The Better Show

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Coffee Chat: Avensi cups & Bottomless service Apr 04, 2020

Show notes

Note: Watch video version of this episode: www.bettershow.io/youtube
A fun bonus episode on two new coffee products, as a follow up to our recent episodes on COVID-19. In this episode we look at Avensi coffee cups and Bottomless coffee service.

Mentions

📦 Product: Avensi line of premium coffee cups
📦 Product: Bottomless coffee service w/ discount code

Nathan Baschez: COVID Economics Apr 02, 2020

Show notes

This week we are bringing you a special bonus episode as a follow up to our recent discussion on understanding economics in the age of COVID-19. In this episode Ian interviews Nathan Baschez, author of the Divinations newsletter that focuses on business strategy. Ian and Nathan discuss Nathan’s latest article on the economics of COVID-19.

Show Notes

4:18 — Nathan shares why he felt compelled to write about the economics of the COVID-19 pandemic.
7:18 — The contrast between the parts of the economy that are wiped out versus the parts of the economy that are surging.
12:39 — Nathan’s experience with the recent changes ushered in by the response to COVID-19.
15:48 — Trends and changes in online behavior as people are staying at home now.
18:05 — What strategies Nathan suggests for businesses during this time.
20:15 — The response from event organizers like SXSW over canceling events prior to the spread.
22:15 — The difference between the 2008 mortgage crisis and the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.
24:07 — The impact of supply chain disruptions.
28:25 — Nathan discusses what economic impact surprised him the most so far.
31:50 — Ian and Nathan discuss their predictions for what’s next for the economy.
36:06 — Ian closes the conversation on a positive note.

Mentions

📰 Newsletter: Divinations newsletter by Nathan Baschez
🎙️ Podcast: The Better Show Episode 128: Econ 101 in the age of COVID-19

Econ 101 in the age of COVID-19 Mar 31, 2020

Show notes

As we record this episode in March of 2020, the world is experiencing an unprecedented challenge in responding to the COVID-19 illness. To slow the spread of COVID-19, governments around the world have instituted significant restrictions on social interactions that have disrupted daily life and resulted in a lot of economic uncertainty and personal anxiety.

In this episode, we aim to help alleviate that anxiety by explaining what is going on right now with the economy. We discuss the economic impacts of COVID-19, explore why the stock market is fluctuating so wildly, and offer tips for how to navigate your financial situation in these changing economic times.

Show Notes

1:59 — Ian outs Darren as a true economics geek.
3:28 — Alternate episode recommendation if this topic isn’t your jam.
5:50 — Why the ability to understand what’s going on with the economy helps our mental health during uncertain times.
8:09 — What exactly is going on right now with the financial markets?
10:58 — How this situation is different than previous economic downturns.
17:10 — Ian suggests the Divinations newsletter by Nathan Baschez as another helpful resource to understand what’s happening now with the economy
17:35 — March makes an observation of how an economic slowdown is similar to holding one’s breath.
19:39 — Why we are fortunate that the economy was in a growth cycle when this pandemic hit.
23:05 — Why the stock market is so volatile right now.
27:45 — We discuss how to think about cryptocurrency.
30:38 — What is the role of government and regulators and what action is being taken by the US government to help stabilize the economy.
37:20 — What does it mean for an economy to be in a recession and what does it mean for ordinary people.
43:19 — What does this economic downturn mean for older individuals?
45:25 — We find some bright spots in the midst of challenging circumstances.
46:20 — What is happening to mortgage rates right now.
51:15 — What to do now if you’ve suffered significant losses to your savings.
53:15 —What does it mean to simply “do nothing” in response to this economic fluctuation.
54:09 — How much emergency cash should you have on hand.
56:23 — Darren recommends other podcasts and resources for learning and staying informed about economic issues.

