Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.
Speaker 2: This is Laura, Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 2: episode is going to be a longer one part of
Speaker 2: the series where I interview fascinating people about how they
Speaker 2: take their days from great to awesome and any.
Speaker 1: Advice they have for the rest of us.
Speaker 2: So today I am delighted to welcome Lars May to
Speaker 2: Before Breakfast.
Speaker 1: Lars is a leader in the digital.
Speaker 2: Wellness movement, something I know a lot of people here
Speaker 2: are thinking about and about our relationship with technology.
Speaker 1: So Lars, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3: Good morning, and thank you for having me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm delighted to have you here. So why don't
Speaker 2: you tell our listeners a little bit about yourself.
Speaker 4: My name is Lars. I am one of the founders
Speaker 4: of the Digital Wellness movement, and I believe in building
Speaker 4: a life where we can find harmony with technology as
Speaker 4: opposed to allowing technology to take control of our senses.
Speaker 4: What inspired me to get involved in this space was
Speaker 4: ten years ago after almost losing my life to technology
Speaker 4: as a young person, and that led me to start
Speaker 4: Half the Story, which is a nonprofit and a mission
Speaker 4: to empower the next generation's relationship with technology and now Ginko,
Speaker 4: a new business that aims at bringing parents closer to
Speaker 4: their kids and using tech as a way to give
Speaker 4: them signals about what's really going on beneath the surface
Speaker 4: of screen time.
Speaker 1: Absolutely well with screen time.
Speaker 2: I mean, I know a lot of the headlines are
Speaker 2: about things with you know, mental health, and I know
Speaker 2: you've had a journey with that as well, But beyond
Speaker 2: even that, I mean, on a fundamental level, I think
Speaker 2: what gets at a lot of people about the screen
Speaker 2: time issue is that it's a sheer volume of time, right,
Speaker 2: Like that people are spending so much time engage with
Speaker 2: their screens and it winds up being a significant chunk
Speaker 2: of the day. I mean, I know you've done research
Speaker 2: into this, like how much time are we talking here?
Speaker 4: Well, the average teenager will spend thirty years of their
Speaker 4: life behind a screen. Most of you that are listening
Speaker 4: to this right now probably picked up your phone within
Speaker 4: three minutes of waking up, and most people are picking
Speaker 4: up their phone ninety six times a day. But what
Speaker 4: we don't talk about is that screen time is just
Speaker 4: the surface. Screens are really symptoms for what we're experiencing
Speaker 4: or what our needs are that need to be met.
Speaker 4: Oftentimes are reaching for screens because we're feeling anxious, or
Speaker 4: we're bored, or we're feeling disconnected from our partners. So
Speaker 4: I really think we need to flip the script on
Speaker 4: screen time and really start thinking about digital wellness as
Speaker 4: brain health and a larger movement, but really with actions
Speaker 4: that help us get better at it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I'm sure people think about it. Okay, Yeah,
Speaker 2: past three minutes, I've probably picked up my phone. I
Speaker 2: mean people are listening to this podcasts, probably on their phone,
Speaker 2: so they may have forwarded through an ad or something
Speaker 2: like that. But you know, I don't know that many people,
Speaker 2: if they sat and thought about it, be like, yes,
Speaker 2: I would love to spend thirty years of my life
Speaker 2: on a phone, or yes, I would love to pick
Speaker 2: up my phone ninety six time to day.
Speaker 4: I mean it's kind of unintentional, right, absolutely, It's then
Speaker 4: our subconscious and what we have to do is retrain
Speaker 4: our brain quite literally, think of this as a new
Speaker 4: wellness so that we can preserve our cognition and memory.
