Christopher Lochhead Follow Your Different™

It’s easy to make the case that we are currently living at the most comfortable time in history. A lot of things are accessible to us with a push of a button. From getting information, entertainment, and even communicating over long distances, there’s an app to solve our problems. Though according to our guest, Michael Easter, we are having a “Comfort Crisis”. According to the US CDC, 73.6% of Americans are either overweight or obese. That said, Obesity is a global problem, with at least 2.8 million people dying from it each year. Our mental health is not exactly doing great either. Nearly 8 in 10 adults say the coronavirus pandemic is a significant source of stress in their lives, as reported by the American Psychological Association. In this episode of Follow Your Different, Michael Easter discusses how we need to be active and outside to have a legendary life. We also talk about how to “embrace discomfort to reclaim ourselves”, and why being hungry is legendary. The Comfort Crisis Michael Easter shares how much more comfortable we are living right now compared to before. You don’t even have to go too far to compare; most of our modern-day comforts didn’t even exist a couple of decades ago. According to Michael, the main issue with all this comfort is that nowadays, getting something you need takes little to no effort. This means have to move around less and being less active. This can lead not only to physical degradation, but mental health problems over time. “We are moving about 14 times less than our ancestors. We spend 95 percent of our time indoors, and spend 11 hours and 6 minutes a day engaging with digital media. So we went from never having these digital media in our lives to now it's essentially become our lives. And that's had consequences for our attention, or awareness, how we spend our time and also our interactions with others. Things have really changed, and we're too comfortable now.” – Michael Easter Changing The Perspective One of the things Michael wants to point out is that we tend to take for granted how good we have it nowadays because we are constantly surrounded by convenience and comfort. We can’t really appreciate them unless there were periods of struggle or challenges to acquire them. It’s like going to your favorite restaurant almost every day compared to only going after a long and tiring business trip. You tend to appreciate it more compared to when you are having the same thing almost every day. “We don't have these moments that push back and are essential. Essentially, what are First World Problems anymore? So I think getting yourself out of your comfort zone in a variety of ways can do that, and give you a little more perspective on your life.” – Michael Easter   Challenge Yourself Michael talks about how children are raised differently nowadays. Some parents only let their children do what they think is best, rather than letting the children experience it themselves. This often leads to mental health issues when they go out into the world. They can’t cope with the daily struggles and challenges because they weren’t allowed to experience them beforehand. Michael explains this concept as toughening. He adds that it is important that we insert real challenges in our lives from time to time. Not only as we are growing up, but even as adults. “In the book I talked about, there's a guy whose name is Marcus Eliot, and he's sort of the foremost sports scientist in the world. He does this concept that he calls Misogi, where once a year, they choose one challenging, truly epic task. The only rules are that it has to be really hard, meaning that you have a 50% chance of finishing it, and number two, you can't die. These are things that are truly out of their comfort zones and so challenging for them. But they learn something about themselves by getting put into position where “Damn, I really want to quit”, and “this is awful”. When he does this with athletes,

As children, most of us had a wide range of interests, ideas, and dreams. We all wanted to do and be a lot of things. Though somehow, Life can beat us up. Sylvie Leotin grew up pursuing those interests and dreams. She did ballet, became a visiting scholar at Stanford's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, and now a Healthcare Entrepreneur. Sylvie also has a deep background in engineering, robotics, artificial intelligence, as well as product marketing and management. She is also a cancer survivor.   As a woman of color who have dealt with cancer, Sylvie has had a front row seat to the racial injustice faced by minorities in the American Healthcare System. So like other legendary missionary entrepreneurs, Sylvie decided to do something about it. She founded a company called Equify Health, and is on a mission to “elevate the experience and outcomes of patients of color in healthcare and medical research”. In this episode of Follow Your Different, we have a very real, very deep, and personal conversation with Sylvie Leotin about empathy, survival, entrepreneurship, and many more. Sylvie’s Mission As someone who has navigated through the American Healthcare System, Sylvie Leotin knew the hardships that a person of color goes through to get proper healthcare. So when the COVID pandemic started, she started looking into reports on mortality rates and such. What she found was heart-breaking. She learned that people of color were dying at higher rates. Upon digging further, she observed that it was not just for COVID or cancer-related ones, but every serious chronic illness. “As a cancer survivor and someone that got a second chance to live, I felt really deeply distraught. I really felt that this is unfair. It really shouldn't be your race, your ethnicity, that is dictating that you have a right to health. So I started to do some research to look into this more deeply.” – Sylvie Leotin  Using Her Setbacks as Motivation When asked why she felt deeply