June 8, 2025 • 19 mins
Have you ever wanted more clarity around how your brain works?
Often, it can be knowledge that can mean the difference between having the perspective and tools to make changes in your life, or not.
There are countless books on the subject, but here, Osher details 7 that have been instrumental to his own life, that have helped his own clarity on the inner workings of our minds - in other words, the books he thinks about (and recommends) when he thinks about thinking.
For more, links to those books are here: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, .css-j9qmi7{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-flex-direction:row;-ms-flex-direction:row;flex-direction:row;font-weight:700;margin-bottom:1rem;margin-top:2.8rem;width:100%;-webkit-box-pack:start;-ms-flex-pack:start;-webkit-justify-content:start;justify-content:start;padding-left:5rem;}@media only screen and (max-width: 599px){.css-j9qmi7{padding-left:0;-webkit-box-pack:center;-ms-flex-pack:center;-webkit-justify-content:center;justify-content:center;}}.css-j9qmi7 svg{fill:#27292D;}.css-j9qmi7 .eagfbvw0{-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;color:#27292D;}Mark as PlayedTranscript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Thanks so much for listening to the show. If this
is your first time here, here's something you may not
know about me. I'm a very curious person. So when
I sometimes do things which impact me and those around
me in a negative way, I try to a stop
doing those things and be try to learn as much
as I can about which parts of my brain are
(00:25):
involved with that, and hopefully you use those parts of
my brain to help me figure out something else to
do in that situation. Now, my producer Adam asked me
to do an episode about some of the books that
I've used to learn about the way the brains work
and why people do things in certain situations. I've got
seven books coming up for you today right after this.
(00:56):
Thanks so much for listening to the show. This is
better than yesterday, bringing you useful to and useful conversations
to make your day today better than yesterday, every episode
since seven thirteen. My name's Oshi Ginsberg. I'm a TV presenter.
I'm a best selling author. I'm an award winning documentary maker.
I produce live shows. I'm a person who's standing here
in very cozy socks, and I'm grateful for your here
(01:18):
on the subject of live shows. The next story Club
event is happening on the sixth of July in Merrickville.
We've already locked in Marley Silver, Merrick Watts, and Phil
O'Neil at the time of this recording. Get on story
Club Live if you want to get your tickets. This
one will absolutely pack out, so do not wait around
for that. Look, here are seven books that I consider
(01:38):
fundamental if you want to be thinking about thinking. It's
by no means an exhaustive list. There's probably many more
that I've missed out on. There's certainly many more that
I wanted to put on this list, and it won't
be the last time I do this. However, if I
were to consider which books have really shaped the way
that I think about thinking and why people are the
(01:59):
way they are are these books have been incredibly influential
upon me. So let's go first up, Deep Survival by
Lawrence Gonzales. I will read this book easily one time
a year, and I've done that for over fifteen years now.
This book is an absolute masterclass in understanding why some
(02:20):
people survive seemingly impossible situations while others with similar skills,
similar equipment, and possibly more skills and more equipment simply
don't survive those situations. This book is about what happens
to our brains in a survival situation. In this book,
(02:41):
Lawrence Gonzalez uses real life incidents. I'm talking terrible accidents,
but also miraculous rescues, and using those helps us learn
that we can understand a lot more about how people
respond in high stakes moments. Gonzales really dives into these
gripping and quite terrifying real life survival stories, everything from
(03:04):
playing crashes way out in the wilderness to mountaineering accidents,
and meticulously dissects the psychological and physiological factors that are
at play. Gonzalez explores how our brains react under situations
of extreme stress, and in those situations he shows time
and again how that extreme stress often leads to predictable errors,
(03:27):
but also using those examples, describes how certain mindsets and
being prepared in a particular way can dramatically increase our
chances of survival. It's less about brute strength, It's more
about the mental resilience and the ability to adapt. The
main thing that I took from Deep Survival is that
when the shit hits the fan, whether it's being caught
(03:48):
in a rip or going through a rough patch at work,
pay attention to your body signals to your best to
slow down. Survival is not about brute force. It's about mindfulness. Also,
deep survival is the reason that if you ever sit
next to me on a plane, you'll notice that we
will always be within five rows of an exit. Right
(04:12):
next up, I talk about this next book all the
time on this show. It's called The Art of Possibility.