Speaker 4: Because the moment that we're in right now, the question
Speaker 4: is not how much screen time do we have that's
Speaker 4: been the issue of the last thirty years. Now the
Speaker 4: question is is how is screens or technology at large,
Speaker 4: with open AI now creating wearables, how is that going
Speaker 4: to change the way that humans interact with themselves? But ultimately,
Speaker 4: how do we preserve humanity the things that make us
Speaker 4: us on a daily basis? And it sounds crazy, but
Speaker 4: for many of us how we start our day can
Speaker 4: be very human and those small practices can actually change
Speaker 4: our outcomes and help us go from good to great
Speaker 4: from an emotional baseline a social baseline. And that's why
Speaker 4: I believe screen time is a symptom and that we
Speaker 4: ultimately can't be thinking about all screen time is the
Speaker 4: same but really more about like food and to be
Speaker 4: really conscious about one are we creating online versus one
Speaker 4: are we consuming in order to preserve our emotional baseline?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Well, I like that food analogy because I mean,
Speaker 2: much as with food, there's a lot that is within
Speaker 2: your control. You cannot give it up one hundred percent,
Speaker 2: And in the modern world it's probably the same with screens, correct.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, And so how would.
Speaker 1: You define sort of digital wellness?
Speaker 2: I mean, if we're looking for a way of thinking
Speaker 2: about this, what is digital wellness.
Speaker 4: Digital wellness is the ability to practice and cultivate a
Speaker 4: positive relationship with technology that supports your life rather than
Speaker 4: hurts it. So what that really is is small practices
Speaker 4: which I think we'll get into in a minute, that
Speaker 4: over time move big doors.
Speaker 1: Well, let's go ahead and start with this.
Speaker 2: I know you have some ideas if people are setting
Speaker 2: kind of digital wellness resolutions, much as we might set
Speaker 2: resolutions to eat more healthily or get to the gym
Speaker 2: more often.
Speaker 1: We talked through a few of this. What's one of
Speaker 1: the first ones you'd recommend.
Speaker 4: The first one is to intentionally go AI free one
Speaker 4: day a week. I think we talk a lot about
Speaker 4: tech detoxes, which is great, but the reality is is
Speaker 4: that every time we're using AI, we're not actively engaging
Speaker 4: our brain, and so making that small shift one day
Speaker 4: a week can be incredible for your cognition. The second
Speaker 4: thing is actually taking handwritten notes during meetings. Research shows
Speaker 4: us that ultimately handwriting will help you with memory and cognition,
Speaker 4: and that when you leave a meeting, mostly in the
Speaker 4: digital world now, that you'll actually have better recall and process.
Speaker 4: So many of us already have AI note takers, and
Speaker 4: I think it's easy to go into autopilot, but handwriting
Speaker 4: actually slows us down.
Speaker 1: I love that actually, you know, because.
Speaker 2: It's not just having a record of the meeting, it's
Speaker 2: the note taking process about getting it into your brain
Speaker 2: where you can actually use it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and we've lost that. I'm not sure if you
Speaker 4: saw the article about middle schoolers trying to bring back
Speaker 4: cursive in school, and we've seen stationary shops are booming now,
Speaker 4: but humans are craving the need to communicate. Our ability
Speaker 4: to emote and to connect with others is something that
Speaker 4: defines us from technology. We have to know when to
Speaker 4: swap screens with scripts, when to swap emails for snail mail.
Speaker 4: And I ultimately believe from my own experience that to
Speaker 4: go from good to great in a day, to really
Speaker 4: feel like you're sitting and processing a tough interaction or
Speaker 4: even a creative brainstorm, you have to go beyond the
Speaker 4: screen and into the script or the notebook, which I
Speaker 4: have a bunch of them on my desk. And that's
Speaker 4: another tip I like to say, which is everyone's talking
Speaker 4: about the analog bag, what about the analog desk? On
Speaker 4: my desk, I have beads to make friendship bracelets that
Speaker 4: I don't multitask in meetings.
Speaker 3: We need to.
Speaker 4: Break the scroll cycle by having things to actually engage
Speaker 4: us when we feel the need to multitask, which isn't
Speaker 4: even really something that humans can do.
Speaker 2: All right, So we're going to take one quick ad
Speaker 2: break and then we'll be back with more on digital
Speaker 2: wellness from Lars may.
