Curious Humans with Jonny Miller

Derek Sivers, a minimalist living in New Zealand, talks about topics including his unexpected love affair with Dubai, why nothing we believe is actually true, how he journals for sanity, negotiation skills, creating a 'Making Room', having too much freedom, and why he considers his son his best friend and soulmate.

Show NotesA large part of my personal motivation for creating this podcast — is the privilege of speaking with those who I consider to be elders, those who have lived their lives to the absolute fullest and have stories and insights to share with younger generations about what it means to truly live well.And this conversation with Kevin Kelly turned out to be exactly that. You'll probably want to have a pen and paper handy to take notes, and it was so rich with practical wisdom — in part because that was the subject of Kevin's new book — called 'Excellent Advice for Living'Some of the pieces that resonated most with me were:- How his curiosity and obsession with tinkering & making things paved the way for his later career - Why giving your time away is by far that's the most valuable thing that you can offer- The immense value in designing family rituals and rites of passage- Why he believes that AI will eventually want to have an identity and a name and will act as a forcing function to propel us forward — like children do, to be better than we would have been- Finally, why we should attend as many funerals as possible — and endeavor to become fully ourselves ⏳ Timestamps[00:05:07] Thoreau and the Whole Earth catalog were influential in shaping the interviewee's passion for inventing their own life and stripping down to the minimum to achieve contentment. Thoreau was a mentor and hero while Stuart Brand was a greater influence.[00:09:15] Deep listening means trying to hear what's unsaid, not just focusing on responding. It involves being affected by what's being said, not just hearing it like a recorder. Many people don't truly listen and miss out on understanding.[00:13:08] The worthiest projects take five years to complete, but prototyping is important too, and only one five-year project should be focused on at a time. Anything worthwhile should be accounted for as a five-year project.[00:17:14] Textual content is created as reminders of timeless wisdom from past philosophers and religions. Advice includes putting things back where they were found and deciding not to be outraged for a day. These reminders are short and condensed, meant to be easily remembered and applied.[00:20:50] Invest in a donor appointed fund that grows and can be given to high leverage charities, which teach people to fish rather than just giving a fish. Volunteering and donating time is the most precious thing to give.[00:25:19] Parents celebrate their kids' coming-of-age at 21 with a small ceremony where they cut a symbolic cord, give them their last check, and allow them to drink legally. The event sometimes includes wagers or promises, and kids add their own innovative participation. One child ate paper with advice written on it.[00:30:30] Create family rituals to provide stability, consistency, and a sense of anticipation for children, which will become part of the family identity and provide comfort in adulthood.[00:34:21] The author believes that technology has tendencies that are independent of humans, and that consciousness, sentience, and identity may be inevitable for technology. He thinks that technology may want a name.[00:40:36] The goal is to fully become yourself with the help of others, it's a long process involving constant self-challenge and it's the key to accomplishments. Attend funerals to hear about character over achievements. The question to ask is "who do I want to become?".[00:47:02] AI development will force us to question what we want the AI to be like, as they will carry biases and issues of average humans. It will lead to a discussion of how we can make ourselves better as well.Official Links📚  Order Kevin's book 'Excellent Advice for Living'👋  Follow Kevin on Twitter @kevin2kelly🖥️  See Kevin's homepage and extensive bio — kk.orgConnect + Follow Jonny:🐦  Follow on Twitter @jonnym1ller💌  Subscribe to the Curious Humans Newsletter🫁  Learn more about Nervous System MasteryEpisode Sponsors🌬️  Othership Breathwork App — I've ​written at length about why breathwork is like the operating manual for your nervous system, and I have been highly impressed by the app that the Othership team has created. You can choose between guided daily practices that will up or downshift your state, as well as breathwork journeys that focus on embodiment for cultivating intimacy, athletic performance, or preparing for sleep. Exclusive to Curious Humans listeners, you can get a three-month subscription at zero cost to take it for a spin. ​Claim the three months​🩸 Inside Tracker — One of the things I've changed my mind on in the past year is the value of getting blood panels taken prophylactically — ideally every six months, according to Dr Peter Attia — not waiting until you have a health issue. They recently added hormone testing to their plan, which already includes important markers like ApoB, vitamin D, magnesium, cortisol, and a bunch more (47 biomarkers in fact!) I received some super actionable supplement changes and dietary shifts based on my results and I'm noticing the shifts already. ​Save 20% here​Further Ways to Support the Podcast:🎙️  I use Riverside to record all of my podcast conversations, it's so much better than zoom for podcasting🎧  I also use Transistor to host this podcast, it's fricking awesome, and I would highly recommend.😎  RaOptics make the world's best Blue Blockers – I wear these anytime I'm out of the house after dark, and it makes a huge difference!🤖  I use AI wizardry from Castmagic to help with each episode show-notes + timestamps📹  Want to create a Hollywood-quality home studio? Get in touch with Kevin Shen here & save $500 with code JONNYSENT500OFF

