Freedom Pact | Joseph and Lewis

Ian Gillan is a singer and rock legend, most notably known as the lead singer and lyricist of Deep Purple, considered to be one of the pioneers of rock and heavy metal having been inducted in to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In this interview, Ian & I discuss:

00:00 Childhood curiosity, infinity and humanity’s future

02:15 Thinking for yourself in a rapidly changing world

04:42 Creativity, storytelling, and God and Darwin in a pub

06:23 Finding a thread that connects your ideas

07:57 Turning fear into art: the story behind “Child in Time”

10:54 How a teenage dream became a career

13:15 Taking the first step towards your dream

14:40 Realising you’re already living your dream

16:12 Pressure, chance and the making of “Smoke on the Water”

19:08 What makes life worth living? Planning beyond your lifetime

20:00 Ian’s “Talking Gib’rish” tourFind more at Ian's website: https://www.gillan.com/Our Links:

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Mark Dowdle is an Ultra Endurance athlete and the winner of the Last Soul Ultra 2026. In this episode, we discuss:

00:00 Running 395 miles: Physical or mental endurance?

01:33 Faith, spiritual strength and self-worth

03:23 Wanting to win without being defined by results

07:02 What drives Mark to run?

10:38 What discomfort reveals about your mind

12:47 Handling doubt and building mental resilience

16:18 Mind games at the Last Soul Ultra

19:57 Protecting your focus and controlling what you can

21:38 Racing without a finish line

23:41 Finding joy three days into a race

26:19 Loop 67: Getting through the darkest moment

28:53 Asking for support when the race gets hard

30:19 Choosing the right people for your inner circle

31:39 Honest self-talk versus forced positivity

33:40 How Mark trains for backyard ultras

36:15 Training non-negotiables and the stress of optimisation

38:21 Doing hard things in everyday life

40:32 Life after winning: Why routine is the reward

43:45 Success, identity and staying grounded

45:49 The message Mark wants people to take away

47:48 What makes life worth living?

49:38 Closing remarks and where to find MarkLinks:

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Dr. Seheult is quadruple board-certified in Internal Medicine, Pulmonary Diseases, Critical Care Medicine, and Sleep Medicine through the American Board of Internal Medicine. In this episode, we discuss:

00:00 How much control do we have over getting sick?

05:09 NEWSTART: The eight pillars of health

06:07 Are some health pillars more important than others?

07:02 Water, hydration and the immune system

11:27 Cold exposure, heat therapy and hormesis

14:47 Morning sunlight and the body clock

19:32 Does morning light work on cloudy days?

21:05 Light-meter apps and daylight lamps

22:47 When to get outside for morning light

24:06 Getting daylight without staring at the sun

25:30 Sunlight’s effects beyond vitamin D

28:33 Balancing sunlight benefits with skin cancer risks

34:12 Night shifts, circadian rhythms and meal timing

40:05 Indoor versus outdoor exercise

41:04 Designing hospitals around sunlight and fresh air

44:48 Why hospitals are rethinking their design

46:26 The future of healthcare

47:49 Photometabolism: New research on light and mitochondria

50:07 Where to find Roger’s work

DISCLAIMER: The content provided by the Freedom Pact Podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Our content is not intended to constitute or be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have heard on the podcast or on our social media or other platforms. Always consult a medical expert before making any adjustments to your treatment plan.

Connect with Roger here: https://www.medcram.com/

Links:

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Email: [email protected]

