Wiggy, Doris, Mick, Peter & more - Sean 1965

grans & uncles/grandson & nephew

In this episode, I sit down with Sean to share vivid snapshots of Wiggy, A grandmother named for her hair, the Londoner who never quite forgave leaving the city, and Ron, the quiet man who gave up inheritance for marriage and then left for war. What starts as a conversation about a beloved gran becomes a richer look at class, place, and the grit of making a home when everything moves faster than your heart can follow.

We trace the years from a teenage pregnancy before the war, through a bungalow built in haste, to Sundays filled with warm egg sandwiches in a house mysteriously heated by fan blowers. The reveal—Ron’s cheeky electric rewire—lands like a family legend: practical, daring, and just a little bit unlawful. Alongside Wiggy stands Doris, Sean's maternal gran, another Londoner who rode the bus back to dance halls every weekend—proof that some places never stop calling.

The conversation shifts to time and its tools—how older hands meet modern screens. Teaching an iPad to a parent becomes a window into empathy, patience, and the wonder of seeing a face across oceans. We talk about Uncle Mick, the young man who left for South Africa and flew high before life tempered the gloss, and how his path shaped the next generation’s sense of risk and return.

Through grief, humour, and the stubborn details of memory, we make a case for why grandparents matter: they are our first lessons in loss, and our clearest proof that ordinary lives carry extraordinary weight.

Pass this episode to someone who still remembers the smell of Sunday tea. Your memories might be the chapter someone else needs.

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"In a world where you can be anything, be kind."

David 1967

Well scout, wildcatter, mentor & mate

A £99 suit, a borrowed tie, and a last-minute interview kicked off David’s career—a journey that leapt from the North Sea to Wall Street, and eventually to long Napa weekends after 4 a.m. starts. In this episode, I trace that unlikely arc with him: a teenager who didn’t know oil from Brent crude becomes a well scout by asking sharper questions, then pushes his way from drilling updates into mergers and acquisitions, and finally into institutional equity sales, guiding billion-pound pension flows.

The scenes he describes are nothing short of cinematic. Helicopters slamming onto offshore platforms in the freezing North Sea, a noddy suit zipped to the chin. Paper tickets on the London floor giving way to algorithms and dark pools. A finance director expecting a kid in LA and instead getting Wolfgang Puck at Spago. Kiefer Sutherland opens with a compliment, Oliver Stone debates the soul of Wall Street, and Keanu Reeves glides through a tiny Santa Monica room with calm, generous grace. These aren’t name-drops—they’re field notes on how to meet anyone with poise: don’t perform, don’t fawn, just be human.

What underpins it all is mentorship—and the inches you can reach. A boss who takes a chance sends him to Houston. A wildcatter teaches range and risk. Jerry Jones threads through the decades, from an eight-person meet-and-greet to a long Napa lunch where stories roll and the tip matches the legend. David’s philosophy is simple: life is won in small increments—the six inches in front of your face. Ask for the next challenge before you’re ready. Keep your true friends to ten, and care for them well. Let legacy be kindness, not monuments.

If you’re navigating a career pivot, fascinated by oil and markets, or searching for a mental model that holds under pressure, this conversation offers practical insight and hard-won perspective. Subscribe, share it with someone who might need a nudge of courage. What's the best advice a mentor ever gave you?

What inch are you fighting for today?

Al Pacino - Any Given Sunday - "Inch By Inch"

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"In a world where you can be anything, be kind."

Russell 1961

husband, father, son & supporter

A red jumper at a community centre disco. A chapel aisle, some said, he shouldn’t walk. A bus to the wrong end of a cup final and a long, cold trek home from the station after a night in a cell. When I sat down with Russell, I found a life textured by central Scotland in the sixties and seventies—steelworks grit, Friday pay packets, and the tidal pull of Rangers versus Celtic—alongside the quieter courage of choosing love over the lines others drew.

We begin with the culture of sectarian identity and football, where schools and pubs marked allegiances from birth. Russell reflects on how that world shaped him, then walks me through the romance that crossed the divide: marrying Katie, the youngest of a large Catholic family, and navigating the fallout with humour and resolve. From a near-miss at a professional football career to the hard lessons of gravel pitches and hot tempers, he shows how discipline is forged in the small moments no scout ever sees. Work anchors the story as we move from a boutique sales floor to a filthy, formative steelworks apprenticeship, redundancy, and an unexpected pivot to Prudential—where trust, doorsteps, and a thick book of names turned into a top-performing agency.

Our conversation deepens around family and drink: a father who worked hard and drank harder, a mother who held the home together, and a son who asked the right question at the right time. Russell’s answer—that he would choose not to drink—becomes a practical compass, echoed in his son’s turn to CrossFit and Taekwondo. Along the way, you’ll hear the soundtrack of Clyde Valley weekends, the clatter of pool tables, and the comic-serious tale of being stitched up at Hampden. What emerges is a candid, grounded portrait of identity and endurance: the parts we inherit, the parts we refuse, and the parts we build with our own hands.

If Russell’s story resonates, please follow the show, leave a review, and share it with someone who’s wrestled with identity, rivalry, or sobriety. Your support helps these lived histories reach the people who need to hear them.

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“Follow Longtime Ago People wherever you get your podcasts.”

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Blog: longtimeagopeople.com

Have a story echoing through time? I’m listening—300 words or fewer.

"In a world where you can be anything, be kind."