The Matt Townsend Show

Matt Townsend specializes in energizing and involving audiences with his unique approach to building and maintaining successful relationships. Known as one of America’s top presenters in the field of Human Relations and Development, Matt blends humor and story telling with interactive, real-life solutions that motivate and inspire his listeners.

Latest Episodes:

How to Solve Unsolvable Problems, Human Cultural Evolution Jun 28, 2018

Show notes

How to Solve Unsolvable Problems (14:50) David Niven, Ph.D., is the author of the book: "It's Not About the Shark: How to Solve Unsolvable Problems". Dr. Niven’s "The 100 Simple Secrets of Happy People" – and seven other titles in the series – has sold more than 1 million copies in the U.S., and has been translated in 30 languages. Dr. Niven shares his approach to solve tough problems by focusing on the solution. Human Cultural Evolution (1:00:19) Joseph Henrich, Ph.D., is the Canada Research Chair in Culture, Cognition and Coevolution at the University of British Columbia, where he teaches both Economics and Psychology. He is also Professor of Human Evolutionary Biology, at Harvard. His new book is "The Secret of Our Success: How Culture Is Driving Human Evolution, Domesticating Our Species, and Making Us Smarter". Professor Joe Henrich argues it’s not our brains that saved us, but our culture. 00:00:00 - Introduction 00:14:50 - How to Solve Unsolvable Problems 01:60:19 - Human Cultural Evolution

Resolve Emotional Conflicts, What Your Mom Has to Do With Marriage Jun 27, 2018

Show notes

Resolve Emotionally-Charged Conflicts (12:39) Daniel Shapiro, Ph.D., is the founder and director of the Harvard International Negotiation Program, which pioneers innovative strategies and teaching methodologies to address the human dimensions of conflict resolution. Dr. Shapiro is the author of the book "Negotiating the Nonnegotiable: How to Resolve Your Most Emotionally Charged Conflicts" and explains how to deal with emotional arguments. What Your Mom Has to Do With Marriage (55:35) Liz Higgins is a Marriage and Family Therapist Associate in Dallas, Texas. Liz work focuses on helping millennial couples. Liz is an active blogger at lizhigginsMFT.com and is a contributor for the Huffington Post. Mother’s Day has a changing role in people’s lives as they get older and go through different phases. Which brings the question, what role should a mother play once you get married? Liz Higgins has the answer. 00:00:00 - Introduction 00:12:39 - Resolve Emotionally-Charged Conflicts 00:55:35 - What Your Mom Has to Do With Marriage

The Cost of Eating Healthy, Firing Up Your Metabolism Jun 26, 2018

Show notes

The Cost of Eating Healthy (16:15) Margaret Marshall is a contributor to the Huffington Post and founder of Margaret Marshall Assoc., and the “Why Weight” coaching method. She is a wellness consultant, a speaker, author, and weight-loss coach. Her book, “Body, Mind, and Mouth…Life’s Eating Connection” was released in 2012. Her e-book, the “Five Finger Food Guide”, followed in 2014. Margaret Marshall explains The Cost of Being Healthy. Firing Up Your Metabolism (1:02:19) Claudia le Feuvre is a Nutritional Therapist and Eating Psychology Coach. She is an experienced public speaker and has spoken to CEOs and Senior Managers at London Business School. She Blogs for The Huffington Post and Mum on the Rock. She has written for the National Childbirth Trust and various local papers and magazines. When is the best time to eat and the role of metabolism in losing and keeping that weight off? le Feuvre explains. 00:00:00 - Introduction 00:16:15 - The Cost of Eating Healthy 01:62:19 - Firing Up Your Metabolism

No Place Like Home, Proof of Heaven Jun 25, 2018

Show notes

No Place Like Home: Wealth, Community and the Politics of Homeownership (9:45) Dr. Brian McCabe is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Georgetown University. Teaches courses on urban studies, neighborhood inequalities and quantitative methods for social research. For decades, owning a home has been a major status symbol, and for most Americans, it is the most important and largest financial investment of their lives. It also provides individuals and families with a sense of community. However, how have our nation’s various housing crises, changed the meaning of homeownership? And how has the need for perfectly crafted communities become a source of residential segregation? Dr. Brian McCabe, author of "No Place Like Home: Wealth, Community and the Politics of Homeownership". Dr. McCabe analyzes the challenges of homeownership as it continues to be the main drive for building wealth in the United States. Dr. McCabe shares his research involving the ideology of homeownership and community. Proof of Heaven (50:51) Dr. Eben Alexander, a renowned academic neurosurgeon. Do you believe in a life after death? Different religions paint different pictures of what it may look like, from heavenly angels to simply an abode of peace. Other religions don’t believe in a heaven that exists as a physical space. What would it look like to you? Our guest today is Dr. Eben Alexander, a renowned academic neurosurgeon who had a near-death experience and came back with a whole new perspective. 00:00:00 - Introduction 00:09:45 - No Place Like Home: Wealth, Community and the Politics of Homeownership 00:50:51 - Proof of Heaven

