Know More Know Less

Listening to Aaron's story was a rollercoaster of emotions. From learning of his tortured childhood and adolescence that lead him to nearly committing an atrocious crime and planning to take his own life, to the joy in his voice when he speaks of the friends who saved him from himself. Aaron's journey is unlike anything I've heard or experienced. Yet, as with any human experience there are universal truths that force us to dig deeper and re-evaluate our own stories along the way. I'll be reflecting on this conversation for months to come. Aaron is clearly on a mission to turn the darkest moments of his life into a bright light to help the rest of us to understand the unfathomable.  He grew up in a painful and abusive environment, witnessing and experiencing violence and substance abuse all around him. He experimented with various coping strategies over the years, both helpful and harmful, but at the age of 15 his capacity to cope ran out.   In 1996, Aaron planned to acquire a firearm and attack either North Highschool or the food court of a local mall in his hometown of Denver, Colorado.   Thankfully, the kindness of a friend altered the trajectory of Aaron’s plan, his life, and now he shares his story with the TEDx stage, law enforcement, and audiences like ours to help anyone who might be listening.   I hope our conversation helps all of us to be a little kinder to the people we meet and hold those we love a little closer when we're together.  KNOW MORE KNOW LESS PODCAST: For other platforms: Listen here:  Apple:  https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/know-more-know-less/id1652659219   Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2fxCXp5AlfajmcTgvSWSGl?si=87be920940534299  For full episodes and clips:   https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN4wkMATGEXMTU4Xrw-YZTA

“America will never be a Christian nation because the moment it becomes a Christian nation it will cease to be America.” - Andrew Seidel As a Canadian living in Europe, my opinion on America has shifted in sentiment through the years from "America: Great" to "America: Bad" to "America: It's Complicated."  I believe in the American experiment. Even as we've all watched a part of their population take a knee in loyalty to a literal con man. Most shockingly, the power structure creating Republican policy appears to be driven by Christian Nationalists.   The Christian Nationalists have been building on a dangerous lie that leads to the end of American democracy. At least, that's the opinion of Andrew Seidel.  Andrew documents the lie in his first book, The Founding Myth: Why Christian Nationalism is Un-American.  It's a brilliantly historical and evidence-based thesis on why America was NOT founded as a Christian nation Christian Nationalists believe they are "taking back" America to be run, essentially, as a theocracy. And any means to accomplish that is justified under their collective crusade.    But Andrew and many Americans, despite a steady stream of death threats, refuse to go quietly into the political night.   Andrew is a constitutional and civil rights attorney, activist, and author who has defended the First Amendment in and out of court for over a decade.  His second book, American Crusade, is about how the US Supreme Court is currently actively weaponizing religious freedom. Andrew is VP of Communication for Americans United, a not-for-profit organization for the separation of church and state > https://www.au.org/ For more info. on Andrew, his books and his amazing work can be found on his website:  https://andrewlseidel.com/ I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did!  KNOW MORE KNOW LESS PODCAST    For other platforms:   🍎 Listen on Apple  https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/know-more-know-less/id1652659219    🔊 Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2fxCXp5AlfajmcTgvSWSGl?si=87be920940534299   📺 Full Episodes and clips: https://youtu.be/cUHYfdnztEE?si=rg0kzJGReOMtJvQM

"Michael, at one point, I had to forgive all of 1974..." said Katharine Giovanni.  As we move through our lives, we collect big and small negative experiences that, if left unresolved, calcify into how we interact with and view the world.  Abuse. Neglect. Betrayal. Rejection. Nobody arrives into adulthood without at least a short list of items that could use the emotional freedom that comes with forgiveness.  Blah blah blah, right? Easier said than done!  Enter Katharine Giovanni.   Katharine is a three-time award-winning best-selling author of twelve books. She’s also a speaker, trainer, an advisor. And a proud breast cancer survivor.    Her latest work, "The Ultimate Path to Forgiveness: Unlocking Your Power," offers profound insights into forgiveness. Katharine started forgiving people out of desperation. She made a list of offenders, including people, places, things, even years, whatever she could think of, and ranked them from 1-10.  #10 being the most egregious offenders.  "Not everything is forgivable, and it's important to give people the right never to forgive. You have to be ready.", says Katharine  As Katharine was on her journey of forgiveness, she created the Forgiveness Matrix, a model for starting and practicing forgiveness. Most importantly, this journey is not for anyone else but you. Katharine suggests starting with the #1s and #2s and working up to the #10s. She says, "...maybe one day you will reduce them to a #5, and that's just fine."  I loved this conversation with Katharine. It was fun, profound, and insightful in a way I didn't expect.  I hope you enjoy it.  You can find Katharine and all of her work here: https://katharinegiovanni.com/   KNOW MORE KNOW LESS PODCAST: For other platforms: Listen here:  Apple:  https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/know-more-know-less/id1652659219   Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2fxCXp5AlfajmcTgvSWSGl?si=87be920940534299  For full episodes and clips:   https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN4wkMATGEXMTU4Xrw-YZTA  