connected to this cause, Sylvie shares that it was probably because she battled cancer and experienced these healthcare issues herself. While she would still be distraught and concerned about these issues regardless, she feels that she wouldn’t be doing all she is doing right now had she not had cancer. “I think cancer took me close to mortality, close to being hopeless, close to feeling the biggest pain that I have ever felt in my life. And I really understood what it's like to be so sick, that you can die of the sickness. I don't think I would’ve understood if I just knew people, or even my family who died of cancer. I think cancer really opened up this huge well of compassion inside me, for the suffering of people in the world, but even more specially for the suffering of people that are affected by life threatening illnesses. And if there is anything I can do to help change that and make some people less hopeless, it will be a life worth living.” – Sylvie Leotin Mission-Driven Entrepreneurship Sylvie talks about how she had the insight on her current mission. As a designer, she can see the things that were poorly designed in the system as she experienced things firsthand. If she can relate it to healthcare providers, it can make a difference for future patients. The opportunity to turn her pain and experience into easing the experience for other people felt transformative for her. While it started as something to improve other cancer patient’s experience, it soon expanded to other serious illnesses as Sylvie saw more of the disparity and how Equify Health can help those in need. “I have witnessed so my first experience was more altruistic. But it was very visceral to go to treatment every day. While I was in the waiting room for a long time, and I was very distraught by the fact that I went to one of the top five cancer centers in the country. I didn't see a single Black patient during my entire treatment, and I knew that this hospital is located less than three miles away fro...

In this episode of Follow Your Different, let’s have a very different dialogue about Sex. It seems like we might be living at a time where the very category of sex is changing, and there are a few megatrends going on. First, we seem to be in what The Atlantic calls a “sexual recession”. The Atlantic reports: “In the space of a generation, sex has gone from something most high school students have experienced to something most haven’t.” It turns out that people in their early 20s are two and a half times as likely to be abstinent. Though it’s not only limited to the younger generation. Even Gen Xers and Baby Boomers are having less traditional sex over the years. The second one is about increased loneliness. According to the HBR, rates of loneliness in the US have doubled over the past 50 years. Nowadays, around 40% of Americans say that they are lonely. The third is about Digital Sex. It has been reported that the porn industry is now worth nearly $100 billion, and uses more bandwidth than Facebook, Amazon, or Netflix. It seems that porn continues to reach new heights with the advent of new technologies and categories: In 2018, a Japanese man spent 2 million Yen on his wedding to an AI hologram. Toronto has opened a new category in the form of Sex Doll Brothels. OnlyFans has seen a spike of creators and registered users since Covid, who are mostly there for adult content. AR and VR sex is on the rise We talk about all this and more with our guests, Amy Baldwin and April Lampert of the Shameless Sex Podcast. They are here for a fascinating, no-holds-barred dialogue about Sex. This is a very frank, descriptive, and dare I say deep conversation. Sex Education Amy and April talk about the current state of sex education in the US. To most families, sex is not a topic that they are comfortable talking with their children. Though there are schools that have sex education classes, it mostly consists of anatomy and topics about abstinence. Most young adults tend to learn on their own, either through their friends, from experience, or from porn. While they do not shun consumption of porn, both think that porn should not be used as an educational tool.    “I think it really depends on where you're growing up. Luckily, we have the internet now. But like April said, there's porn, and we are not anti porn. We are anti porn as a sex educator, unless it's educational pornography.” – Amy Baldwin They believe this is where they come in, to correct misconceptions brought about by bad information or unrealistic expectations people get from hearing stories or watching porn. Shameless Sex Podcast When asked about how open they were when talking on their podcast, Amy shares that they didn’t begin like that. While they do talk boldly and bravely about sexuality in their podcast, it wasn’t the case when they were younger. They also believe that we can all talk boldly about sex if we want to. “I believe we all can speak really openly and boldly about sexuality. Just like with anything, if we practice enough and we want to, (but) not everyone needs to speak the way we do.” – Amy Baldwin “It's normalizing the conversation around sex. I think someone Emily Morris was specifically saying this treating another podcaster in sexuality, she was saying she wants to normalize sex so we can talk about it like it's the weather and I think we do the same thing.” – April Lampert Designing Relationships In the topic of relationships, it is weird how rather than sitting down and talking about it, we just end up having to guess each other’s desires and objectives as we go along. April thinks that it’s because we find it easier to point out what we don’t like rather than honing in on the things we do. “In my opinion, and I know from my experience throughout the course of my life, I was always talking about what I didn't want. I noticed that when I when I speak to folks, they are really great about ‘I don't want this’ or ‘I don't want to fight.

