The Children of the Future Jay Belsky, PhD ----------- “I don’t know the meaning of life, but I know the purpose of life. It is to create more life.” - Jay Belsky We’re cavemen pretending to be academic, political, cerebral, and romantic when really we’re mostly motivated by survival and procreation. This is simultaneously depressing and relieving since it explains away some of our most ridiculous actions. On this week’s podcast, Professor Belsky will share with us his life’s research around ada...
Jun 17, 2020•39 min•Ep 416•Transcript available on Metacast Detox Your Thoughts with Andrea Bonior --------- The COVID-19 pandemic has dominated the news for months as a quiet crisis, one of mental health, has spread even faster and further. Depression, anxiety, and loneliness are at all-time highs. And what happens when you take away work, school, and social events on top of that? What happens when your usual support and self-care tools are unavailable to you? For many of us, it means swimming through endless days of uncertainty, worry, and loss. On thi...
Jun 10, 2020•40 min•Ep 415•Transcript available on Metacast How to Control Your Attention with Nir Eyal ---------------- How is it possible that with social distancing, telecommuting, and almost zero social events right now, you can still go an entire day and get nothing done. Exercise was forgotten, healthy meals didn’t happen, and the work projects continue to pile up. Can you relate? Distraction was endemic before the pandemic and will continue long after. Our neural wiring makes us highly-prone to shiny object syndrome where every phone notification ...
Jun 03, 2020•40 min•Ep 414•Transcript available on Metacast Understanding Madness with Susannah Cahalan -------------------------- Susannah was an ambitious young adult starting an exciting life in New York City when she began having seizures, experiencing a bout of mania and depression, and even hallucinating. After nearly a month of hospitalization, she was wrongly diagnosed with bipolar disorder before eventually being diagnosed with a rare auto-immune condition that was affecting her brain. We often think of mind and body as two separate systems, act...
May 27, 2020•50 min•Ep 413•Transcript available on Metacast Men with Meaning & Purpose with Connor Beaton -------- What do you call a man who cannot perform, provide, and protect? Many people would call him a loser. It’s true that men have it easier in some areas with greater access to income and opportunities, but that often comes with the price tag of loneliness, isolation, and mental illness. The stereotypical successful man is often work-torn with heavy eyes, floundering health, and little or no personal life to speak of. This is no way to live. On t...
May 20, 2020•46 min•Ep 412•Transcript available on Metacast Heart Rate Variability Simplified Marco Altini ------------- “I know my body!” is something I hear from yoga students constantly. Sometimes they want to keep practicing and shouldn’t (due to injury or illness) maybe they want to stop practicing and shouldn’t (because the breakthrough is a few poses away). I wish we all knew and understood our inner world as well as our outer world, but most of us don’t. Quick check-in: do you know your resting heart rate right now? Do you know your respiratory r...
May 13, 2020•35 min•Ep 411•Transcript available on Metacast Water, Whiskey, Coffee - Yoga Breathing Made Simple With Lucas Rockwood “It’s not stress that kills us, it is our reaction to it.” - Hans Selye Mental and emotional stress were at historic highs pre-Coronavirus. Today, the collective anxiety of the world borders on dangerous. How much uncertainty and loss can we tolerate? Is there an upper limit? The answers will unfold in real-time in the coming months, and that’s why it’s more important than ever to equip yourself with stress management tools ...
May 07, 2020•23 min•Ep 410•Transcript available on Metacast Losing it All in COVID-19 with Lucas Rockwood -------------- Greetings from Barcelona. We’re nearly 2 months into COVID-19 lockdown, and instead of our usual expert interviews, I thought I’d share my experiences so far during COVID-19 with the hopes that I can glean some insight, and maybe you too. Here’s what I’ll share: How I lost my yoga studios How crisis unveils both strengths and weakness of systems and people How quickly we humans can adapt Family/work / health - what really matters in li...
Apr 29, 2020•27 min•Ep 409•Transcript available on Metacast The Pleasure Gap - Women’s Inequality in the Bedroom Katherine Rowland ---------------------- “Sex without love is as hollow and ridiculous as love without sex.” - Hunter S. Thompson Most of us are highly-charged sexual beings doing our best to hide it all day long. Lost lust looking for a home. On this week’s podcast, we’ll explore the differences in men’s and women’s pleasure. Listen & Learn: Why most women are less interoceptive than men Who is more fulfilled: monogamous or single women? How ...
Apr 23, 2020•44 min•Ep 408•Transcript available on Metacast Adversity into Advantage Laura Huang ---------------------------- As I get older, I appreciate the struggles of my past almost as much as the successes, and here’s my question for you: What if your greatest weakness could be flipped and leveraged as your greatest strength? What if your biggest problems could be reframed as your best assets? The world of leaders and heros is filled with people who leveraged their rock-bottom experiences to create abundance and service in the present. Currently, w...
