The Being Human Podcast with Richard Atherton

#368 How to Rewire Your Mindset to Transform Your Health and Connections - David Robson

▶️ Connect with Richard on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardatherton-firsthuman/
 
What if drinking the same milkshake could make you gain or lose weight, just based on what you believe about it? The same idea could also affect your stress, how you age, and your relationships.
 
In this episode of Being Human, Richard Atherton talks with David Robson, a science writer and author of The Expectation Effect: How Your Mindset Can Transform Your Life and The Laws of Connection. David used his mind training approach to go from an average student to getting in to Cambridge University to study mathematics. He is now a respected science journalist in the UK, writing for the BBC, The Guardian, and New Scientist. His work explores how our beliefs not only shape our actions but also affect our cortisol levels and our health.
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For example, just having a positive view of ageing can add 7.5 years to your life. David also challenges the idea that willpower runs out as the day goes on, showing that what we believe about self-control is more important than the time of day. He explains why self-compassion is the key to lasting performance, backed by scientific evidence.
 
We discuss:
The art of being a "Beautiful Mess"
How to rapidly build rapport
It's not just about listening to them
Why they might like you more than you think
How to eat decadently and lose weight
Links: David’s Website
 
 

#367 Who Do You Need to Become? - Andrew Bryant

▶️ Connect with Richard on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardatherton-firsthuman/
 
What if the most important leadership skill has nothing to do with leading others and everything to do with the person you're choosing to become?
 
In this episode of Being Human, Richard Atherton is joined by Andrew Bryant, worldwide self-leadership thought leader, keynote speaker, and author of five books, including Potential-ize: How Leaders Unlock Human Potential in the Age of AI. 
 
Andrew trained as a physiotherapist in London in the early eighties, working with athletes, football players, and even a ballet company, learning how the body performs under pressure. But what he was really learning was that performance lives or dies in the narrative, our internal dialogue, that we tell ourselves in the moments that matter. That insight carried him from sports clinics to boardrooms across 40 countries, and ultimately into a framework for self-leadership that treats intentionality, identity, and personal agency as the foundation on which everything else is built. When a cancer scare during lockdown brought him face-to-face with his own mortality, the philosophy he'd spent decades teaching became the philosophy that carried him through.
 
We discuss:
Self-leadership as daily practice
Identity shifts that transform everything
The IGNITE framework explained
AI efficiency vs human effectiveness
The Pygmalion Effect at work 
Links: Andrew’s WebsitePotential-ize - The Book

#366 The 18th Century Scientist Who Mapped the Afterlife - Curtis Childs

▶️ Connect with Richard on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardatherton-firsthuman/
What to make of a man who designed Sweden's mining infrastructure, mapped the human brain, and then spent the last 30 years of his life in daily conversation with the dead? Could Emanuel Swedenborg be the greatest 18th century thinker you've never heard of?
 
In this episode of Being Human, Richard Atherton is joined by Curtis Childs, producer and director of Off the Left Eye, a YouTube channel approaching 2,000 videos on the life and teachings of Swedenborg.
 
After spending 30 years as one of Sweden's greatest scientists, inventors and anatomists, at 53 he started having what we would now call near-death experiences, except he appeared to be able to slip in and out of these states with ease. He documented these across 30 volumes, work that would go on to influence Carl Jung, and quite possibly the 12-step programme.
 
Curtis came to Swedenborg not as a scholar but as someone in crisis, searching for a model of consciousness that made sense of the chaos inside his own mind. This conversation explores what that model offers people navigating mental health challenges and interior growth, and those seeking potential answers to what lies beyond.
 
We discuss:
How Swedenborg eased Curtis’ depression
How the Enlightenment and Christianity can threaten spiritual growth
The real meaning of Heaven and Hell
Sorting things out in the After Life
The Self as Selector
 
Links: Off the Left EyeCurtis' Website

#365 The Leadership Blind Spots That Are Killing Your Transformation - Rupert Brown

▶️ Connect with Richard on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardatherton-firsthuman/
 
Richard is joined by Rupert Brown, a fractional Chief Transformation Officer. 
 
