Spirit Levels

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Life Coach Cults

Mon, 25 Mar 2024 09:55:04 GMT

If your life coach is a psychopath, is that necessarily a bad thing? Coaching is marketed to wannabes as a luxury, business-class lifestyle that grants you total freedom and easy money. (And oh yeah, you might have to deal with some clients in crisis, too.) You’ve just got to learn how to hustle, which means paying a whoop-load of cash to other coaches to get 'the codes'. Possibly for the rest of your life.

This episode, Frank and Jenny revisit their favourite topic, piggybacking off the Netflix UK documentary Psychopath Life Coach.

We ask our guest Danielle Ryan – a former life coach who now makes explainer videos dissecting the scammier side of the industry – what trends she’s seeing. These range from the escalating industry of coaches coaching coaches, to the ‘fitness coach to business coach pipeline’, to business coaches rebranding as spiritual coaches.

Along the way, Frank and Jenny discuss Matthew McConaughey’s infiltration into coaching, sweat-lodge disaster guy James Arthur Ray, NLP, Landmark and Dale Carnegie. We also get Jenny’s Indonesian language teacher Jamsen on the show, to talk about how life coaches are taking over Bali and his take on whether that’s all bad.

By the way, if you dig this episode, you’ll love our eps Make Me a Life Coach and also the episode Energy Healing, Manifesting and The Placebo Effect.

LINKS

Danielle Ryan on the most common business coaching scams.

Danielle Ryan’s videos on NLP, part one and part two.

Jenny’s Bahasa teacher, Jamsen. Hire him!

Jenny talking about life coaching on ABC radio and Disrupt radio (scroll down to Mar 12).

Further reading: Is Life Coaching Just Modern Sophistry? (Quillette) Life Coaching Industry Scams (BBC). The Cult-like Language That’s Coursing Through Business (Inc). Jay Shetty’s monk back-story questioned (The Guardian).

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Nudity and Naturism

Mon, 18 Mar 2024 18:08:20 GMT

The English and the Australians – of which we here at Spirit Levels represent both – are notoriously prudish when it comes to nudity, so Frank and Jenny want to know if they can break their conditioning. This episode takes us from tischtennis halls of Berlin to the secret beaches of Australia. Listen along:

01.16 Frank slept in his mum and dad’s bed till he was six.

02.33 Titillation is not the same as nudity (yeah, Frank).

03.56 Lucian Freud: Oh my god.

04.20 Are all nudists = perverts or is that just an English equation?

05.48 Nude sport options in Berlin.

06.35 Visiting Stadtbad Neukölln.

08.41 Freikopterkultur (FKK) and ‘free body culture’ in Germany.

10.15 Ela, from Frankfurt Oder, tells us about FKK when she was growing up.

16.18 How Bravo magazine freaked out Ela’s sister’s host family in the US.

18.21 Finally! Time for the nude table tennis.

20.01 Naturists and conservation (featuring a cameo from a rare orchid).

22.35 Jenny and Frank go ‘beyond the wire’ in Portsea.

25.02 A sad story about jetskis.

29.44 Ritualistic nude events, like Dark Mofo’s Winter Solstice Swim and the Sydney Skinny.

30.20 Yoni sunning – the kinda Taoist practice that draws in solar energy and Vitamin D.

LINKS

Stadtbad Neukölln

Dark Mofo Nude Solstice Swim

The Sydney Skinny

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Moose as motivational speaker

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What Can a Performance Coach Teach Us All?

Mon, 11 Mar 2024 18:03:55 GMT

Sport psychology is psychology on steroids. Athletes experience success failure, goal-setting and pressure at a heightened level, so delving into their mindsets has so much to teach us mere mortals about optimising our everyday lives.

Our guest is mental fitness coach Brett Stephens, aka Moose. He’s a former professional footballer who then became a performance coach on the professional tennis circuit for over 20 years (including full-time for Pete Sampras in the last 5 years of the tennis legend’s career), also working with surfers, golfers and other athletes. He’s a larger-than-life character on the Mornington Peninsula in Australia, where he lives now.

We’ve time-stamped Moose’s interview below so you can jump to the key points.