Today I'm speaking with Kyle Kowalski — who might be one of the most well-read humans and certainly most relentlessly curious humans that I've ever met — in fact as he shares in this episode, he believes that his purpose or Ikigai in life is to synthesize lifelong learning that catalyzes human development.As the title of this episode suggests, we nerded out on so many fascinating topics — we discuss how Kyle's crisis and burnout transformed him, discovering the Concept of Intentional Living, how he created Ikigai 2.0, Navigating the Four Stages of Ego Development Theory and how they act like filters of reality, the idea of the Birth Lottery and much much more.Official Time-stamps[00:05:57] "Finding Purpose: How a Crisis Transformed Me"[00:13:57] Exploring the Crisis that Transformed a Life[00:18:44] "Discovering the Concept of Intentional Living"[00:24:47] "Ekigai 2.0: The Evolution of a Viral Meme"[00:28:48] "Phased approach to evolving money mindset"[00:42:02] "Navigating the Four Stages of Personal Development"[00:45:56] "Warren Buffett's Thought Experiment Reveals Life's Lottery"[00:52:01] "The Illusion of Free Will: Liberating Realizations"[00:59:57] "Challenging Modern Myths of Cognition"[01:08:05] "Unlocking the Power of a Synthesizing Mind"Official Links👋  Say hi to Kyle on Twitter🖥️  Check out Kyle's Sloww community 📚  Explore his popular posts + epic book summariesConnect + Follow Jonny:🐦  Follow on Twitter @jonnym1ller💌  Subscribe to the Curious Humans Newsletter🫁  Learn more about Nervous System MasteryFurther Ways to Support the Podcast:🎙️  I use Riverside to record all of my podcast conversations, it's so much better than zoom for podcasting🎧  I also use Transistor to host this podcast, it's fricking awesome, and I would highly recommend.😎  RaOptics make the world's best Blue Blockers – I wear these anytime I'm out of the house after dark, and it makes a huge difference!🤖  I use AI wizardry from Castmagic to help with each episode show-notes + timestamps

This is my second conversation with Anne Laure — I reached back out after I read a powerful account of her transformative experience drinking Ayahuasca 9 months ago and how following this experience, in her words, she is 'not depressed anymore, I quit drinking… And, for the first time ever and truly happy to be alive'.So we do a deep dive into her plant medicine experience she had, her reflections since that experience — as well as why linear goals are inherently fragile as compared to what she calls growth loops, how her relationship to ambition shifted after Ayahuasca, her favourite mental model, liminal vs. liminoid spaces, the importance of metacognition and much more!Episode Timestamps[00:04:05] "The Hyper Focus of ADHD: Blessing or Curse?"[00:12:06] "Leaving Silicon Valley: Finding a New Path"[00:18:26] "Overcoming the Shame of Functional Depression"[00:25:04] "Experiencing Ayahuasca: Effects and Intention Setting"[00:38:45] "Psychedelics Increase Brain Rewiring: Emerging Evidence Shows"[00:47:00] "Mindful Recovery: Checklist vs Listening to Body"[00:49:56] Embracing the Liminal Space: Redefining Ambition.[00:54:19] "The Power of Letting Go of Fear"[00:59:08] "Mastering Growth: The Simple Process of Experimentation"[01:05:16] "Importance of Metacognition for Growth Group Success"Official Links👋  Follow Anne Laure on Twitter👪  Join the NessLabs community or read her top essaysConnect + Follow Jonny:🐦  Follow on Twitter @jonnym1ller💌  Subscribe to the Curious Humans Newsletter🫁  Learn more about Nervous System MasteryFurther Ways to Support the Podcast:🎙️  I use Riverside to record all of my podcast conversations, it's so much better than zoom for podcasting🎧  I also use Transistor to host this podcast, it's fricking awesome, and I would highly recommend.😎  RaOptics make the world's best Blue Blockers – I wear these anytime I'm out of the house after dark, and it makes a huge difference!🤖  I use AI wizardry from Castmagic to help with each episode show-notes + timestamps

