Magic in the Moment: Mindfulness In Real Time

Every episode of this show starts the same way for you. You press play and a finished conversation appears. The music rises on cue. The pauses sit where they should. The moments that matter rise to the top. Today Clayton flips the microphone around. Jon Goehring of StoryTrust Media has been inside almost every episode of this show, not as a guest but as the person who sits alone with the raw recor...

Late night. Cross County Parkway. A flat tire. A really nice suit. And then three strangers pulled over. In this solo episode Clayton returns to a moment from the mid-1990s that he has been carrying for thirty years without quite having the language for it, until a recent episode of the podcast Hidden Brain and psychologist Amit Kumar's research on kindness finally gave it a name. What Kumar found...

Picture a rowing eight at full speed. Eight people. One boat. Every blade entering the water at the same instant. Nobody pulling harder than anyone else. The whole thing moving like a single organism. Now here is the question worth sitting with. What is actually happening inside those eight people? Frank Rowe has spent a lifetime asking a version of that question, first in the boat and then in the...

Three guests. Three very different stories. One thread running through all of them that took three conversations to fully see. Hans Andreas Weygoldt spent 15 years running a family business while quietly losing himself inside it. Ray Arata has devoted more than 25 years to helping men lead from the heart, and yet the hardest work of his life turned out to be something he had never taught anyone el...

Before you say a single word, people are already reading you. Not your resume. Not your title. Not your carefully prepared talking points. You. The way you carry yourself, the energy you bring into the room, the invisible caption floating above your head that is the accumulated echo of every interaction, every expectation, and every unspoken belief you have ever carried into a conversation. Jake S...

In 1979, Clayton's body answered before his mind had a chance to weigh in. He could not sleep for two nights. Not anxious, sleepless nights. Alive ones. In this deeply personal solo episode, Clayton shares a story he has carried for over 40 years, one that asks a question most of us quietly avoid: what has your energy been trying to tell you that you have not yet been willing to hear? This is not...

What business are you really in? And who are you really being while you run it? Those two questions sit at the heart of this rich and wide ranging conversation between Clayton and Kaihan Krippendorff, author of six books, founder of Outthinker, podcast host of Outthinkers, and one of the most original thinkers working at the intersection of strategy, identity, and human potential. Kaihan opens wit...

Two strangers. A pile of Legos. No talking. And their heartbeats started to synchronize. That is not a metaphor. That is what the data showed. And according to neuroscientist Dr. Michael Platt, it works every time, but only when both people have genuinely arrived. When both people are truly present. In this solo compilation episode, Clayton weaves together three conversations from the Magic in the...

What is the irreducible value of human presence in a world where machines can process information faster than any human brain? And what happens to our capacity for genuine connection when artificial intelligence is constantly running in the background? These are the questions Dr. Janine Stewart has dedicated her career to answering, and this conversation may be one of the most timely and urgent Cl...

What happens when the creative spark is never the problem? When beginning feels electric and the middle feels like dark water? When the gap between who you intend to be on a project and who you actually show up as starts to feel a little too familiar? That is the question Clayton sits with in this rare and deeply honest solo episode, one of the most personally revealing he has recorded. Clayton is...

Most of us come to stillness the hard way. Through exhaustion. Through loss. Through a moment when the body finally demands to be heard. Rich Roe spent decades as an elite personal trainer working with celebrities, rock stars, and Fortune 500 executives. He has spent four days and nights on the face of El Capitan. And what he discovered both on the wall and after the workout is that the path inwar...

Every high performer knows it. Every leader who has walked into a room that mattered knows it. Every person who has ever cared deeply about something knows it. That voice. The one that arrives not in the quiet but in the loudest moments, when the stakes are highest and the doors are about to open, asking: what if you blow this? In this solo episode, Clayton revisits three conversations that togeth...

What would it look like if men actually led from the heart? Not as a slogan. Not as a corporate initiative. As a daily, lived, embodied practice? That question has guided Ray Arata for over 25 years, and in this rich and deeply personal conversation, Clayton and Ray go somewhere that most leadership conversations never reach. Ray is the founder of the Better Man Movement and author of Showing Up,...

