Franzi is someone whose work sits at the powerful intersection of nervous system health, emotional resilience, and embodied leadership. What I admire most about her is the way she weaves personal integrity, deep inquiry, and relational intelligence into every facet of her life — from parenting her three sons to working with founders navigating burnout and stuck emotions. We explore what it truly means to lead from a place of wholeness — and why she believes leadership should be a force for heali...
Apr 07, 2025•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 72
In this episode, I’m speaking with a friend, author, entrepreneur & prolific writer Nat Eliason. The timing of this conversation was interesting as we recorded it shortly before the US elections, after which the crypto markets shot back into the mainstream. You’ll hear about the intense emotional rollercoaster he went through, losing millions of dollars in a very short period of time — how it felt to write about this — what he’s learned about cultivating creative endurance with his writing, ...
Feb 20, 2025•1 hr 29 min•Ep. 71
In this episode, I'm speaking with Dan Shipper — Dan is a friend, the founder of Every, and someone who I consider to be a philosopher founder. This conversation didn’t go the direction that I thought it would, I had prepared questions exploring the future of AI and technology, but I’m glad we listened to the thread that was most alive — which ended up being exploring Dan’s personal journey with OCD and recent deep dive into Jungian archetypal perspectives — and living on the borders of things ...
Feb 11, 2025•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 70
In this episode, I'm speaking with Marc Champagne — who after building a journaling app that reached nearly 90 million users and then having to shut it down, emerged with profound insights about the power of transformative question s and the Socratic Method. In this conversation, we explored: ❓ What it means to ask better quality questions, some of the specific questions that have altered the trajectory of Marc’s life — like “How can I be the most curious person in the room?” or “Whom haven't I ...
Feb 05, 2025•1 hr 22 min•Ep. 69
In this episode, I'm speaking with Tom Morgan — who after 15 years on Wall Street and experiencing what he describes as a " hellish midlife transition " (which is putting it mildly) has emerged with profound insights about human development and — especially relevant for this podcast – the nature of curiosity itself. In this conversation, we explored: 🧠 How we might navigate the delicate balance between intellectual understanding and embodied wisdom , especially for high-achieving individuals se...
Jan 06, 2025•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 68
I’m speaking with theoretical neuroscientist Michael Edward Johnson — who, after spending seven years researching consciousness and writing the book Principia Qualia, has developed a revolutionary theory that could fundamentally change how we understand trauma, meditation, and human wellbeing. Mike’s theory of ‘latches’ — what he calls vasocumputation — may provide a testable and concrete biological mechanism for how trauma gets stored in the body, and how to release it effectively. This sounds ...
Dec 17, 2024•1 hr 57 min•Ep. 67
I’ve been following River’s substack essays for a few years now and I feel a real kinship with his irreverent and genuinely unique perspectives — as well as his talent for self-experimentation and weaving together esoteric yet incredibly practical concepts which he uses for self-exploration. In this conversation, you can expect to learn: 💬 How River was able to use somatic-based practices to go from experiencing an incessant inner-critic and suicidal ideation, to almost no inner-dialogue and op...
Sep 11, 2024•1 hr 31 min•Ep. 66
In this conversation, I’m speaking with my good friend and cofounder of Ultraspeaking Tristan de Montebello. Tristan has an incredible story of training to become a finalist in the World Championship of Public Speaking in just seven months. In this conversation, you can expect to learn: 📣 Tristan's radical approach of focusing on impromptu speaking rather than scripted speeches 💬 Unlocking capacity for self-expression & why the key starts with learning to speak before you think 🎴 How they...
Sep 05, 2024•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 65
A few years back Ali decided to quit his job as a junior doctor in the UK to become a full time YouTuber. Since then his career and life has skyrocketed — he’s built a channel with over 5.5 million youtube subscribers and recently published a New York Times Bestselling book called ‘Feel Good Productivity’ In this conversation Ali shares: 😨 His experience with imposter syndrome whilst writing his book 🧠 Recent insights around 'leaving mental health on the table' ⚖️ How he’s been intentionally d...
Aug 26, 2024•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 64
I’m speaking with co-founder of Reboot Jerry Colonna. Jerry is one of the most infamous executive coaches in the world — with a reputation for making CEOs cry and asking devastatingly poignant self-reflection questions. In this conversation, we explore: 🕷️ Jerry's inner journey discovering his mythopoetic identity and how that has informed the coaching work he is so known for 🙇♂️ The idea that one measure of a leader is the numerous of people who feel safe enough to belong 🌍 The root causes ...
