The Becoming Superhuman Podcast

Today we are joined by Michael Gelb. The world’s leading authority on the application of genius thinking to personal and organizational development, Michael is a pioneer in the fields of creative thinking. He is also an executive coach and an innovative leader. He has worked with DuPont, Genentech, Merck, Microsoft, Nike and the Young President’s Organization. Michael has also published 14 books, which is pretty creative if you ask me. His books range from How To Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci all the way to Thinking For A Change and they have also been translated into 25 languages. Focusing on the episode, Michael and I talk a lot about creativity, but we go much deeper while at it. We talk about how creativity is much more than many people think it is and how it's not what a lot of people often think it is. We talk about how creativity, memory, and learning are so intrinsically linked and we also talk about some different ways to enhance your mind, your brain and your life. Personally, I think this is an amaz

Today we are joined by Dr. Barbara Oakley. If that name sounds familiar, it should, because not only is she a professor of engineering at Oakland University, but she also teaches the world's largest and most popular online course, literally. It is called Learning How To Learn and has over 2 million students. You have probably also seen Barb's, as she told me to call her, Ted talk, which is a viral hit and definitely worth checking out. So, it is pretty obvious why I wanted to have Professor Oakley or Barb on the show. There is so much overlap between the things that we do, and we completely hit it off. We agreed on so many different things in this talk, but we also learned from one another. At a certain point she shares with me some ways in which the techniques that I've been teaching for years can be used, that I didn't know of and at another point I shared with her some of the visual mnemonics and gave her some advice as to how she can overcome a memory and learning challenge that she's been going through.

Today we are joined by Steven Kotler. Steven is the co-founder of the Flow Genome Project, and he is also a New York Times' best selling author. He has written quite a number of books, many of which you have already heard of, like "The Rise of Superhuman", his book on flow, "Abundance", his book on the future, "Tomorrowland: our journey from science fiction to science fact" and "Bold", which he wrote with Peter Diamandis, the book about how to go big, create wealth and impact the world. He has also written a bunch of other books like "Stealing Fire", his most recent one. Steven is an absolute authority, not just on writing, but also on flow. The Flow Genome Project has been doing research for decades, developing and understanding ways that we can get into flow and understanding what flow is and why it matters, why it exists and what we can use it for. I think that this is one of the most important topics in the whole realm of becoming SuperHuman and it is something that we haven't really covered in any of the

Greetings, SuperFriends! Today we are honored to have with us Dean Karnazes. He's a speaker, a bestselling author, an athlete, and an entrepreneur. TIME Magazine named him one of the top 100 most influential people in the world. Why, you ask? Because he is an ultra marathoner... not just any ultra marathon, by the way: he has run three hundred and fifty CONTINUOUS miles... not going sleep for three nights. He's run the Sahara Desert at 120 degrees. He has run 50 marathons in 50 days. He's biked for 24 hours straight. He swam San Francisco Bay... I could just go on basically and spend the entire episode talking about all the insane feats of endurance and athleticism that Dean has done. But I won't because I want you guys to hear from him. In any case he's been on The Today Show, 60 Minutes, Late Night Show, CBS, ESPN, CNN... basically all the networks! Again, I could spend the entire episode. I wanted to get Dean on the show for very obvious reasons. He is literally a superhuman. He has a lot of very interesti

Greetings, SuperFriends! Today we are joined by Ira Pastor. He is the CEO of BioQuark, and he has over 30 years of experience across multiple sectors in the pharmaceutical industry, working on biological solutions, managed care, OTC's, and more. He's served as the V.P. of business development for a drug development company. He's raised tons of money for different companies, and today he's working, as I said, at BioQuark, which is a company doing really really interesting things with biologic solutions to many of our health problems. I wanted to talk to Ira to understand what research is being done today to make us literally superhuman: to help us live forever, get rid of diseases, and so on. I learned a lot about just the types of research that are being done, and ultimately, I found it super interesting just the reverence and respect that Ira has for Mother Nature as an innovator and as a way for developing solutions to problems. It's a great episode. I'm sure you guys are going to enjoy it very very much!  

