Ed Stott & The Big Life Questions

TLDR: Learning the truth about how your clothes are made is overwhelming but there's one simple & wonderfully life-enhancing thing you can do about it. I want to put that up front because, if you (like me) are likely to skip past this episode & continue to bury your head in the sand because the state of fast fashion is so damn depressing, you may well believe there's nothing you can do about it. That's not true! In this episode Maxine Bedat, Founder and Director of fashion industry think & do tank New Standard Institute, takes us around the world following the life-cycle of a pair of jeans & the very simple thing we can all to do combat fast fashion. This episode is supported by Sleeping Duck CONNECT WITH USConnect with That's Helpful & Ed Stott on Instagram. Find Maxine on Instagram Find New Standard Institute on Instagram & via their website BOOKUnraveled: The Life & Death of a Garment Got an episode suggestion or feedback for me? Email me - ed@edwinastott.com

Let's take a closer look at what’s happening to our food before it gets to us - how it's designed to be addictive, marketed to get us hooked & how that’s changing pretty much everything in and around us. Pulitzer Prize winning investigative reporter & New York Times Best Selling Author Michael Moss is the author of Salt, Sugar, Fat - How the Food Giants Hooked Us & Hooked, How we Became Addicted to Processed Food. This is the first in this special Insiders series that will roll out over the month. Each week we’ll hear from an expert who’s either dug deep into or previously worked in the industries who’s business is our minds & bodies. We’ll explore the tricks employed by each of these industries that are cashing in on manipulating our physical & mental health to level up our knowledge and polish up our BS detectors to protect ourselves, our families & our wallets. This episode is supported by Sleeping Duck CONNECT WITH USConnect with That's Helpful & Ed Stott on Instagram. Find Michael via his website on Instagram, Facebook & Twitter Got an episode suggestion or feedback for me? Email me - ed@edwinastott.com

There is nothing more irritating than being told you're 'hormonal', but hormones do play a huge role in the way our brains operate. So what’s really going on up there? Dr Sarah McKay is a neuroscientist & the author of the Women's Brain Book: The Neuroscience of Health, Hormones and Happiness. We explore our brains & get to the bottom of this relationship between our brains and our hormones so that we can better understand ourselves & our bodies. This episode is supported by Sleeping Duck CONNECT WITH USConnect with That's Helpful & Ed Stott on Instagram. Find Dr Sarah McKay on Instagram & via her Website. BOOKSThe Women's Brain Book PODCASTTransform Your Mindset with the Expectation Effect Got an episode suggestion or feedback for me? Email me - ed@edwinastott.com  

We know so little about getting a great nights sleep ourselves, it's no wonder we're baffled when it comes to helping kids get quality rest. But, that’s what we’re going to tackle on today’s episode of That’s Helpful with me Ed Stott. My guest today is Sarah Ockwell Smith, she’s a gentle parenting expert (she was actually the first person to coin the term) & the author of The Gentle Sleep Book as well as 13 other parenting books. She breaks down the perfect bed time routine, points out some areas where you may be going wrong & has some fabulous pointers on leaning into your intuition as a parent & how that holds the key to helping your children with their sleep. This bonus episode was brought to you by Sleeping Duck CONNECT WITH USConnect with That's Helpful & Ed Stott on Instagram. Find Sarah via her website on Instagram & Twitter Got an episode suggestion or feedback for me? Email me - ed@edwinastott.com

Despite previously working as a war correspondent, when New York Times journalist Damien Cave moved to Australia from the US, he was shocked by the Aussie approach to risk taking. Our national loves of nippers & surfing turned what his own country had taught him about risk & how it should be managed on its head. He says it's changed not only his life but his family’s too & he’s since written a book about it. Today, we're exploring how changing the way you think about risk can change your life, broaden your horizons & help raise more resilient children & communities. This episode is supported by Sleeping Duck CONNECT WITH USConnect with That's Helpful & Ed Stott on Instagram. Find Damien on Twitter & Instagram BOOKInto The Rip Got an episode suggestion or feedback for me? Email me - ed@edwinastott.com

