Dr Samantha Boardman is a psychiatrist and an author. Divorces, bankruptcies and moving house are major stresses. But what about the micro-stressors we deal with every day, how much do they contribute to diminishing our wellbeing and what can we do to stop that from happening? Expect to learn which activities studies say are most effective for making you resilient to stress, how to break a downward spiral in your growth, why discomfort is a feature not a bug, how creating a persona can give you ...
Aug 14, 2021•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 358
Christopher Mason is a Professor at Weill Cornell Medicine, founding Directors of the WorldQuant Initiative for Quantitative Prediction and an author. Eventually, the sun is going to engulf the earth. This means that if we want human and animal life to not be snuffed out within a billion years, we need to reach other worlds and Christopher has put together a 500-years roadmap for how we could do it. Expect to learn why space flight is so harsh on the human body, how genetic manipulation could as...
Aug 12, 2021•59 min•Ep. 357
Yeonmi Park is a North Korean defector, an author and a YouTuber. North Korea is the most shrouded, dictatorial and walled-off nation on earth. The only press who are permitted access are get shown a performance masquerading as real life and leaving the country is essentially impossible. At 13 years old, Yeonmi escaped along with her sister & mother. Expect to learn how North Korea's citizens are conned into spying on each other, why it's better to die than go to prison, how the state has ma...
Aug 09, 2021•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 356
Andrew Gold is a documentary maker and podcaster. In the depths of the Buenos Aires suburbs is a priest who is warding off vampires, levitating followers and battling demons. Or maybe he's kidnapping schizophrenic patients from a local psychiatric ward. Andrew traipsed through Argentina to find out. Expect to learn what it's like to fear 5000 people are going to kill you in South America, how Andrew infiltrated an underground network in Germany, why the BBC's diversity quota might be protecting ...
Aug 07, 2021•1 hr 30 min•Ep. 355
Rich Diviney is a retired Navy SEAL Commander and an author. The Navy Seals are one of the most hardened military groups in the world. During 13 tours and over a decade of service, Rich researched and tested his favourite ways to improve and enhance the mental and physical performance of himself and his unit. Expect to learn how to immediately move your system from a sympathetic to parasympathetic state, why optimal performance is preferable to peak performance, why understanding the relationshi...
Aug 05, 2021•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 354
Robert Plomin, is a psychologist, geneticist and an author. Separating the influence of nature and nurture is something everyone considers. Robert is the 71st most cited psychologist of the 20th century and has run the largest and most clinically detailed twin and adoption studies in history to finally provide definitive answers to these fundamental questions. Expect to learn how much of who we are can be attributed to our environment and how much was predisposed by our genetics, why parenting d...
Aug 02, 2021•1 hr 42 min•Ep. 353
Ben Aldridge is an author, musician and teacher. After finding himself increasingly anxious and suffering regular panic attacks, Ben purposefully spent an entire year doing things which really pushed the limits of his comfort in an effort to regain control of his mindset. Expect to learn what Ben's Mrs thought of him sleeping on the floor next to the bed, what he discovered when he climbed Everest up and down his house's stairs, why acupuncture in the face can be useful, how exposure therapy spi...
Jul 31, 2021•52 min•Ep. 352
Stephen McGinty is an author, journalist and documentary producer. In 1973, two British men, Roger Chapman & Roger Mallinson were 1500ft below the surface laying trans-Atlantic telephone cables in the Pisces III submarine. What happened next is one of the longest, most dangerous, complex and daring rescues ever attempted as America, Canada, Ireland and Britain marshalled their forces in the air and beneath the sea to save the two men, all while their oxygen, food and power was rapidly runnin...
Jul 29, 2021•57 min•Ep. 351
James Nestor is a journalist and an author. We get more energy from our breath than we do from food or hydration or sleep. And yet most people have never considered assessing how properly they breathe. Thankfully James has spent years speaking to the world's leading researchers, breathwork teachers, monks and free divers to find out exactly what we need to know. Expect to learn why computer use is affecting your breath, how poor breathing can cause diabetes, why snoring is a dangerous habit, Jam...
Jul 26, 2021•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 350
Rupert Spira a teacher of the Non-Dualism Direct Path, an author and a potter. Non-dualism is a state of consciousness that many contemplative practitioners aim to achieve. A dissolving of a barrier between the observer and the experience, it's incredibly complex but thankfully Rupert is one of the clearest and most direct teachers of non-duality. Today we tackle some of the biggest questions in enlightenment practice, like what are we at our essence? What is consciousness? What does it mean to ...
