Ep.75: Reflective Happiness: David Myers on Self Perception, Fear, Money and Micro-Friendships
Bounce! Conversations with Larry Weeks
Release Date: 01/31/2024
A Younger Brain: Dr. Tommy Wood on Dementia, Aging, and Staying Sharp
Bounce! Conversations with Larry Weeks
Your brain is not necessarily doomed to significant cognitive decline with age. But it does need a reason to keep adapting. That is the premise behind The Stimulated Mind, and it is why this conversation with neuroscientist Dr. Tommy Wood may change how you think about aging, retirement, frustration, and the things you normally avoid because they feel difficult. Tommy is an associate professor of pediatrics and neuroscience at the University of Washington. He studied biochemistry at Cambridge, earned his medical degree from Oxford and his PhD from Oslo. He also works with Formula 1 drivers as...
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How to Break the Stress Cycle with Andy Bernstein
Bounce! Conversations with Larry Weeks
Something happens. The tire goes flat, the layoff comes, test results come back. And then a sentence starts running in the back of your head. That shouldn't have happened. I should weigh less. They shouldn't have fired me. You barely register it. It plays like a radio in another room, and it produces a feeling, and the feeling produces a behavior, and the behavior produces the day you are having. The stress paradox is that the thought causing you the most pain is also the one that feels most obviously true. Of course they shouldn't have fired me. The belief feels like clear sight rather than...
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Anxiety Isn't the Obstacle: Morita Therapy Explained with Gregg Krech
Bounce! Conversations with Larry Weeks
You know what you should do. You're just not doing it. The gym bag is by the door. The draft is open on your screen. The email's been sitting there for three days. And somewhere underneath all of it is the same quiet assumption running the show: that you have to feel like it first. That motivation comes before action. What if that's backwards? That's the premise behind Morita therapy, and it's the reason this conversation with Gregg Krech might rearrange how you think about getting things done. Gregg is the Executive Director of the ToDo Institute, a Naikan education and retreat center...
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The AI Fallacy: Dr. Jerry Kane on Education, Work, and What We're Getting Wrong
Bounce! Conversations with Larry Weeks
The AI fallacy is thinking the transformation is only in the tool. AI is already transforming education and work; not just because of what it can do, but because of what people believe it can do. Students, workers, managers, universities, and companies are all changing their behavior around AI, sometimes rationally, sometimes badly, and often before they even fully understand it. The AI paradox is that it is both a technology and a social event. It is a technology because it is something we install, manage, govern, and use. But it is also a social event because it functions as a moment in...
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Happy or Hidden: Sonja Lyubomirsky on the Science of Connection and Feeling Loved
Bounce! Conversations with Larry Weeks
Dr. Sonja Lyubomirsky is one of the world’s leading researchers on happiness, human flourishing, and what actually helps people feel connected. A Professor of Psychology at UC Riverside, she is the bestselling author of and published in 39 countries. Her latest book, written with Harry Reis, is Sonja’s work has shaped the modern science of happiness and earned major honors, including recognition as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Basel, and several leading awards in personality and positive psychology. She...
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How to Decide: Gary Klein on Expertise, Intuition, and the Limits of AI
Bounce! Conversations with Larry Weeks
You make hundreds of decisions a day. Most of them invisibly. A few of them under real pressure, with incomplete information and no clear right answer. So how do the people who do this for a living like firefighters, surgeons, military commanders, and get it right when the stakes are highest? That's the question Dr. Gary Klein has spent his entire career answering. Not in a lab. In the field. With people whose next call might be life or death. Gary is a cognitive psychologist, a Senior Scientist at MacroCognition LLC, and the Chief Scientist at ShadowBox LLC. He's one of the founding figures...
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More Than Matter: Philip Goff on Mind, Value, and Cosmic Purpose
Bounce! Conversations with Larry Weeks
Prof. Philip Goff is a British philosopher, author, and professor at Durham University whose research focuses on philosophy of mind and consciousness. He was an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Central European University and the Department of Philosophy, University of Birmingham. Philip is also the author of Galileo’s Error: A New Science of Consciousness, Consciousness and Fundamental Reality, and his most recent, Why? The Purpose of the Universe, is the touchstone for this episode. We’re covering some lofty territory today: from the hard science of physics and cosmology to the deep...
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Beliefs Behind Your Stress: Dr. Walter Matweychuk on REBT and the 'Musts' That Wreck Your Mood
Bounce! Conversations with Larry Weeks
My guest on this podcast asserts that a huge chunk of our psychological stress isn’t caused by what’s happening but by the demands one quietly places on reality. In this episode, Dr. Walter Matweychuk teaches me about Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), which focuses on identifying and disputing irrational, self-defeating beliefs to reduce emotional distress and change negative behaviors. Walter makes the case that REBT is not just a therapeutic modality but a philosophy for living based on emotional responsibility, resilience, and a way to stop rating yourself as “good” or...
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How to Slow Down Time: The Psychology of Time Perception with Steve Taylor
Bounce! Conversations with Larry Weeks
Society views time as a fixed commodity, yet modern theoretical physics and cognitive neuroscience suggest otherwise. If the linear flow of time is truly an illusion, then time isn’t just a resource to be managed; it’s a perception to be mastered. My guest on the podcast today, Prof. Steve Taylor, argues that time isn’t experienced evenly. He suggests that where you place your attention and how you live day-to-day can change the way time unfolds, stretching or compressing your sense of it. Steve is a researcher in psychology and a senior lecturer at Leeds Beckett University. He has...
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When Goals Fail: Anne-Laure Le Cunff on How Small Experiments Change Everything
Bounce! Conversations with Larry Weeks
We’ve been taught that success comes from setting goals, defining purpose, and executing a plan. But what if those very habits—the linear drive for certainty—are what keep us stuck? Dr. Anne-Laure Le Cunff, neuroscientist, founder of Ness Labs, and world-leading expert on mindful productivity, has an alternative: treat your life like a series of tiny experiments. In her new book Tiny Experiments, she explores how curiosity, liminal spaces, and small-scale testing can transform how we handle uncertainty and growth. Anne-Laure argues that traditional goal-setting and the “tyranny of...
info_outline- A bit about David’s background.
- We revisit happiness and the latest findings in that field.
- The relationship between happiness and income.
- Goal setting and the material trap
- The benefits of religion and religious engagement paradox.
- Self-Perception Theory.
- Body-mind effects.
- Micro-Friendships: The significant mood boost from brief, positive interactions with strangers.
- We touch on fear Misplaced Fears: How we skew risk perceptions.
- The power of reframing and its effectiveness in Brief Interventions.