Modern Wisdom podcast host Chris Williamson previously served as a director for Voodoo Events Newcastle Ltd, a company linked to controversial student pub crawls across the United Kingdom. His self-help show has reached an astonishing one billion downloads, with billboards displaying his chiselled jaw appearing in places as far away as Texas.
Now 38 years old, Williamson lives in Austin, Texas, where he speaks for hours about purpose, productivity, and the construction of a meaningful life. His podcast Modern Wisdom aims to extract "life lessons from the smartest people on the planet" and has featured high-profile guests including Hollywood star Matthew McConaughey, Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson, and entrepreneur Steven Bartlett.
Critics argue that prolonged exposure to Modern Wisdom can lead listeners toward a murkier online ecosystem populated by conspiracy theories, pseudoscience, and the "manosphere," which promotes misogynistic beliefs. Williamson has rejected those suggestions.
Love Island Appearance and Career Shift
The Teesside-born host began his career working as a model before appearing on the ITV dating show Take Me Out in 2012. Three years later, a casting producer approached him about a new reality show involving attractive singletons spending six weeks together in a villa in Majorca. Williamson entered the villa on the opening day of the first series of Love Island in 2015, but fellow contestants voted him out on Day 19.
Williamson later described his stint on the show as "boring" and said it prompted what he called a "mini existential crisis." He noted that the persona he spent years constructing began to unravel during his time in the villa.
"I basically got to the Champions League of being a party boy and then I realised that I wasn’t supposed to be there at all," Williamson told ITV in 2022. He added: "I thought I was this super-extroverted big name on campus, a big guy around town. And it turned out that maybe I wasn’t like that."
Williamson explained that his work as an event promoter was not fully aligned with his true identity. "I made myself into a club promoter, which I needed to do to make a successful company, but that perhaps wasn’t fully aligned with who I truly was," he said. "I then took the opportunity to think: could I do with a little bit of self-work and some personal development to try and figure out who I actually am and what I want to try and contribute to the world?"
The answer was Modern Wisdom, which Williamson launched in 2018. He recorded the first episode inside the Voodoo Events offices, hoping the show would become a success and allow him to leave the events industry behind. Williamson said in a previous interview: "I want to focus on conversations with people. There’s not much in my life now that I would get rid of. I like what I do." He acknowledged that little remains of the persona he created to become a successful promoter.
Carnage Pub Crawls and Safety Controversies
Before his television career, Williamson attended the University of Newcastle as a student. He worked as a promoter for Carnage before becoming a franchisee and later a director of Voodoo Events Newcastle Ltd, the company behind the crawls.
Carnage was an organised pub crawl billed as the "student party of all student parties." From 2007 onwards, it became an iconic part of university life across 45 UK towns and cities, attracting 350,000 students at its peak. Students paid around £10 to don orange and yellow branded T-shirts and drink pints of cheap beer and £1 shots of Sourz along local pub trails.
The events courted major controversy and were linked to drunken criminal behaviour and at least one death. In October 2007, Gethin Bevan, a 20-year-old biology and biochemistry student at the University of Bath, was found hanged in Bath city centre after attending a Carnage pub crawl the previous night.
An inquest heard no evidence to explain why the straight-A undergraduate, described by friends as "always smiling," had died. The coroner was unable to determine whether his death was intentional or accidental.
Student Union Bans and Court Convictions
Following the death, at least 17 student unions barred Carnage and its advertising from their premises. Police and local councils complained that the events placed additional pressure on emergency services. Richard Budden, then vice-president of the National Union of Students, said the crawls put student welfare at risk and left "student unions, police and sometimes even the hospitals to pick up the pieces."
Two years later, 19-year-old Sheffield Hallam University student Philip Laing was convicted after urinating on a wreath at a war memorial following a seven-hour Carnage bar crawl involving more than 2,000 students. Laing told the court he had been "the drunkest I have ever been at uni" and could not remember his actions.
District Judge Anthony Browne described Laing's behaviour as "disgusting and reprehensible" during sentencing. "Carnage is the name of the organisation I believe promotes this activity, and some might say somebody should be standing alongside you this morning," Judge Browne stated in court.
Voodoo Events Financial Losses and Resignation
The organised Carnage pub crawls ceased operations years ago, though Voodoo Events continues to run nightclub nights in Newcastle. A visit to one of these events in 2022 by a student at nearby Durham University showed the nights paled in comparison to Carnage's former hedonistic reputation.
Newly examined financial accounts show that net assets for Voodoo Events Newcastle Ltd fell by more than half from £8,590 in 2017 to £3,658 in 2022. The company recorded net liabilities of £95 in the financial year ending September 2023.
Williamson resigned as director five months later, in February 2024, ending his 10-year tenure at the firm. The company's financial position deteriorated further, with net liabilities rising to £410 in 2024 and reaching £894 by September 2025. In its latest accounts, Voodoo listed £18,841 in current assets alongside £19,925 owed to creditors within 12 months.