05.55 Pete Sampras’s game plan when he didn’t win a tournament for two years

08.20 Moose’s philosophy of effort over perfection

09.25 Your attitude towards losing is more important than your attitude towards winning

09.52 How his first conversation with a new client goes

11.03 The trap of getting caught up in the outcome

11.34 Use negative thoughts as fuel

13.07 You may be evolving fast, but so is your industry

14.21 The language of mindset coaching

15.19 You can lose your temper, but you must reset fast

16.03 The impact of social media distraction on performance

18.29 How do you deal with, overzealous parents?

19.31 Is it important to visualise being number one?

23.51 The optimum state of ‘relaxed intensity’

25.08 The chief lesson Moose learned on his AFL journey

27.57 Working with Pete Sampras

LINKS

Leave us a voice message for a future episode on Speakpipe

Moose as motivational speaker

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BONUS! Performance Coach Moose on the Tennis Greats of the 1990s

Mon, 11 Mar 2024 18:00:23 GMT

If you enjoyed our episode ‘What Can a Top Performance Coach Teach Us All’, or if you’re just a huge tennis fan, maybe you want to go a little deeper.

In this bonus episode, performance coach Brett Stephens, aka, Moose, satisfies our curiosity about what the tennis greats of the nineties were really like.

“Sort of name dropping a bit here, but that's what podcasts are about, right?”

“Absolutely.”

LINKS

Leave us a voice message for a future episode on Speakpipe

Wellness professor, Dr Marc Cohen

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Saunas, Sweat Lodges and Snow Monkeys

Mon, 04 Mar 2024 18:05:33 GMT

This episode, we invite you to let it all hang out. Frank and Jenny visit the Finnish Church in London to take a pew in the basement sauna that brings everyone together, not just the congregation. There, rector Marjaana Härkönen talks about the connection between spirit and the sauna – ‘löyly’ – and what to drink while you’re busy connecting.

Now look, we know people banging on about saunas can be as annoying as people banging on about ice baths (hey – we’ve got an episode on that, too!), but when integrative wellness professor Marc Cohen told us the full gamut of what these sweat boxes can do for our meat vessels, we were genuinely surprised.

Always one to look at the worst-case scenario, Jenny recounts the grizzly deaths that occurred at the 2010 World Sauna Championships, and in sweat lodges such as that of one-time Oprah mascot James Arthur Ray. But surely she can see the logic in preparing for the worst (her favourite thing to do) by engaging in hormesis – the act of adapting to stress, such as extreme heat, and thus better preparing for future stresses.

Frank’s a lucky fella. He works at Peninsula Hot Springs, so he gets to have a sneaky sauna and ice bath combo every day. To make it up to Jenny, he’s built a grand stone and wood sauna at her place, together with an ice bath in a converted chest freezer.

PS: If you liked this episode, you'll love our sixth episode, Taking the Plunge: Cold Water Immersion.

LINKS

Finnish Church in London

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Energy Healing, Manifesting and the Placebo Effect

Mon, 26 Feb 2024 18:00:21 GMT

Is calling yourself 'Mother God' a legit way to promote healing around the world or a chronic case of spiritual narcissism? Is reading The Secret a neat way of visualising your goals or as entitled as Veruca Salt demanding a Oompa Loompa? Do energy healers really have special powers or is it the power of the placebo effect?

This episode, Frank and Jenny probe Jenny’s scepticism of energy healing and manifesting abundance. (Actually don’t say ‘probe’, that will bring up buried memories of the alien implant the Zeta Reticulans put in her pelvic bowl.) They’re aided by licensed psychotherapist Joe Nucci, who you may know from his no-bullshit social media videos, aimed at arming you with knowledge to navigate mental health (mis)information.

LINKS

Joe Nucci on Insta and his website.

Jenny’s blog New Age Guinea Pig.

An interesting paper, Extraterrestrial Pregnancies and Nasal Implants by Marika Moisseef.

Lo Carmen’s rad new podcast, Death Is Not The End.

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Is Vipassana Dangerous or an Antidote to Tech?

Mon, 19 Feb 2024 18:04:33 GMT

Vipassana is an intensive, 10-day form of meditation often likened to taking a heroic dose of a psychedelic trip, in terms of the profound realisations an individual can reach. And just like with hallucinogenic drugs, those with a predisposition to mental health issues, or who are at a vulnerable point in their life, can experience adverse effects – as the podcast Untold: The Retreat has found. Frank and Jenny talk to three people who completed a 10-day retreat and had very different experiences. Our lead interviewee is neuroscientist, AI engineer and 'extremophile' Dr Jack Allocca, who has found himself completely reassessing his life.

