People come and go in our lives — “friend’s for a season” — folks who we journey with for a while and then part ways. But every now and then a connection is made that you know will last a lifetime. For me, podcaster James O’Connell from Dublin is one of those connections. After strangely being introduced by previous podcast guest and current Mental Health co-host Stephen Ilardi, I first met James when he moved to Belfast last year and now he’s moving on, we decided to mark the occasion with a conversation that captures some of what we’ve wrestled with over the course of our friendship so far. The result is a long-form conversation about dopamine, mental health, commitment, relationships, confrontation and compassion that dips into science, psyche, scripture and our own story along the way. We don’t have the answers. We don’t have it all figured out. But we are trying — and hope that this raw, real-time wrestle will be a springboard for newfound courage, action and change in your own life. — Matt https://bestofbelfast.org/stories/james-and-matt