the goop podcast

“The majority of learning I really believe happens outside of the classroom,” says Kat Cohen. “And you have to be surrounded by people who are different from you to expand your mind.” Cohen is an independent university admissions counselor and the founder of Ivywise, an educational consulting company that is helping to demystify the college admissions experience. She joins GP today to talk about t...

Nedra Glover Tawwab is a licensed therapist and the New York Times-bestselling author of Set Boundaries, Find Peace: A Guide to Reclaiming Yourself. She joins Erica Chidi to discuss the importance of maintaining boundaries, how to get comfortable advocating for yourself, and strategies for setting boundaries with our families. “The boundary is the space for you to stand up for yourself, assert you...

Integrative dietician and menopause expert Esther Blum joins GP today to talk about her approach for treating women during menopause. Blum shares her nutrition-based perspective on perimenopause and menopause, and her advice on treatment options, lifestyle recommendations, and ways to advocate for yourself through the process. After you listen, preorder Blum’s new book, See Ya Later, Ovulator, whi...

Chantel Prat is a brain researcher, a professor at the University of Washington, and the author of The Neuroscience of You: How Every Brain is Different and How to Understand Yours. She joins Erica Chidi to talk about how to better understand our individual brain strengths and why embracing our different brains can help open us up to more connection and understanding. Prat also breaks down what’s...

“All societies have drugs that they’re okay with and they draw these lines and they draw them in ways that can seem very arbitrary,” says Michael Pollan, New York Times–bestselling author of This Is Your Mind on Your Plants and host of the new Netflix series, How to Change Your Mind. GP interviewed Pollan about the relationship between humans and plants and how he initially became interested in ps...

“No one ever asked me if I was happy,” says Selma Blair. “And it’s such a big question.” The actress and author of the new memoir Mean Baby joins GP to talk about the journey that led to Blair’s multiple sclerosis diagnosis and how she’s come to embrace change at fifty. Blair explains how she found healing through books and writing, how she’s learned to be kinder to her younger self, and the force...

“We don’t talk about this stage of life as being an exquisitely vulnerable time,” says psychotherapist Satya Doyle Byock, author of Quarterlife: The Search for Self in Early Adulthood. She joins Erica Chidi to talk about why society tends to overlook people in their early twenties and thirties and how to better support the transition into adulthood. They discuss historical examples of the quarterl...

“The reason that I get so excited about future thinking and helping people play with future scenarios is that those are the habits that keep our mind unstuck,” says future forecaster, game designer, and author Jane McGonigal. In her book, Imaginable: How to See the Future Coming and Feel Ready for Anything, McGonigal shares tools—and games—for envisioning the future before it arrives. She and GP t...

Erica Chidi is joined by comedian Catherine Cohen, author of God I Feel Modern Tonight. Cohen’s debut Netflix comedy special, The Twist…? She’s Gorgeous, is a cabaret-inspired performance exploring the often cringe-worthy millennial experience. In this episode, Chidi and Cohen talk about how Cohen learned to get comfortable making fun of herself. They also discuss wellness routines, what makes Coh...

Erica Chidi is joined by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Matt Richtel, author of Inspired: Understanding Creativity—A Journey through Art, Science, and the Soul. They talk about where creativity comes from, how to harness it, and why the creative process is often embedded with fear. Richtel explains that the fear begins early—around the fourth grade—when kids start internalizing what society dee...

Phillip Picardi is known in part for his work as an award-winning journalist and editor. He rebranded Teen Vogue (where he became the chief content officer at age twenty-six) and he launched and founded Them, a community-driven platform for LGBTQ+ youth. After years of working in journalism, Picardi decided to go back to school—Harvard Divinity School, where he just received his master’s degree in...

In Fariha Roísín’s book, Who Is Wellness For, she explores how wellness culture has been distilled and commodified from the cultural traditions of Black, Brown, and Indigenous people. Today, she joins Erica Chidi to discuss her path through wellness, how we can care for ourselves and be in relationship to one another, and how we can invest in both individual healing and the collective well-being o...

“I teach people how to put themselves aside and listen and respond with generosity,” says therapist Terry Real. “Our culture doesn’t teach us how to do these things. We have to learn them.” In this open conversation with GP, Real explains why individualism and patriarchy has damaged our ability to be in healthy and loving relationships. They talk about why it’s important for couples to take each o...

