Into the Magic Shop

As a child of two Type-A parents, Chip Conley had his success script written for him. But deep down he knew he was destined to write his own story.  Today, Chip is the bestselling author and thought leader at the intersection of psychology and business. Having founded the Joie de Vivre hotel chain, of which he was CEO for almost 24 years, he then sold the company and became an advisor to the found...

Shep Gordon, legendary talent manager of multiple household names from Alice Cooper to Luther Vandross, isn’t actually passionate about music. Despite having managed Alice since 1968, what drives Shep isn’t money, but of being of service to others.  In this part two episode of Into The Magic Shop, Shep recalls meeting the Dalai Lama for the first time:  “We went to see his holiness, I got backstag...

Shep Gordon is a legendary talent manager (he manages Alice Cooper and has done since 1968), film agent, producer, and was the subject of Mike Myers’ directorial debut, the 2013 documentary, Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon .  As well as managing household names such as Blondie, Eddie Pendergrast, Luther Vandross, to name but a few, the other thing to know about Shep is that he was (accordin...

In 1971, Dr. Phil Zimbardo, a new professor at Stanford University, decided to do an experimental two-week study in which he put good people in bad places. This (now) infamous study is known globally as The Stanford Prison Project.  “[We] walked them down to the basement where the prison was, and then stripped them naked and took off the blindfold. The first thing they see is themselves, we had a...

Every single one of us has the ability to be a hero every day, says extraordinary psychologist and Professor Emeritus at Stanford University, Dr. Phil Zimbardo, who is most well known for what's been described as the Stanford Prison Experiment. More recently, Phil has founded a nonprofit - The Heroic Imagination Project, where he works tirelessly to promote compassion in the world.  “Simply pu...

The current healthcare system is failing everyone, says practicing neurosurgeon and author of Grief Connects Us, Dr Joseph Stern (Jody). We need to reimagine how healthcare is delivered.  Having experienced the grief of losing his sister and her husband, and seeing what the healthcare system is like as a patient: how terrified people are, how in need of help, assistance, and support they are, Jody...

How can you prepare for death? While it’s hard to live every day like it’s your last, try and keep regrets to a minimum, advises Dr. BJ Miller, a palliative care physician and a leading voice reframing society's discourse on the field of death and dying.  “When you love someone, tell them, act on it. When you want to learn something, go learn it, don't continually put things off. That sort...

How do you think about death? Dr. BJ Miller is a palliative care physician who invites us to think about and discuss the end of our lives with the lens of a mindful human-centered model of care, one that embraces dying not as a medical event, but rather as a universally shared life experience.  “By roping death into your worldview, into your frame of reality, not the opposite of your reality, not...

How can you be more compassionate? James Kirby is a lecturer and a clinical psychologist at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia, he's also been a fellow at the Centre for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education, but more importantly, he does incredible research in the area of compassion. “If we choose compassion, we're choosing to try to be helpful to someone, or ourse...

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is a globally registered spiritual and humanitarian who has spearheaded an unprecedented worldwide movement to create a stress-free and violence-free society.  “Compassion needs two attendants with it all the time. One attendant is wisdom. The other attendant must be detachment. If any one of these is lacking, compassion will suffer itself. Misplaced compassion is no g...

How do you create a stress free and violence free society? This is the question driving Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, a globally registered spiritual and humanitarian who has spearheaded an unprecedented worldwide movement to bring about this very thing.  We’re all born the same way, says Sri Sri. We all have an innate quality to connect with everybody and to maintain our compassionate innocence....

Did you know that when you experience great stress in your life it can have a tangible, negative effect on your physiology? But, says Kamlesh D. Patel (Daaji to his friends and followers), spiritual leader, author, and fourth spiritual Guide in the Sahaj Marg system of Raja Yoga meditation, the reverse is also true.  If you have a calm mind and are compassionate, the parts of your brain associated...

Eckhart Tolle, author of bestselling book, The Power of Now , was 28 and on the brink of ending his life through suicide, when one night a thought occured to him: if he couldn’t bear to live with himself, was there more than one of him? “At that moment an inner separation happened between my unhappy self and my deeper sense of I or beingness, which I now call consciousness itself.” In this episode...

