Today I’ve got a friend back on the show for round 2, Carl Honoré. Carl is the author of the international bestseller, ‘In Praise of Slow’ which dissects our speed-obsessed society and celebrates those who have gotten in touch with their “inner tortoise”, as well as the books: ‘Under Pressure’, ‘The Slow Fix’ and his latest book, ‘Bolder’. Carl’s TED Talks have been viewed million times and he’s been described as “The unofficial godfather of a growing cultural shift toward slowing down”.
Today I have the pleasure of having Dr. Michael Shermer back on the show for round 2! Dr. Shermer is the founding publisher of Skeptic magazine, the host of the Science Salon podcast, and a Presidential Fellow at Chapman University where he teaches Skepticism 101. For 18 years he was a monthly columnist for Scientific American. He is the author of the New York Times bestsellers; Why People Believe Weird Things and The Believing Brain, Why Darwin Matters, The Science of Good and Evil, The Moral Arc, and Heavens on Earth. His new book is Giving the Devil His Due. He’s appeared on Oprah, The Colbert Report, Larry King Live and his two TED talks have been viewed by millions. Neil deGrasse Tyson described Michael as “a beacon of reason in an ocean of irrationality.”
Today’s guest is Mark Wolynn. Director and founder of The Family Constellation Institute in San Francisco, Mark is a world leader in the field of inherited family trauma. A bestselling author and sought-after lecturer, he teaches at hospitals, clinics and universities around the world including: the University of Pittsburgh, JFK University and the Western Psychiatric Institute. His book: ‘IT DIDN’T START WITH YOU: How Inherited Family Trauma Shapes Who We Are and How to End the Cycle’ is the winner of the 2016 Silver Nautilus Book Award in psychology and has been translated into 19 languages.
Marci Shimoff is a #1 New York Times bestselling author, a world-renowned transformational teacher and an expert on happiness, success, and unconditional love. Her books include the international bestsellers ‘Love for No Reason’ and ‘Happy for No Reason’. Marci is also the woman’s face of the biggest self-help book phenomenon in history as co-author of six books in the ‘Chicken Soup for the Soul’ series. With total book sales of more than 15 million copies worldwide in 33 languages, she is one of the bestselling female nonfiction authors of all time. She is also a featured teacher in the international film and book sensation, ‘The Secret’ and the host of the national PBS TV show called ‘Happy for No Reason’.
Today I’m speaking with Laura Huang. Many of us sit back quietly, hoping that our hard work and effort will speak for itself—only to be left frustrated and discouraged. Or we try to force ourselves into the mould of someone we think is “successful,” but in doing so, we stifle the creativity and charm that make us unique and memorable. Laura is a professor at Harvard Business School, who has spent her academic career studying interpersonal relationships and implicit bias in entrepreneurship and in the workplace. Her research has been featured in the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Forbes and Nature. She’s been named one of the 40 Best Business School Professors Under the Age of 40, and she’s the author of EDGE: Turning Adversity into Advantage.
Best selling author, Dr. John Ratey M.D. is an Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and an internationally recognised expert in Neuropsychiatry. He has published over 60 peer-reviewed articles and 11 books published in 17 languages. With the publication of ‘Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain’, Dr. Ratey has established himself as one of the world’s foremost authorities on the brain-fitness connection. Recognised by his peers as one of the Best Doctors in America since 1997, Dr. Ratey was recently honoured by the Massachusetts Psychiatric Society as “Outstanding Psychiatrist of the Year” for advancing the field. He’s frequently profiled in the media from: ABC, CBS, NBC, The New York Times, Newsweek, The Washington Post, and that’s just scratching the surface. (This interview was recorded in April 2019).
Dr. Michael Greger is a physician, an internationally recognised speaker on a number of important public health issues, and a bestselling author of multiple titles including the instant New York Times bestseller ‘How Not To Die’. He’s testified before Congress, has appeared on shows such as: The Colbert Report and The Dr. Oz Show, and Oprah Winfrey invited him to be her expert witness in the infamous “meat defamation” trial. He is a Council of Directors member of True Health Initiative which is a coalition of more than 360 world experts representing 35 countries, who together offer clarity as to the principles behind healthy eating and healthy living.