Live Happy, Choose Joy, Why Girls Tend to Have More Anxiety Jun 23, 2018

Show notes

Live Happy, Choose Joy (14:30) Deborah Heisz is COO, Co-Founder and Editorial Director of Live Happy LLC. She is the author of Live Happy: Ten Practices for Choosing Joy. She was the founding Editor in Chief of the current version of SUCCESS magazine (2008-2011). She is Editorial Director of Magazine “Live Happy”. With the rising interest in positive psychology and mindful living, it is becoming clearer that living a joyful life is a choice. Practices for choosing joyful living range from gratitude to mindfulness. Deborah Heisz share how to Live Happy Why Girls Tend to Have More Anxiety Than Boys (58:18) Dr. Leonard Sax, a psychologist and a practicing family physician. Have you noticed that your daughter tends to be a high-functioning over-achiever in all she does while your son sits back and plays video games? Does your daughter seem to stress over the tiniest details while your son doesn’t seem to have a care in the world? This is a pretty common trend. Under your daughter’s achievements, trophies, and awards, she may have a lot of anxiety bottled up, though. Why is it that girls tend to have more anxiety than boys? Dr. Leonard Sax explains. 00:00:00 - Introduction 00:14:30 - Live Happy, Choose Joy 00:58:18 - Why Girls Tend to Have More Anxiety Than Boys

Blue Light and our Bodies, Wrong Personality for the Job Jun 22, 2018

Show notes

Blue Light and our Bodies (15:43) Dr. Geoffrey Goodfellow is an Associate Professor, Assistant Dean for Curriculum and Assessment; Coordinator and Private Practice Clerkship at Illinois College of Optometry. Dr. Goodfellow has served as the site coordinator for the Pediatric Eye Disease Investigators Group as well as the chief of the Pediatrics/Binocular Vision Service. Apple recently released some new products with new features. Among these were a new iPad Pro and a new iPhone. These products come with many features, one of which is a new lighting technology called “Night Shift”. “Night Shift” changes the lighting on the phone to produce less blue light so as to help users go to sleep easier. But will it really work? Dr. Goodfellow explains. Wrong Personality for the Job (1:01:55) Anna Hartley, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral research scientist who works on personality judgement and measurement. She works for the psychology department at Wake Forest University. Her research looks into how we perceive people and how we form judgements about others because of these perceptions and how to measure behaviors over time. Her work focuses on the importance of people and relationships. 00:00:00 - Introduction 00:15:43 - Blue Light and our Bodies 01:61:55 - Wrong Personality for the Job

Adulting, How We Think the Internet Connects Us Jun 21, 2018

Show notes

Adulting: How to Become a Grown-Up (16:01) Kelly Williams Brown is the author of Adulting: How to Become a Grown-Up in 468 Easy(ish) Steps. Growing up is an ever challenging, ever changing endeavor. Each generation deals with it in their own way. Kelly Brown has literally written the book on growing up and shares what she has learned from interviewing people from all walks of life. How We Think the Internet Connects Us (1:03:52) Ethan Zuckerman is the Director of the Center for Civic Media at MIT, and a principal research scientist at the MIT Media Lab. His research focuses on the distribution of attention in mainstream and new media, the use of technology for international development, and the use of new media technologies by activists. With just a single click, we can access almost anything; cat videos, the profiles of former classmates, the best cinnamon roll recipe, or the current political turbulence throughout the world. These are all made possible through the every growing online community. But does all this mean we are truly “connected?” Ethan Zuckerman, author of "Digital Cosmopolitans: Why We Think the Internet Connects Us, Why It Doesn't, and How to Rewire It". Ethan Zuckerman shares what he learned researching his book and the work being done to create a truly more connected world. 00:00:00 - Introduction 00:16:01 - Adulting: How to Become a Grown-Up 01:63:52 - How We Think the Internet Connects Us

