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The Gentle Rebel Podcast

The Gentle Rebel Podcast

Written by: Andy Mort
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The Gentle Rebel Podcast explores the intersection of high sensitivity, creativity, and the influence of culture within, between, and around us. Through a mix of conversational and monologue episodes, I invite you to question the assumptions, pressures, and expectations we have accepted, and to experiment with ways to redefine the possibilities for our individual and collective lives when we view high sensitivity as both a personal trait and a vital part of our collective survival (and potential).Andy Mort Art Self-Help Social Sciences Success
Episodes
  • Is it Possible to Remain Apolitical?

    Is it Possible to Remain Apolitical?
    Sep 23 2026
    I’m sure you’re aware of the controversy surrounding Ed Sheeran’s 2026 Loop Tour. The situation escalated after billionaire tycoon and sports mogul Robert Kraft blocked Ed Sheeran’s support artist, Macklemore, from performing at Gillette Stadium in Massachusetts, following Macklemore’s declaration of solidarity with Palestinians in the face of the genocide being perpetrated by Israel. Under pressure from other stadium owners, Sheeran dropped Macklemore from the entire tour. After the other support artists and his backing band dropped out in solidarity with Macklemore, he continued on his own. He played the first show in Philadelphia last weekend, which he began by reading a prepared statement. This was uncomfortable for him because Sheeran has repeatedly described his commitment to being apolitical and inclusive. He has never wanted to be an “activist musician”. His goal is to create safe spaces where people can sing his songs together without bringing politics into the arena. In this episode of The Gentle Rebel Podcast, I explore how this situation has revealed that it’s not about the politics we carry into that arena (or leave at its door). It’s that politics IS the arena, which is what I want to explore a bit today. https://youtu.be/97b3zG6GW-s The Apolitical Arena Despite a strong interest that I’ve had for decades, I don’t explicitly talk about politics very often. I graduated in 2008 with a degree in Politics and International Relations from the University of Southampton. I would certainly say my interest in the subject underpins a lot of what I do and how I do it. It definitely informs my philosophical framework, especially to things like my critique of the self-help industry. I’ve always been more drawn to the underlying structure than the everyday spectacle of politics: how power, resources, and violence organise themselves, and how ideological narratives normalise those arrangements and maintain stability within society. This is Water Robert Kraft opened a rift and exposed a dimension that is usually well hidden. That rupture has revealed the political structure behind Ed Sheeran’s apolitical stance, which isn’t a particular political expression or belief. The author David Foster Wallace opened his famous commencement speech with the story, This Is Water. You’ve likely heard it. He described two young fish swimming along who meet an older fish swimming the other way. The older fish nods and says, “Morning, boys. How’s the water?” The two young fish swim on for a bit, until one looks at the other and goes, “What the hell is water?” Wallace’s point was that the most obvious and important realities are often the hardest to see. The Italian thinker Antonio Gramsci talked about this in terms of ideological hegemony. Political power doesn’t operate only through laws, coercion, or direct force. It also operates through the things that come to feel normal, natural and obvious. The assumptions and boundaries we don’t think to question because we don’t notice them. Gramsci was interested in how systems of power could persist without constantly forcing people into submission, and how a particular social arrangement becomes Common Sense. Mark Fisher explored a similar idea through Capitalist Realism: the way capitalism has become so pervasive that it can feel less like an man-made idea than the water we move in, breathe in, think in, dream in, and relate to one another in. Ideology, in this sense, isn’t only a belief system someone actively subscribes to. It’s also the structural power relations beneath our words, actions, and beliefs. We can find ourselves acting within systems that tell a different story from the one we consciously believe. Political moments and political art can expose these structures. The Underlying Structure of a Political Belief Ed Sheeran describes his massive stadium tour as a neutral, apolitical space where people are free to sing together and love one another. I don’t doubt that he believes that’s what he is creating. Nothing implies he is being deliberately deceptive. He is describing the experience he wants people to have. But the concert doesn’t float outside of a power structure. And therefore, it doesn’t exist outside of a political context. It is anchored in labour relations, the flow of capital, and the decisions ultimately made by those who own the platforms the rest of us create and consume inside. Most of the time, this happens without us noticing. But in this situation, that rift opened, and we’ve had a little peek beneath the surface. We’ve been reminded that this is water. When we look around so much of life right now, it feels abundantly clear that we are in so many rooms we don’t have a meaningful power stake in. Most of the time we don’t notice. But every so often something happens to remind us. The rent goes up. We get closed down, lose access, or we can’t afford to stay. That is water.
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    15 mins
  • Stop Letting Their Judgement Become Your Story

