The Re-engineered You

Did you grow up with a gaming console and a ton of games? A cellphone? Ever borrow your folks’ car? Well, so did Affluenza Kid. So what’s the difference between his entitlement and ours?

As far back as there have been kings, commoners have known to mistrust spoiled rich princes. Our subject today is so spoiled-rich, he’s the Prince Joffrey of the upper-middle class. On The Re-Engineered You we’re talking about entitlement, and we’re asking the question; could Affluenza Kid’s defense team actually have been telling the truth? Is it really possible Ethan Couch, who killed four innocent people while drunk, high, and speeding, could be so wealthy and bratty he didn’t have a concept of morality or punishment? What about our own kids? Will getting them that brand-new iPhone be enough to tip them into Affluenza? What about when Grandma and Grandpa show up with a bag of toys and electronics? How much wealth and class insulation does it take to turn our little princes and princesses into cold-hearted bastards who smile for the camera during their manslaughter mugshots?

Then, finally, we’ll talk about “Moral Licensing” - something we all do. And we’ll attempt to reverse the damages of the Ethan Couches of the world by administering a vaccination against Affluenza. With a little cure backed by science, called Social Conscientiousness.

History:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethan_Couch#Trial_and_sentencing
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/02/us/ethan-couch-affluenza-jail.html
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-history-of-hermits-in-gardens
https://www.news.com.au/finance/money/wealth/popular-instagram-account-shows-off-the-elite-lifestyles-of-worlds-richest-young-people/news-story/5047eb9ca4ccf1fd9d81917f239113b7
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east-africa/saudi-arabias-major-inward-outward-investments-2021-03-04/

Science:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJ8Kq1wucsk
https://www.psychologicalscience.org/news/minds-business/feelings-of-entitlement-enhance-creativity.html#:~:text=But%20a%20recent%20study%20finds,surprisingly%20positive%20outcome%E2%80%94increased%20creativity.&text=Researchers%20have%20found%20that%20people,and%20engage%20in%20hostile%20behavior.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/who-is-more-likely-to-return-someone-elses-money-the-rich-or-the-poor-2017-03-14
https://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahwatts/2019/02/14/our-brains-trick-us-into-trusting-rich-people-heres-how/?sh=9eb136b1e7ca

If you spent your whole life chasing greatness, would you recognize it when you finally caught it?

This week we pay respect to the strange, tragic, and ultimately inspiring career of Val Kilmer—the Juilliard-trained actor who became a Hollywood heartthrob, but never stopped chasing the deeper meaning in his work. We’ll start by delving into the autobiographical documentary Val, which Kilmer made about his own life. This documentary serves as both a scrapbook of his time as an actor, and a heartbreaking goodbye letter.

Then, we’ll talk about some of the early career setbacks that pushed Val into becoming more serious and “method” about the roles he took, like losing the lead to Kevin Bacon and Sean Penn, or being cast as Batman—a role he famously hated.

Finally, we’ll talk about the work ethic that made him so great as an artist, but also made him insufferable as a co-worker. We’ll discuss the Val behind the cameras, who was both difficult and deeply self-aware, obsessed with greatness yet filled with regret. And we’ll ask ourselves; did his commitment to art sabotage his career, or was it the only thing keeping him honest in a business built on compromise?

Links:

https://www.amazon.com/Val-Kilmer/dp/B09888KKZK

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLUG_hSwOnQ&t=11s&ab_channel=LarryKing

https://valkilmer.com/citizen-twain-by-val-kilmer/

Is being “street smart” enough to earn a living these days? Or do you need a bachelor’s degree to not end up in an Amazon warehouse?

During an interview at SATELLITE, Elon Musk went on-record saying that he didn’t believe college was necessary. In his opinion, a degree shouldn’t be the hot item employers are looking for in skilled candidates. Nor is earning a degree necessary for someone seeking a good education. “You can learn anything you want for free,” Musk said. Then he went on to tell the crowd that Tesla isn’t looking to hire someone because they have a degree - they want people who have demonstrated exceptional ability, like Steve Jobs.

