Bulletproof Radio

In this episode of Bulletproof Radio, I’m talking to a guest who by all outward appearances had it all. A member of the “one-percent,” Gerard Powell made his millions from creating and selling multiple companies. But his life was a mess in many ways, and he battled multiple addictions.In his new book, “Sh*t the Moon Said: A Story of Sex, Drugs, and Transformation,” he says, “My many addictions during those years—drugs, alcohol, sex—were certainly destructive to myself and damaging to the people around me. But if there was anything good about that behavior, it would be the fact that I was seeking a different state of consciousness. I was seeking it in all the wrong places, but at least I was a seeker.”Through plant medicine he mapped a psycho-spiritual path that helped him overcome his addictions and achieve lasting peace. Today, Gerard shares his journey and life-changing experience with ayahuasca—as well as how he now brings what he’s learned to others.Gerard now is a consciousness thought-leader, entrepreneur, philanthropist, and inspirational speaker. He is the founder and CEO of Rythmia Life Advancement Center in Costa Rica, which is a go-to destination for a spiritually awakening experience. Enjoy the show!

In this episode of Bulletproof Radio, Dr. Steven Gundry is back on the show with new research about how food is affecting our kids. He’s a renowned heart surgeon, celebrity doctor, and medical researcher with a focus on curing modern diseases via dietary changes. You may know him from his New York Times best-selling books, “The Plant Paradox” and “The Longevity Paradox.” You can listen to Bulletproof Radio episodes #417 and #604 for more information on those topics.In his latest book, “The Plant Paradox Family Cookbook: 80 One-Pot Recipes to Nourish Your Family Using Your Instant Pot, Slow Cooker or Sheet Pan,” Dr. Gundry revisits his foundational approach and expands it to include the latest nutritional science for kids. He also offers families practical tools for transitioning to the Plant Paradox lifestyle.As busy and often tired parents with a multitude of responsibilities, we may say to ourselves that it’s ok to grab fast food or order take out. “Well, it's not okay,” says Dr. Gundry. “The studies show the sooner we start our kids eating properly, the sooner you set them up for a lifetime of successful health.”Listen on to learn more about the brain-gut-behavior connection and find out ways to protect your kids’ microbiome.Enjoy the show!

This episode of Bulletproof Radio was recorded live at the Genius Network. My guest spent years researching how trauma affects our minds and our lives. In doing so, he began to understand that events and experiences throughout our lifetime continue to play a role in how we experience life in the present. “Trauma is a glitch, it's an error message,” says Don Wood, Ph.D. “If you think about something that happened to you 10 years ago and you feel fear or anger, or you feel an emotion, then that's affecting you.”He also realized that there was a better way of treating the issue. “Teaching people to live with, manage and cope with the daily stress doesn’t fix the problem,” Don says. “The solution comes from understanding its source and providing a long-term permanent solution.”So, Don developed a more efficient and effective solution for trauma using modern advancements in the study of neuroscience and cutting-edge proprietary techniques. The result has been the development of the Inspired Performance Institute and the creation of a revolutionary approach to performance improvement.Enjoy the show!

