We sat down with Rebecca Hinds, a leading expert on organizational behavior and the future of work, whose research has shaped how some of the world’s most influential companies think about collaboration. With degrees from Stanford and a career that includes founding the Work Innovation Lab at Asana and the Work AI Institute at Glean, Rebecca brings both academic rigor and real-world insight to the way we work together. She joined us to discuss her new book, Your Best Meeting Ever, a practical guide to fixing one of the most universally dreaded parts of modern work.

Our conversation challenged the assumption that bad meetings are inevitable. Rebecca reframed meetings as the most important product an organization creates, yet often the least intentionally designed. From cutting meeting debt and measuring return on time investment to applying systems thinking and user-centered design, she shared how small, deliberate changes can radically improve collaboration. We also explored how technology and AI can either amplify human potential or automate dysfunction, depending on how thoughtfully they’re used.

At its core, this episode was a call to stop defaulting to meetings out of habit and start designing them with purpose, clarity, and respect for people’s time.

The Biggest Helping: Today’s Most Important Takeaway

“We need to treat our meetings like a product. We need to treat them intentionally. And we can't just default to using meetings as a lazy substitute for real work and smart thinking.”

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Thank you for joining us on The Daily Helping with Dr. Shuster. Subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube to download more food for the brain, knowledge from the experts, and tools to win at life.

Resources:

• Your Best Meeting Ever: 7 Principles for Designing Meetings That Get Things Done By Rebecca Hinds

Produced by NOVA

In this episode, we welcome back Dawson Church, bestselling science writer and researcher whose work has helped bridge the gap between neuroscience and human transformation. With more than 100 peer-reviewed studies to his name and collaborations with leading institutions, Dawson joins us to explore ideas from his latest book, Spiritual Intelligence, which maps what actually happens in the brain during elevated states of consciousness.

Our conversation centers on a powerful reframe: transcendent experiences are not rare or reserved for monks. They are built into our biology. Dawson shares how neuroscience now shows consistent brain patterns behind compassion, awe, and self-transcendence, regardless of belief system. Even brief, accessible practices like meditation and conscious breathing can quiet the brain’s stress centers, activate compassion, and lead to measurable changes in emotional regulation, creativity, and resilience.

We also explore why inner states matter so much for outer change. As spiritual intelligence develops, it becomes a leverage point that influences how we relate to our bodies, our relationships, and the world around us, offering a grounded, science-backed path toward calm, clarity, and kindness.

The Biggest Helping: Today’s Most Important Takeaway

“Focus on your breath”

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Thank you for joining us on The Daily Helping with Dr. Shuster. Subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube to download more food for the brain, knowledge from the experts, and tools to win at life.

Resources:

• Watch our previous episode with Dawson Church here
• Spiritual Intelligence by Dawson Church
• Pre Meditations (including immunity-focused meditation)

Produced by NOVA

In this episode, we’re joined by Dr. Ryan Williamson, a board-certified neurologist, Navy veteran, and founder of Transcend Health. With a background spanning clinical neurology, military performance medicine, and executive longevity coaching, Dr. Williamson brings a rare perspective on what it truly takes to protect the brain and extend healthspan. His work centers on prevention over reaction, helping people stay sharp, resilient, and fully engaged long before illness ever enters the picture.

Our conversation explores a simple but confronting truth: modern life is quietly undermining brain health. Dr. Williamson explains how evolutionary biology collides with today’s sedentary, overstimulated environment, and why cognitive decline is often shaped more by habits than by fate. He introduces practical, evidence-based principles that restore balance, from breathwork and sleep to movement, nutrition, and human connection. None are extreme, and all are accessible.

What resonates most is the sense of agency. This episode reframes cognitive health as something we actively build day by day, not something we passively inherit. Small, consistent choices compound into sharper thinking, greater presence, and a longer, more capable life.

The Biggest Helping: Today’s Most Important Takeaway

“I really think it's that you as an individual have far more control than you think over your life, over your health, and over any health-related outcome.”

