The FitMind Podcast: Mental Fitness, Neuroscience & Psychology

Dr. Tucker Peck is a meditation teacher, clinical psychologist, and founder of Drugfreesleep.com. He holds a PhD in Clinical Psychology with a focus on the scientific study of meditation’s effects on the mind, brain, and body. Tucker began training in meditation in 2005 and has studied with Sharon Salzberg of the Insight Meditation Society and Dr. John Yates of Dharma Treasure, a previous guest on The FitMind Podcast. Tucker was awarded a research grant from the Mind and Life Institute, which he has used to study the effects of meditation on the sleeping brain. FitMind Neuroscience-Based App: http://bit.ly/afitmind Website: www.fitmind.com

Donald Hilton, MD is a neurosurgeon and internationally recognized expert on the neuroscience of pornography. Dr. Hilton is currently listed in Best Doctors of America and serves as a clinical associate professor in the Department of Neurology at UT Medical School. He graduated summa cum laude with a degree in biology from Lamar University and cum laude with a medical degree from UT. In this episode, we discuss the magnitude of the porn problem, the neuroscience of porn addiction, and potential solutions to the issue on both personal and society-wide levels. Explicit Content Warning: Includes detailed descriptions of pornographic acts. FitMind Neuroscience-Based App: http://bit.ly/afitmind Website: www.fitmind.com

Sean Fargo is the Founder of Mindfulness Exercises, where he has taught meditation to some of the top executives in the world at companies like PG&E, Reddit, and DocuSign. Sean is a meditation instructor at Google and advisor to technology startups like Elevate Labs and WellBrain.io. He was formerly a Buddhist monk for two years and worked at the famous Spirit Rock Meditation Center with Jack Kornfield and other world-renowned meditation teachers. In this episode, we talk about how he went from being an international businessman to becoming a monk with no possessions, the details of his training as a monk, why he decided to leave and reenter the western world, and how to deal with difficult emotions. FitMind Neuroscience-Based App: http://bit.ly/afitmind Website: www.fitmind.com

Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor is a neuroanatomist with the 7th most viewed TED talk of all time, titled "My Stroke of Insight." She's been named by Time Magazine on a list of the 100 most influential people in the world and was the first guest on Oprah's SoulSeries show. Dr. Taylor founded the nonprofit Jill Bolte Taylor Brains, Inc. and is the national spokesperson for the Harvard Brain Tissue Resource Center. She received a PhD with postdoctoral studies at Harvard Medical School in the Departments of Psychiatry and Neuroscience. She's also the author of the bestselling book My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientists' Personal Journey. In this episode, we talk about the brain hemorrhage that led to her stroke of insight and one of the most viewed TED talks of all time, her tips for taking control of our brains, how to switch from doing mode to being mode, becoming your best self, and how consciousness works. FitMind Neuroscience-Based App: http://bit.ly/afitmind Website: www.fitmind.com

4x USA Memory Champion Nelson Dellis tells us how to remember (and forget) anything. Nelson Dellis is an American memory champion, mountain climber, and consultant. He has won the USA Memory Championship four times and is an official Grandmaster of Memory (for which you must: memorize 1,000 random digits in one hour, memorize the order of 10 decks of cards in 1 hour, and memorize the order of one deck of cards in less than two minutes). Nelson runs a nonprofit, Climb 4 Memory, which helps combat Alzheimer's disease, co-founded Memory League, and authored Remember it!. As a memory athlete, he has broken several memory records, including memorizing a shuffled deck of cards in 63 seconds and memorizing 339 digits in 5 minutes. Nelson has been featured in documentaries, programs, and shows like Today, The Dr. Oz Show, and Nightline. In this episode of The FitMind Podcast, we discuss how memory works, tips for improving your memory, creating a memory palace, how to learn a language fast, speed reading and how to remember what you read, the future of brain training, his favorite brain foods, and how to forget bad memories. FitMind Neuroscience-Based App: http://bit.ly/afitmind Website: www.fitmind.com

Michael Taft is a meditation teacher, bestselling author, and podcaster. He teaches meditation at top tech firms like Google and is a core faculty member of Wisdom Labs in San Francisco and an official advisor to the Therapeutic Neuroscience Lab. He has served as editor-in-chief of Being Human and long-time editorial director of Sounds True. Having meditated in various traditions and techniques from Zen temples in Japan to yogi caves in India, Michael has a ton of experience (over 35 years) in training his mind. He also interviews top teachers on his popular podcast Deconstructing Yourself. In this episode, we talk about Michael's journey to the east and through advanced meditation practice, worldviews and frameworks for understanding the mind and meditation, the trials and potential pitfalls of adapting ancient methods for a modern context and the future of meditation in the West, and his general advice for finding the right meditation practice and refining it And if you enjoy this podcast with Michael, which I think you will, then I encourage you to check out his books The Mindful Geek, Nondualism, and Ego. FitMind Neuroscience-Based App: http://bit.ly/afitmind Website: www.fitmind.com

