Ep 17 | When two people become your north star | With Tom Barnes

What does it look like when two people spend a lifetime quietly making everyone around them better? For Tom Barnes - sports media executive, endurance athlete, and one of a handful of people to have ever rowed an ocean - the answer is Paul and Linda. His parents.

Long before Tom and his rowing partner Rich pushed off from the Canary Islands into 72 days of open Atlantic, it was Paul who said six words that changed everything: "What can I do to help?" No hesitation. No doubt. Just a quiet, unconditional yes - and then years of relentless behind-the-scenes work to get two full-time working men to a start line that cost over £60,000 to reach.

And Linda? She was the energy in the room before Tom even knew what energy meant. A PE teacher who made her own school feel like home. A volunteer who never stopped - Brownies, Citizens Advice, furniture runs for strangers in need. A woman who, at 73, is still moving sofas for people she'll never meet again - and who has never once called her son to say she's having a bad day.

This episode is about what happens when you grow up surrounded by people who lead with generosity, faith, and an instinct to show up. And what it means to carry that forward - as a father, a friend, and someone trying to figure out what kind of person he wants to be.