The Re-engineered You

We all need to be tough in life. But how far can we take ‘tough’ before we’re just being mean? What about tough CEO’s? When do we get to blame them for bullying?

The business world was rocked last year when the CEO of France Telecom and several of his managers were found guilty of bullying their employees so badly, and so cruelly, that 35 of them committed suicide, directly blaming the company for their deaths. Here in America, we justify the actions of CEOs and managers by saying that they’re being tough to get the best out of their employees. So that’s our episode today; Is it tough, or mean? And how will we know when we cross that line?

We’ll also touch on science and sports psychology to determine how necessary ‘toughness’ is for the human experience. How to make yourself tough, in case you aren’t already. What separates tough from mean (spoiler; it’s all about how you utilize power!) How military training now implements ‘strategic optimism’ to toughen its drill sergeants. And, finally, why it’s so difficult for us to identify our own bullying habits.

History Links:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/09/world/europe/france-telecom-trial.html

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/20/former-france-telecom-bosses-jailed-over-workplace-bullying

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-48948776 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-50865211

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_S.A.#Acquisition_of_Orange_and_privatisation

Science Links:

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/beautiful-minds/are-you-mentally-tough/

https://www.safeathopkins.org/resources/for-managers/tough-boss-or-workplace-bully/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/heidilynnekurter/2020/02/19/women-bullied-at-work-heres-why-your-female-boss-dislikes-you/?sh=2c07d485654b

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/the-science-of-smart-how-to-build-mental-toughness/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/meghancasserly/2012/03/16/are-you-a-bully-and-dont-even-know-it/?sh=746dd442222f

Contrary to popular belief, money can buy happiness. But according to science you’re probably shopping in the wrong aisle.

Today we explore the pursuit of happiness and debunk 6 common myths about what makes us truly, long-term happy. Over the past 10 years a multi-billion dollar industry has popped up around selling Americans the ‘happiness dream,’ but how many of those early happiness studies can be trusted? How much was real science, versus wishful thinking bought and paid for by the same industry trying to sell us self-care routines and weekend seminars?

Our first myth concerns money, and how we buy happiness. We’ll talk about the happiness index, the income slope that determines our happiness peak, buying fancy things, and expensive plastic surgeries. (You can try to guess now which of those will actually make you happy). We’ll also talk about the gifts you can give yourself that will actually make you long-term-happy, versus the gifts that fade. Then we’ll delve into five more myths about what’s really keeping your happiness hostage.

Does chasing success make you happy, or does it just keep you in a miserable rat race? What about mastery in your career? Is Mastery just part of the rat race too? Which part of the country should you move to, to be more happy. And why do so many news agencies get it wrong? Why does your family have the worst happiness advice? Should you even try to be happy in the first place, or does embracing negative emotions make you live longer?

Join us on our mission to free the American hostage known as happiness. Then, stick around until the end when we discuss the three biggest indicators of happiness, which have yet to be dethroned even after 30 years of repeated studies.

History:

https://www.dailystar.co.uk/real-life/british-girl-gets-free-34dd-18723546

https://www.myfreeimplants.com/meet-the-members

Science:

https://time.com/6296357/happiness-strategies-lack-data/

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-023-01651-4

https://time.com/collection/happiness-revival-guide/6240219/things-that-wont-make-you-happy/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7114070/

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/money-happiness-study-daniel-kahneman-500000-versus-75000/

https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/what_is_body_appreciation_and_how_can_you_cultivate_it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WMpnWJ99DY&ab_channel=TheWeekendUniversity

We can never really know how others see us. But with some awareness and the right tools, we can get pretty darn close. Today’s episode; Self Perception!

To have total self-perception we would literally have to see ourselves, and experience ourselves, through other people’s brains. Unfortunately that’s impossible until we’re living in a Sci-Fi future. In the meantime, Joe and Todd will discuss techniques to become more self-perceptive. We’ll look into studies that have arisen over the years about how people perceive themselves. And we’ll share stories of inept criminals, self-deceiving romantics, and mirrors that can reveal your true self (or at least your un-reversed self…)

We’ll also talk about the bank heist that inspired the Dunning Kruger Effect. A heist involving a very confused, very un-perceptive man, who covered his face in lemon juice and squinted his way through a series of major felonies.

