Julian Walker has researched, written, and podcasted about cults and gurus, spiritual bypass and quantum woo in New Age circles extensively. He is also a cohost of the (amazing) Conspirituality Podcast. Today's episode is really important, and we discuss why certain groups (like BJJ, MMA and Yoga circles) are more into conspiracy theories (starting roughly at 4:46), the tendency for some people to make connections and see patterns where none exist (17:59), end of the world prophecies in conspira...
Aug 12, 2021•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 336
In episode 335 of The Strenuous Life Podcast Stephan Kesting talks to cult expert, cult survivor and cult deprogrammer Joeseph Szimhart. We go into depth about QAnon, New Age cults, Theosophy, cult recruitment tactics, and people escape them. I think this is a fascinating and very topical conversation. Find out more about Joe at https://www.jszimhart.com/ And if you enjoyed this episode then please, a rating or review within the podcast platform of your choice would be super appreciated! Thank y...
Aug 09, 2021•1 hr 30 min•Ep. 335
Dr Dr Chris Kavanagh is an Oxford trained evolutionary & cognitive anthropologist who co-hosts the 'Decoding the Gurus' podcast with Mathew Browne. Together they tackle the secular gurus propagating their ideas, grievances, and conspiracies on the internet. In today's episode we look at the 10 factors that go into their 'gurometer', a highly scientific measure that takes the signature characteristics of gurus and uses advanced mathematics (simple addition) to determine how high up the guru s...
Jul 20, 2021•2 hr 5 min•Ep. 334
From the cheekiest triangle choke counter I've ever used to Khabib slamming the crap out of his opponents in the UFC, here's a short episode about the times you simply have to move the fight to a new location! Hope you enjoy this, and if you do then a review or rating on the podcast platform of your choice would be super appreciated! Stephan
Jul 09, 2021•8 min•Ep. 333
Walter Masterson trolls anti-vaxx and pro-conspiracy rallies. He's brave, funny and insightful, and I was honored to have him as a guest on episode 332 of The Strenuous Life Podcast. Follow Walter on Youtube at https://www.youtube.com/user/waltermasterson On TikTok at https://www.tiktok.com/@waltermasterson On Twitter at https://twitter.com/waltermasterson On Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/waltermasterson/ Cheers, Stephan Kesting...
Jul 07, 2021•1 hr 27 min•Ep. 332
Jon Thomas is a BJJ master strategician with an uncanny ability to connect grips, sweeps, submissions and positions together to create a seamless attack gameplan. In this episode we do a deep dive into the closed guard position and I think your jiu-jitsu will definitely improve if you implement his training methods and organisational concepts. Check out The Closed Guard System in video format at https://www.grapplearts.com/closedguard
Jun 28, 2021•50 min•Ep. 331
How to learn from instructionals, avoid bad seminars, improve BJJ training methods, the Australian MMA scene, trends in grappling, and much more with the eloquent Sonny Brown from the Sonny Brown Breakdown! And check out the latest Grapplearts instructional on the Closed Guard at https://www.grapplearts.com/closedguard
Jun 26, 2021•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 330
Steve Koepfer is a Master of Sport in Russian Sambo, and has translated his skills on the mat into a busy career as a stuntman appearing in the John Wick movies, Ray Donovan, The Blacklist, The Punisher and more. In this conversation we go into depth about what doing stuntwork is really like, how fight scenes get choreographed, and Steve's best advice for people wanting to step into the industry. Check out Steve's school - NY Sambo - at ussambo.com and/or follow him on Instagram @sambosteve . Al...
Jun 08, 2021•1 hr 24 min•Ep. 329
Steve Koepfer is a Master of Sport of Russia in Combat Sambo and the head coach of New York Combat Sambo. In episode 328 we talk about the impending wave of combat sambo specialists coming to the UFC and other MMA events, the differences between training in Russia and North America, the prevalence of leglocks, and much more. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did!
May 29, 2021•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 328
Here's a story about the first time I 'won' a streetfight when I realised that the other guy - an older, shabbily dressed, homeless man - was almost certainly mentally ill. A good streetfight is one that you walk away from or de-escalate, because even if you KO the other guy you could still lose (as I discussed in detail in this article here: https://selfdefensetutorials.com/death-after-the-knockout/ ) Be compassionate and be strategic my friends, Stephan P.S. Sign up for my email newsletter for...
