Episode #96: Michael Youngblood on the Value of Beautiful Questions
Release Date: 06/04/2023
Episode #125: James Murray on Climate Change, Tipping Points & Practicing Optimism
The Discomfort Practice
In this expansive and clear-eyed conversation, host Betsy Reed is joined by journalist and leading sustainability commentator James Murray, founding Editor-in-Chief of BusinessGreen. Together, they explore what it means to stay awake, human and oriented in the face of accelerating climate risk, AI and systemic uncertainty. Recorded at a moment when climate tipping points are no longer abstract projections but lived realities, their dialogue flows between science, politics, technology and psychology. Betsy and James examine how climate change has become a kind of “theory of everything”,...
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Episode #124: Betsy by Herself - A Love Letter to Anyone Doing Anything Alone
The Discomfort Practice
In this intimate solo episode, Betsy records from the threshold: posting unscripted, later than planned and exactly when it needed to be shared. Recorded in January 2026, after what she calls the personal “meat-grinder” year of 2025, this episode is a love letter to anyone doing something alone: building, healing, choosing integrity, setting boundaries or standing between versions of themselves in a quiet, liminal space. This is not a pep talk. It’s a nervous system-level offering for those moments when life goes quiet and the stories about aloneness get loud. In this episode, Betsy...
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Episode #123: Betsy by Herself on Navigating Your Own Threshold Moments in a Time of Monsters
The Discomfort Practice
In this powerful solo episode, Betsy explores what it means to live, lead, and stay human in what philosopher Antonio Gramsci famously called “the time of monsters” - the in-between space where the old world is dying and the new world is still struggling to be born. Recorded at the close of 2025, this episode is an invitation for anyone standing at a threshold: the end of a year, a relationship, a job, an identity, or an old way of being. Betsy reframes overwhelm, grief, and exhaustion not as personal failure, but as signs of initiation - evidence that you are awake, feeling, and...
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Episode #122: From the Archives - Pilar Garrido on Leading a Country With Love During a Pandemic
The Discomfort Practice
This is a good one from the archives - back in January 2023, when memories of the COVID-19 pandemic (and the trauma) was still fresh. Betsy interviewed Pilar Garrido, who was Minister for Economic Development in Costa Rica during the pandemic and went to work every day determined to 'lead from love.' This is posted toward the end of 2025, a year in which many of us have witnessed leadership and counter reactions that come from fear or ego, not love. It's a particularly poignant, beautiful episode to remind us that it IS possible to lead from love, and that each of us can choose to...
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Episode #121: Betsy By Herself on Boundary-Setting as a Pleasure Practice
The Discomfort Practice
In this very personal 20-minute solo, Betsy steps into the uncomfortable, liberating terrain of boundaries as a pleasure practice - a theme that emerged from her 2025 words of the year: alignment and precision. This episode is a transmission on sovereignty, somatic truth, and what it means to teach the choreography of your life through your energy, not your explanations. She reflects on a year of deep pruning of relationships, dynamics, and energetic leaks, and how that pruning has become sensual, sovereign, and delicious. She shares what it has meant to listen to her body’s YES and NO, to...
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Episode #120: Betsy By Herself on Launching a Personal Sanctuary for Her Edges
The Discomfort Practice
In this very personal 20-minute solo episode, Betsy steps into her own edge. She announces the launch of a new offering: Voice Notes from the Edge, her Substack home for the people who want deeper access to her world, her thoughts, her voice. This episode is a transmission - an intimate reflection on sovereignty, devotion, and the kind of people who choose to walk with you not because they “follow” you, but because they recognise themselves in your voice and work. She shares why she’s creating a paid sanctuary, because she's ready to be witnessed more deeply in order to help others...
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Episode #119: Isa Noyola Returns to Talk About Joy, Justice and Survival When Walking the Edge
The Discomfort Practice
In this deeply moving conversation, host Betsy Reed welcomes back longtime friend and activist Isa Noyola, Director of the Border Butterflies Project at the Transgender Law Center, to explore what it means to live, love, and lead on the frontlines of collective liberation. Recorded in October 2025, their conversation travels from shared memories of queer resistance and joy in the American South to the stark realities of immigrant detention and the rising tide of authoritarianism. Through it all, Isa reminds us that trans joy, softness, and connection are radical acts of resistance, and that...