It's by Rosamun Stone Xander and Benjamin Xander. So the
co writers of this book are a family therapist and
a renowned orchestral conductor. And it's a truly unique exploration
of how our perspective shapes our reality, using real world
(04:34):
stories of managing the unique personalities which come together in
a world around youth orchestra, very high stake stuff. This
book invites us to shift from a world of scarcity,
the idea of what can I get, to one of possibility,
what can I contribute? When I went to business school
in Amsterdam a while ago, now, this book is one
(04:57):
of the books which was required reading before I started
my core and it fundamentally transformed the way that I
deal with adversity. There's a simple tool that I'll share
with you right now, which the Xanders offer. And this
tool has helped me too many times to count. And
that is when everything is falling apart, when things are
just really just falling a bit, so you can't imagine
(05:20):
how it could get any worse. If you throw your
hands in the air and gleefully squeal, how fascinating no
matter how bad it feels, immediately you're presented with an
opportunity to choose a different possibility as to what happens next. Now,
at first it seemed a bit naff, but then it
started working, and it's worked too many times to be
(05:41):
bunk them. And that's just one of the twelve practices
that the Zanders offer in this book, a book which
can truly transform personal and professionalize. I don't know about you,
but I was somewhat raised in a mindset of scarcity
and competition. Well, in this book they offer an alternative
set of abundance and collaboration, seeing possibilities where others see limitations.
(06:06):
The big takeaway from the Art of Possibility for me
would be that life's not just about getting through the
notes on the page when you're playing right, It's about
playing those notes and taking what you've been given, but
using that stuff to create something new and something wonderful.
Next up, it's a book about habit. Long before there
(06:29):
was James clear, there was Charles Dewhig. The Power of
Habit was the first book which for me unlocked that
the tendency my brain can have for repetition, compulsion and
rumination could actually be channeled towards something positive. Doing breaks
down habits and the way they work, and doing that
(06:51):
was really it was like getting cheat codes for my brain.
First up, he talks about the habit loop Q routine reward,
and then shows how understanding this loop is the key
to not only changing bad habits, but also forming new
habits which actually align with your goals and where you
want to end up. Now, that's also pretty interesting stuff
because he doesn't only cover things like boding your nails
(07:14):
or breaking the habit of demolishing a pack of Timtams
at three PM. He also goes into how marketers use
habits to sell products, like how Procter and Gamble used
habit research to turn for Breeze, which had launched and
was pretty much a flop. Turning for Breeze from that
into an all conquering under the sink staple right around
(07:35):
the world, and how habits adopted across a whole workforce
we used to make a massive workplace, huge foundry like
Alcoa much much safer. This book is a look at
how a seemingly small change can make a much larger
ripple effect. Habit shape who we are more than we
would like to admit. And the biggest thing that I
(07:57):
got from this book was that to change habit, you
can keep the same cue and the reward, but you
swap in a new routine and that way you're not
stuck or led by something that you can't control. You're
actually working out that you're programmable and if you want,
you can program yourself to achieve some pretty magnificent things.
(08:18):
But understanding how we can get stuck in a bad
habit involves understanding the way that our brains work with reward,
and that is where this next book comes in. The
Molecule of More by Daniel Lieberman and Michael E. Long
is an absolutely mind bending journey into the world of dopamine.