Apr 15, 2020•37 min•Ep 407•Transcript available on Metacast How Successful People See the World with Emily Balcetis ----------------- I ran out of laundry detergent last week and couldn’t motivate myself to walk 20 steps to the store to buy more. Why? I can lecture for hours, interview an author for the podcast, answer 70+ emails, and spend time with all three of my kids in one day, but the laundry detergent errand felt impossible. I have periods of manic productivity with breakthroughs at every turn, but other times when the most mundane chores of life ...
Apr 08, 2020•40 min•Ep 406•Transcript available on Metacast Premature Sarah Digregorio ----------------- Once a month I have to tell a pregnant yoga student that she cannot practice in our studio, cannot hang upside down in the Yoga Trapeze, or practice long-hold, passive stretches in our Gravity Yoga classes. Why? We teach strong, athletic classes with inversions and deep stretches. It’s not safe. I’ve been accused of trying to tell women what to do with their bodies (and worse!), but the truth is, I just want to keep students safe, including the unborn...
Apr 02, 2020•46 min•Ep 405•Transcript available on Metacast The New Science of Self Actualization with Dr. Scott Barry Kaufman --------------------------- When I feel frustrated with my place in the world, it’s often because I feel I’m not living up to my full potential. I have more to offer, more to give - and yet I’m not making it happen. Maslow defined this desire to become our best self as the need to self-actualize. But how do we do this? Achievement triggers the neurotransmitters serotonin and dopamine. Our brain lights up with happy chemicals as w...
Mar 26, 2020•45 min•Ep 404•Transcript available on Metacast You’re stuck at home, your economic future is uncertain, and it’s difficult to plan more than one day at a time. To make things even more challenging, the people and activities that bring you the most joy might be unavailable. What do you do? How do you manage your emotional health during times of such unrest? On this week’s podcast, you’ll meet a psychologist whose entire career has been focused on the management and treatment of anxiety. Listen & Learn: How to differentiate between danger and ...
Mar 18, 2020•43 min•Ep 403•Transcript available on Metacast I once had a yoga student with a prosthetic leg. I didn’t realize until I attempted to push her heel to the floor in Downward Dog. I assumed that she wanted to simply blend into class and that’s why she hadn’t told me (or anyone at reception) before joining class. I was right. She just wanted to practice, and she did great. I’ve since had students with birth defects, different length legs, missing limbs, traumatic brain injuries, and scoliosis among other things. Historically, yoga studios are n...
Mar 11, 2020•39 min•Ep 402•Transcript available on Metacast A close friend lost her husband tragically and suddenly, but she was back in the office just two weeks later. She shed a few tears that first month, but mostly, it was Beth as usual. She didn’t fall behind on any projects or ask for help. “Beth is so strong. I think she can handle just about anything,” they said. Except they were wrong, and so was I. Beth was mourning privately for months, and then deeply depressed for years following the accident. She’d kept it hidden. Hidden depression is not ...
Mar 04, 2020•38 min•Ep 401•Transcript available on Metacast Do you have a talky coworker who never gives you space to share your ideas? Do you have a neighbor who does home repairs at 2 am? Or a spouse that never follows through with their shared housework? Welcome to everyday conflict. We argue easily about the things we care most about, and the small things seem too petty to be bothered with. Instead, we let them brew and fester until finally, we explode. Healthy conflict is the sign of a healthy relationship, but how can you foster positive conflict a...
Feb 26, 2020•36 min•Ep 400•Transcript available on Metacast My piano lessons were a dark, 45-minute drive from home. Mom and I left home at 6:30 am on Tuesday mornings to get there before school. “Luke is really good at this,” Ms. McGill said after my third lesson. I was eight, and that simple comment, deliberately made within earshot, gave me confidence with music that I carry even to this day (despite my obvious lack of skill as an adult). I never said thank you to Ms. McGill. I should have. My sophomore year in high school, Mrs. Johnston tortured ever...
Feb 20, 2020•42 min•Ep 399•Transcript available on Metacast “I’m not sure if you feel things the way I do,” she said. “I feel everything.” I was twenty-one, she was twenty-three. The window looked out at a brick wall in my Lower East Side apartment. “I have emotional needs, and you’re buried in your books and your work. You can see me.” That was how it started on a Sunday afternoon. By Friday, I was helping her load CDs and tattered books into the trunk of a taxi. My first big breakup. Need to know more? Probably not. You’ve probably lived some version o...
Feb 12, 2020•41 min•Ep 398•Transcript available on Metacast I always wanted to be a writer. Kerouac, Hemmingway, and Carver were my heros. Later it was playwrights Kushner, Ibsen, and C hekov . I’d drag home backpacks full of books from the public library, and I finagled my way into just about every theater I could find in New York City from Broadway to deep Brooklyn fringe venues. If you met me at age 20, you’d never predict I’d be teaching backbends and low glycemic diets at age 40 - but here we are. Life is full of surprises. Sometimes the rug gets pu...
