How Humans Work Podcast

Dr. Anna Lembke, MD is a psychiatrist, professor, researcher and the medical director of Stanford Addiction Medicine. Dr. Lembke is also the author of Dopamine Nation, a salient book that explores the neuroscience of addiction and the lessons we can learn from those who’ve been caught in its powerful spell.

In episode #19 of the How Humans Work Podcast, Anna and show host Jef Szi have a deep and broad ranging conversation from the basics of addiction and how dopamine works in the brain to the greater implications our ancient pleasure and pain circuits have for us individually and collectively in our age of easy and abundant rewards.

With a deep clarity and a compassionate heart, Dr. Lembke paints a powerful portrait of what we are up against in the clash between our drive to seek pleasure and avoid pain in a culture that has taken this tendency to the extreme. She shows us how ascetic approaches to our lifestyle (#dopaminefasting) and the willingness to endure hardship, pain and discomfort can bring about a deeper balance in ourselves and generate a more rich and rewarding life.

You are invited to drop-in on this conversation, because in this age of addiction we all need to drink from the stream of wisdom flowing from someone like Dr. Lembke...someone who understands the role of dopamine in our lives and the risks that come with the web of pleasure we find ourselves in.

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Episode Summary

David M. Buss is a professor of evolutionary psychology and runs the Buss Lab at the University of Texas, Austin. For the past four decades he has focused his research on studying strategies in human mating. He has authored notable books on the subject, including The Evolution of Desire and his recent book on sexual conflict, When Men Behave Badly.

Dr. Buss possesses an unsurpassed knowledge about the evolutionary roots tied to solving the adaptive problem of finding (and keeping) a mate. In Making Sense of Mating of the How Humans Work Podcast, we take a long look under the hood of what’s at work in desire for partnership. By doing so, we can learn something about ourselves and make better sense of our own mating stories.

With equal measure of clarity, mirth and blunt truths about human motivations, David introduces us into the evolutionary factors that are at play in mating. You’re invited to listen-in as host Jef Szi talks with a true master in his field, because the implicit forces powering how, who, and what we value in our mating relationships is a story we all need to hear.

Learn More About David Buss

Follow David on Twitter

Buy The Evolution of Desire

Buy When Men Behave Badly

Follow Jef Szi on IG * Twitter

Follow How Humans Work Pod

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Episode Summary

Listen in as Jef Szi welcomes the generous and joyful Tara Coyote to the show. In this remarkable episode Tara recounts the many trials and blessings that have been her companions over the last several years. From her picture perfect marriage and career that fell apart to the death of her best friend from leukemia, and onto her own Stage III breast cancer diagnosis in 2016 and all that followed, Tara’s recent passage has been intense and profound passage in equal measure.

Along the way we find a moving portrait (fully documented in her recent memoir Grace, Grit and Gratitude) of what it means to have a life-threatening health crisis and the grit it takes to find ways to survive and thrive. We hear from Tara just how deep into the bosom of pain she had to dive, but as importantly how the power of the mind, valuing one’s self and finding the courage to swim in the face of the most difficult odds can bring one back to the surface of the precious gift of living.

This show is not to be missed, because through Tara’s story we can all become a little braver, a little more grateful, and a lot more inspired in her willingness to seek the gift in adversity.

• Follow Tara Coyote on: Facebook | Instagram
• Work with Tara at Windhorse Sanctuary
• Order a Copy of Grace, Grit and Gratitude

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In Dreaming On Mother Earth show host Jef Szi weaves a morning dream with a figure of illness into an episode about personal and collective passages.

Beginning by recounting his lifelong connection to his dreaming-self, as well as a handful of some of the dreams that came along in key moments of his life, Jeffrey then lays the ground to look at the figure of illness as a teacher for the unwanted initiation that we are all caught up in with the increasing sense of stress in the world.

Relying on personal moments where the planet Venus seemed to make herself known, Jeffrey relays how not only Venus but dreams, vision quests and studies into stress gave him his most profound teaching about how stress works inside of us. It turns out that hidden inside our stress response lives the wise voice of the earth herself. And yet the voice tends to be opaque to us for reasons spelled out in the show.