This single neurotransmitter which is produced in your brain, in
(08:40):
my brain, and the brains of everybody we know it's
often associated with pleasure, but that really under sells what
dopamine is to us as humans. I would argue that
the presence of dopamine and the way that we think
is the reason that we as humans have taken over
the planet. Dopamine is the molecule of more. It drives
(09:02):
our desires, our pursuits, our goals, and our motivation. Think
of the difference between liking something and wanting something. Which
one's going to drive you to action, Which one is
going to make you pick up the phone and call
that person you want to go on a date with.
Which one is going to get you out of bed
and get you the gym every day? Which one is
going to click that picture and buy that thing. There's
(09:23):
a very big difference in what happens in our brain
between liking something and wanting something, and it's all about
the dopamine. I absolutely loved reading about how dopamine impacts
everything from love and addiction to even creativity and our
societal aspirations. It also helped me understand a lot more
(09:43):
about my own experience with addiction and help me integrate
some practices into my life that I guess helped me
fall in love in a way with training and training
every day changing the way that I think about it
so that I don't train because I feel have to
and it's a pinnish and h I trained because I
want to and I can't wait to do it, and
(10:05):
I use techniques or found in this book to help
me get to that spot. It's a fascinating look into
how our brain chemistry shapes our experiences and our drive
to achieve. And that's before you talk about how dopamine
influences us as a species. There's a whole section in
this book which absolutely blew my mind about one specific
gene expression related to the level of dopamine receptors and
(10:27):
how it shows up in people and is a significant
factor in how we as humans just kept walking from
the plains of Africa, across Europe and all the way
down to the bottom tip of South America. By measuring
the levels of this gene receptor in indigenous populations of
these countries, researchers have shown that this particular receptor was
blunted to the effect of dopamine so these people for
(10:49):
them to get to normal, the feeling of oh yeah,
this is an okay amount of excitement and stimulation. They
needed to be a lot more novelty. So for people
who were going, oh, we've come here and this is
a great place to settle down and we'll build our
society here, there was a small cohort of every community going, yeah,
this is nice, but I don't know what's over that
hill over there. They went off trying to find. They
(11:11):
went seeking for things that were new and interesting to
get them up to that feeling of normalcy. Now, I'm
not saying that you and I are going to migrate
across the world by foot, but it's been enormously helpful
understanding how dopamine affects me, and reading this book really
helped me do that. Dopamine is less about immediate pleasure.
It's more about the pursuit of novelty and future rewards,
(11:31):
and it profoundly influences our drive, our creativity, and this
quest for more. The book is fascinating. It really helped
me understand everything from how I eat to how I
how I shop. It's a brilliant, brilliant book. We do
have to take a quick break. I'll be back with
three more books, including one written by a person who
is part human, part wizard and is a profound instruction
(11:54):
manual that I wish I had when I was a
younger man. Thanks so much for being with me today.
I'm going through seven books which I think about when
I think about thinking. Book number five is Emotional Agility
(12:17):
by Susan David, originally from South Africa, now somewhere between
being a psychologist at Harvard and living in Melbourne. Susan
David has been a guest on this podcast twice now.
She's an incredible human being. And Susan David has this
line from this book Emotional Agility, which I quote all
the time. Uncomfortable feelings are the price of admission to
(12:38):
a meaningful life. Susan's concept of emotional agility, it's not
about suppressing your emotions or always being positive. It's that
it's about acknowledging your thoughts and feelings, even the difficult ones,
and then moving through them constructively. She talks about how
true resilience comes from being able to face our inner
experiences with curiosity and compassion, rather than getting hooked by
(13:01):
them or trying to ignore them. I found this book
incredibly useful because it provides practical strategies for identifying emotional patterns,
stebbing back from judgment of ourselves and others, and then
aligning our actions with our values even when we feel uncomfortable.
This book isn't about controlling your emotions. Rather, it's about
(13:22):
accepting them and then choosing how you respond and allowing
you to move forward authentically. And if some of that
sounds like familiar territory, you'd be right, because this particular
kind of psychology is something that really helped me in
the past, and that experience was the inspiration for what
(13:43):
was behind book number six, which is so What Now What?
