I'll get a Jody, get a doctor. Jody. Welcome to the You project.
Hey, Craig, thanks for having me back.
Well, thanks for being had Tiffany and Cook down there at Bloody the engine room of typ.
High reporting in for duty. Thank you.
I didn't even get a salute, but okay, how's yeah? There it is there, it is the little salute. Let's start with the girl at the bottom of the screen, the lady, I should say, asterisk ki tiv. How's your day been.
It's been really good. It's a nice sunny day. We've had a good summer and it's making me very happy. I want to last forever.
It's about to get very hot in the thriving metropolis. It's Friday, Arbo. As we're recording this, everyone and I think the next four days are meant to be mid to high thirty, so batten down the hatches. Are you a hot weather person, Jody? Do you tolerate it? Love it? What's your favorite season?
I am okay, when it's kind of up to about thirty five. Once it's getting stinking hot, I struggle, But I love the water, So put me.
In the water. And if the weather's hot and I'm happy.
Yeah, I don't mind too much. I don't love extreme heat, but I just I just stay out of it. It's like, you know, but anyway, it is what it is. What's happening on planets Richardson, what's happening over there at you Central?
Well, we've got a very sad and sorry pooch here at the moment.
He's got a cloud collar and have you ever had of a cloud collar tear.
For half a bucket thing?
It's like it's like your neck rest when you're flying, but at valcrows around to kind of stop them licking their wounds. We've got the bucket head thing happening for him. But he also had an ECG in his heart today because he has a heart murmur. So that was pricey but also very good news that the heart murmur is significant, but not so significant that it needs surgery or any change to his routine.
We're relieved, We're very happy.
Wow, that is good, that is good. What's his name? Dusty, Dusty, good old Dusty. Melissa Marie Cameron said to me, can you make sure that Dusty is okay?
Like?
That's that. I spoke to her half an hour ago, so that was her only request about.
The Yeah, right, because I rescheduled this to a little bit later because the specialist got me in at ten this morning. So yeah, he wasn't happy about it. He was not happy. He's very growly.
He would have bitten someone if he didn't have a big party hat on.
What's the what's the prognosis and what's the protocol moving forward?
Well, it was so.
Interesting because it kind of took me back to my anatomy days. I didn't know dog's hearts and human hearts were pretty much. I mean, the Vetzel shoot be for this, but kind of identical, you know, from a basic anatomy point of view. And poor chambers, all that, poor chambers, him's ventricles, valves and all that, and essentially there's a valve that is not working properly, and so one of the chambers is having to work harder, the pressure is higher,
there's thickening of the muscle. These sorts of things can happen in people as well. But thankfully because when you know, like with people, like if you don't understand what's happening with your heart, know how to kind of look after yourself or your pet, you know, there can be some really serious kind of fallout from these sorts of things.
So, yeah, he's six, and the specialists just said, look, he's got to.
Six, and if this is how kind of bad it is at six, we shouldn't expect too much more. But he's doped out at the moment, he's completely passed out because you have to give them all these sedatives and everything, and poor little thing.
But their family.
I know, Tiff, I know you've got your beautiful cat and your dog.
Yeah, you know, for a.
Lot of us, our pets are absolutely family. And so whilst it was close to one thousand dollars for this test, was like, well, you know, we're really relieved we've got that piece of mine. Now that he can play and he can run, we don't, you know, to take him on anything too strenuous. He's not a working border collie. So yeah, yeah, so that's good news.
One of my friends, you know, Rustiff, Yeah, yep, so her brother got a German German Shepherd something cross. Apparently beautiful dog got really really is not funny. But what I'm about to say, the dog's fine, but the dog got very sick. Nelly died that bill thirty three thousand dollars, thirty three thousand dollars, and I'm like, wow, that is that is that is love. That is that is lots of money and that is love. Because I think there's a few people who might go, oh, sorry, fidoh.
