No Ordinary Monday
The No Ordinary Monday podcast brings you the most incredible tales from people's working lives. Each week, we meet someone whose work is anything but ordinary - they may be clearing landmines, blowing up movie sets, or exploring uncharted caves.
We dive into the how, the why, and a life-defining moment they’ve experienced on the job. Whether it’s spine-tingling, hilarious, or just plain jaw-dropping, their stories will challenge what you thought a “career” could be—and maybe even change the way you think about your own.
Episodes
29 episodes
From Drift to Direction (Career Coach)
A backpack full of rushes, a late‑night detour, and a cab ride that felt like forever. That near‑disaster on a dog‑trick commercial wasn’t just a wild production tale for Ben Stein; it became a mirror for the life he was building and the future...
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Season 1
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Episode 26
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50:45
Surviving an Erupting Volcano (Expedition Leader)
A brother’s warning over the radio. An 80‑metre abseil into darkness. A cone splits, lava surges, and the exact spot rigged with rope is swallowed in seconds. That’s the moment Aldo Kane, former Royal Marines sniper, expedition leader, and on-s...
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Season 1
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Episode 25
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1:09:11
What Facing Death Taught Me About Living (Death Doula)
A fear of death can quietly shape an entire life. For Danni Petkovic, that fear was physical and relentless — years of death anxiety, intrusive thoughts, and a nervous system locked into survival mode at the mere idea of mortality. Every...
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Season 1
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Episode 24
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55:24
A Bush Pilot’s Worst Flight Over Papua
Bush Flying in Indonesia: From IT Desk to Remote Mountain AirstripsA tidy flat, a good salary, a steady routine — and a growing knot of anxiety. That was Matt Dearden’s life before he walked away from IT and flew halfway across th...
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Season 1
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Episode 23
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1:04:01
Trapped in a Flooded Hospital in South Sudan (MSF Doctor)
A backpack floats in brown water. The ward is a tent. The air is forty degrees. And still, patients keep coming. We open the year with Dr Lakshmi Jain of Médecins Sans Frontières, who takes us from NHS corridors to a flooded field hospital in S...
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Season 1
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Episode 22
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55:01
CIA Counter-Terrorism Analyst: The 3 Most Dangerous Places in the World to Backpack (and How to Get In)…with Brent Giannotta (BACKPACKING & BLISTERS PODCAST)
What are the 3 most dangerous countries to visit for a backpacking trip? And how can you get in? Former CIA Counter-Terrorism Analyst Brent Giannotta joins the show to share his expertise. Carl and Ben also pepper him with every CIA movie refer...
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50:00
Drilling Into Antarctica's Frozen Past (Polar Scientist)
A storm hits ten hours after the helicopter drop, tents bow under the wind, and the generators choke on spindrift—yet the drill keeps turning. That’s the edge-of-the-map reality behind a rare ship‑to‑helicopter ice core mission to West Antarcti...
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Season 1
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Episode 21
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1:01:17
The Psychology Of Dark Tourism
What happens when a seasoned therapist loses his footing and chooses to walk straight into the world’s darkest rooms? We sit down with Dr Chad Scott, a psychologist, prison therapist, and author, to trace a journey from illness and anxiety to a...
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Season 1
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Episode 20
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54:35
Adventures of a Modern Maestro (Orchestra Conductor)
A phone call, a private jet, and a destination so secret no one would say it out loud—then a palatial compound, an accidental insult to a billionaire, forced vodka shots, a stage sinking into a swimming pool, and Andrea Bocelli arriving by heli...
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Season 1
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Episode 19
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59:28
(BONUS) Two Truths and a Lie… With a Secret Service Agent
What happens when a Secret Service interrogator plays Two Truths and a Lie with us on mic? We invited special agent and polygraph examiner Brad Beeler to stress‑test our storytelling and, more importantly, to reveal how professionals separate s...
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Season 1
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Episode 18
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10:46
The Secret Service Playbook (U.S. Secret Service Agent)
What does it really take to open a locked human safe? Not pressure. Not tricks. Presence. Retired US Secret Service special agent Brad Beeler joins me to unpack the art and science of getting to the truth when everything rides on a single expre...
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Season 1
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Episode 18
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1:05:38
The Road of Life, and Death (Humanitarian)
Headlights in the distance. Two elderly evacuees in the cab. A van bogged down a kilometre from the Russian border. That single night becomes the turning point for Tenby Powell, a former soldier and business leader who now runs one of the few f...
