For so many high achievers, success becomes a survival mechanism instead of real healing from trauma. In this conversation, Michael Unbroken and inner child healing expert Ingeborg Mooiweer break down why working harder, achieving more, and collecting accolades never truly resolve childhood wounds. They explore how high performance can lead to burnout, divorce, health issues, and feeling emotionally unsafe, even when life looks “successful” from the outside.

You will learn:

• Why high performance often comes from childhood survival mechanisms, not genuine safety.
• What inner child work and reparenting actually look like in real life, step by step.
• How to create an emotionally safe “container” so you can finally address the root of your trauma.
• The role of environment, relationships, and self‑talk in long‑term healing and resilience.

If you are a high performer, entrepreneur, or leader who feels stuck in the same emotional patterns no matter how successful you become, this episode will help you understand what is really driving your behavior and how to start creating change that lasts.

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro: High achievers and trauma

01:00 Why success will not heal your wounds

03:15 Survival mechanisms and childhood trauma

10:00 Inner child work and reparenting explained

20:12 Balancing high performance with real healing

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It’s amazing what can happen when you step outside your comfort zone and answer the call of ayahuasca for deep healing and spiritual transformation. In this powerful conversation, Michael Unbroken sits down with ayahuasca guide and retreat leader Yasha Shah to unpack what really happens in the medicine space – beyond the hype, beyond the biohacking, and beyond the Instagram retreats.

You’ll hear Yasha’s raw story of battling depression, ADHD and desperation, trying everything from psychiatry to Reiki before finally traveling to Peru for a 21‑day immersive ayahuasca experience that changed his life – and then seemed to “stop working” when old patterns returned months later. After losing about 2.5 million dollars in the stock market and facing his own dark night of the soul, Yasha went back out into the world, spending a year in Nepal and India searching for gurus in the Himalayas, only to realize that no one else could save him – and that true healing demanded a different kind of spiritual honesty and responsibility.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• What ayahuasca is and how Indigenous Amazonians discovered and combined specific plants like ayahuasca and chacruna to create the medicine, against impossible odds in a jungle of tens of thousands of species.
• How tribes in Peru and Colombia understand trauma as “soul loss” – and why they use ayahuasca not only for healing, but also for hunting, finding medicine plants, communicating with ancestors, and navigating the spiritual world, including the darker side of brujeria and energetic attacks.
• Why many Western seekers focus only on DMT, the default mode network and “inner child work,” while Indigenous healers emphasize spiritual and energetic dimensions that can’t be reduced to brain science alone.

Michael also shares his own firsthand experience drinking ayahuasca with Shipibo healers in a small group with multiple shamans and dedicated facilitators, including one night where he felt the crushing weight of every soul’s energy in the room until a shaman performed an intense energetic clearing with tobacco, blessed water and song that changed everything in an instant. As a self‑described rational, skeptical, Type‑A personality, Michael breaks down why this ceremony shattered his disbelief and opened him to a deeper understanding of plant medicine and spiritual reality.

If you’re curious about:

• Ayahuasca for depression, trauma and spiritual healing
• How to think about safety, lineage and integrity when choosing a retreat or shaman
• The real difference between quick‑fix “biohacking” and long‑term, spiritually grounded healing

…this conversation will give you grounded insight from both a skeptical entrepreneur and a student‑turned‑guide who has lived this path across Peru, Colombia, Nepal and India.

Watch until the end for practical reflections on how to approach ayahuasca responsibly, what questions to ask before you sit with any facilitator, and why some people don’t get lasting results – plus what might be missing in their healing process from a spiritual and energetic perspective.

Most people think kids who commit violent crimes are just “bad seeds” – but the truth is far more complex and rooted in childhood trauma, foster care, and survival. In this in‑depth conversation, Michael Unbroken sits down with Wendy B. Smith, author of Before There Are Crimes, to explore what really leads young people into juvenile justice and adult prison.

You’ll learn how traumatic childhoods, unsafe neighborhoods, hunger, and constant exposure to violence shape a child’s brain and decision‑making long before a crime is ever committed. Wendy shares research and real stories from former juvenile offenders so you can understand the hidden factors behind youth crime, recidivism, and why punishment without healing doesn’t work.

If you work in mental health, foster care, juvenile justice – or you grew up in chaos yourself – this episode will challenge the myths about “criminal kids” and show why early support and trauma‑informed care matter.

Timestamps:

00:00 Why we misunderstand people who commit crimes

02:00 Wendy B. Smith on Before There Are Crimes

05:00 What every juvenile offender had in common in childhood

10:00 Foster care, trauma, and the path to prison

20:00 How chronic stress rewires kids’ brains

30:00 Why many youth end up in adult prison anyway