Welcome to The lockdown Dads podcast
James Millar and Ian Dinwiddy are recording a podcast exploring the impact of lockdown, self isolation and social distancing on working dads and their families.
We’ll share tips, thoughts and stories with special guests, discuss our hopes for the future and the opportunities that all this represents, especially for dads who want to be more active and involved fathers but who until now have struggled with the expectations of what it means to be a man in the workplace.
Latest Episode
In this, the last episode of Lockdown Dads, James and I reflect on 18 months of pandemic podcasting as England celebrates "Freedom Day."
The truth is that the fear of catching Covid, home school disruption, and getting through the days are as prevalent as ever. We consider some of the hopelessly optimistic predictions we made in year - lockdown could be all over by June!? But also the certainty of the stay at home messaging v the weariness and low level anxiety of July 2021.
We talk about some of the guests that stuck in our minds and the good, the bad and the absurd of the tips we shared.
Who can forget James' pants discussion with Jessica Chivers (Ep20) or Ian going with "it's time to check your energy bills" with Will, drummer in Coldplay (Ep35).
We put to bed the rumour that the best guests are ones with 50,000 Insta followers like Ian's brother Chris (!), and discuss the amazingly practical mindful dad - Ady Griffiths (Ep23) and less than amusing circumstances that comics Philip Simon (Ep6) and Tiernan Douieb (Ep3) faced throughout the pandemic.
We talk about research and data, emotionally tricky episodes with Rhian Mannings MBE (Ep38) and Brian Ballantyne (Ep37) and having a laugh with Nathan McGurl (Ep31) and Jamie Beaglehole (Ep34) So for the moment that is the end of Lockdown Dads, at least in this guise!
And our parting wish is, don't forget that "good enough is good enough."
About Us
James Millar
James Millar is editor of the workingdads.co.uk website - a site for men for whom work isn't working. As well as featuring tons of job adverts for flexible and part time jobs the aim is to share best practice, news and case studies to help and encourage men to find the work life balance they want through flexible working, part time working and extra paternity leave.
He is also the co-author of two books - The Gender Agenda which was published in 2017 and Dads Don't Babysit published in 2018. And he's a veteran podcaster who currently produces A Podcast of One's Own with Julia Gillard for the Global Institute for Women's Leadership at King's College London and the Brexit Breakdown podcast for the UK in a Changing Europe think tank. Last but not least he's the main carer for his two children!
Ian Dinwiddy
Ian is a coach, writer and commentator on all things ‘working father’ related. He is the founder of Inspiring Dads, a coaching business that helps stressed dads to balance work and fatherhood by providing space and time to talk about their pressures.
Ian previously worked as an Operational Change Management Consultant working with major retailers such as Tesco, Sainsburys and B&Q. After his first child was born in 2010, Ian spent seven years combining freelance work with being the primary carer to his children including two stints as a “full time” stay at home Dad.
Ian was a “Dads at Work” guest editor for daddilife.com and is a contributor to workingdads.co.uk
Getting in touch
We’d love to get your lockdown top tips and any comments about topics we can cover in future weeks. Drop us a message, we’d love to get your thoughts!
