The SuperHuman Academy Podcast

Greetings, SuperFriends! Today we are joined by Josh Perry, whom you may know from the world of extreme sports. Josh is an extreme athlete, specifically a BMX biker. But that's just the beginning of his story. You see, Josh has survived multiple brain tumors. He went through an unbelievable journey to get healthy and get well, including massive surgery and cutting-edge new treatment technology. He survived through it all and now he's living with this condition. Josh has so much to share. We talked about fear, we talked about life purpose and mission and we also talked about the journey that followed this horrifying experience for him and the beauty that came out of it. Josh today is an expert in the nutrition field as well as a BMX athlete. He has written and been featured in more publications than I care to list but, to name a few, they are Men's Health, GQ, US News, LiveStrong, People Magazine, ESPN and many more. He has also launched the dailybrainstorms.com blog where he shares his thoughts and ideas with the world. Personally, I feel like this is an absolutely incredible interview. I tried to go as deep as I could and really get into some of the emotions, the fears and also the tools that Josh went through and developed, so I could really give you guys some practical takeaways that will help you overcome fear in your own lives and face the big scary what-ifs. I really enjoyed the episode and I'm quite sure you will as well!

Today we are joined by Tal Gur. Tal is a blogger, an entrepreneur, a serial and best-selling author, and a devoted adventurer, who has spent the last decade pursuing 100 major goals across the globe. He has also been writing about it and philosophizing on how we can live fully. His book is called The Art Of Fully Living and it talks about his journey, including its challenges, crippling self-doubt and struggling for a sense of purpose. Through his journey, Tal has discovered a life-changing gift that he is now passing on to others. We talk about how to get fulfillment in life, we talk about some of the skills, strategies, and tips that will help you find fulfillment and happiness and much more. It is a short episode, but I think it's definitely going to uplift your week!

Greetings, SuperFriends! Today we are joined by Jon Vroman. If you haven't heard of Jon Vroman, he is a philanthropist, a speaker, a bestselling author, an ultra-marathon runner and the founder of the Front Row Foundation. Jon has been doing incredible work for many years, working with people at the end of their lives, mainly people with terminal illnesses. The lessons that he's learned and the inspiration that he's taken away has led him to write an incredible book and come up with an entire philosophy about how to make moments. It's normal if you don't understand what that means, what making a moment is actually about. I was unclear about it as well and I was also unclear on what it means to live life in the front row. We went into both of these in the episode, and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised to find out that they meant something way cooler, way more meaningful and way more inspiring than even I could have imagined. So I am very excited to bring you guys this episode and I am sure you guys are going to enjoy it!

Greetings, SuperFriends! This week we are doing something a little bit different, and it's actually the shortest episode I've ever done, but for good reason. That is because, as you are going to see, this episode is a bit of a rant. It's a rant on something that all of you are doing right now, which is using your phone, using your technology. I wanted to write a post about a really interesting accidental experiment that I conducted, without even realizing that I was conducting it on myself, and the very profound effect that it's had on me. I started to write, and what started as a story became a rant and then became a sort of manifesto. So I hope you guys really enjoy it, as I definitely enjoyed creating it and more importantly I hope that you guys think about it. Like I said, it is the shortest episode that I've ever done and I what I hope/wish for you is that you will take the time that you would have normally spent listening to a longer episode, and you will get out there in nature or sit in a coffee shop with a pen and paper. Get out there and write out some thoughts about the things that I have to say and whether or not they are true for you and whether or not they are affecting you. That I would say is this week's homework and regardless of the fact that I tell you not to in the episode, you are always welcome to comment on the blog post and share your thoughts, share your opinions and engage. So, thank you guys for listening and I hope you enjoy my rant on technology.

Today we are joined by Michael Gelb. The world’s leading authority on the application of genius thinking to personal and organizational development, Michael is a pioneer in the fields of creative thinking. He is also an executive coach and an innovative leader. He has worked with DuPont, Genentech, Merck, Microsoft, Nike and the Young President’s Organization. Michael has also published 14 books, which is pretty creative if you ask me. His books range from How To Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci all the way to Thinking For A Change and they have also been translated into 25 languages. Focusing on the episode, Michael and I talk a lot about creativity, but we go much deeper while at it. We talk about how creativity is much more than many people think it is and how it's not what a lot of people often think it is. We talk about how creativity, memory, and learning are so intrinsically linked and we also talk about some different ways to enhance your mind, your brain and your life. Personally, I think this is an amazing episode and I know you guys are going to love it!

Today we are joined by Dr. Barbara Oakley. If that name sounds familiar, it should, because not only is she a professor of engineering at Oakland University, but she also teaches the world's largest and most popular online course, literally. It is called Learning How To Learn and has over 2 million students. You have probably also seen Barb's, as she told me to call her, Ted talk, which is a viral hit and definitely worth checking out. So, it is pretty obvious why I wanted to have Professor Oakley or Barb on the show. There is so much overlap between the things that we do, and we completely hit it off. We agreed on so many different things in this talk, but we also learned from one another. At a certain point she shares with me some ways in which the techniques that I've been teaching for years can be used, that I didn't know of and at another point I shared with her some of the visual mnemonics and gave her some advice as to how she can overcome a memory and learning challenge that she's been going through. We had an incredible groove recording this episode. We're definitely going to have Barb back on the show and I know you guys are just gonna love this episode and learn so much.

