See For Yourself

How do you find your true self in your twenties when school, social media, and everyone else's timeline are pulling you in every direction? Sydney Rheeder, South African writer, designer, and creator of for the record®, one of Substack's fastest-growing personal essays newsletters, gets brutally honest about shame, perfectionism, vulnerability, and building a creative life from scratch.

Subscribe for weekly conversations on self-discovery, creativity, and living deliberately in your twenties.

VALUE BULLETS

–Why the most vulnerable, "cringey" thing you post will almost always perform the best

–How Sydney went from 0 to 9,000 Substack subscribers in under two months, and the YouTube strategy behind it

–The real reason we feel so lost in our twenties, and why school is largely to blame

–Why shame is the most dangerous emotion you can carry, and how therapy helped Sydney face her childhood self

–The difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, and why chasing external validation will make you quit

–How to balance ambition with presence: Sydney's personal mantra, persevere with patience

–Why your creative niche doesn't need to be chosen, it finds you when you start

–The Alan Watts "life as a dance" philosophy that completely reframed how Sydney thinks about success

00:00 Substack Growth Surprise

00:38 Repurposing YouTube Stories

01:34 Why Vulnerability Resonates

03:27 Emma Watson Storytelling Lesson

07:13 Fear of Being Seen Online

10:31 Suppressing Your True Self

16:34 Finding Your Inner Voice

19:31 Experience Over Self Help

21:01 Exposure Therapy and Toastmasters

26:14 Bravery Through Coralline

29:23 Journaling Patterns and Perfectionism

31:47 Therapy as Unbiased Witness

34:41 Shame and Childhood Healing

39:54 Beyond Achievement and Finish Lines

41:37 Chasing the Finish Line

42:44 Dance With the Moment

44:28 Persevere With Patience

46:21 Rituals Over Social Media

47:53 All Or Nothing Cycles

48:59 Alignment And Seasons

50:48 Daily Pauses And Boredom

53:43 Letting Ideas Find You

55:48 Intrinsic Vs Extrinsic Values

01:00:21 Using Negative Fuel Wisely

01:03:03 Creative Dreams And Career Doubts

01:05:37 Why Twenties Feel Lost

01:08:41 What School Never Taught

01:10:21 Industrial Age Education

01:12:24 Side Hustles For Freedom

01:15:19 Sunday Scaries And Taking Risks

01:17:24 Start Before Youre Ready

01:18:25 Keep Going While Young

RESOURCES / LINKS

📝 Sydney's Substack — for the record®:

https://fortherecordink.substack.com

📺 Sydney's YouTube Channel:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCALqf9ZBI2zOZU7HdOMcmkA

📸 Sydney's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sydneyrheeder/

🎵 Sydney's TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sydney_rheeder

Jacob’s Work

Website: https://www.jacobjwatsonhowland.com

The "Three T's" of attraction: Touch, Tell, and Tease. Dr. Robert Glover, author of No More Mr. Nice Guy, explains why most men self-censor their natural impulses around women, how anxiety becomes contagious and kills attraction, and why attachment to outcomes is the root of all dating anxiety.

Subscribe for unfiltered dating psychology that cuts through the noise.

VALUE BULLETS

The Three T's explained: Touch, Tell, and Tease—and why men shouldn't turn them into mechanical techniques

How to touch women confidently (hand on the small of the back, leading her somewhere, leaning in) without being creepy

Why "telling" her what to do (not asking permission) demonstrates masculine leadership women respond to

The playful teasing mistake: It's not about telling jokes—it's about speaking the obvious with dry wit

Why men who say "I'm not funny" actually are—they just censor themselves before speaking

The "blurt" principle: Act on impulse instead of overthinking every move

How male anxiety becomes contagious and triggers women's fight-or-flight response

Why attachment to outcomes creates anxiety and gives women all the power in the interactio

Jacob’s Work

Podcast blueprint (Skool): https://www.skool.com/remote-pro-podcast-blueprint-8385

FREE Podcast Tips (2nd Channel): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUp5S7ZIZtjA8PMgXJMwppA YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@jacobjwatsonhowland Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0r4v5xgyYz0rTFSLklk0Em Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/watson-howland/id1813625992 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jacobwatsonhowland Website: https://www.jacobjwatsonhowland.com

During the 900-day Siege of Leningrad, scientists guarded a collection of 250,000 seeds as their city starved, and some chose to die rather than eat them. Award-winning journalist and author Simon Parkin reveals the full untold story.

