Finding Mastery: Conversations With Michael Gervais

This week’s conversation is with Dr. Michael Rucker,  an organizational psychologist, behavioral scientist, and charter member of the International Positive Psychology Association. I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Mike for about two decades and I’m stoked to introduce him and his work to you. A former corporate executive, Michael found himself burnt out, unfulfilled in his career, and as he states “over-optimized in the pursuit of happiness”. So, he decided to make a change. He quit his job and set out on a journey to rediscover the joy of play and fun – and to help others do the same. This January, Michael will be publishing his first book, The Fun Habit, an action-based approach that helps you critically examine your pursuit of happiness and make adjustments using evidence-based practices to invite more fun and joy in your life.This is a fun conversation, about fun – how we can invite more of it into our lives, and why it is an essential piece to high performance, corporate cultures, and a li

Here's the final Ask Me Anything (AMA) of 2022 with Dr. Michael Gervais!A couple weeks back, we took questions from our community on how to best support your life ambitions, resolutions, habits, and goals as you move into 2023. Your questions rocked.Dr. Mike was excited to jump into the studio to film this and we hope this supports your new year.Stay tuned as we'll be back in 2023 with more high-performance and wellbeing content. Let us know—what questions would you like Dr. Mike to answer? Leave your questions for the next AMA in the comments below or email info@findingmastery.net-----You can also watch this - and every - conversation on our YouTube channel.Connect with us on our Instagram.For more information and shownotes from every episode, head to findingmastery.net.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week’s conversation is with Dr. Sheila Ohlsson Walker, a Senior Scientist at the Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development at Tufts University and a Visiting Assistant Professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Education.Sheila’s work and research interests lie at the intersection of neuroscience, genetics, psychology and social science, with a focus on how we can create contexts in sport, school and nature settings that unlock the potential of our youth.A former professional tennis player, Sheila knows first-hand the power sport has to build life skills that transfer into careers, and embed wellness habits that foster health and holistic well-being. She knows that adults, through the relationships they form, can activate passion, possibility and a sense of purpose in young people.Accordingly, in this conversation we discuss the science of child development, and how to equip coaches, teachers and parents with the knowledge, skills and mindsets that promote flourishing in young people a

This week’s conversation is with Paul Assaiante, one of the most decorated coaches in college sports history. For those unfamiliar, Paul is a legend – he is a two-time Olympic coach of the year, the “winningest coach in college sports history”, an inductee of the U.S. Squash Hall of Fame, and has won 17 NCAA championship titles at Trinity College where he is still the head coach of the Men’s Squash team today. You might also recognize Paul’s name from his first appearance on Finding Mastery back in 2016 – that’s episode #47 if you want to check it out.Paul has spent more than four decades coaching, motivating, and mentoring top athletes from around the world – and with how rapidly our culture is shifting, I was excited to have him back on to explore some of the changes he has observed over the last several years.The wisdom Paul displays is abundant, and I hope you’ll find as much value in this conversation as I did. We discuss how to prepare our children to succeed in a competitive world, the import

This week’s conversation is with Yogi Roth – Yogi is a dear friend of mine, and I’m really excited to finally introduce him to the Finding Mastery community. At his core, Yogi is a storyteller with a unique focus on seeking and uncovering humanity in sports around the globe.His professional work has ranged from a college football analyst to an Emmy award-winning filmmaker, New York Times bestselling author, media personality, world-traveler, and accomplished coach.Yogi has lived a full life and I always appreciate the unique perspective and insights he brings to the table. In this conversation, we cover a lot – the changing landscape of college sports, parenting, youth development, what he’s learned from some of the world’s best athletes, and so much more. -----You can also watch this - and every - conversation on our YouTube channel.Connect with us on our Instagram.For more information and shownotes from every episode, head to findingmastery.net.-----Please support our partners!We're able