LINKS

Jack Allocca in Jenny Valentish’s book Everything Harder Than Everything Else.

Jenny’s Australian Financial Review article about Jack Allocca speaking to mastermind groups.

Jack Allocca on Instagram including a poignant post he made post-Vipassana retreat.

Untold: The Retreat podcast.

Vipassana subreddit.

Further reading #1: Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari. #2 Life 3.0 by Max Tegmark. #3: A romantic rebellion against the tech era (The Guardian).

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The Fetish of Muscle Worship

Mon, 12 Feb 2024 20:10:29 GMT

Have you ever had your head scissored? Have you been piggybacked, by a muscular woman in a bikini? Fireman-carried across a five-star hotel room? Choked gently to sleep? If not, you can. Muscle worship sites are full of bodybuilding, tough-as-fuck women who are ready to arm-wrestle you into humiliation for a price.

Kortney Olson is larger-than-life in every way. A hoot, a scream, a boss – in fact, a motherfucking CEO – and a bodybuilder who’s smashed watermelons between her thighs on television shows such as Jimmy Kimmel Live. That she hasn’t yet become President of the United States of America pains her. Even so, she’s like a superhero. In fact, the creator of Marvel Comics, Stan Lee, dubbed her ‘the woman with the world’s deadliest thighs’. Even Arnold Schwarzenegger snapchatted about her: ‘Now, that woman is definitely fit.’

Kortney is Frank and Jenny’s guest this week, talking about her hectic high school years, her former meth addiction, and her pathway into muscle fetish – including some really close that we shouldn’t laugh at, but with her permission, we will.

LINKS

Kortney’s fitness apparel Grrrl

Kortney’s Insta

Kortney’s coaching programs

Kortney crushing watermelons

This episode’s source material, Everything Harder Than Everyone Else, audio book via Audible

Photo credit for Kortney cover art: Olga Filatova

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Role Play: A Priest and a Navy Captain Walk Into a Bar

Mon, 05 Feb 2024 18:40:06 GMT

Are you related to either Jenny or Frank? If so, back away now – this one is NOT for you. Nor is it suitable for under-18s. Okay. In A Priest and a Navy Officer Walk Into a Bar, Jenny and Frank work out ways to role play that aren’t cringe-inducing, with the notion that starting a scenario in public – a bit like high-risk improv – is key. They recruit their friends Jan and Steve – who’ve been happily married for 50 years – to dress them in character for their latest date and then record the outcome, and you’ll meet a cast of their existing regular characters, from Xavier the masseur to Marcel the frottage-loving creep. There’s also a detour into props. No, not furry handcuffs from Sexyland. Frank builds the sort of props that a carpenter on a medieval movie would envy.

LINKS

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Are you a Grey Area Drinker?

Mon, 29 Jan 2024 18:06:14 GMT

Have you just finished Dry January? Thinking about Feb Fast? Can’t face either just yet? Maybe you’re a ‘grey area drinker’. This term was coined in 2018 by Jolene Park, who has trained many grey area drinking coaches. Since then, a whole world of alcohol-free, sober-pride people has populated social media, talking openly about their drinking, moderating and quitting, without the stigma attached to labels like ‘alcoholic’. For mums, in particular, it’s almost become a new women’s lib. Similarly, ‘quit lit’ has really become a popular genre of memoir in recent years.

In this episode of Spirit Levels, Frank and Jenny talk to coaches Lissie Turner and Faye Lawrence, who have very different styles, as well as two women who are exploring experimentation and sobriety respectively – authors Rochelle Siemienowicz and Seana Smith. We look at how coaching works – as opposed to other methods such as rehab, AA and counselling – and how it can be improved. Host Jenny also talks about why she nearly went down the route of becoming a coach but decided she definitely wasn’t the best fit for the job.

LINKS

Host Jenny Valentish’s 2017 memoir Woman of Substances: A Journey into Addiction and Treatment was added to university course reading lists and used as educational material by treatment centres. And hey, 156 Amazon ratings give it a solid 4.4!