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Season 1
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Episode 17
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54:46
Braking Point (F1 Engineer)
A tiny part failed, a race unravelled, and a dominant team learned a lesson that reshaped its season. We sit down with engineer and technical leader Ruaraidh McDonald-Walker to trace the arc from childhood curiosity to Mercedes’ hybrid breakthr...
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Season 1
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Episode 16
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1:00:56
Heart of the Wild (Conservationist)
A cheetah on a Hollywood set with Angelina Jolie. A Jack Russell with terrible timing. And a moment in a rural hospital that rerouted two lives toward a mission bigger than fame or adrenaline. We sit down with Namibian conservationist Marlice V...
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Season 1
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Episode 15
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54:17
The Ghost Interview (Parapsychologist)
A ghost hitching a ride in the backseat shouldn’t make sense—until you hear how a veteran parapsychologist pulled the story apart and tried to verify it. We sit down with Loyd Auerbach, one of the most respected names in parapsychology, to expl...
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Season 1
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Episode 14
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1:05:08
Crash Landing in the Pacific (Pilot) - Part Two
A single whistle in the dark ocean shouldn’t decide a life, yet that’s exactly how Heidi found her way home. After ditching her aircraft in the Pacific and riding 12‑foot swells under a full moon, she watched search flares sketch the sky while ...
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Season 1
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Episode 13
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40:07
Crash Landing in the Pacific (Pilot) - Part One
A single engine, an endless Pacific, and a decision no pilot wants to make. That’s where Heidi Porch found herself eleven hours into a ferry flight to Hawaii when the oil pressure began to fall and the nearest runway was more than a thousand mi...
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Season 1
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Episode 12
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1:00:51
Taking On a $16 Million Lottery Scam (CEO)
A $16 million lottery ticket sits unclaimed. Hours before the deadline, an anonymous figure tries to cash in through a Belize shell company. That’s where we start—with a gamble that reveals one of the boldest insider frauds in US lottery histor...
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Season 1
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Episode 11
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42:50
Flames, Flow and Fallout (Firefighter-Paramedic)
DISCLAIMER: This episode contains content that may be distressing for some listeners. Please take care while listening. The siren is silent, the room is calm, and the heart is racing anyway. That’s where our conversation with...
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Season 1
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Episode 10
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57:18
36 Hours Trapped in an Arctic Storm (Polar Explorer)
What happens when the wind is so powerful it literally rips the air from your lungs? Sue Stockdale knows this terrifying reality all too well. Trapped for 36 hours in a small tent during a violent storm on the Greenland ice cap, her survival wa...
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Season 1
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Episode 9
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52:30
The Art of Controlled Disaster (Special Effects Artist)
Have you ever wondered how those incredible physical special effects in movies actually work? Not the CGI, but the real explosions, practical weather, and dangerous stunts that make your jaw drop? David Rigley-Williamson pulls back the curtain ...
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Season 1
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Episode 8
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53:32
Surviving a Deadly Underground Flood (Cave Microbiologist)
Meet Dr. Hazel Barton, a remarkable scientist who descends into Earth's darkest corners in search of microscopic life that could transform our future. Nicknamed the "Lara Croft of microbiology," Hazel combines cutting-edge science with death-de...
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Season 1
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Episode 7
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53:40
Shooting in a War Zone (Conflict Cinematographer)
What drives someone to pick up a camera and head straight into the world's most dangerous conflicts? Michael Downey has made a career of documenting history's pivotal moments from the front lines, filming for major news outlets in war zones acr...
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Season 1
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Episode 6
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53:54
First on the Scene at a Plane Crash (Trauma Nurse) - Part Two
Tony Bonner takes us deep into his extraordinary experiences as a first responder at the Lockerbie bombing in this gripping conclusion to his two-part interview. His vivid account of discovering the wreckage of Pan Am Flight 103 – the cockpit e...
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Season 1
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Episode 5
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43:34
First on the Scene at a Plane Crash (Trauma Nurse) - Part One
The red emergency phone had never rung before. When it finally did on December 21st, 1988, trauma nurse Tony Bonner and the Medic One rapid response team knew they were facing something unprecedented. A jumbo jet had crashed in Lockerbie, Scotl...
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Season 1
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Episode 4
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50:18