May 27, 2021•8 min•Ep. 327
Dom Hoskins is a BJJ black belt, coach and fierce competitor who is helping bring the lessons of jiu-jitsu to public schools in California's East Bay. Follow Dom Hoskins on Instagram @dominat10n Check out his school at @dominat10nma And follow the Youth Jiu-Jitsu Collective at @yjcbjj
May 18, 2021•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 326
Ami Palmer is a wrestler, judoka, and an adjunct professor of philosophy at Ohio Northern University. The topics he researches include how widespread conspiracism and science denialism affect democratic policy making. I was thrilled to have him on the podcast and I think it's a very important conversation! 00:51 - Introduction 02:17 - Wrestling, judo and philosophy 11:15 - Why the BJJ community is so prone to conspiracy theories 20:17 - When is it rational to defer to an expert, and how do you k...
May 07, 2021•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 325
Today's conversation with Marcio Pie was a blend of two of my favorite topics: the science of biology and the science of BJJ. Marcio is a professor of zoology at UFPR and practices Jiu-Jitsu in Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil 01:17 - Introduction to evolution 06:20 - Runaway selection 09:44 - Jiu-Jitsu strategies 14:28 - Evolutionary stable strategies 18:09 - The prisoner's dilemma 21:41 - Evolution applied in jiu-jitsu 25:58 - Mathematical approach to the study of memes 35:10 - How does evolution crea...
May 06, 2021•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 324
Mike McCastle set a new world record on Jan 23, 2021, immersing himself in ice for 2 hours and 40 minutes and surviving! He joined me on Episode 323 of The Strenuous Life Podcast to talk about this absolutely insane challenge including The physical preparation and mental strength required to it off, The limits of the human body, Tummo (inner fire) breathing and visualisation, How 'normal' people can use his principles to challenge themselves, How his father's struggle with Parkinson's motivates ...
Apr 26, 2021•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 323
What exactly is herd immunity? How can we be sure that the vaccine companies aren't lying to us? What is this 'R0' value and why does it matter? What are the proven methods to stop outbreaks? Are what are the reasons for hope? These are just some of the topics I cover on today's podcast with Colin Furness, PhD, a epidemiologist at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto. Given the amount of deliberate disinformation and malicious misinformation going arou...
Apr 23, 2021•46 min•Ep. 322
Priit is a renowned BJJ black belt who has taught his style of defensive jiu-jitsu to thousands of people through his classes, seminars and instructionals. He is known for his unusual approach to teaching jiu-jitsu and is famous for structuring classes in such a way so that people come away from them with the techniques and concepts they can actually use right away. In addition we covered the topic of false positives in jiu-jitsu, programming a long term curriculum, and much more. Find out more ...
Apr 20, 2021•1 hr 23 min•Ep. 321
Today I talk with Dr Nicholas Tyau, a BJJ Black Belt and internal medicine specialist who was working in NYC hospitals during Covid Ground Zero in 2020. We discuss the 5 key factors you need to consider after you've been vaccinated but before you decide to return to normal training, including... 1) Local hospital and ICU occupancy rates 2) Test positivity rates in your community 3) Vaccination rates within your community and your training group 4) Your tolerance for taking short term and long te...
Apr 18, 2021•54 min•Ep. 320
Brandon Morgan is a high level powerlifter who trains, coaches and competes out of the Kabuki Strength gym in Portland Oregon. In this episode we go deep into strength training and conditioning for combat sports drawing on his personal experience as a wrestler and training MMA athletes to be bigger, stronger, faster, and more injury resistant. Follow Brandon on Instagram at @bmorg33 and at @kabuki_virtualcoaching where he shares a ton of training tips. And please share this episode with someone ...
Apr 06, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 319
Nini Munoz PhD has a very strong background in risk and failure analysis, and statistical process. She has used these skills and a background in biology to make the science around the Covid-19 pandemic easy to understand and digest on her amazing Instagram feed at https://www.instagram.com/niniandthebrain/ I think you'll enjoy our conversation about risk, science, and who to believe. Take care, Stephan
Mar 28, 2021•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 318
In this episode I'm joined by pro-wrestler Tad Murphy to talk about the legendary wrestler Karl Gotch. Karl Gotch was a German-Hungarian wrestler born in Belgium who trained at the infamous 'Snake Pit' in Wigan, England, then competed in the United States and then taught several generations of pro-wrestlers in Japan. His influence is the common link between just about every major Japanese MMA organisation including Pride, Shooto, Pancrase, Shootboxing, Rizin and more. You can check out and/or do...