Mentions

📰 Newsletter: Divinations newsletter by Nathan Baschez
🎙️ Podcast: NPR Marketplace
🎙️ Podcast: Planet Money
🎙️ Podcast: The Indicator from Planet Money
🎙️ Podcast: EconTalk with Russ Roberts (for those who want to go REALLY deep into economic theory)

Better Strength Training Pt.2 Mar 24, 2020

Show notes

Show Notes

1:55 — Darren reveals that strength training isn’t his absolute favorite activity and March shares why it is so important.
3:11 — The difficulty in getting to the gym in the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic.
4:27 — How to decide what kind of strength training regimen is for you if you’ve never done this before.
6:28 — The downsides of “skipping leg day” and the relationship between opposing muscles.
8:35 — Getting started with strength training including exercises that use your own body weight, exercises that use machines and using free weights.
11:55 — Finding a place to exercise at home and what exercises to start with.
13:28 — How to tell if you are “pushing the button.”
16:44 — Slow push-ups and how they work for strength training.
19:31 — How to do ring row exercises, pull-ups, and hand-stand push-ups.
24:50 — One-legged squats.
28:38 — How to determine how much weight to start with.
31:58 — How should you stretch and what is the difference between stretching and warming up?
36:02 —How to think about cardio.
38:10 — Diet considerations.
40:55 — How to plan your ramp-up program and balance workouts with recovery.
48:01 — Final thoughts.

Mentions

📰 Website: Workout routine from Nerd Fitness
📰 Article: How to stay in shape without leaving the house

Better Strength Training Pt.1 Mar 17, 2020

Show notes

Show Notes

3:49 — March shares stats about the minimum recommended amount of strength training.
7:15 — The different classes of exercise and the benefits and different results of each.
9:35 — What is sarcopenia and why strength training guards against it.
13:40 — Why strength training can reduce your risk of falling in old age.
15:44 — The minimum threshold for exercise to qualify as strength training and why it’s important to “push the button.”
22:03 — Ian shared his experience with strength training.
25:11 — The Centenarian Olympics
26:50 — Darren’s history (or lack thereof) with strength training and the conversation he had with his doctor that changed his perspective on exercise and living a healthy lifestyle.
31:30 — Strength training that you can do at home.
36:28 — How soreness is related to exercise and strength training and how to adjust the frequency of your workout to minimize soreness.
40:50 — Ian is curious about how to combine his sauna routine into his strength training routine to maximize the health benefits.

Mentions

📰 Website: The Centenarian Olympics
📰 Article: How to stay in shape without leaving the house

Celeste Headlee on Do Nothing: How to Break Away from Overworking, Overdoing, and Underliving Mar 10, 2020

Show notes

Show Notes

To purchase Celeste’s new book visit https://amzn.to/2PSSZ4X
2:45 — Ian welcomes back Celeste to The Better Show.
4:14 — Why slowing down and learning to sometimes “do nothing” is a important to our individual health and well-being.
8:20 — Ian asks whether the idea of overworking is a cultural phenomenon or if it is just a western trait.
10:10 — We learn about the “hedonic treadmill” and how this adaptation of human psychology affects our behaviors towards work, money, and time.
12:30 —Celeste shares the story of how she came to a turning point with her work-life balance and how being out of balance deeply affected her health and happiness.
18:00 — How the things we do to save time end up costing us time in the long run.
19:18 — How the invention of the steam engine completely transformed the way we think about (and value) time.
21:21 — If we’ve adopted all these time saving techniques and technologies, why aren’t we working fewer hours each week compared to how we worked 50 years ago?
22:54 — Celeste shares things we can do to begin to recapture our time and increase the quality of our lives.
23:32 — Why digital communication tends not to save us time.
26:20 — Ian asks whether we have to shun technology if we are going to recapture the quality of our lives.
28:20 — How multitasking can actually do cognitive damage to your brain.
31:11 — Why Celeste makes it a point to throw more parties.
32:00 — How the changes that Celeste made in her life really constituted a lifestyle change and how she introduced the change with her friends.
34:00—Are we obsessed with researching decisions to death at the expense of actually making the decision?
39:50 — The one thing that Celeste recommends people start with in order to make progress on this aspect of their life: do a time audit to see how you are REALLY spending your time.
43:01 — Ian asks Darren and March to share their impressions of the interview with Celeste and Darren draws a parallel between Celeste’s concept of “doing nothing” and the Slow Food Movement.
44:12 — March reflects on the difference between the tool and the implementation of the tool.
47:20 — Ian reflects on how he wants more meaning and intention in how he spends his time.
49:16 — Darren shares how Celeste’s observation of the hedonic treadmill seemed, to him, like a very deep truth about the human condition.
50:05 — March offers the suggestion of a well-being audit to get a sense for what things in life cause you happiness and unhappiness.
52:14 — Ian shares how Celeste’s insights on the history were helpful in giving him an idea of how different generations have different perspectives on their values.
55:22 — March reflects on the value of questioning our cultural assumptions about time equaling money.
59:47 — The team ends on a note of optimism about the future and our ability to use Celeste’s observations to improve our future.