In this episode of Bulletproof Radio, my guest is Tara Swart, M.D., Ph.D., a neuroscientist, medical doctor, leadership coach, and bestselling author. She works with leaders all over the world to help them improve their ability to manage stress, regulate emotions, and retain information. She’s a senior lecturer at MIT Sloan School of Management where she runs the Neuroscience for Leadership and Applied Neuroscience programs and is an executive advisor to some of the world’s most respected leaders in media and business. She specializes in sectors that face unusual levels of stress or change. She’s also an online columnist for Fast Company and Forbes.  She helps high performers achieve their peak brain performance. I’m excited to talk to her about her new book, “The Source: The Secrets of the Universe, the Science of the Brain,” which explains how to rewire the brain’s pathways to make lasting, positive changes in people’s lives.Part of that rewiring focuses on mental resilience and adversity capability.“Our ability to endure and bounce back from adversity is a capability that can be built into our brain,” Dr. Swart says. “And there are certain factors that help to really incorporate that into our tool kit. Because of things like the natural loss aversion of the brain, we have to override that with a different form of thinking.Dr. Swart also is intrigued by the three-way transmission of information between the limbic system, gut neurons and the gut microbiome. “Bacteria are using us as avatars to get whatever nutrition or resource they need to be able to survive, to multiply, then transform,” she says. “The way that helps leaders from a pathological angle is if you’ve got an addiction or a terrible craving, understanding that it could be the bacteria in your gut that's causing that, not you. And I think that level of separation helps people to step back and think…”Listen on to learn more about gaining greater clarity about your own intuition and the untapped potential of your brain.“I think that whole process of evolving and challenging your beliefs and embracing new ideas is really important,” Dr. Swart says. “I think my niche is to be able to represent based on current modern scientific thinking. How some of those things, like the law of attraction, manifestation, visualization could actually help us to have a slightly better life than the one that we have at the moment.”Enjoy the show!

In this episode of Bulletproof Radio, my guest, Teri Cochrane, CN, CCP, shares exciting discoveries about how our food choices influence how our genes are expressed. We discuss her research on epigenetics and nutrigenomics, and how eating wild-caught, wild-fed proteins can lead to better health on a molecular level. “Just eat based to your genetic blueprint and where you are on your health continuum,” she says. Teri is an integrative practitioner and thought leader in personalized health care. She specializes in complex health conditions in private clinical practice. She has developed her own methodology that integrates a multi-level nutritional approach—including biochemistry, nutrition, genetic tendencies, herbology, and counseling—to develop a bio-individualized plan for her clients. As the author of the “The Wildatarian Diet: Living as Nature Intended,” Teri helps us look at the malabsorption of protein, fat, and sulfur, and how these “big three” tamper with our gene expression. She also takes aim at protein abnormalities.“Disruptors such as pathogens, mycotoxins, stress, amyloids and inflammatory foods work together to impair body balance,” Teri says. “We have found a direct link between amyloids, mycotoxins and these health disruptors in the acceleration of disease.”Listen on to understand how to choose food that’s just right for you and how to get your body back in balance.For Bulletproof Radio Listeners: Learn how to hack your meal prep with the free Wildly Easy 7-Day Meal Prep Guide. Enjoy the show!

In this episode of Bulletproof Radio, what interests me most about James Clear is that he’s researched habits in the context of human potential—he’s always searching for the answer to a central question, “How can we live better?” He’s a writer and speaker focused on habits, decision-making, and continuous improvement. His best-selling book, “Atomic Habits: An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones,” is grounded in meticulous research and details how habits can help people fulfill their potential. “Your habits compound over time as they start to layer on top of each other and increase over time,” James says. “But your decisions—if you imagine your life is like a string of decisions—those decisions can compound for you or against you, too. The benefit of making a single good choice is fine, but the benefit of making a string of good choices can be significantly better. You're really trying to string those two together.”His work has appeared in many media outlets, including Entrepreneur and Time magazines, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and on CBS This Morning. He also is a regular speaker at Fortune 500 companies, and his work is used by coaches and players in the NFL, NBA, and MLB. Enjoy the show!

In this episode of Bulletproof Radio, my guest is Dr. James Gordon, a Harvard-educated psychiatrist and a world-renowned expert in using mind-body medicine to heal depression, anxiety, and psychological trauma. He founded and now serves as executive director of The Center for Mind-Body Medicine—an organization that focuses on life-changing therapeutic work with individuals, families and groups. Dr. Gordon explains that trauma is a human experience, not a pathological anomaly. His new book, “The Transformation: Discovering Wholeness and Healing After Trauma,” helps people understand their own capacity to heal themselves.“The premise is that what we're teaching about self-awareness and self-care—and also encouraging people to get support from other humans—is fundamental to the understanding and treatment of all trauma,” he says. For more than 25 years, he has led teams in relieving population-wide psychological trauma: during and after wars in the Balkans, the Middle East and Africa; after climate related disasters in Louisiana, Texas, California, Puerto Rico, and Haiti; in communities affected by school shootings; and with active duty U.S. military and veterans and their families.Enjoy the show!

