Thanks so much for listening to the show. If this is your first time here, here's something you may not know about me. I'm a very curious person. So when I sometimes do things which impact me and those around me in a negative way, I try to a stop doing those things and be try to learn as much as I can about which parts of my brain are involved with that, and hopefully you use those parts of my brain to help me figure out something else to
do in that situation. Now, my producer Adam asked me to do an episode about some of the books that I've used to learn about the way the brains work and why people do things in certain situations. I've got seven books coming up for you today right after this. Thanks so much for listening to the show. This is better than yesterday, bringing you useful to and useful conversations to make your day today better than yesterday, every episode
since seven thirteen. My name's Oshi Ginsberg. I'm a TV presenter. I'm a best selling author. I'm an award winning documentary maker. I produce live shows. I'm a person who's standing here in very cozy socks, and I'm grateful for your here on the subject of live shows. The next story Club event is happening on the sixth of July in Merrickville. We've already locked in Marley Silver, Merrick Watts, and Phil O'Neil at the time of this recording. Get on story
Club Live if you want to get your tickets. This one will absolutely pack out, so do not wait around for that. Look, here are seven books that I consider fundamental if you want to be thinking about thinking. It's by no means an exhaustive list. There's probably many more that I've missed out on. There's certainly many more that I wanted to put on this list, and it won't
be the last time I do this. However, if I were to consider which books have really shaped the way that I think about thinking and why people are the way they are are these books have been incredibly influential upon me. So let's go first up, Deep Survival by Lawrence Gonzales. I will read this book easily one time a year, and I've done that for over fifteen years now.
This book is an absolute masterclass in understanding why some people survive seemingly impossible situations while others with similar skills, similar equipment, and possibly more skills and more equipment simply don't survive those situations. This book is about what happens to our brains in a survival situation. In this book,
Lawrence Gonzalez uses real life incidents. I'm talking terrible accidents, but also miraculous rescues, and using those helps us learn that we can understand a lot more about how people respond in high stakes moments. Gonzales really dives into these gripping and quite terrifying real life survival stories, everything from playing crashes way out in the wilderness to mountaineering accidents, and meticulously dissects the psychological and physiological factors that are
at play. Gonzalez explores how our brains react under situations of extreme stress, and in those situations he shows time and again how that extreme stress often leads to predictable errors, but also using those examples, describes how certain mindsets and being prepared in a particular way can dramatically increase our chances of survival. It's less about brute strength, It's more
about the mental resilience and the ability to adapt. The main thing that I took from Deep Survival is that when the shit hits the fan, whether it's being caught in a rip or going through a rough patch at work, pay attention to your body signals to your best to slow down. Survival is not about brute force. It's about mindfulness. Also, deep survival is the reason that if you ever sit next to me on a plane, you'll notice that we
will always be within five rows of an exit. Right next up, I talk about this next book all the time on this show. It's called The Art of Possibility. It's by Rosamun Stone Xander and Benjamin Xander. So the co writers of this book are a family therapist and a renowned orchestral conductor. And it's a truly unique exploration of how our perspective shapes our reality, using real world stories of managing the unique personalities which come together in
a world around youth orchestra, very high stake stuff. This book invites us to shift from a world of scarcity, the idea of what can I get, to one of possibility, what can I contribute? When I went to business school in Amsterdam a while ago, now, this book is one of the books which was required reading before I started my core and it fundamentally transformed the way that I deal with adversity. There's a simple tool that I'll share with you right now, which the Xanders offer. And this
tool has helped me too many times to count. And that is when everything is falling apart, when things are just really just falling a bit, so you can't imagine how it could get any worse. If you throw your hands in the air and gleefully squeal, how fascinating no matter how bad it feels, immediately you're presented with an opportunity to choose a different possibility as to what happens next. Now, at first it seemed a bit naff, but then it started working, and it's worked too many times to be
bunk them. And that's just one of the twelve practices that the Zanders offer in this book, a book which can truly transform personal and professionalize. I don't know about you, but I was somewhat raised in a mindset of scarcity and competition. Well, in this book they offer an alternative set of abundance and collaboration, seeing possibilities where others see limitations.
The big takeaway from the Art of Possibility for me would be that life's not just about getting through the notes on the page when you're playing right, It's about playing those notes and taking what you've been given, but using that stuff to create something new and something wonderful. Next up, it's a book about habit. Long before there
was James clear, there was Charles Dewhig. The Power of Habit was the first book which for me unlocked that the tendency my brain can have for repetition, compulsion and rumination could actually be channeled towards something positive. Doing breaks down habits and the way they work, and doing that was really it was like getting cheat codes for my brain.