Eckhart Tolle, author of bestselling book, The Power of Now , was 28 and on the brink of ending his life through suicide, when one night a thought occured to him: if he couldn’t bear to live with himself, was there more than one of him? “At that moment an inner separation happened between my unhappy self and my deeper sense of I or beingness, which I now call consciousness itself.” In this episode...

The British have described Stephen Fry as a national treasure possessed with a brilliant mind, a natural wit, and an extraordinary verbal facility. He’s an English actor, broadcaster, comedian, director, and writer. In fact, he does it all.  He is also considered the epitome of a renaissance man. He's also known for his virtuosic command and comical manipulation of the English language, both i...

When American neuroscientist, David Eagleman, was eight years old, he fell off the roof of a house. As he fell, he thought how long it was taking to hit the ground, and how this must be what it was like to be Alice in Wonderland.  Later, he calculated that he only fell for 0.6 seconds. The time distortion he experienced in that life threatening situation stuck with him, underpinning his adult jour...

If you’ve ever wondered why you aren’t achieving all you want out of life, or you’re skeptical of the concept of manifestation, then don’t miss Dr. Tara Swart, physician, neuroscientist, executive advisor and senior lecturer at MIT in the Sloan School, and the author of the best selling book, The Source, The Secrets Of The Universe, The Science Of The Brain , on this week’s Into The Magic Shop.  T...

“Growing up, I remember entertaining my friends, my cousins, my siblings with storytelling. I would stage plays. I would write the play and they would act it out. It was my first love.” Not many of us can pinpoint the exact moment our lives changed forever. For Khaled Hosseini, the New York Times best-selling Afghan American novelist, author of The Kite Runner, as well as two other novels includin...

Frank Ostaseski is a Buddhist teacher and a pioneer and leader in the field of end of life care.  “I don't know exactly how we prepare for dying. I know that we can use the spectre of death as a way to show us how to live our life really fully. And that may be the best preparation for dying, a life fully lived.” Frank founded the first Zen hospice project in 1987, and guided that for almost 20...

If you’ve experienced personal suffering, an incredibly powerful way to begin healing is through meditation, as Sharon Salzberg, New York Times best selling author, Buddhist meditation teacher, and co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society, discovered back in 1969.  Having come through a childhood involving considerable loss and turmoil, Sharon’s eyes were opened to Buddhism during an Asian phi...

We all need a purpose to help us feel fulfilled, but Lynne Twist, founder of the institute ‘The Soul of Money’, author of Soul of Money , and co-founder of the Pachamama Alliance, has made a bigger commitment. She wants to transform the conditions of life on this planet.  Lynne isn’t just a global visionary, she’s actively working toward alleviating world hunger, as well as supporting social justi...

Your past does not define your present, and it certainly does not define your future. Today’s guest is living proof of that. Silvia Vasquez-Lavado is a survivor of childhood sexual abuse. She ultimately overcame her demons through mountaineering, and is the first openly gay woman to climb the Seven Summits.  Her determination to overcome her trauma saw her first try to run away from it, before see...

If you’re curious about the practical science of lasting happiness, don’t miss New York Times best selling author of Buddha’s Brain and most recently, Neurodharma, Rick Hanson, on this episode of Into The Magic Shop.  When you see people who operate at the upper reaches of human potential, it can seem a million miles away when you’re down in the trenches of everyday life.  “The qualities that we s...

Humor can be your biggest secret weapon in business. So much so, this episode’s guests, Jennifer Aaker and Naomi Bagdonas, wrote the book, ‘ Humor, Seriously ’, about it.  In this episode of Into The Magic Shop, Jennifer and Naomi discuss just how much humor can impact business and how it can ultimately change everything. Because humor isn’t just an emotional response, it plays a huge role on our...

What is it about A-listers that we find so appealing? They’re no more special than the rest of us. Yet their impossibly glamorous existence is a world away from what we know. But are their lives and experiences really in stark contrast to ours?  In today’s episode of Into The Magic Shop, Jim lifts the curtain on A-List actor Jon Hamm, best known for playing Don Draper in Mad Men, revealing the mon...