Yeah, you know, that's understandably heartbreaking, heartbreaking. We've had emergency visits, we've had blocked a softage deal, a sophageal blocks with previous dogs and everything, and we kind of had to sign off on kind of you know, what's the maximum, like we got again that was a pretty straightforward procedure too, and we got away with that for about one thousand dollars maybe fifteen years ago, but we kind of signed off on up to five before more consultation. But man,
oh man, it puts you under the pump. And what a heartbreaking decision to make. Pains me to think of not everyone can afford to spend that kind of money on a pet, you know, no questions. So gosh, yeah, that hopefully they were pre warned about that bill and that there's a payment plan option.
Yeah, well I think I think I think he's okay financially, which but yeah, I I reckon if my dog got sick like that's sick. I think within reason, I mean, even without reason, I think I just have to figure it out. Like I couldn't. I couldn't, I couldn't go Nah, Sorry, I don't love you that much. I just have Anyway, this is not a very uplifting start to that.
True, let's talk about something all positive you.
Were telling us before we went live, which I love the idea of. I mean, I'm very, very very pro people who are really at any age. But I think it's really important that people who are forty plus are consciously doing things to keep their brain working, their mind working,
developing new skills, learning new things. And it's good that we train our body, and I think more and more people are exercising productively and effectively and understanding the link between moving our body and health span and lifespan and all of that stuff, but trying to keep our brain working optimally for longer. And maybe with that in mind or not. But you've taken up a new hobby.
I have, and yeah, it's definitely top of mind for me. We can talk about that why.
But yeah, I've started learning the piano and.
It look I mean it's a keyboard, it's an electronic keyboard.
We've had here for years.
And our daughter is a singer and has had music lessons for years. And I was a real musical kind of kid a long long time ago, but never never could play more than chopsticks on a piano. And I've kind of forgotten how to read music and anywhere. I've got an app. It's called Simply Piano. It's free to start with and then you can upgrade. And we did
to a family plan. And my mum's seventy seven. She came around yesterday and I was telling her about it and she's like, oh my gosh, Aldie have keyboards at the moment. Of course they do, so she's going to get herself a keyboard and I've added her to the family plan.
I am loving it, Craig.
It's very rewarding, but it's I also know it's really really good for my brain.
Yeah, one hundred's. It's funny how much we like when you talk about, you know, cognitiveunction, how well your brain works, or how your brain works for how long and we talk about there's so much conversation around Alzheimer's and dementia
and cognitive decline and brain health in general. But there's really not I know there's some, but there's really not a lot of encouragement for people to do things other than you know, we know that there's a relationship between cognitive function and sleep and diet and all of those things,
which are also very important. But for me, I think, almost at the top of the list, even before the other stuff, is just how you use your brain and your ability to keep, for want of a better analogy, to keep training it, just like you train your biceps or your lats or your delts or your legs or your heart to be able to train your brain so that it works as well as it can for as long as it can.
Totally, you're exactly right when it comes to kind of thinking about the brain in this way. And it's not my experts at all, but I'm learning more about it. I'm really interested. My mother in law has dementia. At fifty, my friends and I started to talk about what's happening with our aging parents and things like that, and you know,
neurons that fire together, wire together. We know that's sort of a bit of an old neuroscience saying, but what I recently learned is that we can the more we sort of build these neurons and sort of build our brain for one of a better kind of expression. The more we've got to kind of lose before the function, you know, in terms of brain changes with age, you know, with dementia of you know, any particular kind Alzheimer's or Lewis body or CTE for those who play rugby or
you know, footy and things like that American football. That if you've got a bigger kind of reserve than any changes that, if you've got a lesser reserve, you'll notice the change sooner. Whereas if you've got a bigger reserve in terms of your brain building and growing neurons, then you'll delay those noticeable changes to your thinking and your memory and things like that.
So, you know, we're all living older longer.
People are dying older, and I think that's why we're hearing and talking so much about kind of memory loss.
