Paul Bloom is Professor of Psychology at the University of Toronto, Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Yale University and an author. People do strange things to feel pleasure. Eating spicy food, having rough sex, watching scary movies. On top of that, they make huge sacrifices to find meaning, like having children or starting a business or training for a marathon. This suggests that perhaps there is more to living a good life than simple hedonistic pleasure. Expect to learn the four ways that ...
Nov 25, 2021•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 402
Rory Sutherland is the Vice Chairman of Ogilvy Advertising and an author. Transportation is getting quicker. As we reach close to terminal velocity for getting from A to B, behavioural scientists should be looking at how journeys can be made more enjoyable, not quicker. Yet Google Maps and public transport never takes this into account. Expect to learn why all Indian restaurants deserve a Michelin Star, why the crema on your coffee was a branding stunt, why Rory is in love with his new Ford Must...
Nov 22, 2021•1 hr 30 min
To celebrate 400 episodes on Modern Wisdom, I broke down some of my favourite lessons, insights and quotes from the last 3 and a half years. Expect to learn why perfectionism is procrastination masquerading as quality control, Seth Godin's best advice for beating imposter syndrome, the biggest lessons I took from Jordan Peterson, how Ryan Long can predict the future of the internet, why framing is everything, Morgan Housel's best investment advice, why I'm adamant that Jonny Wilkinson has taken ...
Nov 20, 2021•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 400
Rob Orchard is a journalist and the co-founder and editor of Delayed Gratification Magazine. Journalism isn't working. Media outlets are more concerned with being first than being right and stories are built to create outrage rather than insight. Customers aren't happy with this setup, so Rob and his team began a Slow Journalism project which focuses on finding signal from the noise, rather than speedy delivery. Then he found a ton of fascinating statistics about the world. Expect to learn what ...
Nov 18, 2021•1 hr 22 min•Ep. 399
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 why I'm moving to Texas, how to track your barbell speed, how to get free golf club trackers, why Yusef thinks that snidely charging VAT is reprehensible, how to hack ASOS sizing, how to stop yourself from buying junk in the supermarket, why you only need one foreign plug conv...
Nov 15, 2021•1 hr 40 min•Ep. 398
Dr Benjamin Hardy is an organisational psychologist and an author. Many high achievers are unhappy because the same motivation which drives exceptional performance often also leads to feelings of insufficiency, jealousy and comparison. So how can driven people reframe their worldview to come from a place of gratitude and happiness, whilst still keeping that competitive edge? Expect to learn how comparing your performance to your potential is a recipe for disaster, why success without happiness i...
Nov 13, 2021•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 397
Sebastian Junger is a journalist, author and filmmaker. Throughout history, humans have been driven by the quest for two cherished ideals: community and freedom. The two don’t coexist easily: we value individuality and self-reliance, yet are utterly dependent on community for our most basic needs. Expect to learn how having kids in your 50's can give you more freedom than you might think, what happens when you lose 10 pints of blood and have a near death experience, why fighting to the death was...
Nov 11, 2021•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 396
Alfie Brown is a comedian and a podcaster. Adulting is hard. I had hoped to discover that Alfie, a dad of 3, would have worked out how to do it properly. But alas, no, it seems we are both condemned to flail around in the liminal purgatory of "just about getting by" for at least another few years. Expect to learn why being a comedian doesn't mean that you can perform effectively as a compere for a 7 year old's birthday party, what it's like entering the world of fitness at 34, why my obsession w...
Nov 08, 2021•1 hr 29 min•Ep. 395
Carl Zimmer is a science writer, journalist and an author who specialises in evolution, parasites, and heredity. Life is the thing which illuminates our corner of the universe. It gives colour to an otherwise cold, brutal void. But what is life? How is it defined? Despite seeming obvious at first glance, this question is one of the most contested in science. Expect to learn what are the most extreme forms of life which can live in the vacuum of space, how life might have begun in rock pools, why...
Nov 06, 2021•58 min•Ep. 394
Ali Abdaal is a Doctor and a YouTuber. Money makes the world go round. After the last 12 months, everyone should have realised that relying on a single source of income is not a very antifragile way to construct a financial set up. Creating multiple revenue streams is a great way to de-risk yourself, and today we get to find out 12 of Ali's favourites. Expect to learn why the S&P500 almost always beats expert hedge fund managers, how Ali makes his money on YouTube, why Coinbase is great for cryp...
