Banter with The Bulldog is a fortnightly, 45-minute live video conversation hosted by me, Dan “The Bulldog” Brown.
No scripts, posturing or pretending it’s easy. Just real people, honest conversations, fresh perspectives and the reminder that even the toughest challenges become more manageable when we step back, stay curious, and don’t take ourselves quite so seriously.

 

This is not a podcast for experts, gurus, or people who claim they’ve “figured it all out”. It’s not self-inflated keynoting, lecturing, or polished leadership routines. If you’ve figured it all out… this likely isn’t for you.

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The aim is simple: to share collective insight and better understand how we help each other navigate serious responsibility using informed humour and real lived experience. This is about being true to ourselves, empathic to others and remembering that we’re all interconnected beings trying to live the best life we can in a world that doesn’t always feel especially supportive. It’s for anyone with a spirited passion for what matters to them, and a good-natured, supportive sense of fun when it comes to sharing experiences that inform, connect and lighten the mood.

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As we connect, we build understanding through lived experience, not by making controlling or manipulative statements, but by asking good questions, listening without judgement or knee-jerk reaction and engaging in conversations that are both humorous and informative, allowing for calmer, more considered responses.

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We use this simple, humorous parable as a starting point for discussion and debate by asking good questions. Simple.

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• Where do you use humour to cope and where does it stop working?

• How do you make decisions when there are no clean answers, only consequences?

• When the world feels complex, noisy and relentless, how do you widen your perspective without losing yourself?

• When did leadership stop being exciting and purposeful and start feeling like such a grind?

• What pressure are you carrying right now that no one sees?

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The phrase about the monkey putting a fish in a tree has long been used to highlight the danger of imposing our own perspectives, cultures or solutions onto others without true understanding. And more than ever, we can see the consequences of this playing out all around us.

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The monkey has good intentions; it believes it’s saving the fish from drowning.

But it lacks empathy, imposing its own environment and limitations onto the fish.

The impact is fatal, proving that good intentions don’t guarantee good outcomes.

The lesson is clear: real help requires understanding the unique needs of others,

rather than assuming our own way is superior.

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Ultimately, this is about knowing a little something about life which is increasingly

a funny old thing of unknowing. The more certain we think we are, the less certain

everything becomes. And the only thing we can really know for sure, minute to

minute, is that nothing is for sure.

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Bantering with The Bulldog is a way of giving something back to ourselves and each other in an emerging society of anxiety.
Through meaningful communication across any subject that matters to those willing to come and banter, we navigate the serious responsibility of remembering that maybe, just maybe, we don’t need to take everything quite so seriously. Using humour not to escape reality, but to thrive in it.

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We should all celebrate the fact that we’re all fools and masters at different times and that by sharing that honestly, we can help each other thrive.

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You can register below to attend as a guest or to join one of the sessions starting 1st April 2026.

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