When Religion and Work Conflict, Level Up Your Life Jun 20, 2018

Show notes

When Religion and Work Conflict (17:00) Kabrina Krebel Chang is the Clinical Associate Professor of Business Law and Ethics at Boston University. She spends a lot of time researching and collaborating with experts on new ways of innovating business strategies and education. Since 2007, the number of complaints for religious discrimination filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has risen significantly. It’s not hard to see why: An increase in immigrants of diverse faiths, greater workforce diversity, and the globalization of business all play a role in more workers from different religious backgrounds meeting on the job. For many employers, it is only a matter of time before they face conflicts between religion and work. As an employee or as a boss, what do you do when this situation comes up in the workplace? Kabring Chang with some steps on addressing religious conflicts in the workplace Level Up Your Life (1:04:50) Steve Kamb is the author of “Level Up Your Life: How to Unlock Adventure and Happiness by Becoming the Hero of Your Own Story”. He is the founder of nerdfitness.com. He has guest lectured at Google, Google Dublin, Facebook, TEDxEmory, and regularly speaks at Vanderbilt University. We all have heroes in literature, movies and video games. There are characters who have attributes and skills we wish we did. Our guest today, Steve Kamb, is the author of “Level Up Your Life”, a book that talks about how to become your own superhero. 00:00:00 - Introduction 00:17:00 - When Religion and Work Conflict 01:64:50 - Level Up Your Life

Resisting Technology Appalachian-Style, Job Burnout Jun 19, 2018

Show notes

Resisting Technology, Appalachian-Style (15:16) Sherry Hamby is Research Professor of Psychology and Director of the Life Paths Research Program at the University of the South. Dr. Hamby is also founding editor of the American Psychological Association journal Psychology of Violence. When people hear “Appalachia,” stereotypes and jokes may jump to mind, so we asked one of our employees from West Virginia what jokes she knew. We heard “land of the toothless,” “our family trees go in circles,” and apparently her high school even had “drive your tractor to school day.” But jokes aside, Appalachian attitudes about technology’s role in daily life are extremely sophisticated – and turn out to be both insightful and useful in a technology-centric society. Job Burnout (1:08:39) Dr. Clark Gaither is a board-certified family physician, Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians, and Medical Director of the North Carolina Physicians Health Program (NCPHP.org). He has extensive knowledge and experience in the arena of professional job-related burnout. He is an avid writer and has authored three books, his latest on job-related burnout, "Reignite: Transform from Burned Out to On Fire and Find New Meaning in Your Career and Life". He is also an accomplished blogger, keynote speaker, corporate consultant, and personal life coach. For businesses, burned out employees create additional workplace problems which demand additional resources. The costs can be disastrously high. Dissatisfied workers lead to inferior products and services which leads to dissatisfied patients, clients or customers. Dissatisfied consumers lead to a loss of business and falling profit margins. This is a recipe for failure. Bottom line, if you are burned out you will never feel you are living a life of purpose with passion. It doesn’t have to be this way. Dr. Clark Gaither has not only experienced this but has come up with a plan to help us avoid job burnout. 00:00:00 - Introduction 00:15:16 - ResistingTechnology, Appalachian-Style 01:68:39 - Job Burnout

Libraries in the Internet Age, Marriage and the Art of Living Together Jun 18, 2018

Show notes

Libraries in the Internet Age (13:33) Donald Barclay is the Deputy University Librarian at the University of California Merced campus. He graduated in 1990 from Cal Berkeley with his Master of Library and Information Science. Libraries. What visuals enter your mind when you hear the word library? Maybe an old curmudgeon shushing you, maybe you remember sitting on the floor as a child while hearing a story, or maybe you think of hours searching computers and bookshelves for an academic assignment. But is the library a thing of the past? Donald Barclay's research may surprise you. Marriage and the Art of Living Together (1:02:46) Daphne de Marneffe, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist, she works with individuals and couples in Corte Madera, CA. She is the author of "The Rough Patch: Marriage and the Art of Living Together". She is a contributing writer for Parents Magazine and a parent educator at California Pacific Medical Center. The challenges confronting today’s marriages are varied and complex. We are living longer, our parents are living longer, and the financial and work/life pressures that couples are trying to bear are more daunting than ever. Yet couples are trying to make their marriages work better and longer than ever before. Under the best of circumstances, rough patches happen. Daphne de Marneffe discusses the challenges confronting today’s couples, and with optimism, how they can persevere through them. 00:00:00 - Introduction 00:13:33 - Libraries in the Internet Age 01:62:46 - Marriage and the Art of Living Together

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