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Most people chase “better” bodies and end up chasing approval, quick fixes, or a lower number on the scale. Corey Kennard sits down with Jason Nelson, founder of Body Image and the Human Optimization Project, to talk about what happens when you build strength for a deeper reason: to stop feeling small, to protect your mind, and to stay capable for decades. Jason shares how growing up in Trinidad as the youngest of eight shaped his drive, how being underestimated in performance and in corporate fitness forced him to level up, and why he bases confidence on learning because nobody can take that from you.

We also get into the real-world questions listeners are asking right now about GLP-1 medications for weight loss. Jason breaks down how to preserve muscle mass during rapid fat loss using heavy mechanical tension, smart rep ranges, and sufficient protein intake, plus the overlooked essentials that keep people from becoming overfed and undernourished: fiber, micronutrients, antioxidants, and nutrient-dense food. The big takeaway is simple and uncomfortable: fat loss can be the entry point to longevity, but it is not the finish line.

From there we zoom out to biological aging, epigenetic methylation testing, organ system aging, pace of aging, and why stacking too many peptide therapies can create conflicting signals. Jason closes with actionable brain health habits like uninterrupted sleep, training that produces lactate to support BDNF, and coordination drills that sharpen cross-hemispheric communication, plus a truth worth passing down: stand guard at the gates of your mind and stop digging your grave with a knife and fork. If this helps you, subscribe, share it with a friend who needs a reset, and leave a review so more people can find the conversation.

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That quiet voice in the back of your mind is not giving helpful feedback. It is rehearsing a greatest-hits reel of every mistake you have ever made and using it to talk you out of the raise, the pitch, the presentation, or the leadership moment you know you should take.

We get honest about why “I am confident” mirror talk usually fails: your brain knows your history, so it argues back. The better move is more practical and more scientific. We dig into psychological distancing, a proven way to step out of first-person stress and into a calmer, more capable perspective. You will hear how high performers use alter egos not as a gimmick, but as a tool to bypass the internal critic, from Beyoncé building Sasha Fierce to Kobe Bryant using the Black Mamba mindset when life off the court felt heavy.

Then we ground it in research with the Batman study, where kids persisted longer on a frustrating task when they pretended to be a hero, and we translate that into adult performance psychology you can actually use. We walk through a simple four-step method: define your field of play, choose an archetype with the traits you need, pick a totem you can wear or touch, and write a mission and code that keeps you steady under pressure. We also unpack enclothed cognition and why your jacket, glasses, ring, or pre-meeting ritual can become an activation switch for focus, emotional regulation, and confidence.

If imposter syndrome is slowing you down, this gives you a repeatable framework to show up with more clarity and courage. Subscribe for more tools like this, share the episode with someone who is playing small, and leave a review with the name of the alter ego you are building.

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You can be brilliant, self-aware, and successful, then still lose your footing when a small moment hits a big nerve. That’s the heart of what we’re unpacking: the “feeling rules” you never agreed to, but learned anyway. I walk through how emotional inheritance forms in childhood, why it can feel like an invisible operating system, and how it shows up decades later as perfectionism, shutdown, rage, anxiety, or the need to keep everyone happy.

We get specific about the mechanics, not just the vibe. I connect the dots between family systems, nervous system conditioning, and the subtle way kids absorb emotional safety through tone, posture, and stress cues long before language. We also explore the primary emotion versus secondary emotion switch, where forbidden feelings like vulnerability or boundary-setting get rerouted into anger, guilt, toxic positivity, or panic. If you’ve ever thought, “Why am I reacting like this,” there’s a good chance your body is protecting you with rules that once kept you connected.

Then we do the diagnostic work: four common “emotion households” that many of us grew up in, from the refrigerator where emotions don’t exist, to the volcano where they explode, to the museum where only polished feelings are allowed, to the courtroom where every emotion must be justified. Finally, I share a simple three-step framework for updating your emotional inheritance: audit the reaction, separate the feeling from the action, and write new house rules that make room for boundaries, grief, and real rest.

If this resonates, subscribe, share it with a friend who’s doing the work, and leave a review with the feeling rule you’re ready to retire. What are you done inheriting?

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A matte-black “Batman” SUV pulls up beside a beat-up Civic at a red light and your brain instantly runs the wrong math. We’re conditioned to treat luxury as proof of security, but the loudest lifestyle can be the most fragile. I’m Corey Kennard, and I’m making the case for silent wealth: the kind that doesn’t sparkle on Instagram because it’s busy building options, liquidity, and peace of mind.

