On The Mend
JORDAN STEPHENS: managing ADHD, sobriety, and healthy relationships
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Episode notes
This week’s guest is the musician, actor, writer, and podcaster Jordan Stephens.
Jordan’s probably best known for Rizzle Kicks, the chart-topping duo he formed with his friend Harley Alexander-Sule, back in 2008.
He's since released music as a solo artist, starred in various TV and film projects, published a children’s book, and now he’s written a memoir: Avoidance, Drugs, Heartbreak and Dogs.
In this conversation the pair discuss education, the impact of overnight success, ADHD, medication and self-medication, as well as their shared interest in psychedelics and Jordan’s journey towards healthier relationships.
For more information on some of the subjects Jordan mentioned, there are links below (including more on Professor Nutt and that toad venom).
And Jordan WILL return to On The Mend. These two just have too much in common.
Related links:
Jordan’s website
Rizzle Kicks on Instagram
Matt’s interview with Jordan on MTV Faces
BRIT School bursaries
Alan Watts on education
The Anxious Generation by Joanthan Haidt
Johann Hari’s episode of On The Mend
Professor David Nutt and drug classification
A 2002 overview of the link between football hooliganism and ecstasy
The effects of the inhalation of dried toad secretion containing 5-MeO-DMT
The ongoing study at King’s College, London
The Esther Perel quote was incorrectly attributed but she’s a fan of the person who said it, Terry Real: “Under patriarchy, you can be connected, or you can be powerful, but you can't be both at the same time because power is power over, not power with, it’s dominance. So, if you move into power, you lose connection. If you move into accommodation, you lose your power. I want to break that binary.”
Donna Lancaster & The Bridge Retreat
(01:02) Jordan’s childhood
(05:28) BRIT School and creative education
(11:48) Rizzle Kicks, Busted and dealing with overnight success
(16:36) ADHD: from voice notes to diagnoses (plural)
(20:34) ADHD: medication and self-medication
(27:40) Pattern recognition and relationships
(29:07) Sobriety and overcoming writer’s block
(30:54) Managing social media use
(35:52) Psychedelics (including dried toad secretion)
(45:43) Pressure to achieve vs connection
(47:02) Educating the next generation about relationships
(54:15) Matt’s conclusion