Aug 21, 2024•57 min•Ep. 63
Ben is the author of the phenomenal new book: The Way Home: Discovering the Hero's Journey to Wholeness at Midlife. I was really excited to talk to Ben because the hero’s journey has been a framework that I still use myself as a way of orienting and meaning making. Ben shares how his own life has been a series of spiraling journeys, embodying the hero’s path. In this conversation, you can expect to learn: 📚 Challenges of refusing the call to adventure 🤷♂️ The transition between evasion and em...
Aug 17, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 62
Marcela Ot’alora worked as the lead co-therapist and principal investigator for all of the MAPS — which stands for Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies — MDMA-assisted psychotherapy studies. She has also been designing curriculum and training therapists associated with MAPS. In this conversation, which we recorded together in our home here in Boulder Colorado, we explored how she found her way into this work over three decades ago, possible tension I perceived between the clinic...
Jan 29, 2024•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 61
I'm choosing to republish this episode that I had with David Whyte four years ago, because I had found myself revisiting his timeless book Consolations ’ and rediscovering wisdom that felt appropriate for these times — which has remained within an arm's reach of my bedside ever since I first discovered it. It ratcheted open my mind to a new perspective on the definitions of words like Ambition, Courage and Heartbreak, that I thought I previously understood. I’m not sure how to even begin to desc...
Jan 01, 2024•39 min•Ep. 60
In this episode, I am speaking with Steve March — who is, although maybe lesser known in the public sphere, what he has created with Aletheia , which we will get into — is, to my mind, a revolutionary innovation in the realm of human development and how we orient to personal growth. Expect to have your paradigm of personal growth turned upside down as we cover: ⚖️ Self-development vs. Self-unfoldment , which points to why so much of the personal development industry and individual efforts to sel...
Dec 18, 2023•1 hr 43 min•Ep. 59
Khe Hy is a dear friend, creator and philosopher in residence at Rad Reads, which is a business he started after leaving a 7-figure salary on Wall Street. He is a dedicated Father, host of the superb Examined Life podcast and makes time to get in the ocean and surf every single day. In this conversation, you can expect to hear: - How Khe has worked through his feelings of self-doubt - Exploring his insights from wrestling with desires for fame and validation. - The question of 'Winning the Game ...
Dec 06, 2023•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 58
Ryan Duey is an entrepreneur, podcaster, the founder + CEO of Plunge.com and as you'll hear in this episode, a remarkably self-aware and courageous human. Over a decade ago, Ryan had what he calls his “greatest gift” — a head-on motorcycle accident in Thailand. This near-death experience catapulted Ryan into a journey of self-inquiry, leading him to the jungles of the Amazon, the inside of a float tank. In this conversation, you can expect to learn: ⚖️ How to balance of selfishness and selflessn...
Nov 08, 2023•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 57
Brooks Barron is an experienced leadership coach specializing in nature-based initiations and rites of passage — to help the leaders he works with explore their vulnerability, find their inner wisdom, and surrender to the flow of what wants to come through them. In this conversation, you can expect to learn: - Brooks' definition of wholeness as a human being - The difference between the desire to make an impact in the world from above the line vs. below the line. - How he shifted out of victim c...
Oct 26, 2023•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 56
Show Notes Matt Maruca is the founder of RaOptics , who make, I think it's fair to say objectively, the world's best blue-blocking glasses — but more importantly, he is in my view a radical citizen scientist, self-experimenter, and articulate communicator — and what's more he's only 24 years old. Which, given his depth of knowledge and wisdom, is somewhat mind-blowing for someone of his age. This conversation didn't go the way that I had expected. I'd been reading journal papers and studies on p...
Sep 30, 2023•1 hr 20 min•Ep. 55
Dr Michael Yang is an integrative medicine specialist based in Los Angeles who specializes in Ketamine treatment. I had an absolute blast with Michael and honestly feel a renewed sense of optimism for the medical system knowing that there are doctors like him treating patients. In this conversation, you can expect to learn: 💊 Ketamine's clinical use and its role as a psychedelic in his clinical practice 🧠 How to increase the squishiness of your brain 😬 Why suffering might make us uniquely hum...
Sep 21, 2023•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 54
Jim Dethmer is co-author of the bestselling book 'The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership' and is one of the most sought-after executive coaches in the world. It was an honor to speak with Jim, and I had the sense that I was sitting in the presence of someone who really had spent a lifetime embodying and living what he teaches. In this wide-ranging conversation, you can expect to learn: 🙋♂️ How to use the Sedona method for yourself 👐 What it means to live an undefended life 👊 How to take ...