Mentions

📖 Book: Do Nothing by Celeste Headlee

Our Best (Failed) Experiments Mar 03, 2020

Show notes

Have a request for a show topic? Give us a call on The Better Show hotline at +1 971–333–8007.

Show Notes

2:31 — Ian recommends the book Fail Forward by Thomas Nelson.
3:02 — Darren reflects on his failure to consistently meditate.
6:10 — How travel can interrupt your routines and a method that Ian uses to counteract the interruption.
7:13 — March finds a quiet place in the middle of a noisy airport.
9:20 — March shares a very unpleasant experiment he tried with cold water swimming in the Irish Sea as a form of cold therapy.
11:50 — Ian observes that his Finnish heritage hasn’t helped him embrace the cold water therapy.
15:40 — Ian’s difficulty in adopting the Productivity Planner.
21:35 — March and Darren share a failure they have in common in their attempt to adopt a HIIT (high intensity interval training) workout.
27:29 — Darren references the classic movie scene “7 Minute Abs” from the movie Something About Mary.
28:53 — Ian’s shares his difficulty in trying to reduce his consumption of meat.
32:17 — March offers Ian a couple of tips to try to reduce his meat consumption.
39:31 — We learn that Darren loves his movies and TV series too much to seriously reduce his screen time and rattles off a few of his favorites including The Two Popes, For All Mankind, Billions, and The Mandalorian (3 cheers for Baby Yoda!).
44:31 — March learns just how difficult it is to learn a new language without being fully immersed in it.
48:29 — Ian’s unrealized dream of trying to master lucid dreaming.
50:40 — March finds a study that shows how Vitamin B6 can affect the intensity of dreams.

Mentions

📖 Book: Fail Forward by Thomas Nelson
📺 Movie: The Two Popes
📺 TV Series: For All Mankind
📺 TV Series: Billions
📺 TV Series: The Mandalorian
📦 Product: Productivity Planner by Intelligent Change
📺 Video: Wim Hof breathing: Kevin Rose 16 min intro video

Better Bite: Lumen Feb 25, 2020

Show notes

Show Notes

1:55 — How Darren discovered the Lumen device and why he was interested in trying it out.
2:58 — What is Indiegogo anyway?
5:21 — Describing the physical device and what it does.
6:05 — How does Lumen measure your metabolism and what science backs up this method.
10:42 — What kinds of nutritional advice does Lumen provide and why does it matter?
12:33 — Darren demonstrates how he uses the device and walks us through what data he enters into the app and what advice the device provides.
19:49 — Darren starts his day with a recommended diet and we learn how to identify a single serving of carbohydrates.
21:51 — The benefits of simply paying attention to your body’s signals.
23:48 — The process Lumen uses to personalize its recommendations to your body.
26:12 — Darren makes history by declining a chocolate chip cookie offered to him by Ian.
26:47 — Ian gets an answer to his question about whether he can share a device with his wife, Carine.
29:07 — Darren’s key takeaways from using the Lumen so far.

