Welcome to "How To Be...", guiding you through life's tricky topics and skills by reading through the best books out there. Financial anxiety is a real thing. It's an obsessive fear of things related to money that can often be debilitating and can be triggered by any number of things, not just a lack of money. We’re brought up by our parents not to discuss money, and despite death and taxes being the only two certainties in life according to Benjamin Franklin, they’re also two things we avoid ta...
Nov 27, 2022•38 min•Season 2Ep. 73
Welcome to "How To Be...", guiding you through life's tricky topics and skills by reading through the best books out there. It may be awkward because sex is taboo to talk about in our culture. People generally have shame around bodies and sexuality, so talking openly about sex and sexuality may bring up feelings of awkwardness. Many adults are afraid or uncomfortable when teenagers talk about sexuality and sexual activity. So how do we talk about sex openly? Hence, I spoke to comedian and Sex Bo...
Nov 13, 2022•41 min•Season 2Ep. 72
Welcome to "How To Be...", guiding you through life's tricky topics and skills by reading through the best books out there. In modern society, busyness is often equated with success. Busyness used to be a virtue back in the old days before mobile phones and information overload appeared in our palms and began to fill every single idle void. Now it’s become a joy-sucking, and frankly unhealthy habit we all need to get real about. So how do we stop being over-busy? Hence, I spoke to psychologist a...
Oct 30, 2022•48 min•Season 2Ep. 71
Welcome to "How To Be...", guiding you through life's tricky topics and skills by reading through the best books out there. The body is political. Our body can represent our identity, our past, our race, gender and status, and be a symbol for our society. However, how our bodies are viewed and categorised is not always in the power of the body’s inhabiter, many of these definitions are imposed upon us by systems of power beyond our control. So how is the body political? Hence, I spoke to Univers...
Oct 16, 2022•39 min•Season 2Ep. 70
Welcome to "How To Be...", guiding you through life's tricky topics and skills by reading through the best books out there. Our achievement-oriented culture urges us to push through adversity, overcome all obstacles, and strive for success. Yet, quitting — like failure — is a normal part of life. There will be times in our jobs, relationships, friendships, business ventures, sports, and pastimes, when the best option is to quit. So why is it okay to quit and when should we do it? Hence, I spoke ...
Oct 02, 2022•33 min•Season 2Ep. 69
Welcome to "How To Be...", guiding you through life's tricky topics and skills by reading through the best books out there. Desire is instinctual. It lives deep in our animal selves. Desire wants what it wants, without rationale, often without full awareness. Most of us wrestle throughout our lives with the desires we’ve denied ourselves in order to fit into the “good” box and to be accepted in our family and community. So how do we stop fearing desire and pursue what we want? Hence, I spoke to ...
Sep 18, 2022•39 min•Season 2Ep. 68
Welcome to "How To Be...", guiding you through life's tricky topics and skills by reading through the best books out there. A stressful situation — whether something environmental, such as a looming work deadline, or psychological, such as persistent worry about losing a job — can trigger a cascade of stress hormones that produce well-orchestrated physiological changes. A stressful incident can make the heart pound and breathing quicken. Muscles tense and beads of sweat appear. Over the years, r...
Sep 04, 2022•51 min•Season 2Ep. 67
Welcome to "How To Be...", guiding you through life's tricky topics and skills by reading through the best books out there. As social media has proliferated worldwide—Facebook has 2.85 billion users—so too have concerns over how the platforms are affecting individual and collective wellbeing. So why is social media potentially harmful and are we aware about it? Hence, I spoke to Channel 4 News correspondent and Get Rich or Lie Trying author Symeon Brown on whether or not social media is harming ...
Aug 21, 2022•54 min•Season 2Ep. 66
Welcome to "How To Be...", guiding you through life's tricky topics and skills by reading through the best books out there. The reality is when it comes to dreams, is that the majority of people give up on them. The most common reasons as to why they give up, are actually all in their head, and it's terribly sad that people end up living unsatisfying lives as a result. So why do we give up on our dreams, and how do we stick to it? Hence, I spoke to Life Will See You Now author Gavin Oattes on ho...
Aug 07, 2022•47 min•Season 2Ep. 65
Welcome to "How To Be...", guiding you through life's tricky topics and skills by reading through the best books out there. Regardless of your fame, fortune, or abilities, life is filled with difficulties. You get to choose how you will react to those difficulties though. Learning to deal with them in healthy, productive ways results in personal growth and peace of mind. So how do we deal with complications? Hence, I spoke to When the Clouds Come co-author Drew Povey on how to deal with challeng...