The world is a chaotic place and events unfold at random every second of every day as we do our best to scramble, adapt, and make sense of it all. Within that chaos, human beings have a deep need for safety and predictability while being hopelessly bad at prediction. Few things exploit these needs more than religion. However, astrology is a pretty close second place. Though I consider myself an expert eye-roller regarding astrological matters, I only recently discovered personality tests exploit the same parts of our silly brains. Thankfully, Dr. Kim Perkins is here to explain why these things are not only completely without any basis in reality but why they're harmful and why we continue to lean into them so heavily. Dr. Kim Perkins is a former journalist and pro athlete. She holds a Ph.D. in positive organizational psychology, an MA in Evaluation and applied research Kim is currently on a mission to help others make sense of this chaotic social era in which we find ourselves, so that we can overcome paralysis and take positive action for ourselves, our communities, and the planet.  She has consulted on organizational change and taught leadership at a wide variety of tech and entertainment companies.  KNOW MORE KNOW LESS PODCAST: For other platforms: Listen here:    Apple:  https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/know-more-know-less/id1652659219   Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2fxCXp5AlfajmcTgvSWSGl?si=87be920940534299   For full episodes and clips:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN4wkMATGEXMTU4Xrw-YZTA  

Losing weight is a topic most of us have had to consider at one point in our lives or another. Perhaps an extra gluttonous holiday season, an amazing vacation with too many pasta dishes, or maybe you have a long commute to work and your car is slowly filling with bagel wrappers. In the developed world, food is beyond abundant and sadly the opportunity for consistent movement is not. On top of that, a trillion dollar diet industry continues preying on people, promising quick solutions to a problem that goes a lot deeper. Enter Dr. Michelle May Dr. Michelle May is a former family physician and recovered yo-yo dieter. She is also the founder of Am I Hungry? Michelle and I discuss the diet industry at large, the role of emotions and environment in our eating habits, and debate the merits of body positivity and honesty. Michelle is the author of the Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat book series that teaches mindful eating to help individuals resolve mindless and emotional eating and senseless yo-yo dieting to live the vibrant life they crave You can find Dr. May's Mindful Eating Programs and Training at www.AmIHungry.com. ---------- KNOW MORE KNOW LESS PODCAST: For other platforms: Listen here:    Apple:  https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/know-more-know-less/id1652659219   Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2fxCXp5AlfajmcTgvSWSGl?si=87be920940534299   For full episodes and clips:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN4wkMATGEXMTU4Xrw-YZTA

Julie Hall's voice is so soothing I can see why her clients keep returning. It must be like having therapy with a YouTube ASMR channel.  Julie is a graduate of New York University, Rutgers Business School and Seattle Pacific University’s graduate family therapy program.   She is Licensed as a Marriage and Family Therapist in both CT and NY and works with students, couples, and families around issues including anxiety, depression, disordered eating, and trauma. Julie and I go in a dozen interesting during our chat but made a few productive stops:  -Different types of therapy methods and what they consist of -Parenting teenagers and smartphone addiction -Regulating the nervous system even with the unfamiliar -Pain and Peace Cycle -Self-talk via the needs of your younger self    -Truth vs. Feelings -Practicing self-compassion to access our authentic self - Different approaches to raising teenagers This was such a fun chat while being a calming deep dive into self-care and parenting concepts.  KNOW MORE KNOW LESS PODCAST: For other platforms: Listen here:    Apple:  https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/know-more-know-less/id1652659219   Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2fxCXp5AlfajmcTgvSWSGl?si=87be920940534299   For full episodes and clips:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN4wkMATGEXMTU4Xrw-YZTA  

