[video available on spotify] yesterday wasn't a great day for me. it all started when i showed up to my morning workout class and i realized that i had been booked on the 13th treadmill. i walked into the class and saw the treadmill with a big number 13 on it and i was like, this is bad luck. then on the way home, i saw a dead black cat on the side of the road. by then i was really freaking out because black cats are supposed to be bad luck and a dead black cat must be really bad luck. i was having all this anxiety about these bad omens, and i don't even know where i got those ideas from. do i even believe that those things are bad luck deeply to my core? no. but i realized yesterday that i am very superstitious and i hadn’t ever acknowledged it.

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[video available on spotify] today i'm going to be speaking with ricky kalmon, a hypnotist. my curiosity around hypnosis has been growing recently because i've been going through this journey trying to quit nicotine, and one of the options I read about online to help me quit was hypnosis. i want to understand how and why it works, and honestly, what it even is in the first place. ricky is a hypnotist and a mindset expert. he speaks on how our mindset can be the greatest tool in achievement, reducing stress, and increasing productivity and potential. so i present to you, ricky kalmon. i can't wait.

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i had an epiphany recently that for my entire life thus far, i’ve been trying to grow up way too fast. in middle school and high school i wanted to find a boyfriend, have my first kiss, and lose my virginity. i wanted to do all of these things that i knew deep down i wasn't ready for, but my peers would praise me if i did. in my early twenties, i wanted to be more like a real adult: retire nightlife and start focusing on settling down and finding my future husband. but i had this sort of epiphany recently where i was like, hold on a minute. i'm 22 years old and I'm trying to live like 40 year old. why am i not giving myself the space and room to be young? so today we're going to be discussing the natural, self-inflicted desire to grow up too fast.

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throughout my life, i've gone through phases of low self-esteem. this is normal, we all experience this. i'm not super excited to admit this, but for as long as i can remember, phases of low self-esteem have caused me to fixate on one person that i believe is better than me, and compare myself to them. their appearance, their relationship or lack thereof, their friend group, their job, their family situation… everything. i chose to admit this today because i'm talking about comparison. it’s a pretty normal human instinct, and it's important that we have the ability to compare, but when it comes to comparing ourselves, it gets a little bit more complicated. so let's figure out why we compare ourselves to others.

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[video available on spotify] since high school, i've been cycling between two phases: wow, this girl is productive, and wow, this girl can't get anything done. when i'm in a productive phase, working comes easily to me. and when i'm in an unproductive phase, it's the complete opposite. during these unproductive times, i take a step back and analyze what's happening. and what i'm trying to figure out is am i being lazy, or am i burnt out? so today, i want to talk about the difference between laziness and burnout because they are kind of hard to distinguish, but understanding where you’re at helps you get back on track. 

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[video available on spotify] today i present to you, amanda montell: a writer, linguist, and fellow podcast host. amanda has written three books. one of them, the age of magical overthinking, is about to come out. today i want to zoom in on one of our many common interests. she wrote an entire book about cults, the language used in cults, and cult-like behavior, and i'm excited to discuss how we participate in cult-like behavior on a day-to-day basis without even realizing it. she's really investigated the line between what is a cult and what is just cult-like behavior. and this is something I am curious to explore because I think it's a little bit more relevant than we even realize.

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[video available on spotify] about a month ago, i posted a casual selfie, and i saw comments saying “wow, she looks tired,” and “she looks kind of sick.” i was like, wait a minute. i’m well rested and healthy… what's everyone going on about? and then it clicks. i'm not wearing makeup in that selfie. at first it was sort of disturbing to me that i was getting so many comments about how tired or sick i looked just because i wasn't wearing makeup. but then i had an epiphany. so that's what we're going to be talking about today: how makeup impacts the way that we perceive natural appearance. 

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[video available on spotify] it's 2016. i'm 15 years old, and for the first time i'm realizing that life is challenging. i'm becoming obsessed with inspirational quotes. i think i’m having a philosophical awakening. now imagine during this time someone comes up to me and says, hey emma, what's your favorite quote? well, my answer would've been - everything happens for a reason. during that time, that quote answered all the questions that i needed answered, because my challenges were painfully simple. i thought i would get that tattooed on my body somewhere as a teenager, and i thank my lucky stars every day that i didn’t because i'll tell you, inspirational quotes look really good on the surface, but when you start to analyze them, they usually have some holes.

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today i'm going to be giving you unsolicited fashion advice. you might be thinking, hold on a minute, i need to hear this girl's credentials before i take fashion advice from her. well, i have some bad news. i don't have a lot of credentials or sit front row at every fashion show, and i'm not a full-time fashion designer. i'm not the most fashionable girl in the world either, but I do have one thing and that's a passion for fashion. and hopefully for some of you, that's enough. fashion is very personal and what works for me might not work for you, but it also very well might. so take what applies to you and your sense of style and ditch what doesn't. let's just have a good time.

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[video available on spotify] the concept of soulmates can be a relief to people, a nightmare, complete bullshit, or somewhere in between all of those things. everyone has their own unique perspective on the concept, and it's pretty rare to find two people who see it exactly the same. humanity as a whole has believed in soulmates for a very long time. though it's a very old concept, it has evolved to fit our current time. this isn't some sort of niche spiritual idea. this is very mainstream and even has sort of a trendy feel in some ways. so today we're going to talk about the concept of soulmates. 

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