Speaker 4: Well.
Speaker 1: I am back.
Speaker 2: Talking with Lars may who's a leader in the digital
Speaker 2: wellness movement, and I love the idea that you just said.
Speaker 2: You have friendship bracelet making kits on your desk. You're
Speaker 2: holding it up. I wish our listeners could see that.
Speaker 2: And you mentioned that's about not multitasking when you're doing
Speaker 2: I mean, are you doing that to keep your hands
Speaker 2: occupied while you're listening to things or just as a
Speaker 2: total break.
Speaker 1: I'm curious how you incorporate that.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, I believe that in the world that we're living in,
Speaker 4: if you're a CEO or you're on the other side
Speaker 4: of the screen, I would bet that nine times out
Speaker 4: of ten, the person you're meeting with is probably checking
Speaker 4: their phone or their email during that meeting. You are
Speaker 4: not getting undivided attention. And so for me, by having
Speaker 4: a friendship bracelet or knitting, or even just a notebook
Speaker 4: to jop down my notes is my commitment to undivided
Speaker 4: an attention, and I oftentimes share at.
Speaker 3: The beginning of the meeting.
Speaker 4: I want you to know I'm making a friendship bracelet
Speaker 4: or I'm coloring my pug coloring book because I don't
Speaker 4: want to be tempted to multitask and to pick up
Speaker 4: my phone. And it's something that I think we've just
Speaker 4: normalized multitasking, but it's actually not true. What you're doing
Speaker 4: is switch tasking, and you're giving everything ten percent or
Speaker 4: fifteen percent as opposed to one hundred percent.
Speaker 1: Because it's like you need that one little thing to
Speaker 1: do that.
Speaker 2: People have a slight bit of nervous energy, and I
Speaker 2: guess the friendship bracelet making is a way to capture that,
Speaker 2: or maybe something like walking while you are having a meeting.
Speaker 3: I've got my walking treadmill down here.
Speaker 4: I wasn't going to do that for this, but really
Speaker 4: getting out of our heads and into our bodies in
Speaker 4: order to get into the present in the digital world.
Speaker 4: And there's a new concept that I've been hanging my
Speaker 4: hat on, which is really digital attunement, which is how
Speaker 4: can we use digital technologies to convene and actually better
Speaker 4: attune to our own needs and others to lead to
Speaker 4: more human and better outcomes. And I believe that the
Speaker 4: way that we're designing technology, but ultimately our lives needs
Speaker 4: to be thinking about those nuances as opposed to just
Speaker 4: checklists and how we're spending our time, but really adding
Speaker 4: that intention, because the difference between a minute and a
Speaker 4: moment is that intention.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well, we've been going through some of these digital wellness resolutions.
Speaker 2: I know we had go AI free one day a week.
Speaker 2: Maybe just on a practical level, I mean, I guess
Speaker 2: you have to be careful about what you're doing with
Speaker 2: your browser, even if that because a lot of it's automatic.
Speaker 4: Right, Well, what I really mean is that do not
Speaker 4: go on claud or open AI.
Speaker 3: For a day.
Speaker 4: And what that forces you to do is actually write
Speaker 4: every email, actually take handwritten notes from the meeting. Sometimes
Speaker 4: what I'll do is I'll actually capture notes on my
Speaker 4: notebook and I'll take photos and upload them to AI
Speaker 4: to then translate them to the digital world, which I
Speaker 4: think is a really phenomenal practice.
Speaker 3: When the world We'll started.
Speaker 4: Using Google maps, and we moved on a map quest.
Speaker 4: I think we all probably remember our parents printed that
Speaker 4: out and it was like, we need to make a
Speaker 4: guide for the road. You didn't have to think about
Speaker 4: that anymore because you started going into autopilot. What happens
Speaker 4: in the digital world is that when we go to
Speaker 4: AI for every single answer, or to write every single email,
Speaker 4: even personal emails or texts, our brain is going into autopilot.
