Josh: The Podcast

What's important to you? We discuss legacy in the wake of Kobe Bryant's death. Links: • Kobe Bryant's death • PPNs • Master Key Experience

We're heading toward the first primaries and The Portal podcaster Eric Weinstein has hit upon an interesting concept: the Distributed Information Suppression Complex (DISC). Links: • The Portal: DISC Intro | The Portal with Bret Weinstein • 2nd Amendment rally in Richmond • The Reminder • Bret Weinstein's story • Duncan Trussell • Sinclair's weird editorial promos • "Pump Up the Volume"

You can't just ask the universe to help you out. You have to do the work. Links: • Andy Frisella • JKWD Podcast • Steph Davis • Lessons from Learning to Fly • Stephen King's advice to writers • Steven Pressfield • Alex Honnold | "Free Solo" • Law of Attraction • "The Secret"

In the first unscripted podcast of the year, we discuss the Trump impeachment mess, the price of speech, and actually some positive stuff. Links: • Articles of impeachment against Andrew Johnson • Articles of impeachment against Bill Clinton • Articles of impeachment against Donald Trump • Chuck Bonniwell's bad joke • On the first amendment and losing our humor • Noetic podcast with Jared Angaza

You don't need resolutions. You need habits. Go. Links: • Wrapping up 2019

Wrapping up what happened this year -- and what an eventful year it was! This episode is brought to you by Kettle & Fire. Save 10% off your order with code BetterHumanhood. Links: • Can't Hurt Me by David Goggins • Creativity: The Human Brain in the Age of Innovation by Elkhonon Goldberg • Feck Perfuction by James Victore • Sapiens and Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari • Discipline Equals Freedom Field Manual by Jocko Willink • Notes on Feck Perfection • Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth by R. Buckminster Fuller • The War of Art, Turning Pro and Do the Work by Steven Pressfield

Nobody has ever put the mission of Better Humanhood so succinctly. Give a shit. Let's explore. This episode is brought to you by Kettle & Fire. Save 10% off your order with code BetterHumanhood. Links: • Whitney Cummings on Bert Kreischer's podcast • JoshShear.com; Give a shit

Feck Perfuction by James Victore was one of my favorite books that I read in 2019 (and I probably read over five dozen). We look at some of my highlights. This episode is brought to you by Kettle & Fire. Save 10% off your order with code BetterHumanhood. Links: • Feck Perfuction by James Victore • Steven Pressfield • Can't Hurt Me by David Goggins • The Five Second Rule by Mel Robbins • JoshShear.com: Notes on Feck Perfuction

We all have things we remember from our childhoods that match up across generational cohorts. But what are some of the things you're nostalgic about that aren't shared memories? This episode is brought to you by Kettle & Fire. Save 10% off your order with code BetterHumanhood. Links: • Hood • Murphy's Pop Stop closes • Frankie & Johnnie • JoshShear.com: Our unshared memories  

Happy Thanksgiving! If you have some elementary school students in your life, they're probably making hand turkeys and dressing up as Pilgrims and American Indians. But how much of what we learned in school is true? This episode is brought to you by Kettle & Fire. Save 10% off your order with code BetterHumanhood. Links: • Country Living: Thanksgiving • Wikipedia: Thanksgiving • Wikipedia: The Reformation • National Geographic: Thanksgiving • Native Hope: What Thanksgiving means to Native Americans • "The Real Story of Thanksgiving" • JoshShear.com: Thanksgiving origin myth

Why do we celebrate birthdays, anyway? This episode is brought to you by Kettle & Fire. Save 10% off your order with code BetterHumanhood. Links: • St. Jude Children's Research Hospital • Fight for the Forgotten • Shriners Hospitals for Children • Pencils of Promise • Charity: Water • Patton Oswalt: You get like 20 birthdays • JoshShear.com: Why do we celebrate birthdays?

Beyond faith, we actually agree on some myths that help society thrive. This episode is brought to you by Kettle & Fire. Save 10% off your order with code BetterHumanhood. Links: • Sapiens, • The Dunbar number • JoshShear.com: The myths we share

Our look into U.S. holidays continues with the history of Veterans Day. This episode is brought to you by Kettle & Fire. Save 10% off your order with code BetterHumanhood. Links: • Episode 20: Flag Day 2019 • Episode 17: Memorial Day 2019 • History Channel on Veterans Day • Wikipedia on Veterans Day • The differences between Veterans Day and Memorial Day • JoshShear.com: Veterans Day

We continue our exploration of holidays with a look at Halloween and Day of the Dead. This episode is brought to you by Kettle & Fire. Save 10% off your order with code BetterHumanhood. Links: • Halloween by Robert Burns • Doug Stanhope talking about his mother's suicide • Japanese custom of sorting cremated remains with chopsticks • Samhain • Day of the Dead • Coco • Legend of the jack-o-lantern • Jehova's Witness take on Halloween • JoshShear.com: Origins of Halloween and Day of the Dead

Just about everyone who generates prescriptions for creativity includes some version of get some alone time, get out in nature or spend some time in silence. And just about everyone says you have to show up and do creative work for creativity to really shine through. This episode is brought to you by Kettle & Fire. Save 10% off your order with code BetterHumanhood. Links: • Flow Research Project • Flow • Steven Kotler • Flow Genome Project • The Rise of Superman • Stealing Fire • Idea sex • Creativity • Richard Branson • Elon Musk • Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth • Peter Drucker • The Innovator's Cookbook • Where Good Ideas Come From • The Creative Brain • JoshShear.com; How to be more creative

What do some of the most innovative minds in history have in common? Not much, which means you can learn to be creative. This episode is brought to you by Kettle & Fire. Save 10% off your order with code BetterHumanhood. Links: • Creativity by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi • Creativity by Elkhonon Goldberg • The Creative Brain • Creativity: The Perfect Crime • JoshShear.com: Creative Minds

It doesn't matter if you want to be part of the creative machine, you're in it. Getting through your day often involves creative decisions that not only didn't our parents have to make when they were our age, but also that no one would have even conceived of a decade and a half ago. This episode is brought to you by Kettle & Fire. Save 10% off your order with code BetterHumanhood. Links: • Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth • Fight for the Forgotten • Creativity • Corporate Creativity • Eisenhower warns of a military-industrial complex •  ARPAnet • JoshShear.com: An argument for creativity

Until very recently, neuroscience has had literally no clue what creativity looks like in the brain, but our knowledge of the brain is constantly expanding, and now we finally do have some understanding of the parts of the brain involved in creativity. This episode is brought to you by Kettle & Fire. Save 10% off your order with code BetterHumanhood. Links: • The Origins of Creativity • Creativity: The Human Brain in the Age of Innovation • Fire Up Your Writing Brain • The Psychopath Inside • Why We Sleep • JoshShear.com: What is creativity, and where does it come from?

In which we learn that celebrities are really just people. This episode is brought to you by Kettle & Fire. Save 10% off your order with code BetterHumanhood. Links: • Sean Lennon on Marc Maron's podcas • Kim Kardashian working on sentencing reform • U.S. malls that don't allow unaccompanied teens • Kurt Cobain's suicide note • JoshShear.com: The myth of celebrity

Being able to consider various perspectives gives you power. This episode is brought to you by Kettle & Fire. Save 10% off your order with code BetterHumanhood. Links: • First part of our series on empathy • Empathy: Why It Matters and How To Get It • Revisionist History • Thought experiment: 50-year rollback • Why context matters • America First Committee • Trump tells Jewish Republicans that America is full • JoshShear.com: Gaining some perspective