I’ve been following River’s substack essays for a few years now and I feel a real kinship with his irreverent and genuinely unique perspectives — as well as his talent for self-experimentation and weaving together esoteric yet incredibly practical concepts which he uses for self-exploration. In this conversation, you can expect to learn: 💬 How Rive…

In this conversation, I’m speaking with my good friend and cofounder of Ultraspeaking Tristan de Montebello. Tristan has an incredible story of training to become a finalist in the World Championship of Public Speaking in just seven months. In this conversation, you can expect to learn: 📣 Tristan's radical approach of focusing on impromptu speaking…

A few years back Ali decided to quit his job as a junior doctor in the UK to become a full time YouTuber. Since then his career and life has skyrocketed — he’s built a channel with over 5.5 million youtube subscribers and recently published a New York Times Bestselling book called ‘Feel Good Productivity’ In this conversation Ali shares: 😨 His expe…

I’m speaking with co-founder of Reboot Jerry Colonna. Jerry is one of the most infamous executive coaches in the world — with a reputation for making CEOs cry and asking devastatingly poignant self-reflection questions. In this conversation, we explore: 🕷️ Jerry's inner journey discovering his mythopoetic identity and how that has informed the coac…

Ben is the author of the phenomenal new book: The Way Home: Discovering the Hero's Journey to Wholeness at Midlife. I was really excited to talk to Ben because the hero’s journey has been a framework that I still use myself as a way of orienting and meaning making. Ben shares how his own life has been a series of spiraling journeys, embodying the h…

Marcela Ot’alora worked as the lead co-therapist and principal investigator for all of the MAPS — which stands for Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies — MDMA-assisted psychotherapy studies. She has also been designing curriculum and training therapists associated with MAPS. In this conversation, which we recorded together in our h…

I'm choosing to republish this episode that I had with David Whyte four years ago, because I had found myself revisiting his timeless book Consolations’ and rediscovering wisdom that felt appropriate for these times — which has remained within an arm's reach of my bedside ever since I first discovered it. It ratcheted open my mind to a new perspect…

In this episode, I am speaking with Steve March — who is, although maybe lesser known in the public sphere, what he has created with Aletheia, which we will get into — is, to my mind, a revolutionary innovation in the realm of human development and how we orient to personal growth. Expect to have your paradigm of personal growth turned upside down …

Khe Hy is a dear friend, creator and philosopher in residence at Rad Reads, which is a business he started after leaving a 7-figure salary on Wall Street. He is a dedicated Father, host of the superb Examined Life podcast and makes time to get in the ocean and surf every single day. In this conversation, you can expect to hear: - How Khe has worked…

Ryan Duey is an entrepreneur, podcaster, the founder + CEO of Plunge.com and as you'll hear in this episode, a remarkably self-aware and courageous human. Over a decade ago, Ryan had what he calls his “greatest gift” — a head-on motorcycle accident in Thailand. This near-death experience catapulted Ryan into a journey of self-inquiry, leading him t…

Brooks Barron is an experienced leadership coach specializing in nature-based initiations and rites of passage — to help the leaders he works with explore their vulnerability, find their inner wisdom, and surrender to the flow of what wants to come through them. In this conversation, you can expect to learn: - Brooks' definition of wholeness as a h…

Show Notes Matt Maruca is the founder of RaOptics, who make, I think it's fair to say objectively, the world's best blue-blocking glasses — but more importantly, he is in my view a radical citizen scientist, self-experimenter, and articulate communicator — and what's more he's only 24 years old. Which, given his depth of knowledge and wisdom, is so…

Dr Michael Yang is an integrative medicine specialist based in Los Angeles who specializes in Ketamine treatment. I had an absolute blast with Michael and honestly feel a renewed sense of optimism for the medical system knowing that there are doctors like him treating patients. In this conversation, you can expect to learn: 💊 Ketamine's clinical us…

Jim Dethmer is co-author of the bestselling book 'The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership' and is one of the most sought-after executive coaches in the world. It was an honor to speak with Jim, and I had the sense that I was sitting in the presence of someone who really had spent a lifetime embodying and living what he teaches. In this wide-rang…

When I first started this podcast, I had Derek Sivers in mind as the archetypal curious human — and to this day, I think of him as one of the most interesting and provocative philosophers of life. His career path involved joining the circus as a ringleader, then becoming a professional musician and touring, building a company and selling it for $22…

Show Notes A large part of my personal motivation for creating this podcast — is the privilege of speaking with those who I consider to be elders, those who have lived their lives to the absolute fullest and have stories and insights to share with younger generations about what it means to truly live well. And this conversation with Kevin Kelly tur…

Today I'm speaking with Kyle Kowalski — who might be one of the most well-read humans and certainly most relentlessly curious humans that I've ever met — in fact as he shares in this episode, he believes that his purpose or Ikigai in life is to synthesize lifelong learning that catalyzes human development. As the title of this episode suggests, we …