That's why that's.
More of a significant problem now, because people aren't dying from other things.
Well, and I think what else is interesting? And this is just my observation. I don't have data in front of me, so it could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure I'm not with this. Yeah, we're living longer, but I don't think our health span is longer generally speaking. You know what I'm saying, it's late. There are some people living to ninety, and some are living to ninety and they're great, But some are living to ninety in their last twenty years is fucking terrible. But there's drugs
keeping them alive. But what's not keeping them alive is great lifestyle or great habits or great behaviors or great food or you know it's that. And then I'm not trying to be judgmental here, I'm just like I always think, you've got one brain. Why don't you do everything you can fucking do to make that brain work great? Because you can you can like, you can't get a different brain, and you can't change your genetics, and you can't wake up tomorrow and be ten years younger. But what you
can do today is do something. You know, learn the piano, go do a course, read a book, do some memory puzzle, solve some problems, like do something where you have to think and stop living. So many people I don't mean to sound judge you, but so many people truly live in this just this groundhog day of repetition where they don't fucking do new things, and then they look up and they're like, I've been doing the same thing for the last five years, and by the way, that thing
that I do every day, it doesn't really work. It's not optimal. And if Craig said to me, oh, do you want your brain to work better, I'm going to go yes, but I'm not doing anything to make could work better. You know, do you want to be healthier? Yes, I do, but I'm not doing anything consciously and consistently
to be healthier. Like this shit doesn't magically manifest. We need to recognize the issue and then do the work, you know, and and doing the work can be fun, like learning the piano or you know, fucking doing learning another language. You know. One of the things I want to do when I finish my current study is I want to I want to learn language. I don't know what I'm going to learn, but I'm pretty sure because I don't speak anything at all, not even a bit
other than English. And some people would argue that I mutilate the fuck out of that, but ah, you know, but I just think that is definitely going That is definitely going to be a challenge for me because it's just like walking through a brand new door into a room you've never been, you know, so excited about that.
Yeah, Yeah, and the technology that we can use to this our daughter line and Spanish with due lingo.
It's so funny.
I saw a poster that I on LinkedIn somebody had some sort of detox retreat. They said, duo lingo is killing our business. People don't want to lose their eighteen hundred day duo lingo streaks because the gamification is so well designed. That really yeah, totally, And yeah, I know lots of people who sort of kickstart it that way. And there's alkie ILK, I dot something or other easily googled where you can meet a native language speaker of the language you're learning and set up regular kind of
zoom meetings. And often it's not at a huge cost, depending on what you're learning and who you're talking to and where they are. Could be ten bucks an hour or something or ten bucks for thirty minutes, and so
there's so much. But I tell you what, it's uncomfortable to start with because it's like such a brain strain, like you can feel like, especially like with the piano learning, like do something different with your left hand to your right hand, and you think, oh man, oh this is going to be my ceiling, like I'm going to really spend a lot of time here. But it's incredible because of the way the learning is designed. How much easier
it is than you think it's going to be. It's just getting started and being consistent.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Speaking of left handed or right handed, I I did this thing in chatters before chat GPT. I was curious to see if there's any This is hilarious, so I typed in, is there any research suggesting that left handers are more intelligent? But here's the hilarious thing. Because I wrote it fast, I misspelled intelligent right of course, I am okay, So this is what again? This has
not verified everybody, but it's probably something. And so research has explored potential cognitive differences between left and right handers, with mixed finding. What some studies suggest so left handers greater creativity and divergent thinking. Some studies suggests left handers might have an advantage in creativity, problem solving, and thinking outside the box. This could be due to greater inter hemispheric communication in the brain. I'm like, I'm happy with
that higher representation in gifted populations. Some researchers found that left handers are overrepresented among artists, musicians, and individuals with high intellectual achievements. Of course, I'm paying attention to this, but it doesn't mean that all left handers are more intelligent. Spatial mathematical skills, some studies suggests left handers have a slight edge in certain spatial reasoning and mathematical problem solving
and cognitive flexibility. The last one. Some theories suggest that left handers may have better adaptability in thinking due to using both hemispheres of the brain more effectively. So I'm just going to pay attention to that because I like that science. I'm not going to look any further. I'm just going to go that's absolute now, but it is. It is interesting when you like Sometimes I go, I've been doing stupid experiments on myself since I was a kid, right.