This week’s conversation is with Elizabeth Pitcairn, a world-renowned classical violin virtuoso.After making her orchestra debut at age 14, Elizabeth has gone on to travel the globe with her violin, performing as a soloist in various highly acclaimed orchestras at some of the most prolific classical music venues on the planet. Elizabeth is also known for performing with one of the world’s most legendary instruments – the Red Mendelssohn Stradivarius violin of 1720 – said to have inspired the Academy Award–winning film “The Red Violin”. In addition to her acclaimed solo career, Elizabeth is a passionate advocate of music education, and serves as the President and Artistic Director of the Luzerne Music Center in upstate New York, which provides world-class music instruction for gifted young musicians.At its core, this is a conversation about developing a relationship with mastery – the standard of perfection, being a conduit to the music, and the ups and downs of truly loving your craft.-----You can a

This week’s conversation is with Tony Fadell, an entrepreneur, designer, engineer, and investor with a 30+ year history of founding companies and designing some of the most influential products of the 20th century. Over his remarkable career, Tony has become best known as the inventor of the iPod, the iPhone, and the Nest Thermostat (which eventually sold to Google for $3.2B). Tony has authored more than 300 patents and was named one of Time's "100 Most Influential People in the World". In 2016, Time also named the iPod, the iPhone, and the Nest Learning Thermostat as three of the “50 Most Influential Gadgets of All Time".Tony also recently published his first book, Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making, which quickly topped charts as a bestseller. Tony is a legend, and it was a joy to learn from him in this conversation. I think everyone will find significant value from the insights Tony shares as he outlines his journey from devastating failure to unbelievable success, and

We got some really excellent questions from our community last week. I love the deep thought, curiosity, and authenticity you all brought to the table.In our second AMA, I answer questions like:When things go sideways at work—and I still have a business to run and bills to pay—how do I think clearly?How do you put a high performance mindset lens on forgiveness? When something's been wrongfully done to you, how do you let go of it?What are the most interesting or unexpected ways you've seen leadership evolve over the past two to three years?And more... :)We're excited to be filming these AMAs more frequently. What questions would you like Dr. Mike to answer? Leave your questions for the next AMA on the YouTube comments section or email info@findingmastery.net.-----You can also watch this - and every - conversation on our YouTube channel.Connect with us on our Instagram.For more information and shownotes from every episode, head to findingmastery.net.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privac

This week’s conversation is with Dr. Jeffrey Bland, an accomplished and highly respected thought leader who has spent more than four decades studying the improvement of human health.Due to his groundbreaking contributions the field, Jeff is known worldwide as “the founder of the Functional Medicine movement”, which represents his vision for a care model that is grounded in systems biology and informed by research.His pioneering work has created the Personalized Lifestyle Medicine Institute (PLMI), as well as the Institute for Functional Medicine (IFM), both of which are recognized as global leaders in Functional Medicine education.Jeff’s latest project, Big Bold Health, is on a mission to transform the way people think about one of nature’s greatest innovations — the immune system.Jeff’s deep knowledge across disciplines and bold ambitions for how we can enhance human health made for a fascinating conversation. We discuss some of his exciting new discoveries in epigenetics - reprogramming them and how they re

This week’s conversation is with Dr. Colleen Cutcliffe, the CEO and Co-Founder of Pendulum Therapeutics.Colleen’s extensive background includes a doctorate in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Johns Hopkins University, and over 20 years of experience managing and leading teams in biotech, pharma, and academia.In 2013, Colleen left her position as Senior Manager of Biology at Pacific Biosciences to start Pendulum, a company on a mission to improve health through first of its kind research and development in the gut microbiome.Pendulum’s next generation probiotics are pioneering ways for people to transform their health and wellness by unlocking the power of the gut microbiome.I’ve been studying gut health and the microbiome for a long time now, and it’s clear that Pendulum is on the forefront of creating meaningful change for people.I was fascinated to learn more about the topic from Colleen, and I hope you leave this conversation with a better understanding of the gut microbiome, and some applied insigh

