The Becoming Superhuman Podcast

Greetings, SuperFriends! Today we are joined by Chris Albert. Chris is a trainer, nutrition coach, and podcaster. His show, the Warrior Soul Podcast, empowers US Military Veterans to live their best lives through tools, tactics, ideas, and strategies that he and his amazing guests provide. Chris is also a US Marine Corps Veteran, and he got his start in training and nutrition while he was working on his Ph.D. in Political Science at UC Santa Barbara. He then went on to co-found the world-famous Metroflex Gym Long Beach where he advised pro-bodybuilders and pro athletes on nutrition. Chris has had some crazy experiences around discovering his identity and his genetics, and around growing up without adult figures in his life, plus much more that I'll let him talk to you about in the episode. My goal for the episode was to get in the mind of a real-life warrior and figure out what we can learn about adapting a warrior mindset in our own lives. How can we embody more discipline? How can we reach our goals by stay

Greetings, SuperFriends! Today we are joined by Danielle Ryan Broida. Danielle is a Registered Herbalist (RH) of the American Herbalists Guild (AHG), Certified Holistic Nutritionist and National Educator at Four Sigmatic. She is also a mycologist, which we talked about in-depth, and has studied Ayurveda in India, she has traveled the world, she has studied and become a Certified Raw Chef and Detox Coach, plus many other things. Her bio is actually really long, so I won't cover all of it. Today she is focused on teaching people how to discover the wide world of mushrooms - this entire kingdom of millions of species, many more than there are of plants, that we don't use but probably should be using. I learned a ton in this episode. I know we've covered mushrooms in the past and all of their healing properties. In this episode, though, we went deeper, as I for the first time got a chance to talk to a mycologist and someone who is actually a registered herbalist. So, we went far and wide, and we really started to

Greetings, SuperFriends! Today we are joined by Eric Partaker. Eric has been named "CEO of the Year" at the 2019 Business Excellence Awards, one of the "Top 30 Entrepreneurs in the UK" by Startups Magazine, and among "Britain's 27 Most Disruptive Entrepreneurs" by The Telegraph. His work has featured on over 7 major TV stations, in the Wall Street Journal, and The Economist. He has also appeared on The Apprentice as a guest judge. So, why have an entrepreneur on the show? Well, Eric's other business is that he helps entrepreneurs and leaders perform at their best through his high-performance coaching. He is one of 300 people worldwide certified as a High-Performance Coach, by the High-Performance Institute. He has also completed a coaching certification and apprenticeship with Professor BJ Fogg, who leads Stanford University’s Behavior Design Lab. Over the last 20 years, Eric has advised Fortune 50 CEOs while at McKinsey & Company, helped build Skype’s multi-billion dollar success story, and co-founded Ch

Greetings, SuperFriends! Today we are joined by SuperWoman. Not literally, but pretty much a SuperWoman, because today I speak with Dr. Jaime Hope. Jaime is a dual certified attending physician specializing in emergency medicine at one of the most intense level-one trauma tertiary centers in the country. She is also a published author, an online educator, a thought leader, an adjunct assistant professor at Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine, and many other things, including wife, mother of two, and again, all-around superwoman. Jaime tours the world giving keynote lectures on stress, parenting, relationships, business success, healthy habits, and everything else. Jaime is a friend from Genius Network, and the last time I spoke to her and picked her brain about health, I said that we have to have her on the show to share her opinions around health, and specifically around stress. You see, she is one of the physicians whose opinion I trust more than absolutely anybody else in the world, and

Greetings, SuperFriends! Today we are joined by Jacques Hopkins. Jacques worked as an engineer for eight years before quitting his job and turning his biggest hobby into a highly successful online piano course. Today, he supports his family with the passive income from his course, while teaching others to do the same. I wanted to talk to Jacques because I also have a side-passion for learning an instrument, multiple instruments actually. Most recently, I have learned the piano, and thus I wanted to talk to Jacques about the importance of learning an instrument, but also from the perspective of someone who transitioned and brought music into his life. I wanted him to share his insights with all of you as to why anyone and everyone can and should pick up a musical instrument. The conversation varied from how you can accelerate your learning of a specific instrument, the piano, to why music is important, why people should learn music, and how you don't have to be a musical person to learn an instrument. In the e

