Finding Mastery with Dr. Michael Gervais

This week’s conversation is with Angela Duckworth, the founder and CEO of Character Lab , a nonprofit whose mission is to advance scientific insights that help children thrive.  She is also the Rosa Lee and Egbert Chang Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, faculty co-director of the Penn-Wharton Behavior Change for Good Initiative , and faculty co-director of Wharton People Analytics...

This week’s conversation is with Doug Abrams, an author and truth hunter. Doug is committed to helping catalyze the next evolutionary stage of our global culture – and he’s worked with some incredible human beings along the way. He co-wrote The Book of Joy with the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu, he’s worked with Stephen Hawking on his last book, the global bestseller Brief Answers to the Big Questio...

This week’s conversation is with Dr. Tommy Wood, a UK-trained MD with a PhD in physiology and neuroscience. He received an undergraduate degree in biochemistry from the University of Cambridge before attending medical school at the University of Oxford. After working as a junior doctor in central London, he moved to Norway for his PhD work and then to the University of Washington as a postdoc, whe...

This week’s conversation is with Hillary Allen, an endurance athlete and one of the best mountain ultra runners in the world. Hillary’s career as an endurance athlete has not been straightforward.  Through injury, setbacks and unexpected challenges, Hillary’s had to re-think what she considers impossible.  Early in her career, Hillary earned the nickname “Hillygoat” when she proved her a...

This week’s conversation is with Chris Burkard, an accomplished explorer, photographer, creative director, speaker, and author.  Chris travels to pursue the farthest expanses of Earth, working to capture stories that inspire humans to consider their relationship with nature, while promoting the preservation of wild places everywhere. Layered by outdoor, travel, adventure, surf, and lifestyle...

This week’s conversation is with a legend, Cody Townsend, one of the most awarded skiers in freeskiing history. Cody has evolved from a California beach kid obsessed with the mountains … to now stand atop the pinnacle of the sport. From a successful alpine ski racing career to stunt doubling for Hollywood films, or skiing the “Most Insane Line Ever ”, Cody skis some of the most challengi...

This week’s conversation is with Sarah Stein Greenberg, the Executive Director of the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford University (the “d.school”). For over a decade, she has helped lead the d.school to nurture creative thinkers and doers and help spread the methods of design. Sarah teaches at the intersection of design and social impact - she likes to tinker with old educational for...

This week’s conversation is with Dr. Dan Dworkis, an attending emergency physician and professor at USC’s Keck School of Medicine, where he works at the Los Angeles County+USC Medical Center (one of the largest and busiest emergency departments in the country). Before that, he did his training with the Brigham and Women’s Hospital / Massachusetts General Hospital Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medic...

This week’s conversation is with Dr. Antonio Damasio, a Dornsife Professor of Neuroscience, Psychology and Philosophy, and Director of the Brain and Creativity Institute at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.  Trained as both neurologist and neuroscientist, Antonio has made seminal contributions to the understanding of brain processes underlying affect and consciousness.&nbs...

This week’s conversation is with Dr. Anna Lembke, a professor of psychiatry at Stanford University School of Medicine and chief of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic.  A clinician scholar, she has published more than a hundred peer-reviewed papers, book chapters, and commentaries.  Anna sits on the board of several state and national addiction-focused organizations. In...

This week’s conversation is special. It’s heavy, it’s rich, and it will change you. It’s a two-parter, recorded on two separate occasions, about a year apart. It’s with Corey Coopersmith, known professionally as PunkTheBunny - he’s a singer/songwriter and producer. Born and raised in New York, Corey was a competitive grappler and MMA fighter prior to embarking on his journey with music. For some b...

This week’s episode is with David Farrier. David has always been drawn to the stranger side of life, reporting and hosting across a range of news and entertainment programmes for TV3 New Zealand for nearly a decade. For many, David’s name conjures up images of grown men tickling each other in boxing rings.  That’s not because it’s a hobby of his, but because his critically-acclaimed 2016 docu...

This week’s conversation is with Annie Murphy Paul, an acclaimed science writer. A graduate of Yale University and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, she is currently a Learning Sciences Exchange Fellow at New America. She is a recipient of the Rosalynn Carter Mental Health Journalism Fellowship, the Spencer Education Journalism Fellowship, and the Bernard L. Schwartz Fellowshi...

