The Goop Podcast

“The core of leadership should be care,” says psychiatrist Gianpiero Petriglieri, MD. “And then performance is a result of a system in which there is enough care.” Petriglieri is an associate professor of organizational behavior at INSEAD and an expert on leadership and learning in the workplace. Today, he joins host Elise Loehnen to talk about what is lost when we prize productivity above all else, why it’s important to give your team space to ask questions and be imaginative, why he thinks having vision isn’t an important quality in a good leader, and our growing tendency to intertwine our sense of self-worth with our performance at work: “Once you start working this way, where work becomes very personal, everything is existential. If you succeed, you are a success. If you fail, you see yourself as a failure.” He also shares insights about what the pandemic could teach us about productivity and how that could shape the way we do business in the future.(For more, see The goop Podcast hub.) To learn more ab

Isabel Wilkerson is a Pulitzer Prize–winning, number one New York Times–bestselling author. Her most recent book, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, links the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany. She examines how a caste system has shaped American history and the ways our lives are still defined by man-made hierarchies. In this conversation with host Elise Loehnen, Wilkerson explains the essential difference between racism and casteism and why these hierarchies negatively affect all groups. “We are, as a society, harmed by the inequities that may seem to be trained primarily on one group,” says Wilkerson. “But then these inequities spread and leach out beyond the boundaries of that seat.” The ripple effects, Wilkerson explains, include misguided policies that often impact everyone. And she shares what it takes to move beyond these artificial divisions. The first step is having a deep understanding of the history that shapes us: “If you don’t know the history, if you don’t know where you’ve b

Our guest today is James Nestor, journalist and author of Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art, which explores the often overlooked and undervalued function of breathing and all the ways that breath is at the center of health—and potentially illness. Nestor spent a decade studying ancestral breathing techniques and New Age technology and diving deep into studies that have brought surprising information to light. For example, Nestor tells us about the Framingham Study, which has been going on for seventy years: “They found that the most accurate marker of health and longevity wasn’t genes or even cardiovascular health. It was lung capacity and respiratory health.” Nestor shares all that he’s learned about proper technique (breathing through your nose is key) and his advice for shifting your habits. (For more, see The goop Podcast hub.) To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices

GP is joined by two-time Olympic gold medalist, FIFA World Cup Champion, and New York Times–bestselling author Abby Wambach. Since retiring from her record-breaking soccer career, Wambach has become known for her work around equality and inclusion alongside her wife, activist and author Glennon Doyle. She’s also just published a young readers edition of her book Wolfpack, urging young people to break old rules and create their own path. Today, Wambach chats with GP about how to build a strong team, how to allow yourself to feel disappointed, how to get comfortable with competition and seeing others succeed, and how her son’s coming out helped Wambach heal some of her own childhood trauma. “My mom had fear for me, but I thought she was afraid of me,” says Wambach. “Those are very different things.” It’s clear why Wambach was captain of the Women’s National team for so many years—you get fired up listening to her speak. (For more, see The goop Podcast hub.) To learn more about listener data and our privacy pr

The former CNN White House correspondent has become known as an independent news source and appreciated by followers for her cogent, insightful approach and for allowing people to draw their own conclusions—without all the added drama. For this special episode, Yellin joined Elise Loehnen on the afternoon of Wednesday, November 4, and talked through how she believes the next few weeks will play out. They also discuss why Yellin has never trusted exit polls, the state of TV news in this country, and our path forward as we reckon with how divided our nation remains. (For more, follow @JessicaYellin on Instagram. And see The goop Podcast hub.) To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Eli Finkel, PhD, is a psychology professor at Northwestern University and the author of the fascinating book The All-or-Nothing Marriage, which explores the surprising things that make marriages fulfilling and what can put them on the rocks. Today, he joins host Elise Loehnen to chat about how the definition of an ideal marriage has shifted over time, what he thinks of nonmonogamy, why he argues that there are some things you should not ask of your relationship, and whether it’s possible to maintain a happy union while also trying to become a fuller, more authentic version of yourself. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Journalist Rebecca Traister has written three books, including her most recent New York Times bestseller, Good and Mad, which explores how women’s anger has provoked political and social change over centuries. Traister joined host Elise Loehnen to talk through all she’s uncovered in her research and why our society continues to consider anger to be acceptable only for White men. “This is one of the strategic functions of discouraging the expression of anger in women and other people in the margins,” says Traister. “Because the communication of dissatisfaction is the building block for potential future organizing.” Her advice? Stay angry. Stay awake. (For more, see The goop Podcast hub.) To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Writer and attorney Christie Tate had big reservations when a therapist first suggested she pursue group therapy. The idea of voluntarily sharing her secrets and vulnerabilities with a group of strangers was not appealing. It was terrifying. But she went. Now she’s been in group therapy for 19 years—and probably will be for the rest of her life. Tate wrote a book about her experience called Group: How One Therapist and a Circle of Strangers Saved My Life. In her chat with Elise Loehnen, they talk about Tate’s struggle with disordered eating, how her husband and children deal with having their private lives exposed, and how the process of healing and understanding ourselves typically takes a lifetime. “The more people tell true stories about the jagged line of recovery, that it’s not just a straight arrow shooting upward to nirvana,” says Tate, “the better understanding we can have of what healing looks like.” (For more, see The goop Podcast hub.) To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices v