So today we’re putting Elon’s theory to the test. The Re-Engineered You’s going to answer, statistically, whether a degree is necessary to achieve success in today’s job market. How much more do you earn, on average, having various degrees? How many degree-holders actually work in fields related to their education? Is a degree necessary to do “the” job, or are jobs hiring graduates just because there are so many graduates floating around? And if college prices are getting so wildly out of control, and information is free online, then why are people still shelling out the big bucks to get a diploma?
By the end of the show we’ll also put Elon’s claim about not giving a damn about college degrees to the test. Todd and Joe will both fill out applications to become SpaceX astronauts. If we’re lucky, maybe next week we’ll have new show hosts!

History:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLbi6jGsVEk

https://savingjournalism.substack.com/p/i-talked-to-elon-musk-about-journalism

https://www.insidehook.com/article/history/errol-musk-elon-father-myths

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/061015/how-elon-musk-became-elon-musk.asp

https://evannex.com/blogs/news/tesla-is-just-one-of-many-companies-with-roots-in-paypal#:~:text=In%201999%2C%20Elon%20Musk%20founded,stop%20shop%E2%80%9D%20for%20financial%20services.&text=Confinity%20had%20developed%20a%20clever,payments%2C%20which%20it%20called%20PayPal.

https://www.spacex.com/careers/

Science:

https://www.statista.com/statistics/633660/unemployment-rate-of-recent-graduates-in-the-us/#:~:text=U.S.%20%2D%20unemployment%20rate%20of%20recent%20graduates%202016%2D2020&text=This%20statistic%20shows%20the%20unemployment,were%20unemployed%20in%20the%20U.S.

https://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0511/work-ex

Enough of these ‘basic bitch’ concerns about the government or economy. Here are the real existential threats facing humanity, ranked by how thoroughly they could wipe us out.

This week we take a break from self-improvement to dig into something much more pressing: the vast, incomprehensible ways the universe could erase us from existence. It all started when Joe, in his usual tactful manner, dismissed his friends’ everyday anxieties (housing, jobs, relationships) as "basic bitch worries" and invited them to contemplate something truly terrifying: the heat death of the universe, and the fact that all the stars will burn out and existence itself may just...stop. But why wait that long when we have plenty of other things to panic about right now?

From cosmic horrors to atoms becoming ‘unglued’ to the Y Chromosome losing its powers, we go through the biggest existential threats on our list, ranked by sheer magnitude. Can a gamma-ray burst wipe us out instantly without warning? Are we due for another asteroid impact? And what happens if artificial intelligence decides that humans are inefficient and quietly tanks the economy while we’re all asleep? If you’re looking for a list of apocalyptic scenarios that make your day-to-day problems seem tiny in comparison—this is your episode.

Links:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2019/03/18/5-killer-events-from-space-that-could-wipe-out-human-life-on-earth/

https://theconversation.com/six-cosmic-catastrophes-that-could-wipe-out-life-on-earth-71178

https://epic.uchicago.edu/insights/2024-poll-americans-views-on-climate-change-and-policy-in-12-charts/

https://longnow.org/ideas/shining-a-light-on-the-digital-dark-age/

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0025326X10001864

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-58997-2

If hovering over your kids turns them into model citizens, then why do so many helicoptered adults turn out fragile and anxious?

This wee we take a hard look at helicopter parenting—the modern phenomenon of hovering over kids like a Secret Service detail—and its polar opposite, free-range parenting. We start with a story about Todd’s sister, who watches her newborn sleep like a military guard on night duty. This leads us to a bigger question: has our obsession with safety made us worse parents? What if all this surveillance is actually making our kids less prepared for the real world?

Then, we explore real-world examples of parents who went to extreme lengths to protect their kids—from designing their environment to maximize success from birth, to micromanaging every moment of their day. We’ll also shift gears and look at the free-range movement, led by Lenore Skenazy, who became internet famous after letting her nine-year-old ride the New York subway alone. Lenore was labeled “The World’s Worst Mom” by news media, but was she really? What if the studies uphold Lenore’s radical views, or suggest that free-range kids might actually be better at managing risk, making decisions, and dealing with failure?

