Dr Jud Brewer is a New York-based surfer (yep!) and psychiatrist and neuroscientist specialising in habit change and he's helped thousands of people quit smoking and overcome binge eating. But his latest research treats anxiety like it's any other habit.

I reached out to him because I'd tried out his technique and it worked…substituting fretting for curiosity as a meta approach to life!

In this chat we unpack one of my own gnarly, ugly anxious thoughts (bit exposing!) using Jud's three-step solution (his alternative to willpowering our way through) and he gives practical advice for how we can all be more curious about our anxiety. 

Try it!

Studies and books and things we mention:

Jud's latest book is called Unwinding Anxiety: New Science Shows How to Break the Cycles of Worry and Fear to Heal Your Mind and it's out now.

Read more about the Harvard study which found we spend 47% of the day ruminating: https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2010/11/wandering-mind-not-a-happy-mind/

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I discovered Jill's story in her viral TED Talk from 2008 (it became the most watched TED talk ever!) in which the brain scientist describes watching the left side of her brain deteriorate over the course of four hours on the morning of her stroke and how she used her right brain to stay present and get help.

I was transfixed. Ever since I've wondered, what ever happened to Jill Bolte Taylor? Did she go back to normal? Is she still living in her right brain and able to experience the “oneness” that spiritualists and quantum physicists can only point to? If so, is she lonely?

In this chat we get into her how stroke stripped her of her relationships and emotions, understanding the power of each hemisphere of the brain and techniques we can all use to go right and be legitimately and neuroscientifically wilder!

Jill's latest book is Whole Brain Living: The Anatomy of Choice and the Four Characters That Drive Our Life.

Her first book was My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey.

Watch her TED Talk here.

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Producer Lindsey volleys me with VMs from listeners. I answer off the cuff.

What's good about having anxiety? Who do I vote for the climate in elections? How do you live with bipolar?

For part two of this special Ask Me Anything episode Sarah answers your questions about her own wild ways of living. In this episode Sarah shares her experience living with anxiety and bipolar disorder, voting for the climate and being excited about the future in spite of uncertainty and fear.

To hear more questions and answers from Sarah, listen to "Ask Me Anything - Part 1".

To hear more of Sarah's wild ideas, you can join her in her Wild & Precious Tour around Australia in February 2022. Book tickets now via www.livenation.com.au.

Follow Sarah on Instagram @_sarahwilson_

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Producer Lindsey volleys me with VMs from listeners. I answer off the cuff.

How do I raise my kids as conscious consumers? What do you think happens when we die?

For this special Ask Me Anything episode Sarah turned the tables on herself and asked for your questions about her own wild ideas and ways of living differently. In this episode Sarah opens up about her meditation practice, solo hiking and remaining confident in herself and her beliefs.

To hear more of Sarah's wild ideas, you can join her in her Wild & Precious Tour around Australia in February 2022. Book tickets now via www.livenation.com.au.

Follow Sarah on Instagram @_sarahwilson_

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Tim  trained with the Vedic tradition and has taught meditation to elite athletes, jail inmates, billionaires and kids for more than 20 years. And me.

Tim has been part of my spiritual journey for 12 years and has guided me on my career, love life and various calamities. We meet for coffee and peanut butter toast most weeks…this episode we bring a recorder and discuss: trusting in the logic of the universe (the wild idea for the week) and how (and why) we should render ourselves choiceless (it's the ultimate freedom!). We also talk about the brilliance that is the movie Groundhog Day.

Tim makes regular appearance in Sarah's book First We Make The Beast Beautiful and helped her with her “path forward” in her latest book This One Wild & Precious Life. It's a pivotal moment about a third of the way in.

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James Hollis is one of the most respected Jungian psychoanalysts and teachers in the world and the author of 16 books about what matters most in life. 

He famously writes – and this is the wildly a-ha-ish idea this episode - that our souls are calling us to an appointment with life. Together we break down how this can be applied to our lives right now. TBH, it's the mantra that has guided my the most the past two years.

I catch up with James for the first time since we spoke for This One Wild & Precious Life to discuss resilience, finding and serving our destiny in these crazy times, and what happens when we ignore the message our soul is trying to send us. (Be warned!)

I dig all James' books, but my favourite is What Matters Most, should you want to give his writing a go.

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Rutger Bregman reckons we're kinder than we think we are. 

He's a Dutch journalist and international best-selling author of Humankind: A Hopeful History, a book that lights a fire under the idea that humans are inherently selfish and doomed to self-destruct. 

Rutger and I chat about hope, calling out billionaires for not paying enough tax and what our society could look like if we simply - and wildly - chose to trust each other more.

Listen to Wild with Sarah Wilson on the LiSTNR app, favourite here

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Margaret Klein Salamon is a climate psychologist and Founder & Board President of The Climate Mobilization, a US organisation that has seen almost 2,000 governments worldwide declare a climate emergency.

Margaret and I spoke a few times when I was researching my book This One Wild and Precious Life. I followed her up for this episode to get her brutal-and-yet-hopeful take on the wild-but-true reality – we are the Sixth Extinction and kids born today, by some estimations, may not live a full-term life. She's in early thirties and I know many of her generation who feel the same. She brings her training as a psychologist to map a path through the grief for the future we won't have, how to move past grief into action and why learning from World War ll makes her feel hopeful about the climate emergency. 

Warning: this is a confronting episode, but very, very real and important.

You can take part in Margaret's Let's Talk about the Climate Emergency project via www.ClimateAwakening.org

Listen to Wild with Sarah Wilson on the LiSTNR app here

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Seth Godin is a one of the world's most famous marketing gurus, a serial entrepreneur, the author of 19 bestselling books and believes in the ‘magical responsibility' – as he tells me - of being a creative who gives.

Seth and I chatted the first time 12 years ago and the advice he gave me shaped how I grew my business I Quit Sugar…and then sold it (and gave everything to charity). When I'm asked, “Of the hundreds of leaders and experts you've interviewed, who's the most legit?”, I say, Seth Godin.

For this ep, I hunt him down once more to see where he's at… and he shares a new wild idea: the climate emergency needs a marketing makeover. He outlines how it could go and it feels light and fun and just requires a slogganed Trucker cap.

Here is Sarah's article about first meeting Seth in 2010

Read Seth's blog about the problem with marketing global warming that he mentions in his chat with Sarah here

Listen to Wild with Sarah Wilson on the LiSTNR app here

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He was the captain of the Wallabies, the only Australian player to be included in World Rugby's team of the decade, but - wildly – retired at the height of his career to devoted his life to climate activist projects here in Australia and in Africa.

Dave and I became friends talking activism, Jungian psychology and the meaning of life over Instagram some time back. In this chat, he talks with me about grief, why Australian men aren't waking up, the sadness of facing the climate reality, and – yeah – how to make a wild decision. 

Dave promised to send a list of the books that have shaped his wildness.  He's a man of his word; here's his recommendations:

• Living Between Worlds - James Hollis
• Food Fix - Mark Hyman
• Finding Resilience - Brian Walker
• Everything is Spiritual - Rob Bell
• The Will to Change - bell hooks
• A Life on Our Planet - David Attenborough
• Call of the Reed Warbler - Charles Massy

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