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Thank you for joining us on The Daily Helping with Dr. Shuster. Subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube to download more food for the brain, knowledge from the experts, and tools to win at life.

Resources:

• The Incredible Brain by Dr. Ryan Williamson
• Transcend Health Group Website

Produced by NOVA

In this episode, we sit down with Sarah Benton, a licensed mental health counselor, alcohol and drug counselor, and the author of Understanding the High-Functioning Alcoholic and Parents in Recovery. Sarah brings both clinical expertise and lived experience to the conversation, sharing her own journey of recovery and the clarity it gave her as a therapist, parent, and advocate. Her work has been featured in major media outlets, yet her perspective remains grounded in compassion and practicality.

Our conversation explores what it really means to build a sober life as a parent, not by simply removing substances, but by reshaping daily rhythms, boundaries, and identity. Sarah challenges the myth that recovery is a single decision rather than a lifestyle, and she speaks candidly about why honest conversations with children matter more than silence shaped by stigma. We also examine the modern pressures parents face, from digital overload to social drinking norms, and how self-awareness can interrupt cycles before they take root.

This episode is an invitation to replace shame with curiosity, and isolation with connection, for anyone questioning their relationship with substances or supporting someone who is.

The Biggest Helping: Today’s Most Important Takeaway

“There are 23 million Americans in recovery. You are not alone.”

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Thank you for joining us on The Daily Helping with Dr. Shuster. Subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube to download more food for the brain, knowledge from the experts, and tools to win at life.

Resources:

• Parents in Recovery: Navigating a Sober Family Lifestyle by Sarah Benton
• Understanding the High-Functioning Alcoholic by Sarah Benton
• Follow Sarah on Facebook
• Join Parents in Recovery Support Group on Facebook
• Connect with Sarah on LinkedIn
• Follow Sarah on Instagram: @parentsinrecovery
• Visit her Website Benton Behavioral Health Consulting
• Waterview Behavioral Health Website
• Sarah’s Psychology Today blog (with many Holiday Sober Survival blogs)

Produced by NOVA

Kyle McDowell joins us for a deeply honest conversation about leadership, apathy, and the moment success stopped feeling meaningful. After nearly three decades leading massive teams inside Fortune 10 organizations, Kyle hit a wall that forced him to confront the culture he had helped create—and the leader he had become. That reckoning led to the creation of the Ten “We’s,” a set of principle-based behaviors that would eventually form the foundation of his bestselling book, Begin With We.

We explore how fear-based, command-and-control leadership erodes trust, silences truth, and fuels disengagement. Kyle shares the pivotal experiences that taught him the power of embracing challenge, setting clear standards, and letting go of ego so others can step forward. Through stories ranging from executive boardrooms to a single shopping cart in a grocery store parking lot, he shows how integrity is built in small, observable moments.

What emerges is a compelling case for a better way to lead—and to live—one grounded in accountability, shared ownership, and the human obligation to leave people better than we found them.

The Biggest Helping: Today’s Most Important Takeaway

“There is a better way. You don’t have to be on the hamster wheel.”

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Thank you for joining us on The Daily Helping with Dr. Shuster. Subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube to download more food for the brain, knowledge from the experts, and tools to win at life.

Resources:

• Kyle McDowell’s Website: https://www.kylemcdowellinc.com
• Begin With We (Amazon): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09QG8F5P2?tag=theda0b020-20
• Follow Kyle McDowell on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kylemcdowellincd

Produced by NOVA

This is Part 2 of our conversation with Dr. Stephen G. Post, renowned researcher, author, and one of the world’s leading voices on altruism, compassion, and the science of love. As the founding director of the Center for Medical Humanities, Compassionate Care, and Bioethics at Stony Brook University, Dr. Post has spent decades exploring how love, meaning, and generosity shape human flourishing.