Lissie Turner’s Dissolving Patterns course and podcast, and her music industry book, Off the Record.

Faye Lawrence is an alcohol, ADHD and anxiety coach.

Seana Smith’s Sober Journeys website. Check out her favourite quit-lit books!

Rochelle Siemienowicz’s memoir Fallen, about pursuing hedonism after leaving the Seventh-day Adventists.

The latest quit-lit book out there is A Thousand Wasted Sundays, by Victoria Vanstone.

We love the Over the Influence podcast and community. Here’s their episode on Sober Code.

And here’s the Sober Code website.

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ASMR for ever and ever

Mon, 22 Jan 2024 18:46:51 GMT

ASMR. Never before have four letters divided people into two camps so soundly: The “What’s that?” camp and the “Yes, I watch girls in Ohio pretend to give me a cranial nerve exam all the time” camp.

Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response videos are commonly credited with helping people sleep and helping with anxiety. ASMR was only coined as a phrase in 2009, but those who get the ‘brain tingles’ will tell you they’ve experienced triggers their whole life – most commonly through whispering, clicking noises, hair brushing and quiet personal attention. Our beautiful interviewee Rea Moon is one such person, and now this Dallas grandmother has a super-successful channel of her own.

But let us tell you, there’s a WHOLE weirder world out there, including ASMrotica, mortuary-themed ASMR and the assembly of sniper rifles. You’re going to have to listen to find out.

Side note: just as you can order custom porn these days, surely there’s a market for custom ASMR? As Jenny is OBSESSED with ASMR, Frank comes up with his own recording, utilising her three favourite things: laundry, hankies and actor Ben Mendelsohn.

OH MY GOD, SO MANY COOL LINKS

Rea Moon ASMR (We love her series of videos doing makeup for young folk going to Pride, and of course you’ll want to see her famous lady on a plane one.)

Here’s Steve, from SRP ASMR, doing an eye examine. And he is indeed an optometrist.

Two of Jenny’s favourites, Sarah Lavender (here she is as the bored art student we mention in the episode) and Diane from Moonlight Cottage.

Here’s Julien Miquel, whose beautifully sonorous French accent tells you how to pronounce things.

Here’s the ASMR Live Lounge in Southsea, England, which we are 100% going to visit next time we’re over there.

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The Fast, the Juice Cleanse, the Colonics and His Lover

Mon, 15 Jan 2024 18:14:55 GMT

Whether or not our bodies need help detoxifying is a hotly debated topic. Feeling sluggish after a bumper holiday season, Frank decides to try a 16:8 fast, then ups the ante to a five-day juice cleanse with a course of colonics. That’s all very well when you’re paying for the privilege in a luxury resort, but how hard is it to commit under your own steam, on home turf?

Jenny chips in by offering a sexual incentive if Frank can stay the course. As for the colonics? Frank hasn’t been beaten by a pipe like that since he was in Romper Stomper. Be sure to go to our Instagram to see what came out.

We also talk to more seasoned fasters, including one trooper who did a 10-day water fast.

LINKS

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Walk the Talk: Motivational Speeches

Mon, 08 Jan 2024 17:00:48 GMT

Just started up at the gym again? What's more likely to turbo-charge your session than a big scoop of pre-workout? Motivational speeches! This genre was first adopted by weightlifters who wanted Arnold Schwarzenegger screaming encouragement over rousing strings as they bench pressed, but it has since infiltrated the mainstream. Boiled down to its essence, the premise is: You’re the underdog. Nobody knows how much you’ve suffered. Nobody cares either. So now you need to dominate.

Absent fathers are a common theme, and so the narrator takes the form of Dad; sometimes Encouraging Dad, but more often Shouting Angrily from the Sidelines Dad. Their voices tend to be uncredited, though ministers, athletes and business leaders feature heavily. And Denzel Washington. Lots of Denzel Washington. These stand-in dads live in a labyrinth of playlists proliferating on Spotify and YouTube – so you can listen at the gym or watch stock-footage montages of people screaming in the rain on your laptop.

This episode, Frank and Jenny talk to kettlebell sport athlete (and owner of Art Gym in Hobart) Eilish Kidd about how she went far down the rabbit hole of this genre. Boxer and ex-Special Forces guy Steven Body talks about how training in the military was designed to weed out anyone less than alpha, and how he loves pull-your-finger-out motivational speeches.

