Podcast Episodes on Mental Health & Social Science

This week’s guest is James Lee. James is a Christian philosopher, a college pastor at Youngnak LA, and a lecturer at Biola University. James has a graduate degree in pastoral care and counseling and a doctorate of ministry in integrative theology and philosophy. You know that the reality is that our situations are not always good. The things that the church has done to people, it's tragic. I have a hard time believing that this is a reflection of who God is. A lot of people and non believers view the Bible as a wisdom literature. What would you say to them in terms of the perspective? I'd love to engage in conversation. Not necessarily to force someone to believe, but just to talk about some things that maybe make sense. A lot of people are disheartened by a bad, quote unquote, therapist experience. I empathize because I've had a bad therapist myself. I don't want people to lose faith in church or in pastors because of a negative counseling session. As an authority figure…

This week’s guest is Brett Feldman. Brett is the Director and Co-Founder of the Street Medicine Division at Keck School of Medicine of USC. So material poverty is much easier to solve. It's that long loneliness of homelessness that you never know when it's going to end. And that takes a lot more to fix if it can be fixed. Radical humility has to do with forgetting ourselves and our own bias. Another thing that's insidious and dangerous is probably burnout. It's all about engagement, radically, whatever it takes. How do you bet against burnout with such exhausting and challenging work? Benoit: It's hard to uphold hope every single day when you're seeing one of the most vulnerable and painful populations. How do you fight against cynicism? The barriers to doing street medicine are inherent to them being on the street. The larger barriers are systemic and societal. We are constantly fighting a system that doesn't recognize them as existing. In California we're working towards…

This week’s guest is Dr. Trang Hoang, Ph.D., LCSW. Dr. Hoang is a professor at the USC School of Social Work, former division director at SSG Alliance, and received her graduate and doctorate degrees at UCLA. For folks who are trying to get on that boat or that plane, being alive is the mission. Dr. Jordan B. Peterson says life is comprised of or repeats, so get those repeated things right. Sometimes it's bringing people back to these small moments of their lives. And later on, the poem from Rumi, the Persian philosopher. Dr. Huang: The one greatest anchors and grounding mechanisms is finding the familiar. If we can find a familiar, we can stay grounded in moments at a time, I think it's a lot more manageable. We all need an anchor, and I think we forget to help people find that anchor for themselves. Benoit: The best thing that I've learned is to be with someone. How do you empower people to find their own path? True empowerment is to really recognize the person undernea…

Arsh Kharbanda hosts TheFlexCoach Podcast, a top 1% business podcast in the world, and works in supply chain management for HelloFresh.   For some reason, we feel like we're important enough for people to care about us. We don't call or text or catch up with random people that we used to know. A person not making impact thinks flexing is the most important part of existence. Flexing is really a byproduct. People get shunned on if they're flexing about their charitable deeds. We can flex all these other things that actually provide value and benefit. What does winning in life mean to you personally? It is a very broad term, right? Like winning, It changes based on what level I'm at in life. What does navigating the stimulation of life mean to you currently? When I feel the urge to post, I do post stuff that I don't necessarily believe in. It opens doors and it depends on the value system of certain other individuals. Through this collaboration, as you alluded to, we can sc…

This week's guest is Ross Raddi. Ross Raddi is an expert arborist Youtuber, home gardener, blogger, and tax accountant. Ross is also known as the Fig Boss in the figs community. To make yourself a good gardener or grower, it's all about observation. If you don't have the observation skills, you never can figure out what went wrong. You can't turn passion into profit. If you go in with the mindset of profit, you will not succeed. To make anything profitable, patience and passion has to be the underlying theme throughout. Why are you so passionate about your mission statements? She says it's just trying to grow the best tasting food possible. The most truthful answer is that she just like sharing with other people the things that she likes. Benoit: Why are figs so special to you? Ben: I've made it a mission of mine to make it easier for people to grow figs in this climate. There's such a diversity of figs, and the greatest part is that no one owns them. You're extremely …

This week’s guest is Kitty Knorr. Kitty is a mystic poet, astrologist, tarot reader, and former founder and editorial director of Okay Cool Magazine. If you were to put any individual's brain under MRI scan, their brain activity actually changes and morphs based on the level of affirmations you provide. So affirmations on a clinical level actually neurologically affect your brain outcome and your brain activity. When you hit that 40K milestone, how long did you focus on that joy? If you do not actively practice being appreciative for what you have, for what is going well, it literally doesn't matter. It's a tricky, fine line not to root your validation in external validations. Your ideal client is going to be who you were five years ago. One of the greatest pieces of advice is to not be too precious with what you post. If you have an idea, go act on it. Be loud and be proud about what you're doing. I have such a harsh internal critic. I still am actively working through s…