Speaker 4: So you have to make that choice to rev up
Speaker 4: the engine that is your brain and strengthen that muscle
Speaker 4: in order to really preserve your brain health. And I think, yes,
Speaker 4: this is about digital wellness or revolution resolution, but digital
Speaker 4: wellness is brain health. And my hypothesis is that based
Speaker 4: on what we're seeing with kids, how their brains are
Speaker 4: literally changing because of technology, if we don't do these things,
Speaker 4: we're going to start seeing earlier onset dementia and Alzheimer's
Speaker 4: because our brains are weakening over time.
Speaker 1: All right, well, that's a scary thought.
Speaker 2: And we've all laughed at the people who are putting
Speaker 2: on a map, you know, software in order to get
Speaker 2: somewhere that clearly've been to a dozen times before. Is like,
Speaker 2: did you not think about this like your brain is
Speaker 2: not even even operating in a you know, an engaged form. Okay,
Speaker 2: so number two was to take our notes by hand.
Speaker 2: What's number three?
Speaker 4: Number three is to ultimately use the digital world to
Speaker 4: maximize your time in the real world. So what I do,
Speaker 4: for example, is every Sunday, I love to look up
Speaker 4: recipes on the Internet. One of the best ways to
Speaker 4: waste your time is running around a grocery store for
Speaker 4: three hours trying to find all the things. What I
Speaker 4: do is I come up with my theme for the week.
Speaker 4: I take my recipes, I drop them into chat GBT
Speaker 4: and say, pull out everything I'm going to need for
Speaker 4: a party of two, and organize every recipe and item
Speaker 4: I need by aisle to maximize my time.
Speaker 3: At the store.
Speaker 4: What that does is reduces the amount of time I
Speaker 4: have to actually think about getting the materials and optimize
Speaker 4: my time for the creative thinking.
Speaker 1: Excellent, All right, what's the next one?
Speaker 4: So the next one is swap email for snail mail.
Speaker 4: One of the best ways that you can actually rewire
Speaker 4: your brain is through gratitude. I always have a box
Speaker 4: of stationary with me, and it's very easy to write
Speaker 4: an email or a text but when you actually show
Speaker 4: up to a meeting or you send a letter in
Speaker 4: the mail, it shows that you cared, and you cared
Speaker 4: enough to stop, drop and write instead of just throwing
Speaker 4: in a prompt to open AI. And that's what goes
Speaker 4: from a digital transaction into a human transformation and relationship.
Speaker 1: I love that one.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I think a lot of young people these days
Speaker 2: don't even know how you address and stamp an envelope.
Speaker 2: I had a conversation with one of my kids about
Speaker 2: the purchasing of stamps.
Speaker 1: It had never come up before.
Speaker 4: I mean, if they're not being taught cursive in school,
Speaker 4: how would they know how to put a stamp on
Speaker 4: a letter.
Speaker 1: It's true, it's true. It's not something we think about.
Speaker 1: But a great tip for people here too.
Speaker 2: Carry cards and your pursor backpack and take a few
Speaker 2: minutes if you've got some downtime to do it, and
Speaker 2: then you've got a fifth one as well.
Speaker 3: Yeah, brick your phone. I have a brick.
Speaker 4: It's an incredible tool. I'm sure you've been seeing it
Speaker 4: all over the internet. What I love about it is
Speaker 4: that it's actually the physical act of tapping your phone
Speaker 4: and tapping you out of the digital world.
Speaker 3: I spend all.
Speaker 4: Of my weekends now completely social media free and the
Speaker 4: spirit of handwritten notes. I've actually decided to master the
Speaker 4: art of calligraphy, and that's something that I'm now spending
Speaker 4: my weekends on and swapping my scrolling doing that. If
Speaker 4: you think about it, if you're spending eight hours a
Speaker 4: day online and on the weekends you're spending eight hours
Speaker 4: a day, and they say it takes ten thousand hours
Speaker 4: to master something, you should really just find an art
Speaker 4: and go after it.