My first one was basically when I was about ten, just trying to hold my breath for as long as I could, which is stupid, I know, but I was a kid and I had a stop Watch which was amazing, so I spent like the next one was trying to teach myself to spin a ball a basketball on my finger, which I got to the point out where I could just do it constantly, and it just to the end where it hurt my finger, but I could do it for minutes and minutes and minutes without it falling up. Right.
What I do sometimes is I go this week, because I got five whiteboards in my house and I'm always writing, I go, this week, I'm only writing with my right hand.
Oh wow, Okay.
So I do a whole week of just doing my right hand, and by the end of the week, my writing is probably sixty seventy percent better than it was seven days ago. And yeah, just things like that where I think, you know, you can create these little I don't know, these little games for yourself, or these little kind of tasks for yourself where you have to do something that you always do but do it in a different way. So you're literally challenging your brain, your nervous system,
and a whole bunch of things. Because me writing with my right hand is completely unnatural.
Do you find that the thoughts flow as freely when you're writing? Because I found that even standing at my standing desk versus sitting, like when I was writing books, I really need to concentrate.
I sit. It's an interesting sort of observation for me.
I imagine, you know, other people have probably had similar experiences, but just it's like my body and brain know this is the posture, this is kind of the position for this kind of output. Did you find that it flowed just as freely or did you have a thought and then thought I'd better write it down and then I suppose that's what happens, isn't it.
I'm only talking about the whiteboard. I mean, unless I was writing a whiteboard that I was going to post to socials, that's different. But I often have a thought like I have an eight foot long, four foot high whiteboard in my bedroom, and I get out of bed probably every second night to write something on that whiteboard because I have an idea.
Right yeah, yeah, but yeah.
No, it's did I just say, yeah, no, it doesn't really inhibit my flow, my creativity or my thinking. But obviously I write way worse and way less efficiently. But what I have done is which I've told Tiff, and I've told the listeners, but not you. In the last I don't know if I told you this, Joe, but about I don't know two months, my phone basically said, you're a fat fuck. You need to work walk more, right,
So I started. I went, all right, I've got to do rock bottom ten thousand steps a day, and I've done every day. The least I've done is like ten and a half thousand since i got that message. Right, But what that means now is I've had to find more time. And like I like to do fifteen thousand a day, I don't always, but on a bad day I'm doing ten. Right, So but it means that I've begun to do meetings while I'm walking, and even some video calls. Obviously you've got to be careful where and
how you do that. But if I'm just walking around the backstreets and I'm not walking on the road, and I'm not always staring at my phone, but I've started to do walks and talks and I actually think when I'm walking and I'm obviously i'm not sprinting, but I'm out. I've got a few trees around me, the birds are singing, the be's are buzzing, the sun is shining. My brain maybe works better than where I'm at right now sitting
at a desk in my office. So for me, it's it's great because I'm getting in you know, I can do a one hour coaching session or a one hour meeting or a one hour whatever. I before. I've got a gig in a few weeks in Queensland, and I had a meeting with some blokes, and so the blokes who might be listening, not the one you think. I had two meetings today. One I did on zoom here,
but another one I did actually walking and talking. And so I'm having a business meeting and I'm walking around suburbia and I'm answering questions and I'm ticking boxes and getting stuff done and walking five thousand steps. It's great for me. It really works well.
Are you like when you say you're answering questions and you're ticking boxes, are you taking any notes?