Greetings, SuperFriends! Today we are joined by Sanjay Rawal. Sanjay is a documentary film-maker that has created such documentaries as Food Chains, which was produced by Eva Longoria and Eric Schlosser with narration by Forest Whitaker, and his most recent documentary 3100: Run and Become was released theatrically in the US in 20 markets last fall. His third effort Gather, a documentary on Native American food sovereignty is set for completion in mid-2019. Why did we want to talk to a documentary film-maker? Well, Sanjay has a unique perspective because he has looked into two of the biggest aspects of being SuperHuman. One, food, and how it gets to us and our food chain, and two, the extreme periphery edge of human performance, meanly 3100 miles. Yes, people who run 3100 miles. I wanted to talk to Sanjay because I wanted to understand what he has learned in his years of interviewing and talking with these people, and what advice he can give us about better living our lives as SuperHumans. It turned out to be

Greetings, SuperFriends! Today we are joined by Dr. Michelle Jorgensen. Michelle is an author, speaker, teacher, biologic/holistic dentist, and health and wellness provider. After practicing traditional dentistry for 10 years, she became very sick. Through her own journey to return to health, she discovered many different ways that traditional dentistry and oral health have been failing us. For this reason, I wanted to have Michelle, who is a member of our private membership, The SuperHuman Academy MasterMind, on the show, to talk about everything that she learned over the last 10 years. I wanted to learn what the big deal with oral health is, why does it matter so much, and why does it seem to be such a crucial part of our health. I also wanted to learn what the misconceptions we all have are, what are the things we do wrong, how are we being affected, and how can we advocate for our own dental health, since it is so important. I had a really good time in this episode, I learned a lot of things that I should

Greetings, SuperFriends! This week we are joined by Todd Herman. I have to say that this is one of the best episodes I remember recording in a very long time. Todd Herman is a performance coach and mental game strategist for ambitious entrepreneurs, athletes, and leaders who want to achieve wildly outrageous goals. He’s helped clients reach the Olympic podium, build multimillion-dollar companies, and establish brands that have become internationally known. But he's best known not for his sports training and coaching, but for his bestselling book The Alter Ego Effect: The Power of Secret Identities to Transform Your Life. He lives in New York City with his wife and three young children, and is currently the world’s worst ukulele player - his words, not mine! This episode was incredible, mind-blowing, insane. In it, we talk about a fascinating concept that you can use to get yourself at a higher performance level, and that is the Alter Ego effect. We talk about Todd's intense story of getting to where he is, th

Greetings, SuperFriends! Today we are joined by Matthew Belair. I actually appeared on Matt's podcast, and I got so interested in the little bits of his story that I managed to get out of him, that I invited him on my show to learn more about him. Matt is a top-rated podcast host, best-selling author of Zen Athlete: A Guide To Self-Mastery, and he is an expert in human performance. He hosts The Master Mind, Body and Spirit show, which has reached #1 on iTunes and he does all kinds of insane coaching and blogging around sports, performance, spirituality, mindset, and many more things. I think Matt is one of the only people in the world that have sought out as many SuperHumans as I have. Matt is a life long martial artist, traveler, and truth-seeker who has indeed trained with many masters. He has studied meditation in Nepal with Tibetan monks, survived a near-death experience trekking mount Everest, he's worked with Wim Hof, and he has trained with professional MMA fighters in Thailand as well as with 34th gen

Greetings, SuperFriends! Today we are joined by Roy Krebs. Roy is the co-founder and CEO of NaturalStacks, an Open Source supplement company that helps consumers improve mood, memory, and focus through targeted brain health products. Together with his team at NaturalStacks, Roy is on a mission to build a billion better brains - you can, therefore, imagine that he and I completely mind-melded. In this conversation, I wanted to discuss and suck out some of the knowledge that Roy and his team have developed doing so much research around brain performance, which as you all know is something I am deeply passionate about. I wanted to learn about the ways that the brain works that I don't know about, like emotions, moods, and chemical balances, and I wanted to learn more about how we can influence those and optimize the performance of our brains on a chemical level. I've spent so much time talking about the technique and the habit level, things like sleep and nutrition, but I wanted to discover how we can actually u