Today we are joined - and I want you guys keep an open mind here - by Jeff Berwick of the Dollar Vigilante. He is the author of one of the largest anarchocapitalist and libertarian blogs on the Web. And he's the organizer of the world's largest a anarchocapitalist conference. Now like me, you may feel the hairs on the back of your neck stand up when I say the terms anarchocapitalist or libertarian. And I certainly did. And I was really really uncomfortable when my partner at Bitcoin Academy suggested that I interview Jeff. But, you know what? I was completely surprised. Because what I learned in this interview was not only just how close the financial system is to major issues (and going through the numbers, I realized that we are all in big financial risk potentially), but also I realized that an ideology that I had always been told was evil and selfish was not nearly as evil or as selfish as it's portrayed to be. I had the opportunity to open my mind and gain some insights into something that I always had s

Greetings, SuperFriends! This week, we have a very special episode. Why is it special? Well, because as I write and record this, I am in hour 60 of a 72 hour fast. You may remember that in the past, we've spoken with a number of experts who advocate various types of fasting. We've spoken with Brad Pilon, an advocate of intermittent fasting. We've spoken with Jimmy Moore, a proponent of ketogenetic diets and longer-term fasting. And, more recently, we've spoken with Elaina Love, who teaches people how to complete 3-7 day "cleanses" that are very closely aligned with fasting principles. For years, I've wanted to try out a 3 to 7 day fast, but my schedule - and a good bit of fear - haven't permitted it. Recently, however, I was able to set aside the time (and have the proper supervision in the form of a live-in partner) to really try this out... and the results have been surprising, to say the least. In this episode, I want to talk through some of the things I've been experiencing and thinking about, explain the

Today we are joined by Tony Gaskins Jr. a celebrity life coach, a bestselling author an international speaker and a serial entrepreneur. But life wasn't always so amazing for Tony. He struggled very much with a lot of different things throughout his youth: he got kicked off the football team, lost his football scholarship, and found himself, like quite a few of the guests we've had on the show dealing drugs at the age of 18. But somehow Tony managed to turn his entire life around. At 22 years old he started publishing books. He started speaking and fast forward not that far ahead, Tony was invited to speak on Oprah, Tyra Banks, and many other media outlets, where he started sharing his wisdom and life experience... an absolutely incredible turnaround. As you'll see in the episode, Tony has so much to share about everything: about coaching and finding the right coach, about how Tony learns, about how to prioritize certain things in your life and set standards for yourself, and everything in between.  I'm sure

Today we are joined by Zach Evans and Zach actually came to us through a recommendation of someone in the SuperLearners Facebook group. Zach is a professional pianist who has also started very successful online music and piano training business, and he specializes in accelerated learning techniques for piano. Now I know some of you in the audience are saying right now "well I'm not interested in playing the piano, why does this relate to me?" I would encourage you to put that thought aside, because actually, Zach and I got into some pretty in-depth accelerated learning techniques... and I have to say I actually learned quite a bit from him in terms of things that I'm not doing that I could be doing better. Including some things that could improve the way that I learn, and ways that I've maybe been neglecting to structure out my own learning process. Zach really shares some very interesting stuff just about how learning a musical instrument, like learning a language, can be an incredible way to improve, refine

Today we are joined by Elaina Love. She's a repeat guest who is known as an authority in the organic and raw food spaces, but more than that, she's known for cleanses. It's something that we didn't cover at all in our previous episode together, so I wanted to have Elaina back on the show. Not just because she's amazing and I really enjoy talking to her, but also because she knows so much about cleanses. Now if you're skeptical about cleanses I was too. And you know, what I came to realize that all the research about fasting is so positive, and cleanses are just a way  to fast, but to give your body some additional ingredients as you're fasting, to help it clean out and get all the benefits of fasting... and then some. I have to say - I'm a convert. I've committed, on the air as you will see, to doing my first cleanse fast fast cleanse and I hope you guys will give it some consideration as well. What I love about talking to Elaina is she dabbles in both this soft world of holistic, raw food, and vegan, but she

