The Happiness Quotient

The Happiness Quotient

Thom Dharma Pollard hosts inspirational, intimate and unfiltered Stories That Inspire with guests and drawing from his own adventures around the world. The Happiness Quotient: connected, engaged, passionate people who inspire us.

Episodes

April 23, 2025 51 mins

In this episode: Prof. Sam Vaknin explains narcissism as a disruption in early childhood self-formation, leading to a lack of boundaries, empathy, and a false self. He describes narcissists as having an "empty schizoid core" that feeds on others to maintain a fantasy of grandiosity. Vaknin highlights the narcissist's ability to manipulate others through shared fantasies, exploiting their vulnerabilities. He contrasts...

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A vast number of those under the age of 35 spend between six and eight hours a day using computer simulated games, essentially in a world far from reality. And, what's worse, the vast and expanding realm of social media are designed to bring out and leverage the worst in their users, all negative affects such as anger and malicious envy. It is a toxic environment. The core philosophy of social media is asocial. They want you d...

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She woke in the dead of night, unsure if she’d succeed, fail… or die. Because the last person to attempt what she was doing did die. Melissa Arnot would be walking right past one of Everest’s most infamous bodies—Sleeping Beauty on her sixth, but most perilous climb, of Mount Everest. She was climbing without bottled oxygen, a feat only a handful of women have ever accomplished.

In this inspiring interview with Melissa Arn...

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What a world it would be if we encouraged just one human being once each day, what a world it would be, if we followed the core spirit of our being.

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Support the show

Here are a few ways you can help support us:
Patreon for access to exclusive content:
https://www.patreon.com/everestmystery

EVEREST MYSTERY Membership for access to perks and exclusive content:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEk3e_X...

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Nothing says life on the road and all that comes along with than the life of a touring musician. It’s not Leer jets and posh hotels, sold out auditoriums. The music you hear pouring out of small bars and music houses, cafes come from people like you and me, passionate, driven, inspired…..they drive 8 hours from gig to gig, sleep in modest hotels - or behind the bar after it closes. They set up their own kits and amplifiers, collect...

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Alone on Everest*. No Oxygen. No Support. No Limits....IN WINTER!

Jost Kobusch is redefining the boundaries of human endurance. In the dead of winter, with temperatures plunging to -40°F and winds howling through Everest’s infamous West Ridge, he set out on a nearly impossible mission: to climb Everest solo, without supplemental oxygen, on one of the most dangerous routes in history.

Doubted by the world’s top cli...

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Love. Adventure. Tragedy. Some couples chase dreams together, but for these three, their love stories ended high in the mountains—where eternity and ice became their final resting place.

In this special video, we explore three heartbreaking mountaineering love stories:

💔 Francys & Sergei Arsentiev (Everest) – She became known as Sleeping Beauty after being left behind near the summit. He gave everything to sa...

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The cost of climbing Everest just went up—A LOT! But, at what cost? Nepal has raised permit fees to $15,000 per climber, yet none of that money is going toward improving Sherpa safety. In this video, we expose how Everest has become a business where money talks, and ethics disappear.

Featuring an exclusive interview with Angela Benevides of ExplorersWeb, we uncover the heartbreaking story of Nawang Sherpa, who had no prior...

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For 100 years the fate of Sandy Irvine has been shrouded in speculation and mystery, even mis-direction. Now, new evidence is emerging that could re-write what we thought we knew.

In this episode, we’ll update you on the groundbreaking DNA testing currently underway, share what we know about the discovery of Sandy Irvine's boot in October of this year, explore what might come next. We’ll also hear from Everest histori...

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Well, we packed too lightly for such a chilly hike. But, we nabbed a 4000-footer before high-tailing back to the warmth of a smaller peak that offered us a sunny vantage point. Today, the topic of Metta, or Lovingkindness.

Come along on our lovely hike in the White Mountains.

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Support the show

Here are a few ways you can help support us:
Patreon for access to exclusive content:
https://www.patreon.com/e...

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Just imagine the surprise and shock you would get if when your telephone rings one morning and it's a call from Kathmandu, Nepal and on the end is a world famous mountaineer, that his team has found the partial remains of your long lost great uncle, who disappeared 100 years ago. That happened to today's guest, Julie Summers, the great niece of Sandy Irvine, who disappeared alongside his climbing partner George Mallory on...

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BREAKING NEWS: SOME OF THE REMAINS OF legendary mountaineer Sandy Irvine have been discovered on the Rongbuk Glacier of Mount Everest in Tibet by a National Geographic team that had been endeavoring to do a ski descent of the Hornbein Couloir.

World's foremost authority on all things Mystery of Mallory and Irvine Jochen Hemmleb is interviewed here only hours after he learned of the momentous discovery.

Here i...

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Mount Everest—legendary, dangerous, and shrouded in myths. But how much of what you've heard is actually true? Are climbers really lining up like rush hour traffic at 29,000 feet? Is the mountain littered with bodies and trash? Let's peel back the layers of Everest’s most shocking myths and separating fact from fiction. 

You’re NOT going to want to miss the last one because it’s a doozie!

Videos referenc...

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Under the glow of séance candles a psychic medium sits trancelike at a table, in front of her is a blank notebook. She begins to write the words of a spirit claiming to be George Mallory  - the mountaineer who disappeared with his partner Sandy Irvine high upon the north face of Everest only months previously:

“I am Mallory” the words appear from her pen “I can remember still the struggle for breath….and the awful cold.”

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They say that gong to the summit is only halfway. And nowhere was that more true than on May 10, 1996 on Mount Everest. On that day Everest became the stage for one of the most harrowing disasters in mountaineering history. Eight climbers perished in a brutal storm, and as the world tried to make sense of the tragedy, a chilling truth emerged: success on Everest isn't just about reaching the summit—it's about surviving th...

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Today we hiked two lovely mountains in the Sandwich Wilderness of the White Mountains in New Hampshire....each offered limited views at the summit. 

MOST IMPORTANTLY, the hike revealed some insights on personal transformation and how one might bring that about.

Here is the video about our try at this same hike a few days previously:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/best-made-plans-109860264?utm_medium=clipboard_c...

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Famed mountain climber and guide Rob Hall once said that if you’re stuck near the summit of Mount Everest you might as well be on the moon. Little did he know that his words would one day come true. This is PART 1 of a two part series on the 1996 Everest disaster that claimed eight lives on May 10 and 11 of that year. We'll look into some of the key decisions that may have had an impact on the outcome of the storm.

Ke...

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Scott Fischer's fateful act may have been the clouded ambition that led him to say they were building a yellow brick road to the top of Mount Everest, and days later he was consumed by the very mountain that had propelled him into the world spotlight as one of the strongest mountaineering guides in the world. (more below time stamps).

REFERENCE MATERIALS AND SPECIFIC TIMELINE BACKGROUND USED FOR THIS STORY:
Mounta...

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Years ago Mount Everest was considered a mountaineer’s mountain, where a climber need only worry most about avalanches, hidden crevasses and the potential to succumb to Altitude Mountain Sickness.

But now, something far more hazardous and life-threatening exists on the world’s highest peak. Mount Everest is quickly becoming an EXTREMELY dangerous mountain because of overcrowding.

In this video we'll learn jus...

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All that glitters is not gold: How Did This Climber Get Away with So Much for So Long?*

In the world of mountaineering and climbing, where the peaks are high and the challenges even higher, there's an unspoken reverence for those who defy gravity and push the limits of human endurance. 

But what happens when the heroes we idolize hide dark secrets? 

This is the horrifying story of a well known and ta...

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