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Episode #118: Betsy By Herself on Post-Capitalist Prosperity - Redefining Abundance, Enoughness and Trust
The Discomfort Practice
In this solo episode of The Discomfort Practice, Betsy reflects on what it means to live and prosper beyond capitalism’s conditioning. She’s been recently moving through a deep personal detox and life transition and explores how WildFit, a nutritional and emotional reset, has become a catalyst for examining - well, everything. Her relationship with productivity, prosperity, and self-worth as well as with why and what she eats. Betsy talks about how capitalist systems teach us to see ourselves and others as “human resources,” valued only for what we produce, and how unlearning...
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Episode #117: Dr Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic on how to stay human in the age of AI
The Discomfort Practice
What does it mean to stay human in the age of AI? In this episode ,BetsyI welcomse back Dr Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic - psychologist, author, and provocateur - to explore how technology is reshaping not just what we do, but who we are becoming as humans. From dating-app algorithms to digital narcissism, Tomas explains how AI mirrors our worst tendencies—bias, impatience, distraction—and why true curiosity always involves discomfort. Together they look at how efficiency can be inhumane, what “realistic optimism” about AI sounds like, and how we can reclaim what makes us unique: connection,...
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Episode #116: Relaunching Season 5 after a year off
The Discomfort Practice
In this episode, Betsy reflects on the question she’s been pondering deeply: “The world is changing fast. Are you changing with it? Are you being the change you want to see in the world?” She explores how we can shift from being stuck in the narratives of fear and decline to consciously creating our own story and living a life that reflects joy, love, and curiosity. Betsy shares her own experiences with metaphysical study and coaching, offering both inspiration and relief for anyone struggling with the idea of “purpose.” Instead of worrying about finding your one purpose, she...
info_outlineIn this episode of the Discomfort Practice, I talk with Michael Youngblood, co-founder and CEO of Unsettled, an award-winning travel community for those who embrace the unknown and value meaningful human connection. He has worked in more than 60 countries, collaborated with the White House on entrepreneurship and global development, advised Fortune 100 companies on remote work, and has taught courses on entrepreneurship and globalisation on behalf of the U.S. State Department. Previously, he was the Managing Editor of Innovations journal, a publication about entrepreneurial solutions to global challenges that is jointly hosted by MIT, Harvard, and George Mason University. Michael is a member of the inaugural TED Residency, a member of Sandbox, and an avid sailor, mountain biker, and global explorer.
Michael and I discuss Unsettled’s manifesto as a process and a guiding philosophy for how to live, through embracing the uncomfortable and the unknown. MIchael shares his own thoughts on navigating anxiety and depression in work and life, and the importance of taking time for self-reflection. We explore some ‘beautiful questions,’ and hopefully help those listening to discover something themselves with those questions (or discover their own questions to help them explore and find their way of being, living and doing in this rapidly changing world). Many of us know that we can’t do things the way they’ve always been done, so this is a timely conversation. Just know that you’re not alone. Enjoy!
Key Points Discussed:
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The uncomfortable childhood experience of holding hands with his adoptive black sister and being the target of hate speech, showed Michael early on the levels of prejudice and inequalities existing in the world. And how that led to him studying social sciences, as the pathway he saw to change social structures. (5:40)
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Michael views all questions as beautiful, as they open you up to possibilities, whilst seeking new answers. (13:00)
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What is your dream underachiever job? (17:20)
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Getting clear on what is important to Michael, with time and space for self-reflection. Opening yourself up to new opportunities, that reflect your desired lifestyle and pace of work/life balance. (27:20)
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Unsettled manifesto: being more than a travel company. It’s a process and philosophy for living: embracing the unknown and the uncomfortable. (32:30)
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How Michael has dealt with and found tools to overcome anxiety. (42:40)
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70% of people quit a job within 18 months of an Unsettled travel experience. (47:40)
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How to create your own reality. (57:30)
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Michael’s affirmation that he comes back to at the end of every day: “Despite everything, today was a great day.” He has choice and agency to see today as a great day, despite what might have happened in it. (1:00:00)
Connect with Michael:
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Michael’s Blog on “Becoming CEO Of Unsettled”
Connect with Betsy:
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What is a Beautiful Question?
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