Brain Shaman

George Haymaker is an ex-addict turned neuroscience coach who helps people rewire their behavior, identity, and habits. In this episode, George shares his recovery story and explains the neuroscience behind addiction and recovery. 

Connect & Learn More
Website: georgehaymaker.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/georgehaymaker
YouTube: @georgehaymakerbrainperformance 

Jess Frost is a coach for adult children of alcoholics. In this episode, she shares how she survived a chaotic childhood and rebuilt her life from the inside out. 

Connect and Learn More:

Instagram: @iamjessfrost
Website: the3espace.com
Podcast: Have you got space for this?
YouTube: @The3ESpace
TikTok: @iamjessfrost
Facebook: @jessfrostempowerment
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jessfrost

Simon Rowbottom is a musician and psychotherapist, and a member of the English alternative rock band The Boo Radleys, best known for their hit Wake Up Boo!. We talk about his early life with music, the rise of the band, and what it feels like when success looks great from the outside but feels very different on the inside. Simon describes the difference between process and outcome, how pressure can drain the creative spark, and what it was like to walk away when the band split.

We explore how he found his way into therapy, how years of touring and chronic stress shape the brain and nervous system, and the psychological challenges that musicians often face. And we talk about The Boo Radleys reuniting more than two decades later with a different mindset. No expectations. No pressure. Just the simple joy of making music again and expressing what is happening inside through sound.

Connect and Learn More

The Boo Radleys: thebooradleys.com
Music Industry Therapist Collective: musicindustrytherapists.com
Simon’s novel: Thimblerigger

RESOURCES

Albums: C'mon Kids, Kingsize, The Wall

Bands: Bon Jovi, Eggman, Happy Mondays, My Bloody Valentine, Oasis, Paperlung, Pink Floyd, Primal Scream, Ride, Simon & Garfunkel, The Boo Radleys, The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Smiths, The Stone Roses, The Wedding Present

People: Alan McGee, Daniel Day-Lewis, Dick Green, Elvis Costello, Martin Carr, Timothy Brown,

Songs: Wake Up Boo!, When I'm Sixty-Four

TV shows: Boys from the Blackstuff, Top of the Pops

Bernd Haber is the author of Fritz Häber, The Complete Diary: 16 Months in an American POW Camp, drawn from his grandfather’s journal and interview. We discuss German history, communism and capitalism, East Germany, Berlin, ideology, freedom and control, family memory, generational change, communication, war, sudden shifts, personal turning points, and how an ordinary life can be shaped by circumstance, intertwined with other people, history, and forces that push us in new directions. 

Bernd’s own story mirrors these themes. He grew up in East Berlin, watched the wall fall, stepped into the West, and eventually built a new life in America. His path is shaped by history, serendipity, opportunity, unexpected conversations, and small moments that opened new possibilities. This episode looks at how history, choice, external forces, and timing collide to redirect a life, and why talking with parents and grandparents, and understanding their experiences, can transform how we understand ourselves.

Connect and Learn More

Book: Fritz Häber, The Complete Diary: 16 Months in an American POW Camp

Website: 16monthsaspow.com

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/berndhaber

RESOURCES

Bands: The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Steppenwolf

Books: Blitzed by Norman Ohler, Life of Service, Man of Purpose by Jim Waite, Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse

People: Albert Einstein, Barbara Minton, Bob Dylan, Herbert Haber, Hermann Hesse, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, John Kay, Joseph Goebbels, Tom Gundelfinger O'Neal, Wilhelm I, Wilhelm II, Winston Churchill

TV Series: Babylon Berlin, Titans: The Rise of Hollywood

Barbara Minton is a psychologist and musician who creates neuroscience-informed music designed to support and heal the brain. In this episode, we explore the relationship between music and the brain, and how we can use it to guide or change our mental and emotional states.

We talk about how music affects the brain, the difference between making it and listening to it, and why different genres influence us in different ways. We get into transcendent and altered states, how music can support grief, loss, pain, insomnia, and emotional processing, and how individual differences like ADHD or PTSD shape the nervous system’s response. We also look at music as a tool for social connection and the unique experience of creating and playing music with others.

We discuss how different instruments feel to play, what makes the guitar and pipe organ special, and how music ties into memory. We explore how to use it deliberately to enhance learning and recall, why our emotional reactions to songs change over time, and how lyrics shape the way we see the world. We also explore why certain genres explode at particular moments in history, why pop music remains so consistently popular, which musical elements most strongly affect the brain, what it feels like to make and play music, how live music differs from recorded music, and the overall healing power of music.

