The New Science Of The Body Clock: How To Boost Your Immune System, Reclaim Your Energy & Improve Your Mental Health - Dr Rangan Chatterjee with Dr Kristen Holmes

In our hyper-connected modern world, where we have access to artificial light and food around the clock, we’ve drifted far from our body’s natural rhythms. But what if reconnecting with these internal clocks could be the key to unlocking better health, more energy and even a longer life?

This week's guest is Kristen Holmes, Global Head of Human Performance and Principal Scientist at WHOOP, a Science Advisor to Levels Health and Arena Labs, and a member of the Tactical Leadership Board of Sports Innovation Lab.

In this conversation, we explore the world of circadian biology and how aligning our daily habits with our natural rhythms can transform our health. Kristen explains the far-reaching consequences of a disrupted circadian rhythm, from metabolic disorders and increased ageing to mental health challenges and lower immune function.

We discuss the critical importance of consistent sleep/wake times, even on weekends, and how this simple change can dramatically improve our psychological and physiological functioning. Kristen shares her personal experience of how aligning her circadian rhythms has boosted her productivity, focus, and overall health – she hasn’t been ill for over eight years.

Throughout our conversation, we explore strategies for harmonising our circadian rhythms within the context of modern life. We cover the importance of morning light exposure, the ideal meal timing, and how to manage factors like alcohol and caffeine consumption. Kristen also advises shift workers on maintaining healthy rhythms despite irregular schedules.

Circadian Rhythms: The Foundation of Health and Longevity

• Circadian rhythms are the physical, mental, and behavioural processes occurring over a 24-hour cycle.
• Circadian alignment (matching internal preferences with the light-dark cycle) is considered the foundation of health and longevity. When the circadian rhythm is not functioning optimally, any attempts to improve health through nutrition or exercise protocols will be less efficient.
• Misaligned or desynchronized circadian rhythms are associated with an increased risk of metabolic disorders and metabolic dysfunction. Furthermore, not a single mental health disorder exists that circadian rhythm disruption doesn't touch.
• The desynchronization causes cellular miscommunication, which is considered the basis of most disease and aging.
• Modernity, specifically 24/7 access to light and food, creates enormous stress on the system and leads to misalignment.

The Anti-Woke Expert: “We Are Witnessing The Fall Of The UK & The USA!” - The Diary Of A CEO with Konstantin Kisin

Konstantin Kisin is a Russian-British satirist and co-host of the podcast TRIGGERnometry. He is also the best-selling author of the book, ‘An Immigrant's Love Letter to the West’. In this conversation, Konstantin and Steven discuss topics such as, how wokeness has lost true meaning, the dangers of a victim mindset, the real reason men are struggling, and the ongoing war in Ukraine.

The Threat of Ideological Extremism and Societal Suicide

• Ideology is considered detrimental because once an individual adopts a prepackaged set of beliefs, they may quickly lose interest in the truth.
• The ideology of wokeness promotes a hierarchy of oppression and victimhood, viewing people as groups of oppressors and victims rather than individuals, which is dangerous because teaching people to be victims actually causes them to suffer in real life.
• Historically, most civilizations are not destroyed externally but through cultural suicide, a threat that the author attributes to rampant progressivism or "woke culture".
• The core belief driving this threat is that Western society and its history are inherently bad, being based on slavery, colonialism, and exploitation. This narrative undermines the willingness of people to defend the West or teach its values to their children.