First up, he talks about the habit loop Q routine reward, and then shows how understanding this loop is the key to not only changing bad habits, but also forming new habits which actually align with your goals and where you want to end up. Now, that's also pretty interesting stuff because he doesn't only cover things like boding your nails or breaking the habit of demolishing a pack of Timtams
at three PM. He also goes into how marketers use habits to sell products, like how Procter and Gamble used habit research to turn for Breeze, which had launched and was pretty much a flop. Turning for Breeze from that into an all conquering under the sink staple right around the world, and how habits adopted across a whole workforce we used to make a massive workplace, huge foundry like Alcoa much much safer. This book is a look at how a seemingly small change can make a much larger
ripple effect. Habit shape who we are more than we would like to admit. And the biggest thing that I got from this book was that to change habit, you can keep the same cue and the reward, but you swap in a new routine and that way you're not stuck or led by something that you can't control. You're actually working out that you're programmable and if you want, you can program yourself to achieve some pretty magnificent things.
But understanding how we can get stuck in a bad habit involves understanding the way that our brains work with reward, and that is where this next book comes in. The Molecule of More by Daniel Lieberman and Michael E. Long is an absolutely mind bending journey into the world of dopamine. This single neurotransmitter which is produced in your brain, in my brain, and the brains of everybody we know it's often associated with pleasure, but that really under sells what
dopamine is to us as humans. I would argue that the presence of dopamine and the way that we think is the reason that we as humans have taken over the planet. Dopamine is the molecule of more. It drives our desires, our pursuits, our goals, and our motivation. Think of the difference between liking something and wanting something. Which one's going to drive you to action, Which one is going to make you pick up the phone and call that person you want to go on a date with.
Which one is going to get you out of bed and get you the gym every day? Which one is going to click that picture and buy that thing. There's a very big difference in what happens in our brain between liking something and wanting something, and it's all about the dopamine. I absolutely loved reading about how dopamine impacts everything from love and addiction to even creativity and our
societal aspirations. It also helped me understand a lot more about my own experience with addiction and help me integrate some practices into my life that I guess helped me fall in love in a way with training and training every day changing the way that I think about it so that I don't train because I feel have to and it's a pinnish and h I trained because I want to and I can't wait to do it, and I use techniques or found in this book to help
me get to that spot. It's a fascinating look into how our brain chemistry shapes our experiences and our drive to achieve. And that's before you talk about how dopamine influences us as a species. There's a whole section in this book which absolutely blew my mind about one specific gene expression related to the level of dopamine receptors and how it shows up in people and is a significant factor in how we as humans just kept walking from the plains of Africa, across Europe and all the way
down to the bottom tip of South America. By measuring the levels of this gene receptor in indigenous populations of these countries, researchers have shown that this particular receptor was blunted to the effect of dopamine so these people for them to get to normal, the feeling of oh yeah, this is an okay amount of excitement and stimulation. They
needed to be a lot more novelty. So for people who were going, oh, we've come here and this is a great place to settle down and we'll build our society here, there was a small cohort of every community going, yeah, this is nice, but I don't know what's over that hill over there. They went off trying to find. They went seeking for things that were new and interesting to
get them up to that feeling of normalcy. Now, I'm not saying that you and I are going to migrate across the world by foot, but it's been enormously helpful understanding how dopamine affects me, and reading this book really helped me do that. Dopamine is less about immediate pleasure. It's more about the pursuit of novelty and future rewards, and it profoundly influences our drive, our creativity, and this
quest for more. The book is fascinating. It really helped me understand everything from how I eat to how I how I shop. It's a brilliant, brilliant book. We do have to take a quick break. I'll be back with three more books, including one written by a person who is part human, part wizard and is a profound instruction manual that I wish I had when I was a younger man. Thanks so much for being with me today. I'm going through seven books which I think about when
I think about thinking. Book number five is Emotional Agility by Susan David, originally from South Africa, now somewhere between being a psychologist at Harvard and living in Melbourne. Susan David has been a guest on this podcast twice now. She's an incredible human being. And Susan David has this line from this book Emotional Agility, which I quote all the time. Uncomfortable feelings are the price of admission to a meaningful life. Susan's concept of emotional agility, it's not
about suppressing your emotions or always being positive. It's that it's about acknowledging your thoughts and feelings, even the difficult ones, and then moving through them constructively. She talks about how true resilience comes from being able to face our inner experiences with curiosity and compassion, rather than getting hooked by
them or trying to ignore them. I found this book incredibly useful because it provides practical strategies for identifying emotional patterns, stebbing back from judgment of ourselves and others, and then aligning our actions with our values even when we feel uncomfortable. This book isn't about controlling your emotions. Rather, it's about accepting them and then choosing how you respond and allowing
you to move forward authentically. And if some of that sounds like familiar territory, you'd be right, because this particular kind of psychology is something that really helped me in the past, and that experience was the inspiration for what was behind book number six, which is so What Now What? By Osha Ginsburg and illustrated by Campbell Walker. Come on, of course, I'm going to plug my own book. What do you reckon? Yeah, I've got a pre sale coming up.