We also talk to ultrarunner and performance coach Luke Tyburski about his own form of motivational speeches – the internal kind. He’s experienced horrific injuries and setbacks, and he’s got some great ideas of how to get you pushing through.

Moved, Frank records Jenny the daddy of all motivational workout speeches.

LINKS:

Eilish Kidd and Art Gym in Hobart

Luke Tyburski – ultrarunner and mindset coach

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Coming up on Spirit Levels in 2024

Mon, 01 Jan 2024 18:05:46 GMT

Since the launch of Spirit Levels in October, we've road-tested a Melbourne cuddle club, MDMA couples therapy, extreme weight cutting, insomnia fixes, biometric tests, ADHD coaching, facilitated breath repatterning, cold water therapy and ecstatic dancing, not to mention we tried to turn Frank into a spiritual life-coach guru.

Next week, on January 9th, we'll be human guinea pigs once more, back with episodes on sober coaching, role play, muscle fetish, peptides, hypnotism, DMT, saunas, the cult of motivational workout speeches, colonics, fasting, naturism (turns out we play table tennis even better without clothes), ASMR, sensory deprivation and a ton more.

Till then, thanks so much for the reviews on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, the downloads, follows and Insta comments – we deeply appreciate each and every one. Don't forget to tell us what you'd like us to try next.

Jenny and Frank

LINKS

Spirit Levels website

Instagram

TikTok

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What Just Happened?

Mon, 25 Dec 2023 22:22:46 GMT

We're 12 episodes into Spirit Levels podcast, so as 2023 draws to a close, we recap our first three months of wellness adventures, from the pseudo to the sensible. NB: We should add that we recorded this while in the throes of Covid (thanks, Berlin!). We would definitely sound more pumped otherwise.

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Ecstatic Dance Like Nobody's Watching

Mon, 18 Dec 2023 13:18:46 GMT

What’s the difference between 5 Rhythms, Ecstatic Dance and Contact Dance? We crack open a cacao in Melbourne and Bali to find out. Over the melancholic cry of sound bowls, Frank wistfully recalls a few near-orgies he’s attended in Ubud and Canggu, but Jenny finds her experience pleasingly more like an old ravers’ home without the drugs.

Our guests this week, 5 Rhythms teacher Chloe Stuart and ecstatic dance DJ Jazzy O, explain how dance can provide therapy, connection, community, free us from judgmental behaviour and – if the stars align – give us an orgasm on the dance floor.

Thanks to James Ballard for the composition and production of outro banger Frankie Flowers. He makes heaps better music than that with his project September 87.

LINKS

Feel the ecstasy at Jazzy O’s Soundcloud.

Experience 5 Rhythms and yoga courtesy of Chloe Stuart and Sam Pawson at Studio Paradise.

Life Spirals Cuddle Gatherings

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The First Rule of Cuddle Club...

Mon, 11 Dec 2023 18:30:28 GMT

When confirmed sociophobe Jenny tells Frank about the Japanese trend of cuddle cafes, and how cuddle therapists and snuggle parties are now popping up in Australia, it looks like she’ll be leading this episode. Until she bottles it. And so it’s up to our resident extrovert Frank to visit the Life Spirals Cuddle Gathering in Melbourne and report back.

When Frank finally emerges blinking into the bar scene of Fitzroy, he has a thousand yard stare. But is it possible he could be profoundly changed? And will Jenny have to go back to her highly expensive oxytocin spray to try and manufacture her own form of social bonding?

LINKS

Episode released 12/12/23

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Do First Crushes Shape Our Patterns?

Mon, 04 Dec 2023 18:24:56 GMT

Think back to you, aged 10. If your way of demonstrating romantic interest entailed throwing a tennis ball at someone’s head in recess, has anything really changed in your passage to adulthood, other than the method of delivery?

This episode, we investigate whether our first romantic experiences dictate our patterns for life.

Frank’s early pattern was to befriend someone and play the long game. Jenny would choose inscrutable men she could project qualities on to, before finding out inscrutable usually means ‘has nothing to say’.

This being Frank’s episode, he indulges himself by tracking down his primary school love, Lisa Rankin, to see if his memories match up to hers, and whether their patterns were set for life. Along the way you’ll hear cute-as-hell stories from others about their first loves, taking us from cult commune to police bust.