Wokeism: Definition, Characteristics, and Harm

• Wokeness, which gained traction around 2014, was initially a self-compliment used by activists who felt "awakened" to systemic forces like intersectionality, white privilege, and male privilege. It now serves as an insult for those seen as detached from reality, obsessed with trivial issues, and interested in narratives over facts.
• Wokeism is essentially a new form of Marxism ("Race/Gender Marxism"), where the lens of oppression shifts from the Bourgeois vs. the working class to different racial, sexual, and gender groups.
• This ideology creates a hierarchy of oppression where groups deemed more victimized (e.g., ethnic minorities, women) are considered morally superior, while successful groups (e.g., white people, or even high-achieving Asians in America) are viewed as suspect or oppressors. This generalized, simplistic view of people, treating them as groups rather than individuals, is destructive.
• The Harm of Victimhood:
  • Adopting a victimhood mindset acts as a perceptual filter, predetermining negative outcomes (perception is projection). People who believe they are victims look for and find evidence of discrimination, even when it doesn't exist (e.g., the scar experiment).
  • It fosters learned helplessness, as opposed to resilience and strength, which are the messages truly needed by people who suffer discrimination.
  • Victimhood may offer temporary emotional relief (feeling understood) but does not actually improve life outcomes.
• Echoing Marxism, woke ideology frames unequal outcomes among identity groups as evidence of systemic oppression and seeks to engineer equality of outcome rather than equality of opportunity. The pursuit of equal outcomes, while superficially attractive and virtue signalling, harms society. A more effective approach is to focus on policies that guarantee equal opportunities for everyone.

How To Be More Hopeful In A Cynical World - Chris Williamson with Dr Jamil Zaki

Dr Jamil Zaki is a psychologist, a professor at Stanford University, and an author. In a world filled with fake news, bad news and doom, it’s easy to become cynical. But what does science say about whether cynicism helps or harms us? Why is it so seductive, and how can we all learn to become more hopeful? Expect to learn why people are so tempted by cynicism, how scepticism is different, if cynical people are more or less happy, healthy, intelligent and successful, whether there is a reason to feel more hopeful, the role of optimism in your life, how to cultivate more positivity and much more…

Defining and Understanding Cynicism

• Psychologically, cynicism is a theory about people: the belief that individuals are generally selfish, greedy, and dishonest, leading to an unwillingness to trust them.
• Cynicism is considered the result of turning the "negativity bias" into an entire worldview. Negativity bias is the ancient, useful tendency of the mind to pay more attention to harmful or threatening information than positive information.
• A cynic not only focuses on negative information but elevates this bias into a philosophy, using it to predict a negative future.
• Cynicism acts as a "safety blanket" or preemptive strike against perceived threats, setting oneself up against disappointment and the pain of betrayal or failure. It is described as folding every hand in poker immediately to guarantee not losing in a big way.
• Comedian George Carlin’s quote, "if you scratch a cynic you'll find a disappointed idealist," suggests cynicism often stems from being hurt and seeking safety, not necessarily from contempt.

The Behaviours and Detrimental Effects of Cynicism

• Unwillingness to Trust: Cynics are much less willing to trust in all settings, including strangers, public figures, and even friends and family. They view trust—decisions where one puts their well-being in another's hands—as "for suckers".

• Preemptive Strikes: Believing everyone is selfish leads cynics to go on the attack first; they are more likely to spy on, threaten, or act selfishly themselves, as they assume others will do the same.

• Negative Outcomes: Cynicism is immensely dangerous in the long term, causing individuals to slowly lose what makes life fulfilling (connection, friendship, collaboration). Cynics, over time, become more depressed and lonely, suffer from heart disease, and die younger (higher all-cause mortality).

• Professional and Financial Harm: Cynics perform more poorly professionally and earn less money over their careers. They view leadership as taking advantage of others, which fails because rising to the top requires building teams and relationships based on trust and collaboration.

• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Cynicism can bring out the worst in other people, acting as a self-fulfilling prophecy. For example, a fire chief who treated his entire staff like cheaters saw sick days double, as employees decided to live up to the selfish person their boss assumed they were.

The Ape that Understood the Universe: How the Mind and Culture Evolve - by Steve Stewart-Williams

The Ape that Understood the Universe: How the Mind and Culture Evolve Hardcover - by Steve Stewart-Williams

The Ape that Understood the Universe is the story of the strangest animal in the world: the human animal. It opens with a question: How would an alien scientist view our species? What would it make of our sex differences, our sexual behaviour, our child-rearing patterns, our moral codes, our religions, our languages, and science? The book tackles these issues by drawing on ideas from two major schools of thought: evolutionary psychology and cultural evolutionary theory. The guiding assumption is that humans are animals and that, like all animals, we evolved to pass on our genes.