George Loewenstein is the Herbert A. Simon University Professor of Economics and Psychology at Carnegie Mellon University and one of the founders of behavioural economics and neuroeconomics. Across more than four decades of research, his work has transformed our understanding of how emotions, visceral states and psychological forces shape human judgement and behaviour. He has published more than 300 academic articles and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.Loewenstein argues that evolution is concerned with survival and reproduction, not our happiness, and that many of the emotions we most want to escape, such as anxiety, envy, loneliness, boredom, regret and misery, exist because they motivate behaviour. Happiness, by contrast, may be something we encounter rather than something we can successfully pursue.We explore why pursuing happiness can paradoxically make us less happy; why modern technology may be making us increasingly intolerant of boredom; and Professor Loewenstein’s influential theory of the hot-cold empathy gap. That is, why the person we become when angry, afraid, sexually aroused, addicted or distressed can behave in ways our calmer self struggles to predict or understand.We also discuss why misery can become self-reinforcing; loneliness, depression and mood-dependent memory; whether psychology has overestimated the power of self-awareness; why understanding ourselves does not necessarily change us; Loewenstein’s own experiences of low mood; and what hundreds of people revealed to him when he asked them about the sources of misery in their lives.Later, George reflects on being the great-grandson of Sigmund Freud, why he spent much of his career trying to escape that intellectual inheritance, and the strange ways in which Freud’s interests eventually resurfaced in his own experimental research. Timestamps:00:00 — Why evolution did not design us to be happy04:26 — Is happiness actually worth pursuing?07:46 — Happiness vs meaning: what should we pursue instead?09:36 — Why happiness never seems to last11:00 — Are smartphones making us more bored?13:38 — The empathy gap: why emotions transform our behaviour20:35 — Why heartbreak, grief and misery feel like they will last forever23:49 — Does understanding our emotions actually help us control them?28:08 — How to protect yourself from your future emotional self31:47 — Why misery becomes self-reinforcing32:44 — How loneliness and depression can trap us37:00 — Choking under pressure and becoming a victim of your own mind40:15 — Has psychology overestimated self-awareness?45:25 — Why George wrote The Opposite of Happiness48:55 — What 500+ people revealed in the “Misery Survey”52:06 — What George’s own experience of low mood taught him59:23 — Being Sigmund Freud’s great-grandson1:00:51 — Why George spent his career trying to escape Freud1:04:59 — How Isaac Newton became a victim of his emotions1:07:24 — Can hope actually make suffering worse?1:14:15 — Why giving up hope can sometimes be liberating1:16:13 — What does a well-lived life actually look like?1:18:54 — Where to find George LoewensteinConnect with us:https://freedompact.co.uk/newsletterhttps://www.instagram.com/freedompactpodhttps://www.twitter.com/freedompactpodEmail: [email protected]://www.tiktok.com/@personaldevelopmentConnect with Professor George Loewenstein:George’s website:https://oppositeofhappiness.com/George’s Carnegie Mellon University profile:https://www.heinz.cmu.edu/faculty-research/profiles/loewenstein-georgeGeorge’s academic page and research:https://www.cmu.edu/dietrich/sds/people/faculty/george-loewenstein.htmlGeorge’s new book: The Opposite of Happiness: How Bad Feelings Make and Break Us:Official book website:https://oppositeofhappiness.com/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsmtcQ_39PQ&feature=youtu.be

Dr Dan Siegel is a psychiatrist, psychotherapist, award-winning educator, executive director of the Mindsight Institute and founding co-director of UCLA’s Mindful Awareness Research Center. A graduate of Harvard Medical School, he trained at UCLA in paediatrics and adult, adolescent and child psychiatry, and later specialised in attachment research and narrative analysis. Dr Siegel is the author of five New York Times bestsellers and more than fifteen other books translated into over forty languages, and as founding editor of the Norton Professional Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology, he has overseen the publication of more than one hundred books developing this transdisciplinary framework for understanding the mind and mental health. At the heart of this conversation is a deceptively simple question. What is the mind? Dr Siegel challenges the conventional idea that the mind is simply something the brain produces, arguing instead that it emerges through the body, our relationships and the wider systems in which we live. We explore why he believes integration may be a fundamental principle of mental health; what attachment actually builds in the developing brain; how our sense of self and identity emerges; why the self may not end at the boundaries of the body; what trauma, chaos and rigidity have in common; whether radically different forms of psychotherapy might ultimately work through a shared underlying process; consciousness and the strange relationship between possibility and actuality; and what Siegel believes forty years of studying the human mind can teach us about living well. This is a conversation about a profound possibility. That is, that understanding who we are, and recognising that we may be far less separate than we imagine, could change not only how we understand mental health, but how we relate to ourselves, one another and the world.TIMESTAMPS00:00 — The question behind Dan Siegel’s life’s work: Who are we?03:23 — What actually is the mind?04:32 — Why the mind is bigger than the brain12:50 — Challenging neuroscience’s assumptions about the mind16:00 — Integration: the organising principle of a healthy mind24:11 — The nine domains of integration30:05 — Why integration—and not intelligence or resilience?30:39 — Complex systems, physics and the mathematics of the mind40:33 — How does a human being become a “self”?41:59 — Consciousness, identity and the strange nature of who we are48:02 — Why the self does not end with the individual50:23 — What attachment actually builds in the brain54:59 — What if we have misunderstood mental illness?57:03 — Do all successful therapies work through the same underlying process?59:25 — The limits of interpersonal neurobiology1:00:31 — Why humans create so much division and suffering1:07:28 — Can ideas really change the world?1:08:39 — The most important lesson from 40 years studying the mind1:09:21 — Where to find Dan SiegelConnect with us:https://freedompact.co.uk/newsletter​ (Healthy, Wealthy & Wise Newsletter)https://www.Instagram.com/freedompactpodwhttps://ww.twitter.com/freedompactpod Email: [email protected] https://Tiktok.com/personaldevelopmentConnect with Dr Siegel:Website: https://drdansiegel.com/Wheel of Awareness — free guided practices:https://drdansiegel.com/wheel-of-awareness/Mindsight Institute: https://mindsightinstitute.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drdansiegel/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrDanSiegelYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@drdansiegel-MYBDan’s Wheel of Awareness page includes the basic 20-minute practice, full 30-minute practice and shorter consolidated practice.Dan's new book:The Mindful Therapist, published 20 October 2026:https://drdansiegel.com/book/the-mindful-therapist-an-interpersonal-neurobiology-approach-to-healing-and-wholeness-2nd-edition/

