How Humans Work Podcast

We kick off Season Four with the fun and forthright Dalanah Smith. Dalanah is an astrologer, stoic, palmist, biologist, and host of the Moon Matters Podcast. In this episode, she shares her take on one of the most ancient systems of knowledge around - Traditional Astrology, a.k.a. Hellenistic Astrology. Also joining the podcast is episode co-host, Tobin Mayell. Tobin is a dear friend and a student...

In episode #35, legendary professor and author Robert M. Sapolsky joins the show for a fascinating conversation about his most recent book: Determined. At length we discuss what life looks like when we accept the premise of Determined: free will is a myth and rewarding and punishing behavior is an outdated approach to running a humane and just world. Along the way we get into strange and groovy no...

Episode Summary In episode #34, the esteemed author of Dopamine Nation, Dr. Anna Lembke, returns to the show for a fascinating conversation about stress, dopamine, and how the two intersect. With an equal measure of kindness and expertise, Dr. Lembke walks us through the contours of both addiction and stress. Along the way she reinforces the challenges we face living in a time, what she calls the...

Bonus Episode Summary In The Power to Survive, show host Jef Szi shares an essay that connects the adaptive function of the stress system to the realms of fitness and the presence of genes. As critical parts of our adaptive powers for survival, he shows us how stress, fitness, and genes actually are at work on a continuum of time. This short bonus pod offers a spell-binding vision of the deep web...

Episode Summary In Episode #33, Dameian Hartfield joins the podcast for a deeply honest conversation, recounting some of the major moments in his life. In many respects, this podcast is a continuation of an ongoing conversation we have had as friends for nearly two decades, where Dameian speaks his truth and in doing so acts as an ambassador for the greater good, sharing the realities of what come...

Episode Summary There are few better equipped to take us into the fascinating world of the gut microbiome than University of Colorado professor Dr. Christopher A. Lowry. In addition to his rich understanding of humans ancient and critical relationship with the bacterial world, Dr. Lowry has a thorough understanding of the complex interactions of our biology as it relates to stress. In this episode...

In episode #31, Templates for Change, Darcy Ottey from Youth Passageways joins the show for an extended conversation about her love for Rites of Passage (RoP) work as well as her recent book on the subject: Rites and Responsibilities: A Guide to Growing Up. With an extensive and deeply personal connection to Rites of Passage practices, Darcy helps us to see how these original cultural technologies...

Episode Summary In this special episode of the How Humans Work Podcast , Juliet and Kelly Starrett from the The Ready State join the show to share all about their newest book: Built To Move!  With clear vision and simple practices, they provide a persuasive invitation to rethink our approach to a healthy life. Throughout the show they offer a powerful transmission about why it is most important t...

Episode Summary Chase Jackson is a jazz vibraphonist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, educator, and producer. He also just happens to be the beloved musical backbone for the How Humans Work Podcast. In Episode #29, Chase drops in for a lengthy exploration of how music and stress intersect. Fully saturated in the world of sound creation, we learn from this young master that sound, music and musici...

Episode Summary Dossie Easton is a co-author of The Ethical Slut and four other books on sex, BDSM and relationships. As a pioneer in the world of polyamory she renders fascinating and mirthful accounts of her hard-earned wisdom on navigating the dynamics of non-traditional relationships, particularly with the ethics of “sluthood.” Dossie is also a psychotherapist in private practice and an accomp...

Episode Summary The vital and lucid Dr. Kelly Starrett from The Ready State (TRS) joins the How Humans Work Podcast for a rich and captivating conversation about Stress, Fitness, & Society. In this wide-ranging episode, we get a strong feel for Kelly’s learned perspectives on a host of matters like movement, behavior change, human nature, misguided approaches to fitness, the promise of perform...

In Bonus Episode #05, Brent MacKinnon jumps into the interviewer chair, reversing the roles with show host- Jef Szi. At nearly eighty years of age and with a tremendous range of life experiences (poet, combat war veteran, grandfather, teacher ++), Mac brings a littany of inquiry with mirth and erudition. With the efficiency of a marine, he grills Jef to find out where his substance is and isn’t. J...