This is a powerful conversation with executive coach Brett Kistler — entrepreneur and executive coach who spent much of his life traveling the world full-time as an extreme sports athlete while building a remote software company. Brett also co-hosts the Art of Accomplishment podcast with Joe Hudson, who was a previous guest on this podcast. We unpack many things, including how BASE jumping acted as a hard reboot on his mind and how he uses his emotional inquiry practice to stay alive in extremely risky situations.~~🫁  Last Call for Nervous System Mastery ApplicationsThis episode of Curious Humans is brought to by the one and only 'Nervous System Mastery' ~ which is my flagship 5-week bootcamp designed to equip you with evidence-backed protocols to cultivate calm and emotional regulation.Our third cohort will be running in Spring 2023 ~ and applications are currently open until April 1st. We've had over 400 students complete this training, and many have said that it has been the most impactful thing they've ever done for their personal growth ~ so if you're intrigued at all, you can find more details and apply to join this year's cohort over at nsmastery.com~~🔗 Official Links 🎙️  Listen to Brett and Joe on the Art of Accomplishment podcast 👀   Watch Brett's superb Ignite Talk 🖥️  Check out Brett's offerings on his website 👋  Find Brett on Twitter @airkistler

This is a special episode with Daniel Thorson — who I initially came across through his super podcast called 'Emerge'  and later learned that he was living as a full-time monastic at the Monastic Academy in Vermont — where after a series of conversations, he persuaded me to come and sit for a 10-day retreat — which I just returned from myself recently.I found this was an immensely rich conversation, and I'm grateful to Daniel for opening up about some of the experiences he had recently during 73 days of solitude and silence (which he described as the most profound experience of his life) — during which he had some brushes with insanity but emerged (no pun intended) on the other side with some very hard-won insights to share.~~🫁  Apply for Nervous System Mastery 🫁This episode of Curious Humans is brought to by the one and only 'Nervous System Mastery' ~ which is my flagship 5-week bootcamp designed to equip you with evidence-backed protocols to cultivate calm and emotional regulation.Our third cohort will be running in Spring, 2023 ~ and applications are currently open until April 1st. We've had over 400 students complete this training, and many have said that it has been the most impactful thing they've ever done for their personal growth ~ so if you're intrigued at all, you can find more details and apply to join this year's cohort over at nsmastery.com🔗 Official Show Notes 🔗 💬  Find Daniel on Twitter @dthorson🏛  Learn more about the Monastic Academy🎙️  Listen to Daniel's powerful conversation with Soryu Forall on Emerge🎙️  Link to Buddhist Geeks podcast mentioned by Daniel

Dr. John Churchill spent 15 years training and teaching “Great Seal” meditation in an Indo-Tibetan lineage and is a founding member of the Integral Institute led by the well-known philosopher, Ken Wilber. Over the last 25 years, John has developed his style of practice — an integrated Fourth Turning path — that weaves together somatically based contemplative practices that integrate psychodynamic healing, adult development, and meditation.  This was an incredible conversation that touched on how 'trauma fuses our awareness to our attentional system', his views on how to integrate plant medicines and psychedelics into this work and what he calls the 'fundamental interior science breakthroughs'.🫁  Apply for Nervous System MasteryThis episode of Curious Humans is brought to by the one and only 'Nervous System Mastery' ~ which is my flagship 5-week bootcamp designed to equip you with evidence-backed protocols to cultivate calm and emotional regulation. Our third cohort will be running in Spring, 2023 ~ and applications are currently open until April 1st. We've had over 400 students complete this training, and many have said that it has been the most impactful thing they've ever done for their personal growth ~ so if you're intrigued at all, you can find more details and apply to join this year's cohort over at nsmastery.com🔗 Official Show Notes🧘  Learn more about John's 250hr Planetary Dharma meditation training via Samadhi Integral✨  Work with John and Nicole on their upcoming psychedelic dharma program