As you know, the United States of America is in a deep, much-needed conversation about race, equality, justice and policing. This was sparked in large part by the killing of George Floyd and now his murder trial. In this very special episode of Follow Your Different, we are honored to bring you this legendary dialogue with one of the most qualified, experienced, and highest-profile law enforcement leaders in America, Dr. Cedric Alexander. You've probably seen Dr. Alexander on stage giving a speech or on television. Yet unlike TV, where you only get a few minutes with him today, we go deep, like you can only go on a real dialogue podcast. This is a very special conversation that you'll surely enjoy. Reimagining Policing According to Dr. Cedric, rethinking policing is not a new thing. They have been thinking of new ways for policing to serve the community and get them involved. He said that they have made significant progress with it under the former President Obama’s directive, as part of the Task Force on 21st Century Policing. Unfortunately, it got shelved as a new administration was ushered in. Though regardless of which administration is in play, police departments and officers have to understand that the times are changing. They might get tired of the community asking for transparency from them, but this is not a bad thing. It only means that the community wants to be involved in ensuring public safety, and they should embrace that.  “Because public safety is only as strong as the public in the police department joined together, police cannot do it by themselves. And the community cannot do it by themselves.” – Dr. Cedric Alexander On Defunding the Police Dr. Cedric Alexander then talks about the calls to defund the police, and how he thinks it is the wrong approach to reimagining Policing as a whole. Police departments need that budget to do the things that solve their cases and carry out their mission to the community. What Dr. Cedric suggests is that the police should be specific on what they have to do for the community, and focus on that alone. Set standards on those specific tasks and duties, and hold them to those standards. As of right now, he believes that people are asking police to do things that they're not trained to do. “We have to really define and be very clear about what we want police to do in our communities, and not take monies away from them. Though they need to find other monies to fund some of these other social service organizations that can get the people who are struggling with homelessness, mental health issues, and domestic issues. You don't take that out of police budgets. You let them have what they need in order to provide good public safety. Hold them accountable to that, with some ways to measure that success.” – Dr. Cedric Alexander The Importance of Community Policing Dr. Cedric goes back to his point on Community Policing, and how important it is to build a great relationship with the community you protect. Since no matter how technologically advanced or highly-skilled your police department is, getting information to solve crimes will be harder when no one in the community is cooperating with you. That's exactly what Community Policing means in its most basic fundamental term. It means that the police and the community have a relationship. It means that both are supportive of public safety in the community. Since at the end of the day, all that authority that comes with the police officers’ job is only as valuable as the community giving them the legitimacy to do it. “I tell police officers this all the time, you've been given the authority by the state. But it is the communities that give you alone your legitimacy, in order to carry out your function. When we have a trusting relationship, and we're constantly working on that relationship, when something happens, we don't separate from each other, we join together to try to find resolve to it.” – Dr. Cedric Alexander

Have you ever wondered what it takes to upend one of the oldest categories ever? To create real, radical innovation and do something that almost everyone in the industry said was impossible? If so, you're going to love this dialogue with our guest, John Spagnola. In this episode of Follow Your Different, John Spagnola talks about how he redesigned an old category and broke through expectations and preexisting ideas in the Spirits category. He is the epitome of a pirate , dreamer, and innovator. John Spagnola is the founder of Ublendit, THE pioneer in custom Spirits category. They create custom blended spirits for hotels, bars, nightclubs, and restaurants so they can have their own unique, custom-branded and blended spirits. Ublendit: Breaking the Fixed Mindset John talks about Ublendit and how he didn’t want it to be just another spirits company. At the time, the formula for making a spirits company was as follows: You build a brand, market it to distributors, and hopefully get your brand into different establishments through said distributors. There were those who commented that while John might start out with this completely new idea he had, he’ll eventually move into the same model eventually. John was having none of it. “The more I go into it, the more I thought: no, you're totally wrong. The way you're thinking about is totally wrong. There are so many angles that we can manipulate here, that you're not even thinking about.” – John Spagnola John has always been into trying new things. Creating something that was game-changing and can disrupt the status quo was the dream. He feels fortunate that his investors shared the same views as he did and were willing to take risks.  