Derek Sivers is an author, a TED speaker, a businessman, a musician, and one of my favorite thinkers on the planet. During our conversation, Derek talks about pursuing mastery, having enough, what success means to him, how he thinks about money, having and raising a kid, and more.

Derek's book Hell Yeah or No is one of my all-time favorites, and his essays have had a huge influence on my life. I love Derek's originality, his enthusiasm for life and ideas, and most importantly, his generosity, kindness, and friendliness.

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00:00 Intro

00:32 Written off from an early age

02:40 How Derek knew he wanted to be a musician

08:50 Transitioning from a musician to a businessman

15:40 Having enough

22:28 Money

28:15 The importance of quiet, journaling and solitude

40:45 Freedom and children

54:48 Giving away $22 million

01:03:52 Lifestyle creep

01:08:34 Why Derek chooses freedom

01:11:14 Envy and maintaining minimalism

01:19:25 Success

01:21:21 Quotes from Derek's essays

01:26:02 Dan's New Zealand story

01:35:06 Small actions can have big consequences

01:37:23 Reach out to Derek: https://sive.rs/contact

Hemant Mehta is an author, a YouTuber, and an atheist activist. During our conversation, Hemant talks about his journey to atheism, the threat of Christian nationalism to secular society, and the atheist and secular movements. He also addresses the loss of community felt by those who leave religion, and the life and legacy of Daniel Dennett, including his work with The Clergy Project.

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00:00 Intro

00:44 Hemant's personal and religious background

07:05 Hemant's experience losing his religious belief

08:47 Has Hemant's atheism changed him?

11:37 What persuaded Hemant to become an atheist?

14:56 Modern instances of religious overreach into secular society

20:44 Hemant's definition of atheism

23:00 What motivates Hemant's work

30:57 Christian nationalism in America

36:32 Reasons for optimism

42:26 The loss of community as people leave religion

47:05 Does Hemant have doubts about his atheist convictions?

49:29 Who does Hemant go to for information?

55:56 Dan Dennett and The Clergy Project

D.J. Taylor is a novelist, a literary critic, and the author of two biographies of George Orwell: Orwell: The Life, and Orwell: The New Life. During our conversation, D.J. talks about Orwell's life, why Orwell's books, particularly his two on totalitarianism, Animal Farm and 1984, have endured so many years after his death, and the relevance of his ideas and insights to modern times.

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00:00 Intro

00:34 Who was George Orwell?

02:48 Why is Orwell so intriguing to D.J. Taylor?

04:46 Orwell's relevance over the past 20 years

08:06 How did Orwell capture totalitarianism so clearly?

13:15 The totalitarian impulse in Orwell

17:51 Orwell's commitment to his beliefs

21:44 A power of facing unpleasant facts

26:32 The void filled by the decline of religion

30:00 What was Orwell for?

34:43 Orwell's final years on Jura

38:33 Criticisms of Orwell

45:04 How would Orwell view modern times?

51:52 Euphemism and Newspeak today

54:28 Famous quotes from Orwell

55:30 Why does Orwell endure?

Camilla Kring is an author, a global speaker, and is the founder of B-Society, an organization fighting for "chronotype equality." During our conversation, Camilla talks about night owls and morning birds, why humans have a wide spectrum of sleep cycles, our cultural bias towards early birds, the damage done to night owls who are asked to fit into a morning bird society, and how we might be able to provide greater time autonomy to people to live in accordance with their own rhythms.

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Camilla's org, B-Society

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00:00 Intro

00:39 An "A person" vs "B person"

02:40 Social jet lag of night owls

04:15 Evolutionary reasons for night owls

11:15 How society became biased against night owls

15:30 Are night owls lazy?

21:00 The range of preferred sleeping cycles in humans

26:27 The guilt of and bias against night owls

32:12 Advice for night owls who can't control their schedule

36:10 How AM sunlight and light exposure helps people

37:20 The importance of sleep

43:16 Chronotypes and a quote from "Why We Sleep"

48:44 Can night owls turn into morning birds?

54:30 Is our society chronically sleep-deprived?

58:23 How does a sane society approach sleep?

Sarah Everts is a science journalist, an associate professor at Carleton University, and the author of "The Joy of Sweat: The Strange Science of Perspiration." During our conversation, Sarah talks about how sweating was an evolutionary superpower for humans, what sweat is, why some people sweat more than others, the history of the antiperspirant industry, and why we receive such psychological benefits from sauna exposure and exercise-induced sweating.

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00:00 Intro

00:53 Sarah's interest in sweat

02:23 Sweating as an evolutionary advantage

13:11 Why do some people sweat more than others?

19:32 Is being able to easily sweat a sign of health?

24:33 Ethnic differences in sweating

29:08 How advertising created the antiperspirant industry

39:38 The benefits of heat and sweating

51:48 Forcing your heart to exercise

Sherry Ning is an author and an essayist, whose Substack, "Pluripotent," has some of the best writing I've come across on human nature, purpose, and how to live. During our conversation, Shelly talks about creating one's own path, success, open-mindedness, beauty, nostalgia, spirituality, and religion.

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00:00 Intro

00:34 A purpose to write

2:35 Trait openness

6:10 Real diversity is found in human personality

8:35 Fame

10:29 WEIRD people

12:43 For happiness, ask: what will make me miserable?