This week’s conversation is with Dr. Marc Brackett, the founding director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and a professor in the Child Study Center at Yale University.Marc’s research focuses on the role of emotional intelligence in learning, decision making, creativity, relationships, health, and performance. Over his extensive career, Marc has developed a systemic, evidence-based approach to social & emotional learning which has been adopted by over 4,000 schools across the United States and in 27 other countries. Outside of the school setting, Marc also regularly consults with world-leading corporations on integrating emotional intelligence principles into leadership teams and employee training programs to help boost retention, innovation, and ROI. While emotions are a central part of well-being and high performance, it’s clear that many of us struggle with this part of the human experience – and that’s exactly why I wanted to sit down with Marc for this conversation.We disc

This week’s conversation is with Sal Khan, the founder and CEO of Khan Academy, a nonprofit organization on a mission to provide free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere.Since its inception in 2008, Khan Academy has helped teach hundreds of millions of students around the world through their adaptive online learning platform.Sal has three degrees from MIT, an MBA from Harvard Business School, and most recently founded the Khan Lab School, a nonprofit brick-and-mortar private school in Mountain View, CA working to bring Sal’s vision of a mastery-based, blended learning system to life.Sal has an extraordinary mind and his purpose is clear – I really enjoyed taking a deep dive into his journey, and I can’t wait for you to learn from his unique approach to life, learning, entrepreneurship, and commitment to making the world a better place.-----You can also watch this - and every - conversation on our YouTube channel.Connect with us on our Instagram.For more information and shownotes from every e

In this first Ask Me Anything (AMA) with Dr. Mike Gervais, we took your questions and went into the Mastery Lab Studio to answer them. This first one covers high performance routines, mindfulness, mindset, dealing with the fear of other people's opinions (FOPO), and much more.We're excited to be producing these AMAs more frequently. What questions would you like Dr. Mike to answer? Leave your questions for the next AMA on the YouTube version of this episode.Dr. Mike bio:Dr. Michael Gervais is one of the world’s top high-performance psychologists and leading experts on the relationship between the mind and human performance. He is the founder of Finding Mastery and has spent his career being called on by the best of the best across the worlds of business, sport, the arts, and science when they need to achieve the extraordinary.-----You can also watch this - and every - conversation on our YouTube channel.Connect with us on our Instagram.For more information and shownotes from every episode, head to&n

This week’s conversation is with Sarah Fay, an award-winning author and mental health advocate working to improve how we think and talk about our mental health.Sarah’s experience of being diagnosed with six different mental health disorders over the course of 30 years and finding no relief led her to write her best-selling journalistic memoir Pathological: The True Story of Six Misdiagnoses.As part of her continued devotion to changing the conversation around mental health, Sarah also founded Pathological: The Movement, a public awareness campaign dedicated to empowering people to make informed decisions about their mental health.  In this conversation, Sarah opens up about how she came to inhabit her diagnoses, how we can improve the diagnosis process, and her inspiring journey to recovery.   With almost one in five citizens (47.1 million people) in the U.S. alone having been diagnosed with a mental health condition, there’s no doubt that a majority of us have been touched by this is

This week’s conversation is with Eric Barker, a former Hollywood screen-writer turned author whose dedicated following of over half a million people look to Eric for his (often counter-intuitive) insights and research-backed advice on how to be great at life. In 2017, Eric penned his Wall Street Journal bestseller Barking Up the Wrong Tree, which reveals the extraordinary science behind what actually determines success and most importantly, how anyone can achieve it.However, over the last several years Eric pivoted to taking a deep dive into the science of relationships and recently published his newest bestseller, Plays Well with Others: The Surprising Science Behind Why Everything You Know About Relationships Is (Mostly) Wrong. And that’s why I was so excited to sit down with Eric – if you’ve been following this podcast, you know I’m a big believer that relationships are foundational to exploring potential and achieving our very best… no one does it alone… through relationships, we become. So

