The Urban Monk podcast with Dr. Pedram Shojai

What has been the crisis here in the West, where articles are constantly written about the dogmatic American work ethic? We don’t know why we’re doing what we’re doing. We’re just responding to our basest impulses – gotta eat, gotta pay bills, gotta avoid bad feelings, gotta up the dopamine. And until we know why we’re doing what we’re doing – chasing jobs or quitting them – nothing’s going to change.  Jonathan Fields is obsessed with this problem. As a writer, his primary curiosity is what gets people up in the morning… and what makes them keep getting up when times get hard. Tune in and learn about your own sparketype so you can change your entire relationship to work. 

Direct download: Whats_Your_Sparketype__A_Special_Interview_with_Jonathan_Fields._1.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:17pm MDT

What does your brain have in common with a fungal network? Well, have you ever seen both? They look quite a bit alike... Often, neurologists frustrated at the stalemate we've reached as regards healing people are the first to research alternative methods – anything from psychedelics to bio feedback and even the physiological power of soothing. Listen to Dr. David Rabin tell me what he discovered about diverting resources away from survival and straight into recovery... 

Direct download: A_Calmer_and_More_Mindful_You_with_Dr_Dave_Rabin_.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 2:44pm MDT

Trying to get whole after a traumatic experience can feel like a lesson in acronyms – NLP, EMDR, CBT, etc. One method deserves to be better understood. You’ve likely seen videos of powerful physical reactions as people release the trauma their nervous systems have been holding onto. This is somatic experiencing. And Karlee Holden is a dedicated practitioner. She grew up well-versed in NLP and the language of healing. But later in life, it simply wasn’t enough to heal her. So she searched, and she foun

Direct download: Healing_Trauma_-_How_to_Show_Up_Trim.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:20am MDT

Ann Louise Gittleman, who is 71 years young (though you’d never know it to hear about how she spends her days), fell into the world of detoxifying 40 years ago. The woman who became her mentor was 84 when they met; she lived to be 106. She taught Ann everything she knew about longevity and sparked in her a powerful urge to grow stronger as the years advance. Now, her life is lived in the service of unearthing cutting-edge resources that dismantle the myth of aging. We’re living longer, but we’re not necessarily living healthier. That’s where the term radical longevity comes from. The future is here, and Ann’s at the helm.

Direct download: Ann_Louise_Gittleman.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:19pm MDT

Imagine if “joining the family business” meant partnering with your father to make groundbreaking microbiome research and gut solutions available to the masses twenty years before mainstream medicine gets hold of them. For Afif Ghannoum, that’s exactly what happened.  His dad, Dr. Mahmoud Ghannoum, was one of the first major medical minds to study the microbiology of the oral biome… and then, in time, the GI biome. His discoveries have led to breakthrough after breakthrough, especially as regards a very important consideration: The presence of fungi in the gut and its interaction with the bacterial community.

Direct download: Afif_Ghannoum_of_BIOHM_Health.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 1:17pm MDT

There's no punchline here – just a frank, honest, and loving discussion about the unconventional paths Rabbi Doniel Katz and I took to achieve and sustain enlightenment. Across disciplines, religions, practices, and ideologies, there’s something we all have in common that makes us more alike than it makes us different. We build and rebuild our spiritual hygiene every single day. The work and the discipline and the years of studying create an energy field around all of us that binds us to a shared purpose – to find true integration, and train the muscles that got us there to remember how to do it again and again and again.

Direct download: Rabbi_Doniel.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:18pm MDT

Whole body vibration isn't a new idea, but the advancement of the technology recently might as well have reinvented the wheel. My good friend Perry Cammisa has been helping me rehab an injury through PM&R with the power of vibrational therapy, and if you didn't know that was a possibility... you need to hear this. This tech can be traced back to Russian astronauts innovating ways to reintegrate back into Earth's gravity-laden environment. Actually, even farther than that, but we'll get there. Ultimately? We're talking about bone mass and why it's so important to your WHOLE body health. 

Direct download: Vibrational_Therapy_for_Pain_and_Longevity.mp3
Category: -- posted at: 11:53am MDT

In 2019, former bodybuilder Aaron Alexander published his book all about the eponymous method he developed himself: "The Align Method: 5 Movement Principles for a Stronger Body, Sharper Mind, and Stress-Proof Life." He thinks our bodies speak more than one language – and depending on how connected you are to its pain and joy, you may not be able to understand what it’s telling you. And then how will you know when you’re aligned and when you’re not? How will you read the signal? Alignment isn’t just a yoga buzzword – it means a lot more than that, and it’s informed by more than how advanced your practice is. Tune in as we talk about compensatory practices (both Western and not, male and not), the importance of heightened senses to our nervous system, why nutrition means more than diet, the two biggest factors in miscommunication, and so much more. 

Direct download: AaronAlexanderFinal.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 1:44pm MDT

How long is it going to take for the emotional tectonic plates of society to shift from grounding in foundation and tradition to exploring lofty ideals and leading with imagination? Who did ancient cultures believe they were worshipping when they looked to the heavens for advice? How do we respond to good times, to chaos, to tough times? How did our ancestors? These are the kinds of questions that keep Dr. Rachelle Dixon busy in her practice and in her personal development. We got to dig into how astrology can be used as an optimization tool to guide us towards our best lives, even if you choose not to believe in it. She's spent her life as a doctor, healer, and educator trying to instill belief in one's own intuition into those she works with – and the stars are often a historical and contemporary source of wisdom from which to draw. Pedram and Rachelle wax astrological about where we've been, where we are, and how we can prepare for where we're going. 

Direct download: Rachelle_Podcast_mixdown.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:53pm MDT

If your first reaction to drinking the olive oil in your cabinet is to check the date or gag, you're probably using olive oil as distant from a fresh olive oil harvest as the tea in your cupboards are from Chinese botanicals. T.J. Robinson, former chef and professional olive oil tester and judge, had such a revelation upon tasting his first fresh olive oil that he not only never went back... But he started a Fresh-Pressed Olive Oil Club that sources from four different seasonal harvests per year in order to deliver perfectly aged olive oil made from the highest quality olives that can be certifiably found. He talks me through a taste-testing of his latest batch, debunking all sorts of myths about the health benefits, cooking uses, and grocery store varieties of olive oil along the way.

Direct download: UMP_TheJoyofGoodOliveOil_TJRobinson.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:02pm MDT

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