LINKS:

Tell Your Friends You Love Them

Episode released 5/12/23

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Survive the Christmas Party: Game Plans for Introverts

Mon, 27 Nov 2023 18:00:02 GMT

Welcome to episode nine, where Jenny outlines her top 10 game plans for introverts, sociophobes, awkwards, stuck-ups and wary Marys who can’t avoid the Christmas party season.

Let’s check if this episode is for you. Answer these questions with a yes or no.

Should people be allowed to talk when you’re eating?
Does one person trying to sleep outweigh the needs of two or more people wanting to party?
People clapping on planes when the plane lands – heartwarming?
Did you wear your fringe at least two inches past your eyebrows in high school?

If you answered no, yes, no, yes, you should definitely hit download.

This episode we’re joined by Matto from Tell Your Friends You Love Them, a gregarious host who moonlights at festivals such as OK Motels and Boogie Festival as their warm-up guy and good-times purveyor. He gives us all his best tips for conversation starters, reading the room, mindset ideas and confidence hacks. Add that to Frank’s natural-born bon vivantiness (he is the youngest of seven, after all) and Jenny’s nerdy research, and we’ll have you hitting Christmas parties like a one-person SWAT team.

LINKS

OK Motels

Boogie Festival

Patrick King’s Principles of Likability

Episode released 28/11/23

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Breathwork and Altered States

Mon, 20 Nov 2023 18:00:21 GMT

Breathwork is increasingly infiltrating our daily routines, thanks to the popularity of James Nestor’s book Breath and the Wim Hof Method. As Nestor says, it’s the new science of a lost art.

This episode, Frank levels up from his usual box breathing (which he uses before surfing and voiceover gigs alike) to altered states. He goes under the guidance of breathwork practitioner Alex Buxton, whose personal journey is quite incredible – from a ‘Heart of Darkness’ moment in a jungle in Thailand, to spending eight years in an ashram, and then becoming a whistleblower, which saw him exiled from his community.

Alex explains holotropic breathing and rebirthing, then takes Frank through several sessions of his favoured practice: Facilitated Breath Repatterning. It’s a technique he learned in Bali that offers something very different…

LINKS

James Nestor’s Breath

Paul Jayilian’s Empire Fitness

Episode released 28/11/23

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Getting Shredded

Mon, 13 Nov 2023 18:00:53 GMT

Bodybuilders are perfectionists. They’re fastidious on internet forums, economical in their IRL conversations, and at the gym they wear ‘No excuses’ singlets. As kids they may have been the ones insisting on only eating orange food, or completing a Rubik’s Cube in 15 seconds.

This episode, we're looking at shredding, the art of getting jacked – be that for bodybuilding, gymfluencer photo shoots, athletes who need to drop a weight class, actors who need to look buff, or just because.

Jenny recounts her lead up to competing in bodybuilding (a once-only venture), when she transformed into a human Cadbury's Curly-Wurly and brought home gold and bronze medals, but at a cost to her health. This is a rare fish-out-of-water insight into the surreal world of bodybuilding, part sport, part spectacle, which comes laden with risks and rewards. What draws people to it? Who excels at it? What gets spoken of and what doesn't? And more pressingly, what did Frank think about the dramatically changing body of his girlfriend?

Our guests this week are Paul Jayilian, Jenny’s trainer and a world champion, who goes deep into the alchemy of ‘peak week’. Also, Jenny’s posing coach, Nat Kitney, who aims to be a soft place to land for her clients, in a sport that’s all about being hard on yourself.

LINKS

Posing Coach Nat Kitney

This episode was mixed by Ally Kallis. Episode released 14/11/23

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Taking the Plunge: Cold Water Immersion

Mon, 06 Nov 2023 19:24:50 GMT

Cold water immersion has many different faces. There’s the cold blast in the shower; ice baths; wild swimming… Which one are you prepared to look in the eye?

Frank is building an ice bath at Jenny’s house – so that he can use it when he’s there. That means he needs to convince his girlfriend of this painful practice’s benefits. Where better to start than on their holiday to the UK, where he can usher her into the North Sea, followed by a dunk in a glacier lagoon in Iceland?

