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Kelly Wilde is an artist, podcaster, performer, meditation mentor and poet who has been exploring the intersections of soul explorations, creative work and rewilding. She also happens to be my wife, and this episode fell on our 18-month anniversary — it’s a particularly juicy conversation and easily the most personal conversation that I've aired to date.In this conversation, we dance around a range of personal topics including: 🪨  Reflections on the last couple of decades of her life—from existential reckonings, identity crises, multiple career paths and rock-bottom moments that she has been through—and how these challenges have given way to a deeper clarity, knowing herself more intimately and beginning the process of what she describes as rewilding the feral aspects of her psyche.🧘  This led into the story of our experience at a 10-day meditation retreat we attended in Mexico last year, and how reflecting on death led to us getting married a mere two weeks later.❣️  We also talk about our reflections on the value we found from working with a couple's therapist, early on in our marriage and how being aware of what she calls the skeleton woman archetype has helped us to navigate rocky moments along the way in our partnership.I hope you enjoy this intimate conversation with the love of my life, Kelly Wilde.***Where to find Kelly on the Interwebs:📸   Instagram: @kellywildexo🎙️  Podcast: Wild on Purpose  👩‍🎨  Website: kellywilde.art

Conni and I have collaborated on a number of projects over the years and we've both followed remarkably similar paths from the world of entrepreneurship into the world of breathwork & nervous system science. In this conversation, Conni starts off by sharing some of her personal journey, her various heartbreaks and compartmentalisation of her sexuality that led her from being a very successful travel writer into being a prolific creator in the world of personal development and ultimately to the work she's doing now as a breath coach. From there we pretty rapidly dive go into the nitty-gritty aspects of breathwork and unpack some of the nervous system neurobiology that we've both been learning... including: 🌬️ How some of the functional breathing practices have impacted her life and the lives of the clients she works with, what it means to have a dysregulated breathing pattern and how to begin correcting this.🫁  She goes on a myth-busting roll, talking about common misperceptions around the role of CO2, we both share our concerns with Wim Hof training and riff on the importance of honing our sixth sense of 'interception'. 🧠  How helpful it has been for us to gain an embodied understanding of the difference between our 'Ventral' & 'Dorsal' branches of the parasympathetic nervous system.🤯   This episode might feel like a lot of information if you're just hearing this for the first time, but I encourage you to stay with it my hope is that there will be some real nuggets for everyone listening regardless of how much knowledge you currently have.– – – – – 👨‍🎓  Nervous System Mastery Online BootcampRegain control of your body + mind — cultivating effortless calm & sustained focus. Upon completion of this intensive 5-week Bootcamp you will be equipped with science-backed protocols & have built your own personalised "Human Operating System" — enabling you to regulate stress in real-time, rewire breathing patterns & reset your nervous system.  Dates: Oct 17 – Nov 22Learn more here: nsmastery.com– – – – –🙋‍♀️  Where to find Conni Online🖥️   Website + blog: conni.me💌   Her awesome newsletter: flow + wonder🎙️  Conni's 'CREATE' podcast📸   Instagram: @breathwork.alchemy🐦  Twitter @connibe

In one of the longest and most wide-ranging episodes to date, this conversation is with filmmaker, poet, relationship coach and utterly unique human being Alice Frank—who is here as she says to proudly "eff the ineffable".Her book 'My Real Name Is You' has been loved by Eckhart Tolle said 'My favourite poem I ever heard' and Jason Mraz who shared: 'Her words are alive the same way notation can fly off a page and become sweet music.'I'm slightly at a loss for words attempting to describe the ground that we covered but I will add that she is one of the most present people I've ever met and has a truly astounding capacity to articulate the great mysteries of life. Here's a sampling of where our conversation led:✨ Her spiritual awakening that lasted for a decade and what her experience was of being no-one (and the challenges of living so deeply in the present)... followed by what she described as her 'breakup with god'.😆 Why we lose touch with our sense of play and why we should strive to 'relieve reality of its seriousness'. I loved that one of her favourite mantras is 'Can you imagine if it mattered? Can you imagine if it mattered?' ❤️ Her journey from the depths of polyamory to more recently getting married, reframing un-conditional love to 'all-conditional' love & how she now coaches couples to remember what this even means. 🎴 Her current meditation practice and why she created a 'silent retreat in a box' — a beautiful series of mantra cards to create your own home meditation retreat (definitely check this out!)***Explore Alice's Homepage + Portfolio // UniamoryConnect with Alice on Instagram // @uniamory