Connect and Learn More

Website: musicandhealing.net

Album: Calm the Storm 

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/barbara-minton-057957164

RESOURCES
People: Ana Lapwood, Aretha Franklin, Calum Graham, Freddie Mercury, Hans Berger, Peppino D’Agostino, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Songs: Amazing Grace, Pavane for a Dead Princess

Studies: Contrasting effects of music on reading comprehension in preadolescents with and without ADHD  (Madjar et al., 2020), Human song: Separate neural pathways for melody and speech ( Hamilton, 2022)

Adrian Cois is an emergency physician trained in Australia and working in the U.S. In this episode, we discuss the problems of the U.S. healthcare system and how to fix it.

Connect & Learn More
Instagram: @dr_cois

LinkedIn: Adrian Cois

Keith Kurlander is a psychotherapist, co-founder of the Integrative Psychiatry Institute, and host of The Higher Practice podcast. The discussion covers psychedelics, trauma, nervous system regulation, and mental health. 

Topics include the therapeutic and disruptive effects of psychedelics, trauma as a physiological state, the importance of listening to one’s inner purpose or "North Star,"  rising mental health challenges, and the impact of technology and AI on psychological well-being. 

Connect & Learn More
🎙️ Podcast: The Higher Practice for Optimal Mental Health

🌐 Website: psychiatryinstitute.com

📘 Book (coming March 2026): Psychedelic Therapy

Resources
👥 People: Amrit Desai, John Demartini, Ken Wilber, Stanislav Grof, Will Van Derveer

William Person is a former Olympic bobsledder for Team USA. He talks about what it was like flying 90 mph down the ice, taking up to 80 Gs, and what happened after the cheering stopped: brain fog, headaches, memory and focus loss, sensitivity to sound and light, disorientation, depression, and suicidal thoughts.

We talk about the hidden suffering in sports, how CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) might relate to ADHD and other mental health struggles, why so many athletes and veterans go untreated, and the deadly consequences that follow. William shares his lowest moments, his fight to stay alive, and how hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) helped him when nothing else could.

Connect & Learn More
🍭TikTok: @hyperbarichealing

📘 Facebook: One Man With a Chamber | William Person

💼 LinkedIn: William Person

📸 Instagram: @willp1234567

▶️ YouTube: @braininjurysurvival

💰 GoFundMe: CTE Recovery for Athletes and Military

Resources
🎢 Six Flags Magic Mountain — Goliath

 📰 Sledding Athletes Are Taking Their Lives. Did Brain Injuries Play a Role? – The New York Times

⚖️The United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA)

 👥People: Cuba Gooding Jr., Jamie Foxx, Jay-Z, Joe Namath, Kanye West, Lance Armstrong, Leonardo DiCaprio, Michael Jackson, Russell Crowe

 🎬 Films: A Beautiful Mind, In Whose Name?, Jerry Maguire, One Battle After Another

💥Incidents: 2025 Anaconda Shooting, 2025 Grand Blanc Township church attack, 2025 Midtown Manhattan Shooting, Washington Navy Yard shooting

Ewelina Kurtys is a neuroscientist and Strategic Advisor at FinalSpark, a Swiss company building computers from living brain cells. We talk about how neurons differ from silicon chips, why they’re more energy-efficient, how they’re grown and programmed in the lab, and how biocomputing could shape the future of AI. 

Connect and Learn More:

🌐Website: finalspark.com

💼LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ewelinakurtys

Resources:

🏢Companies: AlpVision, Amazon, Cortical Labs, Ekai.io, Google, Microsoft, Neuralink

👤People: Elon Musk, Fred Jordan, Martin Kutter

Mary Petto is a Rapid Turmoil Resolution specialist and the author of The Family Guide to the Law of Attraction. We talk about trauma, how it gets stuck in your subconscious, hijacks your nervous system, and keeps you in mental loops. She explains why talking or reliving it doesn’t work, how metaphors and stories communicate with your inner mind, and how Rapid Turmoil Resolution can help you get calm, neutral, and open to new possibilities. 

Connect and Learn More

🌐Website: portablevisions.com

📖Book: The Family Guide to the Law of Attraction

🎁The Loop Locator: portablevisions.com/gift

📸Instagram: @Livinginthevortex

💼LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/marypetto

🍭TikTok: @marypetto