This is a slightly different type of episode — in which my friend Christofer interviewed me for his superb DO EXPLAIN Podcast. I enjoyed the conversation so much that I decided it was worth releasing here as well. This is one of the deepest dives I've done on all things related to emotional fluidity, and various modalities for working with somatics and finding wholeness. Christofer was such a superb conversational partner and I hope you enjoy this as much as I did.🔗 Official Links🎙️  Subscribe to Christofer's awesome podcast Do Explain🫁  Learn more about Nervous System Mastery💬  Follow Christofer on Twitter

My brother Alex Olshonsky ~ aka. "Olo" ~ is a dear friend. We've spent time together in Guatemala, and he is fast becoming one of the most prominent voices on addiction and the psychedelic renaissance.  We dive into Olo's personal story of breaking free from his proclivity to taking a cocktail of narcotics whilst working in high-growth tech startups ~ and his powerful journey navigating his addiction.We discuss concerns, risks & hopes for the rise of entheogens ~ what he learned from spending time with the Shipibo indigenous lineages, how we both got a little 'messed up' from studying post-modernist philosophy, navigating the 'woke, anti-woke culture wars' his definition of false urgency + socially acceptable addictions, unpacking the modality of Hakomi ~ a lesser-known method of somatic psychology & much more.~~🫁 Episode Sponsor // NSMThis episode of Curious Humans is brought to you by the one and only 'Nervous System Mastery' ~ which is my flagship 5-week bootcamp designed to equip you with evidence-backed protocols to cultivate calm and emotional regulation.Our third cohort will be running in Spring, 2023 ~ and early bird applications are open. My sense is that if this conversation resonates with you then you'd likely be a great fit for our upcoming cohort.This curriculum represents my attempt to distill everything that I've learned in recent years about how to create the conditions for our nervous system's flourishing & previous students have shared how partaking not only improved their sleep and quality of relationships but also tap into deeper states of joy, clarity, and confidence in their lives.We've had over 400 students complete this training and many have said that it has been the most impactful thing they've ever done for their personal growth ~ so if you're intrigued at all you can find more details and apply to join the Spring cohort over at nsmastery.com.~~🔗 Official Links📝  Alex's Writing & Coaching ~ Deep Fix💬  Find Alex on Twitter 🍵  Natura Care Program ~ link

Today's guest is Daniel—who goes by the name of 'Grimhood' on Twitter. I've been a subscriber to his Patreon account for a while and was so impressed with his immensely well-researched and in-depth that blended his knowledge of pharmacology with indigenous systems of medicine.In this conversation, we unpack a handful of these protocols that he shares, including a deep dive on all things Magnesium, why so many of us are deficient in it, why you're almost certainly not getting enough and how to dose correctly. Then we dive into his protocol for dealing with OCD and anxiety, the importance of seeing sunrise and sunset daily to set the circadian rhythm and much more.Just a heads up that this episode does get into the weeds with a lot of detail, but if you'd like the summary of Daniel's protocols, I recommend finding his Patreon page linked in the show notes and finding his in-depth resources there.🔗 Links💊  Find Grimhood on Patreon💬  Follow Grimhood on Twitter @Grimhood🫁 Episode Sponsor // NSMThis episode of Curious Humans is brought to by the one and only 'Nervous System Mastery' ~ which is my flagship 5-week Bootcamp designed to equip you with evidence-backed Protocols to Cultivate Greater Agency Over Your Physical, Mental & Emotional State. The 2023 cohort will be running in April. My sense is that if this conversation resonates with you, then you'd likely be a great fit for our upcoming cohort.This NSM curriculum represents my attempt to distil everything that I've learnt in recent years about how to create the conditions for our nervous system's flourishing & previous students have shared how partaking not only improved their sleep and quality of relationships but also tap into deeper states of joy, clarity and confidence in their lives.We've already had over 300 alumni, and places will be limited ~ so if you're intrigued at all, you can find more details and apply to join next year's cohort over at nsmastery.com