Episode Description
🎄🎧 A bit of a Christmas cracker (with maverick music included)
A conversation full of humanity.
In this Wild Card – Whose Shoes episode, Gill Phillips chats with Maff Potts, founder of the Camarados movement and creator of Public Living Rooms - simple, welcoming spaces where people can put their feet up, enjoy no-agenda company, and look out for each other.
No labels. No tick boxes. No “fixing”. Just people.
Maff brings stories (and piano!) from his journey: from working in homelessness, to advising government, and very intentionally returning to grassroots connection, where real change happens. Together we explore why kindness, laughter, and belonging aren’t “nice extras” - they’re essential.
🍋💡🍋 Lemon lightbulbs
🍋 “Where would you put the KPI for this?” The case for humanity, music and improvisation over metrics.
🍋 Public Living Rooms = connection + purpose (without needing a “service” or a diagnosis).
🍋 Permission to be a bit rubbish - and why failure/iteration can be a superpower (England vs Silicon Valley!).
🍋 A powerful example of language changing everything: when “Put your feet up” became “It’s time to talk #MentalHealthAwarenessWeek”… footfall dropped from 1000 people to 40.
🍋 The “how” matters: how we welcome, speak, listen, and create environments that help people feel human.
If you’ve ever felt weary of spreadsheets, assessments, and VIP top tables … this episode is for you. #NoHierarchyJustPeople
🫖 Want to start a Public Living Room? Find out more at camarados.org (and you might just receive a beautiful permission-giving box to get you going). #JFDI
Happy Christmas everyone!
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I tweet (not so much these days!) as @WhoseShoes and am on Instagram as @WhoseShoesUK and @WildCardWS.
Please recommend 'Wild Card - Whose Shoes' to others who enjoy hearing passionate people talk about their experiences of improving health care.