15:45 Success and going your own way

26:34 Open-mindedness and particularity of taste

34:04 Wildflowers: beauty and toughness

39:50 The death of Sherry's father

43:25 Nostalgia and good times

49:47 What modern writer does Sherry enjoy?

52:24 Sherry's religious and spiritual beliefs

Stuart Whatley is a writer, a Senior Editor at Project Syndicate, and the author of "Toward a Leisure Ethic," my favorite essay that I've read of the past few months. During our conversation, Stuart talks about the historic purpose of leisure and work, our culture's obsession with busyness and praise of toil, and the reason for striving towards a life of a leisure ethic: where one has control of one's time, one's energy, and where one works on projects for their own sake.

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00:00 Intro

00:57 What has been a "leisure ethic" in history?

03:51 Isn't extolling leisure a call for laziness?

09:50 The role of work and leisure in history

15:30 The shame of having an anti-work mentality

20:30 A quote from "Toward a Leisure Ethic"

26:48 A response to people who disagree with Stuart

31:57 "Enough" and how to live a life well-lived

40:05 How much we worked as hunter-gatherers

43:22 We lack models for a "leisure ethic"

48:10 Workaholism in America

51:30 Derek Sivers, money hoarders, and insatiable desires

55:00 A story from "The Psychology of Money" and how to use money

Matt Johnson is the Susan Hill Ward Professor of Psychedelics and Consciousness and a professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Johns Hopkins University. As stated on the Hopkins' website, Matt "is one of the world’s most published scientists on the human effects of psychedelics, and has conducted seminal research in the behavioral economics of drug use, addiction, and risk behavior."

During our conversation, Matt talks about the resistance and skepticism he faced in attempting to study psychedelics for therapeutic purposes, herd mentality within academia, and the effectiveness of psychedelics in mitigating human suffering, specifically in cancer patient's end-of-life anxiety, treatment-resistant depression, nicotine addiction, and alcohol addiction. He also talks about the state of mental healthcare in America and the life and work of one of his colleagues, the late Roland Griffins.

Matt has been a pioneer in the psychedelic renaissance, and I believe that his commitment to independent-thinking and freedom of thought, determination in the face of skepticism, and openness to being wrong can be a model for any ambitious person attempting to do original, important, and potentially world-changing work and research.

Rob Henderson is an Air Force Veteran, an alumnus of Yale and Cambridge, an essayist, and the author of "Troubled: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class." During our conversation, Rob talks about his early life, his experience in the American foster care system, and his unlikely journey out of the unstable and chaotic environment of his youth.

Rob is one of my favorite thinkers, and it's damn near miraculous that this brilliant and prolific writer comes from the upbringing that he details in the book. Rob's memoir gives voice to a human experience that is largely invisible and unknown to the American credentialed class: abandonment by one's biological parents, an unstable home life with uncaring guardians, rampant drug abuse and early childhood violence, and a general environment of nihilism that pervades the formative years of life.

Rob's arc gives him a unique perspective into American social class, what really matters in the development of children, and what our society should prioritize for childhood and adult well-being.

Rob notes in the book that "in the U.S., 60% of boys in foster care are later incarcerated, while only 3% graduate from college." We are all fortunate that Rob is one of the lucky ones to escape the crucible of his upbringing, and to give testimony to the lived, troubled experiences of the voiceless millions who have had similar lives, right under our noses.

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(00:00) Intro

(03:00) How the book came about

(08:15) Rob's early life

(18:42) The effect of instability and two quotes from "Troubled"

(26:37) America's misguided "success" obsession with education and credentials

(34:04) How to help kids in chaotic foster care or impoverished homes

(42:29) Should parenthood be more rare?

(53:49) How Rob knew he needed to enlist to change his life trajectory

(01:02:58) Rob addressing rehab and his own trauma

(01:16:04) Shame and rage and deliberately trying to change

(01:22:10) Observations from Yale and luxury beliefs

(01:37:18) Advice for kids with a similar background to Rob

Jon Dean is a postdoc research fellow at UCSD and received his PhD in molecular and integrative physiology at the University of Michigan, where he published a landmark 2019 study on DMT. During our conversation, we talk about how and why Jon became interested in DMT, the details of his 2019 study, Rick Strassman's 2001 book "DMT: The Spirit Molecule", and what Strassman found after giving nearly 400 doses of DMT to roughly five dozen volunteers.

Jon is quick to note how little we understand about consciousness and the mind, and how our world is created in our brains. He discusses the bizarre, rather consistent details that many who take DMT report, and we speculate as to the role that this simple chemical might have in making what we call reality, along with the anecdotal stories of those who believe that its modulation can create a portal into another.

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00:00 Intro

02:04 How Jon got interested in DMT

07:36 How a death of a friend influenced Jon's journey

11:00 The influence of Rick Strassman

12:29 Rick Strassman's work, detailed in "DMT: The Spirit Molecule"

20:11 Anecdotes from what happens to people who do DMT

24:41 How Jon attempts to get funding for a controversial subject

32:51 Jon's three main discoveries about DMT from his 2019 paper

41:54 DMT is the only psychedelic known to be produced by the human body

44:51 Quotes from Rick Strassman speculating about DMT

53:45 How Jon's research on DMT has changed his view on life and death

57:36 Jon's growing acceptance of death post-psychedelic use

59:03 The future of psychedelic research