Finally, we get into the psychology of resilience. Why are kids who experience controlled risk—like riding a subway alone or being left to figure out their own problems—better at handling life’s curveballs? Does helicopter parenting actually sabotage a child’s ability to grow into a self-sufficient adult? And if spending quality time with kids is proven to raise their grades, then how do we strike a balance between being overprotective and being negligent?

Links:

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10106685/

https://nheri.org/research-facts-on-homeschooling/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/01/16/i-let-my-9-year-old-ride-the-subway-alone-i-got-labeled-the-worlds-worst-mom/

https://www.freerangekids.com/why-i-let-my-9-year-old-ride-the-subway-alone/

https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2018/06/helicopter-parenting

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9176408/

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/02/19/magazine/how-much-can-parents-really-control-how-their-kids-turn-out/

https://www.amazon.com/Nurture-Assumption-Children-Revised-Updated/dp/1439101655

Migrant workers are dying by the thousands in Qatar to prepare for the FIFA World Cup. Is the thrill of a game worth their sacrifice? Are international sports in general?

In Part 2 of our examination of international sports, we’ll bust the old myth about why Salt Lake and Sochi bent over backwards to host the Olympics. Ideally, the host city gets a tourism boost that’ll make the economy flusher than a smart-toilet. Unfortunately, there’s a reason we use the term “myth” to describe this tourism boost. We also wrap up our discussion about the Qatar FIFA scandal, and speculate about the upcoming 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing - which may turn out to be a human rights violation on just as incredible a scale, with the imprisoned Muslim Uighur population already being used for cheap labor in detention centers.

Finally, we wrap up this two-parter by revealing what you can do to make a difference in how FIFA and the International Olympic Committee select its host countries. Namely, how you can avoid buying their branded material, and instead support the athletes directly. In a way that will actually improve their lives.

Ideally we all reach ‘self actualization’ at the top of the pyramid. But what happens if our lower blocks get sabotaged by our job? Or addiction? Or by society?

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is one of the most widely accepted psychological models in self-improvement and corporate leadership. But what if we told you that the version of Maslow’s pyramid you’ve seen in textbooks and seminars is actually just corporate rebranding, and the iconic pyramid was drawn by a business guru?

This week we take a wrecking ball to the traditional idea that human needs are a simple step-by-step ladder to greatness. Instead, we argue that success is more fragile than we’ve been led to believe—because when one block of the hierarchy crumbles, the whole structure can come crashing down. First, we dive into the origins of Maslow’s theory and how a corporate professor turned it into the colorful pyramid that companies love to use as a management tool. Then we discuss the hidden flaws in the traditional model, and why human motivation isn’t as simple as “conquering” one step after the next.

What happens when safety, health, or stability get ripped out from under you? Can someone who has reached self-actualization suddenly lose it all? And why is society, and our jobs, built to weaken the lower needs?

We’ll also look at real-world examples of people who seemed to have climbed to the highest level of personal achievement—only to plummet back down due to financial ruin, mental health struggles, or life circumstances beyond their control. From artists like Vincent van Gogh to modern business moguls who fell from grace, we explore how losing key elements of Maslow’s hierarchy can turn even the most successful figures into cautionary tales. If success isn’t a linear path, then what’s the real way to achieve lasting fulfillment?

Links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlBG2ojDbQ8&t=1626s&ab_channel=Biography

https://scottbarrykaufman.com/who-created-maslows-iconic-pyramid/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uz7Sp_O84JM&t=684s&ab_channel=HenrikG.S.Arvidsson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVFwAA17lmM&ab_channel=BigThink

At best mentors get footnoted during award speeches. At worst they get forgotten. Yet 76% of professionals claim mentorship is vital to success.

On today’s episode we’re looking at the overall recognition received by mentors, starting with the inspirational story of Doug Blevins - an NFL kicking coach who was nominated for the Hall of Fame. Blevins is a coach who has been called the “premier” mentor of kicking - yet never ran a play or kicked a field goal in his life, because Doug has been confined to a wheelchair for his entire career.

We’ll also delve into the statistics of mentorship - what it does for students and teens, how mentorship can keep kids in school, and how good coaching can shrink the achievement gap. Then we’ll talk about mentorship for big boys and girls - what mentorship can do for you, why it’s vital for entrepreneurs and professionals, and why so few people actually seek out qualified mentors. Lastly, Todd and Joe will discuss their mentorship experiences, and they’ll spill the beans on how to find the best mentors for free!

