Move Your Mind with Nick Bracks

What if the anger you feel isn’t really anger at all? In this episode I sit down with Bryan Blakeny, a therapist and certified Anger Resolution Therapist, to explore why so many men lose it over things that don’t really matter. We talk about the four hidden fuels behind anger, why feeling powerless so often comes out as rage, how anger gives you a false sense of control when you feel like you have...

What happens when the person who treats you well feels boring, and the one who keeps you guessing feels like love? In this episode I sit down with Sabrina Zohar, the dating and relationship coach and author of Why Am I Like This?, to explore why so many of us keep choosing the wrong person. We talk about why your brain is built to keep you safe rather than help you grow, how repetition compulsion...

What happens when young men are so desperate to prove they're real men that they'll follow anyone who promises to show them how? In this episode I sit down with Michael Kimmel, the sociologist and author of Guyland who has spent decades studying how boys become men, to explore why young men fall for figures like Andrew Tate. We talk about why the pressure on young men hasn't changed si...

What happens when the trauma you survived as a kid splits you into parts you don't even know are there? In this episode I sit down with AnnaLynne McCord, the 90210 star who went public about her assault years before Me Too and later revealed her dissociative identity disorder diagnosis, to explore why childhood trauma fractures your identity. We talk about why she was first diagnosed as bipola...

What happens when you already know there's no winning, and you keep going anyway? In this episode I sit down with Jonathan Todd Schwartz, a former Hollywood business manager who embezzled millions from a handful of clients, including Alanis Morissette, and is now an addiction therapist, to explore why we keep doing the very things that are destroying us. We talk about how six years of betting...

We're told the answer to hard feelings is to talk them out. But what if the thing you're talking to isn't actually listening at all? In this episode I sit down with David Dean, an enterprise AI strategist with 20 years of transformation experience and author of An Inbox Between Us, to explore what happens when we start turning to AI for emotional support, and where the line sits between using it a...

We're told that if we want to change who we are, we just need to change our habits, our environment and the way we think. But what if parts of who you are were there long before you ever had a choice? In this episode I sit down with Dr. Nancy Segal, a leading twin researcher, psychologist, author and founder of the Twin Studies Center at California State University, Fullerton, to explore what deca...

Most men don't think they have a porn problem. They think they just have a habit. Something they do late at night, alone, that nobody needs to know about. But according to today's guest, that habit isn't really about sex. It's about something much harder to face. In this episode I sit down with Jeremy Lipkowitz, a former Buddhist monk, scientist and founder of Unhooked Academy, to talk about what'...

There’s no perfect timeline for figuring out your life. But when everyone around you seems to be moving forward, it can be difficult to believe you’re not falling behind. In this episode I sit down with film producer Jeremy Walton to explore why there is no normal path through life, and why starting a new chapter later than expected doesn’t mean you’ve taken the wrong one. Jeremy came to filmmakin...

Your mind is designed to keep you safe. But what happens when it starts protecting you from threats that aren't actually there? In this episode I sit down with Dr. Sue Morter to explore why we can stay trapped in survival mode long after the danger has passed, and how fear can quietly shape the decisions we make, the risks we avoid, and the lives we end up living. Sue describes the way the mind cr...

Our attention span has collapsed from around two and a half minutes on a screen to just 47 seconds. And according to psychologist and attention researcher Dr. Gloria Mark, the problem is much bigger than simply spending too much time on our phones. In this episode I sit down with Gloria to explore what we're actually avoiding every time we reach for a screen, why boredom has almost disappeared fro...

He lost nearly 100 friends on September 11th. Twenty-five years later, he says he has a wonderful life. In this episode, I sit down with retired FDNY firefighter and 9/11 survivor Tim Brown, who was inside the World Trade Center on the morning of the attacks and came within seconds of dying when the South Tower collapsed. We talk about the final conversations he had with the friends he never saw a...

She was born three generations into one of the most extreme cults in American history - where child abuse was doctrine and children were the product. She escaped at 15 with nothing. In this episode I sit down with Daniella Mestyanek Young, who went from a childhood in the Children of God cult to graduating valedictorian, becoming a U.S. Army intelligence officer stationed in Afghanistan, and still...