If the Kardashian's 5th private jet trip of the morning has you left you wondering why you're bothering with mushy paper straws & an over-worked reusable coffee cup, you are not alone!  Fear not though, all is not lost & there are some very good reasons to stay sustainable. Kate Hall is a sustainability blogger & activist who goes by the name Ethically Kate online. She says that a few simple shifts can reduce that environmental guilt we all feel, lead to a much more fulfilling life & of course, help the earth in the process! In this episode Kate runs us through the 3 things we should all be doing. This episode is supported by Sleeping Duck CONNECT WITH USConnect with That's Helpful & Ed Stott on Instagram. Find Kate on Instagram, Facebook & via her website BOOKBolder, Better, Different Got an episode suggestion or feedback for me? Email me - ed@edwinastott.com  

Many of us have grown up with the idea that unless exercise is painful, it’s not working - no pain, no gain right? But what if we could work with our bodies to make exercise easier, more effective and more enjoyable? Growing research has found that most of the exercise plans we’re following are designed for men, and they don't factor in the different physiology of women, namely our hormones. But Dr Stacy Sims is a scientist & female athlete performance physiologist & she says we should all be syncing our workouts with our cycle. In this episode Dr Stacy talks us through how to turn our cycle into our workout's secret weapon, plus a few other tips to optimise & focus our workouts. NB: Whether your workout is walking around the block every other day or smashing out HIT on the regular there will be something in this episode for you, I promise! x This episode is supported by Sleeping Duck CONNECT WITH USConnect with That's Helpful & Ed Stott on Instagram. Find Stacy on Instagram Got an episode suggestion or feedback for me? Email me - ed@edwinastott.com

Feel like there's never enough time in your day? Well, Kate Christie says she can unlock an extra 30 hours for you every month.  She’s a time management expert & she has a whole bunch of tips, tricks and mindset shifts that are going to help you make the most of your time & STOP procrastinating. SUPPORT THE PODCASTSupport the podcast for as little as $5 a month. Sign up for bonus content & community, or have your business become a sponsor via Patreon. CONNECT WITH USConnect with That's Helpful & Ed Stott on Instagram. Find Kate on Instagram, Facebook & via her website. BOOKSThe Life List: Master Every Moment & Live an Audacious Life Got an episode suggestion or feedback for me? Email me - ed@edwinastott.com

There is so much information out there when it comes to brain health & keeping our brain working at the top of its game as we go through life. But what should we actually be doing? And how do we know the difference between normal brain burps & genuine cognitive decline? If you’re anything like me, you will constantly be misplacing your keys, forgetting people’s names and overlooking meetings in your diary… These kinds of things make me worry about my brain & whether things like my memory are getting worse and it can be even more concerning as we age. Dr Ginni Mansberg is the author of Save Your Brain and she’s taken a deep dive into the science behind the brain & the things we can do to take care of it for the book. CONNECT WITH USConnect with That's Helpful & Ed Stott on Instagram. Find Dr Ginni on Instagram, Facebook & Twitter. BOOKS Save Your Brain Got an episode suggestion or feedback for me? Email me - ed@edwinastott.com

Research says that smart people may actually be more susceptible to irrational thinking & poor decision making. We all know those people who are incredibly clever yet make decisions that are absolutely baffling. The intelligent people who believe in conspiracy theories or highly educated colleagues who constantly make silly decisions. This is called the intelligence trap & David has written a book about it & what he learnt can help us all to make more wise decisions. We talk through the trap & how it can help us to better understand the world & the people around us, as well as how we can check if we ourselves are falling for the trap, plus how to identify it & manage it in our organisations.  Find a transcript of our conversation here. SUPPORT THE PODCASTSupport the podcast for as little as $5 a month. Sign up for bonus content & community, or have your business become a sponsor via Patreon. CONNECT WITH USConnect with That's Helpful & Ed Stott on Instagram. Find David Robson on Twitter. BOOKS The Intelligence Trap PODCASTSThe Expectation Effect: Transform Your Mindset Transform Your Life with Radical Humility Got an episode suggestion or feedback for me? Email me - ed@edwinastott.com