Sol Meets Heart

Rick Hoppe spent 33 years in Army infantry, counterintelligence, and the Defense Intelligence Agency — including a stint on General Petraeus's staff during the Iraq surge — before turning that same pattern-reading eye inward as a memoirist, novelist, and creator of the “Eight Stages” framework for how revolutions form. In this episode, Rick and Hugo talk prediction, PTSD, veteran suicide and the “tribe” theory behind it, and his rule for living: it's okay to die, it's not okay to lose.

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Sam Mitchell was diagnosed with autism at four and turned a junior high media class assignment into Autism Rocks and Rolls — a 200+ episode nonprofit podcast that's hosted Dr. Temple Grandin, Mick Foley, and a dozen pro wrestlers. In this episode, Sam and Hugo talk stigma, structure, AI's double-edged role in the autism community, media representation, and why he says he's “not broken” and doesn't need to be fixed.

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Dr. Amber Murphy — biomechanist, CEO of CompuSport, and former Florida Gator hurdler — breaks down the science behind elite speed: the hurdling technique she says is flat-out wrong, the one mechanical flaw even pros can't fix, and why nourishing your body matters more than any stopwatch. She also shares what it's like being one of the only women in a male-dominated field, and leaves us with a message on trust.

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Heidi Dunstan is a certified grief educator, four-time bestselling co-author, and international speaker who's brought her work on grief and legacy to Harvard and Oxford — all after losing her husband Mike suddenly and performing CPR on him herself. She joins Hugo to talk about why "I'm sorry for your loss" doesn't work, what to say instead, and how grief and love end up being the same thing.

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On 9/11, jazz pianist Rick Delarada watched the towers fall from his rooftop and wrote a poem that became Jazz for Peace — 25 years and over 850 concerts later, it's funded hundreds of nonprofits worldwide. Rick joins Hugo to talk about turning grief into mission, performing in conflict zones from Rwanda to Pakistan, recording with the London Symphony Orchestra at Abbey Road, and what it really takes to fund world peace one concert at a time.

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Daniel Sterling — former top-ten U.S. ski racer, ex-TV news reporter, and author of the memoir Hungry — joins Hugo to talk about the night he nearly went to prison for cocaine possession, the job he didn't get that changed his entire life, and the mentor who taught him that the best example is a bad example. Daniel now runs a monthly men's group in Denver and writes the newsletter Shared Space.

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Belle Gayer — married 54 years and the writer behind over 27,000 answered relationship questions on Quora — joins Hugo to break down what actually makes love last: communication, focus, devotion, and flexibility, and why she says true love is a myth but enduring love is real.

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Natalie — part of the Kink Collective and a professional dominatrix — joins Hugo for an honest conversation about trust, boundaries, and communication in relationships, and how her path led to healing childhood trauma and reconnecting with her own body.

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Indra Rinsler — Vedic astrologer, Enneagram teacher since 1999, and author of the new book Indra's Net — joins Hugo to talk about 20 years raising kids in an ashram, why "it's through me, not by me," and the one spiritual practice he'd hand down after 50 years of study: love yourself.

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Nina Thiara, personal growth coach and founder of the Becoming You community, spent 18 years healing from chronic over-functioning — anxiety, insomnia, and self-abandonment that looked like strength from the outside. She and Hugo talk boundaries as self-love, nervous system healing, and why she believes healing is remembering who you were, not becoming someone new.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/sol-meets-heart--3691166/support.