The Mind Unset

Alenka Vrecek was born at the foot of the Alps in Slovenia, a part of former communist Yugoslavia.  She spent her earliest years idolizing the likes of Reinhold Messner and other great alpine climbers.  Born with a spirit for adventure, she came to America at 20 years old with a backpack, a pair of skis, and a pocket full of dreams.  Her run as one of the top ski instructors in Squaw Valley ended...

Happiness. It's not rocket science. Yet, we love to pretend it is. Can you believe that I'm actually foolish enough to attempt an episode on happiness?   It's true.  But I've been working on this for a while now and I've decided to let it fly. You see, I've got a ringer. I've got science on my side.  85 years of science... and data collection from one of the long...

"Sleep, nutrition, and exercise are three legs on the same stool. If you're not sleeping well, it's like trying to sit on a two-legged stool." Dr. Michael Grandner is the Director of the Sleep and Health Research Program and an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Arizona College of Medicine. He’s published hundreds of articles relating to sl...

We're all storytellers. But are we telling the real story?  The stories we tell create the life we live in. They’re the scripts to our movie and every single day we tell stories that chronicle our triumphs and tragedies, successes and failures, powerful moments, and vulnerable moments; where we’re both hero and villain.  We tell stories about our life, our work, past achievements, and future...

Do you believe in magic?  Do you believe the Universe is dropping hints and clues to us all the time to help us connect with our creativity? All we need to do is pay attention. Famed music producer Rick Rubin has a new book out called The Creative Act: A Way of Being and listening to him speak about it has kicked me off on a tangent.  He speaks of magic and adjusting our antennas so that we can pi...

In today’s world, everything you do is an audition. If you put something out there that doesn’t represent the best version of you, you shouldn’t be confused about why it didn't have the impact you expected or reach the people you hoped to reach.  Sometimes, while trying to put forth the best version of ourselves, we make things more complicated than they need to be.  It's in our DNA. We&...

Sue Stillman Linja has traveled all over the world to meet and talk with centenarians in an effort to find the connection between their diets and their brain health. These folks are not just existing. They are flourishing and living an active life at or close to 100 years old.  She’s spent the past 25 years working with those living the later years of their lives.  As a licensed Dietician and Nutr...

With 2023 approaching, I got to thinking about this resolution madness. Do you make them? Do you keep them?  Here’s one of the earliest instances where the actual phrase "new year resolution" was used in a January 1st issue of a Boston newspaper from 1813.  “I believe there are multitudes of people who will sin all the month of December, with a serious determination of beginning the new...

21 episodes, 9 guests, and too many cups of coffee to even count. As 2022 draws to a close, I thought a quick look back at the first two seasons of guests was in order. I had some great conversations and decided to pull some of my favorite clips for this year in review episode (for lack of a better description).  If you listened to all of the guest episodes, I thank you. If you only listened to th...

Well, it’s that time of year.  I don’t know where you are in this world, where you’re listening from. Is it cold? Snowing? Decorated for the holidays? Or are you in a warm place with palm trees?   Are you traveling this holiday season? Are you holidaying in place? Are you huddled under the covers with the shades drawn; an emergent date scheduled for sometime in March? I get it. The holiday season...

Shane is a native of Bismarck, North Dakota, and a photographer. But just saying he’s a photographer is a grave understatement.  He’s a Wet Plate Collodion photographer and if you don’t know,  wet plate is the process of printing on glass with silver and other, sometimes lethal, chemicals. The process began way back in 1848 and was quickly abandoned for more modern and efficient techniques.  &quot...

This episode is all about creating in the midst of chaos, how distractions and excuses sabotage your joy, and whether or not inspiration and motivation have anything to do with getting something done. No, Brain Weeds & The Joy is not a band. It's not the latest Ka' Chava blend either.    Brain Weeds, or Cranial Kudzu as it's known by its scientific name (there's really no v...

Kristin Hanes is a freelance business and travel writer and the publisher of the incredibly successful blog, The Wayward Home .  With over 400k readers per month, Kristin Hanes has become one of the authorities on living tiny. Whether it’s an RV, Sailboat, Tiny House, or Van Life, Kristin has done it and written about it.  Today we talk about the early days when she worked as a journalist in San F...