Going Against the Grain John further elaborates as to why most spirits companies follow the traditional category model. Eventually, it all boiled down to how big of an investment it can be, that they think it won’t be worth their time. Most of the people who tried having multiple blends end up discarding underperforming ones and just focusing their effort to their best-selling ones. “I kind of understand where people come from for there, but there's all these new, different elements that have opened up to allow us to, to be so versatile.” – John Spagnola John went against the grain and pushed forward with his custom-blended and branded spirits, and have not look back since. Nowadays, there are technologies that allow businesses to blend spirits in smaller scales, much like what Ublendit is doing. Yet John and Ublendit has the distinction of being the trailblazers for the category. Knowing Your Market As a Category Designer, one has to do their due diligence and know what you are working with. Otherwise, how can you change a category to something your target audience cares about? This is exactly what John did by going around and doing research on the target market. He identified what the pain points of various businesses are, and create something new that solves those issues. After doing his market research, he found two major factors that interest people. The first one was price, because they need to make money. The other one was having custom labels to promote their own brand. So John got to work in combining these two factors, and a new category was born. As for his clients, they wished Ublendit was created sooner. “The thing that stuck with me is (he said,) you're giving me goose for $5. He literally said, I wish that I had found you 10 years ago when I started this company. I was like, well, we weren't there yet. We didn't exist yet. He's like, well, now you have us forever.” – John Spagnola To hear more from John Spagnola and how to be a legendary category designer, download and listen to this episode. BIO: John Spagnola is the CEO of Ublendit, LLC. Ublendit is a pioneer in the custom spirts category. They are the first to create custom spirits for hotels, bars, nightclubs, restaurants and special events.

In Hebrew, the name “Mosha” means “Salvation”. That was the name of a 13-year-old boy who was forced into a Nazi concentration camp, and spent the next five years in 18 more. Yet somehow, he lived. In this episode of Follow Your Different, Daniel Gefen shares a real, raw dialogue about his grandfather Mosha, and how he has influenced Daniel’s life and his drive to become a podcasting entrepreneur. You’ll also hear about how Daniel embraces faith, family, and philosophy to guide his life, and how he turns frustration into fascination. Mosha, the Survivor Daniel shares the story of his grandfather, Mosha. Mosha was a survivor of the Nazi concentration camps. He was shot, buried alive, and hanged twice, yet he somehow managed to live on. After the war, Mosha fled to Switzerland. He had no money, no connections, and couldn’t even speak the language. While all he had was himself, he made full use of his talents. He built a farm by himself, and continued to build himself up until he had his own hotel business. Yet even as a multimillionaire hotel owner, Mosha had always strived to live a simpler life. All his focus was on how he could help others be happy. “The reason he opened the hotel wasn't to make money. The reason he opened the hotel was because he wanted to serve people. That's how he lived his life. He lived in a very small little apartment above the hotel his whole life, didn't drive a car, and gave away pretty much almost all of his money to charities.” - Daniel Gefen Giving Voice to Others through Podcasting Daniel talks about how the more recent generations have become too focused on themselves.  While it’s not a bad thing to have some self-love, being too wrapped up with oneself can narrow one’s view. Sometimes, focusing outwardly and living for something or someone else can give you a higher purpose. For Daniel, it was giving voice to those who have long yearned to share their stories through his podcasts. “I kind of feel like my career is all about giving people exposure right through podcasting. My whole career is all about giving people the opportunity to promote and share their stories and get themselves out there on the biggest podcast. Ironically, I feel like I'm doing something that my grandfather couldn't do.” - Daniel Gefen Don’t Lock Yourself in a Should Prison Daniel describes how his grandfather’s past trauma has also affected future generations of the family. One of the affected parties is his father and Daniel's relationship with him growing up. Yet he doesn’t blame his grandfather nor his father for it. Instead of letting things stay as it is, Daniel strived to reach out and build a strong connection with his father. Rather than focusing on what other people should do, Daniel decided to focus on what he could do for them. He also learned to choose what’s best given the situation, rather than hoping for that perfect ending. “I have a mentor, a rabbi, who many times has said to me, “You know, do you want to be right? Or do you want to be happy? You can't always have both. Sometimes you can. But a lot of times, you cannot have both. So what do you want? You get to choose.” ” - Daniel Gefen To hear more from Daniel Gefen and on how his grandfather inspired him to be an entrepreneur, download and listen to this episode. Bio: Daniel Gefen is a serial entrepreneur and founder of Gefen Media Group - a podcast production and booking agency helping clients build a loyal following through the power of podcasting. He is also the host of the top-rated podcast show called 'Can I Pick Your Brain?' which has exceeded over 150,000 downloads and was named top 26 podcasts to listen to by CIO Magazine. He has interviewed over 100 thought leaders, Billionaires and celebrities. In 2017, he was named one of the top 25 most influential influencers and has been featured in dozens of media publications including Forbes Inc, CIO, Influencive, Success Radio and over 70 leading podcasts.