Kourtney Kardashian joins GP to talk about what shaped her life before she and her family ever appeared on television. They discuss blended family dynamics, what Kardashian turns to her husband Travis Barker for, the one thing she regrets being filmed, and how she and GP feel about the comparisons that have been made between goop and poosh. P.S. If you haven’t heard, the pair also teamed up to cre...

“The last eight years I shifted into another gear,” says Cameron Diaz. “I went in and did some really deep, personal healing.” In this conversation between two friends, GP and Diaz talk about the mechanisms they use for self-protection, why aging is a mindset, and how they’re approaching their fifties together. Diaz explains why she’s given herself permission to honor her instincts and how GP fina...

Kelly McDaniel is a licensed professional counselor and the author of Mother Hunger: How Adult Daughters Can Understand and Heal from Lost Nurturance. In this conversation, McDaniel joins cohost Erica Chidi to talk about the experience of yearning for maternal love. McDaniel explains how this type of longing impacts our sense of self and other types of relationships as we become adults. “Depending...

In this special episode, psychotherapists and collaborators Barry Michels (New York Times–bestselling coauthor of The Tools) and Kristan Sargeant guide us through exercises designed to help us connect with our shadow. The shadow, as they explain it, is an often maligned part of your personality that has the potential to change your life in unexpected ways. “You can have intimacy with a part of you...

GP catches up with her good friend, actress and author Ali Wentworth. They chat about their daughters (they're best friends), and GP asks Wentworth for advice on how to cope when Apple leaves for college. Wentworth shares what has fueled her marriage over the years, and she explains how humor became her currency growing up and how she uses it during dark times. After you listen, preorder Wentworth...

Alok Vaid-Menon is a writer, performer, public speaker, and the author of Beyond the Gender Binary, which examines gender fluidity and why the binary hurts us all. Vaid-Menon joins GP to discuss their journey as a nonbinary artist, how they’ve reclaimed their peace, and why it’s important to become familiar with your pain. “It’s actually through doing this intimate work of self-discovery and self-...

GP is joined by a new friend, author Fanny Singer, for a special conversation (originally hosted by Book Passage) about Singer's book Always Home. They talk about what it was like to both grow up with famous mothers (Singer is the daughter of Alice Waters, the food icon and chef behind Chez Panisse). And Singer shares why she’s finally given herself permission to engage with her mother’s work. The...

Edwina von Gal is a landscape designer and the founder of the Perfect Earth Project and Two Thirds for the Birds, two nonprofits raising awareness around the positive environmental impact of low-intervention lawns and bird-friendly landscapes. In this conversation, von Gal joins GP to discuss what we can do to take care of the ecosystems that we often overlook in our own backyard. “Nature is not r...

Kimberly Johnson is a trauma educator, somatic guide, and the author of Call of the Wild: How We Heal Trauma, Awaken Our Own Power, and Use It For Good. She shares practices for understanding—and befriending—our nervous system. And she explains her approach to unpacking what our body is telling us, how sound can be used for healing, and why simple things (such as moving your body or connecting wit...

“For me growing up, the dark skinned women who had a spotlight or were celebrated had to be exceedingly, almost super humanely beautiful,” says culture and film critic Zeba Blay. “You couldn’t just be a pretty dark skinned Black girl.” In Carefree Black Girls, Blay explores the impact Black women have had on popular culture throughout history—and how pop culture has shaped Black womanhood. In this...

In Sacred Rest, Saundra Dalton-Smith, MD, proposes the idea that there are seven different types of rest. Dalton-Smith says that sometimes the reason we can’t seem to replenish our energy is because we aren’t getting the kind of rest we need. In this episode she explains the characteristics of each and talks with GP about how to maintain healthy boundaries around work, relationships, and technolog...

“We're really indoctrinated with the idea that mental health issues are this genetically determined chemical imbalance,” says holistic psychiatrist Ellen Vora. “And that plays a role. I don't deny that, but it's not the whole story.” Vora’s new book, The Anatomy of Anxiety, explores holistic strategies for supporting our mental health, from nutrition to sleep to herbs and supplements. She joins Er...