The Goop Podcast

“I grew up with this intense fear of failure,” says Cathy Park Hong. “And in retrospect, I can understand why my parents instilled that in me—because for them, there was no safety net.” Hong is a writer, a professor at Rutgers-Newark University, and the author of Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning. It’s a book about family, identity, culture, and self-worth. Hong joins us today to talk about the parts of the Asian American experience that are often left out of the mainstream. She talks about how becoming a parent forced her to reckon with her own upbringing and the complicated nature of assimilation—both what it afforded her and what it stole from her. She asks: How do we go about the messy process of deciding which parts of our culture to pull forward to keep in our lives and which to put down? (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://podcastc

“There is so much hurt that doesn’t have to remain unhealed,” says Molly Howes, PhD. “A good apology can go the distance to lessen that pain.” Howes is a Harvard-trained clinical psychologist and the author of A Good Apology: Four Steps to Make Things Right. Many of us are bad at apologizing, which according to Howes, is not for lack of care, but because we may have a misunderstanding of what it takes to make both parties feel whole. Howes says a good apology requires listening rather than justifying, which is often easier said than done. Today, Howes walks us through the four steps of a good apology and explains how we can apply these steps personally in our own homes and more widely in our communities. (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

“Most of the diseases that we experience are not inevitable,” says Bruce Lanphear, MD. “They’re preventable.” Lanphear is a clinician scientist at the Child & Family Research Institute, BC Children’s Hospital, and a professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. He’s spent the majority of his career exploring how environmental factors like toxic chemicals, pollutants, and contaminants can impact our health. Today, he explains the challenges of proving causation, the ways industries dodge responsibility, and why health care policy and research funding often don’t reflect the needs and priorities of doctors and patients. (While there’s plenty of evidence showing that most diseases are preventable, the US spends only 4 percent of funding on upstream preventive measures.) Lanphear breaks down where we’re most vulnerable and what we can do about it. (For more, see The goop Podcast hub.) To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.

We often view moments of serendipity, or happy accidents, as situations that we play no part in and can't control or influence. But author Christian Busch, PhD, believes that luck may not always be circumstantial—and that by training ourselves to see something in the unexpected, we can make those accidents more meaningful. Which is the subject of his book, The Serendipity Mindset: The Art and Science of Creating Good Luck. Busch is the director of the Global Economy Program at New York University’s Center for Global Affairs and also teaches at the London School of Economics. Today, he joins host Elise Loehnen to discuss how we can best exercise our serendipity muscle and whether or not extroverts have a leg up in the game. (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

You’ve probably been fed the myth that your life will generally follow a linear path, with maybe a midlife crisis and a few other upheavals thrown in along the way. But in reality, you’ve probably experienced more big transitions, or “lifequakes,” as author Bruce Feiler calls them. For his book Life Is in the Transitions, Feiler spent a year exploring how people move through these moments. What he learned is that although the changes can be unpredictable, there are patterns to be found in how we cope with them. And with the right tools, we can navigate these transitions with meaning, purpose, and skill. Feiler joins host Elise Loehnen to talk through his different strategies for surviving a massive life change and making the most of opportunities to grow. (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

Gordon Neufeld is a developmental psychologist and the author of Hold On to Your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter More Than Peers. In his forty-plus years studying child development, a few common threads have emerged. According to Neufeld, parents tend to be hyperfocused on socializing their children in order for them to be well liked and have plenty of friends. This good intention can cause children to become peer-attached—meaning they look to their peers instead of the adults in their lives for guidance, care, and stability. Having close peers is important, but the peer relationship shouldn’t be the most important one, says Neufeld. His work helps parents and caretakers maintain and strengthen relationships with their children, recognize when kids are pulling away, and reverse damage that’s already been done to the bond. His approach does not require us to do everything “right”—but it could shift the way we raise and relate to children for the better. (For more, see The goop Podcast hub.) To learn more ab

GP talks with her friend Cameron Diaz about the best part of turning forty, what affects our capacity to be intimate, taking responsibility for who you are, and the launch of Avaline, Diaz’s organic wine line. Diaz explains why she pivoted away from her acting career, what happened after she decided to start over, and how she learned a surprising amount about herself in the early days of her relationship with her husband. “In my forties, I realized I need to be quicker to identify the things I shouldn’t be holding on to, and cut them loose,” says Diaz. The tail end of the conversation is about motherhood—and what Diaz most wants for her daughter. (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

