The Reset by Sam Delaney Newsletter

Andy Burnham is quite the busy bastard, isn’t he? Every day, a new announcement. Every day, a fresh t-shirt. Every day, a bunch of content designed to remind us that he's an ordinary guy, with ordinary feelings, ordinary interests and ordinary shoes. I want to like him, I really do. I voted for a Labour government and was about the only person left in Britain who seemed to think Keir Starmer was an alright bloke. I mean, he came off as a bit boring, sure. But I quite like the idea of a boring leader.

The World Cup. Sometimes hard to process. To celebrate the 1982 World Cup, our third-year-infants teacher instructed us to create life-size cutouts of our favourite footballers, which she would stick up on the classroom wall. I lay out on a giant piece of sugar paper, and my mate Ollie drew around me with a pencil. Then we cut out the shape with scissors. We were West Ham supporters, as was our mate Alex, who worked on the project with us.

This time last year, I fell into a bad place, quite suddenly. Someone I cared about was struggling with something, and I tried to help, but the whole thing ended up overwhelming me. For a few weeks, I couldn;t think about anything else. I was anxious and miserable. It was the first time I had felt like that in years.

Current time: 0:00 / Total time: -52:03 Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade. My guest this week is the musician Damon Minchella – legendary bassist, founding member of Ocean Colour Scene, and a man who lived through the wildest years of Britpop and beyond. In his new book, You’d Look Good on a Donkey: Brick Pop, Bass Lines and Bad Decisions, Damon tells the story of going from being broke and on the dole to sudden wealth, fame, and full‑tilt rock and roll excess.

This week on The Reset, I’m joined by Peter Hooton – frontman of The Farm, co‑founder of legendary Liverpool fanzine The End, writer, activist and lifelong Red. It’s a conversation about how music, football and humour can keep you afloat when the world’s trying to drag you under. We get into The Farm’s rise as a proper ‘street band,’ the snobbery they faced from the music press, the madness of early 90s fame and how close he came to burning out.

This week I’m chatting to Professor Paul Eastwick, one of the world's top thinkers on love, attraction, and relationships, and the author of “Bonded by Evolution: What We’ve Got Wrong About Love and Connection.” We get into loads of stuff: why your “type” probably isn’t real, how dating apps can fry your brain, why chemistry matters more than tick-box lists, and how the whole Tate-adjacent manosphere view of women and relationships is nonsense once you look at the actual science.

I decided to buy a Rolex. About ten years ago, after a big piece of well-paid work landed on my lap, it seemed like the appropriate thing to do. Things were going well in my career, but apparently, doing work I enjoyed and feeling broadly satisfied with how I spent my time wasn’t quite enough. I thought I needed a big fuck-off watch as proof, just in case anyone was in any doubt about how important I was.

Current time: 0:00 / Total time: -53:43 Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade. New year, new series. My first guest for 2026 is Jason Williamson from Sleaford Mods. Known for his furious, funny and brutally honest lyrics about post-austerity Britain, masculinity, class, love and addiction, Jason has helped build one of the most passionate fanbases in British music over the past decade.

Of course Alan Partridge’s new series is about mental health. In fact, he claims in the introduction that "How Are You? It’s Alan (Patridge)” is ‘Britain’s first ever documentary about mental health.’ The Reset by Sam Delaney is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. As always, Alan is late to arrive at the party and deluded about the role he is playing.

Current time: 0:00 / Total time: -56:43 Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade. Josh Connolly had a chaotic childhood. By the time he hit his twenties, he was contemplating suicide. Now, he is one of the country’s most influential voices on mental health, using his own experiences to help others. I chatted with him about why men struggle to share emotions, growing up around alcohol and how he wants to de-stigmatise conversations about suicide.