A podcast that explores the interesting paths people take in life, and why and how they take them. From cuddle therapists to financial advisors. New episodes every Tuesday.
Do you ever feel a bit off? You can’t really put your finger on why, but you’re not quite yourself. Have you ever considered that maybe your internal energy isn’t flowing very well, or that negative energy in your surroundings is bringing you down? Today’s guest Terje Kuusk is a Reiki master practitioner (heals and fixes energy flows in the body) and practices real estate energy clearing and upgrading as well. We’ll discuss Terje’s connection to energy and how we can tap into and clear the energy around us.
How do you feel about the things that you own? Does your enjoyment for them usually peak right when you purchase them and then slowly fade from there? There’s certainly science to back that up, which is one of the reasons that they say it’s better to spend your money on experiences as opposed to things. But what about things that we own that grow and change, whose ownership becomes a sort of experience in itself? A couple years ago I learned about raw denim and and decided to purchase a pair for myself. Unlike most of my clothes, I was looking forward to what they would look like in a year or two, and every day I wore them brought me more satisfaction that my new jeans were truly becoming MY jeans. The experience that I’ve had with my jeans is something that today’s guest, David Shuck, knows an awful lot about. He is the managing editor of heddels.com, the foremost website for all things raw denim. We’ll discuss denim and the philosophy behind owning things that need to be broken in.
Time. A true currency if there ever was one. Yet, rarely do we consider as diligently as we should if we are spending it wisely. We may shop for good deals on a regular basis, some may even call us frugal, but when it comes to spending our time we give it away to the first thing that comes our way. Today’s guest, Garland Coulson, is a time management consultant and it’s his job to change that relationship. He wants us to be frugal WITH time, and regularly consider how we are spending it. In this interview he’ll give us plenty of tips to help us better manage our most valuable resource.
Most of us live our lives looking forward to things. This is fortunate. This is the privileged position that we are in. It also means that we often neglect the present and miss out on the magic of the mundane. We look forward to getting off work, so we don’t have as productive of a day. We look forward to the weekend, so our week seems less fulfilling. We look forward to getting to our destination, so we overlook the beauty in the journey. Being present in the here and now is a popular philosophy, but few of us truly embrace it the way that today’s guest has. Reed is a tour cyclist. He rides his bike 100’s (sometimes 1000’s) of miles on vacation. He has ridden similarly freakishly long distances to work and back, day after day. Reed has taken what for many of us is the thing that stands between us and being where we want to be, and embraced it as the place that he does want to be.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. You know what’s really worth a lot? Both. Science tells us that if we both see and hear a concept our retention and comprehension go through the roof. It was this fact that today’s guest, William Warren, unknowingly channeled when he sketched concepts out during meetings at his former company. His drawings were so great that he became known for them in the office, and ultimately left to start a company dedicated to them and the art of visual communication.
Like just about everything else under the sun these days, we seem to be putting a lot more scrutiny and focus on the workplace. And why not? It’s where we spend the majority of our day. There’s the ‘work is work’ camp who believe that work was never meant to be fun, they pay you for it after all. There’s the ‘work should be fun and rewarding’ camp who believe that each of us should be able to have a role we enjoy. Luckily for us, more and more companies are coming around to the latter camp. Happier bees make more honey. Today’s guest, Gianna Biscontini, is a certified behavior analyst and founder of W3RKWELL. She created W3RKWELL to help other companies understand how to keep employees happy and healthy for the long run.
We're on vacation for 2 weeks. Enjoy some of our favorite episodes from the vault while we're out. New episodes start 6/26!
We're on vacation for 2 weeks. Enjoy some of our favorite episodes from the vault while we're out.
We're on vacation for 2 weeks. Enjoy some of our favorite episodes from the vault while we're out.
What is your brand? Are you the funny one that also has a soft side? Are you the quiet one that opens up to close friends? It can be so hard to nail down because people are so complex, and we’re constantly changing. The same can be said of most businesses. This is why businesses are turning to outside experts, like today’s guests from Blow Branding, to help them define their brand. Is it what you do? Why you do it? How you make people feel? We’ll learn all about the recipe in today’s episode.
