Mixed Mental Arts

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Ep88 - Dov Davidoff Dec 26, 2013

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It's the Bryan Callen Christmas Special. Bryan sits down with actor, comedian and good friend, Dov Davidoff. Be sure to Rate and Comment on iTunes.

Ep87 - Daniel Coyle Dec 23, 2013

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Daniel Coyle kept hearing about places all over world where talent flourished. They weren't necessarily well-funded. They weren't necessarily in big cities. In fact, quite often, these talent hot spots looked run down and neglected, but inside what was happening was something very close to magic: ordinary people were being turned into top-level performers. From a Russian tennis camp to soccer coaching in the slums of Brazil to an unlikely music camp, Coyle found that "Greatness isn't born. It's Grown." In The Talent Code—which, by the way, is one of the best books you'll ever read—Daniel Coyle lays out those secrets and let's the world that it's not just about doing 10,000 hours of practice…it's about doing the right kind of practice. In this episode, Bryan, Hunter and Dan talk about the book, their own experiences and the one thing required to fix education today. Dan has an excellent blog, which you can read at thetalentcode.com. You can follow him on Twitter at @DanielCoyle. The Talent Code and his follow up book The Little Book of Talent are available from all good booksellers. Only a truly evil bookstore wouldn't carry The Talent Code. Be sure to Rate and Comment on iTunes.

Ep86 - Jessimae Peluso Dec 19, 2013

Show notes

Bryan sit down with MTV's Girl Code, Jessimae Peluso. She is "a bottle rocket with a pulse," headed in only the expected, upward trajectory of a firecracker, and ready to explode. The self-proclaimed "insecure narcissist" has founded a solid comic reputation in New York City and beyond, slaying audiences with her unequivocal, straightforward, ravishingly raw humor. Slamming listeners with her stances on everything from her roots in Syracuse New York, her fear of children to her infatuation with John Stamos, Jessimae will lay her hook in you from the moment she hits the stage. The dynamic Jessimae Peluso is an artist in the truest sense of the word, persistently out to challenge herself and her audience. Be sure to Rate and Comment on iTunes.

Ep85 - Steve Ujifusa Dec 16, 2013

Show notes

Growing up in the age of the great transatlantic liner, William Francis Gibbs had only one dream: to build the world's greatest ship. In that age, nations competed to build the largest, most luxurious and the fastest ship. In particular, they competed to win the Blue Riband, the prize awarded to the fastest ship to cross the Atlantic. Although Gibbs was the product of tremendous wealth and privilege, he was clear that it was not his family's fortune that made him a success rather it was his father losing it all. Forced to drop out of Harvard and lacking basic mathematical skills, Gibbs became America's greatest naval architect through boundless determination. Although he would build many ships, it was that first ship that he dreamed of that would mark the high-water mark of his career. The SS United States would be the largest, most luxurious and the fastest ship would know. It was also the last ship to hold the Blue Riband. In a book The Wall Street Journal called one of the ten best non-fiction books of 2012, Steve Ujifusa recounts the tale of the Steve Jobs of shipping, William Francis Gibbs. A Man and His Ship is available everywhere and in all formats. Be sure to Rate and Comment on iTunes.

Ep84 - Don Barris Dec 12, 2013

Show notes

Don's has an unique brand of comedy unlike most other comics and that makes him the clubs perfect closing act every night. Don was the co-creater/star of the cult classic film, "Windy City Heat", which was developed in the Comedy Store's Belly Room. The show is now called The Ding-Dong Show and it continues every Monday night as it has since 1992 making it the longest running show in the clubs history. Don can also be seen nightly as the audience warm-up for ABC's, "Jimmy Kimmel Live". Don's eyes are blue and his relationship status is complicated.

Ep83 - Jack O'Brien (Cracked.com) Dec 09, 2013

Show notes

For decades your teachers, authority figures and textbooks have been lying to you. You do not have five senses. Your tongue doesn't have neatly segregated taste-bud zones. You don't know what the pyramids really looked like. You're even pooping wrong - Jesus, you're a wreck! Fortunately, the team from Cracked.com is here to clue you in on the truth. Jack O'Brien, the editor-in-chief of Cracked.com, joins Bryan on the show to share with us the latest book from the popular site. Bringing together six years worth of research, The De-Textbook was built from the ground up to systematically seek out, dismantle and destroy the many untruths that years of misguided education have left festering inside of you, and leave you a smarter person...whether you like it or not. The De-Textbook is a merciless, brutal learning machine. It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are informed. It's also incredibly entertaining as is this episode of The Bryan Callen Show.The De-Textbook is available from all good booksellers. You can find out more about The De-Textbook at http://www.cracked.com/the-de-textbook/. (Note to attentive readers: You will notice that this write-up is taken almost verbatim from this site. That's because while Hunter normally does careful episode write-ups, he was so impressed by the lively writing found on the Cracked.com website that he decided he should mostly just copy and paste. As a side note, if you scroll down there's a fun sneak peak at what the book actually looks like.) By the way, you can also follow Jack O'Brien on twitter @jack_obrien. We just did.