Simon Parkin is a contributing writer for The New Yorker and The Observer, and author of The Forbidden Garden of Leningrad, named a Best Book of the Year by Scientific American and The Economist, and an NYT Editors' Choice.

Subscribe for weekly conversations on history, science, and the stories you were never taught.

00:00 The Extraordinary Story of the Seed Bank

04:36 The Siege of Leningrad: A Historical Overview

08:50 Nikolai Vavilov: The Visionary Behind the Seed Bank

13:45 The Moral Dilemma: Seeds vs. Survival

18:20 The Botanists' Struggle: Protecting the Collection

22:37 Legacy of the Seed Bank: A Testament to Sacrifice

27:49 Survivor Accounts and Historical Challenges

29:04 The Seed Bank's Role During the Siege

30:41 The Importance of Preserving Seeds

31:29 Finding Obscure Stories in History

34:13 Internment of Enemy Aliens in Britain

35:59 Conditions in Internment Camps

39:53 Nuances of British History During WWII

41:39 Famous Figures in Internment Camps

42:32 Upcoming Projects and Future Stories

44:24 Philosophical Reflections on Life and Death

VALUE BULLETS

–The Siege of Leningrad lasted 900 days, why more people died there than in Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined

–How ordinary people survived starvation: swapping pianos for bread, burning furniture for warmth, and worse

–The impossible moral dilemma: should the scientists feed the seeds to the starving, or protect them for future generations?

–The man who built the world's first seed bank, and was arrested by Stalin and ironically died of starvation in the Gulag

–Why a scientist died at his desk with a packet of almonds in his hands that he refused to eat

–How 90% of the seeds preserved in the siege exist nowhere else on Earth. and why that still matters today

–Britain's shameful secret: how Jewish refugees who fled Nazi Germany were interned in British camps in 1940

–Simon's next book: Trial of the Space Invaders, the true story of the court case that tried to determine who invented video games

Simons Work:

📖 The Forbidden Garden of Leningrad (Simon & Schuster):

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Forbidden-Garden/Simon-Parkin/9781668007662

📖 The Island of Extraordinary Captives (Simon & Schuster):

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Island-of-Extraordinary-Captives/Simon-Parkin/9781982178529

🌐 Simon Parkin's website: https://www.simonparkin.com

🎙️ My Perfect Console Podcast (Spotify):

https://open.spotify.com/show/6PzHHkwpOs8YFgzqoKRXAi

The CIA deliberately created split personalities in real human beings as spy weapons, and it's all in declassified documents.

Psychiatrist Dr Colin Ross breaks down how MK Ultra and Project Bluebird used Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) to manufacture Manchurian candidates: operatives who couldn't reveal mission details under interrogation because a separate alter personality held the information. Even more shocking, two founding board members of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation, the organisation set up to discredit DID, were top-secret-cleared CIA contractors. One of them killed an elephant with LSD. Another's experiments at Harvard produced the Unabomber.

This isn't conspiracy theory. It's admitted to by the US military and CIA in declassified Senate committee hearings.

🎧 Full episode: https://youtu.be/j2JmpgpzazY

Jacob’s Work

Podcast blueprint (Skool): https://www.skool.com/remote-pro-podcast-blueprint-8385

FREE Podcast Tips (2nd Channel): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUp5S7ZIZtjA8PMgXJMwppA YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@jacobjwatsonhowland Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0r4v5xgyYz0rTFSLklk0Em Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/watson-howland/id1813625992 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jacobwatsonhowland Website: https://www.jacobjwatsonhowland.com

#MKUltra #DID #psychology

Islam says Jesus didn't die. Christianity says he did. TED educator John Bellaimey reveals what the scriptures actually say — and it's not what you'd expect.

The biggest question dividing Islam and Christianity: did Jesus actually die on the cross? John Bellaimey, author, former academic, and creator of one of TED's most-watched talks on world religions, breaks it all down.

A rare educator who explains Islam, Christianity, and Judaism without an agenda, just scholarship, curiosity, and a lifetime of study.

Subscribe for weekly conversations on understanding the world and yourself.