Since the Melbourne lockdowns, Frank has followed a cold water regime, going for winter ocean swims. He also works at Peninsula Hot Springs, so of course he takes full advantage of their ice bath. Professor Marc Cohen is the medical director of the Hot Springs and designed the 'Fire and Ice' feature, so he’s got a lot to say about the therapeutic aspect of this practice and the workings of the sympathetic nervous system. That screaming you hear at the top of the episode? That’s courtesy of the Hot Springs four-degrees ice bath.

Finally, in the middle of winter, Frank meets the Port Melbourne Ice Bergs as they train to swim the heads – which will have them in the ocean for 75 minutes. Somehow, they manage to make their daily endurance feat sound like a really good time.

LINKS

Professor Marc Cohen

Port Melbourne Icebergs

Peninsula Hot Springs

A Sonder X production.

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Are ADHD Obsessions Bad?

Mon, 30 Oct 2023 19:38:56 GMT

ADHD coach Meghann Birks joins Jenny and Frank on the show to nut this one out. Being 'obsessive' doesn't have the most positive connotations, but our hyperfixations can also connect us to community, propel us towards goals and benefit our working life.

Some people have one lifelong obsession, while for others a special interest could last an intensive few months or years before being replaced by the next shiny thing. And then what do you do with all your unicycles/grappling hooks/cosplay outfits? (Meghann's got an answer for that.)

What does the nature of our obsession tell us about what's going in our inner life? (Gary Oldman indirectly answers that one.)

How is our reward system and identity affected by each venture? Finally, what's the difference between an obsession and an addiction?

LINKS

You can book Meghann here and listen to her podcast, Sisters in Stoke.

A Sonder X Production. Episode released 31/10/23.

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MDMA Couples Therapy (and Other Intimacy Ideas)

Mon, 23 Oct 2023 02:52:31 GMT

Australia looks set to be the first country to run an MDMA-assisted couples therapy trial. What is it about ecstasy that researchers and couples therapists found promising back in the 70s and 80s, before it was made illegal?

Frank and Jenny talk to ‘late-bloomer Boomer’ Charley Wininger about his regular use of ecstasy in his marriage (he’s now 74 and they’ve “rolled” around 80 times, which he likens to 80 honeymoons), and how as a couples psychotherapist he views ecstasy as “emotional superglue”.

Jenny and Frank recall their own Pammy Anderson/Tommy Lee-style first date that wound up with big promises being made and eyebrows being intensely groomed, and they get some advice on how to achieve such intimacy without the use of drugs, through the 36 Questions That Lead to Love, developed by groovy husband and wife researchers Arthur and Elaine Aron.

This episode was mixed by Ally Kallis. A Sonder X Production. Episode released 23/10/23.

LINKS

The 36 Questions That Lead to Love.

Frank’s film Sengatan on Prime Video.

Jenny’s latest book, Everything Harder Than Everyone Else: Why Some of Us Push Our Bodies to Extremes, on Audible. In paperback.

Jenny’s article on MDMA couples therapy in the Australian Financial Review.

36 Questions: the musical.

Charley Wininger. and his book Listening to Ecstasy.

Sex educator Eleanor Hadley.

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Run Before You Can Walk

Mon, 16 Oct 2023 19:45:38 GMT

Is throwing yourself full tilt into a physical activity a noble leap or a nosedive? It's marathon season in Australia, inspiring many of us to leap from 5k to much grander feats of endurance. And runners aren't the only culprits! In the recent past, Jenny has hurtled headfirst into Muay Thai fighting and competitive bodybuilding like the world is about to end, while Frank has found himself in seriously gnarly surfing and rockclimbing situations, but believes who dares wins.

This episode, we look at Strava show-offs, the gospel of David Goggins and the influence of figures like the Liver King, in our bid to weigh up short cuts versus mastery. Let's say you decide to make the leap into a sport or event. What tests can you get so that forewarned is forearmed? Frank and Jenny get a barrage of them done and tell you how you can do the same. We're helped in this mission by Doc Adrian Jury and our friends from the Stronger Stride podcast as well as the team at La Trobe University Bendigo's Rural Health School/Holsworth Research Initiative.