This week's guest is Oliver Fehlandt. Oliver is a popular mind-body-spirit healer, life coach, and fellow student of life—who specializes in Parts & Memory Therapy modality and emotional regulation—to provide trauma-informed coaching to his clients and beyond. My father passed away when I was 16 from a very rare heart disease. I've already thought of harming myself, suicide. There was actually a point where I got into a car accident. Emotions are transient by nature. How do you work with clients who maybe attach too much to that psychoanalytical component? Life is transient. Sometimes you wake up in a worse mood, sometimes you wake up peachy. There are certain foundational laws in the universe, and one of those laws is the law of rhythm. Law of polarity also coincides with law of vibration. What's the opposite of frustration? Content and peace. What can we do to bring peace into your life right now? Life is a spectrum. The absolute truth is pretty rare. I view it as objec…

The guest of honor this week is Alan Booker. Alan is the founder of the Institute of Integrated Regenerative Design, a cloud computing expert, herbal medicine, and integrated health practitioner.  Technology is an intentional patterning of information, material, and energy to allow an organism to successfully adapt to its surrounding environment. There are other organisms on this planet that have technologies. Alan: The power of nature is in stillness, right? And nature is compared to peace. It’s a whole system. That's why it's so complex and beautiful. The author was able to appreciate the power of nature early on through playing in the wild. He challenges the idea that the world has become more dangerous. Children need space to take small, managed, calculated risks, he says. I think developmentally, there's a lot of wisdom in that approach. When I have had the opportunity to deal with indigenous people groups, this is precisely the way they train their children. It's re…

The guest of honor this week is Benjamin Carter. Ben is a Caribbean-American singer-songwriter, artist, father, and fellow student of life. As a kid, I didn't even know I was chubby. Kids are incredible. Steve Jobs is one of the greatest innovators of ever. He took 20 years of research to write a book based on what he believes the top leaders in companies did. That's what he's bringing into the studio, because he's so interested. Your story about trying something new on a musical sonic level reminds me of Kid Cudi and Lil Nas X. You have to rap about something authentic. Singer-songwriter says he's a lyric guy first, but cares about message a lot. His catalog builds off each other to tell a story of a guy and his emotions and his feelings. But he says he won't be too preachy. Kid Cudi says he wants to bring something that's fun, but has people on the 10th time listening go, let a thug tell you. Music is truly universal, he says. It gives a voice to people who didn't h…

This week’s guest is Julie Knutson. Julie is an author and educator with a wide-ranging background in history, humanities, and the social sciences. She also serves as editorial director at ThinkCERCA. The most fascinating thing about storytelling is how much it depends on interpersonal dynamics. The stories that we tell ourselves are the stories that inform our identities. They help us navigate through the world and make sense of the world around us. This is a generational question that will touch on your own upbringing and your kids now and your students. You talked about one important pillar that you grew up with that's instilled by your parents is how to be an active member in the community. Creating spaces where people can actually engage in conversation with each other and be together is vital. African philosophy called Ubuntu. The idea is I am, because you are. The whole idea is a relational identity. We're almost learning our identities through the space that we're su…

This week, we continue our conversation with Rachel Lucero. She is the creator and the host of The Sago Show, a Filipino food show that explores history, culture, and identity through Filipino food recipes. We learn about the concept of indigenization and the importance of taking action. Aidan: I had to push myself to not be absolutely perfect. It's hard, yeah, the audio fatigue. But again, content that's published is a thousand times better than content that is just in my Notes app. I think it's this creative process, this dance we're always doing right between creating versus consumption. Rachel Lucero talks about the unexpected benefits of having a Sago show. How has finding your Filipino identity through cooking informed the way that you plan to share that with family going forward? How does that inform your thoughts around tying those two ideas together? In my K-12 education, there was so much pressure to assimilate, especially when you're in a class where everyone else …

