Somewhat Grown

Have you ever noticed yourself complaining about something you haven’t yet had the will to change? What would it look like to pause and review the things that consume your energy the most? Do you know what your why is? Join us as we talk about how to be present as a way of slowing down time and reflect on ways to fill the time we have with what matters most. We hope you enjoy this final episode of season 3!

Are you a Christmas lover or a Grinch? What makes the festive season for you and how do you balance expectations with reality? How does it feel to reflect on the past year? Join us as we chat about our favourite cosy Christmas features, from markets to food, holding space for grief within the holiday season and reflecting on key lessons/highlights from the year. We hope you enjoy our last conversation of 2025 as we delve into the joys and challenges that come with the end of the year, as well as what we’re looking forward to in 2026. Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

What's the difference between coping and healing? How has your home life and cultural background shaped your attitudes about work and wellbeing? Are we thriving or still surviving in less severe ways than our older generations did? Joining us to talk about intergenerational trauma, healing and wellbeing is none other than our wellness advocate and beloved day one, Joy! Listen in as we talk about some common myths about mental health, the presence of intergenerational trauma as well as the often less talked about intergenerational blessings that equally feed into who we are.

 

You can find Joy on Instagram by searching @joyamplified

For some of us, the topic of AI is straight up spooky, so we decided to delve into our thoughts, feelings and experiences with it. Can AI make the world a fairer and better place? What happens to our brain capacity when thinking is outsourced to advanced AI chatbots? Do the benefits of efficiency outweigh the loss of human touch? Join us as we talk about modern living, from the current crises of being employed and unhappy or unemployed and frustrated, to AI catfishing. Things might be scary, but we’re in this together!

 

02:19 The Job Market and Work-Life Balance

06:42 Introduction to Why We’re Talking About AI

07:54 Word of the day and AI Bias

22:50 The Impact of AI on Dating Conversations

24:01 AI's Influence on Cognitive Processing

31:35 Navigating Career Paths with AI Assistance

35:19 ChatGPT vs Creativity

44:40 Embracing Uniqueness and Imperfection in an AI World

 

When dating feels like a minefield, do we keep trying? Does our inner hopeless romantic fade away with age? Is online dating being replaced by a need to regain real connection? We’re joined by special guest Chima, Izzy’s fiance, as we get into the topic from different perspectives. Tune in as the couple reflect on what took them from liking each other's profiles to saying yes to a long life together. We also share our online dating profile red and green flags, how being open-minded can lead to unexpected connections and offer our thoughts on staying hopeful yet grounded in these streets!

 

02:34 Chima and Izzy’s Journal: From Hinge to Engagement

11:10 Understanding Deal Breakers and Red Flags

16:45 Romance and Realism: Balancing Expectations

32:06 The Importance of Intentionality in Dating

33:41 Navigating Online Dating and the Shift to In-Person

49:12 The Search for Good Partners

55:50 Living a Full Life Beyond Relationships

This episode kicks off with a quick catch-up on how life has been since June, where we both celebrated our birthdays! Then we delve into the world of ADHD with a word of the day that almost has Thembe stumped! How might we better understand ADHD? How can people living with it be less misunderstood? Is it a superpower or a curse? Join us as we explore this topic through our respective stages of learning about it more deeply and getting a recent diagnosis. In the spirit of unmasking, we share some of the day-to-day experiences that we now look back on with new awareness about our own coping mechanisms and quirks.

What feelings come up when you think of the words failure or fear? When the journey is not Instagrammable, how do we shift our focus to the process rather than the end goal? How do we fail quicker? Join us as we talk about how our relationships to the f word have shifted to embrace the necessary learning and growth opportunities it provides. We get vulnerable by sharing our previous moments of failure and what they taught us. We also make a case for the importance of trying, before Thembe closes us out with a special reading of a poem.

 

You can also subscribe to Thembe’s substack here: https://thembemvula.substack.com/

We're thrilled to bring you our first special guest feature of the season so far! Eugene is Co-Founder and one-third of Social Matters, a consultancy specialising in Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging (EDIB). So, what does belonging look like in the workplace and how do we keep on doing the work of inclusion? Does it even still matter? Whilst Izzy brings her professional EDIB expertise and Thembe offers thoughtful reflections, Eugene shares knowledgeable insights from his work at Social Matters and beyond. Together, we discuss the current landscape of EDIB, share our observations when comparing the UK to the state of play in the US and dig into what bringing our authentic selves to work and life truly means.

Follow and find out more about Social Matters here: https://linktr.ee/Socialmatterspodcast

Join us as we introduce a new Somewhat Grown feature: the Silly Billy Awards! This is where we hold space for our imperfections and embrace silly moments in a lighthearted way. We also talk about what makes community important and the struggles we face when seeking it out. Is there a real difference between community and friendship? Other highlights include Izzy sharing the exciting life update of her recent engagement(!) and how culture and upbringing can shape our idea of community. We hope you enjoy this one.

Check out Yoga and Pints Men’s wellness group on Instagram at @yogaandpints

We’re back and we missed you all! Wondering what we’ve been up to since 2023? What’s new from 2024 and 2025? How it feels to transition from our twenties to thirties? Join us as we reflect on our highlights from the past year, including turning 30, adventures in Barbados and reconnecting with family in Nigeria and South Africa respectively. We also discuss the importance of rest, career qualms, together with redundancy and navigating life changes. There’s a lot to catch up on and we hope you enjoy listening! You can now also watch this episode on our BRAND NEW YouTube channel: Somewhat_Grown.