Bounce! Conversations with Larry Weeks

In this episode, renowned social scientist Dan Ariely discusses the irrational pull of misinformation and how to understand "misbelief" — the psychological and social path that guides individuals to doubt established truths, consider alternative facts, and perhaps even welcome outright conspiracy theories. Dan Ariely is the James B. Duke Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke Uni...

"Often circumstances think for us, we don't really have a choice. And anybody who puts themselves in a bad position has no good options available. So a lot of the work involved in a decision comes before the actual decision is made."  In decision-making, clarity is a critical element, if not the fundamental purpose; it reduces errors and facilitates confident, effective choice-making.  In this epi...

The world of hospice nursing has always been a profound intersection of life and death, revealing lessons not only about the journey of mortality but also about the true essence of living in the shadow of it.   On this Podcast, my guest is Hadley Vlahos or simply Nurse Hadley. Hadley is not just a seasoned hospice nurse but also an end-of-life educator and now a New York Times bestselling author....

My guest is the renowned astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. He is the fifth head since 1935 of the Hayden Planetarium in New York City and the first occupant of its Frederick P. Rose Directorship. He is a research associate of the Department of Astrophysics at the American Museum of Natural History. He is also the author of fifteen books—many of them international bestsellers—including the #1 bes...

"You can delegate the activity but not the responsibility; you can share the praise but not the blame. the most finite, limited resource in our lives is time." - Dr. Tim Pychl  Larry speaks with Professor Tim Pychyl about the impact procrastination has on our well-being. This isn't about managing or optimizing a to-do list; procrastination affects the whole of your life.  Tim is a retired psycholo...

Getting stuck is inevitable. I hope you find yourself getting stuck only rarely, but when you do, know that breakthroughs aren't too far behind - Adam Alter  Today we are going to look at the challenges of creative blocks, inertia, and the accompanying feeling of being stuck, whether it be a project, product, or personal life, and, more importantly, when we find ourselves in these states - how to...

"Learn to use AI. That's, that's my message. You wanna learn to use AI as a professional and as a citizen in your personal life. The more you know how to use it, the better you'll make of it, the better your life will be. AI gives power; like any technology, it gives power to those who understand it and use it" - Pedro Domingos Recent developments in AI, specifically consumer-facing generative AIs...

"The root of my optimism comes in kind of a basic observation, that if we can create 1% more than we destroy every year, that 1% compounded over time is civilization. So the delta, the difference between a gain and very tiny gain, is hard to see in the present." - Kevin Kelly  My guest is well-known technologist and futurist Kevin Kelly. Kevin is a renowned American writer, editor, and futurist, b...

"When we surface subroutines when we surface belief systems, we unleash a certain kind of potential, a certain kind of energy that enables us to do the one thing that a leader must do every day. Be creative" - Jerry Colonna  Jerry Colonna, often referred to as the 'CEO whisperer,' is the co-founder of Reboot.io, an executive coaching and leadership development firm dedicated to the notion that bet...

This podcast is about the problem of overthinking - and how modifying one's metacognitive beliefs can reduce stress, worry, and problem fixation.  Thinking is an amazing capacity we all have. Humans possess the cognitive abilities to form concepts, imagine possible futures, and solve problems, but this same capacity, when it runs amuck, can keep you up at night, paralyze effect decision making and...

"Feelings, nothing more than feelings" - Morris Albert In this episode, we discuss how emotions are made - and how insights into how our brains make us feel can help us cope with challenging situations.  My guest is Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett, a psychology professor and neuroscientist at Northeastern University, who is the author of seven books on emotion and the brain, including the best-selling bo...

This discussion centers on what living with purpose actually means.  My guest is Professor William Damon.  William is a psychologist and professor at Stanford University and a senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. He has been designated one of the fifty most influential living psychologists in the world today and is one of the world's leading scholars of human development. Bil...

My guests are Nathan and Susannah Fur. Nathan earned his Ph. D. from Stanford's Technology Ventures Program and is an Associate Professor of Strategy at INSEE ADD, one of the world's leading graduate business schools located in France. Susannah, a designer and art historian, founded a women's clothing line inspired by her research of the intricate embroidery of Dutch women. Our discussion centers...