Not? These are not ones that I you know, but if I get home and i'll i'll, you know, I'll remember the key kind of the key kind of messages that I need to get down. But I can. I mean, I often will write something in notes in my phone as we go, but typically I don't. But I just think I mean broadly, speak how old are you now? If you don't mind me asker? No, you're not meant to ask relate?
Yeah, no, I don't care. Fifty I'm fifty fifty one in April.
This is so do you think about do you think about what am I going to feel like? Function? Like at fifty five? How's my brain going to work? How's my body going to work? How do you think? Now? More intensely about self management from that point.
Of view, more recently my brain, but always my body. I think from about you know, like when I've done strength training since I was sort of a teenager, on and off, always exercised, but there was a turning point where it sort of went more from how I felt about like my body image, like how do I look? I'm training because I wanted to look different. I wanted to look better in veral commerce. How do I want
to function? And what's and my health? I think particularly becoming a parent, And so I've always I think about my bone strength, I think about my muscle mass. I mean CrossFit that I do. It's so bloody hard, it is, honest to goodness. Some days you know what's asked of us is really and I just scale it, I just
scale it to you know, what I can do. That's still a big challenge, but everyone has different weights in their hands, and and you know, it's easy to sort of think, oh, like sometimes like, oh, how do I keep showing up for this? But I just try to show up because I know that anything I do there is going to be a huge benefit for me now and obviously in the future. I'm thinking more about my bone health in terms of bone density and like boarding
off osteoporosis, especially because I'm apparently postmenopausal. I had an oblation, an indemetrial ablation, which are you for me with what that is? So for listeners who don't know, essentially the lining of the uterus is layser away and so you stop having a period because of that. So I didn't have the typical kind of signals of when you're going through perimenopause and into menopause where your periods have stopped. I didn't have any of that because I've been stopped
for a long time. So apparently postmenopausal so hormones I'm thinking about.
My mental health is excellent.
The exercise and the medication I take and the way I sort of lived my life but now because my mother in law has Alzheimer's, my friend's mum has just been put into a home because of her Alzheimer's. I think very much about how awful it is for the you know, my mother in law.
I see that.
I see that all the time, how frustrating is for her, and I just think, Oh, I want to do whatever I can to make sure that's not me.
I don't want to end up like that. It's awful. It's awful.
So I'm going to ask you a question that neither you or I really qualify to answer. So everyone, don't take this as advice or a prescription. This is just two people with a bit of knowledge having a conversation thinking about optimizing although we both know a bit about this, of course, but thinking about optimizing your brain for as long as you can if you had to. I don't
know rank let's say rank exercise, food, sleep, lifestyle. Maybe not rank them, but just talk about where do you think they all fit, Like, what do you think you know? Brain training, specific brain training, how do you value each of those as a contributor or factor or variable around cognitive function into older age.
Yeah, I'm glad you took away the question about ranking them because it's so hard. Like I, from what I do know, exercise and the brain is obviously like extremely powerful, not only for our mental health but just for our cognitive function and clarity. And also we know that if we have chronic stress, that really affects how our brain will function. How you know, cognizant we are when we're answering questions and responding to challenges and problem solving and
things like that. So in terms of kind of brain health in the long term, you know, I don't know enough to really say, but for me, I guess the things that I think about to keep my brain healthy from a mental health point of view. More so because this brain health and longevity idea is very new to the way I'm thinking about my lifestyle.
Sleep is when the brain is washed.
You know, the brain sort of has this opportunity to kind of have this wash cycle when we're sleeping. We really need good sleep to think, to help consolidate memories, of course, which is important as we get older, and to really help protect our mental health and reduce our reactivity.
And then food.
Of course, we know that the gut brain access is incredibly powerful, and the difference It makes to the way that we can think and function, as well as our mental health when we eat mostly plants and reduce sugar and salt and transfats and the like. It's a really interesting question. I'm on the start of this learning journey. What about you?
What do you know about this area?