In the medical community, miraculous recoveries are typically dismissed as flukes and outliers. Because they can’t be explained within the constructs of typical modern care, they end up in the dustbin. But some doctors, like today’s guest Jeffrey Rediger, MD, believe that this is a grave mistake and that our insistence on clinging to old systems and beliefs leaves much lifesaving science out. Rediger, who is on the faculty at Harvard Medical School and is the director of McLean Hospital SE, has spent the past two decades studying verified cases of spontaneous remission, looking for unifying threads that might be repeatable for others with the same diagnosis. In his book, Cured: The Life Changing Science of Spontaneous Healing, he shares his beautiful insights and discoveries. He joins host Elise Loehnen to discuss the root cause of illness, how our environment sets the stage for healing, and the pillars associated with recovery and overall well-being—including nutrition, the immune system, stress responses, a

Tom Philpott is a veteran journalist, a former farmer, and the current food and agriculture correspondent for Mother Jones. Philpott has spent years researching how and why American agriculture has gone so disastrously wrong and all the ways our political and economic infrastructure exacerbated its downfall. But as grim as the situation is now, Philpott believes there is much to be hopeful about—including the many farmers and communities who are paving the way for change and laying the groundwork to avoid disaster. Philpott is the author of a new book called Perilous Bounty: The Looming Collapse of American Farming and How We Can Prevent It. He joins host Elise Loehnen today to talk about how this all got out of control and what we can do to begin to mend the damage. (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

Dolly Chugh is a psychologist and professor at the Stern School of Business at NYU. She studies how—and why—most of us, however well-intended, are still prone to race and gender bias, as well as what she calls “bounded ethicality,” which are the systemic, unethical behaviors we engage in without awareness. For example, Chugh believes that being an ally isn’t about being a “good” person—and that our singular focus on goodness is a big part of the problem. Instead, she says, we should be constantly striving to be good-ish, i.e. someone who is always growing—that involves messing up, owning the mistake, learning from it, and trying again. Chugh brilliantly tackles this topic in her book The Person You Were Meant to Be. Today, she explains to host Elise Loehnen what we can and must 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/adc

Mark Wolynn is the director of the Family Constellation Institute in San Francisco. The focus of his work is healing trauma. Wolynn believes that the traumas of our parents, grandparents, and even great grandparents can live on in us—particularly if they are unresolved. If you’re triggered by something and can’t figure out why, Wolynn says the answer might lie in your family history. He wrote a book about it, called It Didn’t Start with You. Today, Wolynn talks with host Elise Loehnen about the tools he uses to help people get to the root of difficult or bewildering issues and his strategies for freeing yourself from harmful patterns. (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 Wallace-Wells is a lifelong New Yorker. He is not a lifelong environmentalist—“at all,” he says. He came of age in the ’90s, drank a lot of “that development, globalization, neoliberal Kool-Aid and really felt the world was getting better and richer.” But learning more about climate change scrambled a lot of his assumptions about the world and our place in it. Today, Wallace-Wells is a columnist and deputy editor at New York magazine and the author of the critically acclaimed number one New York Times bestseller, The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming. In this conversation with Elise Loehnen, he explains what lies ahead, what policies should be changed, what possible solutions and technologies give him reason to feel optimistic, and what we need to learn from COVID-19 in order to equip ourselves to respond to pandemics of varying natures. (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

“That taboo dark energy around our sexuality can be a place of great expansion,” says somatic sexologist andeducator Jaiya, who has spent the last two decades studying what turns people on. Jaiya developed something called the Erotic Blueprint, an arousal map that reveals your specific erotic language—sensual, sexual, kinky, energetic, or shapeshifter. She explains how we can discover our own language, better understand a partner’s language, and use this road map to embrace and fulfill our desires. (Take Jaiya's Erotic Blueprint quiz here.) 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