By Osha Ginsburg and illustrated by Campbell Walker. Come on,
of course, I'm going to plug my own book. What
do you reckon? Yeah, I've got a pre sale coming up.
We got to make it happen. We're in the pre
order phase. Every single copy that I get pre ordered
now helps me to launch it in the States. I
(14:04):
really want to get it up in America, but I've
got to show them that the sales are pumping along here.
So if you're in the States, please get onto this.
If you order an Amazon there, it will ship over
to you. I really really need to get this book
over there. There was a time not too long ago,
even when I was living with life threatening mental anguish.
One of the things that really helped me to find
a pathway out of that pain was a kind of
(14:25):
treatment known as acceptance commitment therapy. Now, once I knew
how powerful this set of ideas could be, I really
wanted to share what I'd learned in a way that
was as accessible as possible, particularly the people who might
never ever call up their GP or answer the question
are you okay? With Yeah, I'm just tired. I guess
(14:46):
you could say that experience. My experience provides the backbone
of this book, which is an illustrated dialogue between an
arrator frozen by painful thoughts and feelings and a literal
helping hand. To make sure that all the psychological concepts, techniques,
and ideas were absolutely watertight, so Cam and I worked
extensively with an eminent act psychologist both the wording and
(15:09):
the visuals to make sure that both of them were compelling,
an accurate, and a true representation of the therapeutic process.
The fact that I also got to work with one
of my heroes, the great artist Campbell Walker also known
as truth Its really meant that the message I was
hoping to convey to kind of an entirely different layer,
another layer of depth, of humor and of meaning, and
(15:34):
between the two of us were able to make some
pretty complex topics far easier to digest. So please there's
a link in the show notes to get a copy
for you, get a copy for your friend, get a
copy just in case you'll find the link in the
show notes. Okay. Book number six plug over Finally the
book that I wish existed when I was playing music
and jumping on stage. But I'm so grateful that exists
(15:57):
now that I'm writing and performing so much and really
putting myself out there and doing things like this podcast,
my upcoming live show, comedy shows, really bold ideas like
the live show that I'm trying to do for this tour.
This book to it now what it involves live motion
(16:17):
capture and three D animation, and not many people are
expecting what that's going to look like, and I'm terrified
of it. But reading this book has really helped me
have the confidence to just boldly charge forward. The seventh
book today is The Creative Act, A Way of Being
by Rick Ruben. If you're involved in any kind of
creative pursuit or even just curious about the creative process.
(16:39):
This book is an absolute must read for you. Rick
Rubin is part guru and part wizard. He is a
legendary music producer who changed the world with his work
that turned great albums into incredible albums for bands like
The Beastie Boys, El Cool, Jay Slayer, The Red Chili,
(16:59):
Pepper jay Z, Johnny Cash. Not to mention, Sue mix
a Lot, Baby Got Back yep. Rick Rubin co produced
Baby Got Back. Thank you, Rick. But Rick is about
so much more than that. This book is exceptional. In
this book, he really distills just decades of experience into
(17:20):
a very clearly written, simply written, but a profound meditation
on creativity itself. It's not a how to guide. There's
no step by step instructions. It's more an exploration of
the principles, mindsets, and practices that foster creativity. He talks
about the importance of listening, of observation, of detachment, surrendering
(17:41):
to the creative flow. It's about understanding that creativity isn't
just about producing something, but about a way of being
in a way of connecting with the world around you.
If you've ever had the thought, the limiting thought of
well I'm not that creative, then this book is for you,
(18:03):
because this book really challenges us to see that creativity
is not a specialized skill practiced by a select and
elite few, but creativity is a fundamental aspect of human existence,
a way of being that enriches our lives and offers
a path to a deeper connection with ourselves, with others,
(18:23):
and with the world around us. I look forward to
your thoughts. Maybe if there's some books that I've missed,
I'd love to get your ideas on that. Thank you
so much for joining me on this episode. I can't
wait to hear what you think. We're back here on Wednesday.