Feb 06, 2020•39 min•Ep 397•Transcript available on Metacast The three largest mental health facilities in the USA are Rickers, Cooks Country and LA Twin Towers Jails. The mentally ill have literally been relegated to prisons since there are so few public resources for those in need. This is devastating to the mentally ill, of course, but also to their families, neighbors and communities who are forever impacted. Listen & Learn: How prisons have replaced mental health facilities in the U.S. Why the mentally ill are treated like criminals The real cost of ...
Jan 30, 2020•37 min•Ep 396•Transcript available on Metacast Two mice are genetically identical, but one ends up obese and yellow and the other ends up mousy brown and healthy as expected. What’s the difference? The mutated mouse’s mother was undernourished during pregnancy, and different genes switched on. Genetics load the gun, epigenetics pull the trigger. Most of us have the potential for exceptional health, but some of us enter the world with serious health disadvantages that make it much more difficult to survive and thrive. Your parents’ nutrition ...
Jan 23, 2020•44 min•Ep 395•Transcript available on Metacast I have a challenge for you. Take a pencil to paper and map out your past five years on a line graph with peaks being the great experiences and valleys being the lows. I’d be willing to guess you have a deep valley (or two!) every single year, but what about a peak? What about a moment or an experience that you’ll cherish as a memory for the rest of your life? Do you have one? Most people who listen to the podcast value experiences over possessions, but are we doing enough to actively craft amazi...
Jan 16, 2020•34 min•Ep 394•Transcript available on Metacast Steve Jobs had genius-level intelligence and built one of the largest and most influential companies in the world. This is impressive, but at the same time that Apple was achieving success, Jobs denied fathering his own daughter, was forced to take a DNA test, and ended up paying a tiny amount of child support for her entire youth despite having millions. I never met Steve Jobs, but universally, he’s portrayed as a jerk. He’s the super-intelligent guy that you’d rather not invite over for dinner...
Jan 09, 2020•43 min•Ep 393•Transcript available on Metacast I started moonlighting as a yoga teacher and nutritional coach in my 20s while I still kept my day job. I didn’t know if I could turn my passion into a career, so I dipped my toe into the water to see how it felt. I’m not going to lie, it was hard. It’s still hard, but I figured it out. I know many of my podcast listeners are yoga teachers, trainers, health coaches, and entrepreneurs; and many of you are in the early days of trying to figure out how to make things work business-wise. If that’s y...
Jan 02, 2020•41 min•Ep 392•Transcript available on Metacast Loneliness, living alone and poor social connections are as bad for your health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. It’s worse for you than obesity. And you’re much more likely to suffer from dementia, heart disease, and depression if you’re isolated and alone(1). The importance of social connections and touch has been proven in both human and animal models, but the solution is much less obvious. How do combat the loneliness epidemic? My guest on this week’s show has some excellent ideas. Listen & L...
Dec 25, 2019•43 min•Ep 391•Transcript available on Metacast You could still smoke indoors when I moved to Spain in 2009. Thankfully, it was banned in 2010 as part of an on-going anti-tobacco campaign that has since failed miserably. Fifteen years ago, 32% of people smoked. Today, 34% smoke. Somehow, the US has managed to get smoking rates down to 14%, and yet, even with a nationwide campaign, consumption here goes up. Why? My guest on this week’s podcast has spent much of her career studying and dissecting human habit formation and change. The reasons wh...
Dec 19, 2019•49 min•Ep 390•Transcript available on Metacast I’ve set a personal goal to live to be 122, and I specifically chose this number because it seems like a stretch but also totally within the realm of reasonable given my age and the advances in science. My children, I’m almost certain, will easily surpass my age simply because they have even more time for science to make it possible. So if 80 is the new 50, what does that mean for our hair, teeth, and liver? What choices should we make now to extend not just our lifespan but our healthspan too? ...
Dec 12, 2019•38 min•Ep 389•Transcript available on Metacast When you’re fasting, your body undergoes rapid healing that is very well-documented and exciting, but it’s also extremely impractical. When you spend a few days without eating, you’re weak, tired, hangry, and no good for much of anything except lying around the pool (hence the need for fasting resorts). But what if there was a way to get many of the same hormone-balancing and neuroprotective benefits of fasting while still eating and feeling good? This is where ketosis comes in, and while it’s t...
Dec 05, 2019•42 min•Transcript available on Metacast My worst fear with aging is losing my cognitive abilities, forgetting my kids’ names, and just becoming an old fool. It’s easy to assume that the brain will go along with the body, but there’s pretty good evidence to suggest that your mental age can be a decade younger than your physical body’s age, but you have to start working on it now. On this week’s show, you’ll meet a neuroscientist whose mission is to help us all understand how to take better care of our brains. Listen & Learn : Why your ...
Nov 28, 2019•39 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