Greetings, SuperFriends! Today we are joined by Pete Mockaitis. Pete is an award-winning speaker and coach, host of the "How to be Awesome at Your Job" podcast, who teaches professionals how to perform optimally at work. His work has been featured in The New York Times, Forbes, and Inc. Pete has also delivered 1-on-1 coaching to over 700 leaders hailing from world-class organizations (such as Google, FedEx, Amazon, Apple, Anheuser-Busch, and the United Nations), 50 countries, and every Ivy League university. Absolutely incredible! In this episode, we talk about Pete's own journey from being a salaried employee and a consultant all the way to his decision to go out and become an entrepreneur. We talk about why he did it, how he did it, and his advice for being your absolute best - being SuperHuman - in the workplace. Some of the things we cover are how to actually make the difference in your work and life, as well as how to stand out. And, of course, I asked him about all his favorite ways to perform at his ab

Greetings, SuperFriends! Today we are joined by Myke Macapinlac. Myke went from a shy immigrant who used to work as a structural designer to becoming a podcast host, a social skills coach, and a lifestyle entrepreneur. He now teaches shy people who are technically skilled to improve their social confidence so they can create meaningful connections in their personal, romantic, and professional lives. His work has been featured in the Calgary Herald, on Breakfast Television, on Shaw TV, and in the Huffington Post. A little bit of backstory now. I actually went on Myke's show to talk about my latest book, The Only Skill That Matters, and I was so impressed by the little bits of his story that he shared with me that I immediately asked him to get on the show to talk to you. As you can tell, he agreed, and thus this episode was born. I really enjoyed talking to Myke because he and I both strolled down memory lane of our own journey going from being socially awkward, uncomfortable, and lacking in confidence to wher

Greetings, SuperFriends! Today we are joined by Matt Ward. Matt is a serial entrepreneur, a startup advisor, an investor and a futurist podcaster at Disruptors.FM, a TED-esque long-form podcast with top scientists, creatives, and world-leaders focused on a better future through innovation and entrepreneurship. Matt is also a top writer on Medium, he has built and sold 3 companies (incl. a 7-figure exit in 12 months), has created four top 5 podcasts and, on top of all that, is writing a post-gene-editing Sci-Fi novel. I wanted to have Matt on the show because I wanted to know how he is so multidisciplinary, how he manages to do so much, focus on so much, have so many different interests, and create such an interesting and meaningful life. We also talked a little about the future and what that holds, and all the various things that he has learned interviewing some of the world's top authorities on the future. As we know, technology and innovation are going to make us all SuperHuman, so it's nice to know what is

Greetings, SuperFriends! Today we are joined by Kevin Stoller. Kevin is the founder and CEO of a company called Kay-Twelve, which helps academic organizations better structure learning environments. It is pretty obvious that he and I share that interest and passion about how to get people to learn more, isn't it? Apart from Kay-Twelve, Kevin also runs the Better Learning podcast, where I recently had the great pleasure to be a guest on, where he talks about different ways that we can influence the educational space, real-world tactics, improving education, and what the future of education is. I wanted to have Kevin on the show, not just because we both geek out about learning, but because he has some really interesting insights into what the future of education will look like. I don't think anyone is surprised when we say the model is not working and that it is going to be disrupted. But, we need to ask what that means for us, what does that mean for the children in our lives, how can we help create this revo

Greetings, SuperFriends! Today we are joined by Sean McCormick. Sean is a high-performance coach, a life coach, host of two different podcasts, including the top-rated Optimal Performance podcast, which I've had the pleasure of being on a couple of times, and is a super interesting dude. It is rare that I actually lose track of time during the podcast episode - after all my job is to make sure we are on time and that the very important people that I have on the show are not late to their next appointment. But, I got so sucked into this conversation! We talked about how to properly raise or mentor children, we talked about what it takes to make a good coach, we talked about coaching skills, and then we took a dive into the weird. We talked about plant medicine, alternate dimensions, and spiritual growth - I really enjoyed this conversation! You will actually see how much, and I'm sure you'll enjoy it all the same. -Jonathan Levi

