THE SLOW DOWN

After being adopted, Andrew Missingham became a drummer and musical director on gold-certified UK records, then spent three years running British Council music programmes across 43 countries in Africa, the Middle East and South Asia, then lead arts programming at the ICA. He later moved into data and strategy, becoming a Chief Data & Insights Officer and AI adoption pioneer for clients including Nike, Google, Unilever, Discord and the Southbank Centre, and a serial entrepreneur who founded 8 businesses and built and exited a 30-person consultancy. 
In 2020, the pace caught up with him. A nervous collapse forced Andrew to rebuild his life from the ground up, and 1,300 consecutive days of vipassana meditation later, he's become one of the most thoughtful voices on what it looks like for a man to lead by listening instead of force. Andrew now lives by a mantra tattooed on his arm: Live to Listen. Listen to Learn. Learn to Share. 
Andrew is one of the most genuinely curious people I've met, and someone who has spent decades doing the connective, uncredited work of bringing people, culture and data together without ever chasing recognition for it.
In this episode we cover:
Choosing to be adopted 

How drumming led to managing and producing 

Blacktronica Club nights at the ICA and other memorable events

What is an ‘insight’? 

His 2020 nervous collapse and what it forced him to rebuild

The 4 key steps of his recovery: his new tools  

A 10-day Vipassana that led him back to his foster parents 

What gentle masculinity looks like in practice, and leading by listening

His fears of being a good father & his relationship with his daughter 

Mentions:
Emergency on Planet Earth by Jamiroquai (1993 album)
The Messengers (1995) by Barungwa
Blacktronika https://www.blacktronika.com/ 
The ICA (Institute of Contemporary Arts) 
Dhamma Sukhakāri https://www.dhamma.org/en/schedules/schsukhakari 
The Eye's Mind by Bridget RileyAbout a Boy (film)Shakara by Fela Kuti, ft. Tony Allen on drums
Links: 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewmissingham/
This season of The Slow Down is sponsored by female-founded, greek swim and resortwear brand Kiohne. The Slow Down listeners can use code theslowdown for 20% off their first shop on kiohne.com Enter their world, explore their collection and buy beautiful pieces designed to be enjoyed while slowing down this summer.

June Angelides MBE believes that what is meant for you will find you — but only if you make the space to let it. Growing up in Lagos, she arrived in the UK and built a career in finance that, on paper, made sense. It wasn't until her second maternity leave — when she found herself the first woman at Silicon Valley Bank's UK office to take mat leave, confronting a company with no infrastructure for mothers — that she understood what she was actually meant to build. Mums in Tech, the community she created to teach mothers to code, earned her an MBE. What followed was a portfolio that was always, deliberately, many things at once: venture and angel investing, advisory work, a column in the Financial Times, board seats, and now a debut book — a biography-come-love-letter to the grandmother who shaped her. She is interested in not just how we build successful careers but how we build ones we can actually sustain. 
June is an extraordinary friend, mother of 3  and one of very few senior black women in venture capital. She juggle A LOT with so much grace and intention - I wanted to know how she finds the balance and how she sees her journey so far. 
In this episode we cover:
Growing up in Lagos

Being the first woman at Silicon Valley Bank UK to take maternity leave 

The motherhood penalty

Building Mums in Tech & getting an MBE for it 

Starting The Portfolio Method to support people with portfolio careers 

Leaving full-time corporate life and sitting with the uncomfortable silence

Her grandmother's legacy and the book written in her honour

Mentions: 
Ejeka Jo by Ecstasy (her aunt and uncle's band) 
Mindset by Carol Dweck 
Links: https://www.instagram.com/juneangelides/

This season of The Slow Down is sponsored by female-founded, greek swim and resortwear brand Kiohne. The Slow Down listeners can use code theslowdown for 20% off their first shop on www.kiohne.com Enter their world, explore their collection and buy beautiful pieces designed to be enjoyed while slowing down this summer.