In this episode of Bulletproof Radio, my guest, Dr. Andrew Miller, is an internationally recognized expert in the interactions between the brain and immune system as they relate to stress and depression. “Inflammaging is one of the hottest topics in immunology right now because we recognize that much of what drives the process of aging in the brain and much of what drives many of the illnesses that eventually do people in, are driven by inflammation,” he says.  “So, we're talking cardiovascular disease, we're talking about diabetes, we're talking about cancer, we're talking about neurodegenerative disorders.” … “All the modern ills that we as a society are grappling with right now.”Dr. Miller is the vice-chair of Research in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and director of the Behavioral Immunology Program at Emory School of Medicine. His research focuses on the underlying mechanisms by which inflammation can cause depression in humans and non-human primates. Additionally, Dr. Miller and his group conducted the first clinical trial examining the efficacy of an immunotherapy for the treatment of depression. Enjoy the show!

In this episode of Bulletproof Radio, my guest is an accelerated learning expert and founder of the Superhuman Academy. Jonathan Levi is a serial entrepreneur, author, and keynote speaker born and raised in Silicon Valley. Since 2014, he’s been one of the top-performing instructors on the online learning platform Udemy. He’s reached more than 250,000 people in 205 countries and territories. His latest book, “The Only Skill That Matters,” details his own journey and the techniques that anyone can use to learn faster. “As you know, the brain is the most complex object in the known universe,” Jonathan says. “So a simple, ‘Hey, here's how it works. Here's how it likes to process information. Here's what makes information more memorable to it. Here's how to retain and maintain your knowledge’—it’s life-changing for people.”In our conversation, we talk about tangible hacks you can start using today to upgrade your own learning.Enjoy the show!

In this episode of Bulletproof Radio, my guest is a chief … officer. (That’s not a typo—and I love it.) I talked with Lou Reese at the recent XPrize Visioneering conference. He loves all things vision and believes in creating environments in which we can reach our potential to be disruptive originals. He’s one the co-founders of United Neuroscience and a member of its board of directors. The company is a global team united against chronic disease with leaders in neurology, immunology, drug development at the helm. United Neuroscience is passionate about democratizing helath and delivering science-driven innovation that is accessible for all. Lou’s work focuses on hacking the immune system. It’s critical work.In 2018—for the first time in human history—“what killed us was things that our body made inside rather than things that were harmful coming from outside,” Lou explains. “The exogenous is no longer the primary enemy, the endogenous is the primary enemy.” Specifically, chronic illness is now our No. 1 killer.Listen on to learn about the ground-breaking solutions Lou and his team are developoing.Enjoy the show!       

In this episode of Bulletproof Radio, Bo Eason brings his straight talk: “Mastery is mastery, regardless of the discipline,” he says. He’s a speaker, performer, author and former NFL player. When an injury ended his football career, he branched out into acting and wrote a one-man play that had an extended off-Broadway and 50-city national run. Now, in his third act as a speaker and leadership coach, he trains some of the most successful people in the world on how to communicate for maximum impact and success. Bo’s new book, “There’s No Plan B for your A-Game,” lays out an action plan for becoming the best at anything you want to do. “Most people are living their plan B because they have a plan B,” he says. “That's a mistake. Your plan A is your plan A”Listen on to learn how to drop average and reach your goals with a championship mindset.Enjoy the show!       

