The Best Podcast

Today’s podcast is an article on my blog, The Platform, which you can find at mattbest.net/theplatform. It is a reflection that I wrote following spending 90 days living in Rio de Janeiro, writing a journal on a daily basis. I read through that journal and pulled out some key learnings, which I articulate here. I hope you find these learnings to be valuable and meaningful. I can easily admit that...

Today marks the end of my time in Brazil. Ninety days of change, novelty, learning, humbling... comes to a close. This experience, just like everything else in life, has an ending, which I have now reached. Endings are a brutal and beautiful thing. This fact inspired me to record this episode about endings and what they mean to me. Perhaps you can relate and find this message to be valuable. Thank...

Today’s podcast is a reflection on some key lessons that I’ve taken from one of my favorite thinkers in history - John Stuart Mill - in his book, On Liberty. Choosing your own path, developing the self, and the downsides of conformity are just some of the themes that surface which I wanted to spend some time to discuss with you here. I hope you find these lessons to be as valuable and potent as I...

Gabi and I decided to talk one last time for the podcast to talk through some big picture stuff from our time together at her home in Brazil. As always, it was a really fun conversation that was super enjoyable for me (which I hope you’ll perceive in the dialogue). I hope you enjoy it, too! Thanks so much for listening. As always, Much Love ❤️ and please take care.

Hey. Today’s podcast is about courage and why I’m really happy that you can’t fake it. I take some turns into Star Wars nerd territory, along with some spurious thoughts about what it means to be courageous and some key distinctions. I hope you enjoy it and find it to be valuable despite my ramblings. As always, Much Love ❤️ and please take care.

Today’s podcast, along with the ones ahead, are going to be tough ones for me. In this episode, I reflect on the formation of my new identity in Portuguese through speaking in constantly during my time in Brazil and how that is affecting me. Like I said, not easy stuff to work through mentally. However, I think there’s a happy moral of the story to be taken here, so give it a listen and let me kno...

Yes. That is in fact an odd title. Probably not one you would expect from me at first glance. But I ask you to listen and give the thought a chance, as I think it’s quite a profound one if you can take a step back and grasp it. I hope you find it to be valuable and that it perhaps can shift your thinking a bit. Thanks again for listening. It really means a lot to me. As always, Much Love ❤️ and pl...

Today’s podcast is a reflection on the misalignment between popular media and music’s conception of romance and romance that is more optimal for well-being over time. As you will see, I think that this misalignment is concerning, and I wanted to take some time today to talk through why, plus some related thoughts about romance and relationships in general. I hope you enjoy the episode and find it...

Today’s podcast is my third conversation with Gabi. I really enjoyed it, as I always do. We wouldn’t be together if that wasn’t the case. In this episode, we talk about habits, which leads us into conversations about social media, exercise, fasting, and alcohol, with some math errors mixed in. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! As always, thanks so much for listening. It means a lot to me. Much...

Today’s podcast stems from the ending of my most recent read - The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. I discuss a scenario he poses to the reader and the lessons to be taken from it. I found it to be quite profound, so I wanted to take some time to share it with you. As always, thanks so much for listening. I hope you’re finding these podcasts to be meaningful, enjoyable, and valuable. Much Love...

Today’s podcast was a really important one for me. I discuss the availability heuristic - which is that we think and act in accordance with what is easily accessible in our minds - and the sizable implications that come with it. I will not say more, as I’d like you to tune in and engage more deeply with what I’m saying here. Thanks for listening. It means a lot to me. As always, Much Love ❤️ and p...

Today’s podcast is a reflection on spending the past 2 months without meditation. In the months prior to arriving in Brazil, I had spent 15 minutes each morning meditating before doing anything else with my day. Since arriving, I stopped that habit. I’ve noticed some changes in my headspace through this change, which I wanted to spend some time discussing here. I hope you find it to be a valuable...

