Listen Now

Today on the podcast I sit down with my old friend Dan Berstein to talk about mental health. We talk about his personal experiences with bipolar disorder, we discuss different perspectives on mental health and we dive into some of the work he has done as a mental health professional, most recently as a mediator focusing on communication and conflict resolution in mental health. Just a little background about Dan. He was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in college at the age of 19 after a manic episode. Since then, he has spent 10 years learning about communities in mental health and developing skills that could help improve how people communicate about mental health issues and the different perspectives in mental health. He spent some time in law school and learned about mental health law, he interned at The Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, and he studied at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in the mental health department to learn more about the science of mental illness and mental disorders. He trained as a mediator with the New York Peace Institute and sat on their mediator advisory board where he learned more about different conflict resolution processes. He has been a facilitator and operations committee member of the Mood Disorders Support Group of New York where he facilitated support groups for people living with bipolar disorder, unipolar depression, anyone with any kind of mental disorder under 30 and their family members and supporters. He hosted The National Dialogue on Mental Health in their first event in NYC and the first one around the country that brought together different stakeholders and then he was asked to give a webinar for all the future event organizers to learn how to do the same. He has given trainings to mediators in over 10 states and has facilitated webinars for the National Association for Community Mediation and for the federal government teaching people about how to communicate better about mental health issues. Thanks for tuning in everybody! Related Resources MH Mediate How My Family Could Have Used Mediation During My Bipolar Disorder Subscribe to Dan's Newsletter

In this episode of the podcast I sit down with a special guest, world-renowned DJ Rob Swift (aka Brolic Arm), and together we take a deep dive into the world of DJing. Rob was first introduced to the turntables as a young kid, where he spent years learning his way around the turntable under the guidance of his older brother and father. Then, in 1991, he joined a Harlem-based DJ crew known as the X-ecutioners (originally the X-Men). Within a year he won the DMC east coast title and became an unstoppable force in the DJ world. Rob and the X-ecutioners achieved mainstream success, part of which was fueled by their hit ‘It’s Goin Down,’ which they did in collaboration with Linkin Park. Eventually, Rob decided to head out on his own to establish himself as a solo artist and to reclaim some of the creative energy that he felt was lost during the group’s rise to mainstream success. Rob hit the ground running in his solo career, starting with an album he released in 1998 called ‘The Ablist’ and following that up with 4 more solo albums. Over his career, he’s experimented with all types of genres - hip hop, jazz, classical music - and collaborated with artists ranging from Jay-Z, Linkin Park and the Red Hot Chili Peppers to Bob James and Herbie Hancock. He has made appearances on The Tonight Show and Late Night with David Letterman, he has toured all over the world and even DJ’ed for ESPN’s first late night sports entertainment show. It is through all of these efforts that he has explored and pushed the limits of his own creative potential. But wait, there’s more. For the past six years Rob has dedicated himself to passing on the art and craft of DJing as a professor at The New School in NYC and through offering private DJ lessons. And now, Rob is set to release his first full-length album in six years called X-Files: Lost & Deleted. It’s a collection of rare, remixed and reinterpreted songs from Rob’s archives. Rob currently has an active Kickstarter campaign to raise money for this album (link below). It looks like he recently reached his goal, which is awesome and I bet he is really excited about that. Feel free to still contribute to the campaign, as I am sure this will be very much appreciated. On a personal note, I learned a great deal from talking with Rob and watching and listening to a lot of the tracks and videos that he sent me before we sat down. The making of this episode was a blast to learn about a world that I previously knew very little about, not to mention Rob is just an awesome guy. Thanks for tuning in, enjoy! P.S. There’s about a 45 second clip between my intro and the beginning of the discussion with Rob. Those are clips from ‘As The Technics Spin,’ which is a documentary about Rob and gives some great insight into him and DJing. I posted the link below if you want to watch it on YouTube. Related Resources X-Files: Lost & Deleted - Kickstarter Campaign DJ Rob Swift's Website Dope on Plastic (Rob's online radio show) X-ecutioners - DMC Finals 1999 As The Technics Spin DJ Rob Swift on YouTube DJ Rob Swift on Facebook DJ Rob Swift on Twitter Master Class with DJ Rob Swift Jen's Battle at The New School Wild Style