Max Stossel is an award-winning poet (whose short films have been seen over 40 million times) advisor to Tech for Humanity, successful filmmaker and all-around wise human who I'm grateful to call a brother.In this poetic + lyrical conversation we explore:🖋️ The journey that led him from designing notification systems at a social media company to exploring the art and science of attention.📱 The dangers of smartphone addiction + practical questions as users that we can be asking ourselves📝 How he describes his work as a blend of poetry, standup comedy and storytelling💔 How he's found the courage to lean into painful experiences and get curious about heartbreak🦅 How his writing workshop on avoidance and imposter syndrome led to my publishing a short poetry book.🙋‍♂️ His experience and insights from leading men's groups and how this work has changed his life for the better***See Max in action // wordsthatmove.comConnect with Max on Twitter // @MaxStossel

This is one HELL of an episode with honestly one of the most interesting and radical thinkers of our generation.Jamie is a renaissance man. He's well known for his work writing Stealing Fire and creating the Flow Genome Project—and as you'll hear in our conversation the book he has just published is unlike anything else you'll ever read.I see Jamie as being a bridge between the spiritual and the scientific. He's pioneering studies with Johns Hopkins and MAPS whilst wading deep into questions of how to we evolve and mature as humans or in his words—how do we "Stay awake. Build stuff. And help out."In this conversation which felt more like a science-fiction rhapsody we bounce around between:🤯  Why we're facing a new Meaning Crisis and the dangers of 'Rapture Ideologies'🧘‍♂️  The Hedonic Yoga of Becoming experiment he dreamt up and ran with after a conversation with Roland Grifiths at MAPS💔  We talk about grief and the real need for cultivating a culture of post-traumatic growth🎮  How he's planning on launching a post-modern religion in hyperspace taking the form of an alternate reality game called Y-ANON. Truly this has been one of my favourite and mind-bending conversations to date—if you enjoyed it please take a few moments to share on the socials, go out and buy his book Recapture the Rapture and start experimenting with some of the protocols and practices that he shares (Bonus points if you send Jamie a letter telling him what you’ve done!)***📚 Buy Jamie’s New Book // recapturetherapture.com🎙️ Listen to his 'HomeGrown Humans' podcast📸 Follow on IG // @flowgenome💌 Subscribe to the Flow Genome Newsletter

Dr. Bill Plotkin is a depth psychologist, wilderness guide and visionary ecopsychologist—his work might well be the map that you didn't know you were looking for. It has been for me an immense treasure trove of practical wisdom and guidance for thinking about my own growth and maturity.At the end of our conversation, he shared that this was a book written for future generations—and I believe it may take decades before the importance of this body of work is fully understood.I hope that this conversation will play some role in spreading his ideas—and on that note, in this deep dive conversation we explore:🤓  His definition for what it means to be a genuine adult (and why he believes 80% of humanity are currently stuck in early-stage adolescence)🗺️  His map of the five stages of the descent to soul and the path to becoming a true elder🌎  His 'four facets of mind' as a unique framework for personal development a and cultivating human wholeness❤️  What he calls 'sacred wound work' a story of the weavings of the Native American Diné people🔥  What I consider my own mythopoetic identity to be based on an insight during a vision fast in Nepal🙋‍♂️  The big question that he would have liked to pose to Carl Jung❓  What it means for him to 'fill one's space with a question'🏫  His vision for this work to be put into practice by a global network of 'mystery schools'***Read Bill's book // The Journey of Soul InitiationGo Deeper // explore the upcoming Animas Offerings