Sep 08, 2023•1 hr 21 min•Ep. 53
When I first started this podcast, I had Derek Sivers in mind as the archetypal curious human — and to this day, I think of him as one of the most interesting and provocative philosophers of life. His career path involved joining the circus as a ringleader, then becoming a professional musician and touring, building a company and selling it for $22 million dollars, then giving most of the money away to charity, then becoming a TED speaker and author... to now where he's a minimalist living in Ne...
Aug 23, 2023•1 hr 50 min•Ep. 52
Show Notes A large part of my personal motivation for creating this podcast — is the privilege of speaking with those who I consider to be elders, those who have lived their lives to the absolute fullest and have stories and insights to share with younger generations about what it means to truly live well. And this conversation with Kevin Kelly turned out to be exactly that. You'll probably want to have a pen and paper handy to take notes, and it was so rich with practical wisdom — in part becau...
May 16, 2023•58 min•Ep. 51
Today I'm speaking with Kyle Kowalski — who might be one of the most well-read humans and certainly most relentlessly curious humans that I've ever met — in fact as he shares in this episode, he believes that his purpose or Ikigai in life is to synthesize lifelong learning that catalyzes human development. As the title of this episode suggests, we nerded out on so many fascinating topics — we discuss how Kyle's crisis and burnout transformed him, discovering the Concept of Intentional Living, ho...
May 02, 2023•1 hr 29 min•Ep. 50
This is my second conversation with Anne Laure — I reached back out after I read a powerful account of her transformative experience drinking Ayahuasca 9 months ago and how following this experience, in her words, she is ' not depressed anymore, I quit drinking… And, for the first time ever and truly happy to be alive'. So we do a deep dive into her plant medicine experience she had, her reflections since that experience — as well as why linear goals are inherently fragile as compared to what sh...
Apr 25, 2023•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 49
This is a powerful conversation with executive coach Brett Kistler — entrepreneur and executive coach who spent much of his life traveling the world full-time as an extreme sports athlete while building a remote software company. Brett also co-hosts the Art of Accomplishment podcast with Joe Hudson , who was a previous guest on this podcast. We unpack many things, including how BASE jumping acted as a hard reboot on his mind and how he uses his emotional inquiry practice to stay alive in extreme...
Mar 30, 2023•1 hr 36 min•Ep. 48
This is a special episode with Daniel Thorson — who I initially came across through his super podcast called ' Emerge ' and later learned that he was living as a full-time monastic at the Monastic Academy in Vermont — where after a series of conversations, he persuaded me to come and sit for a 10-day retreat — which I just returned from myself recently. I found this was an immensely rich conversation, and I'm grateful to Daniel for opening up about some of the experiences he had recently during ...
Mar 22, 2023•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 47
Dr. John Churchill spent 15 years training and teaching “ Great Seal” meditation in an Indo-Tibetan lineage and is a founding member of the Integral Institute led by the well-known philosopher, Ken Wilber. Over the last 25 years, John has developed his style of practice — an integrated Fourth Turning path — that weaves together somatically based contemplative practices that integrate psychodynamic healing, adult development, and meditation. This was an incredible conversation that touched on how...
Mar 08, 2023•1 hr 22 min•Ep. 46
This is a slightly different type of episode — in which my friend Christofer interviewed me for his superb DO EXPLAIN Podcast . I enjoyed the conversation so much that I decided it was worth releasing here as well. This is one of the deepest dives I've done on all things related to emotional fluidity, and various modalities for working with somatics and finding wholeness. Christofer was such a superb conversational partner and I hope you enjoy this as much as I did. 🔗 Official Links 🎙️ Subscri...
Feb 15, 2023•1 hr 51 min•Ep. 45
My brother Alex Olshonsky ~ aka. "Olo" ~ is a dear friend. We've spent time together in Guatemala, and he is fast becoming one of the most prominent voices on addiction and the psychedelic renaissance. We dive into Olo's personal story of breaking free from his proclivity to taking a cocktail of narcotics whilst working in high-growth tech startups ~ and his powerful journey navigating his addiction. We discuss concerns, risks & hopes for the rise of entheogens ~ what he learned from spendin...
Jan 26, 2023•1 hr 22 min•Ep. 44
Today's guest is Daniel—who goes by the name of 'Grimhood' on Twitter. I've been a subscriber to his Patreon account for a while and was so impressed with his immensely well-researched and in-depth that blended his knowledge of pharmacology with indigenous systems of medicine. In this conversation, we unpack a handful of these protocols that he shares, including a deep dive on all things Magnesium, why so many of us are deficient in it, why you're almost certainly not getting enough and how to d...
Nov 25, 2022•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 43
