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