The Happy Pear Podcast

Why do we have a biological clock? Do you struggle to get up in the morning? Does sleep affect men differently to women? How do you know you are getting enough sleep? Is there a link between sleep disruption and mental health? “Most people don’t have a sleeping problem, they have an anxiety problem” Born in Aldershot in 1959, Russell Foster is an award winning professor of circadian neuroscience a...

We have come to the end of our series of mash-up episodes, and what better way to go out with a bang than with an episode like this! An incredibly important topic. That as a man I (Stephen here) am ashamed to say is not taken more seriously…  We have had a number of female health specialists on our podcast, from period pains, menopause, perimenopause to fertility. And what we found amazing is...

Think of an argument or confrontation you had last year - Do you remember what was said or how it made you feel? The last time you were with a family member or a friend - were you fully present or on your phone or distracted at all? How much of your time do you spend on tasks, activities, and with people that align with your values and your happiness?   Welcome to this week's podcast mash-up,...

Do you snore, have asthma, struggle to focus? Do you have corns, bunions, feet pain, ankle, knee, hip or lower back pain? Do you have a strong immune system? How often do you find yourself ill per year? In this week's podcast mash-up, we take the best of the best from all our health-focused episodes so far: we highlight the lesser-known but potentially incredibly important health hacks that could...

Let's talk SEX! The taboos, intimacy, pornography, vulnerability, communication, monogamy, infidelity, pleasure, orgasms, erectile dysfunction and so much more... How can we fit so much into one episode you might wonder? Well, we did it again, we decided to make life easier for you by taking the best nuggets from our series on Sex, Pleasure and Relationships and we put it into one bite-sized episo...

Welcome to this week's episode! You are in for a treat… we have done the work for you this week by taking some of the BEST bits from our community series and distilling them into one clear message! Utopia is achievable! You better believe it! This episode is packed with so much amazing information. It will leave you in deep thought - the good kind!  Community has been the backbone of our live...

“Movement is a giant circle of a diagram, it’s any time you change the shape of your body or even the tissues within your body. Exercise is a specific type of movement… you do it to a mode, or a specific time frame… I am just trying to get people to think differently as we are so sedentary culturally that to exercise every day seems like a tone of movement… but we really require a tremendous amoun...

This week’s guest needs no real introduction, we were delighted to have Australian supermodel, businesswoman, tv host, actress and our friend, Elle Macpherson on the podcast! “I was pretty much paid to be whatever they wanted to be, and I was really good at it, but striving to be excellent in my job it distanced me from the capacity to get to know myself, dissociation of who I am and who I was sup...

“Psychologically safe teams is where everybody feels okay to speak up… sometimes the greatest ideas will come from the quietest voices.” This week we had the pleasure to sit with our friend, confident and one of Europe's leading minds in resilience, leadership, business strategy, psychological safety and practical neuroscience - Justin Caffrey! “When people negotiate, everyone wants to win… most p...

Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (or "Dr. B") is an award-winning gastroenterologist, internationally recognised gut health expert and the  New York Times -bestselling author of  Fiber Fueled  and  The Fiber Fueled Cookbook .  “The factor that most people are missing and that the food system is not going to give us, is to eat a wider variety of plants… studies have proven that the peop...

“How many people - youngsters going in to do exams, people going to do a public talk…- respond to these stressful situation with hyperventilation, respond with fast, harder breathing, with mouth breathing and with irregular breathing… what is that telling the brain? That it is under threat!” You could say our breathwork journey started 20 years ago when we began yoga, however we only really began...

Would you eat veg with soil on it? But what if it was potentially healthier for you and the planet? According to the UN’s FAO, over 90% of the Earth’s soil could be degraded by 2050. There are several reasons but “conventional farming” that uses chemicals (e.g. pesticides), machinery and other modern techniques is potentially adding to the problem. So what’s the solution? Is organic farming (using...

Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia, by 70%, and is the number one most costly disease - “ It’s not because its happening more often it’s because of bad lifestyle and medications that prolong life but don’t get rid of pathological processes that cause dementia so you have a whole lot of people living with this devastating disease.” This week we speak to THE ultimate brain-powered coupl...

40% of men suffer from erectile dysfunction in their 40’s, 50% in their 50’s, 60% in their 60’s… it’s an easy stat to remember! A lot of this is due to age-related changes however " some of this we can control and put on the breaks…”   This week's episode is for anyone with a penis, any friends of penises, and any lovers of penises! An area that is not talked about enough, and yet viagra had...

Ever heard the expression  “use it or lose it”?  This week we speak to Dr James Timmons, an Exercise Specialist who aims to live to 100 independent and strong! We are living longer,  “old school thinking was that as you age you slow down, we now know that as you age you should be doing more… There needs to be a shift in the thought process from the government - we need to keep peopl...

Have you ever considered what effect lack of sleep can have on things other than your mood?  Did you know that… Sleep acts like a filter system for your memory? Sleeps helps you forget unnecessary information to make room for important information? children only grow in the first few hours of sleep? Your ability to gain more muscle is effected by the quality of your sleep? This week we speak...

What are the characteristics of a great leader? Are you born with it, or can it be taught?  From the moment she entered the studio filling the space with warmth; to the leadership roundtable she facilitated at the end, Joanne oozed passion for people and creating a national of leaders “of good character”. Today, Joanne is dedicated to her social enterprise LIFT, which strives to create positi...

This week we have the wonderful Dr Sue Kenneally with us, the weight management specialist! A General Practitioner, nutritionist and co-founder of the British Society of Lifestyle Medicine. Dr Sue sits on the board of Plant Based Health Professionals UK and is SCOPE certified in obesity management, working with the University of South Wales in the study of weight management. We have known Sue for...

“It’s embarrassing to say: “I was the victim of abuse. I was the victim of domestic abuse.” As a child her home meant violence, her security and safety was the streets - school did not understand her and wanted to punish her - she moved from one abusive relationship to the next one resulting in such physical damage it caused the death of her unborn child. Drugs and alcohol became her only companio...

Dr Julie Smith is on a mission to make mental health education accessible to all! To help as many people as she can to thrive, by making top-quality mental health education readily available online, so even those who cannot access therapy can get off to the best start in their recovery journey. Dr Julie is a clinical psychologist, online educator, blogger, and owner of a private practice in Hampsh...

Is modern medicine and/or culture the cause of period pains, PCOS, Endometriosis amongst other issues? Is there an answer to reducing menopause symptoms beyond using HRT that is incredibly effective? This week we speak to Dr Nitu Bajekal, MD, a Senior Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist in the UK with over 35 years of clinical experience in women’s health. Her special interests include Lifes...

“The world is really bifurcating into two types of people; people who allow their time and attention to be controlled and manipulated by others and people who say NO I am in-distractible, I control my time and attention, I control my life.” Mastering your internal triggers, leaning into the discomfort, turning distraction into traction, becoming masters of your own time… these are amongst some of...

On average we breathe 25,000 times a day, and yet many of us are doing it completely wrong according to author and journalist, James Nestor. “The majority of the human population have respiratory problems, chronic sinusitis, sleep apnea, snoring, asthma… we have completely lost touch with our basic bodily function. We can still live by breathing poorly but that doesn’t mean that we are going to be...

"All disease begins in the gut" - Hippocrates Nearly 3000 years ago Hippocrates was attributed to saying this, however looking at modern culture, the western diet and medicine it would appear we didn't hear it? This week we bring back our friend, collaborator and gut mastermind, Consultant Gastroenterologist, Dr Alan Desmond. Certified in both Gastroenterology and General Internal Medicine, Dr Ala...

Is it safe to say you have heard about the numerous benefits from mediation for both your mental and physical health? But do you actively do it? This week we have the pleasure of speaking to the meditation master, Light Watkins. “The reason why we are still talking about meditation and mindfulness thousands and thousands of years from when they were first discovered is because it is the only thing...