Have you ever left a social event and, after talking all night to various people, felt like nothing real was said? Sure, if a transcriptionist followed you, there was lots of dialogue. But as you considered the meaning of the dialogue, it felt empty. This would not be problematic if we humans didn’t chase meaning throughout our lives. As SuperPsyched guest, mythologist, Michael, Meade says, “We are not just Homo sapiens, we are homo symbolicus,” which I think is a super cool way of saying that we are creatures who need meaning in life. Unfortunately, most schools don’t teach us how to engage in meaningful conversation. Instead, most of us go through life engaging in small talk, and not knowing how to connect with others about things that really matter to us. And because we are social creatures, much of how we learn about who we are, ourselves, occurs in a space of conversation. So not only does that keep us from knowing others, it keeps us from knowing ourselves more deeply.Doing this takes vulnerability and courage but the payoff is huge. I’m so grateful my guest, Kalina Silverman (https://www.makebigtalk.com/), started on what was meant to be a two-year journey to help us with the skill of Big Talk. She’s now in her eighth year and she doesn’t appear to be stopping anytime soon because there’s such a need for it. Being a fan of Kalina’s work is definitely not a lonely experience. Her TEDx talk has garnered over 6 million views and her Big Talk cards that facilitate good questions, sell in large volumes. Her work has been incorporated into large corporations, the military, schools, and even jails to improve the quality of life of the stakeholders there. Clearly, Kalina and Big Talk has struck a chord with what people are wanting and needing. And, please note, she is not speaking out against small talk. You’ll hear in our conversation that small talk has a place in our lives. But you’ll also hear that when it’s our only move, we miss out on so much. So, listen in as Kalina and I talk about Big Talk: why we need it and how to do it. To Purchase Big Talk Cards: https://tinyurl.com/2s448997 Kalina’s Website: http://www.kalinasilverman.com/

Many people fantasize about what it would be like to be an actor. And what many of us don't know is just how long the long game is in pursuing that dream. And we have ideas about what that life might be like. But how accurate are those ideas? What does it take to succeed in the business? And what does it take to play 224 different characters and stretch into the realities of each of those individuals? And what about social comparison and FOMO? It's a heavy component of life in the world of acting because all the players have such different realities. I mean, can you imagine playing with Leo Di Caprio or Brad Pitt and asking yourself, “How do I measure up?” I have the perfect person to answer these and so many other questions that will fascinate you. Spencer Garrett is a veteran movie actor, and he was recently inducted into the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He has played in TV series as diverse as Dallas, Murder She Wrote, and The X-Files all the way up to recently in movies like Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and alongside Harrison Ford Air Force One. I mean, check out his IMDB—he’s done everything with seemingly everyone! I’m pretty sure that if you do, you’ll realize you’ve seen him in lots of great stuff. Spencer and I met years ago on the California AIDS Ride, a seven-day, 575-mile bike ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles, and I've always wanted to have him on the podcast. Since meeting him, watching movies has been like a long-time game of Where's Waldo; it seems like I see him everywhere! And he’s always excellent—no matter which of the diverse 224 characters he’s playing, he fully embodies the role. At least as impressive, he's an incredibly kind person with a superb work ethic and I'm grateful for his willingness to share his world with us at a very candid and deep level. So, listen in as Spencer and I get into the skills required to take on 224 different roles.

Like many people in my generation, I was rock music-obsessed when I was growing up. My wall was covered in posters of Zeppelin, Rush, Van Halen, The Smiths, Depeche Mode, and others.  And I constantly fantasized about becoming a rockstar. Obviously, that was not my path. Yet, I still wonder, what would it actually be like to become a rockstar? And, regarding this episode, what would it be like to become a rock star in a mega-band and lose that status? Harder still, what would it be like to watch your rockstar bandmates enjoy international fame to levels seen by very few bands create platinum records, play halftime at the Super Bowl, and win a bunch of Grammys? I had the pleasure of sitting down with Maroon 5 founding drummer, Ryan Dusick (https://www.ryandusick.com/), who shared what that was like. Ryan was there from the early days long before Maroon 5 was even a thing, back when they were known as Kara’s Flowers. He grew up with Adam Levine and other band mates. Together, they created what I consider one of the greatest albums of all time, Songs About Jane. Ryan was part of the band’s enormous success. and, as you will hear, anxiety, perfectionism, and other phenomena sidelined him, eventually taking him out of his coveted position as drummer. You will hear what it was like to deal with the loss, the FOMO, the social comparison, struggles with addiction, and a kind of heartache few can imagine. But it doesn’t end there. In this interview, you’ll hear how he found and continues to find meaning afterwards. Today, Ryan is an Associate Marriage and Family Counselor, and I am confident he is and will continue to become a superb therapist. He wrote a phenomenal memoir I loved so much that I listened to it twice called Harder to Breathe: A Memoir of Making Maroon 5, Losing It All, and Finding Recovery. So, listen in as Ryan and I get into life before, during, and after Maroon 5. Book link: https://amzn.to/3XiaiOt This is an affiliate link. It will provide me with a small commission on purchases made through it and help the podcast (but it won’t affect the price you pay).