In January 2005, Rupert was driving down a motorway when he heard on the radio that Procter & Gamble had just bought his company, Gillette, for $57 billion. Nobody had thought to tell the employees first, and so started Rupert’s quest to figure out how to do change well.
 
Rupert has since penned Lost in Transformation: Discover the Leadership Blind Spots Derailing Change, detailing his time at Gillette and elsewhere. He has over 30 years of HR experience across some of the world's most complex organisations. 
 
Rupert’s experiences taught him something most change stalls because leaders can't see their own blind spots: the arbitrary deadlines that crush emotional processing, the flattery that makes us say yes without thinking, the inner voice we never make time to hear. We dive into the wisdom gained from Rupert’s interviews with over 30 executives as well as his own formidable track record.
 
We discuss:
Five blind spots derailing change
Kairos vs Kronos timing
Why empathy disappears at work
Three levels of resistance explained
Leading with integrity under pressure
 
Links: Rupert’s Website

#364 Finding the Off Switch - Justin Hai

▶️ Connect with Richard on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardatherton-firsthuman/
 
Most of us know that modern tech is hijacking our nervous system at some level, and, if you’re anything like me, even after trying to get a lot of ‘tech hygiene’ right, you’re still feeling some of the effects.
 
On this episode of Being Human, Richard Atherton is joined by Justin Hai, an award-winning British entrepreneur and author of the international bestseller, Stress Nation: Escape the Technology Trap and Eliminate Stress. Justin started his work in health in the biotech skincare industry. His company, Alastin, which specialises in regenerative skincare with peptides and growth hormones, was sold to Galderma in 2022 for over a billion dollars. But in the process of his research, Justin stumbled upon something he called "the master hormone": cortisol.
 
Justin discovered that increased levels of cortisol suppress melatonin, leading to sleep deprivation, which stops the body from producing the necessary hormones – and once this cycle keeps going, things start falling apart. Weight gain, brain fog, poor libido, mood swings, and exhaustion. Not as individual issues to deal with, but all manifestations of an underlying problem are being exacerbated each year due to technology.
 
We discuss:
Why cortisol is the master hormone and how it controls everything
How the modern world removed your body's natural off switch
Why 95% of the supplements you're taking are destroyed in your stomach
Men go through menopause too — and most have no idea
Simple daily habits that bring cortisol down and sleep quality up
 
Links: Stress Nation - The Book

#363 Can Ayahuasca Heal What Therapy Cannot? - Sam Believ

▶️ Connect with Richard on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardatherton-firsthuman/
 
What if your healing journey that took you years could have taken months and the tool to get there is growing in the Colombian jungle?
 
In this episode of Being Human, Richard Atherton is joined by Sam Believ, marine engineer and founder of Lawayra, an ayahuasca healing retreat in the Colombian countryside. Born in the Soviet Union and raised in post-independence Latvia, Sam grew up in a household shaped by intergenerational trauma: alcoholic, abusive father, an emotionally unavailable mother, and a culture where emotions were a sign of weakness. He channelled everything into his engineering career, built the life he was supposed to want, and found himself empty.
 
After quitting his job and travelling South America, Sam discovered ayahuasca in Colombia. Initially it was out of curiosity, he then rediscovered it in a crisis. When the lockdowns forced him to stop for the first time in his life, everything he had suppressed caught up with him. A ceremony gave him both his healing and his purpose. He never left.
 
Today Sam has guided close to 3,000 people through ceremonies at LaWayra, where the mission is simple: connect, heal, grow.
 
We discuss:
Surviving Soviet childhood trauma and escaping intergenerational pain
Why achieving the "right" life left him completely empty
What actually happens inside an ayahuasca ceremony
Therapy vs ayahuasca 
Addressing abuse by shamans
 
Links: LaWayra RetreatsSam's Website

#362 Can Your Photo Reveal Your Health? - Daniel Zavrel

▶️ Connect with Richard on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardatherton-firsthuman/
 
What if your body could tell you exactly where you're out of balance—before it shows up as illness or burnout?
 
