This roundtable explores my podcast interview with Will Young, a financial adviser who blends Stoic philosophy, behavioural psychology and surfing insights into his approach to wealth management (and to his life in general). Topics discussed include: Will's technique of loosening his clients’ epistemic rigidity and emotion-based investing beliefs by exploring their reasoning process rather than attacking their conclusions; cognitive biases like the availability heuristic, the illusory truth effect and reactance; Philip Tetlock's super forecasting techniques based on probabilistic thinking; How Will (who is on the autistic-spectrum) translates abstract concepts like Stoicism, epistemic humility and Bayesian updating into concrete financial advice; and Will's habit of listening to a book first and only reading it if it resonates enough to warrant deeper internalization. The discussion reiterated themes of intellectual humility, resisting tribal/emotional reasoning and the idea that probabilistic, unemotional thinking, whether applied to markets, surfing, or everyday life, produces resilience and better long-term outcomes. The conversation closes with Young's book (The Enough Equation: Wealth Wisdom, Virtue and the Pursuit of Less) as a Stoic parable about discovering one already has abundance.

My guest on the podcast is Will R. Young, a certified financial adviser, who, somewhat unusually, combines behavioral psychology, Stoicism, and financial analysis with insights from surfing. So, he’s a financial adviser with a difference. In addition, Will has achieved exceptional results in the Good Judgment Project from the University of Pennsylvania - outperforming leading economists and Wall Street firms, in forecasting financial markets. This free-ranging conversation explored how Stoic philosophy has formed the basis for his approach to financial management in which “The best investors don’t let emotions dominate; they follow a plan and wait for the right moments.” We also discussed behavioral psychology , judgment and decision-making and the science of forecasting. Key themes included reducing the impact of the ego, epistemic humility, apathy or equanimity, and the relevance of all this to the contemporary moment. There’s also laughter along the way!

In this episode I talk with indie folk singer-songwriter and producer Garrett Kato about his path into music - from a nudge by a high school drama teacher to using guitar as a coping mechanism after a breakup, and eventually to build a career with over 200 million streams. We discussed the mental health toll of the modern music industry, including how artists now feel trapped by opaque social media algorithms. We explored the psychological benefits of creative "flow" states (meditative, ego-dissolving experiences), and we agreed that consistent daily practice—not waiting for inspiration—is what actually drives creative output. We also considered how AI-generated music may devalue creative authenticity and bring about identity loss as AI encroaches on domains like creativity and intelligence. But we both felt some cautious optimism that this disruption will eventually drive people back toward genuine human connection, live performance, and emotionally authentic art, ultimately affirming music's power as a uniquely embodied form of communication and shared human experience.

We discuss psychologist Kati Morton’s book: Why Do I Do This – Unlearn the Habits Keeping You Stuck and Unhappy. In a vibrant discussion, topics explored included: How repeated behaviours carve deep mental "ruts" that feel effortless to follow and require real effort and discomfort to change; 2. The need for control expressed in people-pleasing, perfectionism, and impression management, as futile attempts to control how others perceive us; Anxiety, the ego, and the necessity of "feeling your way through" rather than intellectual insight to break these patterns; How avoiding difficult conversations creates suffocating, superficial relationships contrasted with naming problems directly to deepen trust; and authenticity that flows from relaxing into being rather than performing for others.

This podcast is a discussion of psychologist Kati Morton's book: Why Do I keep Doing This? Kati is a clinical psychologist, author, public speaker and has a large online following. The book is largely about people who suffer with an obsessive need to control: whether that is to control their own thoughts, feelings and behaviors, and/or also other peoples' attitides and behaviors towards them. They are people pleasers, perfectionists, self-deprecators, and so on. But the book has relevance to a wider audience because we all fall into this need to control how other's perceive and value us. Kati shows that such attempts at control are illusory and counter-productive and the book is full of practical ways one can regain one's authenticity and and self-steem. But it is no quick fix self-help book. THe reason we 'keep doing this' is that these are deep, automatic, often uncosncious patterns of feeling, thinking and doing. The book explains the realistic and diverse strategies to gradually live more spontaneously, with more self-compassion and more freedom. It is a book about learning how to let go. It was, needless to say, a stimulating and informative discussion.

Not surprisingly the Luca Fogale podcast stimulated a deep and enlightening discussion covering: Luca’s phrase ‘the soft panic in the background’; how music builds deep community; how solitude can stimulate an artistic life, the poetic sensibility, Luca’s very personal and exploratory ‘mattering project’, the difficulty of coming off tour, abiding in ambiguity and uncertainty and developing character and virtue.

In this roundtable we discussed my podcast with Steven Puri and the topic was his website and app designed to encourage flow at work and a state of inner calm and satisfaction (Sukha). We began with the value of the community of users, especially for those who work predominantly from home. We then discussed procrastination and how Sukha helps. We agreed that ‘I’ am the biggest distractor of ‘me’ and we compared the less distracted mind to a cultivated mindfulness. We also considered how meaningful work structures and directs the mind in healthy ways. A key conclusion was that productivity is not the goal, nor does it lead to happiness. Rather, the goal is Sukha. Finally, we saw how thai app allows for idiosyncratic and personal tailoring: what works for you. As usual, a great conversation!

Sukha is a Sanskrit word that translates to inner ease and happiness. The Sukha Company is a website and app designed to help people attain flow states while working. The idea is to have all the tools in one place, activated by one button, to support this daily practice. In this conversation with founder and CEO Steven Puri we cover many topics including the epedemic of distraction and 'acedia' -a widespread sense of dissatisfaction and restlessness - and therefore Steven's purpose is not so much productivity increase, but increasing people's happiness and wellbeing. The app is a whole system of AI-informed aids including aural lanscapes (music and/or sound), a smart assistant that gently prods you if you surf the internet or pick up the phone; a pomodoro-type timer; a real-time task management system that also helps construct fewer, more practical goals; suggestions for break activities (stretches, walks, breathing etc) breaks, and an optional live community. This was an entertaining and really practical discussion.