Most of us walk past someone sleeping on the street and tell ourselves a story about how they got there. In this episode I sit down with Mark Horvath, founder of Invisible People, and he challenges pretty much everything I thought I knew. We talk about why most homeless people are actually sober, why affordable housing is the real issue and not personal failure, how politicians are using homeless...

Most of us assume the person with the credentials knows us better than we know ourselves. In this episode, I sit down with lawyer-turned-therapist and author Mark A. Michaels to explore why that assumption might be therapy's biggest blind spot. We talk about the authority of the therapist versus the authority of lived experience, the myth of Freud's Oedipus complex and what the story is actually a...

Many of us have been taught that being mentally strong means pushing through, hiding our emotions, and pretending we're okay. In this episode, I sit down with psychotherapist and bestselling author Amy Morin to explore the difference between mental toughness and mental strength. We talk about anxiety, grief, emotional suppression, avoidance, self-awareness, uncertainty, vulnerability, resilience,...

When you're feeling intense emotions, your mind can start convincing you of things that aren't true. In this episode, I sit down with Spencer Greenberg, a mathematician and psychology researcher, to explore why our brains distort reality, why painful thoughts can feel so convincing, and how to stop believing every story your mind tells you. We talk about anxiety, depression, negative thought loops...

At 19 years old, Coss Marte was making millions of dollars a year running one of New York City's largest drug operations. A few years later, he was facing life in prison. Most people would assume that was the end of the story. It wasn't. In this episode, I sit down with Coss Marte, a former drug kingpin who transformed his life after incarceration and went on to build ConBody, a fitness company th...

Most of us have been through difficult experiences. We’ve been hurt, let down, rejected, traumatised, or faced challenges we never asked for. The question is: what happens next? In this episode, I sit down with Chris Moon, a former military officer, landmine survivor, former Khmer Rouge prisoner, and the world’s first amputee ultra-distance runner. Chris has survived experiences most of us can’t e...

Most people think getting healthy requires extreme discipline, perfect routines, and complicated fitness advice. In this episode, I speak with Gary Vee's long-time coach Jordan Syatt about the biggest lies we've been sold about health and fitness, and why the simple things often matter most. We talk about walking, longevity, fitness myths, dieting, body image, perfectionism, food addiction, biohac...

This conversation starts with a confronting question: are men actually built to be faithful? In this episode, I speak with Yale psychologist Dr. Bill von Hippel about the biology behind male variety-seeking, modern dating, commitment, dopamine, and why chasing more options often leaves people feeling more disconnected. We talk about serial monogamy, dating apps, social comparison, success, lonelin...

Why does porn keep escalating? In this episode, I speak with porn recovery coach Noah Church about why people seek more and more extreme porn, and how it can affect the brain, relationships, and real intimacy. We explore how porn can become a way to escape stress, anxiety, loneliness, shame, and emotional pain. We also talk about desensitisation, porn-induced erectile dysfunction, relapse, fantasy...

What is rumination really costing you? In this episode, I speak with Donna Jackson Nakazawa, an award-winning science journalist and Oprah-picked author of Mind Drama. We explore why getting stuck in your head can quietly steal years of your life, and why rumination is not just overthinking... it is a survival response that can keep you trapped in old stories, shame, guilt, and self-criticism. We...

A lot of us don’t just feel anxious...we get anxious about being anxious. In this episode, I speak with Donald J. Robertson, a psychotherapist and one of the world’s leading voices on Stoicism. We talk about why trying to get rid of anxiety can keep it alive, why overthinking often feels useful when it’s really another form of avoidance, and how facing what we fear can help us move forward. We als...

Why do so many men feel lost today? In this episode, I speak with Zach Watson, a viral creator and mental load coach helping men take emotional ownership in their relationships and lives. We explore why so many men are struggling with loneliness, emotional numbness, rejection, porn, the internet, and the pressure to pretend they’re fine. We also talk about why boys are often taught to hide what th...