This is my second conversation with Anne Laure — I reached back out after I read a powerful account of her transformative experience drinking Ayahuasca 9 months ago and how following this experience, in her words, she is 'not depressed anymore, I quit drinking… And, for the first time ever and truly happy to be alive'. So we do a deep dive into her…

This is a powerful conversation with executive coach Brett Kistler — entrepreneur and executive coach who spent much of his life traveling the world full-time as an extreme sports athlete while building a remote software company. Brett also co-hosts the Art of Accomplishment podcast with Joe Hudson, who was a previous guest on this podcast. We unpa…

This is a special episode with Daniel Thorson — who I initially came across through his super podcast called 'Emerge' and later learned that he was living as a full-time monastic at the Monastic Academy in Vermont — where after a series of conversations, he persuaded me to come and sit for a 10-day retreat — which I just returned from myself recent…

Dr. John Churchill spent 15 years training and teaching “Great Seal” meditation in an Indo-Tibetan lineage and is a founding member of the Integral Institute led by the well-known philosopher, Ken Wilber. Over the last 25 years, John has developed his style of practice — an integrated Fourth Turning path — that weaves together somatically based con…

This is a slightly different type of episode — in which my friend Christofer interviewed me for his superb DO EXPLAIN Podcast. I enjoyed the conversation so much that I decided it was worth releasing here as well. This is one of the deepest dives I've done on all things related to emotional fluidity, and various modalities for working with somatics…

My brother Alex Olshonsky ~ aka. "Olo" ~ is a dear friend. We've spent time together in Guatemala, and he is fast becoming one of the most prominent voices on addiction and the psychedelic renaissance. We dive into Olo's personal story of breaking free from his proclivity to taking a cocktail of narcotics whilst working in high-growth tech startups…

Today's guest is Daniel—who goes by the name of 'Grimhood' on Twitter. I've been a subscriber to his Patreon account for a while and was so impressed with his immensely well-researched and in-depth that blended his knowledge of pharmacology with indigenous systems of medicine. In this conversation, we unpack a handful of these protocols that he sha…

Today's guest is Erwan Le Corre. Erwan is many things, including the founder of MovNat ~ which is a synthesis of his passion for physical competency with his love of movement in nature. More recently, Erwan also became a US national static breath hold record holder. In this conversation, we talk about what he describes as the challenges of 'Hamster…

Chris Sparks is a one-of-a-kind human; he's a retired professional poker pro who was once ranked one of the top 20 players in the world. But in recent years, he has applied himself to coaching and running workshops on decision-making, systems thinking, and peak performance. And as you'll hear in this conversation, he is not only brilliant but also …

Aaron is a pioneering manual therapist and movement coach, founder and creator of the Align Method. I'm currently looking at Aaron's book (The Align Method) & it's one of the books that has most impacted my relationship with not just fitness and movement, but a new philosophy of seeing the world as a playground and the fact that I'm recording this …

It's always fun to have conversations with friends and this one, in particular, has been several years in the making. If you're interested in meditation, breathwork or getting more done with more joy then this episode is a must-listen. Some of the themes we unpack include: what it means to 'expand your awareness', exploring the space and freedom be…

In this episode, Edward Dangerfield and I do a deep dive on a new modality of breathwork, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Facilitated Breath Repatterning ~ or FBR for short ~ will be globally recognised in 4-5 years' time and that the research that is beginning here in Bali will go on to make some significant discoveries about the connec…

🎙️ Episode Overview You might have come across Eric through his award-winning podcast ‘The One You Feed’ where he has interviewed hundreds of the wisest and most inspiring humans on the planet. He's also a father, serial entrepreneur, behaviour coach, and author on a quest to understand how we might live more intentional lives. And we get into the …

Paul and I first met 3 years ago at an event in Portland—he had recently left his job in corporate consulting and we bonded over how lost we'd both felt at times. Later that week I gave him a copy of 'The Three Marriages' a book by David Whyte where he talks about the Pathless Path that is required for anyone looking to do or create something origi…

🎙️ Episode Overview I'm thrilled to bring you this conversation with philosopher, writer & activist Charles Eisenstein. For those of you who aren't familiar with Charles' work—it's no exaggeration to say that his ideas contained in his books and writing have shaped my personal worldview more than any other author I can think of. What I appreciated …

This is a really unique episode—Michael King has been a mentor of mine and dear friend for nearly four years now. If it weren't for some of our conversations I'm not sure that Curious Humans would even exist, at least not in the form that it does today. I find some of his perspectives and approaches to meditation and life so refreshing and my goal …

I'm really thrilled to be bringing you this philosophical deep dive with truly I think one of the most radical and thoughtful thinkers of our generation. Dr. Zachary Stein is a co-founder of The Consilience Project—which publishes novel research and explores questions surrounding global risk mitigation and existential threats facing humanity. He is…