Today we are joined by Steven Kotler. Steven is the co-founder of the Flow Genome Project, and he is also a New York Times' best selling author. He has written quite a number of books, many of which you have already heard of, like "The Rise of Superhuman", his book on flow, "Abundance", his book on the future, "Tomorrowland: our journey from science fiction to science fact" and "Bold", which he wrote with Peter Diamandis, the book about how to go big, create wealth and impact the world. He has also written a bunch of other books like "Stealing Fire", his most recent one. Steven is an absolute authority, not just on writing, but also on flow. The Flow Genome Project has been doing research for decades, developing and understanding ways that we can get into flow and understanding what flow is and why it matters, why it exists and what we can use it for. I think that this is one of the most important topics in the whole realm of becoming SuperHuman and it is something that we haven't really covered in any of the stuff we've put out, from the podcast to the online courses. It has been my goal to fix that, to understand flow, to understand why it is crucial and most importantly to give you the skills and strategies to get into flow, so you can go out there and be SuperHuman. Steven did NOT disappoint on any of these, as he was extremely generous with his time, enthusiasm, energy and wisdom. Personally, I think you guys are gonna be blown away by this episode!  

Greetings, SuperFriends! Today we are honored to have with us Dean Karnazes. He's a speaker, a bestselling author, an athlete, and an entrepreneur. TIME Magazine named him one of the top 100 most influential people in the world. Why, you ask? Because he is an ultra marathoner... not just any ultra marathon, by the way: he has run three hundred and fifty CONTINUOUS miles... not going sleep for three nights. He's run the Sahara Desert at 120 degrees. He has run 50 marathons in 50 days. He's biked for 24 hours straight. He swam San Francisco Bay... I could just go on basically and spend the entire episode talking about all the insane feats of endurance and athleticism that Dean has done. But I won't because I want you guys to hear from him. In any case he's been on The Today Show, 60 Minutes, Late Night Show, CBS, ESPN, CNN... basically all the networks! Again, I could spend the entire episode. I wanted to get Dean on the show for very obvious reasons. He is literally a superhuman. He has a lot of very interesting things to say about tenacity and about fitness. About training... well, he has some things to say that will surprise you. Some things to say that definitely will NOT surprise you. And in general we just hit it off and had a really great conversation. I hope you guys enjoy it as much as I enjoyed creating it!

Greetings, SuperFriends! Today we are joined by Ira Pastor. He is the CEO of BioQuark, and he has over 30 years of experience across multiple sectors in the pharmaceutical industry, working on biological solutions, managed care, OTC's, and more. He's served as the V.P. of business development for a drug development company. He's raised tons of money for different companies, and today he's working, as I said, at BioQuark, which is a company doing really really interesting things with biologic solutions to many of our health problems. I wanted to talk to Ira to understand what research is being done today to make us literally superhuman: to help us live forever, get rid of diseases, and so on. I learned a lot about just the types of research that are being done, and ultimately, I found it super interesting just the reverence and respect that Ira has for Mother Nature as an innovator and as a way for developing solutions to problems. It's a great episode. I'm sure you guys are going to enjoy it very very much!  

Today we are joined - and I want you guys keep an open mind here - by Jeff Berwick of the Dollar Vigilante. He is the author of one of the largest anarchocapitalist and libertarian blogs on the Web. And he's the organizer of the world's largest a anarchocapitalist conference. Now like me, you may feel the hairs on the back of your neck stand up when I say the terms anarchocapitalist or libertarian. And I certainly did. And I was really really uncomfortable when my partner at Bitcoin Academy suggested that I interview Jeff. But, you know what? I was completely surprised. Because what I learned in this interview was not only just how close the financial system is to major issues (and going through the numbers, I realized that we are all in big financial risk potentially), but also I realized that an ideology that I had always been told was evil and selfish was not nearly as evil or as selfish as it's portrayed to be. I had the opportunity to open my mind and gain some insights into something that I always had such a negative view on. But beyond that, Jeff and I talked about some really interesting things that I think relate to Becoming Superhuman: protecting yourself against... well... when things go bad. There's no nice way to say that. Protecting yourself against the idea that, "hey, there's a 20 trillion dollar debt. What's going to happen with that?" and "hey, you know, governments are starting to act a certain way," and you know, if you were in Spain last month, you're starting to feel that things are getting a little tense. I wanted to bring this episode to you guys really to bring to you this idea that hey, you should probably be prepared. You should probably keep your eyes open, and you may want to take some measures just to ensure that if things go south, you are prepared. And I have to say, I got a lot more than that. So I think you guys are really going to enjoy the interview if you do. I want to let you know that there's actually a longer an uncut version of this interview in my new online course Bitcoin Academy - my new project - which is this week's sponsor. Let me know what you guys think, and thanks, as always, for keeping an open mind!