I’m going to give anyone reading this a peek behind the curtain. When I’m writing these blurbs for the episodes I try to come up with a thesis around which I will write. Now, sometimes when I come up with a thesis I try to tap into the collective zeitgeist and think of a stat or a fact that we all agree with that is going to support my thesis. Like, ‘we all like puppies’. After I think of the stat or fact, I then go to good old google and search for it, to add some level of integrity to what I’m saying. Cut to this weeks episode. I think to myself, the most wanted superpower has to be flight. This is gonna tie in perfectly to this week’s episode on zip-lining and why people like my guest, Mike Seper, love it. So I go to google, see if a large scale survey has ever been done on what super powers people want, and low and behold one has been done. Cool, just gotta make sure everyone wants to fly like Mike and I and then we can get this show on the road. And…4th?! 4th place! Flying is not first, nor second, nor third. 4th. The number one power people want is invisibility, which in addition to ruining my blurb about flying, really throws a monkey wrench in my idea that the vast majority of humanity is good. Something tells me that these people don’t want invisibility so that they can anonymously help more people. Anyway, to all my fellow flyers at heart, today we learn about a way we can get close to the real thing.
Picture the person that you think has the perfect job? Who are they? If I had to guess I would say that the person you are imagining has a job that they love. Perhaps a trade that they’re really good at. I’m always so envious of the chef’s I see on Chef’s Table. These people have a singular focus. One that they love and one that they’re great at. Doesn’t that make for the perfect job? ‘Find something you love and you’ll never have to work a day in your life’ sort of stuff. Well, what if you’re like today’s guest, Khalif El-Amin, and you don’t want to find just one thing? What if you want to do a lot of different things? And help other people do a lot of different things? Now that can give a restless soul like me some hope.
What do you think ‘The American Dream’ is? This was one of that hardest questions I was ever given in a small class in college. Every student was put on the spot and had to answer in front of everyone else. It was one of those times where you know the person asking has the ‘correct’ answer in their heads, and they just want to see what you’ll say, but you have no idea what they want you to say. I don’t remember what my answer was, or what the correct answer was, but I often ponder the question. What is The American Dream? And does it change over time? The most concrete and simple answer I can give to this is to be a property owner. The single act of owning property is a statement that you live in a free and democratic society, and you are not going to be reliant on other people for your welfare. It allows you to spend your greatest lifetime allocation of money on yourself. It does…a lot. And what’s more American than owning a piece of America. Today I speak with Brandon Pfannenstiel. He’s come up with an awesome business idea to help turn renters into owners, and put people on the path to the American Dream.
Some things speak to our minds. These are the most common of things that we regularly encounter every day. Other things speak to our hearts. These are less common, but still encountered with regularity. Rarely, oh so rarely, does something speak directly to our soul. A good way to categorize these things is to realize that we, in turn, cannot really speak about them. We don’t know how to describe something that speaks to our soul. Think about a soul-mate, or love at first sight. We can throw a lot of adjectives around about why we like that person, but those are just the words that speak to our hearts and minds, and probably apply to plenty of other people that we have met. The thing that makes this one person so special cannot be spoken. There is just a deep seated knowing in the soul. Amazingly, there are things that seem to speak to all of our souls, belying the notion that we are not connected. Fire is the perfect example of this. Anyone who has ever gone camping and stared into a fire can attest to the feeling that you get. My best words to describe it would be a peaceful reverence, but again, words don’t really work here. Today’s guest, Victoria Zajac, knows all about the soul affirming power of fire. Rather than just be a cautious observer, Victoria decided to get up close and get to know fire even better. Spinning, swallowing, dancing, breathing, you name it, Victoria does it.
Over the course of the next few months we will be alternating between new episodes and some old favorites from the vault. This is the eighth (and likely final) of these, Prosthetist. Kevin is a truly amazing man. He makes custom prosthetic limbs for amputees, and if that's not enough, he donates his time to make prosthetic flippers and fins for dolphins and turtles that get caught in fishing nets. Enjoy!
Over the course of the next few months we will be alternating between new episodes and some old favorites from the vault. This is the seventh of these, Street Artist. I knew going into this interview that Cameron was a successful street artist from San Francisco. I did not know that Cameron is also an awesome human and a wonderful interviewee. Enjoy!