Most leaders want to build a legendary business and be socially and environmentally responsible at the same time. Sadly, many get caught in a false dilemma between doing good in business and doing good in the world. In spite of that, there are companies that strive to do both and continue to prosper to this day. In this episode of Follow Your Different, Dr. Gero Leson shares how Dr. Bronner’s has become the pioneer in the global movement to establish socially just and environmentally responsible supply chains. So if you care about building a long term, successful business that dominates its niche and makes a giant difference in the world, you're going to love everything about this conversation. Having an Impact on the World If you’re looking for a company that has an impact on the world, look no further than Dr. Bronner’s. They have spent 70 years showing everyone that you don’t have to choose just one to maintain good growth. They back up this claim by ranking as the second highest scoring B Corp in the world. Dr. Gero Leson attributes this success to having an authentic brand and being consistent about it all these years. He believes that the causes they address speak to the general public, particularly to people who advocate saving the planet. “There are many other things. Of course, it's the quality of our product, no doubt. But I think it's also the messaging and then the action (we take). It's what we do to have an impact beyond just making soap. I think that package speaks to people, and we have a fantastic team that's all driven by the same vision.” – Dr. Gero Leson Standing the Test of Time Dr. Gero shares his thoughts on how Dr. Bronner’s is still relevant after all these years. Despite having new ideas and products launched, they have stayed true to their desire to have more natural and sustainable products and ingredients in the market. As for their sustained growth, Dr. Gero explains that they don’t focus on it. He knows it sounds like a cliché, but that mindset helped them explore new ideas that others would find risky. “This is not about cashing out, getting a few millions in the bank and then retire and just sit on the board of philanthropic organizations. The Bronners’ and most of our executive team just love being able to make decisions and bring about change, and that drives me alive. This is the biggest fun ever. I could retire, but that would be so boring. It's just so much fun to use your business to bring about change, honestly.” – Dr. Gero Leson Precision and Creativity Nowadays, it is normal to have your Executive offices and your production line separate.  Yet for the longest time, Dr. Bronner’s has kept it all in one place. This leads to a unique contrast of seeing everything work with exact precision, but in an environment driven by everyone’s creativity and individuality.  “It is really fun to watch normal people respond to this. I sometimes bring in the chiefs of our projects and they're very normal people. They come there and they say, “Huh, there's a very interesting, great atmosphere here”. Its a very unique contrast of normality, efficiency, planning and at the same time, you have wildness and independence driving.” – Dr. Gero Leson To hear more from Dr. Gero Leson and his thoughts on building a business that thrives while making a difference, download and listen to this episode. Bio: DR. GERO LESON is Vice President of Special Operations at Dr. Bronner’s, the top-selling brand of natural soaps in North America. After joining the company in 2005, he helped it transition to sourcing all its major ingredients directly from certified fair trade and organic projects. Under his leadership, Dr. Bronner’s has become a pioneer in the global movement to establish socially just and environmentally responsible supply chains. Leson speaks regularly on business, sustainability, fair trade, and regenerative agriculture. He lives in Berkeley, California. Links Website: DrBronner.com

Most people would like to be more creative, and some would like to make a living with their creativity. Though without legendary role models, particularly those who are willing to get real and go deep about their experience, it's hard to learn what it really takes. In today's dialogue with Nasri, you're going to learn about it and a lot more. In this episode of Follow Your Different, it is all about Nasri. His music has been streamed over 4 billion times to date. He's a Grammy Award winning songwriter, producer, and singer who's worked with literally the biggest names in music today. Nasri has won a Grammy Award for his works, including Best Latin Pop Album for his work with Shakira on her record Eldorado in 2017, and Best R&B album for his work on Chris Brown's F.A.M.E. record. His band Magic! released three successful chart-topping albums with RCA Records, and he's probably best known for their international smash hit “Rude”. He also just released a brand-new EP, a solo EP called “Here for You” to much critical acclaim. This is also Nasri’s first podcast experience, so join him and Christopher as they discuss Grammys, working with great musicians, and how to live a creative life. On Nasri Winning the Grammys Christopher starts off with the big one, and asks what it was like winning the Grammys. Nasri shares his thoughts on collaborating with a lot of talented artists and producers in the industry, and the experience of creating Grammy Award-winning songs. He also adds that nowadays, producing music is different than before. It’s normal to see five or more people being credited in one song, and that’s okay. All of it is necessary to create great music. Though it is understandable why some might be confused when they see multiple names in the credits. “Now when you make music, everybody has a little piece of everything. It's kind of confusing when you see four or five names on a credit, or even seven or eight, nine names on a credit of a song. It's