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Make Me a Life Coach

Tue, 10 Oct 2023 05:42:07 GMT

As of 2023, the life coaching industry is worth $1.5 billion, with almost 23,000 coaches in the US alone. In Bali that figure is unknown, but if you've been to Ubud or Canggu lately you'll know it's quite possible that life coaches outnumber bottles of Bintang.

This episode is not about any coach who has actually conscientiously trained themselves to provide a specific, solid service. It’s not about coaches who are mindful about duty of care, or who will refer people on to medical or mental health professionals when faced with issues outside of their skillset. Nope. It's the frauds and the flakes we’re coming after. The coaches who are tapped into a system designed to instil fear that you’re not enough, and con you into thinking they're earning six or seven figures. Every Instagram post follows some nonsensical word-salad script. They've got a big emphasis on abundance and manifesting wealth, but offer no tangible advice. They come up with an absolutely astronomical price for their coaching and then urgently reduce it (for two days only!) to make it seem like a bargain. They use trauma (often in inverted commas) as a hook, and quite likely they'll be living and working illegally in a cheap country that's long had the boot of white people on its neck.

Our guest this week is Marko Randelovic. He’s a documentary maker who has lived in Bali for years and has made it his personal mission to mercilessly meme the local life coaching industry. You can also check out his excellent reel, The Birth of a Bali Life Coach, inspired by The Coaching Masters' self-confessed psychopath life coach Lewis Raymond Taylor, who comes under discussion.

Hey, we all wish we could have someone to make our decisions for us sometimes, or to be our personal cheerleader, particularly when we’re at a crisis point. But listening to this episode might help you to choose that person wisely…

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Go to Sleep NOW!

Mon, 02 Oct 2023 19:01:28 GMT

If we're going to get you throwing yourself into inspiring new pursuits every week, first we need to improve your sleep. This week's guest, Mike Toner, runs EDM/dance touring agency Thick as Thieves, so he ought to know something about hectic slumber patterns. He spent $10k fixing his wrecked sleep but he's going to give you everything he knows for free. Frank and Jenny turn Frank's insomniac daughter Stella into a human guinea pig to test some of it out.

In this episode, Mike references health podcaster Siim Land and the Quantified Scientist. The wearable tech he refers to is the Oura Ring, the Dreem headband and the ChiliPad cooling mattress. Want to join Mike on the annual charity runs he puts on? Check out Quick as Thieves.

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Coming up on Spirit Levels, starting October 3, 2023

Thu, 21 Sep 2023 08:56:59 GMT

"The room was like a zoo. People were jumping up, animating tigers and elephants like they were on some sort of psychedelic drug."

"When you haven't slept for two days, they'll be in your face, barking: 'Come on, mate. Just give it up. Go and have a hot shower'."

"Orgasm and ejaculation happens in two different parts of the brain."

"We put intention into this drink, and then the property starts to work through the body..."

In this weekly show, journalist Jenny Valentish and actor/filmmaker Frank Magree pressure test the wellness industry, from the weird to the wonderful to the WTF. Hear words of wisdom and warning from some of the experts and enthusiasts we have coming up.

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Spirit Levels trailer

Mon, 18 Sep 2023 05:15:13 GMT

In this weekly Acast show, launching October 3, 2023, journalist Jenny Valentish and actor/filmmaker Frank Magree pressure test the wellness industry, from the weird to the wonderful to the WTF. Jenny is a former amateur bodybuilder and amateur Muay Thai fighter (a professional amateur, if you will), with a tendency to treat her body mean to keep it keen. Her book Everything Harder Than Everyone Else delves into what drives athletes who push their bodies to extremes, while her Walkley-nominated memoir Woman of Substances examined addictive behaviour and gender.

She has the perfect foil in Frank, a cold water therapy and breathwork devotee, keen to go deeper into new-age and anti-ageing activities. The tennis player in him is fascinated by peptides and recovery hacks. The performer in him harbours a not-so-secret desire to become more guru-like. Frank is an award-winning filmmaker 12 times over and as an actor specialising in bad dudes has been murdered 10 times by his estimation. Hopefully his obsession with longevity and biohacking will preserve him as a fighting-fit fella in real life.

The pair will road-test disciplines such as rebirthing, tantra, motivational techniques, NLP, cuddle therapy, extreme weight cutting, saunas, fasting, colonics, DMT and MDMA couples therapy, to see if they can extract practical benefits from the more out-there concepts.