The SuperHuman Academy Podcast

Greetings, SuperFriends! Today we are re-joined by Dr. Greg Wells, a scientist, broadcaster, author, coach, and athlete. You might know him as an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto where he studies elite performance or where he serves as a Senior Scientist in translational medicine at The Hospital for Sick Children where he actually leads the Exercise Medicine Research Program. You might also remember that we had Dr. Wells on the show where we talked about elite athletic performance and his book, The Ripple Effect. But, today we are not going to talk about all of that, or any of that really. We're actually going to talk about something I've become obsessed with, and that is digital distraction. Some of you folks might know that I've put out posts in the past such as "The #1 Productivity Hack That I Accidentally Discovered" and I've talked with folks like Steven Kotler and many more about the effects of digital distractions, and how they are literally wrecking our brains. Well, in this conversation, we go into that. We start understanding why it is that you need to pay so much attention, why it is a much bigger deal that you think it is and what you can do about it to prevent damaging your brain and screwing up your entire productive life. And no, I'm not exaggerating. This is a great episode, and I think you folks are really going to enjoy it! -Jonathan Levi

Greetings, SuperFriends! Today we are joined by a personal friend of mine that I have met through Genius Network, the MasterMind that I recently joined and raved about. His name is Joel Weldon. Joel Weldon is a former construction worker, who turned down a 4-year college scholarship because he thought he wasn't smart enough. Nevertheless, he went on to become living proof of the power of one idea. And that one idea will transform your life. For over 40 years, Joel has been one of the most highly respected and sought-after keynote speakers and sales trainers in North America. He has been an idea consultant and executive speech coach for some of the world's leading business. Companies that hired him 4 decades ago are still hiring him today! Why? Because he gets results. Joel, by the way, is the only speaker to have earned all 4 of the highest honors in the speaking profession. Those are The Golden Gavel, “for his profound impact on corporate America,” the coveted Communication & Leadership Award, the induction into the Speakers Hall of Fame, and in 2006 he was named the Legend of the Speaking Profession. As I said Joel is an incredible guy, and at 76 years old you are going to see just how much energy and vitality he has about speaking and about everything else. About living life to its fullest. I really enjoyed the talk because we discussed what I believe is another exponential skill. We've talked about exponential skills as memory and writing before, but Joel firmly believes with every fiber of his being that public speaking is another extension of that exponential skill set. I totally agree, as my career is certainly proof of that. So, we talk about that, and we also talk about how everyone and anyone can and should become a better speaker. We actually covered some things that even I, someone who has been a public speaker for over half a decade, didn't know. In the episode, Joel gives me some incredible feedback that I'm sure you folks are going to benefit from as well. It's a great episode, and I think you folks are really going to enjoy it! -Jonathan Levi

Greetings, SuperFriends! Today we are joined by Daniel Gefen, whom you may have seen before in Inc, Forbes, CIO, or Influencive. Daniel is a number one international best-selling author, and one of the top 25 influencers of 2017. He is also a serial entrepreneur and the author of The Self Help Addict. Beyond these, Daniel is the founder of the Gefen Media Group, he is a big name in podcasting, and, obviously, in self-help. He was actually introduced to me by a mutual friend of ours that I admire very much, Cameron Herald, and it turns that we live not very far apart here in Israel. We are both living the global lifestyle and living in our country of choice rather than our country of birth. In this episode, we talk about entrepreneurship, but we also talk about something that we haven't talked about on the show before, which is self-help addiction. This is the tendency we all have to listen to another podcast and read another book, and then take another online course and go to another meetup, without actually doing anything with the knowledge. Always chasing that next high, that next piece of information that's going to change our lives. I definitely identified with it, I definitely saw myself in a lot of what Daniel said, and I definitely think that there is something to consider here for all of us who are addicted to self-help, which is how much we are actually implementing versus just chasing the next thing. I think you guys are really going to enjoy the episode, I definitely learned a lot myself. -Jonathan Levi