“When you push people to be colorblind, not only are you pushing them to not see color; you’re pushing them to not see the harm that comes from color,” says Jennifer Eberhardt, PhD. Eberhardt is a social psychologist, a Stanford professor, and the author of Biased, a thoroughly researched, compelling, and comprehensive book on uncovering prejudice and addressing it. Everyone is affected by racial bias, says Eberhardt, but you can learn to override it. Today, she shares critical facts, tools, and strategies that anyone can (and should) use to be part of a meaningful solution. (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 urge to absolve oneself is a kind of low-level thing where we’re trying to get away from our own complicity,” says psychiatrist Mark Epstein, MD. Epstein is the author of Advice Not Given, and his work lies at the intersection of Buddhism and psychotherapy. Today, he’s teaching us about what motivates people and what happens when we let guilt guide our decision-making. He also teaches us about coping with feelings of isolation, confronting complicity, working our way back to the present when our mind wanders, and transmuting anger and rage into compassion. (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

“Whatever is emerging, we want to help people explore it and experience it,” says Rick Doblin. GP interviewed the founder and executive director of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) about the impact MDMA-assisted psychotherapy may have on PTSD, eating disorders, alcoholism, and other forms of trauma. Doblin explains the landscape of psychedelic research, how it’s changed, and how close we may be to making MDMA-assisted psychotherapy a legal prescription treatment for PTSD. They also talk about what happens during an MDMA therapy session; how people store, process, and release memories; and what connects one person to another and to the world. Go to MAPS to learn more and to join GP in donating to a fund that supports BIPOC PTSD patients going through treatment and BIPOC therapists going through MAPS training. (And a PSA in case you’re new here: The legal status of psychedelics depends on where you use them. In the US, recreational use is illegal. If psychedelics are taken withou

“The more logical you are in your approach to your sleep, the more you’re going to screw it up,” says sleep specialist Rafael Pelayo, MD. Pelayo is a clinical professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Stanford Center for Sleep Sciences and Medicine and the author of the forthcoming book How to Sleep, which will be published in December 2020. Today, Pelayo answers our most pressing sleep questions: What’s really happening when we’re dreaming? Why do we sleep? Can we catch up on sleep? How much sleep do kids need? What causes sleep to become dysfunctional or disordered? How much are you affected by the way your partner sleeps? What can we do to feel rested when we wake up? (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

“If you get to some of the fundamental issues that are causing the unrest, you don’t need these Band-Aids,” says Julie Holland, a psychiatrist who specializes in psychopharmacology. Holland is the author of Weekends at Bellevue, Moody Bitches, and most recently, Good Chemistry. Today, she’s explaining the science of connection—with self, with partners, with family, with the cosmos. Holland has researched and studied what good chemistry looks like in the body and how someone can develop it using tools beyond prescription medications. She shares techniques and practices that support the production of oxytocin (a neurotransmitter and hormone that’s key for connection) and allow us to operate from the parasympathetic state, which is conducive to healing and connecting. And she breaks down profound lessons from psychedelic experiences and research that can inform and potentially revolutionize the way we relate to one another. (For more, see The goop Podcast hub.) To learn more about listener data and our privacy

“We have all these mini minds that interact all the time,” says Richard Schwartz, PhD, the founder of the Internal Family Systems Institute. Schwartz believes that different subpersonalities—which he calls parts—make up the capital-S Self. In his audiobook Greater Than the Sum of Our Parts, Schwartz explains how traumas (minor or major) can cause certain parts to deviate from their natural state. He also explains why people cast different parts of themselves into certain roles, which he identifies as managers, firefighters, and exiles. For example, a manager might be the inner critic that is trying to keep you safe. An impulsive, reactive firefighter comes in to distract you from the flames of emotion. And the exile is shrouded in shame. The bulk of Schwartz’s work focuses on integrating these disparate parts and healing them—on an individual and a collective level. (For more, see The goop Podcast hub.) To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-poli

“I like a lot of different topics, and I like to be around a lot of different types of people,” says Arlan Hamilton. “And that keeps me flexible.” Hamilton is the author of It’s About Damn Time and the founder of Backstage Capital, a venture capital seed fund that invests in underrepresented founders. She built the company from the ground up—while experiencing homelessness. In this conversation with host Elise Loehnen, Hamilton shares some incredible lessons from her personal and professional lives. She talks about the nuances of identity, the importance of learning to adapt (sometimes midsentence), and how power, influence, capital, and resources are being restructured—and what the future might look like. (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