At the end of the show, Jeffrey invites the listeners to engage in simple acts that help us re-anchor to the rhythms of the earth. Because in such acts the wisdom of the earth becomes more clear and in such times as ours we need such a deep sense of belonging to our home planet.

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Ms. Amy Armstrong teaches AP Psychology and Major Religions at a private Catholic High School in the San Francisco Bay Area. In Resting in the Ancient we hear how chance, activism, and wisdom powerfully blend together in the dedicated heart of one teacher. Deeply attuned to the global challenges in which her students are coming of age, Amy sheds light on how she seeks to impart wisdom and trust in the deep self as an antidote to culture not interested meaningful identity formation.

Myth, wisdom traditions, cutting edge brain and social sciences are some of the rivers of knowledge that Armstrong relies upon to guide her students who are faced with navigating the passage of growing-up in a radically changing world. In this show we find a moving portrait of how teaching can be a sacred responsibility in the continuity of time which contributes to and fosters a more holistic sense of self for young people. Furthermore we learn how activism, books, and synchronicity pulled Amy into a career as an educator and the wonderful ways she embraces her ‘weird,’ encouraging her students to do the same.

Along the way we learn how many, many years of teaching social justice and Peace and Conflict Studies required effort that once again, by chance, transformed into another kind of mode; that of the mystic. No longer driven to be a warrior dedicated to the hardwork of addressing social justice education, Ms. Armstrong now is turning her teaching toward the deepest part of the self, willing to acknowledge life’s miracles and accept the power of the mystic within.

Always ready to grab threads of value and meaning, in Amy’s personal passage of coming to rest in the ancient as well as being a much needed guide for young adults about to take flight, we find in her a compelling voice for the power of education that blesses young people with the radical notion that they too have a living wisdom within which they can rely on.

• Connect with Amy professionally on LinkedIn
• Join Amy in Protecting Native Elders with PPE Supplies

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Episode Summary

Jennifer Berit Wilson is an author, writing coach and activist. In Episode #15 we journey with Jen into the difficult realities in parenting. Relaying the consuming blend of demands from sleep deprivation, work pressures, raising very young children in the absence of village and desire to commitment to be emotionally present, we can taste the bittersweet flavors that are part of modern life and contemporary motherhood.

Jen then takes show host Jef Szi and all of us with her into the indescribably intense encounter that labor and birth were for her. Recalling the hours of work and psychedelic like visions therein, we learn that in the monumental effort in labor there is the possibility for dramatic encounter with the profound forces of both beauty and terror.

Taken far beyond her edge and into the muddy underworld, Jen wakes us up to what dwells between the thoughts she had prior to birth and how it actually was experienced. From it she draws teaching on how birthing holds guidance for our difficult global times. They also explore the essential connection between birthing and the initiation needs and practices for men from ceremonies like The Sun Dance and others.

Gradually they wind their way into another passage in Jen’s life, where Jen found herself willingly walking toward a dark night of the soul. As she freed herself out of her persona and privilege she thought here life was suppose to be, a more genuine and satisfying self followed, slowly and assuredly. We hear not just the value of those hard times, we hear the poetry that came from it.

Throughout The Moon Dance of Motherhood we find that the intrinsic wisdom of life is alive and at work, moving Jen toward a fuller sense of self. From her transformations we can garner inspiration knowing that in life’s most potent passages, we too shall become more authentic in ourselves… even as we encounter sacrifice, surrender and the touch of death on the way.

Learn More About Jennifer Berit Wilson

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Episode Summary

In Episode #14 Jef Szi welcomes poet, memoirist, and writing coach Albert Flynn DeSilver to the podcast for an engaging conversation about the personal passages in his life as well as the passages that have come with being a writer.

We begin by exploring Albert’s latest book project on consciousness and addiction. On the heels of that we are given a few of Albert’s secret sauce ingredients for guiding writers in particular, but creatives in general. Albert’s then takes us into the moving contours of how the writing process awakens us to the unseen field of possibility and self-discovery, both in grace and in hardship. Not just in theory, but from the ache of his own adversities.

Trusting the Wild Mind then turns toward Albert’s own upbringing and intiations into, among other things, the problematic side of alcohol at sleep-away camp and at the neighborhood “Derelict Den." Along the way we come to see how the destructive elements of Albert’s coming-of-age was rooted in childhood pains but would eventually lead to crisis moments that brought Albert to a life more connected to nature, words and art, and the depths of his own nature.