“Hope isn’t an optimism that one day it will be okay,” says Austin Channing Brown. “Hope is what we owe to one another as human beings.” Brown is a media producer, a speaker, and the author of the New York Times bestseller I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness. In her racial justice and leadership work, Brown doesn’t chase hope; she lives it. Brown joined host Elise Loehnen to talk about how she anchors herself amid the stress and emotional toll of her work, and why for many Black women, the missteps of White women, in particular, can sting more. She also explains why it’s more helpful to be brave than it is to be nice—and how to show up with this in mind. (For more, see The goop Podcast hub.) To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

“The work that I do helping people exit these groups, it isn’t about persuading them to leave,” says mental health counselor Steven Hassan. “It’s teaching them how the mind works, teaching them about social psychology and hypnosis, which helps them see whether or not they have been co-opted.” Hassan is a leading expert on mind control and hypnosis and the author of The Cult of Trump. For the past forty years, he’s drawn on his own experience as a former Moonie to help people step out of controlling groups, relationships, and cults. Today, he explains how well-adjusted people get wrapped up in authoritarian cults, why we’re all subject to mind control every day, and how mind control has shaped the current state of politics in the US. And he shares his insights on what to do about it. (For more, see The goop Podcast hub.) To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Brian Muraresku—author of The Immortality Key: The Secret History of the Religion with No Name—spent twelve years entrenched in connecting the dots between the use of mind-altering drugs and the foundation of Christianity as we know it today. Many of us are familiar with the holy wine present at ancient religious celebrations. But what was actually in that wine? Was it anything like the wine we drink today? Muraresku says the evidence suggests it was very different—that the wine was routinely mixed with other substances, from spices and perfumes to herbs, and fungi. For Muraresku, this begged the question: What was the intent of those who drank it? Today, he joins host Elise Loehnen to share the wild journey this question led him on and what he discovered along the way about faith, science, and the rise of the church—including long-suppressed evidence of just how fundamental women were to the origin and survival of Christianity. (For more, see The goop Podcast hub.) To learn more about listener data and our

GP catches up with her friend Kate Hudson, and true to form, they cover a lot of ground. They talk about being girl moms, what it looks like to own your trauma, and how, at this stage in her life, Hudson creates sustaining relationships. “It’s not fun to work through the pain—it sucks. And it definitely feels like it’s easier to avoid it,” Hudson says. “But we know that the more you avoid it, the worse it festers.” They also chat about how she’s created authentic and successful brands (like Fabletics, and her new venture In Bloom), the best business advice she’s gotten, and why she bets on herself. And be sure to listen to the end to hear about Hudson’s best (and not-so-best) onscreen kisses. (For more, see The goop Podcast hub.) To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