Who doesn't like a good story about a Christian leader defrauding his flock and partnering with African dictators to make himself richer?   A story as old as time, really. David Wilcox, author of Protecting Pat Robertson: Confession of a High Priced Bagman shares his insights from his years working face-to-face with one of America's most controversial religious figures.  Pat Robertson founded the Christian Broadcast Network, the 700 Club and, at one point, even had his eye on the presidency.  His controversial opinions were so common and egregious they have their own wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Robertson_controversies  I really enjoyed chatting with David and learning about his innate sense of justice.  He witnessed, over and over, how Pat Robertson misled and betrayed so many good-hearted and faithful Christians who believed in him for so many years.   David's trying to set the record straight and I greatly admire his courage.  To learn more about David and the other books he's written, you can find him and his incredible true stories at:  https://theflimflamchronicles.com/ KNOW MORE KNOW LESS PODCAST: For other platforms: Listen here:    Apple:  https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/know-more-know-less/id1652659219   Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2fxCXp5AlfajmcTgvSWSGl?si=87be920940534299   For full episodes and clips:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN4wkMATGEXMTU4Xrw-YZTA    

When Amanda contacted me about being a guest on the podcast, I remember thinking, "No way," and I had a bit of a fear response.  But ultimately, it reminded me that this is the reason I started KMKL.  To have challenging conversations and help spread messages and voices that I want to amplify. During our widespread chat, I found myself continually inspired by Amanda's transparency, resilience, and drive. Not only in helping other women to reclaim their lives after sexual assault but also to change government policy to protect them better in the first place.  We may not have seen eye to eye on all of her policy ideas, but in the end, I'm grateful for Amanda's honesty and for sharing her story with all of us.  I hope you'll enjoy our chat.  You can buy Amanda's book here: Beyond Survival: How I Reclaimed my Life After Surviving Rape -----------   KNOW MORE KNOW LESS PODCAST: For other platforms: Listen here:    Apple:  https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/know-more-know-less/id1652659219   Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2fxCXp5AlfajmcTgvSWSGl?si=87be920940534299   For full episodes and clips:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN4wkMATGEXMTU4Xrw-YZTA    

This was a super fun conversation I didn't know I needed. Shawn Wickens, NYC comedian and casual stoner/YouTube pseudo-physicist and I discuss all things time travel while dipping in and out of philosophical perspectives on living a good life. Shawn Wickens is a New York City-based futurist, casual stoner and comedian. He co-produces Stoned Laughs, a monthly 420-friendly comedy show in Midtown Manhattan. His most audacious work yet, the 1st edition of the "Time Machine Blueprints" is available on Amazon and at TimeMachineBlueprints.com  ------- KNOW MORE KNOW LESS PODCAST: For other platforms:  Listen here: Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/know-more-know-less/id1652659219 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2fxCXp5AlfajmcTgvSWSGl?si=87be920940534299 For full episodes and clips: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN4wkMATGEXMTU4Xrw-YZTA

I do love me a great conversation about saving the planet, as well as diving into the hypocrisies that exist within the climate change movement.   John was an incredibly knowledgeable guest and I enjoyed seeing how deeply he cares about our collective future. However, by the end of our conversation, I still had to ask him the same question I ask all climate change experts. If all of the data for saving the planet still leads us to one simple truth.... Hope you enjoy our chat!   John Pabon has spent two decades trying to make a positive impact on Earth. After leaving his role at the United Nations, John travelled the world studying the impacts of sustainability first-hand in factories, on fields, and at Fortune 500s.   After a decade of experience living and working in Asia, he founded Fulcrum Strategic Advisors with a mission to help organizations and individuals capitalize on the benefits of sustainability.   John is the Chair of The Conference Board’s Asia Sustainability Leaders Council, a member of the United Nations Association of Australia, and serves on the board of advisors to the U.S. Green Chamber of Commerce.   He is the author of “Sustainability for the Rest of Us: Your No-Bullshit, Five-Point Plan for Saving the Planet” and “The Great Greenwashing: How Brands, Governments, and Influencers are Lying to You.” ----------------------------------------------------     KNOW MORE KNOW LESS PODCAST: For other platforms: Listen here:   Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/know-more-know-less/id1652659219   Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2fxCXp5AlfajmcTgvSWSGl?si=87be920940534299   For full episodes and clips: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN4wkMATGEXMTU4Xrw-YZTA