Episode Summary Marc Brackett is the author of Permission to Feel and the Founding Director at Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. He is a driving force in bringing the power of emotional intelligence and basic emotional know-how into schools, communities, and professional settings across the world. Marc joins us on Episode #26 for a dynamic and musing conversation about the vital role emotion...

Dr. Kelly McDermott joins the show for a spirited conversation on the upstream factors which influence our health and impact our society. With her wealth of knowledge about research, policy and health behaviors, Kelly helps us make connections between chronic disease, Adverse and Positive Childhood Experiences, rites of passage, and stress. Along the way we learn when Kelly’s professional trajecto...

Episode Summary Brenton ‘Mac’ MacKinnon is an American poet, combat veteran, polyglot, world-traveler, and creative writing teacher. Mac joins us for a deeply moving conversation about his hard-earned knowledge of warfare, PTSD, writing, healing and the profound desire to be known and belong. In After You Have Suffered; we come to know Mac as he recounts some of the life events which shaped him: t...

In Episode 23 of the How Humans Work Podcast, wildly entertaining Jimmy Conrad joins us for a deep dive into his life in and beyond his tremendous thirteen year career as a professional soccer player. In Let’s Make This Matter we get a real and buoyant account of what it took for a lad from Southern California with a profound drive to prove his value, to move from being a perpetually underrated ta...

In Episode 22, violinist, poet and multimedia artist Zameen-a Iqbal joins the podcast for moving and insightful conversation around the transcendental nature of beauty. Describing an “unbearable ache of inspiration” she has experienced since childhood, we learn how across her life beauty became the virtue by which Zameen-a came to understand how knowledge expands in each of us. We find in Zameen-a...

In Episode 21, master storyteller William J. Hornyak kicks-off our third season of the How Humans Work Podcast on The Nature of Stress. Will shows us how both stories and storytelling have power and medicine inside of them to aid us in our times of stress. At the outset of this show we learn how the craft of storytelling came into Will’s life and what he discovered about stories and their telling:...

In Deepening into the Small Soul, Jef Szi welcomes Rory Higham for another dive into the nature of the ego and its place in our lives. Picking up on Bonus Episode #3 - Compassion for the Small Soul , Rory and Jef continue the conversation, primarily through an Internal Family Systems (IFS) perspective on the relationships between Parts and the Self. Splashing through culture, spiritual traditions,...

In Compassion for the Small Soul show host Jef Szi welcomes special guest Alice Treves for a rambling and musing conversation about the value, function and limitations that come with our human ego. While the ego is often castigated and frequently misunderstood, this conversation explores and “defends” the egoic aspect of life as purposful and necessary, even with its notable imperfections. As they...

Episode Summary Michael J. Meade, D.H.L. , is a storyteller, author, scholar of mythology as well as the founder of Mosaic Multicultural Foundation and the creator of the Living Myth Podcast . In Standing in the Rivers of Time, Michael offers us his rich understanding of story and myth as we venture further into our season two conversation around passages in general, and rites of passage in partic...

Dr. Anna Lembke, MD is a psychiatrist, professor, researcher and the medical director of Stanford Addiction Medicine . Dr. Lembke is also the author of Dopamine Nation , a salient book that explores the neuroscience of addiction and the lessons we can learn from those who’ve been caught in its powerful spell. In episode #19 of the How Humans Work Podcast , Anna and show host Jef Szi have a deep an...

Episode Summary David M. Buss is a professor of evolutionary psychology and runs the Buss Lab at the University of Texas, Austin. For the past four decades he has focused his research on studying strategies in human mating. He has authored notable books on the subject, including The Evolution of Desire and his recent book on sexual conflict, When Men Behave Badly . Dr. Buss possesses an unsurpasse...

Episode Summary Listen in as Jef Szi welcomes the generous and joyful Tara Coyote to the show. In this remarkable episode Tara recounts the many trials and blessings that have been her companions over the last several years. From her picture perfect marriage and career that fell apart to the death of her best friend from leukemia, and onto her own Stage III breast cancer diagnosis in 2016 and all...

In Dreaming On Mother Earth show host Jef Szi weaves a morning dream with a figure of illness into an episode about personal and collective passages. Beginning by recounting his lifelong connection to his dreaming-self, as well as a handful of some of the dreams that came along in key moments of his life, Jeffrey then lays the ground to look at the figure of illness as a teacher for the unwanted i...