History Links:

http://awesci.com/the-astonishingly-funny-story-of-mr-mcarthur-wheeler/

https://medium.com/@littlebrown/i-wore-the-juice-the-dunning-kruger-effect-f8ac3299eb1

https://www.propublica.org/article/dr-death-christopher-duntsch-a-surgeon-so-bad-it-was-criminal

http://psychwatch.blogspot.com/2007/09/richard-feynman-gets-psychiatric-exam.html

Science Links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y50i1bI2uN4

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/articles/200505/metaperceptions-how-do-you-see-yourself

https://qz.com/992127/studies-find-high-achievers-underestimate-their-talents-while-underachievers-overestimate-theirs/

https://hbr.org/2018/01/what-self-awareness-really-is-and-how-to-cultivate-it

https://hbr.org/2018/10/working-with-people-who-arent-self-aware

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2018/03/you-dont-know-yourself-as-well-as-you-think-you-do/554612/

https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2010-25587-001

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-reversing_mirror

https://repeller.com/true-mirror/

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/you-are-less-beautiful-than-you-think

If the surgeon general can’t decipher his ER bill, what chance do we have? Well, today, we’ll learn to speak “hospitalese” together.

Dr. Jerome Adams, former Surgeon General of the United States, experienced firsthand the challenges of medical billing when he received a shockingly high bill for a simple ER visit. This incident highlighted the lack of transparency and fear patients face when it comes to healthcare costs, which recently sent Dr Adams on the warpath on Twitter. On today’s episode we’ll follow that path, and discuss why medical bills are the leading cause of bankruptcy in the US, and why 51% of patients are unclear about what they are actually paying for (spoiler: it’s written that way on purpose by the hospital).

A decade ago we used to blame patients for being uninsured, for being irresponsible, or for neglecting to build a rainy day fund. But the lack of regulation in the healthcare industry has allowed these problems to become sweeping and profitable. It’s not longer an accident when they confuse the patient, it’s on purpose. Overall, there is a dire need for transparency, regulation, and support for patients facing exorbitant medical bills. This systemic issue has become so ubiquitous, and has put so many Americans into debt, it’s led to the rise of attorneys who specialize in fighting the healthcare system. So why shouldn’t we borrow some of their tricks?

Price gouging, false billing, overcharges, hospital mergers, private equity, debt collectors, and unexpected fees…today we’ll cover it all, and we’ll give you the tools you need to read, decipher, and fight your medical bill in a step-by-step process. From preparing yourself for a lengthy battle, to getting an itemized bill, to looking up medical codes and costs, it’s easier than you think. And the hospitals definitely don’t want you to know this.

History Links:

https://www.businessinsider.com/former-surgeon-general-medical-bill-shows-broken-healthcare-system-2024-2

https://fortune.com/well/2024/03/01/former-surgeon-general-jerome-adams-5000-medical-bill/

Step-By-Step Guide to Dispute Bills:

https://www.resolvemedicalbills.com/guides/medical-bill-guide

Medical Code Lookup:

https://www.cms.gov/medicare/physician-fee-schedule/search/overview

Healthcare Bluebook:

https://www.healthcarebluebook.com/ui/home

All great artists, creators, composers, and inventors have their obsession. But how far is too far? And how do we channel obsession into rewarding passion?

Obsession, left on its own, makes us do funny things. Maybe we fixate on the dream car we want to buy one day. Maybe we spend hours in the gym trying to sculpt our biceps. Or we obsess over someone we’re attracted to. Heck, maybe we fight bears in home-made junk armor we built from scrap. (Well, some of us…) So today we’re tackling the subject of obsession. We want to identify when it’s healthy, when it’s getting out of hand, and when obsession starts to tip into the realm of lucrative passion. Or, as Todd put it; how to aim your obsession like a pistol.

To give us a yardstick to measure our obsession against, we’ll be talking about Troy Hurtubise. Also known as the scrap-metal Iron Man, and the star of the documentary Project Grizzly. Troy might be the perfect model for creative obsession. After all, Van Gogh was an amazing painter, but I bet he wasn’t confident enough to strap canvases to his body and challenge a bear to a brawl.

History Links:

https://www.vice.com/en/article/evk38w/the-man-who-built-a-suit-to-fight-bears-showed-us-how-we-should-live

https://nationalpost.com/feature/he-was-a-viral-sensation-before-the-internet-cheapened-that-status

https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/movies/2018/06/27/death-of-troy-hurtubise-star-of-project-grizzly-means-he-is-not-suffering-anymore.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EdOGdmy0mA

Science Links:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/mr-personality/201107/what-makes-your-obsession-healthy-or-unhealthy

https://www.forbes.com/sites/annapowers/2019/03/31/creativity-and-passion-intimately-linked-according-to-new-research/?sh=9eddba62c34d

https://psychcentral.com/lib/the-motivated-mind-where-our-passion-creativity-comes-from/

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/creativity-the-art-and-science/201910/creativity-runs-passion

https://www.businessinsider.com/10-ways-to-make-money-from-your-passion-asap-2012-2

https://www.forbes.com/sites/moneybuilder/2012/05/22/the-real-secret-to-making-money-by-following-your-passion/?sh=33ca02ef1cf8

Napoleon is a hot, incomprehensible mess of a film, but you should still watch it. After learning these important historic facts.