confusing to the audience to like “Seven people wrote this song?” No, seven people didn't write the song. Two or three people wrote the song, and then it goes through a process of like, “hey, let's team up with this sound designer”, and they also want a piece of the publishing.” - Nasri   On Creatives Self-Producing Christopher brings up his experience on publications, and on why he chose to self-publish later on. Nasri agrees with the sentiment, and points out that it’s not a bad idea to work with a company first before trying to publish or produce on your own. At the very least, you’ll get some much-needed experience from them first and commit less mistakes when you are on our own afterwards. “I think the beginning stages, if you look at why you may need a publisher, it has made me learn a couple things, you know. To see kind of what the scope of marketing for this medium is, and that's what I went through. In the band Magic!, we were signed to RCA Records, and I was like, “Okay, cool.” When I went now to make my solo project, I felt like I had a pretty good grip of how to market something.” - Nasri He’s also glad that he got into self-production. He talks about how he’s not on other people’s clock but his own, and he take his time and perfect his craft. “I'm in no rush. I own the master. I have nobody telling me in some sort of meeting that is not moving fast enough. That's (part of) what I didn't like.” - Nasri Nasri’s New EP Speaking of producing something, Nasri recently released his new EP, “Here For You”. Nasri talks about how it came to be, and how much fun it was to create. He also got into the finer details and how happy he is with its reception. “So all of a sudden, this whole thing just came together through us just being passionate about it. And some of the stories that in all the years of him making music, this is one of the first times that his wife has actually listened to the music on repeat, you know? Because generally,

Nowadays, people live at a time when discerning what’s right and wrong is getting more complex. As your choices can have profound, long term implications, it’s best to know where your moral compass lies. In this episode of Follow Your Different, Dr. Susan Liautaud talks about Ethics and why it is more than just common sense. She explains why it matters more today, and how to apply an Ethics lens to critical areas of society. This is a fascinating conversation that will matter to anyone who cares about making the world a different place. Dr. Susan Liautaud is the author of the new bestseller, The Power of Ethics: How to Make Good Choices in a Complicated World. She is an Ethics Advisor to major corporations and institutions, and also teaches Ethics at Stanford. She serves as Chair of the London School of Economics and Political Science Council. Why Ethics is Not Common Sense It used to be that people grew up on stories that gave examples of what’s right and wrong. Everything seemed black and white, and the lines in the sand were clear. In today’s world, where information is but a touch of a screen away, these lines have seemingly been blurred. Dr. Susan Liautaud uses media platforms like Facebook or Twitter as examples for this. On one hand, it serves as a tool to connect people together and have lively conversations. On the other hand, there are some that use it to bully people and spread misinformation. “In today's world, you know, good and bad are all mixed. We are in this gray zone and things that can be used for the good like social media. Yet they can also be used for harm, like bullying on social media or spread of disinformation. So I think largely because the world has just gotten so complicated and technology and all the forces driving it aren't really common sense for a lot of people.” - Dr. Susan Liautaud The World is Changing so Fast Christopher shares that for him, changing your opinion on something is not a bad thing. It means that you are open to new ideas and correcting your own. “If you haven't changed your mind lately, how do you know you have one?” - Christopher Lochhead Dr. Susan agrees with this sentiment, and describes that Ethics can be the same way. The things we find ethical or otherwise can be flipped due to recent events or newly-available information. For her, it’s better to be in-the-know rather than to always stick with the old ways. “I think one of the things about ethics that's different today is that the world is changing so fast. The complexity I referred to earlier is evolving so quickly that we need to be monitoring, instead of holding our nose and leaping into a decision and being sure that we're absolutely right. So I don't call it flip flopping. I call it staying grounded in reality.” - Dr. Susan Liautaud Finding Non-Binary Solutions As more people get access to information and the lines between black and white get even more blurred, people’s definition of Ethics changes even further. For Dr. Susan, this is not a bad thing. Her main concern lies with people still looking for binary solutions to solve ethical problems. Dr. Susan explains how people can get stuck behind a yes or no mindset for different situations, which limits their thinking to binary solutions. She elaborates further by using Christopher’s foil board example: “What I would say is, can't we find a solution that is non-binary, other than you can't foil board on a public beach. Maybe you can foil board at certain times of day, in a place where there are only foil boarders who are willing to put themselves at that risk. We get ourselves into this Yes, No, black, white, one side of the wall or the other binary thinking, and we never get to seizing opportunity and mitigating risk.”   - Dr. Susan Liautaud To know more about Dr. Susan Liautaud and how Ethics is not common sense in some companies, download and listen to this episode. Bio Dr. Susan Liautaud teaches cutting-edge ethics at Stanford University and se...

