You already know my voice. For twenty-five years, I've been telling you to mind the gap on trains across Ireland. This is the same instruction. The gap is just different now. Mind the Gap is a podcast about the space between what we think we're doing and what we're actually doing. Between intention and impact. Between the behaviour we display and the one we'd choose if we were paying attention. Each episode is a short reflection — drawn from psychology, philosophy, and the texture of everyday life — on one of those gaps. Why do we give advice nobody asked for? Why do w...
Latest episodes
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10 min
What I Heard When I Listened Back
Episode 90 of Mind the Gap is a pause rather than a conclusion. Looking back through the archive, Michael listens again to the ideas, questions, certainties and contradictions that…
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8 min
The Effect Nobody Read Properly
You know the Dunning-Kruger effect. "The dumbest people are the most confident." Except that's not what the 1999 study actually found — and the correction most people haven't heard…
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6 min
Not That Kind of Family
"We're a family here." You've heard it, probably from someone who meant it warmly. This week, Michael Comyn takes the phrase more seriously than it usually gets taken — and asks th…
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7 min
Nobody Noticed the Bend
The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster wasn't a surprise. Engineers had seen the same O-ring damage on earlier, successful flights — reviewed, discussed, waved through. Nobody hid i…
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8 min
The Shape of the Story You're In
You already know the voice. This week, a different kind of gap — the one between the life you're living and the plot you never actually chose. Michael Comyn draws on psychiatrist E…
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13 min
Can't You Take a Joke?
The sentence arrives about a second and a half after the remark, and it is always delivered lightly: I'm only joking. Notice where it sits. It doesn't withdraw what was said — it l…
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11 min
The Authority Gradient
Last week, Michael Comyn made the case for silence. This week, the exception — because there's a second kind of silence, the sentence that was formed, weighed, and then never said.…
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8 min
Dead Air
The voice that tells Ireland to mind the gap spent thirty years being trained never to let silence happen. In radio, they call it dead air — eight seconds of quiet and alarms sound…
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8 min
Two Takes
Twenty-six years ago, a voice was recorded in a studio in Manchester. Two takes. The first was used. The second was a safety copy. Nobody thought it would matter. That voice now te…
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7 min
Shut Up. Let It Land.
Sometimes the most intelligent thing in the room is the thing left unsaid. We had a friend called Bob. When someone was being foolish — not malicious, just foolish — Bob wouldn't a…
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8 min
The Good Student Leaves
There’s a railway station in Ireland that exists for one purpose only, not to arrive, not to stay, but to move on. In this episode of Mind the Gap, Michael Comyn explores a moment…
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10 min
When Conversation Stops Being Shared- When bores bore each other.
We’ve all met them. The person who can hold the floor without drawing breath. The one who doesn’t quite notice when someone else is trying to speak. The conversation that somehow b…
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11 min
When did we stop looking?
You walk into a café. The coffee is perfect. The service is efficient. And not once does anyone look at you. This episode starts with that small absence — and follows it somewhere…
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8 min
You Know What You Should Do!
Before offering advice, ask a quieter question “You know what you should do.” Five familiar words, usually offered with kindness, sometimes with genuine care. Yet when we hear the…
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18 min
Contentment in a Burning World
In this episode of Mind the Gap, Michael Comyn explores a quiet but uncomfortable question. Is it acceptable to feel content while the world around us seems unsettled? With images…
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15 min
The Smile That Isn’t Yours
In 1954, Smile became an anthem of quiet endurance. The melody was written by Charlie Chaplin for the closing scene of Modern Times, with lyrics later added by John Turner and Geof…
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10 min
When the System Decides You’re Old
Mind the Age Gap | Retirement Age, Identity and the Psychology of Ageing What does retirement age really mean in modern life? In this episode of Mind the Gap, Michael Comyn explore…
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12 min
Whatever the Mistake, It’s the Lie Afterwards That Hurts More
This week, during a leadership course, a participant shared a line from her father that stopped the room: “Whatever the mistake, it’s the lie afterwards that hurts more.” In this e…
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9 min
Living with Fewer Filters
Here’s the thing. Most of us spend our lives editing ourselves in real time. Softening opinions. Swallowing reactions. Running everything through an internal risk assessment before…
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10 min
How We Heal in Ordinary Ways
How do people really heal? Not through dramatic breakthroughs, but through small, ordinary moments. In this episode, Michael Comyn reflects on personal recovery from a recent exper…