Join us in a dissection of Ridley Scott's Napoleon. We’ll peel back the layers of this cinematic enigma to uncover a grandiose depiction of Napoleon Bonaparte, and pit the actual historic French Emperor against Ridley Scott's vision of a bumbling man-child. We’ll explore the film's ambitious attempt to blend the tumultuous romance between Napoleon and Josephine with the epic scale of the Napoleonic wars, revealing a narrative filled with creative liberties and historical omissions. Which looks more like a dot-to-dot drawing of Napoleon, rather than a full portrait.

We’ll also delve into the specifics of Napoleon's military genius, most notably his abilities as a wizard of artillery. Then we’ll cover the significant battles that shaped his reign, including the important PR coup (which the film conveniently leaves out) and we’ll shed light on the nuanced realities of Napoleonic warfare, contrasting it with the film’s dramatized battles and its portrayal of Josephine as a pivot around which the emperor's wars turned.

Finally, we’ll read interviews with the director and the screenwriter, and tease out answers to Ridley Scott's decision-making process in choosing which elements of Napoleon's life to highlight, and which to throw in the dumpster and willfully forget. Spoiler alert: the writer wanted a love story, the director wanted an epic biopic, the public wanted a war spectacle, and somehow we got all at once, shoved in a blender and left on puree.

Links:

https://www.vulture.com/article/napoleon-ridley-scott-battle-of-austerlitz-behind-the-scenes.html

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/11/13/ridley-scott-director-profile

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13287846/

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/napoleon_2023

If you’re truly nice, then you’re treated like a doormat. And if you’re fake-nice, then it means you want something. So, are there any benefits at all to being nice in this life?

It’s a beautiful day in this neighborhood, podcast listeners! Today we’re covering the subject of Niceness, both the evolutionary background, and the real-world benefits. We’ll look at how being nice, or niceness in general, became the standard operating procedure for humans (which it still very much us, despite the outrage you see on the nightly news.) We’ll talk about the science of niceness as it relates to dateability. IE; does being nice make you more attractive, or less attractive? And we’ll also look into finances and family; do nice people bank more Benjamins throughout their lifetime than jerks and cynics?

To serve as our example of what a ‘Nice Guy’ really looks like, since the internet seems to have tained that word, we’ll use the ultimate Nice Guy as our role model; Mr Rogers. We’ll read stories about how insanely, incurably nice Fred Rogers was, both on-screen and off-screen. And we’ll finally answer the question; what made Mr Rogers really mad, and what did he do about it?

History Links:

http://web.archive.org/web/20030413175940/

http://esquire.com/features/articles/2003/030227_mfe_rogershero_8.html

https://www.cracked.com/blog/5-moments-that-prove-mr.-rogers-was-greatest-american/

Science Links:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/missing-link-found-for-how-modern-humans-evolved-friendly-faces/

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/conscientiousness

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/meet-catch-and-keep/201405/do-nice-guys-really-finish-last

https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/do_kind_people_make_more_money

How do you know when you’ve reached the peak? The peak of your career? The peak of mastery? The peak of your relationship…?

In this episode we take a look at the fascinating world of Disney's Mickey Mouse Club of the 90s: a brutal bootcamp of childhood talent that began by weeding out 10,000 tiny performers, and ended with the transformation of 20 teens into future pop stars through inhuman training. Grueling schedules, rapid-track schoolwork, acting lessons, dance choreography, and public speaking, all to mold children who wouldn’t crack under the pressure of constant public scrutiny. It’s no wonder the 90’s Mickey Mouse Club produced half a dozen mega-stars in the world of pop…and why its success will never be repeated.

Further, we delve into the psychological impact of early fame in life, and the overall concept of false summits. How do early relationships, early jobs, and early successes shape our standards of winning and losing? If you’re the star quarterback growing up, or the head cheerleader, do you plant your flag on that early peak and never climb higher? Or does it prime you to be a go-getter and a climber? Are there ways to determine if your relationship can get any better? And what are the lessons from the lives of child stars that we can apply to our own journey of success?