We dig into the difference between looking rich and being wealthy, using a clear lens: high income with high expenses vs a high savings rate with low lifestyle and high liquidity. I connect the dots from Thorstein Veblen’s conspicuous consumption to today’s designer payments, then get practical about why smart people still end up living paycheck to paycheck. Lifestyle creep and the hedonic treadmill explain why upgrades stop feeling special and start feeling mandatory. If you don’t define what is enough, status competition defines it for you and it never stops.

Then we flip the question: what does silent wealth actually buy? Time autonomy. The ability to say no to toxic work, absorb financial shocks without panic, and be spontaneous when life calls. I close with a simple three-part framework you can start today: define your personal enough, shift your flex toward low debt and calendar control, and automate investing so you never “see” the money you’re trying to keep. If you want financial freedom, wealth mindset clarity, and a plan built on index funds and disciplined habits, press play, then subscribe, share with a friend, and leave a quick review.

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You know that feeling when a certain name pops up on your phone and you instantly want to flip it face down? That reaction is not random, it’s information. I’m Corey Kennard, and I’m walking you through a full-blown friendship audit to figure out who is expanding your life and who is quietly draining your bandwidth.

We start with the why. Emotional contagion shows we absorb the moods and stress signals of the people around us, often without realizing it. Then we zoom out to the network effect: happiness, health, and habits can spread through social circles, sometimes even through friend-of-a-friend connections. Translation: your “social atmosphere” can be as important as what you eat or how you sleep when it comes to mental health, stress, and momentum.

From there, I break down four clear relationship archetypes: amplifiers who multiply your joy, anchors who keep you grounded with love and truth, vampires who treat your empathy like an all-you-can-eat buffet, and lead anchors who only like the old version of you. I also give you three simple metrics you can use immediately: how you feel after an interaction, whether curiosity is mutual, and whether someone can celebrate your wins without poisoning the moment.

If you’re ready to protect your peace without posting cryptic “I’m cleaning house” messages, hit play. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs it, and leave a review so more people can build healthier relationships.

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Regret can be weirdly specific: the message you sent too fast, the moment you stayed quiet, the choice you can’t stop replaying. I’m Corey Kennard, and I’m making a case for something most of us never hear. Regret isn’t a glitch in your brain. It’s proof your mind can do something advanced: build an alternate reality, compare it to your life, and use the contrast as feedback. We dig into the neuroscience of regret, including counterfactual thinking and why decision-making and emotional pain light up together in the brain. 

Then we zoom out to the psychology of regret across time. Why do our short-term regrets obsess over actions, while long-term regrets focus on what we never did? We connect the dots with self-discrepancy theory, the tension between your actual self, ought self, and ideal self, and why playing it “safe” can quietly haunt you for years. If you’ve ever wondered why missed chances stick longer than messy attempts, this will land. 

We also break down Daniel Pink’s World Regret Survey and the four most common regret categories: foundation regrets, boldness regrets, moral regrets, and connection regrets. From there, we tackle the real threat: rumination that fuels stress, raises cortisol, and freezes future decisions. I share a practical three-step protocol to convert regret into a strategic tool: self-compassion, self-distancing, and extracting the value while throwing away the shame. If this helps, subscribe, share it with a friend, leave a review, and tell me: what kind of regret are you ready to turn into your next move?

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Money stress has a way of sneaking into everything: your sleep, your mood, your marriage, and the choices you make when life gets busy. We wanted a conversation that cuts through the noise and gives you a clear path to financial wellness that actually holds up in real life, even if you’re the kind of person who still wants to live now.

We’re joined by Scott Zuckerman, a veteran financial strategist and founder of Financial Fitness Passport, to break down what “financial fitness” really means. We talk about building trust with a credentialed fiduciary financial advisor, why a complete plan reduces “leakage,” and how to stop feeling like your finances are scattered across a dozen disconnected decisions. Scott also gets specific about credit cards: why he uses them for protection and rewards, the rule that keeps them from turning into revolving debt, and how credit utilization timing can impact your credit score.

Then we get into the system side: cash flow management instead of restrictive budgeting, practical ways to attack consumer debt using the snowball method or avalanche method, and why discipline often matters more than knowledge. Scott explains the thinking behind a gamified personal finance app, the “passport” journey with progress badges, and Penny, an AI financial coach designed for education, guidance, and accountability without replacing the human relationship. We also touch on planning for families with special needs and why both spouses should be involved in financial planning.

If you’re ready to feel calmer and more in control, listen now, share this with a friend who needs it, and subscribe so you don’t miss what’s next. After you listen, can you tell us the one money habit you want to change first?

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Time is moving, and we do not get to hit pause on history. We sit down with two Detroit elders who refuse to let hard truths fade into the background: actor Dwight Stackhouse and award-winning poet and ghostwriter Alexander Payne Morgan. They bring a snippet of their powerful two-man play to the mic and then unpack why they built it in the first place, a Black man who grew up “innocent of prejudice” alongside a white man raised in Savannah, Georgia to be a white supremacist, both determined to tell the real stories America keeps trying to edit.

We talk about what happens when a country grows comfortable with lies: book removals that erase history, convenience that numbs outrage, and a political project that aims to undo civil rights and voting rights gains. Dwight names the danger of complacency, and Alec spells out why he thinks the moment is urgent, not abstract. We also dig into one of the hardest artistic choices they made: using brutally accurate language instead of euphemisms, because softened words can create softened responsibility.

Alec shares what changed him, including the personal cost of separating from family narratives and the impact of reading Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail. Together, we wrestle with a practical question: how do you invite honest dialogue about race without shutting people down, and how do you stay resilient when you feel exhausted?

If you believe art can be activism and that voting rights matter, listen, share this with someone who needs the push, and subscribe and leave a review so more people find the conversation.

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Your “gut instinct” might be the most underappreciated data stream in your life. We follow the signal from butterflies before a big presentation all the way down to the enteric nervous system, a dense network of hundreds of millions of neurons running through your digestive tract. If you have ever made a major decision on a feeling you could not explain, there is a good chance your body was running the math before your mind could finish the sentence.

We unpack the gut-brain axis with a clear look at the vagus nerve and why most of its traffic flows upward from gut to brain. From there, we get into the chemistry that makes this more than a metaphor: the reality that most serotonin is produced in the gut, that a meaningful share of dopamine is generated there, and that certain microbes support GABA, one of the nervous system’s key calming signals. We also connect the dots on how fiber feeds your microbiome, how fermentation creates short chain fatty acids like butyrate, and why that matters for the gut lining, inflammation, microglia, brain fog, and mood.

Then we turn the science into action. We talk through why ultra-processed foods can contribute to leaky gut and the dreaded 2 PM crash, how the somatic marker hypothesis explains fast decisions, and what it means to build stronger vagal tone and better HRV. You will leave with practical, science-backed steps: prioritize plant diversity, use daily fermented foods, protect the migrating motor complex with an overnight fasting window, and train the vagus nerve with simple nervous system tools.

If this helped you rethink your anxiety, energy, or intuition, subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find it. What is the strongest gut feeling you have ever had?

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Saying yes can feel like kindness, but what if it’s actually fear wearing a friendly mask? I’m Corey Kennard, and I’m calling out the “disease to please” the pattern that keeps us overcommitted, quietly resentful, and stuck in relationships where our needs always come last. We start with the moment everyone recognizes: agreeing to something you don’t want to do because saying no feels risky, awkward, or selfish. 

Then we get specific about why it feels so intense. I walk through the psychology of people pleasing, including how the amygdala treats social rejection like a threat, why sociometer theory makes some of us hypersensitive to disapproval, how the fawn response shows up as conflict avoidance, and how the spotlight effect convinces us everyone is watching and judging our boundaries. If you’ve ever worried that skipping happy hour would “ruin the vibe,” this will land. 

From there, we total up the real cost: the energy tax you pay for every unwanted yes, the resentment that builds when your no stays trapped in your throat, the authenticity penalty of becoming a low-maintenance mascot, and the surprising loss of respect that comes from never setting limits. Finally, I hand you a practical toolkit with boundary scripts for work overload, social invitations, and requests for free labor, plus three rules to keep your no clean: buffer first, don’t overexplain, and swap sorry for thank you. 

If you want better boundaries, more self-respect, and a yes that actually means something, press play. Subscribe, share this with a recovering people pleaser, and leave a review telling me the hardest “no” you’re going to practice this week.