It's funny, right, because we know that different people respond in different ways to the same stimulus, right, you know, or the same stimuli right. But for me, I'm not deluded. I don't think oh I'm fucking twenty six. I don't think that. And I don't know what sixty one is meant to feel like. I guess there's no arbitrary feeling that everybody should feel at a certain age. But as objective as I can be, which is not very I kind of feel like I felt when I was forty.
I don't feel like people say to me all the time, Oh, I feel so fucking old. I'm like, I don't, No, I don't. I actually don't. I'm very grateful. There's no arrogance or ego in that. I just don't like. If I did, I would go I do. But I don't feel old like I feel. I feel good, you know,
I think all of that stuff. I was thinking one thing as you were talking about, one variable that almost never gets spoken about when we talk about health and longevity and the human experience, right in a almost in relation to this wellness, health, health span, peace, and that is fun. Like I absolutely prioritize fun, like for me,
it's a value. But very few people, you know, I remember when I used to do lots, and I mean every day, you know, I would train a million, not a million, but I would do twelve appointments a day for fucking years, right, And I'd get new people in and i'd talk to them, and i'd talk to people in their fifties and I was younger, and we talk about all this stuff. And I would say to I would often say to men who would appear to me and this is judge, but it's just how it appeared
to me. Like this guy or this lady, lots of money, successful business, you know, ticking all these boxes, but fucking miserable. I'd see no joy, like no happiness. I'm like, and I'd say, do you like fun? And they'd say they look at me like I'd just ask some something ridiculous, and they go, what do you mean I go, you know what fun is, right, They're like, well, yeah, I go. Do you like having fun? They're like yeah, I go, WA's your fun plan? And they look at me like, like,
I think grown ups should have a fucking fun plan. Yes, We've got to make a few dollars, we've got to eat some good food, got to keep our brain healthy and learn shit, and you've got to you know, be of value to the world and serve and all of that, but also have some fucking fun laugh. Not everything has got to be saving the world, and not everything's got to be some deep and meaningful fucking post on Instagram.
Let's just do shit because it's fun and laughter is awesome, Like, let's just fucking laugh, because laughter and fun is literally healing for your body. It literally makes your body happier biochemically but one of a more accurate scientific term, biochemically happier. And you know, for me, I'm a big I'm a fucking because I'm either talking about something deep and meaningful and difficult and confrontational, or I'm telling dick jokes and laughing my ass off, or I'm in the gym being
a fucking idiot with my friends. But I need that for me that because I don't drink, I don't do drugs. I don't I don't. You know, a lot of people have an outlet which is that, oh, oh god, I needed this what I do a lot of people do. And I think for me, my antidote to a lot of the stress and the tough stuff is just laughter and silliness and getting on a motorbike and riding and
just you know, having fun. And I mean Tif's done that in the last year, you know, and I've seen in her like even just that she doesn't need a motorbike. And Tif's not talking at the moment everyone because her microphone has shat itself. That's the technical term, but it's just I mean, it's yeah. So I just think that among all the other things too, as we get older, I think, yes, we need to consciously try to keep our brain working somewhere near optimal for whatever our potential is.
But also, let's just fucking laugh, shall we.
Yeah, Look, my cheeks are hurting from just how much this is resonating with me. And what I was thinking of, adding to what I said before, was when we think about our longevity, what do we want.
To do with that time, like how do we want to spend our time?
And what you just said about it doesn't have to be groundbreaking, life changing, full of purpose and meaning, just for the sake of doing something, like you know, like that's what piano is for me, Like I I'll never play for anybody.
I'm doing it for me. It's fun. I enjoy it.
But a couple of weeks ago, because I love the water, and when we go away, I'm the fifty year old in a long sleeved rash best because I'm so overly son smart, it's ridiculous. Everyone makes fun of me. But I'm the one that's on the rope swing. I'm the one that's swinging into the water and you know, climbing back up the hill.
And doing it again.