Greetings, SuperFriends! This week we are joined by another SuperFriend that I made out there in the real world, someone who I really bonded with when I met them. His name is Sachin Patel. Sachin is a functional medicine practitioner who runs the institute called The Living Proof Institute. He actually started his career out as a chiropractor, but has since then become a father, husband, philanthropist, functional medicine practice success coach, international speaker, and best-selling author. His philosophy, as you guys will learn, is that "The doctor of the future is the patient". And he's actually going to explain exactly what that means and how he and his company are putting that into practice and into reality. I really enjoy every conversation that I've had with Sachin, because he has really done the necessary work and he really has the knowledge. He knows much more than many medical doctors out there, and, in this episode, we share our passion for geeking out and optimizing on the human body. You will definitely see that within the first few minutes of the conversation. We actually dive quite deeply into the topic. We talk about all the different kinds of testing, we talk about functional medicine and who it's right for, and we talk about his favorite ways to optimize the human experience, which, you know, is what this whole show is about. I really enjoyed this episode as you can tell. I'm energized and pumped up, and I'm sure that you will be too, after listening to it. -Jonathan Levi

Greetings, SuperFriends! Today we are joined by Cédric Waldburger. Cédric, to whom I was recently introduced by a very good friend, is originally a Swiss national, who today travels the world all year round and lives with only 64 things in his possession! Cédric is passionate about startups. and thus he is a serial entrepreneur, an investor, and a blockchain enthusiast. He is currently working on a number of different startups, including DFINITY, a venture-backed blockchain startup, and another one, that you are going to hear about, that I think is equally as interesting. Cédric has also co-founded a number of businesses around the world from Zurich, New York, Paris, Hong Kong, London, and Berlin, and he's held roles in the technology management side for the better part of 2 decades. He is all about growing business, but that's actually not what we spend the majority of the conversation talking about. What we talked about for 80% of the time was the level to which Cédric optimizes and deliberately thinks about his life and the way that he is living it. He is deliberate about everything he owns, about everything that he does, and also about everything that he thinks and feels. I think it's a really fascinating approach to life, and I love the message at the end of the podcast, where he explains what the point of it all is, and why he puts so much effort into leading the perfect life. I think you guys are really going to enjoy this episode, as I certainly did. As I said, Cédric has quickly become a personal friend of mine, and I think that you guys are very quickly going to understand why. -Jonathan Levi

Greetings, SuperFriends! Today we are joined by Susan Peirce Thompson, Ph.D., who is an Adjunct Associate Professor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the University of Rochester. But Susan is also better known for being an expert in the psychology of eating. She is the author of the New York Times bestselling book Bright Line Eating: The Science of Living Happy, Thin & Free, she is president of the Institute for Sustainable Weight Loss, and the founder and CEO of Bright Line Eating Solutions. This is a lot of stuff. Susan and I had an incredible conversation about some of the cutting-edge research that she’s been doing. We also talked about her past experiences, dealing with drug addiction and then dealing with obesity. We talked about the psychology and the neuroscience behind the food that we eat and the not-so-food that we eat, and how it is setting so many people up for failure. And then we talked about some other very interesting things. I definitely learned some stuff that I’m going to apply in my daily life, and I think you guys will as well. If you love this episode, go ahead and send us a tweet and let us know what you think, or comment below! -Jonathan Levi

