The Curious Introvert

Dr. Bill Schutt, Author is a PhD zoologist, Emeritus Professor of Biology at Long Island University & a research associate at the American Museum of Natural History. He’s also the author of Bite: An Incisive History of Teeth, from Hagfish to Humans. In this episode, we cover the history behind we think of those with bad teeth as untrustworthy & less intelligent & those with straight, w...

Dr. Joan Ifland explains how the history of processed foods has led to an obesity or overweight percentage of 70% of Americans! She defines processed foods, explains the business model behind the messaging, the science of your brain's reaction to the foods & how quitting these can revive your taste buds & thought clarity. She also shares the practical tips you’ve been missing all thos...

At 7 years old, Erdne Ombadykow’s parents sent him from his birthplace of Philadelphia to live at a Tibetan Buddhist Monastery where he would spent most of his childhood learning Buddhism.  He was then recognized by the 14th Dalai Lama as the current reincarnation of the Buddhist saint, mahasiddha Tilopa and was tasked with leading the revival of Buddhism in Russia in the Kalmyk Republic.  Now cal...

Mark Wood is a polar explorer, a title normally associated with big ego and fame as core motivations. In this episode; however, he shares his personal motivational evolution of going from a place of ego to one of wonderment. He shares how this shift lead him to teaching children via livestream from the death zone of Mt Everest, the highs and lows of the Expedition Solo 100 trek (100 days alone in...

Because of his out-of-control behavior, Rocky Kandola’s parents sent to a nightmarish WWASP teen rehab center in Mexico, where he served an indefinite sentence with an arbitrary points system. He describes how this was the beginning of a cycle of abuse, imprisonment & bad decisions, but not the end of his life. Hear how he sifted identity from trauma and what gave him hope to keep going. This...

Dr. Georgia Ede is a Harvard trained psychiatrist who began to experience a host of mystery symptoms in her 40s, including fibromyalgia, migraines, chronic fatigue syndrome, and IBS.  When she got relief after experimenting with her diet, she began her path of nutritional studies & later became a nutritional psychiatrist. In this episode, she covers questionnaire collecting vs research, a warn...

Bayarsaikhan Ganzorig grew up in Mongolia in the Ger District without running water or electricity, a type of shanty town established by nomadic herders who fled from the countryside after their herds were victims to one of the latest weather events to plague the area. And my next guest is someone who is eager to share all sides of his home country.  He's the mastermind behind the YouTube cha...

Rob Baedeker is the co-author of What to Talk About: On a Plane, at a Cocktail Party, in a Tiny Elevator with Your Boss's Boss . In this episode, he shares how to break free of the sleep-inducing conversation templates we’ve all had on repeat, deal with awkward political discussions & keep the conversational spark alive with our friends & family by converting small talk into real talk...

Dr. Steven Radowitz completed his MD at Chicago Medical School, worked in general medicine & HIV/AIDS units & was Medical Director of an alcohol & opioid detox & treatment unit. His traditional path was disrupted after seeing remarkable & measurable medical outcomes with patients who got psychedelic treatment. He has since refocused his practice & joined Nushama, a ketamine...

Vicki Robin is considered the mother of the FIRE movement & has appeared on hundreds of shows, including Oprah & Good Morning America. She’s the co-author of the international best-seller, Your Money or Your Life: Transforming Your Relationship With Money and Achieving Financial Independence. Here we explore the heart-side of the balance sheet with concepts like money is life energy, the f...

Dr. John Abramson was a family physician for 20 years who left his practice in 2002 to devote himself to researching the commercial takeover of medical knowledge. He has since served as an expert in medical litigation, served as a consultant to the FBI & US Dept of Justice & authored two books – Overdosed America & Sickening.  In this episode, he shares how the power of public conversa...

Breanna Wilson is a freelance travel writer & photographer who found out her travel plans got Corona canceled mid-flight & ended up being stuck in the country of Georgia. She shares how her first trip to Mongolia started with a photo on Instagram, agreeing to ride wild horses & what it’s like to live with nomadic Mongolian families. She also digs into how to discover your own threshold...