And Maca, our daughter McKinley, and I a couple of weeks ago, we took out the stand up paddle board and I'm not super balanced on that.
When I'm on my feet.
It's funny to watch me because I end up in the drink a lot. But we worked out that if one sat at one end, it was stable enough for us about to sort of climb on and then do like a back dive into the water just off the beach.
Down here in Manaaliza. We laughed and laughed and laughed.
And it was so fun and it was just exactly what you were speaking about, Like, like, life passes by so fast, and we all, every single one of us, can look at somebody that we know who can't do the things they want for whatever reason, lots of different reasons, and that's what life's about.
Really, It's about people.
It's about our connections and at the end of the day, they're the memories that really light us up. And so I really love that you've shared that, and I'm curious to kind of know, like, is there something that you've got on your kind of to do list or your bucket list or whatever that is super fun that you kind.
Of want to give a go in the next few months six months or so.
I mean nothing, I don't really have a plan in that sense, but for me, Like so, there's a guy that I train with, not the Crab who's my training partner, but another guy that trains with me quite regularly, Christian, And Christian's just this big, goofy, funny dude, right, and he makes me laugh hard, I mean, and him and I laugh at He used to work for me, so I've known him for thirty years and we used to
have this. We're quite in some ways, quite different, but in some ways we have the same stupid sense of humor. And we would be able to talk about shit and nobody else knew what we were talking about at the gym. Right, wasn't always appropriate? Right, But the other day he said something. I laughed so hard I could hardly fucking breathe, right, And then he goes to me, how good's laughing? And I go, so good. So here's this fifty five year old saying that the sixty year old how Good's laughing.
I'm like, laughing is so good? And it doesn't like I said to you, it's just that for me, it's just to be able to Yes, we want to do good, be good. We want to you know, we want to have a spiritual side. Perhaps we want to have meaning and purpose, and all of those things are good. But if the meaning of doing all this profound shit, you're
kind of miserable. What's the fucking point? Like if there's no joy, no fun, no laughter, which I I you know, sounds judging, but I see some people I go, I don't know, you're kind of successful but kind of fucking miserable, like you never seem I'm like, I'd rather less money and more laughter, you know, totally.
And it's not it's not hard to find if you just kind of you open yourself up to it and just often the stuff that is really funny is a relatable humor, and there's it's easy to find if you you know, if you look around, whether it's and luck you know, even if it's in your social media, like that technology can really lift us up, especially when somebody just posts something it's so relatable.
You're just like sitting there laughing out.
Loud in your own company, but much better when you're with friends.
I wrote so much.
Better, I reckon now is despite the resistance that some people have to you know, AI, and everyone thinks the world's going to end next fucking Wednesday, it's not everyone, so it's not. Well I could, but if it does,
we won't fucking know, so happy days. But you know, like I think there's never been a better time in the sense that you know, from a perspective of being able to access so much great stuff, you know, whether it's funny stuff, or whether it's learning stuff or whether it's you know, stuff that can help you do your work or write your posts, or I don't know, build connection with other people or build relationships or I think
there's just it's never been easier to be connected. Like connection is human connection, as you know, I mean, it's like almost the most you know, we need air, and we need food, and we need sleep. But beyond that, from on a sociological and personal level, human connection is
so fucking important and right now. Not that we want to have all our relationships or connections online, but for a lot of people who don't have the opportunity to be in front of people all the time, or who live in remote locations or who have you know, for whatever reason, can't leave the house too much, or you know, like it's just it's it's like it is a really good time in that in that sense, because you know, how much or how little we use social media or
any of these tools or resources or AI. It's up to us. It's not obligatory. If you don't like it. You know, if you don't like you know this or that podcast, don't listen. If you don't like Instagram, don't go on. If you think AI is bullshit, don't use it if you know it's not that hard. Yeah, so I hear it.