Joe Hudson is many things — he's a Venture Capitalist and renowned executive coach, but beyond that, he is a rare example of someone who in my perspective has accessed some profound truths about the human experience and is putting himself out there into the world helping others to find greater joy and ease in their lives. *** ❓ We begin with his pe…

In this episode, I speak with my good Twitter friend Malcolm Ocean. Malcolm is many many things, but first and foremost I consider him to be not only relentlessly curious but also prolific in sharing his practical philosophy mostly through the medium of thoughtful Twitter threads. I predicted that the experience of listening to this conversation mi…

Kelly Wilde is an artist, podcaster, performer, meditation mentor and poet who has been exploring the intersections of soul explorations, creative work and rewilding. She also happens to be my wife, and this episode fell on our 18-month anniversary — it’s a particularly juicy conversation and easily the most personal conversation that I've aired to…

Conni and I have collaborated on a number of projects over the years and we've both followed remarkably similar paths from the world of entrepreneurship into the world of breathwork & nervous system science. In this conversation, Conni starts off by sharing some of her personal journey, her various heartbreaks and compartmentalisation of her sexual…

In one of the longest and most wide-ranging episodes to date, this conversation is with filmmaker, poet, relationship coach and utterly unique human being Alice Frank—who is here as she says to proudly "eff the ineffable". Her book 'My Real Name Is You' has been loved by Eckhart Tolle said 'My favourite poem I ever heard' and Jason Mraz who shared:…

Max Stossel is an award-winning poet (whose short films have been seen over 40 million times) advisor to Tech for Humanity, successful filmmaker and all-around wise human who I'm grateful to call a brother. In this poetic + lyrical conversation we explore: 🖋️ The journey that led him from designing notification systems at a social media company to …

This is one HELL of an episode with honestly one of the most interesting and radical thinkers of our generation. Jamie is a renaissance man. He's well known for his work writing Stealing Fire and creating the Flow Genome Project—and as you'll hear in our conversation the book he has just published is unlike anything else you'll ever read. I see Jam…

Dr. Bill Plotkin is a depth psychologist, wilderness guide and visionary ecopsychologist—his work might well be the map that you didn't know you were looking for. It has been for me an immense treasure trove of practical wisdom and guidance for thinking about my own growth and maturity. At the end of our conversation, he shared that this was a book…

This seeds for this conversation were planted at the end of last year when I was listening to a podcast called ‘Hack Reality’ and Cris shared her phone number at the end of the episode—I sent her a voice memo about the Poet David Whyte... we since became good friends and when COVID hit she followed an intuitive hit to reach out and ended up living …

Arthur Worsley is a close friend of mine that I met in Bali where over many dinners together he educated me in the tactics for learning Bhasa, memorising my TEDx talk and really opened my eyes to the world of meta-learning that he has specialised in. Back in the day, he studied neurophysiology at Oxford in the UK and since became conversationally f…

Dr. Christian Busch directs the CGA Global Economy Program at (NYU) and teaches on purpose-driven business, entrepreneurship, emerging markets, and (social) innovation at NYU and at the London School of Economics (LSE). Christian is also the co-founder of Sandbox Network, a leading community of young innovators, as well as of Leaders on Purpose—an …

Casper Ter Kuile is one of the most genuinely joy-filled humans that I have had the pleasure of knowing. In this conversation we do a deep dive into his new book 'The Power of Ritual' which is out the day this episode airs, it’s honestly a perspective-shifting and heart-warmingly beautiful book on discovering the sacred amidst everyday life and see…

All I can say is that you're in for a treat with this conversation. Erick Godsey studies the myths that make us—he uses cognitive, evolutionary, and Jungian psychology to help people discover, articulate, and change the stories that rule their lives. Here is a mere smidge of the ground that we covered: 💊 Erick's view on the broken system of Western…

This conversation is with a close friend of mine, Andi Cuddington—I think of her as a modern-day renaissance woman and I’ll typically turn to her for advice if I’m going through something challenging in my life. Andi is just endlessly curious and has a totally unique lens on the world as you’ll hear in our conversation. She has had a thousand side-…

This was a wide-ranging conversation with emotional intelligence coach Emile Steenveld—previously an Australian model and actor traveling the globe for 12 years—he now works as a coach + facilitator, focusing on the inner workings of the relationship with the self and the mind. In this conversation we dive into: 🇮🇳 Emile's travels in India, learnin…

I talk with Andy Sparks, is the CEO at Holloway, they're building a new way to publish non-fiction books online (and it's gorgeous!) He's an incredibly genuine and self-aware human, it was a real pleasure spending time learning about his journey stepping into a position of leadership and forging his own path in life. Andy shares really dark moments…