We got to make it happen. We're in the pre order phase. Every single copy that I get pre ordered now helps me to launch it in the States. I really want to get it up in America, but I've got to show them that the sales are pumping along here. So if you're in the States, please get onto this. If you order an Amazon there, it will ship over to you. I really really need to get this book over there. There was a time not too long ago, even when I was living with life threatening mental anguish.
One of the things that really helped me to find a pathway out of that pain was a kind of treatment known as acceptance commitment therapy. Now, once I knew how powerful this set of ideas could be, I really wanted to share what I'd learned in a way that was as accessible as possible, particularly the people who might never ever call up their GP or answer the question are you okay? With Yeah, I'm just tired. I guess
you could say that experience. My experience provides the backbone of this book, which is an illustrated dialogue between an arrator frozen by painful thoughts and feelings and a literal
helping hand. To make sure that all the psychological concepts, techniques, and ideas were absolutely watertight, so Cam and I worked extensively with an eminent act psychologist both the wording and the visuals to make sure that both of them were compelling, an accurate, and a true representation of the therapeutic process.
The fact that I also got to work with one of my heroes, the great artist Campbell Walker also known as truth Its really meant that the message I was hoping to convey to kind of an entirely different layer, another layer of depth, of humor and of meaning, and between the two of us were able to make some pretty complex topics far easier to digest. So please there's a link in the show notes to get a copy for you, get a copy for your friend, get a copy just in case you'll find the link in the
show notes. Okay. Book number six plug over Finally the book that I wish existed when I was playing music and jumping on stage. But I'm so grateful that exists now that I'm writing and performing so much and really putting myself out there and doing things like this podcast, my upcoming live show, comedy shows, really bold ideas like the live show that I'm trying to do for this tour.
This book to it now what it involves live motion capture and three D animation, and not many people are expecting what that's going to look like, and I'm terrified of it. But reading this book has really helped me have the confidence to just boldly charge forward. The seventh book today is The Creative Act, A Way of Being by Rick Ruben. If you're involved in any kind of creative pursuit or even just curious about the creative process. This book is an absolute must read for you. Rick
Rubin is part guru and part wizard. He is a legendary music producer who changed the world with his work that turned great albums into incredible albums for bands like The Beastie Boys, El Cool, Jay Slayer, The Red Chili, Pepper jay Z, Johnny Cash. Not to mention, Sue mix a Lot, Baby Got Back yep. Rick Rubin co produced Baby Got Back. Thank you, Rick. But Rick is about
so much more than that. This book is exceptional. In this book, he really distills just decades of experience into a very clearly written, simply written, but a profound meditation on creativity itself. It's not a how to guide. There's no step by step instructions. It's more an exploration of the principles, mindsets, and practices that foster creativity. He talks about the importance of listening, of observation, of detachment, surrendering
to the creative flow. It's about understanding that creativity isn't just about producing something, but about a way of being in a way of connecting with the world around you.
If you've ever had the thought, the limiting thought of well I'm not that creative, then this book is for you, because this book really challenges us to see that creativity is not a specialized skill practiced by a select and elite few, but creativity is a fundamental aspect of human existence, a way of being that enriches our lives and offers a path to a deeper connection with ourselves, with others, and with the world around us. I look forward to
your thoughts. Maybe if there's some books that I've missed, I'd love to get your ideas on that. Thank you so much for joining me on this episode. I can't wait to hear what you think. We're back here on Wednesday. My guest that I'm thrilled to welcome is Chris Ryan. She has a brand new live show which is playing in Melbourne this weekend. I put a link in the show notes for that. Thanks so much for listening. Thanks so much for Addam Bunch for cutting this episode. Enjoy
the show. If you liked it, please tell someone like it. Follow it, find us on YouTube, finance, on Instagram, find us where around. Okay, I'll see it Wednesday