My guest that I'm thrilled to welcome is Chris Ryan.
She has a brand new live show which is playing
(18:45):
in Melbourne this weekend. I put a link in the
show notes for that. Thanks so much for listening. Thanks
so much for Addam Bunch for cutting this episode. Enjoy
the show. If you liked it, please tell someone like it.
Follow it, find us on YouTube, finance, on Instagram, find
us where around. Okay, I'll see it Wednesday
Thanks so much for listening to the show. If this
is your first time here, here's something you may not
know about me. I'm a very curious person. So when
I sometimes do things which impact me and those around
me in a negative way, I try to a stop
doing those things and be try to learn as much
as I can about which parts of my brain are
(00:25):
involved with that, and hopefully you use those parts of
my brain to help me figure out something else to
do in that situation. Now, my producer Adam asked me
to do an episode about some of the books that
I've used to learn about the way the brains work
and why people do things in certain situations. I've got
seven books coming up for you today right after this.
(00:56):
Thanks so much for listening to the show. This is
better than yesterday, bringing you useful to and useful conversations
to make your day today better than yesterday, every episode
since seven thirteen. My name's Oshi Ginsberg. I'm a TV presenter.
I'm a best selling author. I'm an award winning documentary maker.
I produce live shows. I'm a person who's standing here
in very cozy socks, and I'm grateful for your here
(01:18):
on the subject of live shows. The next story Club
event is happening on the sixth of July in Merrickville.
We've already locked in Marley Silver, Merrick Watts, and Phil
O'Neil at the time of this recording. Get on story
Club Live if you want to get your tickets. This
one will absolutely pack out, so do not wait around
for that. Look, here are seven books that I consider
(01:38):
fundamental if you want to be thinking about thinking. It's
by no means an exhaustive list. There's probably many more
that I've missed out on. There's certainly many more that
I wanted to put on this list, and it won't
be the last time I do this. However, if I
were to consider which books have really shaped the way
that I think about thinking and why people are the
(01:59):
way they are are these books have been incredibly influential
upon me. So let's go first up, Deep Survival by
Lawrence Gonzales. I will read this book easily one time
a year, and I've done that for over fifteen years now.
This book is an absolute masterclass in understanding why some
(02:20):
people survive seemingly impossible situations while others with similar skills,
similar equipment, and possibly more skills and more equipment simply
don't survive those situations. This book is about what happens
to our brains in a survival situation. In this book,
(02:41):
Lawrence Gonzalez uses real life incidents. I'm talking terrible accidents,
but also miraculous rescues, and using those helps us learn
that we can understand a lot more about how people
respond in high stakes moments. Gonzales really dives into these
gripping and quite terrifying real life survival stories, everything from
(03:04):
playing crashes way out in the wilderness to mountaineering accidents,
and meticulously dissects the psychological and physiological factors that are
at play. Gonzalez explores how our brains react under situations
of extreme stress, and in those situations he shows time
and again how that extreme stress often leads to predictable errors,
(03:27):
but also using those examples, describes how certain mindsets and
being prepared in a particular way can dramatically increase our
chances of survival. It's less about brute strength, It's more
about the mental resilience and the ability to adapt. The
main thing that I took from Deep Survival is that
when the shit hits the fan, whether it's being caught
(03:48):
in a rip or going through a rough patch at work,
pay attention to your body signals to your best to
slow down. Survival is not about brute force. It's about mindfulness. Also,
deep survival is the reason that if you ever sit
next to me on a plane, you'll notice that we
will always be within five rows of an exit. Right
(04:12):
next up, I talk about this next book all the
time on this show. It's called The Art of Possibility.