    Stop Letting Their Judgement Become Your Story
    Sep 29 2026
    Have you ever felt judged by standards that simply don’t fit who you are? In this episode of The Gentle Rebel, we explore Aesop’s fable of the “useless tree” and unpack why introverted and highly sensitive people internalise criticism from those who don’t understand what they bring to the table. The fable describes two travellers who find a plane tree in the midday sun. They take refuge beneath its branches but complain that it’s useless because it produces no edible fruit or nuts. In another version, the tree is an oak. When the rain arrives, they stay dry beneath its leaves. It gets cold, and they make a fire from its broken branches. They get tired and use the leaves to make a bed. The moral is usually told from the travellers’ perspective: don’t overlook the unexpected gifts you might take for granted. But it was interesting to look at the story from the tree’s perspective. And how it feels to overhear the judgement from the people it has sheltered. What story does it tell itself about itself as a result? It is providing exactly what the travellers need. Yet they judge it according to something it doesn’t, and can’t, provide. And what happens when the tree overhears itself described as useless? https://youtu.be/_Mil-167tTc When We Overhear the Judgement Have you ever tried to change something about yourself because of a judgement you heard from someone else? Maybe it was directed at you. Maybe it was directed at someone else, but it punched you in the gut when you overheard it because it felt familiar. Many of us get measured against standards that don’t make sense for us. We might know that intellectually, but it doesn’t take much for the message to seep in and get under our skin, especially if it’s repeated enough times. Maybe it’s the story that you need to be more outgoing, toughen up, or stop caring what other people think. We might start looking for ways to turn ourselves into the proverbial apple tree. Or we might shrink back into the shadows and try to avoid drawing attention to ourselves. The judgement doesn’t have to be true to have an impact. It just has to be believed. The Story I Absorbed Like many introverted and highly sensitive people, I grew up absorbing a story about my behaviour going against the grain of what I should be doing. I wasn’t disruptive and loud. Quite the opposite. I often saw “speak up more” and “put yourself forward” on school reports. This even became a target: “Put your hand up once in every lesson to volunteer an answer.” Was that what I needed? Did it help me connect with the subject and learn better? No. It had the opposite effect. Interestingly, a few teachers never made me feel bad for being quiet. In those classes, I felt much more confident speaking up…if and when I had something to say. The safety to stay quiet made it comfortable to speak up. What Story Does the Judgement Plant? There’s a big difference between changing yourself and changing yourself. We are presented with moulds to fit ourselves into, with the assumption that to belong we have to change who we are. But there’s a difference between changing because you’ve decided something matters to you, and changing because you’ve overheard someone saying there’s something wrong with the way you are. An oak tree grows. It loses branches, extends its roots, and takes shape in response to the weather. But it changes as it is. It doesn’t become an apple tree (it can’t). There’s something liberating about knowing that. Because the judgements we overhear can sting, but they can also become stories about who we think we’re supposed to be. What could change when you stop trying to be somewhere other than where you are?
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    13 mins
  • Big Feelings and Big Joy as a Highly Sensitive Person (with April Snow)

    Big Feelings and Big Joy as a Highly Sensitive Person (with April Snow)
    Oct 5 2026
    What does it mean to live well as a highly sensitive person without turning sensitivity into another thing to optimise? In this episode of The Gentle Rebel Podcast, I’m joined by licensed psychotherapist and author April Snow to talk about her new book, Big Feelings, Big Joy: The Essential Practices to Reclaim Your Strengths as a Highly Sensitive Person. April discovered the language of high sensitivity while training to become a therapist, after years of wondering why she experienced the world so intensely. Since then, she has spent more than a decade working with HSPs and exploring what helps us find balance, make sense of our experiences, and create lives that work with our sensitivity rather than against it. We talked about the positive aspects of sensitivity, the problems with some of the advice circulating through wellness and personal development culture, and the importance of giving ourselves enough space to notice what actually works for us. Big Feelings, Big Joy In the episode, April describes her ORCHID framework, which offers a more human, positive way to describe the characteristics associated with high sensitivity. We discuss the difference between understanding sensitivity as a way of making sense of our experiences and turning it into a tightly defining identity. The joy of creative sensitivity Sensitivity isn’t only about being affected by difficult or overwhelming experiences. It can also mean experiencing music, art, awe, excitement and other positive experiences very deeply. This positive capacity is central to the title and approach of April’s book. The pressure to optimise ourselves We talk about the endless routines and protocols found in wellness and productivity culture, and why HSPs might want to be particularly cautious about turning self-care into another long list of things to get right. Less can be more April suggests that small changes can make a surprisingly large difference for HSPs. Rather than adding more practices to an already crowded morning, it might be more useful to sleep longer, daydream, walk, listen to a favourite song, or find another everyday activity that naturally helps you regulate. Finding the counterbalance We explore the idea that a healthy nervous system isn’t one that stays permanently calm. We need activation, stimulation and meaningful experiences too. The important thing is having enough flexibility to come back and re-regulate afterwards. Transitions and the spaces between things We talk about the value of giving ourselves time to move from one state or activity to another, rather than constantly switching gears. Sometimes the transition itself is where we need to slow down. Making “no” a default answer, but not necessarily the final answer April and I explore how an immediate “no” can sometimes be a default response to an invitation or new experience, especially when we’re tired or overwhelmed. Giving ourselves time before responding can create space to discover whether something is actually a no, a yes, or a “maybe, let me think about it.” The importance of flexibility Our energy and capacity aren’t fixed. We talk about leaving room in our plans so we can respond to how we’re actually feeling, rather than following a rigid schedule no matter what life brings. Small pockets of joy as anchors Because highly sensitive people may be more affected by both positive and negative experiences, small moments of joy, comfort and connection can have a powerful effect. April shares memories from childhood that helped her stay grounded during more difficult periods, and we explore how this might work in adult life too. Creating a little sanctuary Even when our wider environment is noisy, chaotic or simply not suited to us, we may be able to find small spaces or rituals that give us somewhere to breathe. Sometimes that might be a whole room; sometimes it’s a car, a park, a library, or five minutes of something that feels like ours. Taking our time We also talk about April’s experience of writing the book itself. If she were doing it again, she says she would spend longer at the beginning researching, reflecting and allowing the ideas to simmer before diving into the work. It’s a lovely example of applying the very principles she’s writing about to a creative process. You can listen to the full conversation in this episode of The Gentle Rebel Podcast. I will also be exploring some of these themes in more depth in a series of videos. About April April Snow, LMFT, is a licensed psychotherapist, author, and consultant. She specialises in working with highly sensitive people to help calm the storm of overload, guilt, and self-doubt to allow their innate sensitive strengths to shine through. Deeply committed to changing the narrative of what it means to be highly sensitive, April supports HSPs around the world through her Sensitive Circles community, Sensitive Sessions workshops, and Sensitive Stories podcast. In addition to...
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    54 mins
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