What do you do when the voice in your head sounds almost reasonable? Almost wise? Almost like it has your best interests at heart? In this rare and deeply personal solo episode, Clayton shares a story he has never told on the podcast before. A business dinner. Colleagues he respects. Wine flowing naturally around a table. And a quiet internal voice making a very persuasive case for just one glass....

In this fascinating and deeply grounded conversation, Clayton sits down with Hans Andreas Weygoldt, breathwork facilitator and emergence coach, whose personal journey from a successful but hollow career to a life of presence and purpose is as compelling as the science behind the work he now does. For 15 years, Hans Andreas ran a family business. From the outside, everything looked fine. On the ins...

What holds you together when the ground shifts? Not the coping strategies or the to do lists. Not the breathing exercises or the carefully laid plans. Something deeper. The thing that is still there when everything else has been stripped away. That is the question at the heart of this solo episode, and Clayton brings four remarkable voices together to help answer it. Not tidily. But truthfully. Gr...

In this deeply personal and wide ranging conversation, Clayton sits down with Kira Higgs, author of Winnowing: A Memoir of Spiritual Longing in Secular Life. What began as a practical business book became something far more honest and alive: a memoir of the small, cumulative interior shifts that unfold quietly through a life of sustained mindfulness and intentional self awareness. Kira shares the...

In this immersive guided meditation, Clayton shares a grounding practice recorded during a Vermont Bike Tour (VBT) journey through New Zealand’s South Island. Set beside a misty lake between rainforest, mountains, and sea, this episode invites you to slow your breathing, soften your body, and reconnect with the living intelligence of the earth. In This Meditation: Mindful breath awareness Deep con...

Ed D'Angelis built a 450-person construction company that's been recognized six consecutive years as a Philadelphia Top Workplace. But his journey to "humanity as a strategy" started with a crisis: eight years into his business, he literally couldn't get off the floor. His body and mind shut down from relentless grinding. That breaking point led Ed to a radical realization—in an industry built on...

What if the billionaires have it wrong? In this powerful conversation, Spencer Sherman - meditation teacher, financial advisor, and founding CEO of Abacus Wealth Partners - challenges everything we've been taught about wealth, success, and the pursuit of "more." Spencer occupies a fascinating intersection where mindfulness meets money, and his central question is revolutionary: What if enough is a...

What if the key to lasting change isn't pushing harder... but paying closer attention? In this episode of Magic in the Moment , host Clayton Platt sits down with Dr. Vera Ludwig, psychologist and neuroscientist at the University of Pennsylvania's Positive Psychology Center, to explore a revolutionary approach to self-regulation. Forget exhausting willpower battles, Vera's research reveals how simp...

Ready to break through burnout, self-doubt, and overwhelm? Join host Clayton Platt as he sits down with the inspiring Candice Van Dertholen... holistic practitioner, embodiment coach, and the ultimate guide for anyone craving more presence and purpose. In This Episode: Candice’s raw journey from struggle to self-mastery—and how you can do it too Real talk on imposter syndrome, healing, and why “se...

In this year-end special, Clayton Platt reflects on the conversations that defined the heart of Magic in the Moment . These moments didn’t come from theory or perfection — they came from real people, in real roles, choosing presence in real time. This episode revisits powerful insights from several recent guests, each offering a distinct doorway into what mindfulness looks like when it’s lived. Da...

Join host Clayton Platt and guest Bill Warnick as they dive into a lively chat about leadership, patience, and humility. They also share their personal passions for music and breathing practices, offering a fresh perspective on how these interests shape their professional lives. Takeaways Leadership is all about patience and humility. Music is a personal passion that really hits home emotionally....

In this episode, Clayton Platt and W. David Hubbard explore the profound impact of mindfulness and meditation on personal and professional life. They discuss the journey of integrating mindfulness into daily routines, the challenges of maintaining presence in a fast-paced world, and the transformative power of choosing joy and gratitude. The conversation also delves into the importance of diversit...