Between the Ears Podcast

By betweentheear

Your inner state creates your outer reality. Between The Ears is a show about the mental and emotional world we all carry inside, and how understanding it can transform the life we live outside. Ho

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FAQs about Between the Ears Podcast:

How many episodes does Between the Ears Podcast have?

The podcast currently has 17 episodes available.

Between the Ears Podcast episodes:

August 21, 2026#17 When do you feel that you are fully present?
In this Q&Q episode of Between the Ears, Arnold Beekes asks a question that sounds simple but reveals just how rarely we actually experience it — and then makes a compelling case for why boredom might be one of the most underrated tools you have. Another sharp, thought-provoking episode that is over before you know it.
The Question
When do you feel that you are fully present?
Most of us are either replaying the past or rehearsing the future — rarely actually here
Arnold noticed it himself during his morning mobility exercises — losing count because his mind was elsewhere thinking about an unpaid internet bill
He feels most present when reading something he genuinely cares about — rumination, emotions, mental health
Full presence isn't a default state — it's something worth noticing, cultivating and returning to deliberately
When do you feel it? In conversation, in nature, in flow? That answer tells you something important
The Quote
"There is no room for creativity if you are busy following orders."
Large and small companies alike suffer from a creativity drought — because people are too busy meeting expectations to think freely
Your brain needs space to make new connections — and that space is almost impossible to find when you're constantly trying to please someone above you
Boredom is not wasted time — it is when your brain quietly connects the wires that produce creative breakthroughs
Next time you're standing in a queue or sitting in a taxi, put the phone down and let your mind wander
Creativity cannot be forced into a full head — it needs room
About Arnold Beekes
🧠 Arnold Beekes enables you to have a better life between the ears.
✦ Links: https://bio.link/beekes
✦ Brain Fitness: https://braingym.fitness
✦ Brain Athletes Community: https://brainathletes.club
✦ Innovation Athletes: https://innovationathletes.club
🎙️ Edited and Produced by The PodFather Network LLC
🌐 https://roycoughlan.com/
#BetweenTheEars #ArnoldBeekes #BrainFitness #QuestionAndQuote #FullPresence #Creativity #Boredom #UnleashYourUniqueness #Mindset #PersonalGrowth #InnerWork
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7min
August 20, 2026#16 Basics of Brain Fitness – Part 2
In this episode of Between the Ears, Arnold Beekes completes his fundamentals series with four more brain fitness basics — covering your body, your social life, your environment and the humility to keep learning. Together with the previous episode, these eight basics form a complete daily framework for a better life between the ears. Plus a beautiful story of one man's 10-year mission to transform an old railroad bridge into something extraordinary.
What You'll Learn in This Episode
Why your body and brain are completely interconnected — and why neglecting one always affects the other
How movement, sleep, nutrition and engaging in the arts all directly impact your brain fitness
Why ultra-processed food is one of the top three global threats to mental health
How the people you allow into your inner circle — and the environment you live in — shape your brain every single day
Why keeping a beginner's mind and staying humble about how much you don't know is one of the most powerful things you can do
The Four Basics — Completing the Framework
Your Body — Movement, sleep, nutrition and arts. All of it connects directly to your brain. Skipping one while working on another is like going to the gym and drinking beer afterwards
Social — Choose your inner circle carefully. Toxic and narcissistic people damage your brain fitness. At the same time, meet new people, connect, wave to strangers on the street
Your Environment — Natural light, fresh air, noise levels, radiation and pollution all have measurable impacts on your brain. Where you spend your time matters more than most people realise
Know That You Don't Know — Humility and a beginner's mind keep learning fun and keep your brain growing. There is always more to discover
Arnold's Mission
To enable better brains and better innovation for better living.
Everyday Beauty
Mike Salarez spotted a disused 120-year-old railroad bridge on the Kansas River and spent 10 years turning it into a reality. Using his P6 approach — public, private, philanthropy, people, purpose and process — he assembled donated materials, pro bono legal support and community backing to create the Rock Island Bridge: now a restaurant, event space and public walkway above the river. One man, one vision, a decade of persistence.
About Arnold Beekes
🧠 Arnold Beekes enables you to have a better life between the ears.
✦ Links: https://bio.link/beekes
✦ Brain Fitness: https://braingym.fitness
✦ Brain Athletes Community: https://brainathletes.club
✦ Innovation Athletes: https://innovationathletes.club
🎙️ Edited and Produced by The PodFather Network LLC
🌐 https://roycoughlan.com/
#BetweenTheEars #ArnoldBeekes #BrainFitness #BrainFitnessBasics #BodyAndBrain #SocialWellbeing #Environment #BeginnersМind #Mindset #PersonalGrowth #EverydayBeauty
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13min
August 19, 2026#15 What do you need now?
In this Q&Q episode of Between the Ears, Arnold Beekes asks a deceptively simple question that most people never stop to answer honestly — and follows it with a quote that draws a sharp line between two very different ways of living. Short, direct and worth sitting with.
The Question
What do you need now?
Most of us spend our time focused on what other people need — to gain their approval or acknowledgement
Arnold asks you to turn that inward — not tomorrow, not in three months, but right now
Maybe your body needs rest. Maybe your brain needs less screen time. Maybe you just need an hour alone with a good book
Pay attention to what comes up when you ask — and respect it
The Quote
"The ordinary brings you poverty, mental illnesses, addiction, fear and punishment. The extraordinary brings you joy, creativity and fulfilment."
We are conditioned to fit in, not stand out — because standing out feels dangerous
But fitting in means ignoring who you actually are — a unique human being
When everyone does the same thing, competition is fierce and fulfilment is rare
Living your own life — truly unleashing your uniqueness — is where joy, creativity and meaningful relationships actually live
The question is simple: are you ordinary or extraordinary?
About Arnold Beekes
🧠 Arnold Beekes enables you to have a better life between the ears.
✦ Links: https://bio.link/beekes
✦ Brain Fitness: https://braingym.fitness
✦ Brain Athletes Community: https://brainathletes.club
✦ Innovation Athletes: https://innovationathletes.club
🎙️ Edited and Produced by The PodFather Network LLC
🌐 https://roycoughlan.com/
#BetweenTheEars #ArnoldBeekes #BrainFitness #QuestionAndQuote #UnleashYourUniqueness #OrdinaryVsExtraordinary #Mindset #PersonalGrowth #InnerWork #Consciousness #BeExtraordinary
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4min
August 18, 2026 #14 Basics of Brain Fitness
Hello and welcome, I'm Arnold Beekes and I enable you to have a better life between the ears. Because, why is that relevant? Because your inner state creates your outer reality. Today we are going to discuss some basics of brain fitness and these are really, really important and if you want to improve your brain fitness, I suggest that you pay a lot of attention to them and you apply them, preferably daily into your schedule.