Over the course of the next few weeks we will be alternating between new episodes and some old favorites from the vault. This is the sixth of these, Creative Marketing Prodigy. I went into this interview thinking, 'How interesting can marketing really be?' I came out of this interview feeling like an idiot. Enjoy!
They say that you shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover. I’d say that’s pretty good advice, and today’s guest is the living embodiment of why. Jamie went from Broadway actor to being recognized as one of the foremost experts on baby gear in the world. Jamie is a single male with no kids and no plans for having them. Someone whom you would not look at and think, there is a guy that knows all about babies. Yet, life is a strange and beautiful thing that takes us down paths we would never imagine.
Over the course of the next few weeks we will be alternating between new episodes and some old favorites from the vault. This is the fifth of these, Medicolegal Death Investigator. I mean...who deep down doesn't want to be a murder detective. Enjoy!
Ups and downs are part of life. The ups can feel great, the downs…not so much. Luckily for us there are people out there like today’s guest, Laurel Harlan, to help us survive and thrive in the valleys of the human experience. Laurel will explain the differences between clinical social work and other mental health roles. She’ll also give us some advice for coping with depression and anxiety in our own lives.
Over the course of the next few weeks we will be alternating between new episodes and some old favorites from the vault. This is the fourth of these, Ultra Marathon Runner. This was one of the more mind boggling hobbies that I've learned about on the show and really gives you a glimpse at the amazing things the human body is capable of. Enjoy!
As many of you know, our sound engineer is currently out because he and his wife just had their first baby. Today we honor him and parents everywhere with an episode all about babies and the interesting ways we can have them. Many prospective parents face difficulties when trying to get pregnant. Today’s guest, Katie Cline, will explain the various options available today to have a child. We’ll take a deeper dive into Katie’s forte, embryo adoption, and how this relatively new procedure is helping struggling couples have children of their own. Interview Contents: 2:00 - What is embryo adoption? 3:20 - The number of embryos made during IVF. 5:00 - Embryo adoption vs. IVF. 6:50 - Giving birth to your adopted baby. 7:50 - Frozen embryos and getting them in the mother to be. 10:30 - Having trouble getting pregnant vs. carrying a baby. 15:20 - The process for donating embryos. 18:20 - Benefits for the donor. 22:30 - The process for the adopter. 25:00 - Differences between embryo adoption and traditional adoption. 29:00 - Donors and Adopters getting to know each-other. 31:00 - Common questions Katie gets from donors and adopters. 33:00 - Negative pushback that Katie gets. 39:30 - The start of NRFA. 44:00 - Advice.
Over the course of the next few weeks we will be alternating between new episodes and some old favorites from the vault. This is the third of these, Flight Attendant. This was one of the jobs that I was most excited to hear what a day in the life was really like, and Carin could not have been a better representative for the show. Enjoy!
Many of us dream of a life that is simple. A life that is different from the one we live. We think about separating ourselves from the chaos of the modern world, and moving out into nature. Maybe we move to a farm and start our own little business working with animals. That’s exactly what today’s guest felt like, and decided to do something about. Erin will tell us what it’s really like to live the dream, and the path that she took to get there.
Over the course of the next few weeks we will be alternating between new episodes and some old favorites from the vault. This is the second of these, Actor & Musician. Tyler has some of the most amazing stories I have ever heard on the show or anywhere else. Enjoy!
Have you ever wondered about how that pair of shoes you’ve been wanting shows up in an ad for you online? Just how much data is being collected on you and how is it being used for marketing? Enter the world of programmatic advertising. Chris Cox will tell us all about the present and future of the marketing and advertising world.
Over the course of the next few weeks we will be alternating between new episodes and some old favorites from the vault. This is the first of these, Cosplay. I had such a fun time interviewing Roxanna and feel like she really represents the spirit behind cosplay. Enjoy!
Professional sports are such a unique and incredible thing. Unlike many other professions where there can be prerequisites, necessary degrees, and boxes to check to be afforded an opportunity for employment, sports asks only one thing of you. Are you one of the best people in the entire world that does this? If the answer is no, well then you better work even harder until you are or move along and find yourself another profession. It is the truest form of Darwinism that we have in modern society. Today’s guest, Sean Lawton, is a professional Lacrosse player for the Boston Cannons. He’ll tell us all about the trials and tribulations of becoming a professional athlete and distill the lessons he’s learned from the process. Also, we’ll get a brief course in Lacrosse 101.