This seeds for this conversation were planted at the end of last year when I was listening to a podcast called ‘Hack Reality’ and Cris shared her phone number at the end of the episode—I sent her a voice memo about the Poet David Whyte... we since became good friends and when COVID hit she followed an intuitive hit to reach out and ended up living with us here in Oaxaca Mexico for a month.Cris has one of the most eclectic backgrounds you’ll come across. She went from founding a venture-backed AI fashion company, to hosting a podcast about the future of technology, and more recently has taken a left turn into the world of trauma healing and spent the better part of the last three years designing a card deck for exploring shadow emotions—which is about to launch on Kickstarter.So as I said, one hell of an eclectic background and as such our conversation dances around between:🔥 Insights from exploring the money stories and the rock bottom moment of having to shut down her company on short notice👣 Learning how to connect with her intuition following an assignment to follow her curiosity walking barefoot around San Francisco❤️ Her experiences working with MDMA and LSD-assisted therapyAnd then things go off the deep end and she talks about a kundalini awakening experience she had in an ancient Mayan Ruin, and about 52 minutes in Cris shares her roadmap and toolkit for people to begin with Shadow work, navigate existential crises and exploring the roots of their repressed emotions and the vision she has for her card deck being used as an Emotional Guidance System.🐉 I thoroughly encourage you to check-out the card deck Cris spent the last three years designing over on Kickstarter.Alright, that’s more than enough rambling from me. If you appreciate this conversation please do give Curious Humans a review on iTunes and share with someone else who you think might appreciate it.

Arthur Worsley is a close friend of mine that I met in Bali where over many dinners together he educated me in the tactics for learning Bhasa, memorising my TEDx talk and really opened my eyes to the world of meta-learning that he has specialised in. Back in the day, he studied neurophysiology at Oxford in the UK and since became conversationally fluent in 8 languages and also applies his learning superpowers to things like ultra-marathon running and collecting wisdom from the crazy number of books he reads.In this wide-ranging conversation, we dive into the simultaneous devastating personal loss and financial gain that he received nearly a decade ago and how that was a catalyst for reinventing himself. He also walks me through how he thinks about procrastination and the four main causes of it, his approach for cultivating and tracking mindful metta moments and some thoughts on how his life may be altered by the child that he and his fiancé are expecting.📚 Read Arthur's book reviews, ongoing meta-learning insights, his habit tracker and (free) book on working less hard here: theartofliving.com

Dr. Christian Busch directs the CGA Global Economy Program at (NYU) and teaches on purpose-driven business, entrepreneurship, emerging markets, and (social) innovation at NYU and at the London School of Economics (LSE). Christian is also the co-founder of Sandbox Network, a leading community of young innovators, as well as of Leaders on Purpose—an organization convening leading CEOs. He has a host of impressive accolades to his name, one of the Davos 50, an RSA fellow and frequently speaks at the World Economic Forum. He's also the author of a fascinating new book called 'The Serendipity Mindset' that we really dive into in this conversation.🎙️ In this wide-ranging conversation, we talk about what he learned from his near-death car accident at 17, his journey from economics lecturer to writing a book about cultivating smart luck, surefire ways of having dull conversations and some tangible suggestions for building the muscle of serendipity in one's own life.📚 You can say hi to Christian on Twitter @ChrisSerendip. And I strongly encourage you to get your mitts on a copy of Christian's new book 'The Serendipity Mindset'💌  Are you curious and also human? Signup for my monthly musings here >> jonny.life

Casper Ter Kuile is one of the most genuinely joy-filled humans that I have had the pleasure of knowing.In this conversation we do a deep dive into his new book 'The Power of Ritual' which is out the day this episode airs, it’s honestly a perspective-shifting and heart-warmingly beautiful book on discovering the sacred amidst everyday life and seeing the world through the eyes of ritual. It's a real corker of a conversation! A few of the stories + questions we dive into are:⛪   Some of his early experiences as a climate activist that unexpectedly led him to Harvard Divinity School🙏   Redefining what it means for something to be 'sacred'⏳   Why he loves the powerful idea of liturgical time🤔   What he considers to be some of the enemies of ritual 📝   How to go about designing your own rituals amidst the lockdown.❤️   Rituals that we've both created to foster meaningful connection with our respective partners amidst the quarantine📆   How he has managed to create a secular sabbath for himself (and stick to it for over 4 years)🧙‍♂️   His favourite Harry Potter scene (this is unexpectedly powerful!)🎙️   The one lesson that he's taken away from working with the OnBeing team.***Where to find Casper on the interwebs Say hi to Casper on Twitter @CaspkerTK Join some of the virtual events Casper is leading Read 'How We Gather' for free online Join Casper's Newsletter (it's superb) 📚  Finally... I strongly encourage you to get your mitts on a copy of Casper's new book 'The Power of Ritual' 💌  Are you curious and also human? Signup for my monthly musings here >> jonny.life