Dr. Peter Salerno is a licensed psychotherapist, author, and educator specialising in personality pathology, trauma, and clinical psychology.

The Difference Between Narcissists & Psychopaths 00:00

How a Narcissists Studies You 04:00

What They Teach us About Human Nature 06:15

Are Some People Born Narcissistic? 09:20

The Narcissist’s Offence Mechanisms 11:50

How They Chose Their Victims 16:20

Is AI Chat Boys Fuelling Narcissistic Supply? 23:00

Inside The Mind of A Psychopath 28:00

Who Can’t They Control? 31:40

What Happens When Two Narcissists Meet? 36:00

How They Establish Psychological Control? 37:30

Can A Narcissist Change? 43:00

How Studying Narcissists & Psychopaths Changed Peter’s Outlook 51:00

What Makes Life Worth Living? 52:00 Disclaimer:Dr. Peter Salerno is a licensed psychotherapist in California. All content shared here is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute therapy, diagnosis, or clinical advice.Connect with us:

https://freedompact.co.uk/newsletter​ (Healthy, Wealthy & Wise Newsletter)

https://www.Instagram.com/freedompactpod

https://x.com/freedompactpod

Email: [email protected]

Dr. Peter Salerno is a licensed psychotherapist, author, and educator specialising in personality pathology, trauma, and clinical psychology.

The Difference Between Narcissists & Psychopaths 00:00

How a Narcissists Studies You 04:00

What They Teach us About Human Nature 06:15

Are Some People Born Narcissistic? 09:20

The Narcissist’s Offence Mechanisms 11:50

How They Chose Their Victims 16:20

Is AI Chat Boys Fuelling Narcissistic Supply? 23:00

Inside The Mind of A Psychopath 28:00

Who Can’t They Control? 31:40

What Happens When Two Narcissists Meet? 36:00

How They Establish Psychological Control? 37:30

Can A Narcissist Change? 43:00

How Studying Narcissists & Psychopaths Changed Peter’s Outlook 51:00

What Makes Life Worth Living? 52:00

Disclaimer:Dr. Peter Salerno is a licensed psychotherapist in California. All content shared here is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute therapy, diagnosis, or clinical advice.

Connect with us:

https://freedompact.co.uk/newsletter​ (Healthy, Wealthy & Wise Newsletter)

https://www.Instagram.com/freedompactpod

https://x.com/freedompactpod

Email: [email protected]

Dr. Orion Taraban is an expert in relationships and personal development, a licensed psychologist and an established leader in popular psychology.

In this episode, we discuss:

00:00 How to Tell If a Woman Genuinely Desires You

02:45 The Attraction Gap

04:38 Why “Just Be Yourself” Is Bad Dating Advice

06:59 When to Chase vs. When to Pull Back

10:15 Dating Is a Numbers Game for Men

14:39 Can You Learn to Read Women?

17:41 The Reality of Dating Apps for Men

21:48 What Men Think Impresses Women

28:22 How Men Accidentally Kill Attraction

33:05 What Happens When She Knows You’re Afraid to Lose Her

36:57 Can You Rebuild Lost Attraction?

