Words in the Wilderness

I met Dan when we were at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August 2022 and I went to his show 'Patience Zero'. The description of his show was: 'Dan's always wanted to be a father. But now he and his wife are going through constant loss and IVF, he starts to ask the question: is he good enough? But in a year with a serious accident, an NHS-induced bad K-trip, a letter warning of impending death and, oh, aliens, he begins to wonder - is the universe telling him no? It's a comedy. Somewhere between stand-up and theatre, this show explores how far you will go for family.' I was interested in having Dan speak on the podcast because it is rare to find places where men share about this experience. In this episode I speak to Dan about writing his story as a comedy show; how he and his wife dealt with miscarriage and loss and what impact his show had on other people.

Creators and Guests

Host
Jacky Power

What is Words in the Wilderness?

The Words in the Wilderness podcast is for those who have the conviction to make changes in their life as they drag their feet through the messy middle, crying into the void "it ends with me."

Led by Jacky Power - The Therapeutic Poet - these are conversations that look underneath the label, the diagnosis, the tidy explanation, at what's actually going on.

If you've made a decision to change your life and now you're in that wobbly, lonely bit where nobody quite gets what you're going through, I made this for you. Because I've been there. Many times.

Each episode starts with one of my own poems, using therapeutic poetry to set the scene. Sometimes it's just me, unpacking human tricky things. Sometimes it's a guest - a therapist, a coach, someone whose lived experience has taught them something worth passing on.

We talk about leaving what doesn't fit anymore, about breaking the patterns you inherited and don't want to leave as your legacy, about all your human tricky things that you've maybe been taught to hide.

I'm Jacky Power and I'm on a mission to rehumanise, one poem at a time. Reminding you that you have permission to feel and use those feelings as data to decode, not symptoms to squash.

Follow Jacky on Instagram: @the_therapeutic_poet
Find out more: www.jackypower.com
Listen to Jacky on Insight Timer: www.insighttimer.com/TheTherapeuticPoet
Join her on Substack`:www.jackypower.substack.com