The Best Podcast

In today’s podcast, I look at happiness, well-being, and life satisfaction through Daniel Kahneman’s lens, which he discusses at length at the end of his book Thinking Fast and Slow. I find his perspective on these questions to be beautifully illustrated, well-informed, and grounded, so I wanted to take some time to share it with you here. I hope you find it insightful. Thank you for listening. As...

Today’s podcast dives back into the insights of Daniel Kahneman. He astutely observed how drawn we are to the emotional peaks when making assessments of our well-being, ignoring the bulk of ordinary experiences we have along the way. I call attention to this insight and what I think it means for us here. I hope you find it useful. Thanks for listening. As always, Much Love ❤️ and please take care.

Today’s podcast is a reading of my latest Substack post titled “Alcohol & Casual Sex: Secular Reasons To Do Things Religions Have Told Us To Do for Milennia” which you can see at https://www.mbest.substack.com . I hope you find the message I weave here to be a meaningful one to consider, whether you agree or disagree with my position. Thanks for listening. As always, Much Love ❤️ and please take c...

Today’s podcast is recorded in a hospital bed, as I find myself in another challenging situation related to my health. Making decisions alongside my wife about what to do in these heavy moments has led me to some important conclusions, which I wanted to take some time to talk about and share with you all here. I hope you find the message to be a valuable one! Thanks for listening. As always, Much...

Today’s episode is a continuation of my series on Daniel Kahneman’s insights. I discuss a quote of his from his book Thinking Fast and Slow, which beautifully describes the limits of our consciousness and its vast blindness. I hope my explanation is thought provoking and useful! Thanks for listening. As always, Much Love ❤️ and please take care.

Today’s podcast marks a milestone, as we reach the 800th episode. To celebrate, I invited Gabi on to ask her some questions about how I have changed over the years, the ways I have stayed the same, and how I may change for the better. We get some nice commentary and side discussions going along the way as well. I hope you enjoy it! Thanks for listening. As always, Much Love ❤️ and please take care...

Today’s podcast begins a dedicated set of episodes to Daniel Kahneman, one of my intellectual heroes who recently passed away. His work has been extremely formative for me in my understanding of what it means to be human and all of our biases. One of those biases is the hindsight bias, which I take some time to discuss here. I hope you find this to be insightful. Thanks for listening. As always, M...

We humans are so complex and paradoxical. On the one hand, we experience loss with such greater emotional intensity compared to gains. On the other hand, we are not driven to prevent loss by nature, but instead are driven toward “better” and “more.” I talk through this paradox here, which I hope you find to be useful. Thanks for listening. As always, Much Love ❤️ and please take care.

Over the last few days, I’ve been testing out what it feels like to meditate while walking. It has been really challenging for me, so I wanted to share a bit about that experience here. I hope you find some value in it! Thanks for listening. As always, Much Love ❤️ and please take care.

Sometimes certain messages we need to hear in life are simple and clear. This is one of them. Well, that was my intention, at least. Thanks for listening. As always, Much Love ❤️ and please take care.

These past two weeks have been surreal for people of the United States of America. From witnessing moments of noteworthy cognitive decline from our current president to the near assassination of our previous one, it has left many of us speechless and in despair. I get it. I feel it, too. But I also know there is hope, and I share why I think there is hope in this episode. I hope you can see why wi...

I have to admit it. I don’t fully share what I think about certain topics and issues here. I dance around, fearing what others may think of my opinions, even if I have spent a lot of time informing myself and really thinking to construct them. I feel some shame about this, but I think admitting it is the first step, which is what I do here in today’s episode. I hope you feel the sincerity and find...

I had a great conversation with a friend yesterday in which he posed me a question about what makes someone great for long periods of time. I share my thoughts on this here at a couple of different levels, which I hope you find to be useful in some way for yourself. Thanks for listening. As always, Much Love ❤️ and please take care.

Not using social media on my phone anymore is such an interesting experience in today’s world. It feels like I’m the only one doing it, and yet I feel like the opposite of the crazy one. In this episode, I share why, along with highlighting the negative effects social media can have on our attention spans and goal oriented behaviors. Thanks for listening. As always, Much Love ❤️ and please take ca...

Today’s podcast digs into a variety of topics. I start by discussing and defining mindfulness, which leads me to some observations about anxiety and its relationship with mindfulness. These points set me up to discuss a framework for thinking about pharmaceutical solutions to problems like general anxiety disorder and the unique dynamics at play. It’s an intricate topic, so I hope you provide me s...

Today’s podcast includes a set of personal updates, particularly related to my health and an insight I had during my recovery, along with updates to my blog and Substack. For those who would like to become a paid subscriber to my Substack, you can do so here: mbest.substack.com/subscribe . Thank you for listening and for your attention! As always, Much Love ❤️ and please take care.

Today’s podcast is the product of this different period of life I’ve been living through after my surgery. My normal routine has been severely limited by the necessities of my recovery, which means my life and usual outlets to manage stress have changed a great deal. I talk through what this has been like for me here, along with a few other observations of myself. I hope you enjoy listening. Thank...

“Free Speech” is frequently one of the hottest topics being discussed by people, whether it be online or at the dinner table. It’s often shaped in such an odd way that strays from the reality of our day to day dynamics. I try to take the conversation in a new direction here, which I hope is more useful and better for us to grapple with the topic. Thanks for listening. As always, Much Love ❤️ and p...

Today’s podcast is a reading of a recent post on my Substack titled “The Switch” which can be found here: https://open.substack.com/pub/mbest/p/the-switch?r=2c9gzu&utm_medium=ios . In addition to the reading, I give a more detailed explainer of the piece at the end. I hope you find some value in the idea I convey here. Thanks for listening. As always, Much Love ❤️ and please take care.

It’s not like Matt to miss a week of podcasts. What may have happened? Is he okay? Your answers to those questions, and much more, here in this episode. I hope you enjoy it. Thanks for listening. As always, Much Love ❤️ and please take care.

My 13th quarterly review is now complete, which you can find in its totality at mattbest.net/theplatform/quarter-one-2024. This quarter brought plenty of new experiences, a new country, a trip back to my hometown, a funeral, and a fresh return to Rio. In this tenth and final episode of my quarterly review, I talk about topics ranging from the major downsides of current events to pursuing the deepe...

My 13th quarterly review is now complete, which you can find in its totality at mattbest.net/theplatform/quarter-one-2024. This quarter brought plenty of new experiences, a new country, a trip back to my hometown, a funeral, and a fresh return to Rio. In this ninth and penultimate episode of my quarterly review, I talk about topics ranging from our duty to tell our friends the truth to the unique...

My 13th quarterly review is now complete, which you can find in its totality at mattbest.net/theplatform/quarter-one-2024. This quarter brought plenty of new experiences, a new country, a trip back to my hometown, a funeral, and a fresh return to Rio. In this eighth episode of my quarterly review, I talk about topics ranging from the way foods taste differently depending on the inputs I give my bo...

My 13th quarterly review is now complete, which you can find in its totality at mattbest.net/theplatform/quarter-one-2024. This quarter brought plenty of new experiences, a new country, a trip back to my hometown, a funeral, and a fresh return to Rio. In this seventh episode of my quarterly review, I talk about topics ranging from the major price of fame to the support that we need to provide the...

My 13th quarterly review is now complete, which you can find in its totality at mattbest.net/theplatform/quarter-one-2024. This quarter brought plenty of new experiences, a new country, a trip back to my hometown, a funeral, and a fresh return to Rio. In this sixth episode of my quarterly review, I talk about topics ranging from the challenge I navigated of being put in a diet box to my subtle val...