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Chapter X with Michael KayAuthor: Michael F Kay
What happens after a successful career ends? This podcast explores how men navigate retirement, identity, and purpose beyond work. Each week, Michael and his guests look at the real challenges of life transition. the loss of structure, the shift in identity, and the search for meaning and purpose that follows. If you're a man rethinking what fulfillment looks like after decades of hard-charging work, you're in the right place. Language: en Genres: Business, Careers, Education, Self-Improvement Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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The Joy of Becoming a Beginner Again
Episode 243
Wednesday, 22 July, 2026
We tend to avoid anything we won't be instantly good at. Richard Sparks has spent forty years proving that instinct is wrong. Richard is a writer who has spent 40 years bouncing between comedy sketches, TV scripts, opera translations, and now fantasy novels. He wrote for a young Rowan Atkinson before anyone knew his name, then somehow ended up translating operas with no background in the form. In this episode, Richard shares why he never expects a first draft to work and how that same patience helped him build a fantasy series after decades of writing scripts. We cover: The strange side job that taught Richard he could actually get paid to write What happened the first time he watched an actor perform a sketch he wrote The one thing Richard tells every young writer about a bad first draft Why he walked away from decades of scriptwriting for something he'd never done before A story structure mistake he says ruined the ending of a hit TV series The line from Mel Brooks that reframed how Richard thinks about comedy vs. tragedy -- Resources Get free chapters at: https://richardsparks.com