Tal Ben-Shahar, PhD taught the most popular course in Harvard history and helped give rise to the positive psychology movement with his research into happiness. He lectures and consults globally for multinational corporations, Fortune 500 companies, and educational institutions and has appeared on major television, like The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Tal is also the Co-Founder of Potential Life, a company that provides leadership programs based on the science of behavioral change to organizations, schools, and sports teams around the world. Tal has a PhD in Organizational Behavior from Harvard University and has authored six books including international bestsellers Being Happy and Happier, which have been translated into 25 languages. This episode of The FitMind Podcast, as you might've guessed, is all about happiness. We talk about the hamburger theory of happiness, Tal's counterintuitive tips for finding true happiness, the most common misunderstanding about happiness, the #1 predictor of happiness, how to implement these methods and experience happiness during the COVID-19 pandemic, the relationship between wealth and happiness, what we can learn from the happiest countries in the world, and two things Tal would change about our society to help us lead happier lives. FitMind Neuroscience-Based App: http://bit.ly/afitmind Website: www.fitmind.com

Dr. Tamara Russell is a clinical psychologist, martial artist (with a black belt in Shaolin Kung Fu), and neuroscientist. She's the Director of the Mindfulness Centre of Excellence in London and a visiting lecturer at King's College London in the Neuroimaging Department of the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience. Dr. Russell's clinical and academic research explores the link between movement, mind, and the brain. She practices and teaches Kung Fu, Tai Chi, Qigong, and other martial arts. Dr. Russell holds a BS in Psychology, a Masters in Neuroscience, a PhD in Psychology, and a Doctorate in Clinical psychology. She is also the author of two books: What is Mindfulness? and Mindfulness in Motion. In this episode, we talk about Dr. Tamara Russell's martial arts training in Shaolin kung fu, spotting mental patterns, using western psychology and neurocognitive models to understand eastern practices, the relationship between the brain and consciousness, transpersonal and clinical psychology, neuroscience research into meditative states, and the challenges with bringing eastern techniques into a western secular context. This is a very timely conversation given the current pandemic and her applicable system called Body in Mind Training (BMT), which blends neuroscience, martial arts, and mindfulness. FitMind Neuroscience-Based App: http://bit.ly/afitmind Website: www.fitmind.com

Michelle Zellner is the Founder of Better Beings and the author of The YOU Revolution. She's a former competitive gymnast and holds a Master of Science in Kinesiology, which has helped inform her work as a wellness coach and personal trainer. Michelle's company Better Beings hosts corporate workshops, retreats, and other programs for promoting wellness and motivation. In this episode, we talk about behavioral change, starting with "why," how to think about nutrition for an optimal mind, and integrating different lifestyle factors for general wellness. FitMind Neuroscience-Based App: http://bit.ly/afitmind Website: www.fitmind.com

Dr. Steve Taylor talks about self-transcendence and peak experiences (terms famously coined by Maslow) and gives a psychological view of what causes them to occur. Steve is an author and psychologist who comes highly endorsed by leaders like Eckhart Tolle. He is a senior lecturer in psychology at Leeds Beckett University and the author of several bestselling books on psychology and self-transcendence. He is the current chair of the Transpersonal Psychology Section of the British Psychological Society. His books have been published in 20 languages and include Waking From Sleep, The Fall, Out of the Darkness, Back to Sanity, The Calm Center, and The Leap. His latest book is Spiritual Science: Why Science Needs Spirituality to Make Sense of the World.  Steve's research has appeared in The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, The Journal of Consciousness Studies, The Transpersonal Psychology Review, The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, as well as the popular media in the UK, including on BBC World TV, The Guardian, and The Independent. In this episode, we talk about the science behind self-transcendence, a term used by psychologists to describe peak experiences but also enduring states of what some call "awakening." Steve has extensively researched what causes this to happen and also draws upon his personal experience to give a pretty incredible account of what the mind is capable of and how we might improve our chances of experiencing the world in this way. And if you stick around for the end, Steve shares some powerful poems from his book that express his own experience of self-transcendence. FitMind Neuroscience-Based App: http://bit.ly/afitmind Website: www.fitmind.com