In this episode, Barry Shore takes us through his incredible journey of healing from a rare disease known as Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) that suddenly left him completely paralyzed over a decade ago. After the rapid onset of the paralysis that resulted from GBS, Barry spent months in the hospital as doctors first had to stop the disease in its tracks and then had to assist him in beginning the long recovery process. One of the striking and key pieces to Barry's story of recovery are the many amazing people that have been there for him along the way. There are the doctors and the other medical practitioners who administered great care to him, fought for him to get the best equipment possible and even created new gadgets to improve his stay in the hospital when all he could do was blink an eye. There are his friends and other members of the community who pushed him to begin aquatic therapy to regain movement, which served to kickstart his passion for swimming and the water (he now spends many hours a week in the pool and has swam over 5,000 miles). There is his aide, who I had the privilege of meeting that day and he has been with Barry for 12 hours a day, 6 days a week for almost a decade. And most importantly, Barry has had his family and wife, who have been his greatest allies in this process, doing everything from bringing him home-cooked meals for every single meal during his months in the hospital to turning him over in bed throughout the night during the early days of his recovery. But this story is also very much about Barry himself and his approach to life. I quickly realized when speaking with Barry that his own mindset has been an essential tool in his entire healing process. As he says, he is an "oozer." He oozes optimism, happiness and JOY! He is also extremely grateful for the gifts that life has given him and he seems to constantly be expressing that. I have no doubt that this optimism and outlook on life were key components in enabling Barry to so triumph on his incredible journey of recovery. It was a real pleasure to meet Barry and I found this to be an inspiring story not just of healing, but also of living each day to the fullest and building a mindset that allows you to do just that. I hope you enjoy the episode, thanks for tuning in! Related Resources Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) Keep Smiling cards Barry Shore: How Total Immersion Changed My Life Total Immersion Swimming

The season 1 finale has arrived. What a ride it has been thus far. If you would’ve told me a couple of months ago that we would make it to this point, I don’t think I would have believed you, not because I consider you to be a liar, but mainly because I didn’t realize we were doing this season by season, so how could I have known there would be a finale? Yet here we are, amazing. In this episode we go on a musical tour de force of New Orleans with a quick detour (missed the exit sign) to Baton Rouge. Blues, jazz, Russian hooligan songs, street music, sounds from the LSU football game, it’s a season finale for the ages. The music was flat out incredible, firing on all brass cylinders day after day, night after night. I said get up on stage and play me some songs, son, and that’s what you did. But you didn’t just do it because your name was on the chalkboard outside the club, you did it because it’s your way of speaking with us and the message we received is that you have no choice but to play the heck out of these songs. Someone once told me that in a previous life I was a musician living in the South, so for me this wasn’t just my first trip to New Orleans, but it was really a homecoming of sorts. Thanks for tuning in to this episode and to any others that you have listened to this season. We appreciate the awesome support we have received all season and without you, well, without you we’d have one less listener. And every listener is a reflection of all our listeners, so on that note, we are truly grateful for you taking the time to be here. We will be back with season 2 in mid-May, which is important for you to know so you don’t start frantically waking up in the middle of the night to check iTunes for the season premiere long before it hits the shelves. See you then! Bands and Musicians Yes, Ma'am Debauche The New Orleans Suspects Treme Brass Band King James & The Special Men Cedric Burnside Project Johnny Mastro & MBs Erica Falls Alabama Slim The Preservation Hall-Stars featuring Shannon Powell Sarah McCoy & The Oopsie Daisies Jumbo Shrimp Jazz Band Leah Chase Quartet Venues The Spotted Cat Music Club Preservation Hall d.b.a. Maple Leaf Bar Blue Nile Snug Harbor Jazz Bistro Apple Barrel Candlelight Lounge BJ's Lounge Maison Bourbon

