The Sleep Quality Paradox: Why 8 Hours Isn't Enough
The Urban Monk podcast with Dr. Pedram Shojai
Release Date: 10/10/2025
Voice as Medicine: Frankko Vivo's Journey from Basketball Court to Mountain Temple
The Urban Monk podcast with Dr. Pedram Shojai
🎙️ In this intimate conversation, Dr. Pedram Shojai sits down with Frankko Vivo, a musician and ceremony guide who transformed from a basketball player into a guardian of sacred space. Frankko shares how an 82-year-old violinist named Sol changed his life's trajectory with a single gift, leading him to carve a temple into a Brazilian mountainside over 13 years. Through stories of water infiltrations that forced him to listen to the mountain's wisdom and ceremonies where improvisation trumps performance, Frankko reveals how voice activation, deep breathing, and authentic frequency work...
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The Breathing Crisis: How Modern Life Stole Your Breath and the Ancient Practice That Gets It Back
The Urban Monk podcast with Dr. Pedram Shojai
🎙️ Most people breathe 20,000 times a day, yet modern life has systematically broken this fundamental function. Dr. Pedram Shojai reveals how collapsed posture, chronic stress, mouth breathing, and lost body awareness have created a breathing crisis—leaving us in survival mode with shallow, chest-based breathing that signals constant danger to our nervous systems. In this essential episode, discover the four ways modern life has stolen your breath and why dysfunctional breathing creates cascading physical consequences from chronic anxiety and brain fog to digestive issues, immune...
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Breaking the Sympathetic Spiral of Doom with Dr. Scott Sherr
The Urban Monk podcast with Dr. Pedram Shojai
🎙️ Dr. Pedram Shojai sits down with integrative medicine physician Dr. Scott Sherr to unpack one of the most overlooked health crises of our time: the sympathetic spiral of doom. When your nervous system gets stuck in fight-or-flight mode, your mitochondria desperately try to produce more energy but lack the resources to sustain it. The result? Plummeting energy, skyrocketing stress, and a body that can't heal itself. Dr. Sherr explains the intricate dance between sympathetic nervous system activation and mitochondrial dysfunction, revealing how this vicious cycle begins and, more...
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The Exhaustion Medicine Can't Find
The Urban Monk podcast with Dr. Pedram Shojai
🎙️ Dr. Pedram Shojai addresses one of the most common yet dismissed complaints in modern medicine: chronic fatigue that conventional doctors can't diagnose or explain. He reveals why standard medical tests fail to identify this multi-system breakdown and presents a comprehensive, phased recovery approach spanning 6-24 months. Drawing from his experience treating thousands of patients, Dr. Shojai explains the seven interconnected systems involved in energy production—from mitochondrial function to gut health to nervous system regulation—and why treating just one piece never works. If...
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Your Best Shot: The Truth About GLP-1s and Natural Weight Health Hormones
The Urban Monk podcast with Dr. Pedram Shojai
🎙️ Registered dietitian Ashley Koff joins Dr. Pedram Shojai to unpack the truth about GLP-1 medications like Ozempic and Wegovy. While these drugs mimic hormones our bodies naturally produce, they don't solve the root cause of why our own weight-health hormones aren't functioning properly. Ashley explains how gut health, the vagus nerve, stress, and digestive function all play crucial roles in our body's natural hormone production. She shares her personal journey from childhood obesity to understanding that healing weight health isn't about what you eat or avoid—it's about optimizing...
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Energy Sovereignty: Reclaim Your Power Through Boundaries
The Urban Monk podcast with Dr. Pedram Shojai
🎙️ In this transformative episode, Dr. Pedram Shojai addresses the modern energy crisis that leaves so many people chronically depleted. Moving beyond simple fatigue from lack of sleep or overwork, he reveals how we experience systemic energy depletion from thousands of tiny leaks we haven't learned to protect against. Through practical frameworks and actionable strategies, he teaches listeners how to identify what drains their vital energy, recognize energy drains in real time, and implement boundaries that protect their life force. This isn't about becoming selfish or isolated—it's...
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The Supplement Trap: What You Actually Need
The Urban Monk podcast with Dr. Pedram Shojai
🎙️ Are you spending hundreds of dollars a month on supplements you can't even remember why you're taking? Dr. Pedram Shojai exposes how the $50 billion supplement industry has convinced health-conscious people to swallow 20-30 pills daily—creating more confusion and expense than actual health benefits. He reveals the uncomfortable truth: most people are medicating symptoms they don't have, optimizing pathways that aren't broken, and actually creating deficiencies through nutrient competition and over-supplementation. 🎯 What You'll Learn: Why taking more supplements doesn't equal...