In this episode of Bulletproof Radio, we’re talking about all the health benefits of light with Scott Nelson, co-founder of Joovv, one of the world’s most trusted manufacturers of red light therapy devices. Prior to cofounding Joovv, Scott spent his professional career in leadership positions with some of the largest medical device companies in the world, including Medtronic, Covidien, Boston Scientific, and C.R. Bard. He’s since brought his skills into the arena of red light therapy, called photobiomodulation.Joovv devices are used by people in their own homes; in salons and spas around the world for natural skin health and anti-aging benefits; and trusted by pro sports teams, Olympians, and world-class trainers and gyms for proven performance and muscle recovery benefits. Clinics and health practitioners also incorporate Joovv as a safe, natural joint pain and inflammation treatment. “Light is underappreciated as an aspect of health,” says Scott “Most people think of food and supplements and some type of training regimen. But the overwhelming majority of people don't think of light as part of that kind of overall health equation.” Junk light matters and high nutrient light matters. Listen on for how light therapy can improve bone, hormone and gut health, collagen production, and more. We talk about the exciting new research that’s emerging about red light therapy, what that means for you and how you can make light part of your own health equation.I talked with Scott and Joovv’s other co-founder, Justin Strahan, on a previous episode of Bulletproof Radio: LIGHT HACKING: INFRARED, THE SUN & YOUR HEALTH – JOOVV #516. If you haven’t already, I encourage you to listen to that for the backstory on Joovv and how they got started.Enjoy the show!

In this episode of Bulletproof Radio, Brett Wingeier, Ph.D., talks with me about all things neurostimulation at the Halo Neuroscience headquarters in San Francisco. I pick his brain and he runs electrical currents over mine.“Brains love to learn,” Brett says. Fundamental to learning is neuroplasticity, the brain’s ability to form and reorganize synaptic connections. Brett and the Halo team have found a way to leverage this by “using technology to make sure that your brain is dialed in and ready to use its natural learning mechanisms where and when you want it.”Brett co-founded Halo and now serves as its Chief Technology Officer. He’s an engineer and neuroscientist with two decades of experience creating science-based products to unlock human potential and treat disease. Prior to Halo, Brett assisted in the development of the first fully implantable responsive neurostimulator for epilepsy and was instrumental in designing a groundbreaking minimally invasive solution for headaches. Listen on to learn more about neuroplasticity, neuropriming, cognitive control, and the joy of skill acquisition. It’s electrifying stuff.Enjoy the show!

In this episode of Bulletproof Radio, my guest is Dr. Mark Hyman, a practicing family physician, an New York Timesbestselling author, and an internationally recognized leader, speaker, educator, and expert in the field of health and nutrition. Dr. Hyman also is the director of the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine, the founder and medical director of The UltraWellness Center, and chairman of the board of the Institute for Functional Medicine. He works with individuals and organizations, as well as policy makers and influencers, to improve health for everyone. He’s such an advocate for human wellness, I’ve had him on the show three times before. In every interview, he brings new findings and profound wisdom to our listeners. That’s especially true this time. He’s fired up and wants you to be, too: “If people just got off the crap and started eating real food, and literally unplugged from the industrial food system, their health would dramatically improve,” Dr. Hyman says. “We would reverse climate change. We would end social injustice and poverty. We'd have money enough for free education, and free healthcare for everybody, and can support the neediest among us with no effort, and have lots of money left over to do cool stuff and create new science, and solve all the world's problems just by cooking at home.”He is dedicated to tackling the root causes of chronic disease while empowering people, organizations, and communities to heal their bodies and minds, and improve social and economic resilience.Enjoy the show!