In this episode, we move deeper into the philosophical and spiritual foundations of his book, *Pure Unlimited Love*. Dr. Post introduces the idea of “the one mind,” sharing powerful stories and scientific perspectives that challenge the belief that consciousness is produced solely by the brain. We explore how creativity, intuition, and insight emerge when people access deeper states of awareness—and why chronic fear, stress, and disconnection keep us from doing so.

We also discuss freedom as a spiritual quality rather than a purely material one, the healing role of nature and social prescribing, and why serving others is essential to restoring dignity, meaning, and joy in our lives.

The Biggest Helping: Today’s Most Important Takeaway

“I’m a believer that we need to have identifiable constituencies to which we apply our kindness and our callings.”

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Thank you for joining us on The Daily Helping with Dr. Shuster. Subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube to download more food for the brain, knowledge from the experts, and tools to win at life.

Resources:

• Pure Unlimited Love (Book)
• The Institute for Research on Pure Unlimited Love
• Dr. Stephen G. Post – Stony Brook Bio
• Dr. Stephen G. Post – Official Website

Produced by NOVA

In a time marked by social tension and cultural fragmentation, we welcomed Dr. Stephen G. Post—founding president of the Institute for Research on Pure Unlimited Love and director of the Center for Medical Humanities, Compassionate Care, and Bioethics at Stony Brook University’s Renaissance School of Medicine. With more than forty years of work exploring compassion at the intersection of science and spirituality, Dr. Post helps us move beyond reductionist ideas of altruism and into a richer understanding of what it means to truly care for others. This episode is Part 1 of a two-part conversation.

We explore why empathy alone isn’t sufficient without moral direction, how different forms of helping shape our inner lives, and what research reveals about the emotional and psychological benefits of volunteering—especially during seasons of grief and loss. Dr. Post also invites us to reflect on what’s lost as human connection becomes increasingly mediated by screens, and why presence and intentional love matter now more than ever.

The Biggest Helping: Today’s Most Important Takeaway

“The security and well-being of others [is] as real or meaningful to us as our own, and sometimes more so”

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Thank you for joining us on The Daily Helping with Dr. Shuster. Subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube to download more food for the brain, knowledge from the experts, and tools to win at life.

Resources:

• Pure Unlimited Love (Book)
• The Institute for Research on Pure Unlimited Love
• Dr. Stephen G. Post – Stony Brook Bio
• Dr. Stephen G. Post – Official Website
• 
  

Produced by NOVA

Writer, historian, and Emmy Award–winning host John T. Edge joins us for a powerful conversation about identity, inherited stories, and the emotional resonance of food. Best known for True South and his acclaimed books—including House of Smoke, the focus of our discussion—John T. shares how growing up in a home steeped in Confederate mythology shaped his early worldview, and how his adult life became an intentional act of rewriting those narratives.

As John T. explains, food is never just food—it’s memory, migration, and the emotional weight of history. He helps us understand how Southern cuisine is deeply rooted in West African traditions, why food becomes a meeting place for shared humanity, and how acknowledging its origins allows us to approach it with honesty and connection. He also opens up about grief, loss, and how emotional reckoning transformed his relationships and his trajectory as a writer and cultural leader.

John T. discusses the rise and collapse of his work with the Southern Foodways Alliance, sharing the humbling lesson of recognizing one’s own power, the pitfalls of hubris, and how accountability and reinvention shaped who he is today. His reflections on resilience—including two life-altering car wrecks—offer a grounded reminder that what matters most is how we choose to act on the other side of adversity.

The Biggest Helping: Today’s Most Important Takeaway

“Don’t save the word love for the people who are your blood kin. Tell your friends you love them—and why. And mean it.”

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Thank you for joining us on The Daily Helping with Dr. Shuster. Subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube to download more food for the brain, knowledge from the experts, and tools to win at life.

Resources:

• John T. Edge’s Website
• House of Smoke
• 
  

Produced by NOVA