39:20 Why Your Ex Comes Back When You Stop Chasing

44:16 Do Men and Women Love Differently?

50:07 Why Divorced People Get Married Again

59:57 Is Love Actually Real?

1:04:13 What Makes Life Worth Living?

1:06:24 Where to Find Orion TarabanMore from Orion:  @psychacks  & https://oriontarabanpsyd.comLinks:

https://freedompact.co.uk/newsletter​ (Healthy, Wealthy & Wise Newsletter)

https://www.Instagram.com/freedompact

whttps://ww.twitter.com/freedompactpod

Email: [email protected]

https://Tiktok.com/personaldevelopment

Erin Meryl McGurk is a creator and founder, sharing productivity, neuroscience and learning content across social media platforms. In this episode, we discuss:

How To Train Your Mind To Enjoy Hard Work 00:00

Why You Shouldn't Go 'All In' on One Dream 07:00

How To Turn Motivation In To Discipline 10:20

Lesson's Learned from Fiction Books 17:30

How To Become a Productivity Monster 21:30

'Boredom Maxxing' & Your Attention Span 23:00

Combatting the Doomscroll 26:15

Using AI Without Ruining Your Brain 31:45

Improving Your Critical Thinking Skills 35:00

How To Learn Anything Fast 41:10

Becoming A Content Creator 43:30

What Makes Life Worth Living? 53:30

Connect with us:

https://freedompact.co.uk/newsletter​ (Healthy, Wealthy & Wise Newsletter)

www.Instagram.com/freedompact

www.twitter.com/freedompactpod

Email: [email protected]

https://Tiktok.com/personaldevelopment

Professor Sonja Lyubomirsky is one of the world’s leading scientific authorities on happiness and human flourishing. A Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Riverside, she has spent nearly four decades investigating what makes people happy, how well-being can be sustainably improved, and why our relationships matter so profoundly. Her influential research has helped establish the modern science of happiness, bridging rigorous experimental psychology with questions at the heart of human life: how we connect, how we love, and how we build lives of meaning and well-being. She is the author of several internationally recognised books, including The How of Happiness and, most recently, How to Feel Loved. We spend enormous amounts of time trying to become more lovable, more successful, attractive, accomplished and impressive, yet these qualities may earn us admiration without making us feel genuinely loved. That is the paradox at the heart of this episode. That is, you can be loved by the people around you and still struggle to experience that love. This matters because research has consistently shown that the quality of our relationships is one of the strongest foundations of happiness, yet many of the strategies we use to secure connection may inadvertently keep people at a distance. Sonja Lyubomirsky explains what decades of psychological research can teach us about closing this gap. This includes; how to become genuinely known rather than merely admired, listen in ways that make people feel seen, use curiosity to deepen connection, navigate vulnerability without oversharing, and ultimately change the everyday conversations through which love is given, received and felt.

Timestamps:

00:00 — Why can we be loved but not feel loved?

03:26 — Why relationships are the key to happiness

05:58 — The danger of trying to become more lovable

08:13 — Is self-improvement a form of emotional avoidance?

09:25 — Why success and admiration cannot create connection

11:28 — The barriers we build against love

12:45 — Are successful people more vulnerable to the “lovability trap”?

14:21 — What makes someone feel truly seen?

15:52 — The relationship seesaw

18:38 — Why small bids for connection matter

20:24 — The power of radical curiosity

22:32 — Questions that create deeper conversations

24:50 — How to recognise genuine curiosity

26:07 — Psychological safety in relationships

26:42 — How to listen to learn

28:08 — Why giving advice can get in the way

30:42 — The power of “Tell me more”

31:24 — Vulnerability without oversharing

34:47 — Does vulnerability create trust?

36:22 — Can relationships heal heartbreak?

38:06 — Loving the whole, complicated person

40:56 — Is love about truly understanding someone?

42:09 — How our past can prevent us from receiving love

43:23 — What if you fundamentally believe you are unlovable?

45:11 — How parents can make children feel loved

47:31 — Can AI make us feel more loved than humans?

50:01 — What humans can offer that AI cannot

Connect with Sonja:

How to Feel Loved Book - https://howtofeelloved.com

5 Mindsets Quiz: https://tally.so/r/Pd1l0d

Website: https://sonjalyubomirsky.com

Academic work: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=CNFj4ZsAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao