The You Project

If you suffer from migraines, or you know someone who does, please listen to this episode (or get them to). I don't want to spoil the show, so I'm going to opt for "less is more" but the I think the information, insight, and science that Gillespo downloads in this chat could - for some people - be life-changing. The only story l'll share here is that Gillespo's wife - who experienced multiple debilitating migraines every month over the course of her entire life - made one simple change (no drugs) in 2014, and since that time, has not had one single migraine (zero!) in eleven years. Obviously, people can respond differently to the same 'treatment' but there is also some amazing recent research (which we discuss) from The British Medical Journal which aligns with Gillespo's hypothesis. Enjoy.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is a fascinating conversation with a bloke who has experienced some of the 'hardest' days at the office, conceivable. Grant Dooley was posted to Jakarta during the mid-2000s, one of Indonesia's most turbulent periods, where he survived the terrorist bombing of the Australian Embassy, was a first responder to the Garuda plane crash, and worked through the aftermath of the Boxing Day tsunami - along with major diplomatic incidents like the Bali bombings, the Schapelle Corby case and the arrests of the Bali Nine. Throughout it all, Grant and his wife Kristan (also a DFAT consular officer) had to keep it together - not only for themselves and their jobs, but for their young family. But the years in Jakarta took their toll on Grant and, diagnosed with PTSD after his service in Indonesia, he began to write journal entries, in an attempt to process his trauma. Those initial writings have now been turned into a book; Bomb Season in Jakarta. It’s Grant's up-close-and-personal account of his Indonesian posting, raising the lid on the personal side of diplomatic service. I think you'll enjoy this.Book: Bomb Season in JakartaSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Of course I'm going to love a guest who wrote a book called "Let's Talk Shit." This chat with world-renowned gut health, microbiome expert and let's be honest - poo-ologist - Dr. Sabine Hazan, was eye-opening. Among other fascinating things, we spoke about Autistic identical twins, who were both nonverbal and aggressive, who had identical elevated harmful microbes. After targeted treatment (faecal transplants) to restore their microbiomes, these twins, now 7, are fully verbal and non-aggressive. Dr. Hazan emphasizes: "The microbiome is the key. These microbes travel from the gut to the brain via the vagus nerve, influencing behaviour.” If you're not up for poo talk, definitely don't listen. Lol.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Failure is such an interesting concept. One person's failure is another person's lesson. One person calls their 10k race time a failure, someone else calls it a PB. John considers his return on investment (ROl) a disappointing outcome, Sally sees it as a nice gain. Failure is a construct. An idea. A story we tell ourselves. An interpretation. It's not an objective reality; it's a human-made category. An outcome happens, and we decide - based on our expectations, values, and cultural narratives - whether to call it "failure" or something else. This is a conversation about that. And more.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You and I are creatures of habit, good and bad. We don't always do things because they 'work', we do them because we did them Yesterday. Last week. Month. Year. We do them because, we're sleepwalking through (parts of our) life. We do them because they're familiar, not effective. Because our parents did them, so now we do. We do them because they are habits we unconsciously adopted, not actions we consciously chose. And then one day, we find ourselves trapped in a psychological, emotional and behavioural operating system that keeps us in holding pattern of... blah. Not optimising our time, talent, creativity, intellect or genetic potential. This is a chat about waking up. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This conversation was a roller-coaster of humour, information and emotion, as well as a convergence and divergence of ideas and perspectives. What I love about TYP, is that it's not an echo chamber of ideologies and opinions. With these chats, the goal is not agreement or alignment, or feel-good conversational fairy floss but rather, critical thinking, authentic conversation and maybe a few lightbulb moments. These was plenty of laughter and silliness in this episode, but there were also some moments where I put down the funny stick and got a little serious about things that matter to me (and l'm sure, some of you). As always, Patrick and Tiff, were great (but that f***ing Craig, he can get a little intense). Enjoy.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bobby drops some gold in this chat, including the idea that we're not rational beings but rather, rationalising beings. Love it. We chat about the different kinds of intelligence, being controlled by our beliefs (even the sh*t ones), anger alchemy, psychological safety, the happiness scam, the expectation-disappointment correlation, people who are bothered by your success, understanding someone else's thinking, frenemies, when logic isn't logical and lots more. Enjoy.theselfhelpantidote.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

TYP's Chief Investigative Reporter (I just gave her that title - I better get her a badge), Kelly Smith, is back investigating like a mo-fo and as always, doing a deep diving into how humans (those weird creatures) work. Among other things, we speak about why aiming to be a '4' (out of 10) can be a good idea, the potential benefits of consciously choosing pressure, how to get the wheels turning when we feel overwhelmed (where to start) and lots more. Enjoy.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is my favourite episode with Dr. Sam Casey, and we've done quite a few. This time around we explore psychological flexibility, healing vs. recovery, the relationship between shame, self-loathing and guilt, why some psychological assessment tools and protocols can be problematic (aka kind-of-bulls**t), healing vs. recovery, self-awareness and self-regulation, and we even speak about the potential comparative therapeutic benefits of medicinal vs. behavioural protocols (for eg. a drug for anxiety vs. time in nature or spooning a puppy). This was fun. Woof. Enjoy.drsamcasey.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sometimes it's hard to find clarity about exactly what we want. Especially when there are so many things that we haven't done, tried, seen, been educated in, or even know about. We might realise that the thing we're currently in the middle of (career, situation, circumstance, relationship, operating system, exercise routine, lifestyle, etc.) isn't exactly blowing our metaphoric socks off, but at the same time, we don't really know what will. With that in mind, sometimes it's a good idea to do some 'anti-goalsetting'; a process whereby we identify the things we're sure don't want in, or for, our lives.theselfhelpantidote.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.