Jul 24, 2021•59 min•Ep. 349
Daniel Schmachtenberger is a founding member of The Consilience Project and works in preventing global catastrophic risk. Having accurate sensemaking is a superpower in the 21st century. As the volume of information we need to sort through increases, the ability to distinguish signal from noise becomes ever more important. Given this, I wanted to ask Daniel exactly how he would advise someone to become an adept sensemaker. Expect to learn the characteristics that a good sensemaking agent should ...
Jul 22, 2021•2 hr 4 min•Ep. 348
Danny Trejo is an actor and restaurateur. Danny is one of the most recognisable faces in Hollywood history. He's just written a new memoir about his life and today we get to hear his craziest stories. Expect to learn what it was like to meet Charles Manson in jail, who was the hardest guy on-set at Con Air, how Danny nearly ended up with the death penalty, whether he actually robbed Antonio Banderas, how he saved Keifer Sutherland from a psychopath and much more... Sponsors: Get 10% discount on ...
Jul 19, 2021•59 min•Ep. 347
Rob Reid is an entrepreneur, podcaster and an author. The last 15 months have been a terrifying taster of just what a global crisis is like, except it wasn't lethal enough to be a threat to our long term survival - but just because this one wasn't, doesn't mean that more deadly existential risks aren't out there. Expect to learn how synthetic biology might be the biggest risk to our survival, what we should have learned from 2020, whether Artificial General Intelligence is an immediate threat, R...
Jul 15, 2021•2 hr 11 min
Ryan Long is a comedian, director and podcaster. What do Whiteclaw, Elon Musk, Andrew Cuomo's daughter's sexuality, Juule, OnlyFans, Dan Bilzarian, John McAfee, Winston from Mumford & Sons, Oli London and a kinky Thanksgiving Parade have in common? Absolutely nothing but we talk about them all today. Enjoy. Sponsors: Get 40% discount on everything from boohooMAN at https://bit.ly/manwisdom (use code MW40) Get 20% discount on the highest quality CBD Products from Pure Sport at https://purespo...
Jul 12, 2021•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 345
Luke Burgis is an entrepreneur and author. We feel like we are in charge of our wants. Like we're the creator of our desires. But Rene Girard's theory of Mimetic Desire suggests an alternative - all we are doing is copying and modelling other people's wants, and then spitting them back out as our own. Expect to learn why you're going to die of a Brazilian butt lift, why mimesis is a kind of alchemy, how mimetic desires cause people to become scapegoats, why Lamborghini's creation story is explai...
Jul 08, 2021•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 344
Dr David Sinclair is a Professor in the Department of Genetics at Harvard Medical School and co-Director of the Paul Glenn Centre for the Biological Mechanisms of Ageing. The longevity movement is huge, people all around the globe are trying to discover how to live longer and slow down ageing. It's been 2 years since Dr Sinclair was last on the show, so I figured it was time to invite him back on and find out what he's been up to. Expect to learn why having a dog can make you live longer, how fa...
Jul 05, 2021•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 343
Jim Poole is the President and CEO of Solace Lifesciences. The last year has been one of the most stressful in memory, add on top our always-on technology, poor sleep schedules, alcohol, political tensions and it's no surprise that the second great wave of stress is upon us. Expect to learn how the balance of your autonomous nervous system is constantly being hijacked, how the crazy technology underpinning Jim's flagship product NuCalm works, why the sleep industry is in such a mess, how manipul...
Jul 03, 2021•1 hr 24 min•Ep. 342
Jonny & Yusef from Propane Fitness join me for another Life Hacks episode. Sit back & enjoy as we run through our favourite tools, apps, websites, strategies & resources for a productive and efficient life. Expect to learn how to crush singing happy birthday, why Yusef is leaving Evernote, the most fun way to spend £12, how to get YouTube Premium for 94p, the ultimate warmup routine, why Jonny is now the most interesting person in the room, how to sleep in Amsterdam Airport and much ...
Jul 01, 2021•1 hr 29 min•Ep. 341
Mark Manson is an author and blogger. Mark is the king of telling people things they don't want to hear, but need to hear. I couldn't bring him on without using this as an opportunity to dig out some of his most insightful and painful lessons about life, so here we go - hold on tight. Expect to learn why almost nothing is ever about you, why there's a fundamental selfishness attached to anxiety, how Mark transitioned from partyboy to fatherhood, why you're probably the problem in all your relati...
Jun 28, 2021•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 340
Jeremy McDermott is an investigative reporter and the Director of Insight Crime. Modern drug lords in South America learned that anonymity is a better defence than a well armed militia. Jeremy has spent the last decade of his life chasing one of the most notorious members of The Invisibles, Memo Fantasma "The Ghost". Expect to learn how the Vice President of Colombia was implicated in a drug lord's operations, how The Ghost deleted his entire identity, why Jeremy turned up on a kingpin's doorste...