This week’s guest is Rachel Lucero. She is the host and creator of The Sago Show—a Filipino food show that seeks to examine the intricate intersectionality of culture, history, and education through creative & authentic Filipino food recipes. Last year, I was invited to speak to the association of Filipino Scientists in America. The day before I was set to give my talk was the Atlanta Spots shooting. On that day, I really felt one with others in the Asian American community. Rachel says she wanted to create a space for students to find their own voices. She says the true catalyst for her success was public speeches she gave last year. She believes that empowering students can be replicated in the classroom. Being a teacher transformed my perception of myself in terms of my voice having impact on others. She says putting her thoughts out there more has given her a lot of confidence and felt power in her own voice. The important thing is actually saying what you think and havin…

This week’s guest is Montay Fowler. Montay was born & raised in Philadelphia and is a graduate of Temple University and UPenn’s Masters of Social Work program. Lane: Sometimes you got to be your biggest fan, your biggest critic. You don't have to fit the profile or check all the boxes on the surface. Just trusting that you can get to where you want to be if you continue to do the work. The process of being grounded, but even beyond that, the process of grounding, I think, takes a village. If you don't have access or the ability to ground yourself, you can rely on your social support to keep you grounded. We need to cultivate a conducive and supportive space, especially as men, in 2021. Man. I think the idea or the word that really comes to mind for me is co-creation. You inspired us to take a new direction in our podcast. Maybe one of your listeners then starts a podcast. It's all this complex and fascinating and inspiring web of co-creation that really just makes me optimist…

Discover More aims to accelerate the learning process together through intentional dialogues. Only by taking that first step into purpose are we able to actually move forward. We hope you enjoy and continue to Discover More. The idea of detachment really comes up for me throughout that story. That both applies to this clinical field placement as well as the GPA. All that matters is the practice, the process. That's something that we've been shouting from the rooftops on Discover More since day one. Aidan: My dad and I had the biggest fight in our lives. One of my most treasured pillars is family, period. After a true complete detachment, the outcome fell into his lap when he had zero expectations. Recently completed one of his biggest bucket list items: running a marathon. Why did you do it? I really just approached it with that detached mindset. I really feel that difficult challenges or obstacles bring out the best in us. You're either healing or stealing from your futur…

This week, we continue our conversation with Yoshua Greenfield. Yoshua is a talented musician, author, home cook, nature-lover, and bare-foot advocate. That's why I created the Everybody Band. The reason I teach music and teach vocal opening is because I've had experiences with people who have never sang in their life. When I create a place that feels safe and comfortable and open, the craziest things happen. When I left my band, I started studying vibrational healing and sound medicine. It started showing me this whole other layer of music as therapy and music as medicine. Getting to see someone sing for the first time or drum and then not wanting to put it down is everything. How do you see the relationship between expression and healing? When I used to think that when I played music or when I danced that that was the only place I could be fully expressed. The more I became expressed in that space, I started to see how that trickled out into my life. You don't subscribe …

This week’s guest, Yoshua Greenfield, is one of the most fascinating people we’ve ever met. A talented musician, author, home cook, nature-lover, and bare-foot advocate, Yoshua comes with a wide range of important stories and lessons. How relationship is, how we relate to anything is something that I love. The minute you label them and to find them, you're no longer relating to them. To truly be in relation to anything is to be present with it in that moment. The word spirituality has become tainted. When we start throwing the word around a lot, suddenly it defines all these different things that can even be contradicting. If we start defining what we think spirituality is based on how people look, we often miss the beauty of it. The question that really comes up is, like, if we're removing all the masks, then what's left? Before Buddhism, I was in my car writing all these things that I believed to be true. What the Buddha allowed me to change was to say, life is empty and me…

This week, we continue our conversation with Dr. Bob Choat. Dr. Choat is one of the most impressive & widely-experienced people we’ve ever met. A former Marine Veteran, Bob has worked extensively in physical fitness and martial arts— earning him a 5th-degree black belt in Kenpo and senior instructor status in Jeet Kune Do, Filipino Kali, and Kali-Silat. It’s really important that you have a meeting with the self, the undiscovered self that's always been there. Bring that out and you'll see yourself much happier, much more fulfilled in whatever you do. What about you that makes you gravitate towards these insane and very, very rigorous tasks? The answer is nature and nurture. What I did and what you mentioned in terms of doing all these kind of stuff is not any different than what you've done. Is there anything that you learned there, either martial arts related or otherwise, that you took away from this Eastern culture and kind of brought into your own life? I'd be fascinated…

