Two Percent with Michael Easter

When it gets hot, most of us hide indoors with the AC cranked, the workouts moved inside, and the thermostat parked at 72°F all summer long. But humans evolved in the heat, and the new science says we can still use it to get stronger, healthier, and (maybe most surprisingly) happier. In this episode, Michael Easter sits down with two of the best people in the world on the subject of heat.

Ashley Paulson, the Badwater 135 course...

Dr. Julie Gurner has a two-year waiting list. The Wall Street Journal calls her the real-life Wendy Rhodes (the psychologist from the show Billions). Her clients are CEOs, founders, billionaires, and elite operators. But she started her career inside a supermax prison. In this episode, Michael Easter sits down with Dr. Julie Gurner to unpack what actually separates the top 0.01% from everyone else: audacity, what-if-it-goes-right t...

A year ago, Michael Easter walked 850 miles across southern Utah in 45 days — about a marathon every day. Dr. Andy Galpin turned him into a lab rat, studying his body before, during, and after his 45 days in the desert. What he found surprised both of them.

In this episode, Michael sits down with Dr. Andy Galpin — the world’s top performance scientist and co-founder of Absolute Rest. He is the guy MVPs, Cy Young w...

Adventure has been engineered out of modern life, and we're paying for it in ways we don't even realize. In this episode of Two Percent, Michael Easter sits down with two guests who have decentered optimization.

First up: Jay Carson, a former Clinton communications director and Hollywood writer (House of Cards, The Morning Show). Jay signed up for a 14-day Boulder Outdoor Survival School course in the Utah desert after a Covid powe...

What does it take to get genuinely strong, healthy, and creatively alive in your late 50s — while having one of the most demanding jobs in Hollywood?

Brian Koppelman is the writer behind Rounders, Ocean’s 13, and the seven-season hit show Billions. He also helped discover and promote the singer songwriter Tracy Chapman. At 57, he walked off a tennis court mid-match, certain he was about to faint, and decided to complete...

What happens when you eat 8 cans of sardines everyday for 30 days? For one doctor, his omega-3 levels hit numbers usually only seen in dolphins, his body fat dropped below 7%, and a smell he couldn't shake put a strain on his relationship.

Host Michael Easter sits down with Dr. Nick Norwitz (Oxford PhD, Harvard MD) to break down the science of the sardine diet. Then, George Kamel (Ramsey Network, author of Breaking Free from Broke)...

Sobriety isn't just "not drinking"—it's learning how to live without needing relief on demand. In this episode, Michael Easter sits down with therapist Ryan Soave (18+ years sober) for a sweeping conversation on why addiction often acts like a solution to deeper pain, how fear and shame quietly run the show, and what it takes to break the compulsion loop for good.

They dig into habit change that actually sticks, how to rebuil...

Dogs don’t just make us happy—they change how we live. Michael Easter talks with former Navy SEAL and writer Sam Alaimo about why dogs pull us back into the present, create purpose, and help us rebuild after our toughest moments.

Then researcher Dr. Nancy Gee (director of a human–animal interaction center) breaks down what the science actually says about how and why pet ownership contributes to our health and well...

What if everything you believe about freedom is wrong?

Author David Epstein joins Michael Easter to break down why constraints — not freedom — drive better work, better wellness, and better creativity. Epstein is the bestselling author of Range and The Sports Gene, and his new book Inside the Box: How Constraints Make Us Better argues we have it backwards on freedom.

They discuss why General Magic collaps...

A 3-year old beat a PhD engineer at an engineering problem while playing legos—and that single moment kicked off a decade of research that exposed one of the strongest, most underrated biases in the human brain: we almost never subtract.

This week, Michael sits down with Dr. Leidy Klotz — University of Virginia engineering professor, former pro soccer player, and author of Subtract, which explored why your brain default...

More than 100,000 Americans die of drug overdose every year. The solution—or at least part of it—might be dorky as hell.

Sam Quinones spent 12 years reporting on America’s drug crisis and how — heroin, fentanyl, meth have reshaped the country. In this episode, l he unpacks how Mexican cartels replaced poppy fields with chemicals, lowered the price of meth by 90%, and unintentionally created a schizoph...

Is work supposed to feel this miserable? In this episode, Michael Easter sits down with two people who answer the question from opposite ends of the spectrum: one who found deep fulfillment inside the system, and one who walked away from it entirely.

First, Dr. Mim Ari, an internist and associate professor at the University of Chicago, breaks down what it actually means to be a "deeply fulfilled workist." She explains why w...

Everyone has a vice. Drinking, smoking, social media, diet soda. And the modern wellness internet will tell you that if you want to live a long, healthy life, you need to cut every single one of them out. But is that actually true?

In this episode of Two Percent, we take a nuanced look at vices and whether some of them might actually enhance your life when you use them the right way. We don't have to live like monks to live a good ...

Melissa Urban — founder of Whole 30 and author of The Whole30 (updated 2024) and The Book of Boundaries — sits down with Michael Easter for one of the most honest conversations on this feed yet. Two sober people (Michael 10+ years, Melissa 24+ years) unpack the parallels between drug addiction and food behavior, why the first time Melissa went to rehab didn't stick, and the single question that rewired every habit in he...

The 130th Boston Marathon is this Monday. To mark the occasion, Michael sits down with Brady Holmer — a science writer, runner, and 2:24 Boston finisher — to go deep on what the race actually feels like, why super shoes might be saving you 5-8 minutes, how to fuel a marathon without your gut exploding, and whether anyone can qualify for Boston.

Then Dr. Mike Roussell, a PhD nutritionist from Penn State who works with NB...

In this episode of Two Percent, Michael sits down with backcountry bow hunter and filmmaker Donnie Vincent to unpack what months in remote wilderness teach you about stress, calm, and competence. Donnie was featured heavily in Michael’s bestselling book, The Comfort Crisis, and now he joins Michael for the first time on mic since the book’s release.

They talk about the ethics and emotional reality of hunting, why sourci...

Walking shaped humans into who we are—and it’s one of the simplest ways to improve health, mood, and longevity right now. In this episode of Two Percent, Michael sits down with evolutionary geneticist Dr. Melissa Ilardo and writer Foster Kamer to explore what endurance science says about how far humans can actually go, why the brain often quits before the body, and how small daily choices compound into massive long-term...

From New York Times bestselling author and journalist Michael Easter comes a twice-weekly deep dive into the science of living better by doing things the hard way. Building on the insights of his #1 Substack and acclaimed books, Easter balances rigorous evidence with a healthy dose of skepticism to cut through the noise of the modern wellness industry. Whether he’s interviewing elite explorers and Harvard biologists or decons...