Jun 26, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 339
Robert Wright is President of the Nonzero Foundation, an author and Visiting Professor of Science and Religion at Union Theological Seminary in New York. Bob's book The Moral Animal has changed my thinking more than pretty much any other over the last few years, so naturally I wanted to bring him on to discuss whether aliens are real and how we can avoid existential risks. For real though, expect to learn the role that evolutionary psychology plays in mindfulness practice, why Bob thinks that al...
Jun 24, 2021•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 338
I hit 200k Subscribers on YouTube!! To celebrate I asked for questions on Instagram and YouTube. Yet again I was blown away by how interesting, challenging and insightful the questions were so I tried to fit as many in as I could. You guys really are incredibly smart and uncommonly reasonable on an internet of idiots mud slinging at each other. Expect to learn who the hardest podcast guest to prepare for was, whether I'm worried about being over 30 and single, if I'll shave my head and wear a Ti...
Jun 21, 2021•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 337
Richard Lang is the Co-ordinator of the Shollond Trust, a UK charity focussed on sharing the Headless Way. If you see a person from 6 feet away, they're a person. From 100,000 miles away they're a planet. From a few microns away they're cells. So what are they at their very centre? Who are we? This is the central question of The Headless Way and today Richard takes us through Douglas Harding's work to answer it along with some meditations and experiments you can do to illuminate these insights f...
Jun 19, 2021•51 min•Ep. 336
Nicole Arbour is a comedian and YouTuber. Nicole has been through her fair share of controversy, so what insights has she gained from a decade of public attention, haters, success and failure? Expect to learn what Nicole discovered after 10 years of chronic pain, what Americans Canadians and Brits can learn from each other, why Canadian politeness has ben weaponised, what the right are getting wrong, how to deal with criticism, Nicole's dating advice to her younger self and much more... Sponsors...
Jun 17, 2021•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 335
Shane Parrish is the Founder of Farnam Street, an ex-Canadian Intelligence Agency Operative and an author. Farnam Street is one of the best blogs on the planet. Shane has been a huge contributor to increasing the popularity of mental models and effective decision making over the last few years, today we get to dig into some of his favourite insights. Expect to learn how to pursue growth without feeling insufficient, why everyone in Shane's company gets august off work, how to know when your ego ...
Jun 14, 2021•49 min•Ep. 334
Chris Walsh is the CEO and President of Marijuana Business Daily and an industry trend analyst. People are claiming that cannabis will be the next gold rush industry. After it grew by nearly 50% in 2020, that seems even more likely. Chris knows everything about the world of weed, so we get the inside scoop on this rapidly growing industry. Expect to learn how weed is somehow illegal federally but legal at the state level, why THC suppositories are a thing, whether there will be a psychedelics in...
Jun 12, 2021•1 hr•Ep. 333
Julia Galef is the co-founder of the Center for Applied Rationality, a podcaster and an author. Boris Johnson’s former chief adviser Dominic Cummings said that tens of thousands of Covid deaths could have been prevented if the Government had read Julia's book. Why is it that he swears by Julia's rationalist manifesto? Expect to learn what most people get wrong about confidence, the difference between a solider and scout mindset, why attitude is more important than knowledge for effective judgeme...
Jun 10, 2021•53 min•Ep. 332
Michael Knowles is a political commentator, podcaster, and an author. Ostensibly, political correctness is the right thing to do if you're a responsible human that is respectful of other people's emotions. Encouraging people to be mindful and precise of the words they use makes sense. But demanding for tolerance becomes undermined when the people doing the demanding are overbearing and intolerant. It’s like punching people in the name of peace. Something is obviously amiss... Expect to learn why...
Jun 07, 2021•1 hr 27 min•Ep. 331
Theo Priestley and Bronwyn Jones are futurists, trend analysts and authors. The future is supposed to be ours to choose, but who is educated enough to tell us if we're going in the wrong direction? Theo & Bronwyn brought together the world's leading futurists to articulate, clarify and predict the current trajectories in all the areas of life that you care about, like the future of warfare, education, transport, politics, economics, space travel, relationships and more. Sponsors: Get 10% dis...
Jun 05, 2021•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 330
Michael Malice is an author, political commentator & podcaster. No matter your perspective, politics isn't working very well at the moment. The world is divided along more lines than we can count and the powers that be don't seem to have the electorate's best interests at heart. Is the solution just to tear it all down? Expect to learn why Michael refuses to vote, what the hardest question for anarchy to answer is, why a democracy doesn't give you choice, why I've been forgetting words recen...
Jun 03, 2021•1 hr 28 min•Ep. 329