This week’s guest is Dr. Bob Choat. As a former recon special force marine, Bob recognized the importance of psychology and physiology early on and leaned into his innate curiosity to pursue 2 post-doctorates - one in clinical psychology and one in neuropsychology. I like to use that part as my personal mission in terms of teaching others. If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a day. But if you teach him how to teach others how to fish, then you feed the whole world. Bob: Begin with the end of the mind on what you want to learn. Break it down into its components. For example, I learned Aikido in a single weekend. Your ability to simplify complexity into simple terms enables you to accelerate the learning process. The art of saying no, I think is becoming ever more prevalent. Opportunity, cost of learning and expanding your horizon outweighs the song. I love to zoom in on the key components, which is your ability to say no in addition to saying yes. When you realize …

This week, we continue our conversation with Cory Camp. Cory is a personal performance coach, podcast host, and the founder of the Forever Athlete brand & community. How do you show up for yourself? That's where your identity is. It's not who you are for your mom or brother or employer. Once you can get clear on that, all those other relationships and those other roles and hats that you put on improve. Fitness problems are just keeping our word. It does boil down to how are you at keeping a word to yourself. The first step is the hardest. Building the repetition and almost like the confidence that you will do the thing that you set out to do. Nothing is more sustainable than identity, right? Because beliefs creates identity, but emotions fuels beliefs. What if you had this internal flip that you wanted to evolve from identity of an athlete into mindset of a forever athlete? One of the big things for me was reframing. Is this thing going to enable me to embody that identity…

This week's guest is Cory Camp. Corey is a personal performance coach, podcast host, and the founder of the Forever Athlete brand and community. Setting intentions first for the day. With those intentions then I'm able to show up and do the things way better than someone who's just running from thing to thing like a chicken with his head cut off. I think that in particular, really boils down to values like the values conversation. How many of us have these values that we say are ours, but our actions speak otherwise. It takes this level of vulnerability to strip it all the way down to its true core. The difference between body physique building and swimming is even when you're submerging in the water, you still almost see your competition. Sometimes you're dancing with yourself internally. So I really wanted to just comment on the mental side of the game. Do you have a checklist of some of the qualifiers you feel on your peak performance day? On some days, you wake up feel…

This week, we continue with part two of our conversation with Casey Palmer. Casey is a blogger, father, project manager, podcaster, and owner of the brand Casey Palmer, Canadian Dad. If you're not creating and doing things from a place of core central beliefs, it won't have an impact on you. I want everything I do to place its mark on my soul because it was important. If I have to do some of the unimportant things in between because of the job or whatever else, so be it. Toronto is often touted as perhaps the most multicultural city in the world. What elements of culture allows for that mosaic, for that shared humanity, but still valuing the own perspectives? I think hearing about what values come to light in maintaining a mosaic culture would be very valuable. As of now, Caucasian or whiteness is still the dominant flavor or ingredients in the United States. How do you instill the importance of culture when you're instilling individuality of each flavor with your kids? Ar…

This week’s guest is Casey Palmer. He’s a Canadian content creator, IT project manager, podcast host, and a Black father to two amazing kids in Toronto. We often tell ourselves we aren't enough. You need to envision who you want to be and start making small steps towards that. I celebrate the small wins every day of what I'm able to accomplish in a day. There's so much that happens in the moments in between those major life milestones. From both of your storytelling, I noticed a very keen insight and your ability to have this unique perspective and constructive way of viewing everything. A lot of people view these cultural phenomenons as an overnight success, but it's not overnight. Where did that ability come from? What's the larger calling? What can I convey in this entire website or this entire mission? The other thing that really jumps out is the different lenses you bring to the world. Every family should be allowed to celebrate Father's Day in a way befitting of their f…

“I think this leads into an idea that represents the podcast as a whole. As we’ve talked about it a lot before, but it’s just ‘better questions lead to better answers.’ I believe that more and more each day that our lives are simply reflections of the questions that we’re willing to ask ourselves and the people in our lives. So it’s both an internal seeking clarity with asking powerful questions, but then also developing relationships seeking clarity or new realizations from other people by aski...

Welcome back to a special episode of Discover More. Join us in celebrating the 2 year anniversary of the Discover More podcast with a special highlight episode. Here are some of our favorite moments from our most recent interviews and episodes. The past two years have been such a fulfilling journey and we are immensely grateful for our many incredible guests, friends, listeners, and supporters. Thank you all for all that you do. We hope you enjoy and continue to Discover More. * Connect w...