"It is by squeezing your life into a single tube that you set yourself up for definitive failure. Projects fail, and people fail in them. But we have come to speak as if a person can BE a failure - as though failure were an identity, not an event" - Kieran Setiya Kieran Setiya is a Professor of Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is known for his work in ethics, epistemolog...

On this podcast, we're going to talk about Brain Chemistry, specifically, what happens in our brains when we are traumatized, severely depressed, or anxious. And for those stuck in that state, what are the latest clinical treatments using medication, that can help someone get unstuck. My guest on this episode is the distinguished  Dr. John Krystal MD. Dr. Krystal is the Professor of Psychiatry, Ne...

My guest is clinical psychologist and author Dr. Lindsay Gibson. Dr. Gibson has two graduate degrees in clinical psychology, including a Doctorate of Psychology from the Virginia Consortium Program in Clinical Psychology – an Adjunct Professor for the College of William and Mary and Old Dominion University. She has written a few best-sellers, including a series on dealing with emotionally immature...

My guest is Mary-Frances O'Connor. Mary-Francis is a professor of Clinical Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of Arizona and is the Director of the Grief, Loss, and Social Stress Lab, where she and her colleagues are creating new frameworks for understanding grief and the grieving process; and her book The Grieving Brain: The Surprising Science of How We Learn from Love and Loss is the to...

My guest is AJ jacobs  A.J. Jacobs is an author, journalist, lecturer, and human guinea pig. His strategy as a writer is to dive into something he's curious about and actually live it.  He has written ten books, four of which are New York Times bestsellers that combine memoir, science, humor, and a dash of self-help. His most recent book is The Puzzler: One Man's Quest to Solve the Most Baffling P...

This podcast is about your relationship to time.  My guest is Oliver Burkeman. Oliver  is a journalist and author. He writes and publishes a twice-monthly email newsletter called " The Imperfectionist ." You can find  The Guardian  column he wrote from 2006 to 2020 online. It's titled " This Column Will Change Your Life ." He's also the author of  The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand...

"Pain shared, my brother, is pain not doubled but halved." ― Neil Gaiman My guest on this episode is Professor Robin Dunbar, the well-known anthropologist and evolutionary psychologist famous for his "Dunbar Number."  Robin is an Emeritus Professor of Evolutionary Psychology and head of the Social and Evolutionary Neuroscience Research Group in the Department of Experimental Psychology at the Univ...

"I would say what would be responsible when asking yourself should I stay or should I go is, am I actively growing a core skillset that I want to harness and carry with me throughout my career?" - Ashley Stahl  The great resignation is all over the media of late; it's an economic trend born of the COVID pandemic in which employees (In the U.S. for our purposes) are voluntarily leaving jobs in huge...

"Acceptance is the full embrace of our personal experience…it's choosing to feel with openness and curiosity, so that you can live the kind of life you want to live while inviting your feelings to come along for the ride" - Stephen Hayes  This podcast is about the power of dealing with negative thoughts and emotions more obliquely. It's about a central shift from focusing on what you think and fee...

On this episode we cover a bit of the biography of vaccines, dovetailing into the current state of vaccination around the globe. My guest on this podcast is Dr. Paul Offit, a world renowned expert and medical pioneer in the field of immunology and virology. He is a professor in the division of Infectious Diseases at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and a professor of Vaccinology at the Univ...

"A person can make himself happy or miserable regardless of what is actually happening outside just by changing the contents of consciousness" -Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi How you feel about life and living, and your happiness in general - ultimately depends on interpreting everyday experience. Your mind shapes every experience you have and there is a minimal return on happiness effort, trying to exer...

Nicholas Christakis on the impact of Coronavirus, what went wrong, what's going right, and our possible future. More below. Nicholas is a physician and social scientist at Yale University who conducts research in network science, biosocial science, and behavior genetics. Named by Time magazine to their annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world, Nicholas's current work focuses on...