The Case for Smiling at Strangers

What if the chains holding you back… are on the inside? What if the rules constraining what you do and say and think … are ones you didn’t even know you were following? In this episode, the biggest and most challenging one I’ve ever produced, we’ll follow four different stories of people finding the courage to write their own minds. This is the story of freedom you can’t see. ReferencesBerlin, I. (1969). Two Concepts of Liberty’. https://faculty.www.umb.edu/steven.levine/Courses/Action/Berlin.pdfFoner, E. (2016). Give me liberty! (6th AP). W W Norton.Franklin, B. (1753). Letter to Peter Collinson. Teaching American History; Ashbrook Center. https://teachingamericanhistory.org/document/letter-to-peter-collinson/Franklin, B. (1784). Founders Online: Remarks concerning the Savages of North America, [before 7 Jan …. Founders.archives.gov. https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-41-02-0280Gowdy, J. M. (1998). Limited wants, unlimited means : a reader on hunter-gatherer economics and the environment. Island Press.Green, H. (2025, October 2). You are probably underestimating Jane Goodall’s impact. YouTube; Vlogbrothers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_FzzLeA6pkHarris, M. (1995). Cultural Anthropology. Good Year Books.Peterson, D. (2006). Jane Goodall : the woman who redefined man. Houghton Mifflin Co.Ronda, J. P. (1977). “We are well as we are”: An Indian critique of seventeenth-century Christian missions. The William and Mary Quarterly, 34(1), 66. JSTOR. https://doi.org/10.2307/1922626Sahlins, M. (1981). Stone age economics. Aldine.Thwaites, R. G. (Ed.). (1896–1901). The Jesuit relations and allied documents: Travels and explorations of the Jesuit missionaries in New France, 1610–1791; the original French, Latin, and Italian texts, with English translations and notes (Vols. 1–73). Burrows Bros. Co. https://archive.org/details/jesuit-relations-allied-documents Westover, T. (2018). Educated: A memoir. Random House.

Anybody out there like to do big things? Anybody out there feel like your life is so full sometimes you can barely think? Anybody out there wonder if there’s a better way? Yeah … me too. In this much belated episode, I’m asking big questions about how much work is enough and how to make that happen in an ambitious life … because, right now, I’m right I’ve got no way around those questions. The story of the picnic table comes from Draft No. 4. It was retold in Cal Newport's Slow Productivity where some of the stories in this episode also originated. Research on the relationship between work quantity and quality is summarized in Scott Young's book, Get Better at Anything. ReferencesMcphee, J. (2018a). Draft No. 4 : On the Writing Process. Farrar, Straus And Giroux.Mcphee, J. (2018b). Pine Barrens. Daunt Books.Newport, C. (2023, April 28). Danielle Steel and the Tragic Appeal of Overwork - Cal Newport. Study Hacks. https://calnewport.com/danielle-steel-and-the-tragic-appeal-of-overwork/Newport, C. (2024). Slow Productivity. Penguin.Pema Chödrön. (2018). The wisdom of no escape : and the path of loving-kindness. Shambhala Publications, Inc.quoteresearch. (2013, September 16). Quote Origin: “To Be Is To Do” “To Do Is To Be” “Do Be Do Be Do” – Quote Investigator®. Quoteinvestigator.com. https://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/09/16/do-be-do/Young, S. H. (2024). Get Better at Anything: 12 Maxims for Mastery. HarperCollins UK.

A cheery greeting to people on the street can come off as fake or even intrusive. Here why I do it anyway.

I’d been a vegetarian for over a decade, when a desert survival trip changed how I thought about food. This episode explores the hidden costs behind everything we eat and asks, “If we must kill to live, how should we live in return?" Here's a link to Tovar Cerulli's The Mindful Carnivore. You should check it out. You could order it online ... but it would be more awesome if you ordered it through your local bookshop.

"Earth’s moon is more than just a pretty light in the night sky—it’s jackpot of a cosmic lottery. From perfect eclipses to a stable axis, discover why our moon is the most astonishing stroke of luck in the solar system."#astronomy facts#spacemystery#moonscience

What if the solution to your problem was worked out for you … 500 years ago. This is the story of the Oak Beams of New College, Oxford, and a secret plot that lasted for five centuries. In this episode, I tell you that this story is a legend because it did not happen exactly as it was told. Read on to find out more. This story was told to Stewart Brand of the Whole Earth Catalog by Gregory Bateson, a linguist and anthropologist who was interested in systems theory and, for a while, the husband of Margaret Mead. The replacement oaks were not planted at the college's founding but some years later in the 1400s. And they weren't planted expressly for the purpose of replacing the ones in the dining hall ... but they were planted for just that type of thing. The college had been managing its woodlots to provide large timbers for centuries, even if the drama of the scene described here was a little less dramatic. As I said in the episode. This story is true as many legends are. It is based upon things that actually happened and its lesson is a real one, and one that the nameless foresters of New College knew.

I didn’t think I liked the circus.But one night under a Cirque du Soleil tent changed that. In this episode, I reflect on why — and what it taught me about beauty, teamwork, and the fine line between entertainment and art.https://www.youtube.com/@IHeartThisPodcast

Feeling like you’ve got this whole life thing figured out? Yeah, me neither. In this episode . . . lessons learned from trying to live a more appreciative life and screwing it up over and over again. It’s about wonder, ritual, letting go of perfection, and three magic words that actually did change my life. Visit I Heart This on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@IHeartThisPodcast

Rocks seem almost like the dictionary example of “boring.” But in 1788, some curious guys standing on a rugged Scottish shoreline saw something entirely different — a revelation that shattered the known timeline of Earth and made them physically dizzy with wonder.In this episode, we follow those guys to one of science’s greatest discoveries — and what it has to tell us about the nature of wonder itself. 

What are you thankful for? Take a second to think …  Got it? …  Whatever it is, I’d bet it’s not your ballpoint pen. But maybe it should be.