In this episode of Bulletproof Radio, I have the pleasure of talking with Gretchen Rubin, who is one of today’s most influential and thought-provoking observers of happiness and human nature. She’s known for her ability to distill and convey complex ideas with humor and clarity, in a way that’s accessible and relevant.She’s been interviewed by Oprah, walked arm-in-arm with the Dalai Lama, had her work written up in a medical journal, been the subject of a “The Talk of the Town” piece in The New Yorker magazine, and been an answer on the game show Jeopardy!She’s the author of numerous books, including the “New York Times” bestsellers, “The Four Tendencies” and “Better Than Before.”” Her book The Happiness Project” spent more than two years on the ”New York Times” bestseller list, including at No. 1. Combined, her books have sold more than 3.5 million copies worldwide and have been published in more than 30 languages. Here are a few “Gretchen says” moments from our discussion:About habits: “ ‘We know these things will make us happier. Why don't we do them?’ and that's often a problem with habit formation.”About happiness: “There are some things that we can't really affect, and then there are some things that we really can affect with our conscious thoughts and actions, and so, to me, it's much more interesting to think like, "Whoever I am, wherever I'm coming from, can I be happier?" About human nature: “It really shines a spotlight on some aspect of your character, your nature that is very, very helpful, so I think sometimes it's just that showing you something about yourself that maybe you weren't keyed into.”Gretchen draws from cutting-edge science, the wisdom of the ages, lessons from popular culture, and her own experiences to explore how we can make our lives happier, healthier, more productive, and more creative. Enjoy the show!

In this episode of Bulletproof Radio, Dr. Kelly Brogan, a holistic women’s health psychiatrist, shows people that they don’t have to medicate their mental, emotional, and physical pain away—that the best way out is through. She explains what led her to stop prescribing medication to her own patients and helps people decode the myths and misconceptions of the current healthcare system so they can lead a healthy, vital life.She’s board certified in psychiatry, psychosomatic medicine, and integrative holistic medicine and specializes in a root-cause resolution approach to psychiatric syndromes and symptoms. Her new book—"Own Your Self: The Surprising Path Beyond Depression, Anxiety, and Fatigue to Reclaiming Your Authenticity, Vitality, and Freedom”— presents a radical alternative to psychotropic meds.She explodes the mistaken belief that symptoms—from mood changes to irritability to fogginess and fatigue—are evidence that people are sick or broken. “I became interested in the role of belief,” Dr. Brogan says. “And how what's really happening when we're talking about the engagement of health practices is the exercising of a belief system. So, I started to study the anatomy of that—the placebo, nocebo effect, expectancy—and really what it is to inhabit a belief system.”Dr. Brogan says our experiences aren’t problems or pathologies; they reflect what we need to accept, acknowledge and transform in order to truly become who we are. “Authenticity has become the most powerful form of social currency.”Enjoy the show!

In this episode of Bulletproof Radio, my guest is one of the world’s top experts on the health benefits of intermittent fasting on the brain and body.Decades before intermittent fasting diets became popular, Mark began studying mouse models to understand how the brain adapts to challenges like fasting and exercise. He and his research teams have shown that fasting can improve cognitive function and metabolic health. Early studies in humans now are underway.“Intermittent fasting and exercise can reverse diabetes, and obesity in humans if a person can switch their eating pattern, and get on an exercise program,” Mark says.His work on intermittent fasting has been featured on national media and he has given a TED Talk, “Why Fasting Bolsters Brain Power”. Our conversation in this episode covers a lot of ground, such as:What happens during a fasted ketogenic state;How to choose an intermittent fasting time period;What and when Mark eats to obtain maximum intermittent fasting brain and body benefits;How the mTor pathway is inhibited;How autophagy acts as both a garbage disposal and a recycling bin; How the Nrf2-ARE antioxidant defense pathway is activated; andHow important nerve growth factor (NGF) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) are to brain health.Mark currently is a professor of Neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University. He’s one of the foremost researchers in the area of cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. Previously, he was chief of the Laboratory of Neurosciences at the National Institute on Aging Intramural Research Program (IRP) at the National Institutes of Health since 2000.Enjoy the show!