When life gives you lemons, forget the lemonade. Break out the Tequila.  If you listened to Episode 15, Family Practice, you know that my wife and I have been on an epic road trip. At this point, we're somewhere in the neighborhood of 7500 miles!  As you might expect, there were some incredible moments and some not-so-incredible moments. Less than 12 hours after one of the best moments, we we...

Decrease the speed at which you move through the universe, and your universe expands.  My guest this week is Jimmy Hallyburton. Jimmy is a former Hot Shot fire-fighter, TEDx speaker, city council member, and the Executive Director of the Boise Bicycle Project.  The organization is nationally known for its programs that serve incoming refugees, incarcerated individuals, and families experiencing ho...

In 2002, the selfie came to life and it's been downhill ever since.  Does it seem like more people than ever are talking about strained relationships these days? Families and long-time friendships are under a lot of pressure or breaking apart because of the polarizing political and cultural events in our country and the world.  So what gives? It's not like things are any more tumultuous...

In this episode, I talk about my guests, and why some solo episodes were the way they were. I answer a few listener questions and end with one of my favorite songs. 14 weeks ago I was freaking out. We had been prepping for about a year and were about to go live with Episode 1.  I had no idea what was going to happen. But the goal was simple. Make positive art and be in a different place at the end...

Something as simple as a Sunday drive can change everything. Objects in mirror are closer than they appear.  If not for the fact that it’s inscribed on every passenger side mirror in North America, this innocuous little sentence might have never seen the light of day.  This safety warning is designed to expand a driver’s view reducing the likelihood that they misperceive what they see to the immed...

Her first entrepreneurial endeavor was selling worms when she was 8 years old. It must have paid off because Melody DiCroce is now an online business strategist who started her business from a sailboat in the jungles of Guatemala and has since worked with some of the biggest names in the online space. She's an anomaly because she's tech-savvy and has what it takes to compete in today&apo...

We’re surrounded by patterns, in nature and in history. And these patterns remind us that everything will be ok. In 1965 British psychoanalyst, Elliott Jaques coined the phrase Midlife Crisis. He described it as a period in which we come face-to-face with our limitations, our restricted possibilities, and our mortality. A period of sudden awakening. Ironically, 3000 miles to the west, America was...

Dr. Gladys Ato is a clinical psychologist, award-winning educator, and author of The Good Goodbye: How to Navigate Change in Life, Love, and Work. Gladys is a public speaker and host of the Time Out Podcast . She's been featured everywhere from Forbes Magazine and Tedx to NPR and NBC . This episode is all about the power of story and discuss how what we tell ourselves shapes our reality. We t...

What do Ghostbusters, the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man, and quicksand have to do with Jimmy Hendrix, Amy Winehouse, and Episode 9?  Well, everything, of course.  They're intimately connected. Episode 9 – The Fatal Episode – has a little bit of everything; numerology, the laws of attraction, and a dash of insight provided by a legendary Fabulist, and somehow it all works out.  Or, does it?  I......

You know the photo I'm talking about. That once-in-a-lifetime shot that makes you question whether or not it's even real.  The one that causes you to wonder just how long the photographer had to wait to get it?  How much preparation went into being in the right place at the right time?  Now imagine that the photo you took is selected as one of the best photos in the world.  That's J...

Has this ever happened to you? You hear a phrase or a song you’ve heard a hundred times. Or…you pass by a sign that on any other day is so unexceptional you barely notice it. But on this day, for some unexplainable reason that phrase, song, or sign hits you differently; something sticks and you can’t stop thinking about it.  Well, it happened to me.  And It was just a small, wooden sign–unremarkab...

There are few environments in live television that come with more pressure than the Academy Awards or the Super Bowl. Emmy Award-Winning Director and Editor Mark Stepp sat down for a candid conversation about what goes on behind the scenes of some of your favorite shows. From his early days working on VH-1's Behind the Music,  Stepp has worked with the biggest names in the entertainment indus...