Curious Humans with Jonny Miller

In this conversation, I’m speaking with my good friend and cofounder of Ultraspeaking Tristan de Montebello. Tristan has an incredible story of training to become a finalist in the World Championship of Public Speaking in just seven months.

In this conversation, you can expect to learn:

📣 Tristan's radical approach of focusing on impromptu speaking rather than scripted speeches
💬 Unlocking capacity for self-expression & why the key starts with learning to speak before you think
🎴 How they developed games for practicing more authentic self-expression
🧠 The magic of what Tristan calls ‘The Butler in your subconscious’

Official Links

Inspired by Tristan's insights? Dive deeper into the world of authentic, powerful communication with Tristan’s ​Ultimate Speaking Playbook​. He created this free email course to offer practical tips and strategies to help you speak with confidence and clarity. 👉 ​Get the Ultimate Speaking Playbook

📣 Check out Ultraspeaking
👋 Say hi to Tristan on Twitter/X

Connect + Follow Jonny:

🐦 Follow on Twitter/X @jonnym1ller
💌 Subscribe to the Curious Humans Newsletter
🫁 Learn more about Nervous System Mastery
🙋‍♂️ Join Five to Thrive — a zero-cost educational email series.
📝 Take the Nervous System Quotient (NSQ) Self-Assessment (totally free)

🫁 Episode Sponsor — Nervous System Mastery

This is my flagship 5-week bootcamp designed to equip you with evidence-backed protocols to cultivate calm and emotional regulation. Our sixth cohort will run in October 2024 ~ and applications are currently open. My sense is that if this conversation resonates with you, then you'd likely be a great fit for our upcoming cohort. This curriculum represents my attempt to distill everything I've learned in recent years about creating the conditions for our nervous system's flourishing. It's run in an intensive cohort-based way since this is, in my experience, the most efficient way to embody and practice the protocols.

Previous students have shared how partaking improved their sleep and quality of relationships and tapped into deeper states of joy, clarity, and confidence in their lives. We've had over 1000 students have completed this training, and many have said that it has been the most impactful thing they've ever done for their personal growth — so if you're intrigued at all, you can find more details and apply to join this year's cohort over at nsmastery.com

Further Ways to Support the Podcast:

🎙️ I use Riverside to record all of my podcast conversations (it's so much better than zoom for podcasting!)
🎧 I also use Transistor to host this podcast, it's fricking awesome, and I would highly recommend.
😎 RaOptics make the world's best Blue Blockers – I wear these anytime I'm out of the house after dark, and it makes a huge difference!
🤖 I use AI wizardry from Castmagic to help with each episode show-notes + timestamps
📹 Want to create a Hollywood-quality home studio? Get in touch with Kevin Shen here & save $500 with code JONNYSENT500OFF

Dr. John Churchill spent 15 years training and teaching “Great Seal” meditation in an Indo-Tibetan lineage and is a founding member of the Integral Institute led by the well-known philosopher, Ken Wilber.

Over the last 25 years, John has developed his style of practice — an integrated Fourth Turning path — that weaves together somatically based contemplative practices that integrate psychodynamic healing, adult development, and meditation.

This was an incredible conversation that touched on how 'trauma fuses our awareness to our attentional system', his views on how to integrate plant medicines and psychedelics into this work and what he calls the 'fundamental interior science breakthroughs'.

🫁 Apply for Nervous System Mastery

This episode of Curious Humans is brought to by the one and only 'Nervous System Mastery' ~ which is my flagship 5-week bootcamp designed to equip you with evidence-backed protocols to cultivate calm and emotional regulation.

Our third cohort will be running in Spring, 2023 ~ and applications are currently open until April 1st. We've had over 400 students complete this training, and many have said that it has been the most impactful thing they've ever done for their personal growth ~ so if you're intrigued at all, you can find more details and apply to join this year's cohort over at nsmastery.com

🔗 Official Show Notes

🧘 Learn more about John's 250hr Planetary Dharma meditation training via Samadhi Integral✨ Work with John and Nicole on their upcoming psychedelic dharma program

In this episode, I'm speaking with Marc Champagne — who after building a journaling app that reached nearly 90 million users and then having to shut it down, emerged with profound insights about the power of transformative questions and the Socratic Method.

In this conversation, we explored:

❓ What it means to ask better quality questions, some of the specific questions that have altered the trajectory of Marc’s life — like “How can I be the most curious person in the room?” or “Whom haven't I thanked lately?”

🧠 And how his research led him to explore practices of Mental Fitness, with many practical experiments that you can run in your own life

I hope you find this conversation as fascinating as I did, and if these ideas resonate, please share them with others who might benefit from learning how to ask better questions of themselves and life.

Official Links

👋 Follow Marc on Instagram
🙏 Learn more about Marc's offerings here
📚 Get yourself a physical copy of Personal Socrates
🎙️ Listen to Marc's Podcast Behind the Human

Connect + Follow Jonny:

🐦 Follow on Twitter/X @jonnym1ller
💌 Subscribe to the Curious Humans Newsletter
🫁 Learn more about Nervous System Mastery
🙋‍♂️ Join Five to Thrive — a zero-cost educational email series.
📝 Take the Nervous System Quotient (NSQ) Self-Assessment (totally free)

🫁 Episode Sponsor — Nervous System Mastery

This is my flagship 5-week bootcamp designed to equip you with evidence-backed protocols to cultivate calm and emotional regulation. Our seventh cohort will run in Spring 2025 ~ and applications are currently open. My sense is that if this conversation resonates with you, then you'd likely be a great fit for our upcoming cohort. This curriculum represents my attempt to distill everything I've learned in recent years about creating the conditions for our nervous system's flourishing. It's run in an intensive cohort-based way since this is, in my experience, the most efficient way to embody and practice the protocols.