Mentions

📦 Product: Lumen: Hack Your Metabolism

Better Look Back Vol. 9 Feb 18, 2020

Show notes

Show Notes

3:59 — March shares the results from his experiment with reducing his alcohol to improve the quality of his sleep.
6:57 — How his heart rate variability has changed based on measurements from his Oura ring.
7:50 — Matthew Walker’s interview with Kevin Rose on the effects of alcohol on sleep quality.
9:52 — Darren’s results on increasing his exercise to help combat the winter blues.
10:45 — The record-breaking winter weather that Seattle has experienced this year.
11:23 — How combining his goal of working from home has helped Darren carve out time for exercise and made it easier to cook at home more.
12:30 — Ian shares what he’s done to improve the effectiveness of meetings that he organizes at work using tips from episode 102: Better Meetings.
13:50 — What happens when none of the meeting participants read the meeting agenda ahead of time.
15:37 — The results of March’s experiment with recording all his meetings and sharing the recording with others.
16:35 —March shares a pro tip of playing meeting recordings back at 2X speed.
17:30 — The etiquette of giving attendees a heads up that the meeting is being recorded.
18:40 — Meetings that March specifically does not record.
19:55 — Darren’s experiment with hot-cold therapy using the sauna at the gym followed by a cold shower.
22:28 — March introduces Ian and Darren to the sauna sleeping bag and the sweat box.
23:40 — We discuss the ridiculousness of the home sweat box available from Alibaba and Darren remarks at the similarity between the sweat box image and Violet Beauregarde blowing up into a blueberry from the Willy Wonka movie. 😂
26:01 — Ian shares his experience with adopting the Peloton as his regular exercise routine.
28:35 — The impact of adopting some of the tactics offered by B.J. Fogg in establishing strong habits.
31:04 — March reflects on hosting more dinner parties to increase the quality time with his friends and the knock-on effects in his community.
32:40 — Tips for Ian as he’s house hunting to ensure that
33:15 — Darren reflects on tactics he adopted from Episode 104: Friendships to stay better connected to close friends across the country.

Mentions

📦 Product: The home sweat box from Alibaba
🎙️ Podcast: Episode 104: Friendships
🎙️ Podcast: Episode 102: Meetings Part 1
🎙️ Podcast: Episode 87: Circadian Rhythms
🎙️ Podcast: Episode 116: Habits 2020
🎙️ Podcast: Episode 117:Beat winter blues
🎙️ Podcast: Episode 64: Work from home

Better Wellbeing Through Doing Nothing Feb 10, 2020

Show notes

Show Notes

1:40 — The inspiration for this episode.
4:38 — What “doing nothing” every once in a while is important.
7:42 — Darren ponders why we seem to be busier than ever even as we introduce new technology that is supposed to save us time
8:21 — March shares an interesting finding from a recent survey that showed that only 17% of Americans spent any time just being with their thoughts in the past month.
10:40 — The definition of “burnout” and the research into the risk factors for burnout.
13:37 — The connection between loneliness, technology and burnout.
15:01 — Ian shares his personal experience of studying stoicism as a remedy for personal burnout.
17:53 — The importance of recognizing the importance of stillness in life.
19:14 — March’s experiment with creating a time for stillness and the similarity he found with a meditation practice.
20:58 — Paying attention to the “default mode network” of the brain and the tendency toward negative thoughts.
22:51 — Darren shares how he has prioritized his “IRL” interactions and his yoga practice as ways of guarding against personal burnout.
25:35 — Tactics Ian and March use to create space in their lives for stillness.
29:54 — The benefit that being bored helps foster your creativity.
30:47 — March shares the findings from “the phone book study” about boredom and creativity.
34:59 — The benefits of quiet time and “boredom” on short-term memory and social interactions.
36:49 — Cognitive behavioral therapy.
38:28 — The Happiness Trap by Russ Harriss
41:15 — Using the tactic of setting boundaries as a way to prevent personal burnout.
42:39 — Make Time by Jake Knapp
43:40 — The Bored & Brilliant Challenge from the Note to Self podcast.
46:40 — Taking a “stay-cation” to reduce stress and burnout.
48:52 — March, Ian and Darren share the things they are going to adopt from this episode.

Mentions

🎙️ Podcast: Bored and brilliant challenge from the Note to Self podcast
📰 Article: Why the Internet Has Made Us Lonelier Than Ever (Psychology Today)
🎵 Music: Kind of Blue album by Miles Davis
🎵 Music: Disintegration album by The Cure
📖 Book: Stillness is the Key” by Ryan Holiday
📖 Book: The Obstacle is The Way
📖 Book: Ego is the Enemy
📖 Book: Inner Engineering: A Yogi’s Guide to Joy
📖 Book: The Happiness Trap by Russ Harriss
🎙️ Related episode: Episode 5: Meditation for focus & happiness
🎙️ Related episode: Episode 56: How Morning Routines Make the day
🎙️ Related episode: Episode 61: Better Health Through Yoga
🎙️ Related episode: Episode 20: Controlling Screen Time, So It Doesn’t Control You

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