Links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3g7oit6Asgc&t=4s&ab_channel=Let%27sTalkPop

https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/02/lance-bass-was-kicked-off-a-russian-spaceflight-two-decades-ago-now-hes-back/

https://time.com/6325780/britney-spears-justin-timberlake-relationship-timeline/

https://nypost.com/2023/08/30/employees-feel-dissatisfied-after-this-long-in-the-same-role-poll/

https://www.gottman.com/blog/marriage-not-big-thing-million-little-things/

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-new-resilience/201107/does-imagining-goal-make-you-less-likely-achieve-it

Music Links:

“2010 Pop Song” during the intro narrative was written and recorded by Akira Sora https://freemusicarchive.org/music/akira-sora/single/2010-pop/

Making friends in college was easy. Lend someone your lecture notes, and you have an ally for life. So why is it so hard to make friends as adults? And how do we keep them?

More and more we have to rely on Facebook, Discord, Twitch, and Zoom to get our fix of friendship. On today’s episode, we want to ask the question; are Facebook friends real friends? Can you even count them? When you meet a friend at a bar and they finish their drink, lean in close, and nudge you to look at the attractive bartender...is that the same as getting a Facebook ‘poke’? We’ll try to answer these, as well as discuss how to feed and water your friendships throughout your adulthood years, and we’ll analyze exactly which types of friendships are important to your health; both mental and physical.

We’ll also discuss the most gutsy, and strange, friendship ever formed. The friendship between a Jewish American sniper captured in WWII, and the Nazi Luftwaffe Officer who was guarding the camp. Stranger still; these two didn’t kindle their friendship long after the war, like a buzzfeed article. Max Gendelman and Karl Kirschner met, and tried to escape the Nazi camp, together, during the war.

History Links:

https://bethjacobrwc.org/max-and-karl/

http://archive.jsonline.com/news/obituaries/gendelman-made-friends-with-german-pilot-who-aided-his-escape-qt5q3g7-159325935.html

https://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/times-past/article39461337.html

https://www.history.com/news/7-historical-odd-couples

http://archive.jsonline.com/news/obituaries/gendelman-made-friends-with-german-pilot-who-aided-his-escape-qt5q3g7-159325935.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_concentration_camp_badge

Science Links:

https://www.healthline.com/health/benefits-of-friendship

https://www.livescience.com/53315-how-friendships-are-good-for-your-health.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/15/fashion/the-challenge-of-making-friends-as-an-adult.html

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/friendship-20/201605/10-ways-make-and-keep-friendships-adult

https://www.newyorker.com/science/maria-konnikova/social-media-affect-math-dunbar-number-friendships

Joan Crawford was mocked for becoming Pepsi’s spokeswoman, and Orson Welles was chased to Spain for political opinions. What changed for celebrity endorsements?

In Part 2 of our celebrity-as-CEO spotlight, we talk about Joan Crawford, an iconic figure of the Golden Age of Hollywood. Known not just for her acting prowess but also for her unique role in Pepsi's rise to sugary power. We dig into Crawford's transition from a screen legend to a pivotal figure in the corporate world, and explore her marriage to Pepsi's CEO and how it propelled her into a new realm to become the first “influencer”. But most importantly, we talk about the public backlash, and ask: why are fans today willing to put up with relentless marketing from their favorite stars, but not in Crawford’s age?

The episode also casts a light on the changing dynamics of celebrity endorsements and we cast a light on the future of celebrity branding. Do people actually trust celebrities anymore, at all, for their political opinions? How many of these so-called stars are actually hurting their causes more than helping? And what is the “process of apology” that Hollywood agents and managers keep pushing celebrities to complete, and why do so many stars ignore their instructions?

Join us for an in-depth look at the complexities of celebrity-brand relationships, and the legacy Crawford left behind in both Hollywood and the corporate world.

History Links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSu76VUIkEg&ab_channel=TheMoneyChannel2

https://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahemerson/2023/03/10/shaq-may-be-hiding-in-his-house-to-avoid-ftx-lawsuit/?sh=3497318e7209

https://fortune.com/2023/05/17/crypto-lawsuits-shaq-celebrity-endorsers-ftx/

https://www.cracked.com/article_35322_a-complete-history-of-goop-being-awful.html

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/04/fx-feud-finale

https://www.campaignlive.com/article/history-advertising-no-170-joan-crawfords-pepsi-sign/1392770

Science Links:

https://hbr.org/2019/05/when-scandal-engulfs-a-celebrity-endorser

https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/psp-pspi0000187.pdf

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1948550616641472

https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/ftcs-endorsement-guides-what-people-are-asking

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/between-you-and-me/202203/the-role-familiarity-in-attraction

https://hbr.org/2019/05/when-scandal-engulfs-a-celebrity-endorser

https://www.forbes.com/sites/genedelvecchio/2020/06/25/dear-celebrities-research-shows-that-your-political-opinions-hurt-your-cause-more-than-help-it/