VALUE BULLETS

–Why Islam and Christianity agree on far more about Jesus than most people realise

–The Islamic teaching that Jesus didn't die on the cross, and what really happened instead

–How Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all grew from the exact same tree

–Why most people confuse religion with God, and why that matters

–The yin and yang of religious balance and how to apply it to your daily life

–What "Tikkun Olam" actually means, and why it redefines what Judaism is really about

–How to understand sin across all major religions: it's not about evil, it's about missing the mark

–The hidden reason Islam, Christianity, and Judaism keep conflicting despite sharing the same roots

00:00 Why You Can't Understand the World Without Religion

03:49 God vs. Organised Religion: Don't Confuse the Two

10:54 How Religion Evolved From Hunter-Gatherers to Monotheism

21:57 Yin & Yang: The Hidden Balance in All Major Religions

26:56 Compassion: The Core Principle of Every True Religion

44:34 The Four Life Stages and Finding Spiritual Balance

48:30 How and When Did Judaism Actually Begin?

51:04 The Rise of Monotheism and Why It Dominates the World

53:21 What Everyone Gets Wrong About Judaism

59:04 Christianity's True Relationship With Judaism

01:05:42 Islam's Surprising Connection to Jesus, Mary & the Bible

01:10:50 Why Do Religions Conflict If They Share the Same Roots?

John's TED-Ed Talk: The Five Major World Religions

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6dCxo7t_aE

John's TED-Ed Talk: The Hidden Meanings of Yin and Yang

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezmR9Attpyc

Book: The Tree of World Religions (2nd Edition)

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-tree-of-world-religions-second-edition-john-bellaimey/1128421858

Jacob’s Work

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@jacobjwatsonhowland

#IslamVsChristianity #WorldReligions #religion

What makes women viscerally attracted to men? Dr. Robert Glover, relationship expert and author of No More Mr. Nice Guy, shares the three-part masculine energy formula that went viral after Chris Williamson spread it to Alex Hormozi, Mark Manson, and millions of men worldwide: be comfortable in your own skin, know where you're going, and look like you're having a good time getting there.

Subscribe for more raw dating psychology that actually works in the real world.

VALUE BULLETS

The three-part attraction formula that female dating coaches call "visceral"—and why it works on primal levels

How to recognize subtle signals women send when they're attracted (hip jutting, "accidental" cleavage, repeated proximity)

Why men who spend time with other men radiate masculine energy that women find irresistible

The Amsterdam steakhouse story: How 12 men at a men's retreat turned on "everything feminine" around them without trying

What "comfortable in your own skin" actually means—letting go of shame, accepting what you can't change, and working on what you can

Why most men are completely oblivious to open doors and available women right in front of them

The waitress test: How Dr. Glover got a phone number in 10 seconds by simply walking through an already-open door

The biggest fear holding men back from approaching women—and why it almost never happens in reality

Jacob’s Work

Podcast blueprint (Skool): https://www.skool.com/remote-pro-podcast-blueprint-8385

FREE Podcast Tips (2nd Channel): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUp5S7ZIZtjA8PMgXJMwppA YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@jacobjwatsonhowland Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0r4v5xgyYz0rTFSLklk0Em Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/watson-howland/id1813625992 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jacobwatsonhowland Website: https://www.jacobjwatsonhowland.com

Why did 10% of white Americans join the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s, and how did President Harry Truman become a secret member? Dr. Kristofer Allerfeldt, University of Exeter historian and author of The Full History of the Ku Klux Klan, reveals shocking truths about America's most notorious hate group, from its 1865 founding to its decline in the digital age.

Subscribe for more deep-dive history interviews that uncover the uncomfortable truths behind modern society.

You’ll Learn:

–Why the 1920s Ku Klux Klan attracted 4-5 million members and operated like a mass fraternity, not a fringe terror group

–How President Harry Truman joined the KKK for 3-4 years in the 1920s and what his membership reveals about American politics

–The truth about why the Klan uniform became so sinister—it wasn't about intimidation, it was about profit

–How the 1915 film Birth of a Nation resurrected the Klan and turned it into America's first pyramid scheme

–Why the Klan's anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant agenda in the 1920s mirrors modern political scapegoating tactics

–The FBI's dirty tricks campaign (COINTELPRO) that finally destroyed Klan power in the 1960s

–How social media could be weaponized to prevent white supremacist movements from ever gaining power again

