Anorexia has the highest mortality rate of all mental disorders. Without treatment, up to 20% of people with serious eating disorders die. But people with anorexia do not want to change. They don’t want help. They don’t want to eat. So, how do you change the behaviour of a person who does not want any help? Well, let’s find out in this episode of What Monkeys Do.

In this episode, I speak with Mette Bentz, a psychologist and PhD, who works in the child and adolescent mental health centre in the capital region of Denmark. She is a specialist in the treatment of anorexia. She will help us understand the severity of the illness, what to look for and how we treat it best. 

We have access to more information than ever. Yet, we still base most of our decisions on guesses, gut feelings, outdated information. Why? Because we do not take our time to gather and understand the evidence behind. The gap between available information and the decisions we take is simply too wide - in our private lives, as well as in organisations. But, if we change that, we will make better informed decisions with better outcomes.

 So, how do you make better decisions? The best way is to start using an evidence-based approach. Evidence-based practice does not mean reading a lot of boring research. That means to take a structured approach to your decision making, use several sources, and critically judge the quality of the information. My guest today, Rob Briner, is a front person in the evidence-based practice movement. He is a professor in organisational psychology at Queen Mary University in London and Scientific Director in the Centre for Evidence-based Management. He will help you make better decisions.  

 ROB TALKS ABOUT

• Why we see a big gap between evidence and practice
• A clear guide as to how you make a more informed decision
• Why Google Scholar is your new best friend
• How you can use the evidence-based practice to make better decisions for your organisation 

Men and women have different sexual desires. And this leads to sexual conflicts. Conflicts, which can create problems in relationships when dating or living together. But why? Evolutionary psychology uses the theory of sexual selection to explain these conflicts. 

My guest today, David Buss, will lay out six sexual conflicts that typically occur between men and women due to our evolutionary traits; why men sometimes mistake a smile for a sexual signal, why women tend to file for more divorces or why men statistically cheat more than women. 

David Buss often appears among the top 50 most influential psychologists ever to live due to his research on the evolutionary psychology of human mating strategies, conflicts between sexes and the evolution of jealousy, to name a few. Listen along to hear how we can use this knowledge to engage in a healthier conversation between partners. 

DAVID TALKS ABOUT

• The theory of sexual selection: Why men and women approach sexual relationships differently
• The six sexual conflicts: what we lie about, why men have a deeper desire for more sexual partners and why we sometimes do bad things to the people we love
• How Tinder reflects modern sexual selection

You may know that personality, to some degree, is heritable. In fact, 50-60% of your personality comes down to your genetic makeup. But did you also know that your level of happiness too is heritable, stable and hard to change? Some days, you may feel happier than others, yet your base-level of happiness is reasonably fixed. And it is connected to your personality traits. But what can we do to change our level of happiness? 

 In this episode of What Monkeys Do, I have invited Richard Lucas to talk about personality, happiness and why some people are happier than others. Richard is a leading professor in personality psychology and is internationally recognized for his research on happiness and well-being. Listen along to find out what you can do to increase your happiness. 

 RICHARD TALKS ABOUT

• What are personality and happiness, and how do the two relate?
• Do some personality traits correlate with higher or lower levels of happiness?
• Can money, in fact, buy happiness?
• 3 ways to increase your level of happiness

What if I told you that you don't need to find your "one and only passion" to have a meaningful life? We spend so much time trying to find our passion and make the right choices for our future. What if we just made choices based on what we would like to do in the present moment? 

In this episode of What Monkeys Do, I have invited Terri Trespicio, an award-winning writer, speaker and brand advisor. She is here to talk about why passion is overrated. Maybe all you need is a little bit of excitement in the moment.

TERRI TALKS ABOUT

• Why life is not about picking one passion
• Why life plans are useless. Tune in to the moment and make a choice based on what you want to do today. Remember, you are not supposed to do anything. 
• How to use your stories to change the way you talk about yourself 

We tend to think about personal productivity as doing more things more effectively – being able to optimize work processes, time schedules and to-do-lists. That is often not the case. In fact, personal productivity is about doing the right things rather than to do more things. It’s about having a clear mind, when you run a busy life – and most importantly: How to get things done. 

David Allen is wildly recognized as the world's leading authority on personal and organizational productivity. During the past 30 years, he has conducted pioneering research, coached and educated some of the world's highest performing professionals. He is here to help us get [the right] things done. 

DAVID TALKS ABOUT

• What is productivity, actually? It’s not time management, for sure. 
• Why the daily to do lists don't work. Your life is too much of a surprise. 
• Why the next step is the most important one. 

If you want to make a change in you life, you will inevitably affect your identity. And if  you want to make a change it must be congruent with your identity. If it is not, it will not happen. But what is our identity? An essential part of our identity is our stories. Our stories come from memories of our life, about goals we set and the paths we took. It is constructed in a way, so we better understand ourselves. Your story about your life will not only tell who you are but also how you came to be as you are and what is important to you. 

In this focus episode, I will give you a little bit of background to life stories, tell you what makes a good life story (and a poor one) and if you stay with to the end of the episode, I will give you three ways you can use your life story to make a change in our life.

Life is hectic. Everywhere you look, there is a battle for your attention; from your partner, kids, work, smartphone and so on. We tend not to think much about our it - we just go along. Nevertheless, mindfulness is about stopping to notice where your attention wanders off to and choosing where you actually want it to go. Over and over again. 

Michael Chaskalson has a master's degree in the clinical applications of mindfulness. He has more than 40 years of experience with the discipline and has authored several books on the subject. Listen along, as we dive into mindfulness, and how you can use mindfulness to calm your life and focus on the present.

MICHAEL TALKS ABOUT

• Why you should treat yourself with greater kindness and forgiveness. 
• The evidence of mindfulness. By example, it has proven to be a powerful tool to reduce depression – actually as effective as antidepressants, only cheaper, and with much fewer side effects. 
• Mindfulness is rooted in Buddhism and Stoicism. Let’s find out, what we can learn from the two. 
• How to get started on mindfulness

Changing behaviour is difficult. It can provoke both anxiety, anger and stress. But why? What exactly happens in your brain when you try to make a change? I have asked neuroscientist, Gabija Toleikyte, to help us understand change from a neurological perspective – how your brain works, and what you can do to help it change. 

GABIJA TALKS ABOUT

• Some of the biggest breakthroughs in recent time in neuroscience. 
• How to ‘trick’ your Mammal brain into liking a change.
• Why we need the Prefrontal Cortex to change and how to activate it. 
• How leadership style can affect the brain’s willingness to change. 
• The Amygdala: A small part of the Mammal brain that can hijack your rational behaviour and cause anxiety, anger etc.

Cultural differences can stand in the way of doing business or having good relationships. Fons Trompenaars is one of the world’s most prominent experts when it comes to exploring and defining culture. He has spent the last 30 years helping Fortune 500 companies manage and resolve cultural dilemmas and business issues.

In this episode, we talk about how you can understand your culture, how you can use cultural understanding to deal with your intercultural business issues and not least how you can resolve intercultural differences. 

FONS TALKS ABOUT

• The 3 layers of culture. Conscious or not, they can be measured and are all relevant for the way we interact with other cultures. 
• How you can use dilemmas to understand and reconcile cultural differences.
• The 7 dimensions of culture. Remember, awareness is not enough. You need to understand your own culture and its differences to other cultures in order to successfully reconcile your cultural dilemmas.