Greetings, SuperFriends! Today we are joined by Niraj Naik. Niraj is a certified former pharmacist turned holistic health and breathwork expert. Having cured himself of Ulcerative Colitis, he is dedicated to helping others restore their health and improve their overall quality of life with holistic practices and lifestyle changes. Niraj is also a professional musician and has produced therapeutic music that is used in wellness centers and spas internationally. He is also the founder of SOMA Breath, the global breathwork movement taking the world by storm. I wanted to have Niraj on the show because breathwork is something I've experimented with and had really interesting and positive results. Many of you know that I'm trying to do the Wim Hof method breathing exercises every single morning and I find that I'm healthier and happier when I do. So, I wanted to learn from someone who is in the field what some other options for breathwork are, and try to understand how I can use my breath the same way that other pe

Greetings, SuperFriends! Today we are joined by Dr. Stephen Cabral. Stephen is a Board Certified Naturopathic Doctor and founder of the Cabral Wellness Institute and StephenCabral.com. At 17 years old, Stephen Cabral was diagnosed with a life-altering illness and given no hope for recovery. Today, however, through his long journey towards discovering and learning all things health, he is actually empowering tens of thousands of people every single year to discover their own health through things like Ayurvedic healing, naturopathic and functional medicine, and much more. In fact, he and his team have completed over 250,000 client appointments, using Functional Medicine lab testing and Personalized Wellness Plans! So, this was a wide-ranging conversation, where we talked about all different kinds of things, health- and fitness-related, as we always do. I even learned a few different things I didn't know about toxins and cleanses, plus many different kinds of things that you can do to improve your health. I am

Greetings, SuperFriends! Today we are joined by Dr. Ann Shippy. Dr. Shippy has an incredible story of starting medical school late in life, going on to become a functional medicine doctor and then a successful entrepreneur, building her entire brand with books, in the clinic, with supplements, and more. But, even more interestingly, her area of specialty is extraordinary wellness, which she is pursuing by using cutting-edge science, testing, and the latest genetic research to find and treat root causes—and not just the symptoms—of illness. In other words, her area of specialty, and what I wanted to talk on this whole episode about, is preventative maintenance - how do we avoid getting the disease, so that we won't have to treat it. I've been really fascinated by this, as in my own life I'm looking more and more at people around me aging and getting all kinds of weird ailments and afflictions, and I've been asking myself how I, someone who aspires to become SuperHuman, can avoid that whole mess altogether. So,

Greetings, SuperFriends! Today we are joined by a past guest from a year ago, someone who has actually won 4 world championships in Olympic weightlifting! Incredible, right? His name is Jerzy Gregorek, and the reason I wanted him back on the show was that I felt like he had more to share after our last conversation - and I was right! In this episode, we talked about standards in general, as well as about establishing standards of excellence. We talked about motivation, how Jerzy motivates people that he coaches, and how he motivated himself to get 4 world championships in addition to earning poetry awards and an MFA in writing. This is what we call completely cross-disciplinarian! We also talked about how he motivated the people that he coached at UCLA, as well as how he got to work with people like Tim Ferriss. As you can probably imagine, this is a really interesting episode! I enjoy talking to Jerzy because of his ability to spin a story and tell you a mind-blowing tale - he has that kind of life wisdom an

Greetings, SuperFriends! Today we are joined by Nir Eyal, an author, speaker, and thought leader. Nir writes, consults, and teaches about the intersection of psychology, technology, and business. Actually, the MIT Technology Review dubbed him the prophet of habit-forming technology after his last book Hooked went supersonic and became a best-seller in pretty much every place you can imagine. By the way, many people don't realize that Nir has also founded 2 tech companies since 2003, he's taught at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford, and he's invested in a whole bunch of incredibly successful companies like Worklife, Product Hunt, Refresh.io and Eventbrite, in addition to many more. You've probably also seen his writing in HBR, Techchrunch and Psychology Today. Wow! So, why have someone who is an expert in technology - and habit-forming technology at that - on the show. Well, actually Nir and I have intersecting interests besides the fact that we are