A Meditator in the Arena | Sam Harris

New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. ---- Perhaps nobody is better at helping people unlock themselves than the Buddhist meditation teacher George Mumford who taught meditation to Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant. He's also worked with inmates, police officers, and corporate executives. There’s a reason why they call him the “Performance Whisperer.” George has an incredible story: he began teaching mindfulness and meditation after kicking a serious drug habit, leaving a career as a financial analyst, and then earning a master's in counseling psychology. He's got a new book, it's called Unlock: Embrace Your Greatness. Find the Flow. Discover Success.  His first book was called The Mindful Athlete: The Secret to Pure Performance. If you want to hear him talk about that book, we've put links in the show notes to his prior appearances on this podcast.  In this episode we talk about: What it means to be in flow and why many of us may be achieving that state more than we think How to challenge negative self-talk The importance of gratitude The importance of service The importance of making mistakes (as George says, “no struggle, no swag”) How to recognize what he calls your hideouts  Why he identifies as an empath and why he believes this may have played a role in his addiction And George’s take on often misunderstood terms such as love, hope, and faith Full Shownotes: https://www.tenpercent.com/podcast-episode/george-mumford-589

19 Apr 202356min

New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. --- Today’s guest is a happiness expert and devout non-meditator. In her latest book Life in Five Senses: How Exploring the Senses Got Me Out of My Head and Into the World, she describes how a routine visit to her eye doctor made her realize she’d been overlooking a key element of happiness: her five senses.  Gretchen Rubin is the author of many books, including the New York Times bestsellers Outer Order, Inner Calm; The Four Tendencies; Better Than Before; and The Happiness Project. Her books have sold more than 3.5 million copies worldwide, and have been translated in more than thirty languages. She also hosts the top-ranking, award-winning podcast Happier with Gretchen Rubin.  In this episode we talk about: What led Gretchen to explore the five senses How we often take our senses for granted How our senses work with the brain to impact our perception  The relationship between the senses and nostalgia  The surprising power of ketchup and vanilla when it comes to the sense of taste The sense of hearing and what she calls her “Audio Apothecary”  How to be a better listener The interplay between the senses of taste and smell The sense of touch and the use of comfort objects    Why she decided to visit The Metropolitan Museum of Art everyday to explore the five senses And how she uses the five senses to boost creativity   Full Shownotes: https://www.tenpercent.com/podcast-episode/gretchen-rubin-588

17 Apr 20231h 7min

You may have heard our interview with Sharon Salzberg earlier this week where we talked about openness, not believing the stories you tell yourself, and why the most powerful tools often seem the most stupid at first. I’m a big fan of hers and everything she does, so we wanted to give you a special preview of her new book, Real Life: The Journey from Isolation to Openness and Freedom.    In Real Life, Sharon sets a path out for us, merging the insights of inspiring voices with her own teachings to: Uncover a deeper sense of ourselves Expand our vision of what’s possible for ourselves Align our words, hearts, and actions with our core values Navigate loss without getting stuck in bitterness or disconnect Carry a sense of community with us, even in stormy times Recover from the emotional effects of crisis Learn the art of letting go and beginning again Build emotional intelligence to face times of difficulty without fear Seek out joy in everyday life, even when things don’t go our way Befriend ourselves on the journey of being human Embark on the journey to embody a life of curiosity, authenticity, and freedom. So enjoy this excerpt from her book, Real Life.

14 Apr 20231h

New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. --- There’s so much to be grateful for in modern medicine. We can all agree that we would not do as well in a world with no Advil or dentistry. And yet, our guest today, who is a renowned doctor, says modern medicine is overlooking something crucial: the pernicious impact that modern living has on our minds and bodies. In other words, we are surrounded by these hidden societal and structural sources of stress and we aren’t thinking about how to treat and prevent these factors that are degrading our happiness and our immune systems.  Dr. Gabor Maté is a bestselling author with an expertise on everything from stress to addiction to ADHD. His latest book is called, The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture Content Warning: This episode has mentions of child abuse, sexual trauma, suicide and addiction In this episode we talk about: What he means by “the myth of normal” How diseases, such as autoimmune conditions, are an “artifact of civilization" How to begin to tackle what Dr. Maté calls, “the social sources of illness”  His definition of trauma and the difference between “big T traumatic events” and the trauma of “wounding” How trauma in society is so normalized that we don’t even recognize it Whether the term trauma is overused Why comparing suffering is a fruitless endeavor  What he means by “the necessity to be disillusioned”  The power and possibility of psychedelics  Why he thinks we should incorporate shamanic medicine into our western medical framework And what he means by “undoing self-limiting beliefs” and how these beliefs show up in our everyday lives Full Shownotes: https://www.tenpercent.com/podcast-episode/gabor-mate-586