“It’s the possibility of greater change that rejuvenates me,” says Michele Harper, MD. “That’s what makes it possible for me to keep going.” Harper is an emergency room physician who has worked as chief resident at Lincoln Hospital in the South Bronx and in the emergency department at the VA medical center in Philadelphia. She is also the author of The Beauty in Breaking. Today, she joins host Elise Loehnen to share how she manages the emotional strain of being witness to so much suffering, what she’s learned from her patients about healing, and why she sees her commitment to positive change as a form of meditation. “It is all so depleting—all of it,” she says. “But I’ve always turned my grief, my pain, my suffering into action.” (For more, see The goop Podcast hub.) To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Author Toni Jensen joined us for the September edition of goop Book Club to talk about her first memoir, Carry, which traces her Métis roots, her childhood in rural Iowa, her closest relationships, and the classrooms she’s inhabited around the country as a student and a teacher. In this conversation with Elise Loehnen, Jensen talks about making peace with childhood trauma, her complex relationship with gun culture, the staggering injustices forced on Indigenous women, the stereotypes that prevail, and the subtle and lasting ways that language shapes each of us. (For more, see The goop Podcast hub.) To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Laura Wasser is a family law expert, a divorce attorney, and the founder of It’s Over Easy, a platform that provides tools to help families navigating divorce. She joins host Elise Loehnen to talk about how people can prepare for the best and the worst in a relationship, whether or not she thinks prenups serve a partnership, if the years she’s spent in this field have changed her views on marriage, and how she’s remained family with her exes. Wasser also shares her tips on what to look for in an attorney, how to move on in the least expensive way (emotionally and financially), and topics to discuss with a partner when you’re just getting hitched. (For more, see The goop Podcast hub.) To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

David Sheff is a journalist and the author of the number one New York Times–bestselling book Beautiful Boy. Sheff joins us to talk about an incredible man and the subject of his latest book, The Buddhist on Death Row: Jarvis Jay Masters’s childhood was marred by severe trauma that sent him down a path of violence and into San Quentin. In 1990, while in prison, Masters was set up for the murder of a guard, which landed him on death row. On the recommendation of a criminal investigator working on his case, Masters began to explore meditation. He was skeptical, and his life didn’t change overnight. But it did eventually change—dramatically. Today, on death row, Masters is a remarkable Buddhist thinker, engaging with some of the most renowned practitioners in the world and changing the way people approach both suffering and healing.(For more, see The goop Podcast hub.) To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices

Ambassador Susan Rice has had an impressive career in service and government as a diplomat, policy advisor, and public official. She served throughout the Clinton administration, becoming one of the nation’s youngest secretaries of state, and later, became one of President Obama’s most trusted advisors. After years of speaking on behalf of presidents and the country, Rice finally shares her incredible story, in her own words, in her book Tough Love—and today, in her conversation with GP. One of the most interesting parts of their chat is about managing division and learning to listen and understand others, starting at the dinner table (Rice’s son is deeply conservative). The pair also talk about why there’s a tendency to view women with a binary and reductive lens, the scaffolding that’s informed Rice’s diplomacy and negotiation skills, and the single through line that’s helped her grow. (For more, see The goop Podcast hub.) To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.auda

Many people find it difficult to exercise self-compassion, in part because we fear that being tender with ourselves will make us lose our edge. But Kristin Neff, PhD—who wrote Self-Compassion and The Mindful Self-Compassion Workbook and is steeped in the field’s research—says that couldn’t be further from the truth: “Here’s the thing with self-compassion—our goals are just as high. But when we fail to meet our goals, we’re more likely to pick ourselves up and try again.” Today, Neff explains the differences between self-esteem, self-love, and self-compassion and the distinctive ways these practices effect our daily lives. (For more, see The goop Podcast hub.) To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

“Each of us, in our own infinite precious particularity, will be led to what’s to be done next in our own time and space,” says Cynthia Bourgeault. The modern-day mystic and Episcopal priest is the author of several brilliant books, including Eye of the Heart: A Spiritual Journey into the Imaginal Realm. Today, she joins us to discuss a question that comes forth for many of us at some point: Are we all just irrelevant specs? Does our life actually have meaning? According to Bourgeault, while humans are not the center of everything, our actions have profound influence on the well-being of the planet (and a system that extends beyond it). She says that a lack of consciousness has led to much of the mess we’re currently in, and she explains how we all play a particular role in amending the damage. She talks through how our fear of dying is problematic (and what a different approach to death could look like), what it truly means to live virtuously, and whether or not she’s hopeful for the future. (Spoiler: Mostly

Jay Shetty, author of the new book Think Like a Monk, is in part known as a former monk. Now, he serves as a coach, helping people identify and live out their purpose. He joined GP to talk about why many of us have never really spent time by ourselves, with ourselves—and what can happen when we do. Shetty has a different way of thinking about compassion for self and compassion for others; and it involves not devaluing or belittling pain. He also has a clarifying way of looking at the fine line between compassion and victimhood (so that we don’t get stuck in victim consciousness) and distinguishing feelings (which can be fleeting and misleading) from emotions. (For more, see The goop Podcast hub.) To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices