This conversation came along at just the right time for me. Thanks Johno. I love you like a brother.

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00:00 Introduction

03:25 Daddy Issues

19:11 The Pink Hat Accident

33:36 History and the Pushback

48:06 In Bed With Meta

1:01:06 Tenacity Over Talent

1:15:39 London Empty at Dawn

1:22:29 30 Years of Friendship

1:29:08 Housekeeping Corner

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wearelookingsideways.com/subscribe

Episode 263: Liam Ivory - Maribou State Sep 23, 2026

Show notes

What happens when you achieve everything you want in life, as musician Liam Ivory of Maribou State has, and still find yourself with an itch that remains unscratched?

That's the question at the heart of my conversation with the brilliant Liam, one half of one of the UK's most successful electronic music acts, and somebody who, I learned, has also been grappling with a conundrum every Looking Sideways listener will recognise: how to strike a balance between 'the creative life, and finding moments to get out and ride'.

As a sentence that defines the Looking Sideways ethos, this is pretty much unbeatable. Even better, it's a direct quote from an Insta DM Liam sent me back in February, when he generously got in touch to tell me how much he was enjoying listening to the show and its celebration of the balancing act that has become increasingly important to him.

Naturally, like any good journalist, I immediately asked him to come on the show. So it was that on the eve of Maribou's biggest ever show, at LIDO Festival in Victoria Park, we met in London and sat down to go over the whole thing: that elusive search for balance; how board sports have been the defining anchor of his life; the seven-year gestation of Hallucinating Love; the twenty-year creative partnership that Liam describes as a marriage; and the highs and lows of an extraordinary career in music.

The resulting conversation is certainly a peerless insight into the creative reality of sustaining the type of career that eventually leads to a Glastonbury headline slot.

But it's also yet another reminder, as if we needed it, that notions of success truly lie in the eye of the beholder.

And that even the most outwardly prolific creative people are just like the rest of us. Fuelled by a search for meaning - and a desire to go riding as much as they possibly can, whatever the circumstances…

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To find out more about what I do, you can sign up as a subscriber to my Substack newsletter here. There's a brilliant community and much more than just the podcasts.

00:00 Introduction

03:36 Liam the Looking Sideways Fan

12:16 Feeling Flat After Perfect Waves

28:03 Leaving London

32:26 Headlining Glastonbury

44:04 Why Creative Partnerships Are Like Marriages

1:09:05 The Crossroads

1:16:11 Housekeeping Corner

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wearelookingsideways.com/subscribe

Episode 262: Julie Maughan and Chris Hines - Dirty Business Apr 06, 2026

Show notes

In this episode of Looking Sideways, I speak to Julie Maughan and Chris Hines about Dirty Business, the recent Channel 4 drama exposing the state of the UK’s water industry since privatisation, and the real-life tragedy at its centre.

The story of eight-year-old Heather Preen, who died after contracting E. coli following a sewage spill on a Devon beach, forms the emotional core of the series, and is what really makes this such a powerful piece of storytelling.

Because what Dirty Business does so effectively is remind you that behind all of this - the corporate failure, the regulatory collapse, the wholesale extraction of profits, the outrageous cynicism - there are devastating, long-lasting human consequences.

Julie, Heather’s mother, has spent nearly 30 years campaigning for justice. Alongside environmentalist Chris Hines, she has worked tirelessly to hold those responsible to account and bring national attention to the issue.

In this essential, riveting conversation, we explore Heather’s story, the long-term impact on her family, and the wider context: how the UK’s water system reached this point, why it has been allowed to continue; and what it reveals about privatisation, regulatory failure, accountability, and public apathy.

This is an urgent look at an issue that affects us all, and what might be the most emotionally impactful and important episode of Looking Sideways I’ve ever recorded. Don’t miss it.

To find out more about what I do, you can sign up as a subscriber to my Substack newsletter here. There's a brilliant community and much more than just the podcasts.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wearelookingsideways.com/subscribe

Episode 261: Calum Macintyre - Ski Fossil Free Mar 17, 2026

Show notes

Welcome to the final episode of my three-part Winter Olympics series, in which we’re tackling one of the biggest controversies surrounding the recent Winter Olympics: fossil fuel sponsorship.

This episode focuses on the Ski Fossil Free campaign, initiated by activists Calum McIntyre and Nikolai Schirmer, which seeks to end fossil fuel partnerships across IOC and FIS events.

This incredibly effective feat of climate campaigning saw Nikolai deliver a petition - signed by over 20,000 people - to the IOC on the eve of the Games, an act which garnered much publicity and pushed the issue into the spotlight at a critical moment.

A week or so later, in an attempt to understand more about the campaign and its goals, I hosted an online panel featuring voices from across sport, activism and the outdoor industry, including campaign organiser Calum, Greenpeace, Creatives for Climate and Greenlandic Olympian Uqaaleq Slettemark.

We discussed the campaign, the role of athletes and brands in driving change, the challenges of effective climate activism — and the accusations of hypocrisy that inevitably follow.

It’s a conversation about where responsibility really sits when it comes to the future of outdoor sports, and as such is a fitting end to this short Olympic series.

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This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wearelookingsideways.com/subscribe

Episode 260: Lesley McKenna - Risk Aesthetic Mar 09, 2026

Show notes

Welcome to the second of three post–Winter Olympics episodes in which I am examining the recent Winter Olympics from a variety of different perspectives.

In this second episode, I’m joined by Lesley McKenna, one of snowboarding’s great original thinkers.

A pro skier, snowboarder, coach and team manager, she is herself a three-time Olympian, and helped run GB Park & Pipe in the years when Jenny Jones and Billy Morgan won their medals.

She has spent the last few years working on a Phd that analyses the tension that exists between a traditional sporting structure as epitomised by the Olympics, and a none-conventional action sports culture such as snowboarding. She’s has called it the Risk Aesthetic Framework, and it is fascinating stuff.

Why does this matter? Because while snowboarding now looks fully integrated into the Winter Olympics, its relationship with the Games has always been complex — and at times uneasy.

In this conversation, we dig into judging controversies, cultural friction, performance vs. progression, and ask whether something essential is gained — or lost — when snowboard culture enters the Olympic machine.

As ever with Lesley, this is a mind-bending conversation: endlessly intellectually-stimulating, and full of the ideas and provocations that mark her work out as so original.

If you care about snowboarding and its culture, don’t miss this one.

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This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wearelookingsideways.com/subscribe

Episode 259: Tim Warwood & Ed Leigh - The View From The Booth Feb 24, 2026

Show notes

Welcome to the first of three post–Winter Olympics episodes in which we’ll examine the recent Games from a number of different perspectives.

As a lifelong snowboarder, I’ve always had a complicated relationship with the Olympics. The performances and spectacle are incredible. But beyond the hype, there are bigger cultural conversations worth having. That’s what this short series is about.

In this first episode, I’m joined by BBC Olympic commentators Tim Warwood and Ed Leigh — lifelong snowboarders and much-loved voices of Olympic action sports on the BBC.

In this riotous chat, we discuss their experience at the Games, their breakout moment this year, the cultural tensions between core snowboarding and the Olympic machine, the controversies, the progression — and what these Games really mean for the activities and cultures we love.

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This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wearelookingsideways.com/subscribe

Episode 258: Alice Sainsbury - Design Justice Feb 18, 2026

Show notes

Alice Sainsbury is a designer, writer and speaker who in 2015 was diagnosed with an acute neurological condition called transverse myelitis.

Since then, she’s been on a mission to break down the barriers that stop people with disabilities participating in the outdoor sports and activities that so many of us take for granted.

In this episode, we explore the reality of life for a disabled person in 2026, and the systemic, societal difficulties disabled people face when it comes to participating in outdoor sports and activities.

We also discuss Alice’s own story, as well as her latest initiative UN[PARA]LD, which launches at the Milano-Cortina Paralympics with the aim exposing a hidden barrier in elite sport: the incredible fact that many Paralympic athletes are still required to adapt, alter, or retrofit their own outdoor and alpine clothing in order to train and compete.

This is one of the most illuminating and intellectually-stimulating conversations I can remember hosting on the podcast. I learned a lot, and I think you will too.

To find out more about Alice’s work, and the UN[PARA]LD initiative, click here.

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This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wearelookingsideways.com/subscribe

Episode 257: Orlando von Einsiedel - The Cycle of Love Feb 03, 2026

Show notes

Oscar-winner, snowboarder, and one of the most influential documentary filmmakers working today, Orlando von Einsiedel makes his return to the show, nearly eight years after his first appearance.

In that time, films such as Virunga, The White Helmets and The Lost Children have set a new standard in gripping, immersive documentary story-telling.

Recorded live at the 2025 Kendal Mountain Festival in front of a sold out audience, this wide-ranging conversation centres on Orlando’s latest film The Cycle of Love, which is currently cleaning up on the festival circuit.

It also a rare, honest insight into the reality of life at the sharp end of documentary filmmaking, even when you appear to have achieved the success everybody craves.

We dig into Orlando’s creative process, the state of the documentary landscape, and the somewhat dire financial realities of getting ambitious projects off the ground, even for an artist of Orlando’s calibre.

If you enjoyed my recent episode with Lucy Walker, or are interested in the real, often precarious mechanics of a creative career, this one’s for you.

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This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wearelookingsideways.com/subscribe

Episode 256: Axel Pauporté - Europe's Freeriding Pioneer Jan 21, 2026

Show notes

If you ask me, this week’s guest Axel Pauporte is one of the most influential snowboarders of the 1990s and 2000s.

Even if you don’t know his name, you’re living in a snowboarding culture that he helped shape. Especially if you’re a European snowboarder.

To qualify this rather bold claim, it helps to remember how singular an outlier Axel truly was.

Back in the early 90s, professional snowboarders from mainland Europe were a genuine rarity. Professional snowboarders from flat Northern European countries such as the Netherlands, the UK or Belgium, where Axel was brought up? Legitimate trailblazing pioneers.

All of which makes Axel’s career path especially legendary. Here was a rider who started snowboarding late - and on dry slope to boot.

And who, by the end of a storied twenty-year career, was universally regarded as one of snowboarding’s greatest ever freeriders, and had demonstrated that European riders could lead the way in a proving ground like Alaska alongside peers such as Travis Rice, Jonaven Moore and Jeremy Jones.

And the story of how Axel made this happen is as unlikely as it is instructive. This isn’t your standard pro snowboarder origin story.

Here we have an outsider, both literally and figuratively, who was driven by a potent emotional combination: his own insecurities, a Stakhanovite work ethic, and a ferocious desire to use snowboarding a way of finding a sense of belonging.

In Axel’s case, that ultimately led him to AK, and the pursuit of risks that today make him pause and wonder, as we discussed.

As you might be gathering, this is a very honest conversation that covers belonging, identity, and the psychology and selfishness of risk; as well as the reckoning that comes to us all once the body and mind begins to fade, and other priorities take precedence.

Big thanks to Axel and my friend Dave Mailman for the help with this one.

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To find out more about what I do, you can sign up as a subscriber to my Substack newsletter here. There’s a brilliant community and much more than just the podcasts.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wearelookingsideways.com/subscribe

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