Combatting the loneliness and challenges of Dadulthood

SussexWorld

Worthing dad Dan Flanagan braved his terror to seize a fantastic moment of exposure for his Dad La Soul network.

Transcript

00:00Good afternoon. My name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. Lovely to

00:07speak again to Dan. Dan runs a fantastic thing, I didn't realise the scale, three to four

00:12thousand men meeting in Brighton, Lewis and Worthing. And it's a support network for men

00:21who didn't realise they needed a support network. Before we talk about the wonderful thing you've

00:26just done, tell me how it came to be and what it does. So we give dads and male carers a

00:34incredible social life by putting on playdates on a Saturday where they can take their kids.

00:40We do evening events where they come without their kids, essentially a youth club for men,

00:45where there's VR headsets, there's board games, they can come and have a beer, have a cup of tea,

00:51tell some jokes. But then what we do is actually a Trojan horse. So this is where

00:56the support network comes in. We do a range of radio shows, content, everything you need to be

01:04a dad. And the point is, it's dads who need some friendship, need some company, a chance to chat,

01:10but possibly don't realise that they do. The simple thing could be actually, you know,

01:16Saturday is a traditional dad day. You know, you take your kids out, but it can be quite lonely

01:22going to the park on your own. You know, mums, if they go to the park, they'll meet another mum,

01:27exchange numbers, have a playdate. The world's not set up for me to go over and ask somebody

01:31else's missus, hey, you know, can I take your number and we'll hang out? Or you go to soft

01:38play and everybody's on their mobile phones. So, yeah, but also, you know, if you're in a

01:45family situation, maybe you don't have your kids every week. Maybe they live in a different town.

01:50You don't have those support networks that are traditionally built around the school gates.

01:54And a fantastic validation of the work that you do is the talk that you have just done,

02:00Much to Your Own Terror, in Brighton. Tell me what this was. What did you face?

02:07Yeah, it was a TED Global talk. So, the idea is ideas change everything. So TED,

02:17as probably most people know, is a global brand of talks. They flew in the team from the States

02:23to Brighton, put a global talent search out, had six, 700 applications for speakers. I thought,

02:31why not give it a shot? We've got absolutely nothing to lose. And I was chosen. So I just

02:37spent 72 hours in a bubble with our production team because it's actually been made into a TV

02:44show as well. So a bit like the X Factor or Britain's Got Talent.

02:48And do you know when it's going to go out on the show?

02:51Sometime next year. I don't know if it's YouTube or Netflix.

02:55And do you know whether your particular segment, your talk will be available separately?

03:01No, I think it's all going as part of the package because traditionally they do TED events

03:09around the world. And then there's a subset called TEDx. They do the localised versions,

03:15but yeah, this is TED Global. And presumably the value for you is the exposure.

03:21It's global. It's absolutely astonishing, Phil, the amount of

03:27people and the awareness, but also it's the skills that I've learned. Because if you've

03:31got to learn how to pitch and talk in front of essentially a judge or a panel

03:38of people that have been around the best speakers in the world, the feedback, the stagecraft,

03:46all of that is incredible opportunity. But it's also, I think, a really lovely

03:53demonstration for people like my son to go, you know what, you can just do this stuff.

03:57I know it terrifies you, but look, good things can happen if you do that.

04:03Nothing will ever terrify you again, will it?

04:06Well, we'd say that, Phil, you'd say that. But yeah, it's where the door opens. You know,

04:11there are essentially multi-million people seeing it. I've always had the idea that Dad

04:16to Soul should and does deserve to be a global organisation. It should be Dad's chapters in

04:25towns and cities, wherever it needs to be. So if a dad is struggling, he should ideally be in,

04:31you know, walking or travelling distance to go and get some support.

04:36Fantastic. Well, congratulations on the network and double congratulations on the talk and

04:42surviving it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But what an opportunity. What a lovely way to end 2024.

04:50Fantastic. Well done, you. Lovely to speak to you.

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