12 Apr 202357min

New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. Alexander Dreymon is the star of a great show on Netflix called “The Last Kingdom.” He plays a Viking, so you're literally not going to find a guy who is more stereotypically masculine. But I've gotten to know Alexander recently and he's also incredibly thoughtful.  We cover a lot of ground in this conversation: marriage, parenting, anger therapy, sleep, human connection, meditation, masculinity, and, uh, how to show your body on Netflix without developing body dysmorphia. We also talk a lot about his show, which is awesome, although it is coming to an end — just a few days ago, Netflix posted the series finale, a movie-length episode called “Seven Kings Must Die” that wraps up the whole story.  In this episode we talk about: how having male friends makes his romantic relationship even better The importance of therapy, of silliness and of kindness the importance of exercise in his life and how he tries not to get overly attached to his body looking a certain way a whole discussion between the two of us on the Buddhist idea of non-self  what his meditation practice looks like now that he has a toddler around the house what it's like to wrap up his show, the Last Kingdom, and what might be next Full Shownotes: https://www.tenpercent.com/podcast-episode/-alexander-dreymon-585  Where to find Alexander Dreymon online:  Instagram: @alexander.dreymon  Other Resources Mentioned: The books of Bernard Cornwell, on which “The Last Kingdom” series is based Additional Resources: Download the Ten Percent Happier app today: https://10percenthappier.app.link/install

10 Apr 202356min

New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. --- It’s likely uncontroversial to assert that Jennifer Senior is one of our finest living journalists. She’s currently a staff writer at The Atlantic and before that she spent many years at the New York Times and New York magazine. Jennifer’s written on a vast array of topics, but she has a special knack for writing articles about the human condition that go massively, massively, viral. One such hit was a lengthy and extremely moving piece for The Atlantic that won a Pulitzer Prize. It was about a young man who died on 9/11, and the wildly varying ways in which his loved ones experienced grief. That article, called “What Bobby McIlvaine Left Behind,” has now been turned into a book called, On Grief: Love, Loss, Memory. In this interview, we spend a lot of time talking about this truly fascinating yarn, but we also talk about her other articles: one about an eminent happiness researcher who died by suicide, another about why friendships often break up, and a truly delightful recent piece about the puzzling gap between how old we are and how old we think we are. Jennifer has also written a book about parenting, called All Joy and No Fun which we also reference a few times throughout. In this episode we talk about: Jennifer’s perspective on the Bobby McIlvaine story  Lesser known theories of grieving from Elisabeth Kubler-Ross The work involved in finding meaning in loss Why – from an evolutionary standpoint – we hurt so badly when we lose someone we love Commitment and sacrifice The puzzling gap between how old you are and how old you think you are The power and perils of friendship Why Jennifer has chosen to focus so much of her writing on relationships Full Shownotes: https://www.tenpercent.com/podcast-episode/jennifer-senior-583

5 Apr 20231h 4min

New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. --- Today’s episode is a rangy and fascinating conversation with a titan of the modern mindfulness scene: Sharon Salzberg. She is the co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society, a renowned meditation retreat center and has written twelve books. Her latest is called, Real Life: The Journey from Isolation to Openness and Freedom.  We get personal and talk about a fascinating question: why did so many Jewish kids of Sharon’s generation (the Boomers) get interested in meditation? Sharon was part of a whole crew called the JewBu’s — young Jewish people, mostly from New York, who found their way to India and other parts of Asia in the 1960s and 70s, learned about Buddhism, and then came home and taught it to so many of us.  In this episode we talk about: The case for openness versus constriction. What is openness? Why do we want it? And how does one achieve it?  How not to take so seriously the stories you tell yourself Whether shame is ever useful How the most powerful tools (like self-compassion) can often seem so stupid at first The importance of having a growth mindset versus a fixed mindset Why gratitude gets a bad rap The difference between self-centeredness and “healthy pride” Sharon’s recent and quite harrowing medical odyssey — and how meditation helped her get through it Full Shownotes: https://www.tenpercent.com/podcast-episode/sharon-salzberg-582

3 Apr 20231h

As a wrap up to our Work Life series, we want to share a preview of another podcast we love: Prof G hosted by Scott Galloway. His interview, "Scott Galloway on: the Impact of Work on Mental Health, the Role of Luck in Success, and How Much is Enough," kicked off this latest series. Scott's show combines business insight and analysis with life and career advice, and we're big fans.  In this episode of Prof G, Scott shares his view on the "Future of Work"— from recruiting, to mentorship, to building teams. He touches on the role nepotism plays in the future of recruiting, to securing a job post-college, and team organization in the workplace.  You can hear more episodes of the Prof G podcast here.

31 Mars 202318min