Greetings, SuperFriends! Today we are actually joined by economist and author Jeffrey Tucker. Now, you might have heard of Jeffrey Tucker. He's very popular in the Bitcoin scene. He's an Austrian School economist...and you might be thinking, "what does this have to do with becoming superhuman?" Well, Jeffrey was here in the studio with me and we were talking about Bitcoin for a new project that I've been working on. Like myself, Jeffrey believes that Bitcoin is going to be one of the key technologies, if not the technology, that liberates humanity, creates unseen prosperity, unseen freedom, and much more. And as I was talking to him, about Bitcoin, I came to realize that a lot of the stuff that he was talking about is about financial freedom, having responsibility for your future, and a lot of different things that we've covered on the show only tangentially, but which really relate to becoming super human. And so I decided to share this interview with you guys here today. I know Bitcoin is not a topic that y

Greetings, SuperFriends! Today we are joined by Daniel Thomas Hind. He is a transformational coach and the founder of Evolution Eat. Daniel is a nutrition coach specializing in helping individuals create breakthroughs in their lives around their relationships with food. I discovered a lot of really really interesting things about Daniel throughout this episode, and we completely hit it off. We talked about food and nutrition. We talked about psychology. We talked about habits and we talked about how to game all of it to win your way day by day to better health. From there, we talked about all kinds of hacks and different ways that Daniel etches out the best performance in himself and in his business. I think you guys are really going to enjoy this episode. I sure did!

Greetings, SuperFriends! Today we are going to be talking about a subject that we have not really covered in to too much depth, and that is the supplement industry. You might hear me or many other thought leaders talking about supplementation, about vitamins, about powders and nutrients and supplements... But you might not know much about the industry. You might think "well, is this for me? Is this something that I actually need to do?" And you're probably overwhelmed just by the sheer amount of options that are out there. So to help us sort through this a little bit, we've invited Benjamin Harris to the show. He is the co-founder of Nickel and Dime Supplement Club, a new company that is trying to make supplementation cheaper, easier, and more affordable for everybody. Although this episode is not a sales pitch, we definitely do talk a little bit about their products and how they're different. But then, we go into how you can discern the facts from the B.S. when it comes to supplementation, and a bunch of oth

Greetings, SuperFriends! Today we are joined by Jon Levy... not me, but my much cooler, much more socially developed doppelganger in New York City. We've had Jon on the show before, but we were so caught up talking about his book, The 2AM Principle, that we didn't actually get to talk about what he does normally, when he's not promoting a book... and that is behavioral science. In the episode we go very deep into a lot of different aspects of behavioral science and how you can use it to achieve superhuman results... whether that means in your personal life, in your professional life, happiness, health, wealth, or success. I learned a lot of really really interesting things. John is just a fountain of research and psychological concepts and ideas, and explains them in a way that you can not only understand, but also apply in your day to day life. We learn how you can enjoy experiences more, how you can build better, richer relationships, and everything in between. I think you guys are really going to enjoy the

Today we are joined by Samir Becic, originally from Bosnia. Samir was a former fitness director at Bally Total Fitness. He created his own unique fitness approach, the Resync method. He's also founded the Health Fitness Revolution online magazine. During his time at Bally's, he was also named the top fitness trainer in America four times, fitness director of the year twice, and Bally's best fitness trainer. His upcoming book is called Resync Your Life, and in the episode you're going to see that Samir has a ton of energy. He's a total character. He's loud. He's got a lot to say, and a lot of ideas to share. We talk about fitness, we talk about nutrition, we talk about what's wrong with all of the above in Western societies... and then we go into a little bit about mindset and why Samir chose the life path that he did. I think you guys are really going to enjoy the episode and if you do make sure to leave a comment. Enjoy guys!