Applications and technology have really changed the look and feel of the world in the last decade. Transportation, finances, dating, you name it, it’s all been changed and it all feels very different than it did just 10 years ago. One area that might not seem very different is how we make physical goods. Manufacturing mass quantities of goods that we use has remained fairly the same, but that doesn’t mean that nothing has changed. Recently, mainstream adoption and advancements in 3D printing have paved the way for a whole new type of manufacturing, and with it, entirely new possibilities about the products we can make.
First of all I want to say that my thoughts are with everyone in California that is currently displaced because of the fires. I also want to send out a huge thank you to all of the amazing men and women that fight fires like this when they arise. If you would like to come on the show and tell your story, we would love to have you. In today’s episode I speak with Tyler Cross who is a prescribed burn crew member for a nature conservation company. It seems counter intuitive when it damages homes and encroaches on urban areas, but fire can be a really good and natural thing. Tyler will tell us why prescribed burns can be a good thing, and how certain pockets of nature thrive with regular fire.
If there’s one thing I know for sure, it’s that all of us are going to be old someday. Yet, we don’t seem to give the elderly the amount of respect or attention that we would most likely want for our future selves. The is unfortunate socially, but can become a real predicament when it comes to looking at and tackling the problems that face senior citizens today. Trying to raise money for educating children in a third world country? Here’s my credit card. Trying to raise money for the elderly? Doesn’t quite have the same ring to it. This is the uphill battle that today’s guest, Meg Barhite, has to face in her career. She loves the elderly and will explain what her company does to help.
Reading is something that, like most people, I didn’t really take to until I got older. When I was growing up, even through high school and college, I had way too much stuff on my plate to concern myself with reading. Which friends house am I gonna go over to? How can I cover up the fact that I didn’t do my homework today? Does Madison like me or is she just being really nice? So many questions and concerns running around my head, and reading definitely wasn’t one of them. In the past few years though, things have really slowed down for me in the chronic existential crisis mode that is youth, and alas I have found books. Luckily for our species there are some that are more mature than I was. The impressive few that enjoy learning and reading at a young age. Today we speak to Kara McCabe who liked reading so much she decided she wanted to be a high school English teacher. Now, as an English teacher in the U.S. and as a volunteer teacher to girls in Afghanistan, she helps recruit the next generation of young readers. Interview Contents: 3:00 - What made Kara interested in becoming an English teacher? 5:00 - The curriculum, and what you want to teach vs. what you have to teach. 8:00 - Teaching grammar. 11:00 - Getting kids to read. 17:00 - Trying to make things more exciting for the kids. 18:30 - The types of kids that like to read. 23:30 - Difficult concepts for the kids to learn. 25:45 - Trying to get kids interested in things like Shakespeare. 31:30 - Getting involved in your students’ lives. 36:45 - Volunteering time teaching girls in Afghanistan. 42:45 - Kara’s favorite part about being an English teacher. 43:30 - Advice for volunteering.
A couple days ago we celebrated Thanksgiving. It’s a wonderful holiday where we spend time with people that we love and think about the things in our lives that we are grateful for. With that in mind I wanted to put out an episode that could touch on that note of gratitude, and what better episode could there be than an interview on organ donation. It is the biggest and most important gift that you can give someone! There were people this past Thursday that were sitting with their families, that would not have been sitting with their families had someone not given them the ultimate gift. Today we learn about how the process works, and what we can do to make sure we are in a position to help.
As humans we are on a never ending quest to relate to each other. It’s one of our best universal qualities. Sympathy. Empathy. Walk a mile in their shoes. We have words for all of it. It is this unyielding empathy that makes literature, and the characters in the stories that we tell, so important. When we relate to a character on the page, we may open up more to characters like that in our lives. We may even open up more to parts of ourselves that we previously shied away from. It is with this idea in mind that today’s guest, Maura Lee Bee, writes. Her characters are often atypical, which is exactly why we should take the time to get to know them.