Number one is full feeling. What does that mean? Is that you don't try to suppress your feelings, but you fully experience them, that you fully feel your feelings. Why is that relevant? Well, because emotions are the core psychological and physiological platform that determines the quality, consistency and effectiveness of your actions.

So, emotions are really, really, like I said in another podcast, are really the driving force of everything you do and they provide the fuel for everything you do. So, instead of ignoring or suppressing your feelings, feel them where they are. What are they? Are they positive feelings or are they negative feelings? Are they constructive or are they destructive? The second basic is self-kindness.

Be kind to yourself and validate only internally, not externally. Don't wait to feel good if some other people say you are okay. No, say it to yourself by yourself and we all have that inner voice which is very likely to be an inner critic.

That is the language it uses is mostly very, very unpleasant. But sometimes your inner critic, because it tries to protect you or keep you safe, is relevant, but most of the time it repeats the language which your parents used and your most dominant parent used to you in your childhood. So, that inner critic is not helping you and I would suggest to transform your inner critic into an inner cheerleader.

So, self-kindness. The third one is help others. If you want to keep your brain fit, just help others and that doesn't mean like big things.

You can just greet people. You can just, if you go into the supermarket, keep the door open for someone else or if somebody has some problems with a computer and you say, hey, do you want any help? And it can be very small things and most likely these small things you can do every day. Maybe your neighbor is sick and say, hey, can I get you some food from the supermarket? Or better, you want some food which we have cooked.

So, helping others. And the next one is diverge and converge. What does it mean? Diverge means that you allow your curiosity to go where you want it to go and not say, oh, you're looking into something which is not relevant for my work or my hobbies.

No, it's okay. It's okay to be curious and to look into things where you have no clue about but you're like, I would like to know what these red birds are with these red feathers and making loud noises. What are they? That's your curiosity.