It's by Rosamun Stone Xander and Benjamin Xander. So the
co writers of this book are a family therapist and
a renowned orchestral conductor. And it's a truly unique exploration
of how our perspective shapes our reality, using real world
(04:34):
stories of managing the unique personalities which come together in
a world around youth orchestra, very high stake stuff. This
book invites us to shift from a world of scarcity,
the idea of what can I get, to one of possibility,
what can I contribute? When I went to business school
in Amsterdam a while ago, now, this book is one
(04:57):
of the books which was required reading before I started
my core and it fundamentally transformed the way that I
deal with adversity. There's a simple tool that I'll share
with you right now, which the Xanders offer. And this
tool has helped me too many times to count. And
that is when everything is falling apart, when things are
just really just falling a bit, so you can't imagine
(05:20):
how it could get any worse. If you throw your
hands in the air and gleefully squeal, how fascinating no
matter how bad it feels, immediately you're presented with an
opportunity to choose a different possibility as to what happens next. Now,
at first it seemed a bit naff, but then it
started working, and it's worked too many times to be
(05:41):
bunk them. And that's just one of the twelve practices
that the Zanders offer in this book, a book which
can truly transform personal and professionalize. I don't know about you,
but I was somewhat raised in a mindset of scarcity
and competition. Well, in this book they offer an alternative
set of abundance and collaboration, seeing possibilities where others see limitations.
(06:06):
The big takeaway from the Art of Possibility for me
would be that life's not just about getting through the
notes on the page when you're playing right, It's about
playing those notes and taking what you've been given, but
using that stuff to create something new and something wonderful.
Next up, it's a book about habit. Long before there
(06:29):
was James clear, there was Charles Dewhig. The Power of
Habit was the first book which for me unlocked that
the tendency my brain can have for repetition, compulsion and
rumination could actually be channeled towards something positive. Doing breaks
down habits and the way they work, and doing that
(06:51):
was really it was like getting cheat codes for my brain.
First up, he talks about the habit loop Q routine reward,
and then shows how understanding this loop is the key
to not only changing bad habits, but also forming new
habits which actually align with your goals and where you
want to end up. Now, that's also pretty interesting stuff
because he doesn't only cover things like boding your nails
(07:14):
or breaking the habit of demolishing a pack of Timtams
at three PM. He also goes into how marketers use
habits to sell products, like how Procter and Gamble used
habit research to turn for Breeze, which had launched and
was pretty much a flop. Turning for Breeze from that
into an all conquering under the sink staple right around
(07:35):
the world, and how habits adopted across a whole workforce
we used to make a massive workplace, huge foundry like
Alcoa much much safer. This book is a look at
how a seemingly small change can make a much larger
ripple effect. Habit shape who we are more than we
would like to admit. And the biggest thing that I
(07:57):
got from this book was that to change habit, you
can keep the same cue and the reward, but you
swap in a new routine and that way you're not
stuck or led by something that you can't control. You're
actually working out that you're programmable and if you want,
you can program yourself to achieve some pretty magnificent things.
(08:18):
But understanding how we can get stuck in a bad
habit involves understanding the way that our brains work with reward,
and that is where this next book comes in. The
Molecule of More by Daniel Lieberman and Michael E. Long
is an absolutely mind bending journey into the world of dopamine.
This single neurotransmitter which is produced in your brain, in
(08:40):
my brain, and the brains of everybody we know it's
often associated with pleasure, but that really under sells what
dopamine is to us as humans. I would argue that
the presence of dopamine and the way that we think
is the reason that we as humans have taken over
the planet. Dopamine is the molecule of more. It drives
(09:02):
our desires, our pursuits, our goals, and our motivation. Think
of the difference between liking something and wanting something. Which
one's going to drive you to action, Which one is
going to make you pick up the phone and call
that person you want to go on a date with.