In today’s episode of Follow Your Different, we are joined by Behavioral Ecologist and world-renowned Elephant Scientist, Dr. Caitlin O'Connell. She spent more than 30 years studying animals in their natural habitats. Dr. Caitlin has also taught at places like Stanford and Harvard. She’s got a brand-new book out called Wild Rituals, where she explores 10 lessons animals can teach us about connection, community, and our own humanity. Her book comes out at a time in history when the human race is dealing with some pretty deep existential questions. Dr. O'Connell is here to help us deepen our understanding of ourselves by teaching us all about these legendary animals. Taking Social Rituals for Granted As the pandemic continues to keep everyone socially distant, people have started noticing social rituals and activities that we used to take for granted. Dr. Caitlin talks about the rituals in wild animal societies and how intense each social interaction was, even for something as simple as a greeting.  She further explains that in our current isolation, people have realized the importance of these rituals in our lives, no matter how basic it may have seemed.  “The reason I was inspired to write about rituals in wild animal societies was really just to remind us of how important ritual is in our own lives, and how similar our rituals are to other animals.” - Dr. Caitlin O’Connell Different, But the Same Dr. Caitlin discusses how we as a species have evolved, and how tools like language have accelerated our growth. Yet it is important to remember that everyone came from the same humble beginnings, but took different paths.  She reminds everyone we all evolved this need for ritual for the same purpose, despite the differences we display them.  “It's easy for people to do that because we are the only species that evolved language. Then by that language, suddenly we just accelerated away from the branch on our evolutionary tree. But the thing to remember is that we all came from the same humble beginnings, whether or not we moved in another direction." - Dr. Caitlin O’Connell The Importance of Rituals Dr. Caitlin and Christopher dive into the importance of social rituals, and why we cling to them almost instinctively. Dr. Caitlin shares that inclusion in such rituals makes us feel comfortable and connected.  “Well, rituals are very calming, they're very soothing, they comfort us and, and make us feel connected. They, especially group rituals, when you're doing something as a group, let's say in a marching band or synchronized swimming, or singing with your friends to cheer your team on. They make you feel included and more bonded to the people that you're with." - Dr. Caitlin O’Connell She also explains that as the population grew and society became more diverse, some social rituals have evolved to help identify each other from different groups. Yet as all of these group rituals help people feel bonded to the group, rituals can also lead down a dark path. To know more about Dr. Caitlin O’Connell, as well as the dark path and how we can avoid it as social animals, download and listen to this episode. Bio: Dr. Caitlin O’Connell has been called a modern renaissance creative. She is currently on the faculty at the Eaton Peabody Lab at Harvard Medical School studying elephant low-frequency hearing while also overseeing a non-profit foundation, (Utopia Scientific) promoting the importance of science and conservation. Dr. Caitlin is an award-winning author and photographer and has been studying elephants in the wild for the last thirty years, having written dozens of scientific papers and numerous feature magazine articles and two memoirs about her experiences. She taught creative science writing for Stanford and The New York Times and co-developed the award-winning Smithsonian documentary, Elephant King. Dr. Caitlin is currently developing a new elephant docu-drama, Elephant Crown,