Follow it. It's really good. And once you have followed your curiosity, then later you can, what they call converge, which means bring it more together.

So, diverge is going wide. Converge is bringing it together and create something out of all the experiences you have. And that doesn't mean the experiences from just this week or the last month.

You can have topics which you viewed for years and years and years in your life and then all of a sudden you see an application and you create something out of that for a topic where you had no clue years ago that it would be so useful. So, I would like to repeat these basics for your brain fitness. Fulfilling, self-kindness, help others, diverge and converge.

We conclude each session with some examples of everyday beauty because beauty and especially moral beauty like kindness, again, courage, compassion has a very positive influence on your inner state. Today's topic is about a positive use of artificial intelligence and it's artificial intelligence protecting elephants. In certain areas there are acoustic sensor networks deployed in forest canopies and they now can detect the sounds of poachers, chainsaws and illegal vehicles in real time using AI analysis.

And that gives rangers, the guy who take care of the parks, of the wild parks, early warning that protects both elephants and the forest they live in. Please remember, we need your uniqueness. Be a better maker for yourself, for others, for the world.
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8min
August 17, 2026#13 What do you do effortlessly?
In this Q&Q episode of Between the Ears, Arnold Beekes asks one of the most underrated questions you can ask yourself — and then delivers a quote that reframes addiction in a way that might just change how you see your own habits. Short, sharp and thought-provoking as always.
The Question
What do you do effortlessly?
Society tells us that if something doesn't require struggle, it's not worth doing — that is wrong
The things that come easily to you are where your natural talent lives
Effortless ability is not something to dismiss — it's something to build on and put out into the world
Whether it's cooking, writing, singing or something else entirely — if it flows, that's a signal worth paying attention to
You don't need to fight your way to your calling — sometimes you just need to notice what already comes naturally
The Quote
"People are addicted because they want to escape their normal state of suffering and suppression."
Addiction is not a character flaw — it's a response to an inner state that feels unbearable
Social media, alcohol, drugs, even scrolling — they all deliver a temporary dopamine hit that masks the real issue
Arnold spent years drinking to decompress from corporate stress — until he started working for himself 25 years ago and stopped entirely
When you build an inspiring inner state, the need for escape disappears
If you spend more than an hour a day on your phone without knowing what you're doing — that is worth examining honestly
About Arnold Beekes
🧠 Arnold Beekes enables you to have a better life between the ears.
✦ Links: https://bio.link/beekes
✦ Brain Fitness: https://braingym.fitness
✦ Brain Athletes Community: https://brainathletes.club
✦ Innovation Athletes: https://innovationathletes.club
🎙️ Edited and Produced by The PodFather Network LLC
🌐 https://roycoughlan.com/
#BetweenTheEars #ArnoldBeekes #BrainFitness #QuestionAndQuote #UnleashYourUniqueness #NaturalTalent #Addiction #Mindset #PersonalGrowth #InnerWork #Consciousness
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8min
August 16, 2026#12 Emotions as Forces
In this episode of Between the Ears, Arnold Beekes makes a case that most of us have been taught to ignore our most powerful operating system — our emotions. From suppressed feelings showing up as back pain, to fear being weaponised by media and governments, to the Nobel Prize-winning insight that we are feeling machines that think — this is a conversation that reframes everything.
What You'll Learn in This Episode
Why most of us have been conditioned since childhood to suppress our emotions — and what that costs us
How suppressed emotions manifest as physical pain — and why most back pain has nothing to do with your back
Why fear is the most common emotion in modern society — and how it attracts exactly what you don't want
How to use emotions positively by attaching feeling to your aspirations and goals
Why Nobel Prize winners say we are feeling machines that think — not thinking machines that feel
Key Takeaways
Emotions are generative forces — they shape how you feel, how you perform and how you connect with others
A society flooded with fear-based media, marketing and politics is doing it deliberately — awareness is your first defence
Aspiration without feeling attached to it is just a thought — add the emotion and it becomes a force
Your emotional system is your operating system — trying to live without it is like running a computer with no software
Everyday beauty matters — consciously noticing kindness, courage and compassion improves your inner state every single day
Everyday Beauty
A team at the University of Rochester has developed solar panels that turn ocean water into clean drinking water — with no toxic brine, no chemical additives and self-cleaning capability. The leftover salt even produces lithium. A genuinely remarkable example of human ingenuity solving two problems at once.
About Arnold Beekes
🧠 Arnold Beekes enables you to have a better life between the ears.
✦ Links: https://bio.link/beekes
✦ Brain Fitness: https://braingym.fitness
✦ Brain Athletes Community: https://brainathletes.club
✦ Innovation Athletes: https://innovationathletes.club
🎙️ Edited and Produced by The PodFather Network LLC
🌐 https://roycoughlan.com/
#BetweenTheEars #ArnoldBeekes #BrainFitness #EmotionsAsForces #Mindset #PersonalGrowth #InnerWork #Consciousness #FeelingMachines #UnleashYourUniqueness #EverydayBeauty
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11min
August 16, 2026#11 Question & Quote
In this Q&Q episode of Between the Ears, Arnold Beekes cuts straight to the point with one powerful question and one memorable quote. No fluff, no filler — just the kind of thinking that makes you stop, look in the mirror and ask yourself what you've been holding back.
The Question
What would you like to do, but you don't do because you are afraid of other people's opinions?
We are wired to fit in — but fitting in often means shrinking down
Family, friends, colleagues and social media all shape what we allow ourselves to pursue
Arnold persisted with brain fitness when the industry had a bad reputation — and was proven right
A lawyer who made extraordinary cakes refused to turn it into a business because of what people might think — and stayed stuck as a result
The opinions of others are limitations you choose to accept — you can also choose not to
The Quote
"People only want to retire if they don't like their work."
If you love what you do, retirement is not the goal — it's not even appealing
Governments are already pushing retirement age toward 70 — the old model is breaking down
Stopping work has a measurable negative impact on your brain
The answer isn't to keep doing work you hate — it's to start doing something you don't want to stop
About Arnold Beekes
🧠 Arnold Beekes enables you to have a better life between the ears.
✦ Links: https://bio.link/beekes
✦ Brain Fitness: https://braingym.fitness
✦ Brain Athletes Community: https://brainathletes.club
✦ Innovation Athletes: https://innovationathletes.club