Ep82 - Jay Larson Dec 05, 2013

Show notes

Bryan sits down with comedian, Jay Larson. They discuss a variety of topics. With appearances on TOSH.0, The Late Late show, The Smoking Gun Presents, Conan and his own half hour special on Comedy Central Jay has come a long way since he moved to Los Angeles in 2000. After flunking out of college, then finally getting accepted back after many attempts, Jay threw away his diploma to pursue a career in Stand Up comedy. After living in a condemned house for 14 months, I mean who hasn't, Jay started opening for comedy greats such as Nick Swardson, Daniel Tosh and Pablo Fransisco. He soon became known as a comedian with a whacky, original voice who tends to get a little weird. Since those early days Jay has continued climbing the ranks with multiple TV appearances, many internet short films and his first album, "Self-Diagnosed", available on itunes direct lender payday loans. His voice continues to grow as he has delved into the world of interacting with strangers and creating conflict with people he doesn't know. Jay is a fantastic storyteller, showcased weekly on his podcast, "The Crabfeast" on Jay Mohr's Fake Mustache Studios. With TV projects in development, be sure to catch Jay now before he ignores everyone...forever…seriously...he will.

Ep81 - Tim Ferriss Dec 02, 2013

Show notes

By 2004, Tim Ferriss was running an online brain and body supplements company that was grossing $40,000 a month. He was his own boss. He was making a lot of money. Things seemed good until one day his girlfriend handed him a plaque that read "Business Hours End at 5p.m.!" Suddenly, it dawned on Tim that things were actually very, very bad. What did success matter if you didn't have the time to enjoy your life? So, he booked himself a ticket to Europe and promptly had a nervous breakdown. He didn't know what to do with himself. His entire identity was wrapped up in his work. It didn't matter that he was his own boss, because he still had no freedom. And so, Tim embarked on a quest to figure out how to get maximum results in the minimum amount of time. The result has been the incredibly successful 4-hour series of books. The 4-Hour Workweek, The 4-Hour Body, The 4-Hour Chef have all become bestsellers and been translated into dozens of languages. Ferriss' website has a million visitors a month. Now, with The Tim Ferriss Experiment, Ferriss gives himself one week to master skills using the techniques he lays out in the 4-Hour series. He has one week to learn a language. He has one week to build a business. He has one week to learn parkour. The disciplines are wildly different for a reason. They offer Ferriss the chance to show that all learning works in the same way and that the set of strategies Ferriss has developed to learn the maximum amount in the minimum amount of time can be applied to any and every skill. In this episode, Tim, Bryan and Hunter discuss Ferriss' meta-learning strategies, what makes an effective teacher and how we can all get the most out of our most valuable resource: time.Tim Ferris blogs at http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/. You can follow him on twitter at @tferriss. His books are all available on Amazon. And although you can watch The Tim Ferriss Experiment pretty much anywhere, he especially appreciates views and reviews on iTunes, where, by the way, the first episode—where he has one week to get good enough at drums to play in concert with the rock band Foreigner—is free.

Ep80 - Joe Rogan Nov 28, 2013

Show notes

Bryan sits down with comedian, UFC Commentator, and Podcaster of the "Joe Rogan Experience," good friend, Joe Rogan. They discuss their personal hunting experiences and as a added bonus, Master Hunter Steven Rinella.

Ep79 - David Grann Nov 25, 2013

Show notes

"Grann himself inspires a devotion in readers that can border on the obsessive," writes a Slate journalist describing the work of New Yorker reporter David Grann. We can understand why. Grann's work is obsessively researched and crafted until he produces journalism so exquisitely wrought that you found yourself obsessively talking about it with anyone who will listen. Fittingly enough, Grann's favorite topic to write about is obsession—the obsession of explorers, detectives, murderers, con artists or anyone. In his first book, The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon, Grann tells the story of Percy Fawcett a once world famous explorer's search for El Dorado, a legendary city Fawcett believed to be in the Amazon. Through penis-parasitizing fish, terrifying parasites and much more, Fawcett's expedition endured a harrowing journey through one of the most potentially deadly places on the planet. In his second book, The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession Grann brings together his finest articles for The New Yorker in one place. You might as well buy them both, because once you read one you'll want to obsessively read the other. Be sure to Rate and Comment on iTunes.

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