Rollo Skinner is a British artist, author and botanical set designer (clients include: Gucci, Barbour, Mulberry, and renowned fashion photographer Tim Walker) whose work is rooted in a deep love of the natural world. Based between Dorset and London, Rollo feels most at home amongst the trees in the woods by his family farmhouse, dreaming up stories and new creations with Ben (the family sheepdog who’s terrified of sheep). Having taken a series of self-described wrong-turns throughout his twenties, reconnecting with the natural world of his childhood has become both his inspiration and his anchor. 
Rollo has grown a practice that spans illustration, storytelling, painting, botanical installations and set design. He realised that by creating things, he was recreating the self that he had lost along the way, and is now committed to following his curiosity, repeatedly, over and over again – his mission is to inspire others to do the same.

In this episode we cover: 
Growing up queer in the countryside

His acting career & saying no to a Netflix TV deal 

Why the advertising years broke him 

How lockdown led him to flowers 

Reframing Return: Why going home isn't going backwards

Working with Tim Walker & other dream jobs 

Building a practice where you can explore our multitudes 

Mentions:
Lifeboat (Lovers Rock) by The Penguin Cafe Orchestra (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIgrtSkUOEc) 

Links:
https://www.instagram.com/rolloskinner/ 
rolloskinner.com 

This season of The Slow Down is sponsored by female-founded, greek swim and resortwear brand Kiohne. The Slow Down listeners can use code theslowdown for 20% off their first shop on kiohne.com Enter their world, explore their collection and buy beautiful pieces designed to be enjoyed while slowing down this summer.

Award-winning psychologist Dr. Lalitaa Suglani unpacks why the most capable people in the room are often the most anxious — and how to stop performing wellness and start feeling it. A conversation about burnout, workaholism,  inner child work, and what real success actually looks like. Dr. Lalitaa is a renowned speaker, somatic practitioner, and the author of High Functioning Anxiety — a book that has helped thousands of high achievers move from survival mode to intentional living. Her holistic approach combines science-backed strategies with practical tools for personal growth to help people rebuild self-trust from the inside out.

In this episode we cover: 
Her own childhood  as 1 of 5 kids and examples of success
Following her intuition to psychology 
The Swan Analogy to help explain High Functioning Anxiety 
Shifting from anxiety-driven doing to grounded, intentional being. 
Her step-by-step clinic exercise: The Trigger Worksheet 
Every yes is a no to you - A reframe on people-pleasing.
Why highly sensitive individuals unconsciously absorb other people's emotional states
Why real-world interactions are the antidote to the highlight reel
The connection between menstrual cycles, mood, and anxiety

Mentions: 
Kirtan - singing
Omnom restaurant  

Links:
https://www.instagram.com/dr.lalitaa/

Sex, Death, Comedy: Enter the nuanced world of Shannon Murphy
Shannon Murphy is the director of 2019 debut hit Babyteeth (94% on rotten tomatoes at last check). I was moved to tears many times by the film and have since gone on to watch other things she has directed including Killing Eve, her episode of which was nominated for 3 EMMYs, Dave which is literally one of my favourite TV series and Dying for Sex, for which she won the Outstanding Directorial Achievement at the 2026 Director’s Guild of America (DGA) Awards.
I know being a female director of the highest calibre is not easy - add onto that being a single mother, continents away from your family. I wanted to know how she finds her voice and stands her ground in her industry, how she practices patience between projects and creates such emotionally sensitive and nuanced work. 

In this episode we cover: 
From Nairobi to Hong Kong: how a globally nomadic childhood shaped her creative voice

The reality of being a female director: bias, breakthroughs, and finding your own path in film & TV

Why the “female gaze” isn’t just important—it’s where the most exciting stories are right now  

What it really feels like to premiere at Venice—and survive an 8-minute standing ovation

Why comedy is so hard: what works, what bombs, and how great directors fix it in real time

Inside high-pressure film sets: chaos, creativity, and leading hundreds of people 

Creative intensity & recovery: the ebbs and flows of a creative life and how to balance it 

Mentons:
Bertolt Brecht 
Jim Henson’s Storyteller series by Anthony Mingela
Winnie (documentary film) by Pascal Lampshe
Santiana - old fishing folk song 

Links: 
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2221724/ 
https://www.instagram.com/shannnnnny/