Yeah, I'm having similar conversations. I'm trying to learn as much about AI as I can, and you know, I understand it's really frightening. I sort of talked to mum about it recently and she was worried, you know, and I understand that there is a lot to worry about, but also there's so much good that it can do, and there's a lot to be.
Very excited about.
And so yeah, I'm very lucky I work with I don't know if I've ever told you Halps, but for about two and a half, maybe coming on three years, I consult to a startup.
I'm on a team, we've got a platform yet. Yeah.
Anyway, and when you're working with a startup, you're iterating all the time. You know, you're going in one direction, you're looking at what the market needs, you're changing and in the last few years, obviously AI last six months. You know, AI is obviously at the forefront of what most apps are kind of introducing, and so we've been on it from the start, and so that helped, I guess to get me kind of started with the way
I could think about it. But like a lot of things, when we don't know a lot about it, we can be fearful, and you know that's I think human nature. But I'm actually doing a two day kind of course in Melbourne in a couple of weeks where I'm kind of going to be learning all about how I can sort of support me in my business.
So I'm excited. I'm excited.
Good for you, that's good. I think doing stuff like that is you know, anything can be scary if you allow it scare you, and it's it's you know, I think, I think as what is real is that things are evolving, you know, especially in terms of technology, things are evolving like never before. But you know, humans are still humans, bodies still bodies. We've still got to manage our mind and our brain and our body and our you know,
our sleep and all those very normal human things. And I think what matters about all of these resources is how we interact with them, how we use them. You know, it's like, yeah, well it can be terrifying or it can be fucking amazing. You know, if you had have said to me ten years ago, you're going to be doing a daily podcast. You're going to be nearly two thousand episodes deep, and you're going to have an audience around the world. And now I would have gone, what's
a podcast? I would have gone, you know, you don't know, you don't know. And if not for the tech that we now have, people wouldn't have access to this and all of the other brilliant podcasts like Roll with the Punches and like well, Hello Anxiety. I mean, you know, hey Joe, we're going to pull the pin. But if people want to connect with you, it's always good to chat with you. How do they do that? How do they find you and follow you? And and why don't
you plug your books? Because I feel like we never plug your best selling books.
Oh gosh, yeah, I often don't think to do that. So yeah, Anxious Kids, How Kids Can Turn their Anxiety into Resilience is the first book, and that's really a great book for parents and teachers. And the second book is Anxious Mums, How Mums Can Turn their Anxiety into Strength. They're both available on my website or at your local bookshop.
Try to support your local bookshop if you can.
I tried to do that today, but they didn't stock what I needed, so you know, back online I went, but I tried for me Instagram at doctor Jody Richardson Jody with an Eye, and my website is exactly the same doctor Jodi Richardson dot com.
Today, you please come and.
Say hello and yeah, I'm actually excited, Craig, because I've got a new product coming I've created. I am so proud of it. An anxiety deck, a practical toolkit for parents, and it's a deck and I've oh, actually, can I quickly show you?
Of course, when you say a deck, what is it? Okay?
Hard deck?
So this is my first text test box. So it's magnetic car lots and lots and lots of.
Cards, super super fancy.
You're all graphically designed so much.
He's been in the in production for about twelve to eighteen months because I'm trying not to be a perfectionist, but some things I can't help it. So my next test box is coming in fairb after a few weeks, I think, and then I'll be ready to approve them and make them available. So I'm really looking forward to having something that's sort of updated available for people as well.
Wow, look at you actually promoting something like a grown up with a business I couldn't be proud of.
I thank you, oh, thanks for a great chat. It's always just such a joy. It's real highlight of my day when I get to chat with you. So thanks for having me back up and ely to.
See you Tiff.
Well, Tiff, how's your shitty microphone going?
Have I?
Yeah? No, you fixed it a my bag? Yeah better?
Yeah I can't hear me, but that's okay great.
Yeah no, we can hear you now and it's not tinny. You could have spoken at any time. You go, all right, we'll say goodbye a fair but thanks everyone,