Which one is going to get you out of bed
and get you the gym every day? Which one is
going to click that picture and buy that thing. There's
(09:23):
a very big difference in what happens in our brain
between liking something and wanting something, and it's all about
the dopamine. I absolutely loved reading about how dopamine impacts
everything from love and addiction to even creativity and our
societal aspirations. It also helped me understand a lot more
(09:43):
about my own experience with addiction and help me integrate
some practices into my life that I guess helped me
fall in love in a way with training and training
every day changing the way that I think about it
so that I don't train because I feel have to
and it's a pinnish and h I trained because I
want to and I can't wait to do it, and
(10:05):
I use techniques or found in this book to help
me get to that spot. It's a fascinating look into
how our brain chemistry shapes our experiences and our drive
to achieve. And that's before you talk about how dopamine
influences us as a species. There's a whole section in
this book which absolutely blew my mind about one specific
gene expression related to the level of dopamine receptors and
(10:27):
how it shows up in people and is a significant
factor in how we as humans just kept walking from
the plains of Africa, across Europe and all the way
down to the bottom tip of South America. By measuring
the levels of this gene receptor in indigenous populations of
these countries, researchers have shown that this particular receptor was
blunted to the effect of dopamine so these people for
(10:49):
them to get to normal, the feeling of oh yeah,
this is an okay amount of excitement and stimulation. They
needed to be a lot more novelty. So for people
who were going, oh, we've come here and this is
a great place to settle down and we'll build our
society here, there was a small cohort of every community going, yeah,
this is nice, but I don't know what's over that
hill over there. They went off trying to find. They
(11:11):
went seeking for things that were new and interesting to
get them up to that feeling of normalcy. Now, I'm
not saying that you and I are going to migrate
across the world by foot, but it's been enormously helpful
understanding how dopamine affects me, and reading this book really
helped me do that. Dopamine is less about immediate pleasure.
It's more about the pursuit of novelty and future rewards,
(11:31):
and it profoundly influences our drive, our creativity, and this
quest for more. The book is fascinating. It really helped
me understand everything from how I eat to how I
how I shop. It's a brilliant, brilliant book. We do
have to take a quick break. I'll be back with
three more books, including one written by a person who
is part human, part wizard and is a profound instruction
(11:54):
manual that I wish I had when I was a
younger man. Thanks so much for being with me today.
I'm going through seven books which I think about when
I think about thinking. Book number five is Emotional Agility
(12:17):
by Susan David, originally from South Africa, now somewhere between
being a psychologist at Harvard and living in Melbourne. Susan
David has been a guest on this podcast twice now.
She's an incredible human being. And Susan David has this
line from this book Emotional Agility, which I quote all
the time. Uncomfortable feelings are the price of admission to
(12:38):
a meaningful life. Susan's concept of emotional agility, it's not
about suppressing your emotions or always being positive. It's that
it's about acknowledging your thoughts and feelings, even the difficult ones,
and then moving through them constructively. She talks about how
true resilience comes from being able to face our inner
experiences with curiosity and compassion, rather than getting hooked by
(13:01):
them or trying to ignore them. I found this book
incredibly useful because it provides practical strategies for identifying emotional patterns,
stebbing back from judgment of ourselves and others, and then
aligning our actions with our values even when we feel uncomfortable.
This book isn't about controlling your emotions. Rather, it's about
(13:22):
accepting them and then choosing how you respond and allowing
you to move forward authentically. And if some of that
sounds like familiar territory, you'd be right, because this particular
kind of psychology is something that really helped me in
the past, and that experience was the inspiration for what
(13:43):
was behind book number six, which is so What Now What?
By Osha Ginsburg and illustrated by Campbell Walker. Come on,
of course, I'm going to plug my own book. What
do you reckon? Yeah, I've got a pre sale coming up.
We got to make it happen. We're in the pre
order phase. Every single copy that I get pre ordered
now helps me to launch it in the States. I
(14:04):
really want to get it up in America, but I've
got to show them that the sales are pumping along here.
So if you're in the States, please get onto this.
If you order an Amazon there, it will ship over
to you. I really really need to get this book
over there. There was a time not too long ago,
even when I was living with life threatening mental anguish.