Jul 24, 2022•48 min•Season 2Ep. 64
Welcome to "How To Be...", guiding you through life's tricky topics and skills by reading through the best books out there. The human body converts the food it consumes into energy in order to function and stay alive. This energy supply enables the body to do a number of things vital to its survival. But its not just food that you need to live day-to-day. Stress, poor diet, and living a meaningless life can actually make our energy wane as well. So how do we keep our energy up? Hence, I spoke to...
Jul 10, 2022•45 min•Season 2Ep. 63
Welcome to "How To Be...", guiding you through life's tricky topics and skills by reading through the best books out there. Identity politics has played an important role in advancing civil rights, but some say the term itself is problematic. It is the tendency for people of a particular background to form political alliances, while moving away from traditional broad-coalition party politics. So why identity politics important? Hence, I spoke to veteran journalist and Who Are We? author Gary You...
Jun 26, 2022•40 min•Season 2Ep. 62
Welcome to "How To Be...", guiding you through life's tricky topics and skills by reading through the best books out there. They say well-behaved women seldom make history. Being called a 'nasty woman', 'difficult', or 'dangerous' - even a ‘bloody difficult woman’ is something most women are likely to experience in their lifetimes. But is it such a bad thing to be a dangerous woman? Hence, I spoke to broadcaster, artist, and Dangerous Women contributor Bidisha on what it means to be a dangerous ...
Jun 12, 2022•28 min•Season 2Ep. 61
Welcome to "How To Be...", guiding you through life's tricky topics and skills by reading through the best books out there. Selective amnesia has allowed deep misunderstandings about nations to become embedded in the public imagination, enabling large proportions of the population. So why is it important to learn an accurate version of history? Hence, I spoke to poet and These Bodies of Water author Sabrina Mahfouz on why it is important to learn about accurate history, as well as other experts'...
May 29, 2022•47 min•Season 2Ep. 60
Welcome to "How To Be...", guiding you through life's tricky topics and skills by reading through the best books out there. In democratic societies, we are governed by consent. Hence, it is our job to become responsible citizens before voting or electing those in office (or placed to appointments), to represent our interests and create a better world for all of humanity. So how do we become politically responsible? Hence, I spoke to US philosopher and Fear of Black Consciousness author Professor...
May 15, 2022•41 min•Season 2Ep. 59
Welcome to "How To Be...", guiding you through life's tricky topics and skills by reading through the best books out there. The human body is everything that makes up, well, you. It is your home. Caring for your body makes sense. So why is it important to learn about your body? Hence, I spoke to neuroscientist, TV presenter and co-author of Sort Your Brain Out Dr Jack Lewis on why it is important to know about your body, as well as other experts' books to see if their advice can help all of us. ...
May 01, 2022•35 min•Season 2Ep. 58
Welcome to "How To Be...", guiding you through life's tricky topics and skills by reading through the best books out there. Deepak Chopra says starting over is the knowledge that there is something better out there for you—even if you don’t know what it is yet. It's about learning from the past and using it to propel you forward in a way you had never considered before. So how do you transform and start over again? Hence, I spoke to Stanford University’s Distinguished Careers Institute fellow an...
Apr 17, 2022•29 min•Season 2Ep. 57
Welcome to "How To Be...", guiding you through life's tricky topics and skills by reading through the best books out there. Disobedience is needed, and without it social progress would not continue. Disobedience is important because it can save lives, and it starts the conversation, but it can also cause conflict. There are both good disobedience and bad disobedience. So why is it important and how can we be disobedient with purpose? Hence, I spoke to award-winning author Piyali Bhattacharya, wh...
Apr 03, 2022•26 min•Season 2Ep. 56
Welcome to "How To Be...", guiding you through life's tricky topics and skills by reading through the best books out there. Representation burnout refers to the stress, fatigue, and exhaustion of being the only person of a particular identity within a certain environment, and to add, the only person defending that identity from discriminatory attitudes. Hence, I spoke to award-winning author Nikesh Shukla, who is the editor of The Good Immigrant and his newly published book Your Story Matters on...
Mar 20, 2022•27 min•Season 2Ep. 55
Welcome to "How To Be...", guiding you through life's tricky topics and skills by reading through the best books out there. Safety is a concept that includes all measures and practices taken to preserve the life, health, and bodily integrity of individuals. However, not everyone has that guarantee sadly. Hence, I spoke to Ten Thousand Aftershocks author Michelle Tom on feeling safe, as well as looked at other experts' books to see if their advice can help all of us. And also heard from others wh...