At some point, however, we also evolved the capacity for culture - and from that moment, culture began evolving in its own right. This transformed us from a mere ape into an ape capable of reshaping the planet, travelling to other worlds, and understanding the vast universe of which we're but a tiny, fleeting fragment.

1. The Power of the Alien Perspective

To understand ourselves, we must first see ourselves as strange. The book begins with a thought experiment: how would an alien scientist view our species? This "outsider's perspective" allows us to question behaviors and norms that we take for granted, prompting a deeper inquiry into why we are the way we are. The alien's confusion over our complex social structures, mating rituals, and cultural practices sets the stage for the book's exploration of human nature.

2. We Are "Gene Machines"

Stewart-Williams champions a "gene's-eye view" of evolution, a concept popularised by Richard Dawkins. This perspective posits that our bodies and minds are essentially vehicles built by our genes to ensure their own survival and replication. This doesn't mean we are consciously driven by a desire to pass on our genes, but that our behaviours and psychological traits have been shaped by natural selection to achieve this end.

Evolutionary Psychology - The Diary of a CEO with Dr Gad Saad

Dr Gad Saad is an evolutionary psychologist and Professor of Marketing at Concordia University. He is also the author of books such as, ‘The Parasitic Mind’ and ‘The Saad Truth About Happiness: 8 Secrets for Leading the Good Life’.

The Evolutionary Pursuit of Truth and Freedom

• Dr. Gad Saad devotes his life to the pursuit of truth and the defence of freedoms.
• The pursuit of truth is seen through the scientific method, accepting that truth is provisional and requires epistemological humility.
• Freedom entails that no research should be off-limits, as long as it is pursued in an unbiased manner pursuant to the scientific method.
• A growing intrusion of the concept of "forbidden knowledge" suggests that research might be suppressed if it is perceived to offend or marginalize a group.
• Science exists independently of whether it supports one's ideology. Trying to understand cancer, for example, requires studying it honestly, not advocating for it.
• The rejection of biology in explaining human affairs (biophobia) is seen as the initial trigger for the subsequent rise of parasitic ideas like wokeness.

The Evolutionary Behavioral Science Framework

• Evolutionary behavioral science argues that human behavior cannot be studied without understanding how evolution shaped the human mind. This approach looks for the ultimate Darwinian signatures in human phenomena.
• A key challenge is the negation of innate and evolved sex differences in social sciences, often leading to professional consequences for researchers. Research showing female superiority is often accepted, while research showing male superiority is suppressed to avoid promoting "sexist patriarchal stereotypes".
• Humans are biological beings shaped by sexual and natural selection, and this foundational principle is often denied in academic and social contexts.

Do This Every Morning to Reduce Stress and Anxiety - Dr Rangan Chatterjee with Dr Joe Dispenza

The Foundational Role of Thoughts and Emotions

• Your current personality, defined by how you think, act, and feel, creates your personal reality. Consequently, nothing changes in your life until you change your personality.
• Thoughts can profoundly impact health: chronic stress, often driven by negative thoughts and emotions (such as fear, anger, resentment, guilt, shame), activates the body's emergency system, leading to a biological state of dis-ease and downregulating genes for health while upregulating those for disease. Conversely, positive thoughts and elevated emotions can make you well.
• The brain, being a record of the past, tends to repeat familiar patterns: 90% of thoughts are the same as the day before, and by age 35, 95% of who we are is a set of memorised behaviours, unconscious habits, and emotional responses.

Understanding and Breaking Addictions

• Most addictions, whether to substances, gaming, media, or even complaining, are fundamentally attempts to self-regulate an underlying emotional state, often originating from past trauma.