LATE BLOOMERS

Do you love your friends but forget to text them back? This week on LATE BLOOMERS, Rich and Rox tackle ten questions about friendship with ADHD and autism, from making plans you hope get cancelled to worrying that your friends secretly hate you.
Rox explains how an unanswered message becomes weeks of guilt, then months of convincing herself it’s too late to reply. Rich doesn’t feel that pressure, has quietly left every family WhatsApp group, and would like to know why anyone would phone him just for a chat. There’s an attempt to activate his “human button”, the revelation that Rox nudging him means she’s forgotten someone’s name, and a birthday reunion where her friend’s response to an elaborate apology is simply: “Be weird if you had.”
They get into masking, feeling too much or not enough, and the friendships Rox tried to hold onto by giving too much. Rich makes the case for being honest about what you can offer, and they finish with what a good friendship actually looks like: being yourself, picking up where you left off, and not having to apologise for your brain.
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Do you have ADHD and spend money you don't have? This week on LATE BLOOMERS, Rich and Rox run through ten ways to get the dopamine hit without the overdraft, half from Rox's own life and half from the best of Reddit.
There's the shopping casket (fill a £1,000 basket, then never press buy), the two-week graveyard, and the hobby commitment bar Rox invented after one hot Pilates class and a couple of hundred quid of kit she never used again. She's opened her first ever savings account, accidentally saved £100 by being too lazy to find her bank card, and picked a £50 Crocs backpack over a posh handbag to celebrate her album charting. She still hasn't bought the limited edition golf bag, and Rich would like everyone to know what it costs.
Ex-bank manager Rich adds his own rule to finish: it doesn't have to be the best one on the market, and second hand is fine.
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Usually on LATE BLOOMERS, Rich and Rox talk about what's hard about having an ADHD or autistic brain. This week they flip it: ten things each of them genuinely envies about the other's.
Rox would give anything for Rich's ability to follow IKEA instructions, find the car in a Tesco car park and keep a perfect credit score. Rich envies Rox's endless ideas, her 400% excitement over a Crocs bag, and a delusion so strong it becomes reality, which is how they ended up with a body doubling app, bestselling books and a house five minutes from his daughter.
It gets real too, as Rox admits that at almost 42 she's never felt like a functioning adult. Funny, sweet, and a reminder that the other brain in the house isn't just the problem. Sometimes it's the answer.
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Listen to the audiobook
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Are you working a job you love—or staying in one that’s slowly making you miserable? This week, Rich and Rox dig through their entire career histories: first jobs, bad bosses, promotions, burnout, quitting, career pivots, failed dreams and the strange ways neurodivergence shaped what work did and didn’t suit them. Rox talks about going from thriving in fast-paced service jobs to feeling completely out of her depth in a graduate accountancy role, before eventually leaving banking for music; Rich reflects on spending 20 years at Barclays, the managers who shaped him and what finally made him change direction. 
It’s really about career shame, starting again and the idea that job-hopping, quitting or getting it wrong doesn’t mean you’ve failed—you might just be collecting the pieces that eventually lead you somewhere that fits.   
Get our book THE CHERRY TREE THEORY  
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CHAPTERS  
00:00 The Career Graveyard  
01:24 Rich’s first job at Sainsbury’s  
03:52 Rox starts “Helping Hands”  
06:06 Rox’s first proper job  
09:27 Rich becomes a manager at 19  
13:27 Why ADHD can make interviews easier than the actual job  
14:49 “Something was missing in me”  
16:06 “You need to go home”  
18:59 Rox moves into banking  
21:28 Mixing up BUY and SELL on a trading floor  
22:32 Loop Earplugs  
23:22 Rich’s life at Barclays during the credit crisis  
25:22 The bosses you never forget  
27:55 Rox starts writing songs  
29:21 Leaving the bank for music  
30:33 The record label collapses  
33:30 Starting again in Amsterdam  
34:31 The beginning of ADHD Love  
35:13 What old jobs still teach you  
37:47 “Every wrong turn was actually a right turn”  
38:55 Why messy career paths are completely normal  
39:45 Rich’s forgotten childhood dream  
42:10 Final thoughts

Are you tired all the time, even when it feels like you haven’t done much? This week, Rich and Rox unpack ten everyday things that can drain their neurodivergent batteries: masking, disrupted sleep, sensory overload, basic self-care, hyperfocus, social hangovers and the effort of feeling everything so intensely. Rich reflects on the exhaustion of pretending all day at the bank and why losing his routine has made looking after himself harder; Rox explains why everyday tasks rarely feel automatic, her brain switches on the moment she wakes up and an exciting plan can become an exhausting commitment.
It’s really about the effort other people don’t see, recognising when you’re running on empty and giving yourself permission to rest. Along the way, there’s a dispute over bedroom boundaries, an unexpectedly deep dive into golf balls and a shared decision that the next activity should probably be a nap.
Get our book THE CHERRY TREE THEORY  
http://linktr.ee/cherry.tree.theory
Listen to the audiobook  
https://linktr.ee/CHERRY.TREE.AUDIOBOOK
20% off Loop Earplugs:  
https://www.loopearplugs.com/adhdlove