Nov 04, 2021•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 393
Anna Lembke is a psychiatrist who is Chief of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic at Stanford University and an author. Dopamine is a key neurotransmitter in our reward pathway. It tells us when to feel pleasure and pain, it can cause depression and anxiety, and it's being hijacked by the modern world. Phones, video games, porn, food, our world is filled with cheap dopamine, which in turn is making us miserable. Expect to learn how dopamine creates a see-saw balance of pleasure...
Nov 01, 2021•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 392
Tim Stanley is a historian, author and leader writer for the Daily Telegraph. The modern world has given us a lot. Safety and warmth, lighting at night, medicine, new age religions, Deliveroo and OnlyFans, but a lot of people feel unhappy with the life that modernity has handed them and are pulled toward a different style of living, one where they embrace values of the past rather than the future. Expect to learn why The West is as war with its own history, how Notre Dam nearly became a swimming...
Oct 30, 2021•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 391
John McWhorter is a linguist, associate professor of linguistics at Columbia University and an author. The last 5 years has seen race become a primary flash point for culture, news, protests, social justice, hiring, firing, media and politics. But why have race relations come back to the forefront and who is driving this new religion of Woke Racism forward? Expect to learn what John McWhorter thinks of White Fragility and How To Be An Anti-Racist, whether cultural appropriation is an actual thin...
Oct 28, 2021•50 min•Ep. 390
Joe Navarro is a former FBI agent, author and a world expert on body language. Becoming an exceptional communicator is a superpower. No matter your job or goals in life, the better you are at communicating, the better your outcomes will be. Joe led the FBI's non-verbal communication division and SWAT operations whilst catching and turning spies for 25 years, today we get to hear his best advice. Expect to learn the biggest mistakes people make when setting up to talk to someone in a room, why se...
Oct 25, 2021•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 389
David Pakman is a political commentator and host of The David Pakman Show. The Left and The Right really aren't talking very well at the moment. It feels like if people don't have the same political leaning, they see the world in an entirely different way, whether that's disagreements on identity, health, policy, priorities or babymaking. Expect to learn David Pakman's explanation for why communication from Left to Right seems so strained, whether identity politics really takes up as much focus ...
Oct 23, 2021•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 388
Kathryn Paige Harden is a psychologist and behavioural geneticist, Professor of Psychology at the University of Texas and an author. The goal of social equality is to give everyone a fair opportunity to achieve in life. But even if advantages and disadvantages in the environment are equalised, all of us are starting at different positions genetically because we get far more than just environment from our parents. Paige is trying to work out how DNA can be integrated into social equality. Expect ...
Oct 21, 2021•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 387
Daniel Sloss is a comedian, podcaster & now an author. Everyone you hate is going to die. But so is everyone you love. And so are you. Before that happens, you need to live and breathe and make some friends and hopefully find a partner and start a family and have fun. Today we get to hear Daniel's best advice for how to avoid total failure at this. Expect to learn why boomers would probably get rekt on Tinder, what Daniel's thoughts are on his Netflix Special Jigsaw now as a happily engaged man,...
Oct 18, 2021•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 386
Gurwinder Bhogal is a programmer and a writer. I got tagged in a monstrous thread of Gurwinder's on Twitter exploring human nature, cognitive biases, mental models, status games, crowd behaviour and social media. It's one of the best things I've read this year, so I just had to bring him on. Expect to learn how saying ridiculous things can be a test of loyalty, why people can be too stupid to know that they're stupid, why million-to-one odds happen 8 times a day in New York City, why The Bullshi...
Oct 16, 2021•1 hr 29 min•Ep. 385
Zack Telander is a weightlifter, coach & YouTuber. ZT joins me to talk about the world's most pressing issues like whether men should be forced to get vasectomies at age 40, if Jon Jones can ever find redemption, why New Zealand's football team name is problematic, why the female orgasm is so elusive, how Zack got involved in internet beef with a big Texan man, whether CrossFit has rampant steroid use and much more... Sponsors: Get 20% discount on Reebok’s entire range including the amazing Nano...
Oct 14, 2021•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 384
Robert Greene is an author and historian. Many people want and need power in life, but almost none of us admit it. Robert's new book compiles 366 of his best lessons on power, seduction, human nature and mastery, and today we get to go through my favourites. Expect to learn how remaining absent can increase respect, why you should suffer fools gladly, why focussing on actions not words is the best way to judge someone's character, how to avoid losing your sanity in a group and much more... Spons...