This week’s conversation is with Gabriel Wyner, a polyglot, former opera singer, bestselling author of Fluent Forever: How to Learn Any Language Fast and Never Forget It, and founder of the Fluent Forever app, the most funded app in crowdfunding history.Gabe graduated summa cum laude in 2007 from the University of Southern California with dual degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Vocal Arts Performance, and was awarded the Renaissance Scholar’s prize for excellence in unrelated disciplines.Following graduation, Gabe moved to Europe to pursue triple Master’s degrees in Opera, Lieder, and Voice where found himself quickly needing to learn various new languages as his studies took him from country to country. Gabe began to apply his analytical and engineering talents to developing a system that rapidly builds fluency and in 2012 published a viral article about his groundbreaking formula to fluency, which garnered a publishing offer within two hours.Now, Gabe is fluent in eight languages and teaches tens of

This week’s conversation is with Judith Enck, a former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator, the founder of Beyond Plastics, and a visiting professor at Bennington College. In 2009, Judith was appointed by President Barack Obama as the Regional Administrator of the EPA, where she oversaw environmental protections in New York, New Jersey, eight Indian Nations, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands – in addition to managing a staff of 800 and a $700M budget.Judith has also served as Deputy Secretary for the Environment in the New York Governor’s Office, and Policy Advisor to the New York State Attorney General.Now, Judith is the founder and president of Beyond Plastics, an organization based out of Bennington College that is on a mission to end plastic pollution through education, advocacy, and institutional change. I can’t think of many more pressing and important topics in today’s society than the environmental crisis – and I was shocked to hear some of the grim statistics and informa

This week’s conversation is with Peter Shapiro, a music industry legend and perhaps the most influential independent concert promoter of his generation. Over his eclectic career, Peter has produced several acclaimed and groundbreaking projects, and was listed on Billboard’s Power 100 List for “Most Influential People in the Music Business”.Peter is the owner of several legendary music venues around the country which have hosted some of the biggest names in modern music – The Rolling Stones, The Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan, Pink Floyd, Leonard Cohen, Snoop Dogg, David Bowie, U2, The Roots, and so many more. In total, Peter has played a major role in putting on over 10,000 shows and concerts in his lifetime.Over his eclectic career, Peter has also produced several acclaimed and groundbreaking projects, including two documentary films on The Grateful Dead, an IMAX behind-the-scenes concert film featuring artists like Santana, Dave Matthews, Sting, & Sheryl Crow, and the first ever live-action concert film

This week’s conversation is with Jamie Wheal, founder of The Flow Genome Project and author of Recapture the Rapture: Rethinking God, Sex, and Death in a World That’s Lost Its Mind.Jamie is one of the most brilliant thinkers I know – he has advised executives at some of the world’s leading companies (Deloitte, Red Bull, Google, Lululemon, Facebook, TD Ameritrade, Nike, and Goldman Sachs), and his work & ideas have been covered in The New York Times, Financial Times, Wired, Entrepreneur, Harvard Business Review, Forbes, Inc., and TED. You may remember Jamie from his previous appearance on Finding Mastery back in 2017 where we discussed flow states and altered states of consciousness – that’s episode #67 if you’re looking to check it out. This time around, we discuss some of Jamie’s most recent work where he takes radical research out of the extremes and applies it to the mainstream, exploring macro topics like where we are today, why it’s so hard to make sense of the world, what might be com

This week’s conversation is with Dr. Gabrielle Lyon, a functional medicine physician and the founder of the Institute for Muscle-Centric Medicine. Gabrielle received her doctorate in osteopathic medicine from the Arizona College of Osteopathic Medicine and is board-certified in family medicine. She earned her undergraduate degree in Human Nutrition where specialized in vitamin and mineral metabolism. Now, in her private medical practice, Gabrielle leverages evidence-based medicine with emerging cutting-edge science to restore metabolism, balance hormones, and optimize body composition with the goal of lifelong vitality. Her patients include world-class athletes, as well as elite military operators such as Navy SEALS, Green Berets, Army Rangers and US & Canadian Special Forces. In a world where vegetarianism and veganism have seemingly become the “gold standard” for health, Gabrielle has quite a different perspective, and it was fascinating to learn about some of Gabrielle’s unique appr