Greetings, SuperFriends! Today we are joined by one of my personal heroes, someone whose work I've admired for years, and someone who has really shaped my thinking on a lot of different topics, ranging from A.I., Elon Musk, and electric cars, to the history of the universe and space travel. You are probably wondering who that guy is, that writes about so many different things. Well, his name is Tim Urban, and he is the creator and writer/illustrator of Wait But Why, where he writes very in-depth posts on a wide range of topics from procrastination to A.I. It's really an incredible blog. You probably know Tim because of some of his mega-viral posts, like his post on why Generation Y is unhappy, or his Ted Talk on procrastination. But, you might have recently learned about him because he actually got the opportunity to hang out with one of his most famous readers, Elon Musk. Tim spent time following Elon around, just learning about everything that he could through him, and then creating posts out of it. So, he had more access to Elon Musk than most people. You'll see in the interview the amazing insights that he has about what makes Elon Musk successful, and, of course, how you can emulate that success. By the way, his blog started in 2013, and now it has almost 600.000 email subscribers with over 1 million people visiting the site every single month. Incredible. I was really excited to interview Tim, and an incredible episode came out of it. He has so many unique insights about writing, about procrastination, and, of course, about Elon Musk. I know you guys will enjoy this episode, and if you do, please make sure to share it.

Greetings, SuperFriends! Today we are joined by Brad Lambert. Brad is a Hollywood movie producer. You've probably seen some of his work if you've seen any of the stuff that Warner Brothers or Robert Downie Jr. have been doing recently. Brad has a very interesting story that we're gonna get into in today's show. He started his career at 16 years old, today he is only 29, and yet somehow he has managed to work his way into the inner circles of some of the world's top athletes, brands, actors, and actresses. I wanted to understand how. You folks know that I'm so interested in relationships and how to actually build strong and authentic ones. I really think it is one of the SuperHuman skills that has put me where I am today, and I'm not even that good at it. So, when I meet someone like Keith Ferrazzi or Brad Lambert, who are able to build these incredible powerful relationships from a place of authenticity, I immediately want to know how they do it. I want to know what their tricks and secrets are, and how they are leveraging relationships and building value for other people in a way that allows them to achieve their dreams, while helping others achieve their dreams as well. This is a really great conversation, and I'm sure you folks are going to see that I completely vibe with Brad. In fact, we even talked about what it's like when you vibe with someone, and we definitely got into some very interesting stuff about how you can leverage relationships. We talked about ways that you can get your dream job, or how to get in a room with people that you admire. I definitely took away a lot of valuable takeaways and action items, and I am sure you folks will do so as well. -Jonathan Levi

Greetings, SuperFriends! Today we are joined by a superstar named Danielle LaPorte. She's the author of 3 non-fiction books, including her newest one, White Hot Truth. Danielle is one of Oprah Winfrey's' Super Soul 100 leaders, and she also is a very popular blogger and thought leader. She has a Top 10 iTunes app, one of her books has been translated into 8 languages... I can't really keep up with her bio. Danielle is amazing and you guys are going to see/hear that. In this episode, we talked both about stuff that we haven't covered on this show before and about a lot of stuff that we have covered, but not in the same way. The stuff that is new has to do with gender dynamics and what we as men can do to avoid a lot of 'bad practices', like being patronizing, and also what you women can do, and where that boundary is for speaking up for yourself, creating boundaries, and healthy defense. We also talk a lot about very interesting things, like psychedelics, business leadership and much more. I'm going to make you guys listen to the whole episode to get the full scoop. I really enjoyed this episode, Danielle was kind enough to say that she really enjoyed it, and I think you guys will do so too!

Greetings, SuperFriends! Today we are joined by Jeff Emmerson. He is a new author who recently entered the self-help space and his book is called Beyond ADHD: Overcoming the Label and Thriving. Now, you guys maybe know that I've been diagnosed with ADD, rather, informally, under-the-table diagnosed with ADD. We get into that a little bit in the episode. We also talk about this whole culture of diagnosing kids with ADD. Do they all really have ADD to such a large percentage of the population, or is other stuff going on? In the episode, we talk about Jeff's own personal journey through depression. He gets very personal, which I always appreciate. He shares a lot of really hard stuff that he went through and ultimately talks about some of the things that he is doing and helps others do to manage and overcome this diagnosis, this black mark, that so many people carry around. It's a great episode and I think you guys are really going enjoy it!