Dean James is the host of the Used To Be Do Count (U2BDC) podcast, which explores what his guests used to be because who we used to be an important contribution to who we are today and we should not abandon a part of ourselves.

Dean grew up in a religious environment, not because of his parents but because of school as most primary school in England are denomination schools under the umbrella of the Church of England. However, Dean has an interesting background as his father is a Turkish Cypriot, so he grew up influenced by Muslim values. His mother is Irish Catholic. And Dean feels that, having been exposed to both religions, they share common values.

At one point in his youth, Dean went to Church and identified as Christian but one day, he heard the Priest that he admired and who was a mentor to him, do a homophobic sermon. And at that moment, even though Dean didn't know he was gay, his body froze. And that put him off church. It felt like milk turned sour.

Since then Dean has dabbed into meditation and Buddhism.

Dean used to be a professional dancer and he definitely feels that dancing is part of his spirituality. Sadly however, he stopped his career as a dancer when his brother died. And has recently taken up dancing again, though not professionally. He believes that dance can unlock our sixth sense because it unlocks energy in our bodies.

He stopped dancing at the time of the death of his brother because something got blocked by grief in his body and he felt "Who am I to feel joy through dance when my brother is dead?"

So Dean founded a charity for the following seven years.

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