Mar 06, 2022•32 min•Season 2Ep. 54
Welcome to "How To Be...", guiding you through life's tricky topics and skills by reading through the best books out there. We’re told it’s a fundamental need in humans to be seen. Counsellor Shala Nicely says: "Feeling seen by others is a basic human need. Its basis is evolutionary: If your tribe didn’t see you, there was a risk you’d be left behind when the nomadic life of early humans dictated they move, and being alone equated to death." So what can we do to be visible? I spoke to Brown Girl...
Feb 20, 2022•37 min•Season 2Ep. 53
Welcome to "How To Be...", exploring how to gain life skills, whilst attempting to gain some myself. It's the last episode of the season, so it makes sense to actually look back that the past 52 weeks! Reflecting apparently helps you to develop your skills and review their effectiveness, rather than just carry on doing things as you have always done them. It is about questioning, in a positive way, what you do and why you do it and then deciding whether there is a better, or more efficient, way ...
Nov 21, 2021•32 min
Welcome to "How To Be...", exploring how to gain life skills, whilst attempting to gain some myself. We all know the incredibly heavy weight of bearing an untold secret. There is nothing so heavy as having something significant to share, to get off our chest, and being unable to share it, often because we think that it will be poorly received. But we also know how incredibly freeing it can be when we do. So what stops us from sharing? Looking into what the 'experts' say about sharing untold stor...
Nov 14, 2021•29 min
Welcome to "How To Be...", exploring how to gain life skills, whilst attempting to gain some myself. Climate change can be a tough sell. It’s arguably the greatest challenge or threat facing this and future generations, yet it seems at times to be a near-insurmountable challenge in itself just to get people interested in it. For one, we don't hear the human aspect of the crisis, and what are people actually doing about it? Looking into what the 'experts' say about climate change and whether it i...
Nov 07, 2021•34 min
Welcome to "How To Be...", exploring how to gain life skills, whilst attempting to gain some myself. larger world, both currently and historically. People can also feel the need for a wider social connection, particularly in modern Western societies where small nuclear families and greater geographical mobility may lead to a sense of isolation. But why is the root such a compelling metaphor for thinking about our connection to ancestors, homelands, and the earth itself? Looking into what the 'ex...
Oct 31, 2021•35 min
Welcome to "How To Be...", exploring how to gain life skills, whilst attempting to gain some myself. men are complex and muscles are not the monopoly of men.” The female body is one of the most scrutinized subjects in contemporary culture, so why are portrayals of physical strength so lacking? Looking into what the 'experts' say about women and non-binary people's strength and whether it is truly helpful? And also hearing from others who have gained some mastery over themselves. Please hit subsc...
Oct 24, 2021•30 min
Welcome to "How To Be...", exploring how to gain life skills, whilst attempting to gain some myself. Sh#t Your Ego Says author James McCrae says embracing your weirdness gives you a new perspective, and the world needs a new perspective. Innovation does not happen within the status quo. Innovation happens when outsiders challenge the status quo with weird ideas. So if you are a bit of an outsider, how do you harness your weirdness? Looking into what the 'experts' say about being weird and whethe...
Oct 17, 2021•20 min
Welcome to "How To Be...", exploring how to gain life skills, whilst attempting to gain some myself. The sense of wonder apparently speaks of our hunger to be moved, to be engaged and impassioned with the world and take pleasure in it, attuned to it, grateful for it, and fascinated by it. It's supposedly a corrective for the conventional and habitual, for the fact that day-to-day life offers so few helpings of raw experience, of intensity and aliveness, and of novelty. So how do we find wonder a...
Oct 10, 2021•25 min
Welcome to "How To Be...", exploring how to gain life skills, whilst attempting to gain some myself. American writer, feminist, womanist, librarian, and civil rights activist Audre Lorde once said: “There is no thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.” Looking at identity, it is thought to be important to approach it from an intersectional perspective because it deepens the understanding that there is diversity and nuance in the ways in which people hold power....
Oct 03, 2021•36 min
Welcome to "How To Be...", exploring how to gain life skills, whilst attempting to gain some myself. Understanding and addressing biases you may possess are important so you can be aware of how you treat and interact with others, both consciously and subconsciously. The Implicit Association Test is often used to measure implicit bias in individuals. But can we actually see our own unconscious bias? Looking into what the 'experts' say about bias and whether it is truly helpful? And also hearing f...
Sep 26, 2021•29 min