History Links:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2012/10/07/doug-blevins-hall-of-fame-nomination/1617861/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/sports/1997/08/22/kicking-coach-is-on-a-roll/c614ec2b-84df-4509-a383-1941a8a8d412/

https://www.abilities.com/community/adaptive-sports-kicking-coach.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWxPv-D4boA

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJucnu_IggRCKiUqyrcAAiQ/videos

https://www.pushfar.com/article/15-famous-mentoring-relationships/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mentor_(Odyssey)#:~:text=In%20the%20Odyssey%2C%20Mentor%20

https://www.sparknotes.com/biography/alexander/section2/

Science Links:

https://www.mentoring.org/mentoring-impact/

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1478210316674159

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/259703693_Socio-economic_Determinants_of_Demand_for_Private_Tutoring

https://www.forbes.com/sites/christinecomaford/2019/07/03/new-study-76-of-people-think-mentors-are-important-but-only-37-have-one/?sh=2f14bd2b4329

https://www.forbes.com/sites/christinecomaford/2019/07/03/new-study-76-of-people-think-mentors-are-important-but-only-37-have-one/?sh=110990924329

https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisaquast/2014/01/06/finding-a-mentor-is-easier-than-you-think/?s h=360638e452f5

Steve Jobs said “stay hungry”...but will staying hungry make you happy? Or are highly motivated people secretly miserable?

This week we shift gears to tackle a fundamental question about work ethic: is it better to be endlessly driven by hunger and ambition, or is true success found in balance and contentment? To explore this, we turn to one of the most brutal proving grounds for toughness—professional boxing. Enter Johnny Tapia and Danny Romero, two legendary fighters from the same city who took completely different paths to the top. Tapia, fueled by a life of hardship and tragedy, fought with reckless abandon, as if every fight could be his last. “Kid Dynamite” Romero, on the other hand, approached the sport with discipline, precision, and a scientific detachment. When they finally met in the ring, it wasn’t just a title on the line—it was a battle between two ways of life.

So, which approach truly leads to victory? And does hunger always win over happiness?

To answer this we’ll also pull back the curtain on modern work culture. The grind mindset tells us that success requires suffering, and happiness and comfort are signs of weakness. But does the research actually back that up? We’ll dig into the data on high performers across industries—athletes, CEOs, artists, and even military leaders—to see whether the “tough guys” actually achieve the most, or if those who prioritize balance have the last laugh.

Links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXDzB8Xv8AY&ab_channel=FullTimeX2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYLdUzOogY8&ab_channel=billpaxton

https://www.parentingforbrain.com/toughen-up/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/01/16/i-let-my-9-year-old-ride-the-subway-alone-i-got-labeled-the-worlds-worst-mom/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvrMNDv6iYU&ab_channel=BigThink

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Dv2Hdf5TRg&t=609s&ab_channel=TED

https://www.smh.com.au/national/boxer-struggled-with-drugs-and-mothers-murder-20120529-1zh4k.html

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3658407/

https://www.armytimes.com/2016/08/19/army-physical-un-fitness-a-system-that-promotes-injury-and-poor-nutrition/

https://nmshof.org/danny-romero/

Migrant workers are dying by the thousands in Qatar to prepare for the FIFA World Cup. Is the thrill of a game worth their sacrifice? Are international sports in general?

Today we look at the shady bidding process Qatar underwent to secure the privilege to host the World Cup. Then we ask ourselves: Why? Why international sports in general?

International sports are supposed to be good for morale, both for the host country, and for the individual who cheers from the couch as someone wearing their flag scores a goal. So we’ll first examine the neurological process we undergo when we see our heroes emerge victorious. Then we’ll look at the lives of the athlete themselves, how much they earn, and if it’s worth the price they pay with their body and mind. We’ll also talk about why the backstage of the Olympics is usually an orgy filled with used condoms - or worse, a systematic displacement of the impoverished. And we’ll speculate on the real reason countries try to outbid on another to host an international event. Spoiler: It’s not just for those sweet, sweet tourism dollars.