Mar 22, 2021•1 hr 20 min•Ep. 317
Regardless of whether you want to fight in MMA, work as a cop, or just be effective in self defense you have to know how to function in a stressful environment. Today with Jeff Quail MSc we dive into the physiology of the fight or flight reflex, stress exposure training, the balance between training safety and realism, the carryover between combative sports and policing and much more. Jeff Quail served as a Winnipeg police officer for 25 years, has a Master’s degree in Applied Psychology from th...
Mar 15, 2021•1 hr 42 min•Ep. 316
Two of the best ways to develop your guard are gripfighting and kuzushi. Today I talk with Rob Biernacki about these rarely taught critical skills and how to develop them. Go to https://www.grapplearts.com/gripfighting for more info! Cheers, Stephan Kesting
Mar 11, 2021•24 min•Ep. 315
Why some competitors excel at competition and others don't, hero worship in BJJ, and how to succeed at BJJ partnerships with Andrew 'Goatfury' Smith. Andrew is a 3rd degree black belt who runs Revolution BJJ ( https://revolutionbjj.com/ ) in Richmond Virginia and helped found the US Grappling competition circuit. Please leave a rating and a review of this podcast if you can - it really helps! And download my free checklist to the positions and strategies of BJJ at https://www.grapplearts.com/boo...
Mar 03, 2021•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 314
Today I chat with Dan "TrumpetDan" Lukeheart from Brea Jiu-Jitsu in Orange County about the steps he's taken to keep his school open in a responsible manner during the Covid-19 pandemic, how to improve your BJJ skills during a training layoff, and how to win more matches in tournaments. Check out Dan's school at http://breajiujitsu.com/ The video form of this conversation is available on Youtube at https://youtu.be/JHvGYM0HWmU As always, please share this episode with someone you think would ben...
Feb 16, 2021•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 313
Your health is like a credit card.. You can definitely put things onto your credit card once in a while. You can even use a credit card to help bridge the gap when you’re short on funds. But sooner or later you need to pay it off. But if you keep on making withdrawals against your card without ever putting money back into it then you’re going to end up in serious trouble. Your health is the same way. You can’t borrow against it indefinitely. If you keep asking your body to push hard without givi...
Feb 11, 2021•22 min•Ep. 312
Dr Chris Moriarty is a medical doctor and a former high level black belt BJJ competitor. In this episode we talk about the rapidly evolving situation of covid vaccines, viral variants, and what it means for training jiu-jitsu and martial arts in general. Dr Moriarty has been instrumental in creating guidelines to make BJJ training during a pandemic safer (available at https://www.grapplearts.com/openingupbjj )
Feb 03, 2021•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 311
Today I talk with Matt Kirtley, better known to many as 'Aesopian', about Changes to jiu-jitsu culture, Crazy martial arts cults, Channeling of ancient spirits, How we can get more out of drilling, Red flags that you're in a jiu-jitsu cult And much more I met Matt ages ago when he published step-by-step breakdowns for the reverse omoplata and the rolling crucifix attack on a forum which I then republished (with permission) on Grapplearts. He's good people! He is a jiu-jitsu black belt who has be...
Feb 02, 2021•1 hr 35 min•Ep. 310
How leglocks and leglocking strategy have changed in the last 20 years. As they say for TED Talk Podcasts, this presentation contains powerful visuals and can be viewed at https://youtu.be/9mF_YtLOVI4 I recorded this while editing the Oliver Taza No Gi Leglocks instructional which is now available at https://www.grapplearts.com/taza. Much of the terminology I use comes from The Modern Leglock Formula with Rob Biernacki https://www.grapplearts.com/leglocks The 12 Positions of Modern Leglocking PD...
Jan 30, 2021•28 min•Ep. 309
BJJ black belt and entrepreneur Elliott Bayev on the ability to test new ideas in jiu-jitsu, how the basics change over time, how to use jiu-jitsu in sales and running a business, and much more. Follow Elliott on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/elliottbayev/ . And you can find me (Stephan) on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/stephan_kesting/ and on Twitter at https://twitter.com/StephanKesting Cheers! Stephan...
Jan 25, 2021•56 min•Ep. 308
Jules Evans studies the history of ideas and was the perfect person to help me understand the abundance of insane conspiracy theories on BOTH sides of the political spectrum right now. We discuss why there are so many lizard people in tunnels, why many Nazi leaders held new age beliefs, how BLM resembles a religion, and why BJJ is such a fertile breeding ground for conspiracy thinking in 2020 and 2021. Follow Jules on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/julesthephilosopher/ and on Medium wher...
Jan 20, 2021•55 min•Ep. 307