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Food Fear Pandemic: Break Free from Food Anxiety
The Urban Monk podcast with Dr. Pedram Shojai
🎙️ Dr. Pedram Shojai addresses one of the most pervasive issues in modern wellness: the food fear pandemic. Are you spending 20 minutes reading ingredient labels? Avoiding social situations because you can't control the food? This isn't about real food sensitivities—it's about the crippling anxiety that's turning food into the enemy. Dr. Shojai reveals why the stress of restriction might be more inflammatory than the foods you're worried about, and shares a practical framework for shifting from fear-based eating to body wisdom. 🎯 What You'll Learn: Why "healthy eating" becomes...
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The Invisible Thief: How Social Media Steals Your Self-Worth
The Urban Monk podcast with Dr. Pedram Shojai
🎙️ Dr. Pedram Shojai exposes the invisible thief stealing your peace, presence, and authentic self-worth: social media comparison culture. 🎯 What You'll Learn: Why your brain—evolved for tribes of 150—now compares you to billions of curated highlight reels 24/7 The five-step neuroscience behind the comparison spiral (from comparison trigger to deepening spiral) How chronic "not enoughness" drives anxiety, depression, elevated cortisol, and inflammation The difference between true inspiration and toxic comparison Practical protocols: three-breath awareness practice, ruthless...
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The Science of Hormesis: How Strategic Stress Makes You Stronger
The Urban Monk podcast with Dr. Pedram Shojai
🎙️ Discover why deliberately stressing your body might be one of the most powerful health interventions available—hormesis: the principle that low to moderate doses of stress trigger beneficial adaptations that make you anti-fragile. 🎯 What You'll Learn: The science behind cold therapy, strategic fasting, and exercise as consciousness-expanding tools The adaptation cascade: from immediate stress response (minutes) to long-term resilience (months) Four-week cold therapy progression protocol (300% norepinephrine increase, 250% dopamine boost) Three-level strategic fasting approach:...
info_outline🎙️ In this essential Urban Monk weekly call, Pedram explores the critical distinction between sleep quantity and sleep quality—revealing why many people who log 7-8 hours still wake up exhausted. Drawing from his experience owning sleep labs, he breaks down the architecture of restorative sleep, identifying common saboteurs from blood sugar dysregulation to environmental factors that prevent deep sleep and REM cycles.
🎯 What You'll Learn:
- Why sleep is a symphony of stages—light sleep, deep sleep (the repair shop), and REM sleep (the brain's therapy session)—and you need 4-6 complete cycles for full restoration
- The four types of restoration your body needs: physical (tissue repair), neural (emotional processing), metabolic (hormonal balance), and nervous system (true rest)
- Common physiological saboteurs: blood sugar dysregulation (waking at 3 AM), cortisol issues (waking 3-5 AM), inflammation, and hormonal imbalances
- Environmental sleep killers: light pollution disrupting melatonin, EMF exposure, temperature above 68-72°F, and noise
- Behavioral saboteurs: late eating, alcohol destroying REM sleep (25% suppression from one drink), blue light, and exercise timing
🔑 Key Insights: "Sleep optimization begins the moment you wake up. You cannot out-supplement, out-meditate, or out-biohack poor sleep—it's the foundation for every other health practice."
"Better sleep, not more sleep, is the key to energy, healing, and cognitive performance. Many people doing 'everything right' still don't get results because they're missing sleep quality."
"Circadian anchoring alone—morning bright light within 30 minutes and dimming lights 2-3 hours before bed—produces 25-35% improvement in sleep quality."
💡 Action Steps:
- Tomorrow morning: Get bright light exposure within 30 minutes of waking to set your cortisol spike and melatonin timer (14-16 hours later)
- Tonight: Implement the three-hour rules—no food, intense exercise, or alcohol 3 hours before bed
- Before bed: Try the 4-7-8 breathing technique and keep your room at 68°F maximum
🎧 Perfect for: Anyone who logs 7-8 hours but still wakes up exhausted, those experiencing midnight waking or poor energy despite "doing everything right."
📚 Mentioned Resources:
- Deep Sleep Solution program
- Urban Monk Academy
- Magnesium supplements (Mag Threonate or Glycinate, 300-400mg)
- L-theanine (200mg)
- Oura Ring and Whoop Band for sleep tracking
🌐 Connect with Dr. Shojai:
- Website: theurbanmonk.com
- Books: The Urban Monk, Inner Alchemy, Focus
- Documentaries: Interconnected, Gateway to Health, Trauma
#UrbanMonk #SleepQuality #DeepSleep #REMSleep #CircadianRhythm #SleepArchitecture #BloodSugar #CortisolBalance #SleepOptimization