One of the things that really helped me to find
a pathway out of that pain was a kind of
(14:25):
treatment known as acceptance commitment therapy. Now, once I knew
how powerful this set of ideas could be, I really
wanted to share what I'd learned in a way that
was as accessible as possible, particularly the people who might
never ever call up their GP or answer the question
are you okay? With Yeah, I'm just tired. I guess
(14:46):
you could say that experience. My experience provides the backbone
of this book, which is an illustrated dialogue between an
arrator frozen by painful thoughts and feelings and a literal
helping hand. To make sure that all the psychological concepts, techniques,
and ideas were absolutely watertight, so Cam and I worked
extensively with an eminent act psychologist both the wording and
(15:09):
the visuals to make sure that both of them were compelling,
an accurate, and a true representation of the therapeutic process.
The fact that I also got to work with one
of my heroes, the great artist Campbell Walker also known
as truth Its really meant that the message I was
hoping to convey to kind of an entirely different layer,
another layer of depth, of humor and of meaning, and
(15:34):
between the two of us were able to make some
pretty complex topics far easier to digest. So please there's
a link in the show notes to get a copy
for you, get a copy for your friend, get a
copy just in case you'll find the link in the
show notes. Okay. Book number six plug over Finally the
book that I wish existed when I was playing music
and jumping on stage. But I'm so grateful that exists
(15:57):
now that I'm writing and performing so much and really
putting myself out there and doing things like this podcast,
my upcoming live show, comedy shows, really bold ideas like
the live show that I'm trying to do for this tour.
This book to it now what it involves live motion
(16:17):
capture and three D animation, and not many people are
expecting what that's going to look like, and I'm terrified
of it. But reading this book has really helped me
have the confidence to just boldly charge forward. The seventh
book today is The Creative Act, A Way of Being
by Rick Ruben. If you're involved in any kind of
creative pursuit or even just curious about the creative process.
(16:39):
This book is an absolute must read for you. Rick
Rubin is part guru and part wizard. He is a
legendary music producer who changed the world with his work
that turned great albums into incredible albums for bands like
The Beastie Boys, El Cool, Jay Slayer, The Red Chili,
(16:59):
Pepper jay Z, Johnny Cash. Not to mention, Sue mix
a Lot, Baby Got Back yep. Rick Rubin co produced
Baby Got Back. Thank you, Rick. But Rick is about
so much more than that. This book is exceptional. In
this book, he really distills just decades of experience into
(17:20):
a very clearly written, simply written, but a profound meditation
on creativity itself. It's not a how to guide. There's
no step by step instructions. It's more an exploration of
the principles, mindsets, and practices that foster creativity. He talks
about the importance of listening, of observation, of detachment, surrendering
(17:41):
to the creative flow. It's about understanding that creativity isn't
just about producing something, but about a way of being
in a way of connecting with the world around you.
If you've ever had the thought, the limiting thought of
well I'm not that creative, then this book is for you,
(18:03):
because this book really challenges us to see that creativity
is not a specialized skill practiced by a select and
elite few, but creativity is a fundamental aspect of human existence,
a way of being that enriches our lives and offers
a path to a deeper connection with ourselves, with others,
(18:23):
and with the world around us. I look forward to
your thoughts. Maybe if there's some books that I've missed,
I'd love to get your ideas on that. Thank you
so much for joining me on this episode. I can't
wait to hear what you think. We're back here on Wednesday.
My guest that I'm thrilled to welcome is Chris Ryan.
She has a brand new live show which is playing
(18:45):
in Melbourne this weekend. I put a link in the
show notes for that. Thanks so much for listening. Thanks
so much for Addam Bunch for cutting this episode. Enjoy
the show. If you liked it, please tell someone like it.
Follow it, find us on YouTube, finance, on Instagram, find
us where around. Okay, I'll see it Wednesday
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