Ok, tell the truth—there’s gotta be a project you started but didn’t finish. For me, I’ll admit, there are lots of those. Sometimes, I realized the need to quit, which may have been legit. But in other cases, it was due to my not having had the tenacity to go all in Rocky Balboa-style, and stay in the ring for the long haul.Our brains are wired for NOW and not as much for LATER. While this has been important for our overall survival, it has some negative side effects. That's because, as all of us know, so many of the awesome things we want in life take time. To use a phrase of my guest, it can take many "at-bats" to get the good stuff.   So, to take us on a ride for that good stuff, my guest, one of the world’s top executive coaches and a professor at Duke University’s school of business, Dorie Clark (https://dorieclark.com/about/), will explain how and why to go for the long game. Coincidentally, the title of the book we’ll discuss is her latest, The Long Game: How to Be a Long-Term Thinker in a Short-Term World. I’m not alone in my love for Dorie’s work. Among the many accolades her book has drawn, Forbes Magazine said, “Dorie's book helps us … create the kind of interesting, meaningful lives we all seek."   So, listen in as Dorie and I get into it to help you get inspired to override your short-term brain and get up to bat for the long game. Book Link: https://amzn.to/3CnVZxV This is an affiliate link. It will provide me with a small commission on purchases made through it and help the podcast (but it won’t affect the price you pay).

I’m guessing that in grade school at some point you played the game of Telephone. You know, that game where you and your classmates or friends get in a circle, and one person whispers a statement to the next person and continues like this until it gets to the original person. And we all remember the results: the statement is generally so distorted that everyone in the circle starts laughing. Which is funny as a controlled game when there are no consequences. But it’s terrifying in the real world when the information is necessary and may have life or death consequences. The bottom line is this: we need shared facts to thrive and sometimes we need those shared facts just to survive. Can you imagine if a large segment of the population was told by seemingly credible sources that red traffic lights meant GO and green lights meant STOP? It would be catastrophic… there would likely be thousands of unnecessary deaths. And, today, disinformation can do such things and many of us are discouraged by the fact that it’s on the rise.  Why does it exist and why do people perpetuate it? And, more important, what can be done about it? Fortunately, I know just the guy to ask! My guest, Eric Schurenberg (https://ericschurenberg.com/), is Editor in Chief of Amplify Publishing Group and former CEO and Editor in Chief of two major publications, Inc. and Fast Company. He has taken great interest in fake news and disinformation. We talk about these troubling issues and, as you’ll hear, Eric is highly personable and analytical making it is easy to follow his thinking. His experience at the highest levels of journalism qualifies him as the person to address these issues and I hope you’ll find his words edifying and empowering.So, listen in as Eric talks about fake news, why it’s here and what can be done about it.

Talking about death and grief is not easy, and it’s especially challenging to talk with children about them. Given social conventions, we tend to speak about these two heavy topics euphemistically or indirectly, if at all. Turns out that, for many reasons, not talking directly about death and grief is not such a great idea. One reason is that, as painful as they are, death and grief are inventible parts of life, and no one can avoid them. An old tale features a character who shows up as Death, personified by a grim reaper-like character in the story, saying he will spare the protagonist’s loved one if the protagonist can find a village that hasn’t been impacted by death.Spoiler alert, no village was not impacted by death.   So, the big questions are these: how can we best deal with death and grief? And how can we deal with them if we need to communicate these giant realities with children?Fortunately, I know just the person to ask these and many other relevant questions, and that would be my new friend, Dr. Korie Leigh (https://www.korieleighphd.com/). Korie is the author of a superb children’s book on grief called What Does Grief Feel Like? Korie has a long list of credentials, including professor, child life specialist, and thanatologist. What’s a thanatologist you might ask? It’s a person who has studied the many aspects surrounding death and dying.Paradoxically, knowing death well can make a person far more alive. And you will hear in this podcast that Korie is a vital, passionate, and a supremely insightful person from whom I learned a ton, and I am confident you will, too.So, listen in as Korie and I talk about grief and children. Book Link: https://amzn.to/43U9mlj This is an affiliate link. It will provide me with a small commission on purchases made through it and help the podcast (but it won’t affect the price you pay).