🎙️ Edited and Produced by The PodFather Network LLC
🌐 https://roycoughlan.com/

#BetweenTheEars #ArnoldBeekes #BrainFitness #UnleashYourUniqueness #QuestionAndQuote #Mindset #PersonalGrowth #Retirement #DoWhatYouLove #Consciousness #InnerWork
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7min
August 16, 2026#10 Principles for Brain Fitness – Part 2
In this episode of Between the Ears, Arnold Beekes continues his series on the principles of brain fitness, adding three powerful new ones to the framework. From practicing integrally to nurturing your right hemisphere and unleashing your uniqueness — this is a practical, no-nonsense guide to doing the real inner work. Plus, a beautifully grounding example of everyday beauty from Uganda.
What You'll Learn in This Episode
Why fixing just one thing in your life rarely works — and what practicing integrally really means
How your mental, emotional, spiritual, physical, social and environmental states are all connected and influencing each other
Why your right hemisphere is being deliberately neglected — and how nurturing it changes everything
The invisible straitjackets that are blocking your full potential — and how to start removing them
How Ugandan coffee farmers in the Masaka region used regenerative agriculture to shrug off a drought — and what that teaches us about resilience
Key Takeaways
You are not a mechanistic car with replaceable parts — everything inside you is connected
Going to the gym and then drinking beer to celebrate is the perfect example of not practicing integrally
Logic and rationality are overrated — your right hemisphere holds your intuition, big picture thinking and higher senses
Your uniqueness is already there — it just needs to be unleashed from the limiting beliefs placed on you by the outside world
Your inner state creates your outer reality — which is why working on it every single day matters
About Arnold Beekes
🧠 Arnold Beekes enables you to have a better life between the ears.
✦ Links: https://bio.link/beekes
✦ Brain Fitness: https://braingym.fitness
✦ Brain Athletes Community: https://brainathletes.club
✦ Innovation Athletes: https://innovationathletes.club
🎙️ Edited and Produced by The PodFather Network LLC
🌐 https://roycoughlan.com/
#BetweenTheEars #BrainFitness #ArnoldBeekes #PracticeIntegrally #RightHemisphere #UnleashYourUniqueness #Mindset #PersonalGrowth #InnerWork #Consciousness #EverydayBeauty
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13min
August 07, 2026#9 Q&Q — What Health Habit Would You Change?
Welcome to Episode 9 of Between The Ears, host Arnold Beekes' Q&Q format designed to help listeners unlock and use their own uniqueness. This episode's question asks listeners to identify one health-related habit, whether it's food, drink, sleep, or even the people they spend time with daily, that they'd like to change, starting small rather than aiming for a big overhaul. Arnold pairs it with a quote on the danger of comparison: "If you care what other people think, you will become the same. You will never raise beyond," unpacking how constant comparison, especially through social media, caps us at merely matching others rather than embracing our own uniqueness.
Topics Covered
Introducing this episode's question: what health-related habit would you like to change?
Habits related to food, drink, sleep, and the people around you
Starting small: identifying one habit and replacing it with a better one
This episode's quote: "If you care what other people think, you will become the same"
How comparison, at work, at home, and especially on social media, limits us
Why caring what others think caps you at sameness rather than uniqueness
The invitation to treasure and go beyond through your own uniqueness
About Arnold Beekes
Arnold Beekes is the host of Between The Ears, a podcast built around the idea that your inner state creates your outer reality. Having lived in five different countries, Arnold draws on his own experiences to help listeners build a better life between the ears, one episode at a time.
Connect with Arnold Beekes
🧠 Inner Fitness for Modern Life: https://braingym.fitness/
🧠 Inner Leadership Training for Ambitious Leaders: https://www.brainathletes.club/
🧠 Innovation Mindset for Exponential Change: https://www.innovationathletes.club/
🤝 Join our free Brain Health community: https://www.skool.com/brain-fitness-7070
🔗 https://bio.link/beekes

