the goop podcast

“To be a helpable person seems counterintuitive,” says Bonnie St. John. “I’m the one-legged black woman. You know, I spent my whole life proving that I could do it all myself.” St. John is the first African American to ever win medals in winter Olympic competition, taking home a silver and two bronzes at the 1984 Paralympics. She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard. Earned a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford. Served in the White House as a director of the National Economic Council during the Clinton administration. “I was such a drive-yourself-until-you-drop person,” she says. Until she learned a different paradigm for high performance—one that was sustainable, with recoveries built in along the way. It’s not about pulling the throttle back, says St. John; when you follow her method, you’re able to do more. She calls it micro-resilience: “little hacks that have a big impact.” And in this episode, we get her favorite strategies and tools for changing pessimistic viewpoints, prioritizing, making decisions, working with others, and just getting it done. (For more, see The goop Podcast hub and St. John’s book Micro-Resilience: Minor Shifts for Major Boosts in Focus, Drive, and Energy.) To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

“We’ve wiped out 40 percent of biology on earth in just fifty years,” says Zach Bush, MD. “And yet that Mother Earth keeps reaching out saying: Are you sure you don't want to keep playing? Because we could have some fun together.” For Bush, the health of our soil microbiome is the single most potent factor determining how healthy—or unhealthy—we are. What makes Bush’s case particularly compelling is the unlikely path he took to realizing it: Bush is a board-certified physician with a background in internal medicine, endocrinology and metabolism, and hospice and palliative care. He thought he’d spend his whole life in academia, until a curveball took him to a nutrition center in rural Virginia. There, everything Bush “knew” about nutrition and the drivers of disease and medicine...broke. Slowly, he began to put together the pieces, which told a new story that felt both surprising and intuitive to him. Today, Bush shares that story, along with the steps we can take to move from chemical farming toward regenerative agriculture, and from a culture of dis-ease toward one of healing.” (For more, see The goop Podcast hub.) To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

“You’ve got to meet people where they are,” says Sally Kohn. “But then you don’t have to leave them there.” Kohn, a TV commentator and columnist, appeared on Fox News representing a liberal point of view for many years—that experience alone taught her a lot about listening, bridging, and ultimately persuading. Before that, Kohn worked for more than fifteen years as a community organizer. And today she’s talking to Elise Loehnen about her incredibly helpful, surprisingly funny book The Opposite of Hate: A Field Guide to Repairing Our Humanity. It’s a conversation that taught us about listening to understand—not to argue—and about getting comfortable with discomfort. It also reminded us that we’re all way more similar than we tend to think we are. (For more, see The goop Podcast hub.) To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

GP hung out at Universal Studios with Oscar-winning actor Lupita Nyong’o as she prepped for the release of her new film Us (written and directed by the talented Jordan Peele). They talked about Nyong’o’s path to the platform she has today: growing up in Mexico and Kenya, her politician-professor father who was in self-exile, Nyong’o’s education (and why getting an Ivy League degree was important to her), landing her role in 12 Years a Slave, the cultural significance of Black Panther. They talked about shame—in the context of women’s sexuality and also the shame of not understanding something. “Ignorance doesn't have to be permanent. It can be momentary,” says Nyong’o. “You have to allow yourself to learn. And it starts with admitting what you don’t know.” Other highlights: the pair’s perspective on how beauty is being redefined in the culture, Nyong’o’s description of the most “dangerous” (in a good way) actor she’s ever worked with, and some critical tips on getting through a scary movie. (For more, see The goop Podcast hub.) To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

“Nothing itself is addictive on the one hand,” says Gabor Maté, MD. “And on the other hand, everything could be addictive if there’s an emptiness in that person that needs to be filled.” Maté is known for his unique perspective on addiction, child development and trauma, and how this stress manifests in the body. He has written several books, including In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, Hold On to Your Kids, and Scattered. In this moving conversation with Elise Loehnen, Maté talks about how early childhood experiences sometimes show up later in life and how we’re all affected by our social, cultural, economic, and relational environments. He also shares from his incredible personal experiences in family and palliative care and ministering to patients in the most drug-addicted district in North America. And he talks about the beauty of medicine—which, he explains, is not about control. (For more, see The goop Podcast hub.) To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Joe Dispenza, a researcher and author, discusses how changing your energy can change your life. He explores the intersection of science and mysticism, emphasizing the power to change thoughts, actions, and feelings. The podcast also touches on supporting women in the workplace, unconscious tendencies, subconscious mind programming, fighting gender-based pricing, and miraculous recoveries in the medical field.

GP caught up with Dax Shepard at his studio and they covered a lot of ground: They talked about the roots of shame and fear, the things that they find triggering, and trying to figure out how to be intentional. They talked about what erodes self-esteem, what is erroneous to self-esteem, and what builds it. They swapped stories: relationship challenges, second chances at intimacy, navigating parenthood and fame. And they kept coming back to vulnerability—how to approach it, how to get comfortable with it, and what they’ve learned in the process. (P.S. On this episode, you’ll also hear a bit from Shepard’s right hand, Monica Padman. And as always, you can see more on The goop Podcast hub.) To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Boston-based clinical psychologist Ellen Hendriksen has become known for helping people through anxiety, which is something she has struggled with, too. Hendriksen wrote a book about it called How to Be Yourself: Quiet Your Inner Critic and Rise Above Social Anxiety. Our chief content officer, Elise Loehnen, asked Hendriksen to share the strategies she’s learned and tested to cope with social anxiety and move from fear and doubt toward authenticity and a genuine comfort with the person you are in the world. (For more, see The goop Podcast hub.) To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

“Dads saved the human race,” says Anna Machin, evolutionary anthropologist and author of The Life of Dad. In this conversation with goop CCO Elise Loehnen, Machin calls us to reimagine the role of the modern father, think differently about sex and gender as they relate to parenthood, and explore what it means to be a family, to be social, to form long-lasting relationships. Machin’s research on the anthropological roots of fatherhood and how fathers evolved to be parent figures has an equally extraordinary impact on men, women, and children—and the potential to change what our communities look like well into the future. (For more, see The goop Podcast hub.) To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

“I never thought you had to be any one way to be a person and to be kind and to learn,” says Erin Brockovich, who continues to redefine what it means to be an activist. The tough news, Brockovich tells us, is that Superman is not coming to save the environment, to clean up our water, to kick harmful chemicals out of our neighborhoods. But here’s why Brockovich is optimistic: We’ve had the power all along to rescue ourselves. We do not need to wait for oversight that does not exist. We simply have to believe that we can, that we should, that we have every right to speak up and speak out. And then we can start small, we can start local, and we can make the kind of big, life-altering changes that Brockovich has helped inspire all over the world. (For more, see The goop Podcast hub.) To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices