Think Act Be Podcast

My guest this week is Janine Kwoh, who has a new book called  Welcome to the Grief Club . As you’ll hear, Janine has her own experience with heartbreaking grief that became the basis for this book. This conversation is for you if you’re dealing with your own loss of someone you loved, or if you want to learn more effective ways to help someone you love who’s hurting. I know there’s so much fear ar...

My guest this week (for the second time) is Caroline Wright. Caroline has written a phenomenal book called  Soup Club (affiliate link), and we talk in this episode about how food is so much more than calories and nutrients. It also feeds our spirits, and that may be especially true for soup. You’ll hear in our discussion how Caroline came up with the idea of an actual soup club, and why the recipe...

My guest this week is psychiatrist Dr. Jennifer Reid. We focused on how to fix insomnia, which Jenna and I both treat in our clinical practices. I’ve also been through years of poor sleep due to my health struggles, so I know firsthand what a drag it is when you just want to sleep but aren’t able to. Jenna and I discussed the best ways to get good sleep, and the downsides of many of the common sle...

My guest this week is Dr. Stephen Schueller, who’s been working in the field of digital interventions for the past fifteen years. I’ve been really interested in this area because of my own work with a mental health app called Bloom , so I was excited to talk with Stephen about his experience and perspective. One of the coolest things from our conversation was thinking about how to really get the m...

My guest this week is empath and author Signe Myers Hovem, who recently wrote  The Space in Between: An Empath’s Field Guide   (affiliate link). I was familiar with what it meant to be an empath before this conversation, but Signe does a lot to explain what the experience is actually like. Interestingly there are many people who don’t realize that they have empathic sensitivities, as well as peopl...

My guest this week is Gary Pilarchik, author of the excellent new book  The Modern Homestead Garden  (affiliate link). Gary hosts The Rusted Garden channel on YouTube which guides viewers through all the steps in growing your own food. I love Gary’s no-nonsense, low-stress approach to gardening, and wasn’t surprised to learn that he had a background as a mental health therapist. His understanding...

My guest this week is Dr. Ilia Delio. We had a great conversation based around her fascinating new book,  The Hours of the Universe: Reflections on God, Science, and the Human Journey  (affiliate link). Ilia has such an interesting background as both a scientist and a theologian, and she’s integrating these disciplines in ways that can breathe new life into issues of both science and faith. As you...

My guest this week is Dr. Alice Boyes, author of the forthcoming book  Stress-Free Productivity (affiliate link; available March 2022). Alice was a guest on the podcast all the way back in episode 11, and as always she shares some great ways to improve your life. Alice has a powerful way of bringing together things that we might think of as opposites—especially self-care and productivity. She shar...

My guest this week is Jennifer Shannon, author of the new book,  The Monkey Mind Workout for Perfectionism  (affiliate link).  Jennifer and I explored what perfectionism is, which may be different from what you think. It includes all the ways we rigidly hold ourselves to unrealistic standards. Jennifer offers many simple and effective ways to let go of perfectionism, which you’ll hear about in thi...

My guest this week is Pamela Seelig, author of the recent book  Threads of Yoga: Themes, Reflections, & Meditations to Weave into Your Practice  (affiliate link).  Pam and I talked a lot about the healing and stress relief we can find through yoga, and also about the deeper spiritual elements that are available through the practice. I appreciated thinking with her about the intersections between y...

My guest this week is Shelly Tygielski, author of the recent book,  Sit Down to Rise Up: How Radical Self-Care Can Change the World .  Shelly is doing some really remarkable things, though she insists that anyone can do the things she does if we’re just willing to show up as ourselves and take some risks. What she’s doing is even more remarkable when you hear about the illness that she’s had to de...

My guest this week is Dr. Kristin Kobes Du Mez, author of a recent book called  Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation .  We explored the definition of an “evangelical,” which apparently I was for the first half of my life (without realizing it), and themes of a patriarchal, male-centered, even toxic masculinity that pervades many evangelical circles....

My guest this week is Amanda Gilbert, author of the recent book,  Kindness Now: A 28-Day Guide to Living with Authenticity, Intention, and Compassion . As Amanda and I discussed, we could all do with a little more kindness right now—for ourselves, for others, for the world. She introduces the traditional Buddhist heart practices known as the  brahma-viharas :  loving-kindness ,  compassion ,  appr...

My guest this week is Kristen Manieri, author of the new book  Better Daily Mindfulness Habits: Simple Changes with Lifelong Impact . This was a really interesting conversation that went some directions I hadn’t expected—especially on the topic of mindfulness—that I found really clarifying. One intriguing question we considered together: Should it be relaxing to practice mindfulness and meditation...

My guest this week is Dr. Ilyse Dobrow DiMarco. She’s a clinical psychologist and she has a new book called Mom Brain: Proven Strategies to Fight the Anxiety, Guilt, and Overwhelming Emotions of Motherhood—And Relax Into Your New Self . We talked about what mom brain actually is—which is very different from the pop culture ideas about it. She also shares about how to deal with the resentment that...

My guest this week is clinical psychologist Dr. Karen Saporito. Karen has a particular interest and specialty in diagnosing and treating kids and adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, and autism spectrum disorder. We focused in this conversation on ADHD. I know from my own clinical work that this is a really important topic that doesn’t get enough attention. There are so m...

My guest this week is Dr. Carmen McLean, who specializes in treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder or PTSD. She recently co-authored a book called Retraining the Brain: Applied Neuroscience in Exposure Therapy for PTSD . It was great to get Carmen’s take on how effective treatment works and how we can support the body and brain’s natural ability to heal following a trauma. I shared some about...

My guest this week is Dr. Kathryn Gordon. Katie’s a clinical psychologist and she recently wrote The Suicidal Thoughts Workbook , so our discussion centered around suicide. This is a painful topic that touches so many of us, and it leaves such a hole in our lives when we lose someone to suicide. A friend of mine took his own life a few years ago, and I still think about it nearly every day, and wo...

My guest this week is Regina Louise, author of a new book called Permission Granted: Kick-Ass Strategies to Bootstrap Your Way to Unconditional Self-Love . I know I’ve often tended to seek permission from other people to do the things I want to do. The first time I had a book contract, for example, I felt like colleagues and past supervisors were looking over my shoulder, and like I had to clear e...

My guest this week is Dr. Regine Galanti, a clinical psychologist and author of the recent book, When Harley Has Anxiety . (As you’ll hear in this episode, I somehow thought the name was “Harlan” instead of “Harley,” but we got that straightened out.) If you’re a parent of an anxious child, or you’re wondering if your child might need to see a therapist, or even if you’re dealing with anxiety your...

My guest this week is Dr. Judith Ruskay Rabinor, a psychologist who recently wrote a memoir about making peace with her mother. We talked primarily about the mother-daughter relationship, but these are issues that are relevant for all parents, and for both daughters and sons. Judy has a wealth of knowledge and experience that she shares in this episode, including specific techniques for healing ou...

My guest this week is Dr. Jessica Bodie, a clinical psychologist who specializes in cognitive behavioral therapy. We talked mostly about a topic that sadly is all too familiar for so many people, and that’s childhood sexual abuse. Jessica and I both treat adults who have lived through this form of trauma, and are still dealing with the after effects decades later. So this is a painful topic, and a...

My guest this week is Dr. Katherine Dahlsgaard, a clinical psychologist and specialist in treating kids and teens. We focused in this episode on extremely picky eating in kids, also known as avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID). This was a fascinating topic for me and one I wasn’t that familiar with. But Katherine is extremely knowledgeable and does a great job describing the principl...

My guest this week is Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, author of the new book, Whole Brain Living: The Anatomy of Choice and the Four Characters That Drive Our Life (affiliate link). Jill has quite a story to tell, which you may have heard the beginning of in her bestselling book, My Stroke of Insight . In this conversation she describes how she recovered from a massive stroke, and is now able to share the...

My guest this week is clinical psychologist Dr. Jeffrey Bernstein, bestselling author of  The Anxiety, Depression, & Anger Toolbox for  Teens  (affiliate link) .  Jeff specializes in treating kids and teens. In this episode we talk about how the pandemic has affected young people, and the warning signs parents can look for that could indicate their child is having a mental health crisis. We also e...