The High Performance Podcast

Yaya Touré is one of football’s most dominant midfielders, a key figure in transforming Manchester City into a title-winning force. In this episode, Yaya shares the unseen moments behind that success, from arriving at a club with a losing mentality to helping build a culture driven by focus, respect, dedication, and passion.

He opens up about the turning point that changed everything, a heated halftime confrontation that sparked a shift in standards and turned City into “a machine.” Drawing on his time at Barcelona under Pep Guardiola, Yaya explains why winning teams are built on brotherhood, purpose, and an obsession with excellence, not just talent.

Yaya also reflects on the managers who shaped him and the identity that defined his career: “I’m a winner.” This is a powerful insight into what it really takes to build a championship mentality and sustain success at the highest level.

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Martin Lewis will tell you himself - he's not an entrepreneur, not a celebrity, not a website owner. He's a campaigning journalist. One who happened to build MoneySavingExpert into the most powerful consumer platform in the country, recover billions of pounds for ordinary people, and become the most trusted voice in Britain in the process.

We're revisiting one of the most powerful conversations we've ever had on High Performance and we think it's more relevant now than when we first recorded it.

This conversation is about what drives a person to dedicate their life to fighting for strangers. Where that fire comes from. What it costs to carry the weight of millions of people's trust. And what Martin Lewis has had to go through to get here.

You'll hear Martin on why trust cannot be marketed, only earned. On the moment that shifted his entire philosophy from beating the system to protecting the people the system exploits. And on why success, however hard won, is never the whole story.

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Mo Salah is leaving Liverpool as a legend. Trent Alexander-Arnold left to boos and a painted-over mural. What made the difference — and what does it tell us about legacy, loyalty, and how we all choose to move on?

Jake and Damian dig into the psychology of the exit: why the ultimatum game explains fan reaction, how Salah's struggles at Chelsea made him a better player at Liverpool, and what Roy Hodgson returning to management at 78 says about purpose and passion.

Plus: Georgia Hunter Bell's remarkable comeback from telesales to World Indoor champion, Kimi Antonelli's back-to-back Formula One wins and what one victory does to the mind, and Josh Kerr's pursuit of the world mile record. Damian's High Performer of the Week will stop you in your tracks.

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Brené Brown is a world-renowned researcher and author, known for her work on vulnerability, courage, and what makes truly effective leaders. She has spent decades studying human behaviour, uncovering how fear, connection, and self-awareness shape performance at the highest level.

In this episode, Brené sits down with Jake and Damian to explore the difference between safe and unsafe leadership, and how fear quietly drives decisions at work and at home. She explains why the best leaders don’t avoid vulnerability, but use it to build trust, clarity, and stronger teams.

They cover why your greatest strength might secretly be your armour, the formula every elite performer needs to understand (performance = potential minus interference), why organisational leaders are the only high-performers in the world where coaching isn't expected, and what England's penalty curse and Liverpool's current struggles really tell us about the psychology of winning.

Plus — a special surprise message from Steven Gerrard leaves Brené lost for words!

Subscribe to Brené’s podcast ‘The Curiosity Shop’ on YouTube or your favorite app for new episodes every Thursday.

Brené’s latest book ‘Strong Ground’ is available now: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Strong-Ground-Leadership-Tenacity-Vermilion/dp/178504320X

Links referenced in podcast: The lethality of loneliness: John Cacioppo TED TALK

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Shane Parrish is the founder of Farnam Street and one of the world's most respected voices on decision-making and clear thinking.

In this episode we re-visit with Shane, he introduces the concept of positioning — the small daily choices that put you on easy mode or hard mode before a single big decision is made. He breaks down the four defaults that hijack your thinking (emotion, ego, social pressure, and inertia), explains why fear of success holds people back just as much as fear of failure, and shares the Kissinger test that reveals whether you're truly doing your best work.

If you're tired of making life harder than it needs to be, this one's for you.

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