🎙️ Edited and Produced by The PodFather Network LLC
🌐 https://roycoughlan.com/

#BetweenTheEars #QandQ #HealthHabits #Comparison #Uniqueness #InnerState #PersonalDevelopment #PodfatherNetwork
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5min
August 06, 2026#8 Principles to Upgrade Your Brain (Part 1)
Welcome to Episode 8 of Between The Ears. In the first half of a two-part series, host Arnold Beekes shares three foundational principles for taking ownership of your brain and improving your brain fitness. Arnold makes the case for genuinely thinking for yourself rather than memorizing and adopting the opinions of teachers, religious leaders, doctors, or bosses; approaching life with a beginner's mind so you notice what familiarity has trained you to overlook; and learning to see beauty in small, everyday moments rather than only in rare, once-in-a-lifetime experiences. The episode closes with the show's signature segment on everyday beauty, featuring how Swiss farmers cut pest damage in half simply by planting wildflowers between their crops.
Topics Covered
Introducing a three-part (six-principle) series on upgrading your brain
Principle 1: think for yourself, rather than copying the opinions of authority figures
How school trains memorization rather than independent thought
Principle 2: be a beginner, even in areas of life you feel experienced in
Why a beginner's mindset helps you notice what you've stopped seeing
Principle 3: see beauty in daily life, not just rare or memorable moments
The show's closing theme of everyday beauty: Swiss farmers reducing pest damage by planting wildflower strips between crops, now being trialed across 15 UK farms
About Arnold Beekes
Arnold Beekes is the host of Between The Ears, a podcast built around the idea that your inner state creates your outer reality. Having lived in five different countries, Arnold draws on his own experiences to help listeners build a better life between the ears, one episode at a time.
Connect with Arnold Beekes
🧠 Inner Fitness for Modern Life: https://braingym.fitness/
🧠 Inner Leadership Training for Ambitious Leaders: https://www.brainathletes.club/
🧠 Innovation Mindset for Exponential Change: https://www.innovationathletes.club/
🤝 Join our free Brain Health community: https://www.skool.com/brain-fitness-7070
🔗 https://bio.link/beekes

🎙️ Edited and Produced by The PodFather Network LLC
🌐 https://roycoughlan.com/

#BetweenTheEars #BrainFitness #ThinkForYourself #BeginnersMind #EverydayBeauty #InnerState #PersonalDevelopment #PodfatherNetwork #MoralBeauty
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12min

FAQs about Between the Ears Podcast:

How many episodes does Between the Ears Podcast have?

The podcast currently has 17 episodes available.