Imagine the one thing that truly captivates you. The thing that you love doing, thinking about, and learning about. Now imagine that you get the opportunity to do that thing for a living, and then imagine that you’re surrounded by other amazing people, from all over the world, who love that thing just as much as you do. Today’s guest, Tom Perry, is a brilliant particle physicist working at the mecca of particle physics CERN. He and thousands of other physicists work daily at the Large Hadron Collider to make some of the great scientific discoveries of our time. In part one of our interview we’ll learn about life at CERN, the LHC, and what happens when you smash two protons together at close to the speed of light.
Imagine the one thing that truly captivates you. The thing that you love doing, thinking about, and learning about. Now imagine that you get the opportunity to do that thing for a living, and then imagine that you’re surrounded by other amazing people, from all over the world, who love that thing just as much as you do. Today’s guest, Tom Perry, is a brilliant particle physicist working at the mecca of particle physics CERN. He and thousands of other physicists work daily at the Large Hadron Collider to make some of the great scientific discoveries of our time. In part one of our interview we’ll learn about life at CERN, the LHC, and what happens when you smash two protons together at close to the speed of light.
“You can find magic wherever you look. Sit back and relax, all you need is a book.” - Dr. Seuss It’s been a while since I felt the magic and wonder in my life that I felt regularly as a child. Luckily for me, in my adult years, I’ve learned that Dr. Seuss is right. All you need to suddenly be in a place where magic and mystery are still alive and well is a book. Luckily for them, many children realize that you don’t have to wait until you’re a boring old adult to have this epiphany. Today we speak with the children’s librarian for the Boston Public Library, Maggie Levine. She’ll tell us about what the heck librarians do all day, and explain why being a librarian for children is so much more fun than working with adults.
Humans are some pretty complicated organisms. We have a body, mind, and spirit all wrapped into one package. Each needs it’s own nurturing and care, and the health of each will influence the other two. Yet even knowing this, we are often “too busy” to really care for ourselves the way we know we should. We may go to the gym and see how the time that we give to our bodies also helps pacify our minds, but how often do we try to work the other way around? Today’s guest, Stephanie Kato, is a pioneer of the concept of Metaphysical Cleansing. She is a firm believer in healing the physical body through work with the emotional and spiritual bodies. Today she’ll teach us about the metaphysical path to holistic health.
Have you ever been sick before? How did you ultimately get better? If it was anything more than a common cold, it probably involved taking some drugs. The miraculous little pills that help us get back on our feet more quickly, or in the case of something more serious, get back on our feet at all.Today we learn about the drugs we take and the people that make them. Emma has the incredibly important job of helping to create molecules that treat cancer, with the goal of one day eradicating it all together.
What goes into your mouth usually matters quite a bit more than what comes out. Food allergies, Celiac, IBS, cancer, Alzheimer's, depression; things that impact us physically, mentally, and emotionally all seem to be on the rise. And yet do a quick google search and you can find someone that has fought every one of these things with changes to their diet. With stakes like these, and general energy and happiness levels in play for all of us, it’s a wonder that more of us don’t track our diet and lifestyle. What sorts of inputs are we giving our bodies, and how does changing those inputs change our bodies output? Today’s guest has struggled with Celiac Disease and IBS, but has been living pain and symptom free for a while now. Laura will share her story, tips, and techniques with us, and go over the wonderful food and lifestyle diary she made in the process.
Language is unquestionably the most important revelation that occurred throughout human history. An easy way to explain a complicated idea to someone. A quick way to let someone know how you feel. A means to prevent conflict and allow us to settle our differences in a more civilized manner. Despite it’s importance, we don’t really pay it much attention from day to day. We just walk around, using our language of choice, not considering how that language came to be. Today we learn about one of the most important languages in the history of the Western world, Latin. We’ll learn how it evolved and its massive influence over the languages many of us speak today.
I want you to think about the difficult decisions you’ve made in your life. More specifically, I want you to think about the tough conversations you’ve had to have about these decisions. Maybe telling your parents that you’re moving out? Dropping out of school to pursue your dream? How about telling your significant other, “You know that large amount of student debt I accumulated to become a lawyer? Well, I decided I’m going to stop practicing law and start baking pies for a living instead.” I know, pretty specific, but it’s also exactly what today’s guest did. Now, only a few years later, her pie shop has almost doubled it’s business, she’s in the works to get their dough sold at Walmart, and her #WorldPieDomination blog has over 1,000 readers a day.