This week’s conversation is with Dr. Tony Nader, a medical doctor trained at Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a PhD in neuroscience. Tony is a globally recognized expert in the science of consciousness and human development.  His training includes internal medicine, psychiatry, and neurology. He’s the successor to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and the head of the Tran...

This week’s conversation is with Jay Samit, a dynamic entrepreneur and intrepreneur who is widely recognized as one of the world’s leading experts on disruption and innovation.  The former Independent Vice Chairman of Deloitte Consulting, Jay helped grow pre-IPO companies such as LinkedIn, been a Nasdaq company CEO, held senior management roles at EMI, Sony and Universal Studios, pioneered br...

This week’s conversation is with Carissa Moore, one of the most prolific surfers on the world stage. At age 18, Carissa became the youngest person – male or female – to win a surfing world title and was the first woman to compete in the Triple Crown of Surfing, Hawaii’s most prestigious contest series featuring the world’s best male surfers.  This year, Carissa became the first surfer in hist...

This week’s conversation is with Chris Capossela, Microsoft’s chief marketing officer and executive vice president of worldwide consumer business. As the chief marketing officer, Chris runs marketing across both the consumer and commercial businesses, which includes marketing for all Microsoft services and products, business planning, brand, advertising, events, communications and research. ...

This week’s conversation is with Jim Nantz, an American sportscaster who has worked on telecasts of the NFL, NCAA Division I men’s basketball, the Olympics, the NBA and the PGA Tour for CBS Sports since the 1980s.  Jim is an absolute legend in the field. If you’re a sports fan, you know his voice.  He has anchored CBS’s coverage of the Masters Tournament since 1989 and been the play...

This week’s conversation is with Dr. Amishi Jha, a professor of psychology at the University of Miami.  She serves as the Director of Contemplative Neuroscience for the Mindfulness Research and Practice Initiative, which she co-founded in 2010.  Amishi received her Ph. D. from the University of California–Davis and postdoctoral training at the Brain Imaging and Analysis Center at Duke Un...

This week’s conversation is with professional volleyball players and Olympians Alix Klineman and April Ross. Otherwise known as, The A-Team. On August 6 of this year, Alix and April captured the gold medal at the 2020 Summer Olympics, after winning in straight sets versus Australia.  In the entire tournament, they went undefeated in match play, only losing one set throughout seven matche...

This week’s conversation is with Dr. Gil Blander, an expert in nutrition, biomarker analytics, athletic performance, biochemistry, and aging research. Gil holds numerous patents and has published peer-reviewed articles in these fields.  He received his PhD in biology from the Weizmann Institute of Science, and undertook postgraduate research on aging at MIT.  Gil is also the Founder and...

This week’s conversation is with trailblazing psychologist and author of the New York Times bestseller Emotional Intelligence, Dr. Daniel Goleman. Daniel has transformed the way the world educates children, relates to family and friends, and conducts business. Well-known for his work in leadership and education, Daniel is also a distinguished voice in the field of meditation.  A meditator sin...

This week’s conversation is with Rebecca Rusch, a 7x-world champion in the ultra adventure/endurance realm and a member of the prestigious international Mountain Bike Hall of Fame. Rebecca has been recognized by Outside Magazine among the Top 40 Women Who’ve Made the Biggest Impact and by Men’s Journal as one of the 25 Most Adventurous Women. Known for seeking the toughest challenges imaginable an...

This week’s conversation is with Zak Williams, the son of the late Robin Williams and co-founder and CEO of  PYM , a mental wellness company rooted in the belief that there is a world where someone can be the best version of themselves simply by establishing easy daily rituals that help support their mind and overall wellbeing.  Zak is a US trustee of the international advocacy organizat...

This week’s conversation is with Dr. Philip Zimbardo, a professor emeritus in psychology at Stanford University, and creator of  The Stanford Prison Experiment . Philip has spent over 50 years teaching psychology - he’s an absolute legend in the field.  He’s written more than 60 books and has over 600 publications (professional and popular articles, and chapters).  Among his bo...