All I can say is that you're in for a treat with this conversation. Erick Godsey studies the myths that make us—he uses cognitive, evolutionary, and Jungian psychology to help people discover, articulate, and change the stories that rule their lives.Here is a mere smidge of the ground that we covered:💊   Erick's view on the broken system of Western medicine and why SSRIs and psychiatric drugs are no better than a placebo.🎭   His perspective on a psychological model called 'Internal Family Systems' that articulates the multitudes of characters within us all.🧙‍♂️  The Jungian book on mature masculine archetypes that changed his life and the way he shows up in relationship.😴   Why it's worth paying more attention to our dreams.📝   The journal prompt that he would prescribe to someone who is looking at the world in despair right now and feeling overwhelmed with the crises that are unfolding.🤔  Why no human is equipped with the biological apparatus to perceive the actual world, but that we create models that are useful to us.✊  The spiritual commitment he made to write morning pages for an hour every day after hitting rock bottom.❤️  His views on grief as the active process of digesting attachments to love.🖋️  The tragic beauty of the human condition—that we suffer so much more than we have to, because of the stories that we tell ourselves🐺  Why the ego is NOT the enemy, but more like a wolf (and how to join forces with it) Books & Blog Posts Referenced King, Warrior, Magican, Lover—the book we both read and loved on the four mature masculine archetypes. The Life-Changing Magic of Journaling—a must-read post by Erick for anyone wanting to go deeper into internal family systems, journaling practices and Jungian archetypes. Prometheus Unchained—a deep dive into how to share your highest gifts with the world.Where to find Erick G. on the interwebs 📸   Instagram @erickgodsey📝   Erick's Ten Blog Posts You Should Read 💌   Signup for his Feasting Fridays newsletter 🎙️  Listen to his Myths that Make us podcast💰  Support him on Patreon📚  See the books that changed his myth👨‍🎓  Join me and take his Make Your Myth online course 💌  Are you curious and also human? Signup for monthly musings here >> jonny.life 

This conversation is with a close friend of mine, Andi Cuddington—I think of her as a modern-day renaissance woman and I’ll typically turn to her for advice if I’m going through something challenging in my life.  Andi is just endlessly curious and has a totally unique lens on the world as you’ll hear in our conversation. She has had a thousand side-hustles and jobs in her non-linear career but many of the dots have connected and she has found her calling designing and facilitating workshops—more than anyone else I've encountered, she has mastered of the art + science of workshop facilitation and we do a deep dive into some of her tips and suggestions as well as:✔️  Unexpected items on her "Apoco-list"🤔  How we’re both fuelled by the fear of boredom🌎  How backpacking in Africa shaped her future career trajectory🏔️  The intriguring connection between adventure and curiosity👨‍🎓  Tips for what makes an exceptional facilitation experience👩‍🏫  Superb advice for those dipping their toes into virtual workshop creation.🔑  Unlocking the genius in the room, one workshop at a time... and much more!–– ––🙋‍♂️  Learn more about Andi's facilitation superpowers here: andicuddington.com💌 Be notified about new episodes and receive the Curious Humans newsletter here >> jonny.life

