Grey Matter with Michael Krasny

We met with Dr. Louann Brizendine to dive into the under-appreciated "forces within" that drive our behavior, our relationships, and so much of our lives. The founder of the Women's Mood and Hormone Clinic at UCSF, Brizendine wrote several definitive books on the subject, including The Female Brain, The Male Brain, and The Upgrade - How the Female Brain Gets Stronger and Better in Midlife and Beyond, where she reframes the post-menopausal experience as an opportunity to reclaim one's authentic self. Nobel Prize winner Issac Bashevis Singer summarized the paradox we all experience best when asked if he believed in free will by responding, "I have no choice." To what degree are we driven by our hormones? How much do they define our sexuality and our gender? What role does sleep, exercise, nutrition and even pollution play? How do we reclaim the driver's seat while at the same time accepting ourselves and the infinite diversity of those around us? Join us as we uncover real subterranean forces actively at work to varying degrees in all of us.

We met with Angela Glover Blackwell, Founder in Residence at PolicyLink, host of the Radical Imagination Podcast and Professor of Practice at the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley, to reflect on a career dedicated to building a more equitable society. Blackwell believes that authentically rooting oneself in close proximity to the experience of the most vulnerable populations allows one to see how to improve circumstances for everyone. These are unprecedented times with unprecedented threats, but we also see unprecedented engagement and a novel brand of unprecedented "collective leadership" that fuels today's powerful social movements and renewal. Join us to understand her passionate optimism, and hear her four key changes that would lead to meaningful progress towards a better world for all.

We met with Nipun Mehta, the founder of ServiceSpace, to discuss gratitude and generosity. Revealing the how and why of, "giving like a rose that gives away its scent," we were ourselves transformed by the conversation. As a small sampling of the conversation's many gems, we touched on the hierarchy of generosity, and the ability to "throw a better party" when we replace transactions with relationships. Nipun advocated for our own personal experimentation with generosity, knowing that if we listen closely, we may discover wonderful changes happening within ourselves. He explained how gratitude can be regenerative, and reminded us that it emerges from the recognition that we are nestled in so many gifts that we can never reciprocate. This knowledge invites us to pay forward what we can never pay back. Apparently the most valuable resource in navigating this path is to have noble friends who help us find the way through these and many other inspiring insights. We invite you to be our noble friends, and join us on this transformative journey through Thanksgiving and beyond.

Our conversation with celebrated author Isabel Allende in October of 2022 captured what we admire most about how Isabel walks in the world. At eighty years old, Isabel is vibrant and alive, living with purpose and impact. Through the zigs and zags of our conversation, it became clear that she found in her writing a path to self knowledge. From that self knowledge, she cultivated a deep gratitude that serves as the source of her happiness. If you love her work, our conversation provides context and background. If you are not familiar with her work, you'll witness a person of conviction who spent her life peeling back the layers of herself to identify what matters most. Her example is provocative and inspirational. Join us for a conversation through literature, politics, philanthropy, feminism, ritual, marriage, grief, discovery, and story.

We met with Ron Elving, Senior Politics Editor and Correspondent for the Washington Desk at NPR News, on November 11, 2022 to reflect upon the 2022 midterm elections and the state of our democracy. Some of our conversation reflected the specifics of this last week with midterm results still trickling in, but most of what we discussed turned to broader questions of our times: the resilience of democracy, free speech, civic engagement, polling, Russian intervention, disinformation in general, politics discourse, ranked-choice voting, Trump's influence, and the engagement of rising generations of Americans in the political process overall. America faces many challenges. To help us make sense of them, Ron Elving lent us his measured and sober perspectives. He also graced us with his optimistic disposition, and the sense that clearly understanding our challenges enables us to grow stronger.

Michael Connelly's crime novels have sold over 80 million copies. Our conversation delved into his craft and his career to understand how he started writing and to what he attributes his continued success. We revealed how his work pays tribute to the noble work of those who seek justice even though they must venture into the darkness - a darkness that constantly threatens to bring them down and hollow them out. His fiction is a window into this reality, as well as a challenge to our faith in human advancement or even our expectations and beliefs. Join us to learn how he puts this all together to delight and provoke his readers.

Leo Laporte, founder and owner of the TWiT Podcast Network, is an elder statesman of technology and terrestrial radio. In our conversation we wandered down memory lane, reflecting on the influences and turning points of Leo's career, his network and studio, and the industry as a whole. We peek into the future by understanding the past. The day before our recording, Elon Musk closed on the purchase of Twitter, and gave us the opportunity to learn of the checkered history between TWiT and Twitter at Twitter's founding, and now again in Musk's self-nomination as Chief TWiT - a title Laporte has carried since TWiT's founding. We explore the broad evolutions of broadcast TV and radio, social media, podcasting, and advanced technology. We dive into mentors and inspirations, laws versus norms, exciting emergent trends, best practices, using the act of listening to turn interviews into conversations, and more. Join the conversation that leaves us with "Laryngitis in Las Vegas."

Today we find out about the world of cryptocurrency and the crypto economy by speaking with a leading executive from one of the world's fastest crypto exchanges - the first to go public - sometimes described as the Amazon of assets - Coinbase. Emilie Choi is Coinbase President and COO. In our conversation we shed much light onto the rising phenomenon of decentralized finance in the budding era of "Web3," as it has been called - the successor to Web 2.0. We expand our financial literacy of this new and wild world of tokens, blockchain traceability, the merge, regulation, and speculation vs. underlying technological platforms of innovation. Join us.

Our conversation with Susan Jackson - president of the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) - was a fascinating dive into a world that few of us know much about - tuna fishing and conservation. While seemingly esoteric, this episode describes the many facets of a system that strives to conserve shared resources - a particularly challenging task when dealing with sovereign nations and independent companies where there is temptation to cheat. ISSF has built a multi-decades-long reputation for bringing competing stakeholders to the table and collaborating for the benefit of the collective good. As Jackson said in her TED talk, "Our method is broader than our niche." Listen to learn more about this advancement in private sector multilateralism, and to get more back story on our seafood and the health of the oceans.

Dr. Barbach is a celebrated and world-renowned psychologist, as well as an author and a pioneer in the research and the study of human sexuality, intimacy and relationships. We'll focus on the serious considerations that impact health and happiness. We discussed the hallowed ground of both physical and emotional intimacy between couples. This episode is relevant for anyone in a relationship or considering entering a relationship. For most, when all is said and done, sex is less important than safety. Understanding the how and why is essential to healthy relationships. We'll cover all this and more. Join us.