Speaker 3: That is the best thing you can do for.
Speaker 4: Your productivity, for your mental health, and it also gives
Speaker 4: you something to focus on besides work.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And with that, it's really a two step process then,
Speaker 2: because you're saying first you make sure that the technology
Speaker 2: is not necessarily an option, like it's not an easy
Speaker 2: option for you. You can get around the brick if
Speaker 2: you need to, but it's not an easy option. And
Speaker 2: then you also have to think of what sort of analog,
Speaker 2: fun whatever would fill your time otherwise I.
Speaker 4: Always say swap screens with fun. So yes, and I
Speaker 4: think when you're just getting on your digital wellness journey,
Speaker 4: and the same way that when you're on a diet,
Speaker 4: you want to make it harder. The access ice cream,
Speaker 4: maybe you're not putting it in the freezer, and maybe
Speaker 4: you're not buying the family size chips. Some people are
Speaker 4: hiding them or putting them in their kids launch boxes
Speaker 4: to take at school. You have to do the same
Speaker 4: with tech. Delete the things that you know are bad
Speaker 4: for you. That's the junk food of the digital world.
Speaker 4: Bite size and focus on the positive consumption. I would
Speaker 4: argue that your podcast is a phenomenal way to actively
Speaker 4: consume technology and walk away with real skill sets that
Speaker 4: are to take your life from good to great. Listening
Speaker 4: to you versus mindlessly scrolling on TikTok and feeling hopeless
Speaker 4: are both time spent in the digital world, but the
Speaker 4: outcomes are drastically different. So we need to start thinking
Speaker 4: about our inputs, how it makes us feel, and spend
Speaker 4: more time in the active state of consumption, the apples
Speaker 4: and the banana of the digital world, as opposed to
Speaker 4: the passive, which might be the fast food.
Speaker 2: And so someone listening to this might be like, well, Lars,
Speaker 2: that sounds great. What do I do if the people
Speaker 2: around me are still kind of on screens? Like, how
Speaker 2: can I broach this with you know friends or family members, like, Hey,
Speaker 2: I'd love to have you know, a screen free dinner
Speaker 2: with you guys, or I'd love to hang out and
Speaker 2: not be checking our phones for things.
Speaker 1: Are there good ways to have that conversation?
Speaker 4: The conversation is one thing, The action is another. Get
Speaker 4: a box, put it at your front door and say
Speaker 4: we're screen free tonight. And if you really need to
Speaker 4: call someone or text someone, you can get outside this room.
Speaker 4: But I think it's a about containing spaces for socialization.
Speaker 2: All right, Well, we're going to take one more quick
Speaker 2: ad break and then I will be back with more
Speaker 2: from Lars may.
Speaker 4: Well.
Speaker 1: I am back talking with.
Speaker 2: Lars may who is a leader in the digital wellness movement.
Speaker 2: We've been comparing digital wellness resolutions to some of the
Speaker 2: physical wellness resolutions we might set, like you know, making
Speaker 2: it harder to do things that we don't want to do,
Speaker 2: making it easier to do more of things that we
Speaker 2: do wish to have in our lives. So, Lars, I'd
Speaker 2: like to pivot a little bit more to your schedule.
Speaker 2: You've been talking about having time off screens on weekends.
Speaker 2: I'm wondering what a what a work day tends to
Speaker 2: look like for you.
Speaker 4: Well, I sleep from nine to five or four forty
Speaker 4: five am. The first thing I do is wake up.
Speaker 4: I like to put on gospel music. I immediately flip
Speaker 4: the switch of multiple senses, one being sent, so I
Speaker 4: always like incense. And I actually the first thirty minutes
Speaker 4: of my day free writing, completely screen free. And what
Speaker 4: that allows me to do is all of my creative processing.