This was a wide-ranging conversation with emotional intelligence coach Emile Steenveld—previously an Australian model and actor traveling the globe for 12 years—he now works as a coach + facilitator, focusing on the inner workings of the relationship with the self and the mind.In this conversation we dive into:🇮🇳 Emile's travels in India, learning lessons of simplicity... defining joy as the happiness that doesn't depend on what happens.🦆 One of the most interesting tangents the topic of being a recovering perfectionist and what he calls duck syndrome💪  How to build the muscle of emotional intelligence🤷‍♂️  And some questions that have been running through my mind around Exploring new definitions of masculinity and how to express fully without fear of judgment.📝  Journal prompts that Emile uses when starting new projects.–– ––🔗 Find out more about Emile's work and coaching here.💌 Be notified about new episodes and receive the Curious Humans newsletter here >> jonny.life👨‍🎓 If our conversation resonates with you, I'm also running a masterclass with Studio D. in San Francisco on March 27—so if that sounds interesting check them out here: https://studiodradiodurans.com/products/emotional-resillience-masterclass

I talk with Andy Sparks, is the CEO at Holloway, they're building a new way to publish non-fiction books online (and it's gorgeous!) He's an incredibly genuine and self-aware human, it was a real pleasure spending time learning about his journey stepping into a position of leadership and forging his own path in life.Andy shares really dark moments early on in his career when he was trying to figure out where your sense of self comes from as a young person and figure out his place in the world.In this episode we also dive into:😦 What it was like making the decision to close his company (and how he navigated a deep depression that followed)🤣 The fun story behind his Calvin Hobbes tattoo👨‍🏭 Why getting an executive coach has been one of the most important things in his professional career🧰 Some powerful advice he received on how to build a support network from the founder of Masterclass👐 How he now aims to navigate conflict with his cofounder at Holloway🙋‍♂️ Taking responsibility for what we feel and why you don't have a choice about bring your kookiness and trauma to work🤓 We also nerd out on some of his leadership mental models and frameworks that he has gathered over the years of being a founder and CEO– –📚 Follow Andy's musings on Twitter @Sparkszilla // read his Medium essay on confidence or check Holloway (especially if you're a non-fiction writer).💌Be notified about new episodes and receive the Curious Humans newsletter here >> jonny.life👨‍🎓 If our conversation resonates with you, I'm also running a masterclass with Studio D. in San Francisco on March 27—so if that sounds interesting check them out here: https://studiodradiodurans.com/products/emotional-resillience-masterclass

If you haven't already heard of Breathwork, I think it's fair to say that you that you likely will have by the end of the year. It's exploding in popularity, in the same way that yoga and meditation has over the last decade, and I think for good reason.On a basic level  breathwork is the practice of changing your breathing pattern to shift your mental, emotional and physical state... but what I deeply appreciate about Edward is his clinical approach that is backed by years of training, endocrinology research and self-experimentation mapping out the human nervous system.The aim of this conversation was to create something of a comprehensive beginners guide to breathwork and some of the areas we dive into are: 🏂 Ed's personal journey from being trapped in an avalanche and nearly dying, which led him to being a highly functioning alcoholic and depressive.😬 His experiences curing anxiety through 1-1 breathwork sessions with his clients🌬️ Why our thinking is directly influenced by our breathing🗺️ How he has been able to map certain emotions onto specific breathing patterns. 🧙‍♂️ What he learnt from living with the Canadian Tribal Elders 🙋‍♂️ Some of my personal experiences lying on Ed's breathwork table📝 Defining capacity + resiliency from the perspective of the nervous system.😲 Some of the healing that he has witnessed in his time guiding sessions: from a man who relived and processed a near-drowning experience to stories of women who have been able to process experiences of sexual abuse.Links and Further Resources:📸 Follow @edwarddangerfield and @breathworkbali 🔗 Check out BreathworkBali.com📚 Ed's Breathwork book recommendations 🔖 My friend Conni's guide to breathwork resourcesEd's Upcoming Breathwork Practitioner Trainings are a 5 Day Training in Bali (Feb 15 – 21) and a 14 Day in-depth training in BC Canada (May 15 – June 1) I will be attending both myself!