Food. We all love to eat it, and a lot of us even love to make it. Maybe that’s why so many people dream of one day opening up their own restaurant. Making food for strangers who would one day become your friends. Getting the know the community around you through the worlds greatest (family friendly) pastime. It really seems like a great existence. Today we learn about the ups and downs of the restaurant life from brothers and successful restaurateurs, Aaron and Jared Pool.
What is yoga? Is the answer a simple one about exercise or is it a complex one about philosophy and awareness? After today’s interview I have a feeling that if you asked 10 different people you may get 10 different answers. Christie Rafanan is an amazing yoga teacher in San Francisco, and a good friend of mine. We’ll dive into that many layered question trying to define yoga and hear about how it transformed Christie’s life.
What do you think of when you think of the word therapy? Therapist? Most of us think of traditional psychotherapy, talking through your life and problems with someone. Using your head to fix your head. However, many people and cultures throughout history have placed an equal, if not greater, focus on the body as a means to mental health. Surrounding yourself with nature, exercising, playing, these are all things that can have a massive impact on your mental state. In fact, it’s so important that an entire school of therapy is devoted to it. Today’s guest, Andrew Hermansen, will teach us all about it.
Do you ever have daydreams about leaving the world behind? Leaving the stresses and anxieties of the modern world and moving to a rural piece of land where you’re surrounded by the people that you love and some animals. Today’s guest is working towards that goal. Kevin is a part-time cattle rancher, working towards living the cattle ranching life all year round. Kevin is a true inspiration to me as he embodies setting your own goal and then patiently, diligently, working towards it. He’ll tell us all about the farm life, and the day to day of being a cattle rancher.
TLDR: Show will be going to one day a week for a little while. New episodes every Monday. Recommended past episodes to check out in the meantime: Actor and Musician Bar Owner Cosplay Creative Marketing Prodigy Cuddle Therapy YouTube Gaming Celebrity Medicolegal Death Investigator Director and Author Sensory Deprivation Floating Influencer Marketing Paranormal Psychic Mastectomy Tattoo Artist Ultra Marathon Runner Pastor Flight Attendant
Do you believe in ghosts? Like religion, your belief in the paranormal can really be swayed by the culture you belong to. For some reason in America we don’t really embrace the idea of ghosts, and yet over 80 percent of our population believes in the afterlife. Today’s guest, Craig Owens, is a talented photographer and, like many people, used to be ghost-agnositc. Then, one day Craig was doing a vintage photo shoot at a supposedly haunted hotel, and he experienced paranormal phenomena first hand while doing the shoot. This planted the seeds for an amazing passion project called Haunted by History. Craig uses actors to recreate scenes at haunted hotels and takes truly unique photos that teleport the viewer back in time.
How we feel as we enter a space is a pretty complex thing. Smells, sounds, spacing, art, furniture, plants, lighting - it all melds together in our minds to make us feel a certain way. Do we feel relaxed, energized, uneasy? The interesting thing is, most of us won’t even know why we feel a certain way in a home or building, we’ll just feel that way. Today’s guest is a trained interior designer, which means that it’s her job to create a space that not only looks appealing, but one that makes you feel a certain way. Want to feel relaxed and care free when you’re at home? Mackenzie can do that for you. Want to feel energized every morning when you look around your bedroom? She’s got you covered. Today we explore the intricate ins and outs of the interior design world.
Growing up and making your way in the world can be hard. That’s kind of what this show is about, see what people choose to do as they forge their path in this world. Most of us, and nearly every person I’ve had on this show, choose a path that has been walked by someone before us. That doesn’t change the fact that we need to be brave to do it, might have to leave something behind to pursue it, and need to give a lot of ourselves to succeed. It just means that we got the idea to walk down said path because someone else walked down that path before us. Today’s episode is with a truly unique person that had no such blueprint for his career. For that reason it’s hard to even explain what Michael Cirino does. Art, marketing, logistics, and one-of-a-kind experiences are all in a days work when you create your own blueprint.
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