In this episode I sit down with New Orleans-based filmmaker and writer Brian Paul. I met Brian in New Orleans at an art fair right off Frenchmen Street where he had a table set up to promote his movie about train hopping (a subculture that I previously knew very little about) – titled ‘Cure For The Crash.’ After hearing a little about his experience riding the rails and making the movie, I invited him to be on the podcast. I didn’t know much of anything about Brian or his life before we sat down to record, but what followed was a very open and honest look into some of his life experiences and work. We talk about the making of the movie, the writing of his new book "GLACIER 'How the rails became my rehab'" and we also go well beyond that into some very personal experiences and the ways in which mental illness has impacted him and his family. Related Resources Cure For The Crash - Trailer

This week we sit down with Harris, one of my younger brother's closest friends, to talk about his experience with type 2 diabetes. During his junior year of high school, Harris found out he had type 2 diabetes when he was in the hospital being treated for a football injury. It came as a real surprise. And, despite having a family history of diabetes and being overweight, nobody in his family had to face the challenges that come with having the disease at such a young age. Following doctor recommendations, Harris made some small adjustments to his diet and lifestyle in the years following the diagnosis, but it wasn't until graduating college last year (Harris is now 22) that he decided he was going to tackle his diabetes head on and make some real lifestyle changes. Since graduation, Harris has made some serious dietary changes and has already lost a significant amount of weight. In this episode, Harris shares wisdom and insight from his journey, discussing his early struggles and denial, the hurdles he has faced along the way (especially dealing with diabetes during college) and the tools and strategies that he has used to take control of this disease. Thanks for tuning in! Related Resources Mayo Clinic - Type 2 Diabetes National Institutes of Health - Diabetes in Children NYT Blog - Diabetes Prevention

When I arrived in Austin I had two main things that I wanted to accomplish during my time there - visit as many food trucks as possible and listen to a lot of live music (and maybe take a quick swim in Barton Springs Pool). But my plan was quickly thrown into disarray on the first evening when I happened upon the opening night party for the Austin Film Festival at The Driskill Hotel. I had heard of other Austin based festivals such as South By Southwest and Austin City Limits, but the Austin Film Festival (AFF) seemed to fly under the radar. The AFF is known as 'The Writer's Festival.' Many of the workshops are given by famous and accomplished writers and many people in the industry were in attendance specifically for these workshops. Although I am not in the film industry, I eventually got the badge that would give me access to all the events that would be going on that week. In this episode, I take you through my time at the festival - the workshops, the movies, the parties - discussing things that I learned and found interesting along the way. If you're looking for some potentially lesser known but really interesting documentaries, I discuss a few of my favorites. If you write or have an inkling to start, I share some of the great tips that I learned from the screenwriting workshops. Thanks for tuning in! Related Resources  If you only want to listen to the discussion of a specific movie in this episode, the starting time of that discussion is listed next to the links to the movies below. Austin Film Festival Hardy - 12:38 Taking It Back - 27:15 Crazy Carl and His Man-Boobs: An Austin Love Story - Trailer - 41:03 61 Bullets - 43:44 The Barkley Marathons: The Race That Eats Its Young - 51:04 Wild - 59:14 Tomorrow We Disappear - 1:04:44 How I Got Over - 1:08:09 The Texas Promise - 1:10:40 Morphine: Journey of Dreams - 1:14:16

On New Year's Eve, I attempted to compile a cross section of the hopes and dreams of people as they were gearing up for an epic 2015. I arrived at Penn Station with a couple of hours left in 2014 - as the anticipation of the New Year was starting to build - and I walked all around this magnificent train depot asking random people about their resolutions and goals for 2015. I started the night by hanging around the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) tracks and surrounding eating establishments, then I briefly popped onto the subway platforms before moving on to the NJ Transit and Amtrak areas. With a few minutes left before the New Year, I made my way up to the streets and walked towards Times Square. In this episode, you will hear what people had to say. Thanks for tuning in!