In this episode of Bulletproof Radio, my guest is a sixth-generation shaman, human rights activist, thought leader, internationally renowned spiritual mentor, and women’s empowerment leader. Applying ancient spiritual wisdom, coupled with decades of devoted study and practice, Shaman Durek helps bring success, happiness and healing into people’s lives. “I've made shamanism much more accessible through knowledge and information that relates to what's happening on the planet right now as it pertains to human development,” Shaman Durek says.He advises everyone from celebrities to royals to executives. H Edition Global Magazine calls him the “Shaman of Our Times,” applying ancient wisdom to our modern problems. His work is recognized by major publications/media outlets and he was recently featured on CBS’s “The Doctors” television show.In his new book –“SPIRIT HACKING: Shamanic Keys to Reclaim Your Personal Power, Transform Yourself, and Light Up the World”—he delivers straightforward tools and techniques from a timeless Shamanic tradition that you can use in your own life.“Just like you talk about the body and its autoimmune system, you have a spiritual immune system,” Shaman Durek says. “You have an energetic system in your body that literally learns by how you operate in your life through energy patterns, responses, frequencies, how you speak, your words you choose to use that have coding. Everything is building that immune system or tearing down that immune system.”So, listen on to up-level your own spiritual side.Enjoy the show!

In this episode of Bulletproof Radio, my guest is Rajshree Patel, a former federal prosecutor who discovered Vedanta by accident and went on to become an internationally renowned teacher of its deep wisdom and dynamic practice.“The system of Vedanta gives us the tools, the techniques, the methodologies, and the wisdom to biohack and optimize our inner life,” says Rajshree. “It is the ancient positive psychology that biohacks and optimizes life.“Rajshree now is a highly sought-after self-awareness coach, trainer and speaker—a tireless guided missile for meditation.She has provided 20,000 hours of coaching, conducted 1,500 workshops in 35 countries, established 600 mediation centers around the world, trained thousands of instructors with The Art of Living, instructed 35,000 students, and established 45 Art of Living chapters. She has conducted programs at organizations like NBC Universal, IBM, LinkedIn, Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook, The World Bank, Shell Oil, Morgan Stanley, Harvard University, The United Nations, UNESCO and India’s renowned IITs among many others. Through insight, intuition, meditation techniques—and ancient biohacks!—Rajshree will guide you to identify what’s working (and not) in your life by tapping into what she calls “vital force.”“What I know is that vital force is one of the fastest ways to have mental hygiene,” Rajshree says. “Optimizing by taking short pauses, maybe 10 minutes a day in the morning if you want to or short pauses through the day, two-minute pauses, to just do mental hygiene, that's all.”Throughout our conversation, we pull topics and tips from her new book “The Power of Vital Force: Fuel Your Energy, Purpose, and Performance with Ancient Secrets of Breath and Meditation.” The techniques you're going to learn about today are all about meditation and breathing and developing consciousness.Enjoy the show!.

In this episode of Bulletproof Radio, my conversation with David Meltzer goes in an unexpected direction. We're talking about a guy who was CEO of Samsung's first smart phone division, a guy who's had a profoundly strong career in business and has written books on actually how to be happy. Books on how people succeed at different levels, and what the definition of success is. He just came out with a new book that I thought was really worth talking about: “Game-Time Decision Making: High-Scoring Business Strategies from the Biggest Names in Sports.” While we did cover David’s ideas about how to work hard, smart and long (as in a consider-your-future-goals long game), we turned the corner into four of his life priorities: gratitude, forgiveness, accountability, and inspiration.“I am worthy of everything I have,” David says, “and I can manifest anything I want.” He believes that you can think and do the same.David is the CEO of Sports 1 Marketing, considered to be the world’s premier global sports and entertainment marketing firm. He’s a two-time international best-selling author and has been named by Forbes and Entrepreneur magazines as a Top Keynote Speaker. He’s also a Top 100 Business Coach, the executive producer and host of Entrepreneur's No. 1 show, Elevator Pitch, and host of the top business podcast, The Playbook. He wants people to know how to find and use their own inner power source so it fuels their energy, successes and happiness. “You've got to find your frequency,” David says. “You've got to know what you are. You got to know what your values are.” Listen on to learn how to forgive yourself for your mistakes, let go of guilt that may be attracting shortages, voids, and obstacles in your life, and confront the ego that actually may be holding you back“We can change the world if we figure out—systematically, mathematically, scientifically—happiness,” David says. “Get better, work those muscles to stay at peace, and not live in ego-based consciousness or fear.” Enjoy the show!