Hank Greely is a professor of law and a professor of genetics at Stanford University. He specialises in ethical, legal and social issues arising from advances in the biosciences, particularly from genetics, neuroscience and human stem cell research. He was the president of the International Neuro-ethics Society and is the chairman of the California Advisory Committee on Human Stem Cell Research. He joined Stanford in 1985 after working in private law practice and in the Defence and Energy Departments during President Carter’s administration. Last but not least he is the author of the book ‘The End of Sex and the Future of Human Reproduction’.
Dr. Scilla Elworthy is a three time Nobel Peace Prize nominee for her work with the Oxford Research Group, a non-governmental organisation she founded in 1982 to develop effective dialogue between nuclear weapons policy-makers worldwide and their critics. In 2002 Cilla founded ‘Peace Direct’a charity to fund, promote and learn from local peace-builders in conflict areas. She was awarded the Niwano Peace Prize in 2003 and she advised Peter Gabriel, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Sir Richard Branson in setting up ‘The Elders’. She now leads ‘The Business Plan for Peace’ to help prevent violent conflict and build sustainable peace throughout the world, because peace is possible; and she lays out how in her latest books: The Business Plan for Peace: Building a World Without War and The Mighty Heart: How to Transform Conflict. Last but not least her TED talk on nonviolence has been viewed by over 1,500,000 people.
Maria Konnikova is an award winning journalist and the author of three New York Times bestsellers, Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes and The Confidence Game which is an investigation into the minds, motives, and methods of con artists. Her latest book, The Biggest Bluff is a journey into the world of high-stakes poker – it’s an exploration of the role that luck plays in our lives and what it truly means to take control of our destinies. Maria doesn’t do things half heartedly so in the process of researching this book she went from having never played a single game of poker in her life, to becoming an international poker champion, turning professional and earning over $300,000 in tournament earnings.
Dr. Dan Siegel is a: Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, a clinical professor of psychiatry, an award winning educator and an internationally acclaimed author of five New York Times bestselling books. Amongst these are: Brainstorm: The Power and Purpose of the Teenage Brain; Aware: The Science and Practice of Presence, and Mind: A Journey to the Heart of Being Human. Dan is also the executive director of the Mindsight Institute and has lectured for the King of Thailand, Pope John Paul II, Google University and His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
Greg Lukianoff is: an attorney, a New York Times best-selling author, and the President and CEO of FIRE, which stands for the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. His books include, ‘Unlearning Liberty’ and ‘The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure’ which he co-authored with social psychologist Jonathan Haidt. He’s an executive producer of ‘Can We Take a Joke?’, a feature-length documentary that explores the collision between comedy, censorship and outrage culture. He frequently appears on TV shows such as CBS Evening News and The Today Show and he’s testified before both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives about free speech issues on America’s college campuses.
Adam Alter is the New York Times bestselling author of two books: ‘Drunk Tank Pink’, which investigates how hidden forces in the world around us shape our thoughts, feelings and behaviours, and his recent work, ‘Irresistible’, which considers why so many people today are addicted to so many behaviours. He’s an Associate Professor of Marketing at New York University’s Stern School of Business, with an affiliated appointment in the New York University Psychology Department. His research has been published widely in academic journals, and featured in dozens of TV, radio and print outlets around the world. He’s written for the New York Times, Washington Post, The Atlantic and has been invited to share his ideas to companies such as Google, Microsoft and Fidelity.
David Meltzer grew up really poor so all he wanted to do was make a load of money so he could buy his mum a house and a car. He became the CEO of the world’s first ever smartphone, he retired early, bought his mum the house, bought a golf course, a ski mountain, countless other houses and had a net worth of over $120 million. Then he lost everything, every single penny, they even took his mum’s house. However that’s not the end of the story, he made it all back again. He became CEO of the world’s most notable sports agency, before co-founding Sports 1 Marketing, one of the world’s leading sports & entertainment marketing agencies. However despite his amazing business success that is not why I invited him on the show today, what I think is most interesting is his mindset. He’s also an award-winning humanitarian, an international public speaker and a best-selling author.