In this heartful episode with Albert, we can hear an intimate portrait of change and healing and how chance and calling come together in on the long road of one life. Sharing a mosaic of passages, we eventually arrive with Albert as he finds Spirit Rock Meditation Center and where meetings with Jack Kornfield and Anjahn Jumnian brought Albert further along on his destiny to blend the art of writing with dedication to the practices of awakening to a deeper connection to his original nature.

Connect with Albert on Social

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Episode Summary

In Episode #13 Jef Szi welcomes Randy Fortes for a dynamic conversation about his passage into becoming a social-emotional facilitator. In it we hear how Randy began his journey first working with young children then teaching hip-hop culture at his local community center before an epic encounter with young people around the world as a Challenge Day facilitator for eight years. Along the way Randy takes us into his nature with an honest, wise and heart-full account of what moves him and how he’s had learned to move others toward the most essential aspects of human experience.

In Warrior of the Forgotten, we feel the pain and the beauty in life’s difficult edges and empowering blessings. As Randy takes us with him into varied and authentic emotional tones: creativity, empathy, grief, humor, curiosity and more, we find an incredibly kindred spirit, willing to share what is most real in his personal and generational passages, his growing connection to his native roots, and inspire us with his fountain of timeless creativity!

Connect with Randy on social….

• Instagram
• Facebook

Bring Randy into to do Soul Shoppe work with your community…

• Soulshoppe

Check Out Randy’s Freedom Flow Internet Radio Show

• Freedom Flow Radio Show
• Clips on teaching B-boy Dance in Livermore (note: turn volume down)

Learn more about the the Tohono O’ odham Nation and People

• Official website
• Wiki summary
• View a Map of Native Nations and Tribal Communities

Episode Summary

In Episode #12 Popa (Kaiwann King) is our first and much welcomed guest for the new season. In this show, North Heaven, Popa and Jef talk about their recent times from first meeting in Watts to having a community weekend in the Sierra mountains. Gradually they find their way toward two great passages in Popa’s life that he wanted to share on the show. The first one happened after school one May day when Popa was in third grade. On that fateful afternoon, Popa had an accident that changed him forever. Overtime, he came to believe the power of “the man above” is what gave him the strength to overcome and adapt to his physical and situational hardships. This show is the first time Popa has ever shared his profoundly personal story.

The second passage Popa shares is one that is happening right now. Just 17 years young and Senior in high school with a great love for basketball, Popa is taking hold of his future in a creative way by blending his vision for a postive social message for the urban realities and deep gratitude and faith in Jesus into a vibrant clothing brand. North Heaven Clothing Brand seeks to resonate with a hip and spirited approach to life, offering a values based message in the complex conditions to inner-city life. In his ambition and courage we can see how Popa is setting up his many tomorrows in extremely admirable way.

North Heaven, the show, is a chance to hear from a brave heart and patient soul rising from great adversities to claim something that’s both chill and profound at once.

North Heaven, the brand, is something listeners are invited to get behind. In so doing we can all add oxygen to a young fire inside of a knowing mind.

Connect with Popa on….

• Instagram
• Email Popa

Support North Heaven Brand

• Shop North Heaven Brand
• Follow North Heaven on Insta

In this short, solo episode Jef Szi kicks-off season two by laying-out the intention and the shape of what's to come. He invites the listeners to expand his reach for guests beyond his social set. After a short musical break, Jef shares his new found passion for the language of astrology and how it is helping him rethink what's at play in human life. In paticular he compares and contrast the earthly studies of stress with the invisible forces at play in astrology and how both influence human life.

About Season Two: Passages

Season Two will be another sojourn into the contours of our human nature. In these episodes we will explore the impacts of tranformative journeys, be they marked or unmarked, purposeful or accidental, that help define and direct the course of our lives. This season’s guests share with us the real events the shaped them. As we listen to their stories we get closer in someway to what’s at stake and what’s at work in the passages we all find ourselves in, especially the great passage of time.

Come sit by the fire and listen in as we travel through yet another array of human stories. Navigated by Jef Szi and his mosaic of guests, let yourself get inspired by tales of all kinds which reveal and renew our sense of how humans work.