–What receiving a death threat from a Klansman taught Dr. Allerfeldt about researching America's darkest history

00:00 The Persistence of Hate: Understanding the KKK

08:10 The Origins and Evolution of the KKK

16:07 The KKK's Influence and Political Ambitions

23:52 Violence and Atrocities: The Dark Side of the KKK

31:30 Cultural Impact: Birth of a Nation and the KKK's Revival

39:39 The KKK's Legacy and Modern Implications

52:41 Patriotism and Immigration Perspectives

53:46 The Challenges of Publishing and Cultural Sensitivity

55:28 The KKK: Historical Context and Modern Implications

58:10 FBI Infiltration and Covert Operations Against the KKK

01:01:09 Media Representation and the KKK's Evolution

01:03:30 Civil Rights Movement and KKK Violence

01:06:00 The KKK's Modern-Day Presence and Activities

01:08:13 Future of White Supremacy and Hate Groups

01:10:43 Modern Slavery: Definitions and Implications

01:14:19 The Role of Technology in Modern Slavery

01:18:31 Exploring Dark Topics and Human Nature

01:20:29 Personal Reflections and Life Lessons

01:23:59 The Intersection of Religion and Morality

01:27:24 Final Thoughts on Life and Legacy

RESOURCES / LINKS

Dr. Kristofer Allerfeldt's Book: The Full History of the Ku Klux Klan

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ku-Klux-Klan-American-History/dp/1803990163/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0 (Available on Amazon UK, NOT published in the USA)

University of Exeter Faculty Page: https://experts.exeter.ac.uk/1199-kristofer-allerfeldt

Team

Chief Editor: Chloe Breheret

Chief Automation Officer: Jack McDuff

Jacob’s Work

Podcast blueprint (Skool): https://www.skool.com/remote-pro-podcast-blueprint-8385

Website: https://www.jacobjwatsonhowland.com

If we give AI rights because we think it's conscious, we lose the ability to control it… the dangerous illusion explained by a consciousness expert.

Professor Anil Seth is one of the world's leading neuroscientists, Co-Director of the Sussex Centre for Consciousness Science, and author of Being You, which challenges everything you thought you knew about perception, reality, and what it means to be conscious.

0:00 Overestimating AI and underestimating ourselves

0:43 Why we project consciousness onto ChatGPT and Claude

2:09 How AI metaphors diminish our view of biological intelligence

3:25 Can AI become conscious? The truth between zero and 100%

5:05 Why consciousness requires life: metabolism, biology, substrate

6:00 Brain organoids vs GPT—which should worry us more?

7:28 Consciousness: more like digestion or flight?

8:29 Why brains are NOT computers when you look inside them

11:10 Intelligence vs consciousness: doing vs feeling

12:35 Why conscious AI would be terrible—even if it's just an illusion

14:33 The alignment problem: can't control AI if we give it rights

17:18 Social media's lessons: unintended consequences of "move fast"

20:07 The moral circle problem: caring about AI means less for animals

21:35 Descartes' error: rationality requires embodied emotion

27:32 Bayesian reasoning: brains make best guesses, not optimal solutions

30:37 The frame problem: why AI can't know what's NOT relevant

33:33 Unconscious vs subconscious: Freud vs modern neuroscience

37:00 Predictive processing: perception as controlled hallucination

38:01 What consciousness is good for: integration and fast learning

41:47 Mental time travel and scrub jays planning futures

45:19 The space of possible minds: dogs, flies, octopuses

48:11 Octopuses see with their skin for predator vision

53:27 Thomas Nagel: "What is it like to be a bat?"

55:13 Human echolocators: blind people navigating by sound

58:54 Perception as controlled hallucination: never experiencing reality directly

1:02:24 Color requires a mind; the spectrum from physics to social construction

1:06:05 Why simulation theory fails if consciousness isn't computation

1:08:28 Why we dream: preventing overfitting and simulating threats

1:12:37 Sleep cycles and why dreams fade instantly

1:15:26 Lucid dreaming: knowing you're dreaming without waking

1:17:50 Derealization: when reality feels unreal even though it is

1:19:08 Final advice: control what you can, find balance and purpose

Professor Anil Seth's Work:

Official Website: https://www.anilseth.com

Books: Being You: A New Science of Consciousness (Sunday Times Bestseller)

https://www.anilseth.com/being-you/

Latest Essay: "The Mythology of Conscious AI" - NoEmer (Free to read online)