Speaker 4: And then what I actually do is make a bulleted
Speaker 4: list of what are the three rocks that I actually
Speaker 4: want to achieve today before I even get into technology,
Speaker 4: because digital overload has a really great way of making
Speaker 4: you think that one hundred things are important when usually
Speaker 4: it's only three things that are going to move your
Speaker 4: business forward. In my workday, I really try to implement
Speaker 4: digital wellness into my team culture. So what that looks
Speaker 4: like is one hundred and eight seconds of silence before
Speaker 4: we start an internal meeting. It allows people to attune
Speaker 4: and drop in. It's actually something that Bob Leary used
Speaker 4: to do, and he would say that it's enough time
Speaker 4: to make you feel uncomfortable but comfortable, and to also
Speaker 4: recognize people that have gone into other realms. And I
Speaker 4: know that silence can feel weird, but it's actually one
Speaker 4: of the most powerful ways to create vulnerability and connection.
Speaker 4: I incorporate walk and talk, so a lot of times
Speaker 4: when people want to meet with me, if I'm not
Speaker 4: looking at a screen, I say, sorry, I'm putting on
Speaker 4: my headphones and I'm going to walk my pugs and
Speaker 4: I hope that's okay with you, But you're going to
Speaker 4: get the best of me if I'm fully present and
Speaker 4: out in the world. I think that we don't talk
Speaker 4: about that a lot as leaders, but we should be
Speaker 4: asking for more screen free connection. And there's even some
Speaker 4: research that shows when you're speaking in audio and you're
Speaker 4: fully present there that you can actually get deeper and
Speaker 4: you have better ideas. A lot of my day is
Speaker 4: on Zoom when I'm not on the ground or meeting
Speaker 4: with my team in person. So finding that healthy harmony
Speaker 4: I think balance is honestly made up completely. It allows
Speaker 4: me to still feel like I have enough cognitive fuel
Speaker 4: for creativity. I typically stack my Zoom meetings in the
Speaker 4: afternoon because the morning from about five am till noon
Speaker 4: is my most productive and creative time. Try to optimize
Speaker 4: my day for that output. At the end of every day,
Speaker 4: I write one or two letters either to people I've
Speaker 4: met with that day, investors, young people I've impacted, politicians,
Speaker 4: and I mail them And it's one of the best
Speaker 4: practices of gratitude to really seal my day literally and figuratively,
Speaker 4: but also brings that tactile moment for processing instead of
Speaker 4: just constantly going from screens into more screens into bed,
Speaker 4: which I think was the vicious cycle that we're all
Speaker 4: trying to break free from that the pandemic put us in.
Speaker 2: Well, speaking of which I know a lot of my
Speaker 2: listeners are still doing a lot of their meetings on
Speaker 2: Zoom or teams or other related programs.
Speaker 1: Are there ways to make.
Speaker 2: Those meetings feel more human and like we're connecting even
Speaker 2: if we're not in the same place.
Speaker 3: Oh? Absolutely.
Speaker 4: I think that pets are one of the most powerful
Speaker 4: human equalizers. And I did an incredible workshop with an
Speaker 4: organization called Soul Pause with my team where we actually
Speaker 4: all brought our pets and did mindfulness and loving manifestations
Speaker 4: and meditations with them, and what it actually brought to
Speaker 4: light was how distracted we are when we're with our animals,
Speaker 4: which oftentimes means we're really distracted with ourselves and we're
Speaker 4: not tuning into our own needs, and so I think
Speaker 4: that finding ways where you can connect together, like bringing
Speaker 4: in your animal or saying we're going to do a
Speaker 4: family zoom.
Speaker 3: Cum bring your kids.
Speaker 4: And we want to meet them in the same way
Speaker 4: that you would say, let's go to the park, allows
Speaker 4: your coworkers to have more empathy for what's going on
Speaker 4: beyond your small window. So that's something that we practice
Speaker 4: a lot, and I think I always like to start
Speaker 4: my meetings with also, what's your truth today? We get
Speaker 4: onto these calls. You don't know that right before this,
Speaker 4: my dogs were fighting over a bone and my husband
Speaker 4: had to come in and pull them out, and you know,
Speaker 4: I had to reground so that I could be fully
Speaker 4: present here. And we don't have those in real life
Speaker 4: emotional attunement and that connection, and it's important to have
Speaker 4: those micro moments of connection in the digital world so
Speaker 4: that we don't lose that.