Oct 11, 2021•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 383
Charles Eisenstein is a public speaker and author specialising in the ecology movement. The climate debate is chaos. Activists and skeptics can't talk to each other and for every article suggesting one point of view there's another refuting it. People are either malicious world-killers or useful idiot dupes. Expect to learn why the climate change debate is so difficult to navigate, why it's supposedly impossible to find an impartial climate scientist, Charles' suggestions for how to navigate thi...
Oct 09, 2021•53 min•Ep. 382
Stanley McChrystal is a retired four-star general, the former commander of the US and International Security Assistance Forces in Afghanistan, a CEO and an author. Risk is a constant throughout life. It's permanently shaping our individual and organisational behaviour but humans are inherently bad at judging and adapting to risk. After 34 years of dealing with mortal risk in the field of combat, Stanley has a good insight into a better approach. Sponsors: Get 20% discount on the highest quality ...
Oct 07, 2021•1 hr•Ep. 381
Dan Jones is a historian, TV presenter and an author. Dan took a break from walking about great British castles to write a book about the 1000 years of the Middle Ages. Knights and Templars and Monks and Mongols and Barbarians. Expect to learn why Genghis Khan was harder than Jocko Willink, Dan's best ever finish in Peloton, why I won't be allowed to go as a wizard to his imaginary medieval fancy dress party, just how bad a pandemic in the Middle Ages was, why Rome got rekt by climate change and...
Oct 04, 2021•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 380
Rupert Sheldrake PhD is a biologist and author best known for his hypothesis of Morphic Resonance. Morphic Resonance is the idea of mysterious telepathy-type connections between organisms and of collective memories within species. Rupert has spent 30 years investigating and researching this phenomenon, much to the annoyance of the scientific community. Expect to learn why it is that rats who are taught to escape from a maze have children who are able to escape it more quickly and why rats in oth...
Oct 02, 2021•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 379
Ryan Holiday is a podcaster, marketer and an author. Ryan's next series of books are on the four cardinal virtues of the Stoics with courage being the first and most fundamental. Courage isn't the sort of trait you consider as modern or sexy or massively advantageous when the world isn't at war. But having the ability to overcome your fears is a superpower no matter who you are. Expect to learn how to deal with self doubt in the face of fear, how to overcome social pressure, why Winston Churchil...
Sep 30, 2021•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 378
Brad Stulberg is an expert in peak performance, a coach and an author. The pressure we put on ourselves to achieve can be intense. But what is the point of success if it crushes your spirit while you're doing it? Brad has coached some of the world's top performers and come up with 6 principles for groundedness - a path to flourishing which feeds rather than crushes your soul. Expect to learn why your performance will improve if you come from a place of enoughness, the crucial difference between ...
Sep 27, 2021•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 377
Beau Lotto is is a professor of Neuroscience at the University of London and an author. Beau is the founder of the Lab Of Misfits which he describes as "lunatic fringe neuroscience". He's created nightclubs in his lab where every action people take is measured, he's locked people in dark rooms and waited to see what happens and he's got actors to have a fit on the floor to observe how people respond. Expect to learn the neuroscience of why awe makes us feel so connected to the world around us, h...
Sep 25, 2021•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 376
Aubrey Marcus is a podcaster, author and founder. Aubrey just sold his company Onnit to Unilever for a huge undisclosed amount and he just got married after years of polyamory. How do you find fulfilment in life when all the pursuits which used to give you meaning are now completed? Expect to learn what it feels like to wake up with millions and millions of dollars in your bank account one day, the dangers of constantly desiring validation, how Aubrey would suggest someone get into psychedelic t...
Sep 23, 2021•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 375
Will Storr is an award winning author and journalist. Status is the original human currency. Prestige, renown, respect and admiration are all sought after because it gave our ancestors better access to mates, safety and resources. Now the modern era has arrived, the lions are no longer chasing us but our desire for status is a strong as ever. Expect to learn why growing a huge yam can make you the favourite in your tribe, why tall poppy syndrome exists, the reason for our conscience, the risks o...
Sep 20, 2021•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 374
Patrick Moore is the Co-Founder & Ex-President of Greenpeace and an author. Climate change has been at the forefront of political, cultural and social battles for the last 40 years. Patrick had a front-row seat as he organised the environmental movement's first ever major demonstration, but now he has some real problems with the direction it's heading in. Expect to learn Patrick's thoughts on humanity's impact on global warming temperatures, his opinion on Extinction Rebellion and Greta Thunberg...
Sep 18, 2021•1 hr 36 min•Ep. 373