Laura & Aaron Beck were devoted parents who, like many, were in the habit of judging other parents who left their child in the back seat of a car until the day it happened to them. In this episode, Laura shares the circumstances leading up to the accident, her new perspective on parenting, how you can prevent hot car infant death & how her non-profit is working for helpful legislative &amp...

Dr. Andrew Koutnik is a diabetes researcher who's lead 2 NASA investigations, a project for the United States Special Ops Command and assisted on projects for department of defense, DARPA and the Office of Naval Research.  He's also a type 1 diabetic. He's currently a research scientist at the Sansum Diabetes Research Institute and actively investigating the role of lifestyle interv...

Kimmy Seltzer is a mental health therapist turned confidence counselor, stylist & dating strategist. In this episode she shares how her own hot mess moment & an encouraging retail employee helped her transform the way she saw herself as well as the paradox of building the experience of confidence when you don’t have any experience being confident, making style upgrades without feeling fake...

Daryl Davis is a musician & author. He’s also a black man who chooses to be friends with Klansmen. Over his lifetime, he has inspired over 200 Klu Klux Klan members to give up their robes. In this episode he shares about the boyscout parade where he got a race reality check, FBI files, the connection between travel & racism, his first encounter with a klansmen, his first KKK friend & t...

Elliot Justin, MD is a Fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians & worked in Emergency Medicine for 26 years. He’s now the CEO of Firm Tech, a medical technology start up. He & his team have developed a smart watch for your penis to help men assess ED & cardiovascular risk.  In this episode, he explains the connection between frequency of nocturnal erections & cardiac...

Dr. Jason Brennan is a Flanigan Family professor at Georgetown Business School who agrees that democracies outperform most historical alternatives, but suggests that some form of Epistocracy (meaning the rule of the knowledgeable) could be worth experimenting with. In other words, the more of an informed voter you are, the more weight your vote carries. He covers why democracy may not be as bullet...

Former ecstasy dealer, Jason Edwards, tells his story of what led to prison, the types of people you find there & the mindsets that can pull you in & lift you out. You’ll also hear about the day he walked out of prison, how he won over the trust of his boss & now owns a million-dollar business. Stay to the end where he shares his message to prisoners, their family members & naysaye...

This episode is a relaxed hybrid conversation/interview with Scott Johnson, the host of What Was That Like, a true crime fan favorite with over 10 million downloads.  Scott recently invited me to co-host a weekly segment on his show, so I this episode is an introduction to him and a behind the scenes from both of us on what it takes to make a great podcast.  You’ll hear how Scott vets his guests,...

If you watched the Netflix special (un)well, you may have seen Licensed Mental Health Counselor, Rachel Bernstein, in the episode on Tantric Sex. She is a mental health professional specializing in cult psychology, manipulators & systems of control. In this episode, we discuss what defines a cult, who is most vulnerable to cult recruitment & a gut-wrenching listener question. She also tack...

At age 38 and only 8 weeks of training, Merry Morgan Holotik Henderson became 1 of the 4,700 people to summit Mt Everest & 1 of the 605 women. She shares how she went from non-athletic theatre nerd to mountaineer & what you don’t know about what it takes to get there. She shares what she learned about sherpa culture, how cerebral edema can cause your brain to deceive you & how it’s nev...

What exactly is considered "sexless"? What are we counting as sex? What would cause someone to not want to have sex all of a sudden? These are all questions I unpacked with Xanet Pailet. She was a successful healthcare lawyer married to an attorney with two children. She lived in a beautiful home in NYC as well as a sexless marriage. At age 45 and no sex for over 15 years, she considered...

Dr. Loretta Breuning is a PhD researcher & author. Since becoming unconvinced by prevailing theories on human behavior, she has researched everything from monkeys to the mafia. Now she’s not only helping people hack their brain, she’s shedding light on how the altruistic outlook may be popular, but ultimately damaging. In this episode, she explains WHY we believe that if we are unhappy somethi...

The highlight of teenage Tony Dushane’s existence was the short car ride with his crush as they were dropped off to preach door to door. In this episode, he shares the negative impact purity culture within the Jehovah’s Witness community had on his family, the awkward moments he can laugh at (& made a film from) & the advice he would give if he had a teenager. This episode originally aired...