I'm speaking with Andrew J Taggart, a practical philosopher, Zen Buddhist, and entrepreneur urging us to wake up to what we have so far taken for granted. In this conversation we discuss the thesis of his Total Work Manifesto and why we use our work and productivity to fuel our sense of self-worth and create meaning in our lives, as well as his compelling ideas for how we might break out of this Total Work prison that he calls Way of Loss and the Way of Wonderment.I should also mention that about one and half hours in, I ask Andrew to imagine an all hands on deck academy, or ecology of practices designed to become whole and integrated humans. His answer is insightful but the day after our conversation he wrote up an extended reply which he has posted on his blog with the title 'A Tentative Curriculum For Psycho-technologies Of Self-transformation' (it's well worth a read!)Show Notes:👋 Say hello to Andrew on Twitter 📝Subscribe to Andrew's ongoing Total Work Manifesto on Substack 👀 Read Andrew's philosophical writing🖋️ Follow his emerging conversations over on letter.wiki💌Be notified about new episodes and receive the Curious Humans newsletter here: jonny.life

In this conversation we get into the meaty questions about his new book that's hitting the shelves this week called 'Why Are We Yelling', a whimsical and disarmingly powerful case and strategy guide for having what Buster calls productive disagreement.We cover three truths or misconceptions about arguments that you have uncovered, why he likes to eat knowledge, he coaches me through the process of engaging in a disagreement around climate change and we talk about some of the enemies of curiosity and what he calls the voice of possibility.Then towards the end we explore some fun ground around:📖 Why he's writing a 'Codex Vitae'🎈 His 100th birthday plans💀 What death-bed points are 📷 Why he took a photo at exactly 8.36pm every day for almost a decade.Check out Buster's New Book // Why Are We Yelling: The Art of Productive DisagreementBuster's Website // busterbenson.comBuster on Twitter // @buster Buster on Letter Wiki // Letter.Wiki💌Be notified about new episodes and receive the Curious Humans newsletter here >> jonny.life

This was a real honour, Mike is trained as a magician and also the CEO at 'High Existence' — a community and network of practical philosophy and for expanding human consciousness — and he's one of the most articulate and poetic people I've had the pleasure of meeting.If we can't fall in love with the privilege that we have to be alive, then anything that we try and do from this place of living, is is going to be limited." Mike and I riff on definitions of wonder, ambition, grief, the role of inviting in the unexpected, the difference between purpose and destiny, and so much more.Get in touch with Mike on Twitter // where he cultivates wisdom & wonder @highexistence

Anne-Laure is an ex-Googler, a talented writer and part-time neuroscience student. We bounce around between topics that resonated with me personally including: time anxiety, why we don't tend to take curiosity seriously as adults, a powerful technique for personal growth she's developed called 'Mindframing' and her recent decision to leave Google in order to go back to study neuroscience at Kings in London.Find Anne-Laure on Twitter, read her articles on Ness Labs or sign-up for her Maker Mind newsletter.

I've been listening to Cory's podcast the Astral Hustle for years now so had so much fun being on the other end of the line and digging into his fascinating mind—he has an amazing gift for walking a line between being ridiculous and playful yet also filled with deep insights and practical tips on mindfulness.We didn't have time to cover it in this episode but Cory has a background in music and also produces Binaural Beats, which I've been using daily for the last few months to both meditate and focus at work – and you can find these as well as the lowdown on his new book 'Now is the Way' – which is available from today at nowistheway.com 📚This was another of those conversations that just lit me up 🔥it felt like the time flew by but we bounced between the role of humour in spiritual exploration and the 'upside of impermanence' to some of the more practical aspects meditation, how it changes the way we experience the world and how we can get out of our own way to risk being more human."The fragments of the self that are shattered you know the different pieces of you that exist within they’re the broken pieces of the mirror that been through the meditation or through creating the space they have the space to start to reconnect into one singular piece of mirror of yourself so that you can look into it and quote-unquote reflect and then begin to understand what you are and then begin to author your future." – Cory Allen***📝Read the full transcript with Cory here.📚Cory's new book 'Now is the Way' is officially out today and I would thoroughly encourage you all to head over to nowistheway.com and add it to your respective reading lists. 💌Be notified about new episodes and receive the Curious Humans newsletter here >>jonny.life