Men’s stories, told without posturing.
Men on Show follows Andrew Payne in steady, personal conversations with men working through pressure, pain, recovery, and responsibility. The episodes favor lived experience over slogans, moving from difficult stories into practical ways men can look after themselves and each other.
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Men on Show is a plain-spoken interview series about men trying to live with more honesty, steadiness, and connection. Andrew Payne sets a warm pace. The conversations are built around guests who have turned personal difficulty, professional experience, or community work into something useful for other men. Mental health is a central thread, but the show rarely treats it as an abstract issue. It shows up in practical scenes: taking ten minutes to notice emotions, going outside for walk-and-talk therapy, playing games with other men, sharing pizza before a talk group, or cleaning up the basics when life has become heavy. The guests bring varied routes into the same larger question. Sam Adams talks about emotional literacy, people pleasing, and valuing oneself. Jack speaks about Menfulness, community activities, and ways to spot when a mate may be struggling. Stephen Hall connects outdoor therapy, trauma, suicide, and men dropping the mask in nature. Steve Judge brings uncertainty, self-care, and the mindset needed after a severe setback. Matt Grisedale discusses men’s wellbeing inside a large UK energy supplier. James Hayhurst brings the pain of relationship breakdown and the importance of protecting children through co-parenting. The show’s strength is its patience. It gives guests time to tell the story before drawing out the lesson, and Payne’s questions tend to clarify rather than compete. Heavy subjects are handled with care, in ordinary language, and with a repeated emphasis on small, workable steps. There is little slickness here. That is part of its appeal. Men on Show suits listeners looking for thoughtful conversations about masculinity, friendship, fatherhood, recovery, and community without posturing, jargon, or easy answers.
Made for: For listeners interested in men’s mental health, fatherhood, friendship, recovery, and community building. It especially suits people who prefer lived experience and practical reflection over polished self-help formulas.
What sets it apart: Men on Show keeps the focus on ordinary forms of support: talking while walking, gaming, eating together, noticing a friend, or building a workplace group. Its interviews make room for pain without turning the conversation clinical or combative.
"Candid conversations with everyday heroes"Heroes don't always come regaled in capes or fly through the air.Sometimes you could (and quite likely have) walked past one on the street and not even known.We hear so many stories about men behaving badly, but what about the men being brilliant?Join Andrew Pain as he finds and chats to these "everyday heroes", ordinary men who have done, and are doing extraordinary things.
Based on 4 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Andrew Payne turns candid accounts of struggle, recovery and friendship into practical conversations about how men care for themselves and one another.
Andrew Payne gives men room to describe the mechanics of getting through difficult periods, then asks what helped enough to be useful to someone else. The interview format moves from personal history into practical questions about resilience, emotional awareness and friendship.
Pizza before feelings: your route into male vulnerability need not look like therapy homework.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A calm, practical conversation about men learning to value themselves and deal more honestly with conflict.
Sam Adams and Andrew Payne spend this Men on Show conversation on how men can avoid conflict and start valuing themselves more honestly. The focus stays close to lived experience, moving from younger man discomfort into the slower work of noticing fear, anxiety, nerves, grief,…
A steady, sympathetic conversation about connection, mental health, and support that feels natural rather than forced.
Andrew Payne's interview stays centered on a simple idea: men build connection more easily when the setting is ordinary and low-pressure. Jack's examples, from gaming and cards to a talk group with pizza at the start and even a father's hair-school moment, keep grounding the…
A practical conversation about men's support, nature, and connection.
Andrew Payne's conversation with Stephen Hall keeps its focus on how men can find support when traditional services miss them. Hall's account of child abuse, trauma, and reaching suicide gives the discussion weight, while his path into outdoor therapy, the books that shaped him…
A recovery story shaped by basic routines, fresh air, and the harder work of staying steady.
Men on Show follows Steve Judge through recovery after an accident and keeps circling the way certainty falls away. Andrew Payne draws out the plain routines Judge says mattered most: tidying up, washing, a long shower, a shave, and getting fresh air.
Men's issues, argued without soft edges.
Men’s issues without the performance.
Andrew Payne welcomes Sam Adams, founder of Liberating Masculinity, and trustee for the Association for Male Health and Wellbeing.
Andrew Payne opens by introducing Jack and asking what shaped him.
Andrew Payne welcomes Stephen Hall and opens on the path from child abuse, trauma, and coming to the point of suicide to the work Hall does now.
Men on Show opens with Andrew Payne introducing Steve Judge.
Andrew Payne interviews Matt Grisdell, a Senior People Champion at Eon Energy, about building a men's community within the company to support men's well-being.
James Hayhurst tells Andrew Payne how the Parents' Promise, launched in the UK in 2021, asks separating parents to preserve children’s family relationships, remain kind, and work together.