While on the road in the South, I passed through Amarillo, Texas for a one night pit stop. When I awoke in Amarillo, I decided it was time to do my laundry so I showed up at a local laundromat with a sack of stinky laundry and a handful of quarters. Maybe I am just an ignorant youngin’ from New York, but I had a preconceived notion about what I would leave the laundromat with on that morning….nothing but a clean bag of clothes. Instead, I crossed paths with the types of people that I hoped I would meet when I first started this podcast – everyday folks who are passionate, inspiring and using their own energy to hopefully contribute to something larger than themselves. It was also a sharp reminder to strike up conversations with strangers because we never know what we might learn from each other when we emerge from the shadow of our own reclusiveness. Although, the occasional silence can still be a good thing (see: our first episode). Related Resources ABC News in Amarillo - Election Interview Palace Coffee Co. Loretta on Facebook

"I love goats, something I did not do for the great bulk of my years on this planet. I love their insouciance, their curiosity, their authority issues, their rapt fascination with almost everything. Living with all of these other animals who revere me for taking care of them, it's refreshing to have goats who regularly nip the hand that feeds them." - Jon Katz Merry Christmas. Happy Hanukkah. Happy Holidays. Thanks for tuning in, we hope you enjoy our first ever Christmas special. I hope everybody has an awesome 2015.

In this podcast episode I sit down with Matt and Jie, newlyweds and Bay Area residents who spent time living and working as expats in Shanghai, China from 2012 through the summer of 2013. Jie, who was born in China but grew up in Seattle, arrived in China several months before Matt and discusses her experience working for a Chinese company and trying to navigate her way through such a different workplace culture. Matt, who was backpacking across the world at the time, arrived in Shanghai later on and he takes us through his job search as an American who did not know how to speak Chinese. We also touch on many other aspects of living as expats abroad (and China specifically) - searching for housing, making friends, acclimating to local food and fashion trends, working around the censorship of major US websites and dealing with the intense pollution. Lots of great stuff, thanks for tuning in everybody! Related Resources Raw Focus - Matt's Blog

Today on the podcast I sit down with my younger sister Jen (AKA Unicorn, Power Betch, etc.). The more time passes, the more this kid continues to impress me. When I look at where she was four or five years ago - deep in the throes of her struggle with depression - and where she is today, it’s hard not to appreciate how far she has come. She still has many of the same daily struggles that she has had her entire life, but through hard work, introspection and dedicating both her studies and work to helping others, she has taken major strides to create a more purposeful and fulfilling life. Mental illness is something that is rarely talked about and I think it is still largely misunderstood in our society. There is little done to educate children and families about these things, so people struggling with any type of mental illness often do not have the support system they need from their communities. In addition, the resources offered by schools in this area might be slim to none, so there might not be anywhere to turn to receive the necessary help and guidance. Having conversations like this is one of the ways I hope that we can begin to break down the barriers surrounding mental illness and hopefully begin to create a stronger community for the people who really need it. If you have any personal experience with mental illness, either yourself or through a close friend or family member, it would be great to hear from you in the comments below. Thanks for tuning in!

While hanging out with a good friend one night, I disclosed to him that I had started meditating. He saw this as a golden opportunity to kick off an intricate, elaborate, well-executed series of events that added up to an epic prank. The prank started in January 2014 and finally came to an end five months later in June. He now considers this prank to be his personal masterpiece, a lifetime of experience culminating in this work of art. At times during that five month span I was confused, paranoid and on the verge of contacting the authorities. In this episode we recount the events that transpired during that period. And on a related note, any episode that we post on a Friday (such as this one) will be of a different theme than the other episodes in the podcast. The goal of the Friday episodes is just to have fun and goof off.

