Before we start, I've got to be honest with you about something.

When we recorded this episode with Mel C, it was honestly one of the most moving, heartbreaking,

inspiring, revealing conversations I've ever had on this podcast and I've been looking forward to sharing this conversation with you for some time now.

And then we had an incident where one of our hard drives was stolen and we lost the audio for Mel's

mic, which is really, really heartbreaking because of all the episodes to lose the audio

for it to be this one is has been very hard to deal with and I think I want to start by apologizing to Mel because she came here she shared her story in such a profound vulnerable way and I've carried the sense of guilt

because when people come here not only they're giving us their time but they're giving us their story and

for some people as is the case in this conversation it's the first time that

that story has been shared in this way so I've been really struggling with that

but because it was such a profound story and to to make sure we honor all of that which Mel gave us by coming here.

We spent a lot of time fixing the audio we do have which actually comes from one of the cameras

that's rolling, not from the microphone in front of her.

We've worked with a specialist to try and repair the audio as much as we possibly can.

And this is one of the episodes where I'm asking you for a favour, which is to stay with us.

I know it's not always easy to listen to audio when it's not as crisp as this audio sounds right now.

But there's a story underneath the lack of clarity in the audio, the lack of crispness in the audio that needs to be heard.

It's one of the most amazing stories we've ever shared.

And so I hope you enjoy this episode and we've put many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many,

many, many, many, many, many, place to make sure that we never lose any audio or

any footage ever again. In this case, it was out of our control, but

um, this episode is worth it, so we're putting it out anyway you're going to enjoy it.

There's an element of guilt attached to my success. It was joyless, you know because I had a secret and he was kidding me.

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