Today, we are joined by Dr. Sharad Paul, who is many, many, many, many things. He's a skin cancer surgeon, a family physician, an academic skin care expert, an evolutionary biologist, a storyteller, and a social entrepreneur, as well as an adjunct professor at Auckland University of Technology. He was originally born in England, with a childhood in India. He's a global citizen who now lives in New Zealand. And in 2008, he was featured in international editions of TIME Magazine. He's also been awarded the prestigious Ko Awatea International Excellence Award for leading health improvement on the global scale. I also discovered that he was an advisor to UNESCO, that he has written books in the fiction and nonfiction, scientific and nonscientific spheres, and has a skin care line among many many other ventures. In the episode, we talk about genetics and his interest in how we can alter our genetics and genetic expression. We talk about how we can optimize our health through understanding our own individualized ge

Today, we are joined by Jenny Blake, and I have to tell you: she and I really really hit it off. We really had a great time chatting. She's an author, a speaker, a career coach, business strategist, and much much more. She wears a lot of different hats. But she's mainly the author of Pivot: The only move that matters is your next. It's a great book about life path, deciding what's right for you, being happy, and being satisfied in your career. She also hosts the pivot podcast and she has a private momentum community. On top of all of that, Jenny trains coaches all over the world. She's been featured on CNBC, New York Times, Sunday Times in the UK... Basically she is an awesome super woman, and she shares a lot of my passions for entrepreneurship, lifestyle design, and as I found out kind of surprisingly, we both geek out on productivity, productivity tools, and how to hack your workflow so that you can get more done. She and I both shared that in the last few years, we have worked less than ever before and ea

Today we are going to talk about creativity, and to do that, we are inviting someone on the show who really has helped thousands and thousands of people become more creative in a way that might surprise you. His name is Grant Faulkner, and he is the executive director of National Novel Writing Month and he's the co-founder of a 100 Word Story. Now you've seen his stories in Tin House, Southwest Review, Green Mountains Review, all kinds of different places, and you've seen his essays in the New York Times, Poets and Writers Digest, and The Writer. Grant recently published a collection of 100 word stories, Figures and what he does is help people become more creative. He's written a book called Pep Talks for Writers, and he has a new book coming out in October. I wanted to have Grant on the show because he has helped so many people do something that maybe they didn't think they could do: be creative and write. But in the course of the conversation we go a lot deeper and we talk about why writing and creativity a

Today we are joined by Drew Logan. You've probably heard of him - he's a renowned fitness expert, celebrity trainer, and a television star. But actually, we go through something much more kind of interesting and rare in the beginning of the episode, which is that Drew died. Three times. He is the only known survivor of three consecutive sudden cardiac arrests. Doctors don't know why it happened. They don't know if it'll happen again. And living with that has given drew a really unique mindset and really unique approach to life. Drew is known for his fitness approach, 25 days, which deals a lot with habit and mindset. And in this episode, we talk about how all that works and how he has created a proven program to rewire your brain, stop weight gain, and finally crush the habits you hate forever. His book will be coming out in September, which if you're listening to this at release, is probably right now. And he sure has a lot of really valuable stuff to offer.

On today's episode, we are joined by Akshay Nanavati. He is an author, public speaker, and just all around really impressive guy. He has overcome drug addiction, PTSD, from fighting in Iraq with the Marines, and alcoholism that pushed him to the brink of suicide. He's explored some of the most hostile environments on the planet and he has come up with a methodology. It is the same methodology that shares the title with his book, FearVana, which the Dalai Lama himself said "inspires us to look beyond our own agonizing experiences and find the positive side of our lives." Akshay and I had a really incredible conversation. He is also very much interested in neuroscience and the science of memory and learning, and so we attack it from that angle. We start talking about fear, and how we can break the patterns of fear, but more importantly, how we can use fear, and how fear can be a good thing in our lives to create improvement and push us forward. It's a very unique and interesting perspective, and I think you're