Today’s podcast is centered on a lyric from The Weeknd’s song “In Your Eyes.” In the beginning of the second verse, he says, “I tried to find love in someone else too many times.” Every time I’ve heard this line, it has provoked me to reflect on the many learnings that have come from my romantic pursuits. So I wanted to take some time here to discuss those reflections with you, as perhaps you’ll f...

I had a topic planned out for this episode, but I decided to not discuss it this time. Instead, I got some stuff off my chest about some of my current frustrations. Episodes like this make me remember what this is really about - figuring out this whole life thing by talking about it out loud, with the odd chance that how I’m thinking about what I’m going through can be helpful to you. I hope you f...

Today’s podcast is about justice. It’s a new topic for the podcast, but that should not take away from its importance in the world. It’s something we need to think about more if we want to create a better society. To discuss this, I talk through various ideas about justice from the past and where I fall within that spectrum of ideas. I hope you find the discussion to be meaningful and insightful....

Random shower thought turns into podcast. Hone your craft. Master your craft. And don’t forget your own touch. Much Love ❤️ and please take care.

Today’s podcast is a conversation I had with Gabi about language, culture, and Brazil. We covered a lot of ground here and had a lot of fun doing it. I’m really curious to hear your thoughts on this episode, as I threw a lot of ideas out there to which I’d really like to get reactions. Email me those thoughts - matt@mattbest.net. Thanks so much for tuning in! As always, Much Love ❤️ and please tak...

The mental simplification of our world helps us to make sense of reality, but it leads us to missing the truth. Today’s podcast elaborates on this point, along with a plea for us to think more critically about how we discuss causes and effects. I hope you find this to be a thoughtful and meaningful discussion. Thanks for tuning in. I am so grateful. As always, Much Love ❤️ and please take care.

Today’s podcast veers away from talk about books and broader ideas and instead focuses on a personal experience of mine from a year and a half ago. It’s something my mind goes to every now and then, and it is quite an impactful reminder for me when it appears. Because of that, I wanted to discuss it here with you, as perhaps you might be able to learn from it, too. As always, thanks so much for li...

Today’s podcast follows the previous episode in a discussion of Benedict Spinoza’s book Ethics. I found his ideas to be incredibly eye-opening, so I wanted to dedicate an episode here to discussing them and the key learnings I took from the book. I sincerely believe that his conception of the good life is one that could benefit all of us. As always, thanks so much for listening. I am so grateful t...

God is a topic I have seemingly actively avoided throughout my last 392 episodes. I certainly have a history with “God”, yet I struggled to find a way to conceptualize God in a manner that was sensible and convincing to me. There is one way that I’ve recently come across that hit this bar for me, and that is Spinoza’s conception of God in his book Ethics. So in this episode, I dive into that conce...

Today’s podcast dives into an important reflection I recently had. This reflection was about the importance of understanding the roots of one’s culture and traditions, especially when it comes to the prerequisites to understanding another culture. Inherently within that as well is the importance of understanding the self. I discuss a couple of references where I’ve heard this idea before and build...

Over the last 26 days, I’ve been journaling every night. I’ve never journaled like this before, so this has been a really new and eye opening experience for me. Today, I share with you my experience developing this habit and what I’ve gotten from it. I hope you find it to be valuable and meaningful, perhaps enough so for you to give it a shot for yourself. As always, Much Love ❤️ and please take c...

Well, that’s a really basic title, eh? Why yes. Yes it is. That’s because the topic of this conversation is fairly basic when it comes down to it, yet we often miss the whole picture with it. Exercise is critical for higher well-being. “Duh,” may have been your response to that point. However, the reasons why it’s critical for higher well-being go beyond the physical and we often miss them in disc...

Hey everyone. This was a tough podcast to record. It’s a particularly emotional topic, as it is one that has to do with the foundations of democracy and civil discourse. But nevertheless, I wanted to take a shot at it. I can’t say I covered everything, but I did get through some critical points that I want you all to hear and engage with. I hope you find the conversation to be valuable and meaning...