Alisa Shownotes Startups are popping up all over the globe and, having been at one during my corporate days, I can attest to the fact that they are very exciting. Yet, as exciting as they are, they can be very stressful and, at times, chaotic. The founders of such companies—many of whom are clients I serve— tell me that they are often baffled by the complexities and the multiple roles they must play to get their companies launched.   I recently read a book that brings order to startup chaos, and the person behind it is a legitimate master. Alisa Cohn (https://www.alisacohn.com/about/) is a seasoned executive coach and the author of From Start-Up to Grown-Up: Grow Your Leadership to Grow Your Business. I loved this book as did thought leaders as diverse as marketing guru, Seth Godin, the world’s top executive coach, Marshall Goldsmith, and the Mayor of Miami, Francis Suarez. Even if you’re not in a startup setting, you can learn a lot from this interview and the book about how to launch a successful mission of just about any kind since the principles apply to all types of businesses and projects.So, listen in as Alisa and I talk about rocking a start up! Book Link: https://amzn.to/3CnGfuL This is an affiliate link. It will provide me with a small commission on purchases made through it and help the podcast (but it won’t affect the price you pay).

Suddenly, we are at episode 150 of the SuperPsyched Podcast. To celebrate this milestone, I thought I would interview the most influential man in my life. In fact, he was the guy who gave me the idea to start this podcast in the first place! If you haven’t guessed already, that person is my father, Dr. Richard Dorsay. My dad worked as a physician who spent the bulk of his career as the chief of radiology at Kaiser South San Francisco. He was also a top-rated clinical professor of radiology at UCSF Medical School, and a world class mammographer. If that’s not enough, among his other jaw-dropping accomplishments, in 2010 he was awarded an honorary doctorate in public service from his alma mater, Tufts University. Yet, these accomplishments are not what impresses me  most about my father. What impresses me most and the reason I want him to share his story with you on this episode is that he has been doggedly committed to lifelong learning. Lifelong learning is a central theme of the podcast, and my dad could be the poster boy for his willingness to be wrong, make mistakes for the sake of lifelong learning. I mean, can you imagine a man in his 60s being an exchange student in Central America with a home stay mother who is in her 40s? And he did it solely for the joy of learning, and not for any other benefit. In this episode, you will hear about a man who has put himself through all types of self-induced challenges to learn. And I believe you will also hear just how thoughtful and joyful he is as a result and how you can do your version of being a lifelong learner. Book link to Iron John we discussed: https://amzn.to/43Dm1Jy This is an affiliate link. It will provide me with a small commission on purchases made through it and help the podcast (but it won’t affect the price you pay).

You may have heard terms like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy or psychoanalysis that describe different schools of thought or orientations for therapy. At last count, there are a few hundred validated orientations to psychotherapy. Which may cause you to ask, “With so many to choose from, which one is the best for me?” For most of us who are considering entering therapy, the therapist’s orientation tends to be far less predictive of successful therapy than the match of the two people in the room. When I was attending a talk from Dr. Dan Siegel, a psychiatrist who is a major thought leader on therapy, he said that a way a client can know if it’s a good match is when the client “feels felt” by the therapist. In other words, the client feels safe and deeply understood. That being said, there are many ways for a therapist to reach a client. I thought it would be cool for you to get to hear a conversation between two psychologists who love the craft and who love geeking out to it, so you’d have a behind-the-scenes look at how two active therapists think about therapy. In addition to therapeutic orientation, having multiple tools to connect with clients can assist the therapeutic process. These tools obviously include empathy and attunement. They can include the scope of knowledge to create good metaphors, improv skills, and being able to land salient stories that can direct a person to their truth. So, with great enthusiasm, I bring you the thoughtful and creative, Dr. Michael Alcee (https://michaelalcee.com/). Mike is a psychologist in private practice in Tarrytown, NY, and the author of a book I loved called Therapeutic Improvisation: How to Stop Winging It and Own It as a Therapist. He is also a pianist, a mental health educator at the Manhattan School of Music, and a lover of the arts which informs his therapy. SuperPsyched guest, Lori Gottlieb reviewed his book and said that Mike succeeded in showing how creativity can be taught and “illuminating the artistry that inspires the work we do as therapists." So, listen in as Mike and I talk about the factors that account for good therapy. Book Link: https://amzn.to/3qGJPxK This is an affiliate link. It will provide me with a small commission on purchases made through it and help the podcast (but it won’t affect the price you pay).

Sleep expert Mollie Eastman shares her vast knowledge of sleep and its impact on our physical and mental well-being. The podcast discusses the importance of sleep optimization and provides tips for improving sleep quality. It explores the relationship between sleep, lymphatic drainage, and brain health, as well as the significance of HRV (heart rate variability) in understanding one's body for better sleep. Strategies for optimizing sleep and the importance of wearable technology for tracking sleep are also discussed.