Speaker 1: Absolutely. Well, that would be a different way to start
Speaker 1: a zoom for sure. I'm gonna think about that.
Speaker 2: Asking people what their truth is right now, get at
Speaker 2: what they've just been doing. So Lars, you know that
Speaker 2: I always ask people in these interviews, what is something
Speaker 2: you've done recently to take a day from great to awesome.
Speaker 4: Something that I've started doing recently is actually singing into
Speaker 4: Suno in the morning and almost wrapping my feelings when
Speaker 4: nobody's watching. And it sounds really silly, but it's actually
Speaker 4: an incredible way to bring joy and to also just
Speaker 4: let out all of your emotions and to let Sono
Speaker 4: see on the other side what that song is. It's
Speaker 4: almost like creating your own soundtrack to your life.
Speaker 2: Well, I was wondering if you were singing with the
Speaker 2: gospel music that you're playing when you first wake up
Speaker 2: as part of your yeah, your morning routine. I'm curious,
Speaker 2: why did you choose gospel music. I mean, that sounds amazing,
Speaker 2: but it's not when I hear often.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 4: I love this soulful connection in history. And one of
Speaker 4: my favorite book songs is this Little Light of Mine,
Speaker 4: the Sam Cook addiction. And I think the good to great,
Speaker 4: quite frankly, for me, is always lighting a candle. It's
Speaker 4: adding ritual to everything, a ritual to a meeting, a
Speaker 4: ritual to a song. And I look up to Oprah Winfrey.
Speaker 4: I listen to a lot of what she says and
Speaker 4: how she lives her life, and I think there's something
Speaker 4: that's so deeply special about gospel music that ignites you
Speaker 4: and strikes a different chord and it helps me feel grounded,
Speaker 4: quite frankly. And so Nina Simone is beautiful and you know,
Speaker 4: someone that I wish I could have had dinner with
Speaker 4: before she passed. But it's just the act of soul.
Speaker 4: And I think in this world where we're all fighting
Speaker 4: for attention and headspace and mind space, we have to
Speaker 4: figure out how to preserve our souls that we can
Speaker 4: do that heart.
Speaker 1: Work absolutely all right? Well, and what's something you are
Speaker 1: looking forward to right now?
Speaker 4: Man?
Speaker 3: So many things.
Speaker 4: I think what I'm looking forward to is and the
Speaker 4: nonprofit that I started, we've launched a fund in the
Speaker 4: state of New York for teens to create screen free
Speaker 4: fund social events across the state. And we're going to
Speaker 4: be duplicating that model because there've been a lot of
Speaker 4: rules nationally and statewide about AI and tech, and I'm
Speaker 4: going to watch one hundred teens bring fear into fun
Speaker 4: through screen free proms and dances. And to know that
Speaker 4: we could take something that feels scary and to make
Speaker 4: it joyful is really what the digital wellness revolution is all.
Speaker 1: About sounds excellent. Well, Lars, where can people find you
Speaker 1: if they want to learn more?
Speaker 4: You can find me at Livnlike Lars, you can go
Speaker 4: to half Thestory project dot com or paygingo dot com,
Speaker 4: but find me in my DMS. I want to hear
Speaker 4: how these rituals work for you and what you're swapping
Speaker 4: your screens with for fun.
Speaker 2: Please take her up on that for sure. Well, Lars,
Speaker 2: thank you for joining us. Thank you to everyone for listening.
Speaker 2: If you have feedback about this or any other episode,
Speaker 2: you can always reach me at Laura at Laura.
Speaker 1: Vandercam dot com. And in the meantime, this is Laura.
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
Speaker 2: our time.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas,
Speaker 1: or feedback, you can reach me at Laura at Laura
Speaker 1: vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.