In this episode, Richard sits down with Daniel Zavrel, co-founder of ConsciouzScan, to explore a cutting-edge, powerful technology that claims to map your body and mind through your energy field.
 
From his early career in consulting at Accenture, to his shift into spirituality and human performance, Daniel shares how this technology is being used with elite athletes, executives and individuals seeking deeper awareness.
 
Daniel performs a full body scan on Richard to reveal how this technology works.
 
Together, they explore:
How one super simple 5-minute yoga technique transformed one CEO’s health
How stress actually shows up in the body
The link between focus, emotion and energy
Why high performers often miss the real source of their exhaustion
And what it means to “listen” to your body at a deeper level
Whether you’re sceptical or curious, this conversation will challenge how you think about health, performance and consciousness.
 
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#361 How I Cured My GI Issues in 3 Months – Nora Rodden

▶️ Connect with Richard on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardatherton-firsthuman/
 
What if many chronic symptoms - pain, IBS, migraines, fatigue, insomnia - aren’t caused by damage in the body, but by patterns in the brain?
 
In this episode of Being Human, Richard Atherton speaks with Nora Rodden, CEO and co-founder of the health app Nervana. After being hit by a car during university, Nora developed chronic back pain that persisted for five years despite countless treatments and no obvious lasting damage in her body. Later, severe digestive issues and insomnia followed.
 
Everything changed when she joined a clinical trial exploring neuroplastic pain, the idea that the brain can learn and sustain physical symptoms long after an injury has healed.
 
Through mind-body techniques including journaling, somatic awareness and visualisation, Nora eliminated her pain and restored her sleep.
 
Her experience led her to build Nervana, an AI-guided program designed to help people retrain their brain-body response and recover from chronic symptoms.
We discuss:
Facing the triple whammy of chronic pain, GI symptoms and insomnia
The "medical" trial that changed her life
The drug-free approach that cured her symptoms in 3 months
Her ground-breaking providing relief from pain
Should Advil carry a warning?
Links:Nervana App

#360 Why Therapy Can Fail Us - with author of Conscious Uncoupling, Katherine Woodward Thomas

▶️ Connect with Richard on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardatherton-firsthuman/
 
Why do the same painful patterns keep repeating in our lives, in love, work, and relationships?
 
In this episode of Being Human, Richard Atherton is joined by New York Times Best Selling Author Katherine Woodward Thomas. Katherine originated the concept of Conscious Uncoupling through her book of the same name. She’s the author of the huge hit Calling in The One and has just released What's True About You.
 
Katherine shares how the stories we developed in childhood, which she calls “source fracture stories,” quietly shape our adult lives, relationships, and future possibilities. We think these are just “who we are,” but what if these are actually false stories developed way before we had the capacity to truly understand our lives?
 
We discuss:
The real point of manifestation (it's not the result)
When visiting the past is valuable and when it's not
Who is really the toxic one in your relationship?
What therapy gets wrong
The path forward for a merging of therapy and coaching
Links:Katherine’s Website

#359 Why Hope Is a Leadership Skill - Jen Fisher

▶️ Connect with Richard on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardatherton-firsthuman/
 
Is hope naïve or is it the missing ingredient in modern leadership?
In this episode of Being Human, I speak with Jen Fisher, former Chief Wellbeing Officer at Deloitte and author of Hope Is the Strategy. After experiencing severe burnout herself, Jen discovered that hope isn’t wishful thinking — it’s a measurable, actionable skill grounded in research.
We explore why burnout may actually be a symptom of hopelessness, how leaders unintentionally kill hope through language and behaviour, and why cultivating agency, multiple pathways, and honest truth-telling transforms culture. Jen shares practical tools, including hope audits, hope spotting, and the power of vulnerability in leadership.
We discuss:
Burnout as a crisis of hopelessness
What real hope actually means
Leadership language that builds or kills hope
Practical tools to cultivate hopeful cultures
Links:Jen’s Website