Today on the podcast I sit down with Terry Laughlin to talk swimming. Terry is the founder of Total Immersion (TI), which is the swim technique that he has developed over his 40-year coaching career. The goal of TI is to teach swimmers to move through the water efficiently and this is accomplished by focusing on balance, streamlining and propulsion. In addition to being a swim coach, Terry is also an accomplished swimmer in his own right. He has held records in the 55-59 age group in 1 and 2 mile open water cable swims and he has also completed several marathon-distance swims, including the Manhattan Island Marathon Swim in 2002 and 2006. I came across Terry and Total Immersion about four years ago when I was toying with the idea of completing a short sprint triathlon. At the time, when I first jumped back in the pool, I couldn’t swim more than two or three laps without stopping to catch my breath and give my arms and shoulders a rest. I realized at that point that I wasn’t going to become a better swimmer by just pushing myself to swim more and harder laps every time I got in the pool, so I did some research online as I assumed I was not alone in this struggle and I came across the Total Immersion technique. I read that triathletes and swimmers of all ages and levels had a lot of success in essentially relearning (or learning for the first time) to swim with TI. First, I read Terry’s book to gain a solid understanding of what the technique is all about and then I ended up taking a TI workshop at Terry’s swim studio in New Paltz. After practicing the drills from the workshop and building that muscle memory, my stroke and experience in the pool had been transformed. Not only was I able to swim longer and faster than I could previously, but I was also really enjoying my time in the water. The sense of struggle that I used to feel was gone. There is another thing about Terry’s personal journey as a swimmer and coach that I really thought would be interesting to discuss on this podcast. Even though he started swimming competitively as a young kid, Terry was not an elite high school or college level swimmer. He swam on his high school team and in college at St. John’s University, but as he describes it he was normally the guy in the slow lane on those teams (in fact, his best personal accomplishments as a swimmer occurred 40+ years after he started swimming at a competitive level). After college, when he started coaching, he began to observe and analyze the different swimmers on his team in order to determine what distinguished the fast swimmers from the slow ones. He began to experiment with his swimmers and in those early years he quickly learned to trust his intuition as a swim coach. He had great early success as a college swim coach even though he was still in his 20s. As the years passed, Terry also began to work with adult onset swimmers and triathletes of various skill levels, which gave him yet another important learning opportunity as a coach. At the age of 38, Terry released the first version of the Total Immersion swim program and he continues to modify and adapt that program to this day, focused on the principle of continuous improvement and maintaining a process oriented mindset. In this episode we delve into Terry’s life in the water, focusing on the things that he learned over the years in order to continuously improve both as a swimmer and coach. Thanks for tuning in! Related Resources Terry's Blog Total Immersion Blog TI Swim Demo Terry's TI Talk Total Immersion Book Zendurance - great book written by Shane (a TI Coach) Mastery

Today on the podcast we have “pseudo-Uncle” Jack, a very close and old friend of my family. In this episode we step back almost 20 years to the time of his divorce. He shares insight based on what he experienced during that time and he discusses the pain, confusion, anger and frustration that he went through both as a parent and on a personal level. Since he was a father trying to raise two teenage daughters in the middle of all this, he also has some entertaining stories about trying to navigate those moments as well. Both of his kids are now happily married, they each have two great kids and Jack (and his ex-wife) are both enjoying their lives as grandparents. At the end of the day, everybody survived.

The doctor is in the house! In this episode I sit down with my buddy, Dr. Jon, who is currently a senior resident in pediatric radiology in New York. Before his fourth and final year of medical school, Jon decided to take a year off and spent that time working in hospitals and clinics all across South America, spending time in Brazil, Peru, Chile, Bolivia and Argentina. From treating gunshot victims in Rio de Janeiro to learning about plant medicines in the Peruvian jungle, Jon shares many stories and insights from his experience. In addition to discussing the medical aspects of his trip, we also touch on some of the social and cultural distinctions as well. Thanks for listening, I hope you enjoy.

This is my younger brother Josh. When he entered high school, his favorite pastime was watching Ren & Stimpy, Rocko’s Modern Life or Scooby Doo in what was a classic afternoon lineup of cartoons. But, early on in high school he decided to peel himself off the couch and a little over three years later he was an All-County Cross Country star and captain of his high school team. After high school, he continued his running career in college at SUNY Geneseo in upstate New York. In college, he had to juggle a new race (the 10k) and training plan, a rigorous academic schedule as a biochemistry major and the obvious demands of a college social life. It took him some time to balance these things out, but he kept at it and finished his running career as a senior with the best races of his life (although an injury from some shenanigans almost forced him to miss his final race). This podcast episode chronicles his journey from the couch to the finish line. Thanks for tuning in!

And so it begins. The inaugural episode. Let’s start with the obvious question. What happened out there during those ten days in the sweltering desert heat? Was it enlightening? Did I gain clarity and peace of mind? Or was it pure annihilation? In this episode, I take you through that journey. Thanks for tuning in! Related Resources Vipassana Meditation The Dhamma Brothers Insight Meditation: The Practice of Freedom The Art of Living