Previous students have shared how partaking improved their sleep and quality of relationships and tapped into deeper states of joy, clarity, and confidence in their lives. We've had over 1000 students have completed this training, and many have said that it has been the most impactful thing they've ever done for their personal growth — so if you're intrigued at all, you can find more details and apply to join this year's cohort over at nsmastery.com

Further Ways to Support the Podcast:

🎙️ I use Riverside to record all of my podcast conversations (it's so much better than zoom for podcasting!)
🎧 I also use Transistor to host this podcast, it's fricking awesome, and I would highly recommend.
😎 RaOptics make the world's best Blue Blockers – I wear these anytime I'm out of the house after dark, and it makes a huge difference!
🤖 I use AI wizardry from Castmagic to help with each episode's show-notes + timestamps
📝 Test out my favourite journaling app using journal prompts that have made a huge impact in my life.

I've been listening to Cory's podcast the Astral Hustle for years now so had so much fun being on the other end of the line and digging into his fascinating mind—he has an amazing gift for walking a line between being ridiculous and playful yet also filled with deep insights and practical tips on mindfulness.

We didn't have time to cover it in this episode but Cory has a background in music and also produces Binaural Beats, which I've been using daily for the last few months to both meditate and focus at work – and you can find these as well as the lowdown on his new book 'Now is the Way' – which is available from today at nowistheway.com 📚

This was another of those conversations that just lit me up 🔥it felt like the time flew by but we bounced between the role of humour in spiritual exploration and the 'upside of impermanence' to some of the more practical aspects meditation, how it changes the way we experience the world and how we can get out of our own way to risk being more human.

***

📝Read the full transcript with Cory here.

📚Cory's new book 'Now is the Way' is officially out today and I would thoroughly encourage you all to head over to nowistheway.com and add it to your respective reading lists.

💌Be notified about new episodes and receive the Curious Humans newsletter here >>jonny.life

When I first started this podcast, I had Derek Sivers in mind as the archetypal curious human — and to this day, I think of him as one of the most interesting and provocative philosophers of life. His career path involved joining the circus as a ringleader, then becoming a professional musician and touring, building a company and selling it for $22 million dollars, then giving most of the money away to charity, then becoming a TED speaker and author... to now where he's a minimalist living in New Zealand as a full-time dad.

In this conversation, you can expect to learn the following:

🏙️ His unexpected love affair with Dubai
🤔 Why nothing you believe is actually true
📝 How he journals to find sanity for himself
🤝 What he's learned about negotiation skills
🛠️ Why he created a 'Making Room' in his house
🗺️ How it's possible to have too much freedom in your life
👨‍👦 Why he feels that his son is his best friend and soulmate

Timestamps

[00:08:56] Derek didn't have much curiosity until later in life.

[00:12:20] Rebellious streak seeks balance in all situations.

[00:18:55] Having total freedom can feel disorienting.

[00:25:17] Choose independence, then commit for best results.

[00:29:14] We don't really know why we do things.

[00:35:00] Journaling: Derek's way to process thoughts and find clarity.

[00:43:32] Brain awake, busy day of writing.

[00:49:48] Sister's chaotic household convinced me: no kids.

[00:54:45] Choosing mice for breeding: defying expectations.

[00:57:08] Teach kids to talk confidently and be makers.

[01:05:56] Money obsession feels like a mental disorder.

[01:10:52] The Red Cross can't do much, donate wisely.

[01:17:38] Negotiate Anything by Herb Cohen is a book full of relatable stories that emphasize the idea that everything is negotiable. The author, a professional negotiator, shares his experiences and challenges the notion of non-negotiable things. It's a thought-provoking read that sticks with you.

[01:21:05] Book: "You Can Negotiate Anything" - rating: 10/10. Talks about realizing power in any situation. Prisoner example shows hidden power. Violence comes from feeling powerless. Realize your power in any situation. Must-read.

[01:27:15] Movies portrayed sex as something men want, women don't.

[01:32:45] Dubai is a fascinating, diverse and foreigner-filled place.

[01:38:45] Python: a newfound love, Dubai.

[01:44:21] Aspiration: be read even after death.

Official Links

✉️ Email Derek personally here: [email protected]
📚 Derek's Book Reviews
🙋‍♂️ Derek's /now page
📖 Buy his masterpiece How to Live (don't buy on Amazon!)

Connect + Follow Jonny:

🐦 Follow on Twitter @jonnym1ller
💌 Subscribe to the Curious Humans Newsletter
🫁 Learn more about Nervous System Mastery
🙋‍♂️ Join Five to Thrive — a zero-cost educational email series.

Episode Sponsors

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🥶 The Cold Plunge — I reached out to the founder of the plunge, Ryan after hearing his powerful ​story on the Danny Miranda podcast. I've shared how getting in icy cold water every day helped me to move through intense grief, and taught me what it meant to surrender. These days I use their plunge every, single, day. It's like a high-stakes meditation—a mirror into my own internal state. The Plunge team have done a phenomenal job architecting what I consider as the world's best cold plunge (it doesn't get grimy like the conve...