(Guest Interview) Hi everyone, my name’s Atuksha Poonwassie and I’m the co-founder of the UK crowdfunding platform Simple Crowdfunding. For this podcast we’ve decided to mix things up a bit and I’m going to interview Duncan so that you can learn more about the person behind Spirit Pig. So I met Duncan at a property event 6 years ago and we’ve met and stayed in contact regularly ever since. He runs the podcast ‘Spirit Pig’ which has been rated by iTunes as one of the top self help podcasts in the world. So how has he achieved it? Driven by the mission; Fulfilment For Everyone, Duncan has spent years tracking down and interviewing the top and coolest thoughts leaders on the planet about happiness and fulfilment. Over the last 130 episodes he’s interviewed pioneering scientists, Academy Award nominated directors, New York Times bestselling authors, Mt. Everest climbers and 32 TED speakers. He also life coaches CEOs of companies that are positively impacting the world. Over the time that I’ve known Duncan his goal has been clear and he has done whatever it takes without faltering and compromise. He lives and breathes happiness and it comes across clearly in everything he does. I am so grateful that I have the pleasure of interviewing Duncan today.
Mastin Kipp is the author of 2 bestselling books and is a world renowned public speaker recognised by the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Tony Robbins and Arianna Huffington as a thought leader in accelerated life transformations. He is the creator of Functional Life Coaching™ which differs from his peers and predecessors in that it focuses not just on rapid behavioural change but on identifying and dissolving the root cause that is impeding optimal human progress and success. He’s helped over 2 million people in over 100 countries around the world. Mastin appears regularly on television and in print and was featured on Oprah Winfrey’s Emmy award winning show ‘Super Soul Sunday’ as a leader of the next generation of spiritual thinkers.
Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett is a University Distinguished Professor of Psychology at Northeastern University, with appointments at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. In addition to her book ‘How Emotions are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain’ and her popular TED Talk, Dr. Barrett has published over 200 peer-reviewed, scientific papers in the world’s top journals. She received the Pioneer Award from the ‘National Institutes of Health Director’s’ for her revolutionary research on emotion in the brain. These highly competitive multimillion dollar awards are given to scientists of exceptional creativity who are expected to transform biomedical and behavioural research. As a result of her revolutionary findings she has testified before Congress, presented her research to the FBI, consulted to the National Cancer Institute and been a featured guest on radio and television programs around the world.
Andreas M. Antonopoulos is a best-selling author, speaker and one of (if not the) foremost bitcoin and blockchain experts in the world. He is one of the rare experts who approaches the subject from an educational, political, cultural, and human perspective — not merely discussing the technology in investment terms. In 2014, Andreas authored the groundbreaking book, ‘Mastering Bitcoin’ which is widely considered to be the best technical guide ever written about the technology. His second book, ‘The Internet of Money’ unveiled the “why” of bitcoin— and became a bestseller. He is a teaching fellow at the University of Nicosia, the first university in the world to offer a masters degree in Digital Currency. Finally, he serves on the Oversight Committee for the Bitcoin Reference Rate at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, and has appeared as an expert witness in hearings around the world, including both the Australian and Canadian Senate Banking Committees where he gave historically-important presentations that have influenced public policy regarding Bitcoin globally.
Dr. Iain McGilchrist is a world renowned psychiatrist, neuroscientist and writer. His is the man behind the book ‘The Master and his Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World’ which Rowan Williams (Former Archbishop of Canterbury) said is “one of the most important books I’ve read in the first decade of this century”. Some prominent scientists and thinkers describe it as “a dazzling masterpiece” and possibly “the book of the century”. He is on a quest to prove a growing imbalance in our brains. He believes that one half of our brain – the left hemisphere – is slowly taking power, and we in the Western world are simultaneously feeding its ambitions. This half of the brain is very proficient at creating technologies, procedures and systems, but it cannot understand the implications of these on the people and the world around it. McGilchrist knows that if he is right, we may be creating the technologies and the conditions that will spell our own downfall.
What does it mean to be human? Is it our thoughts? our soul? our intelligence? If these things could live on beyond the decease of our bodies, then would we still be alive? Would that still be us? Bruce Duncan is the Managing Director of the Terasem Movement Foundation and the Principle Investigator of the LifeNaut Project. He is leading a long term scientific study interested in the transfer of your mind to a robot, or another biological body. If we choose to save large amounts of personal information about ourselves into something called a ‘MindFile’ then could your memories, beliefs, emotions and values be transferred into a thinking machine when you die and could that artificial intelligence continue to be you, for eternity? These are the questions Bruce is asking. He’s one of the figures behind the ongoing development of a humanoid robot called Bina48. Who’s created from the ‘mindfile’ information of a real person and has been described as the most sentient and real robot in the world.
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