Academic Profile: Sussex Centre for Consciousness Science (Co-Director)

https://www.sussex.ac.uk/research/centres/sussex-centre-for-consciousness-science/

Team

Chief Editor: Chloe Breheret

Chief Automation Officer: Jack McDuff

Jacob’s Work

Website: https://www.jacobjwatsonhowland.com

Neuroscientist and physical therapist Dr. Lara Boyd explains why there is no such thing as a “normal brain,” how neuroplasticity reshapes us across life, and why struggle and sleep are the real drivers of change in our brains. In this episode, she and Jacob explore neurodivergence, learning, stroke recovery, genetics, and what it actually takes to rewire your brain on purpose.

0:00 The French civil servant with “half a brain” and what neuroplasticity can do

1:05 How many of us are actually neuro-atypical? Defining (and questioning) “normal”

2:15 Why there is no clear definition of “neurotypical”

3:05 UK Biobank genetics: ADHD, autism, anxiety and overlapping gene profiles

4:35 Are we over-diagnosing or mis-grouping neurodivergent conditions?

5:35 Evolutionary upsides of ADHD and autism: hyperfocus, sentry attention, solo hunting

6:22 Why autism diagnoses are rising: broader criteria and better recognition in girls

7:30 ADHD and autism as “differences,” not defects — and examples like Elon Musk and Bill Gates

9:05 Lara’s winding path: English major → physical therapist → neuroscientist

10:30 The 1990s shift: from “fixed brain” to lifelong neuroplasticity

12:20 How the brain actually changes: myelin, pruning, and wiring into the mid-20s

16:20 Why young men take more risks: late-maturing prefrontal cortex

18:40 Genes vs environment, epigenetics, and why nature vs nurture isn’t a debate anymore

21:10 APOE4 and dementia risk — and how exercise can change outcomes

22:20 Big data, AI, and decoding brain–gene interactions

24:00 The stroke patient that made Lara feel like a “car mechanic who didn’t understand the engine”

27:20 The landmark monkey stroke study: forced use, reorganization, and recovery

31:00 Redundancy, “silent” neurons, and spare real estate in the brain

33:20 How dendrites, brain chemistry, and BDNF drive neuroplasticity — and why exercise helps

38:20 Why consciousness and self are still “unsolved problems”

39:40 The motor homunculus: why your hands, lips, and tongue dominate your cortex

41:40 Why some people learn in 50 hours and others need 500 — and Lara’s quest to understand variability

44:15 Biomarkers, stroke recovery, and who responds best to brain stimulation

46:05 Could we one day time school topics to each child’s brain readiness?

47:40 Visual vs auditory learners and what brain scans reveal about reading and math readiness

49:30 Stuck in bad habits or a failing career? Why you’re not trapped — and why struggle is your brain changing

52:00 Why we hate struggle even though it’s exactly when neuroplasticity happens

52:55 Sleep as neuroplastic “glue”: deep sleep for motor, REM for cognitive learning

54:05 Naps, aging, and how much sleep we really need

55:10 Lara’s advice to her 20-year-old self: stay curious, practice hard, sleep well

RESOURCES / LINKS Dr. Lara Boyd – UBC Faculty of Medicine profile https://www.med.ubc.ca/researchers/lara-boyd-physical-therapy/

UBC Physical Therapy – Brain Behaviour Laboratory https://physicaltherapy.med.ubc.ca/2022/10/11/lara-boyd/

Website: ⁠https://www.jacobjwatsonhowland.com⁠

Medicine often acts less like a health intervention and more like an expensive way to show love and concern, according to Robin Hanson’s “conspicuous caring” hypothesis.

Robin Hanson is an Associate Professor of Economics at George Mason University and co-author of The Elephant in the Brain: Hidden Motives in Everyday Life.

Subscribe for more contrarian conversations on hidden motives, signaling, and why we do what we do.

Best Quotes:

“Medicine is a luxury, as we get rich, we spend more and more money on it.”

“When some people get a lot more medicine than others at random, those people don’t get healthier.”

“It’s not saying each effect is zero. It says the average effect is zero.”

“A common motive is that we use medicine to show that we care about each other.”

#RobinHanson

#HiddenMotives

#Healthcare