Show Notes
Ross Edgley joins James Smith for a reunion years in the making. Ross is the ultramarathon sea swimmer who swam around Great Britain and then the whole coast of Iceland.
Ahead of his new book How To Hero, he opens up about losing his dad, waking up in hospital after failed swims, and being told doctors had never seen blood work like his on a living person. He also explains the brain science of why some people keep going when everything hurts and others tap out.
🎬 Edits Course: https://jamessmith.business/ig-edits
👁️ Try Neutonic: https://www.neutonic.com/jamessmith
🧪 Check your Test: https://www.manual.co/smith
📝 Business Mentoring: https://www.jamessmith.business
Ross Edgley's YouTube Channel – https://www.youtube.com/@RossEdgley
Ross Edgley On Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/rossedgley/
He explains:
◼️ The part of your brain that decides whether you grit it out or quit
◼️ Why purpose has to outweigh pain if you want to finish hard things
◼️ How your reward system crashes when results don't show up
◼️ Why running on anger and self-talk burns out over long efforts
◼️ What Viking berserkers and Icelandic sagas teach us about heroism
Chapters:
00:00 Intro
01:41 Reunion and Ross's Biggest Night Out
02:24 How Becoming a Dad Changes Everything
06:50 Why People Aren't Having Kids Anymore
09:29 Does Family Switch Off Your Stress Response?
11:17 Loch Ness, Lake Trasimeno and Waking Up in Hospital
14:15 Swimming Through 12 Hours of Darkness
14:45 Why Iceland Produces So Many Physical Freaks
17:32 CrossFit Champions, Vikings and Eddie Hall
19:46 Water Polo: One of the Hardest Sports on Earth
23:57 Getting Crushed by Roger Gracie
27:41 The Brain Region Behind Grit or Quit
29:53 Everyone Is Scared Before They Compete
32:52 Arousal, Warm-Ups and Competing Your Own Way
33:43 Berserkers and the Viking Battle Frenzy
36:37 Nasal Breathing and Building CO2 Tolerance
39:21 When Training Past Your Body's Alarms Goes Wrong
42:23 James Freezing His Sperm Before Tour
43:03 Losing His Dad and the Myth of Sisyphus
48:03 Khabib, Grief and Finding a Reason to Get Up
50:37 How Jiu-Jitsu Gave James's Training Purpose
52:40 Swimming on the Spot for Four Hours in Iceland
55:43 Why Feedback Keeps People Going
58:39 Everyone Needs a Cheerleader
01:00:20 Why Ross Would Never Step Into a Cage
01:02:39 Goggins, Gratitude and Ross's Shadow Self
01:05:55 James Trains to Ruin Other People's Days
01:07:39 Are All High Achievers Psychopaths?
01:08:43 Thor, Odin and Why Heroes Aren't Pretty
01:10:43 Building Your Ego, Then Destroying It
01:12:05 A Million Followers and Feeling Nothing
01:13:42 The $50,000 Vegas Trip
01:15:48 Ross's Ayahuasca Experience in the Amazon
01:23:07 James's First Time on Ketamine
01:29:06 Hating Therapy and Low Testosterone
01:29:45 How Amazon Tribes Worked Out Ayahuasca
01:31:02 Icelandic Folklore and Living With Nature
01:32:19 James's Mushroom Trip and Duty to the Flame
01:39:29 How Psychedelics Led James to Fatherhood
01:42:58 When Psychedelics Go Wrong
01:45:43 Modafinil, Clenbuterol and Two Weeks in Barcelona
01:47:39 Fuelling the World's Longest Non-Stop River Swim
01:49:38 GLP-1s, Digestion and Losing Muscle at Sea
01:52:59 Getting Destroyed by a Competitive Eater
01:55:25 James's Boring Meal Prep Strategy
01:57:47 Hernias, Snapped MCLs and Getting Older
02:01:40 Stem Cells and Extending Your Career
02:05:18 Do Peptides Actually Work?
02:08:03 Should England Rugby Use Hype Videos?
02:12:49 Mike Tyson's Stare
02:14:03 Training With Volkanovsky and Tom Aspinall
02:17:05 How To Hero Release Date Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
More from The James Smith Show
Ollie Marchon joins James Smith for a business masterclass on what it really takes to build a fitness brand in the UK right now. A former professional rugby player turned coach, Ollie started out cold calling leisure centre members and training clients in a converted cattle shed. Ten years later he runs Marchon across four verticals: in-person gyms, an online training app, a sports nutrition range and a growing community of hybrid athletes.
Olly Staniland joins James Smith to break down what actually makes a YouTube video work. Olly works on James's YouTube channel and, like James, studied under Ed Lawrence. They go through real thumbnails and analytics from James's channel, why one video with 80,000 views made nothing while another with 60,000 made thousands, how Matt Armstrong and Carwow built huge channels by repeating one format, and the status games that drive what people click and buy.
Alan Barratt on entrepreneurship, business ownership, and the reality of building a brand from the ground up.
Rebecca Oliver-Mooney joins James Smith for a conversation that starts with a left-handed can and ends up somewhere far more uncomfortable. Founder of the Raising The Glass network and a drinks industry buyer who has sat on the other side of the table from hundreds of challenger brands, Rebecca explains why most founders put half their message where the shelf will hide it, why GLP-1s are about to reshape what food and drink gets made, and why menopause is the category nobody has been willing to build for yet.
Jason 'Foxy' Fox joins James Smith, on his wife's birthday no less, for an unfiltered and very funny conversation that swaps the usual topics for a proper sit-down with the boys. A former UK Special Forces operator and the longest-serving member of the SAS: Who Dares Wins directing staff, Foxy opens up about becoming a dad again at 50 after seven years of IVF, missing his son's birth over a WhatsApp video call, and why newborn sleep deprivation hits harder than anything the military threw at him.