Modern work has a giant problem: It keeps us stressed enough to be miserable, but never stressed enough to quit. Cal Newport, a computer scientist at Georgetown University, says that's not an accident: When work switched from factories and farms to offices, we never figured out how to measure the productivity of knowledge workers. Looking busy became our flawed metric, even though busyness keeps us from producing better work.

Michael sits down with Newport, author of Deep Work and Slow Productivity, about how to do deep, valuable work in a world that rewards fake productivity. They cover:

• Why emails and meetings are killing our ability to do work that means something.

• The conversation to have with your boss when you have too many meetings and other tasks.

• The three core rules of “Slow Productivity:” do fewer things, work at a natural pace, obsess over quality.

• Enduring myths of productivity, from Jane Austen to Jack Kerouac.

• How to say no without burning a bridge.

• How to use AI to enhance your work without hurting your thinking.

• How to rebuild your attention span the way you'd train for a mile.
• And more …

Go deeper: A Viral NYT Story Says Remote Work Makes Us Depressed. It's Wrong.

Two Percent is hosted by Michael Easter. Today's episode was produced by Joey Fischground, Robbie Hiser, Dana Brawer and Julia Nutter. From Kaleidoscope, our executive producers are Mangesh Hattikudur and Kate Osborn and Julia Nutter. From iHeart, our executive producers are Katrina Norvell and Nikki Ettore. Our Head of Video is Maria Paz Mendez Hodes. Our editor is Will Mayo. Our theme music is by the Heater Manager.

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Hotshot firefighting is one of the most physically demanding and dangerous jobs in the United States. River Selby spent seven years as a wildland firefighter, four of them on elite hotshot crews, the teams that jump into the worst blazes in the country.

Michael sits down with Selby, author of Hotshot: A Life on Fire, about what the job costs and what it teaches. They cover:

• Lessons River learned in a burning wilderness.
• The physical and psychological qualities that build grit and make someone a good hotshot.
• Why proximity to danger brings a proximity to life.
• How River proved they belonged on the team as someone who didn’t fit the hotshot mold.
• Failures in how the government manages fires, and why it’s led to more extreme fires.
• How River’s hard childhood helped her tolerate the hardships of wildfire fighting.
• And more …

This episode includes discussion of childhood abuse, addiction, and suicide.

Two Percent is hosted by Michael Easter. Today's episode was produced by Joey Fischground, Robbie Hiser, Dana Brawer and Julia Nutter. From Kaleidoscope, our executive producers are Mangesh Hattikudur and Kate Osborn and Julia Nutter. From iHeart, our executive producers are Katrina Norvell and Nikki Ettore. Our Head of Video is Maria Paz Mendez Hodes. Our editor is Will Mayo. Our theme music is by the Heater Manager.

GET A FREE GUIDE TO EXAMPLES OF MISOGI at twopct.com

I share similar insights around health and wellness on Substack.

Follow Michael: Instagram · X · LinkedIn · Facebook · TikTok

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There are billions of animals living inside America's factory farms right now. Most live terrible, painful lives. Dan Shannon runs the Humane League, one of the largest and most effective animal welfare organizations in the world.

Most organizations like his push people to go vegan—but Dan says that’s a critical error. Meat-eaters might be the most important people in the animal-welfare movement—and should be welcomed.

Michael sits down with Shannon, a vegan of almost 30 years, to unpack why he wants meat eaters in the animal welfare movement and what actually improves animal welfare. They get into how to avoid B.S. labels food producers use to make you think you’re buying ethically, why a phone call to a grocery chain can do more for animals than a perfect diet, the animal welfare law 80 percent of Americans agree on, and how to eat fewer animal products without pretending you'll be perfect. Shannon's message is the one worth keeping: you have more power than you realize.

Go deeper: Protein Myths Part II

Two Percent is hosted by Michael Easter. Today's episode was produced by Joey Fischground, Robbie Hiser, Dana Brawer and Julia Nutter. From Kaleidoscope, our executive producers are Mangesh Hattikudur and Kate Osborn and Julia Nutter. From iHeart, our executive producers are Katrina Norvell and Nikki Ettore. Our Head of Video is Maria Paz Mendez Hodes. Our editor is Will Mayo. Our theme music is by the Heater Manager.

GET A FREE GUIDE TO EXAMPLES OF MISOGI at twopct.com

I share similar insights around health and wellness on Substack.

Follow Michael: Instagram · X · LinkedIn · Facebook · TikTok

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Americans spend more on healthcare than any other wealthy nation and have the worst outcomes to show for it. Dr. Lucy McBride, a Harvard-trained physician who has practiced for more than two decades, says the problem is baked into the system.

The modern medical system is built to manage disease after it appears, not to treat the whole patient well. What’s more, doctors are forced to see far too many patients each day. The underlying factors that help or hurt our health—stress, sleep, grief, and life events—never come up in a rushed 12-minute visit.

Michael sits down with Dr. McBride, author of Beyond the Prescription, to talk about the five rules you must follow to stop being passive and become the CEO of your own health. They get into where the wellness industry genuinely helps and where it preys on you, what AI can and can't do in the exam room, rapid-fire verdicts on Prenuvo scans, direct-to-consumer blood tests and CGMs, and questions you must ask your doctor to get better care.

• Go deeper: Read more about The Comfort Crisis in the Doctor’s Office.

Two Percent is hosted by Michael Easter. Today's episode was produced by Joey Fischground, Robbie Hiser, Dana Brawer and Julia Nutter. From Kaleidoscope, our executive producers are Mangesh Hattikudur and Kate Osborn and Julia Nutter. From iHeart, our executive producers are Katrina Norvell and Nikki Ettore. Our Head of Video is Maria Paz Mendez Hodes. Our editor is Will Mayo. Our theme music is by the Heater Manager.

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Everybody wants to live longer, and for two decades the Blue Zones, places with the highest percentage of people 100+ years old, have promised to show us how with nine tidy behaviors we can all copy. According to Saul Newman, a demographer at the University of Oxford, almost none of it holds up.

Michael sits down with Newman, author of Morbid: Debunking Modern Longevity Science, to take apart one of the most popular ideas in health and longevity. When the Japanese government actually checked, 82% of its "over-100" population turned out to be long dead, many killed in World War II and kept alive on paper to collect the pension. Greece found most of its centenarians were drawing checks from the graveyard. America's Blue Zone in Loma Linda was, by the founder's own admission, spotted from the freeway on a drive to Vegas. And the towns with the most 105-year-olds tend to be the poorest places with the worst records, because it's far easier to be a clerical error than to outlive everyone else.

Newman explains where the real errors come from, why the longevity industry keeps selling the same con sold to the first emperor of China, how bad centenarian data quietly shapes your pension and insurance rates, and what actually works if you want a longer, healthier life. (Spoiler: talk to your doctor, exercise, don't drink, don't smoke, and stop panicking about living to 105.)

Check out Saul's new book here: http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/811634/morbid-by-saul-justin-newman/

Learn more at twopct.com

Two Percent is hosted by Michael Easter. Today's episode was produced by Joey Fischground, Robbie Hiser, Dana Brawer and Julia Nutter. From Kaleidoscope, our executive producers are Mangesh Hattikudur and Kate Osborn and Julia Nutter. From iHeart, our executive producers are Katrina Norvell and Nikki Ettore. Our Head of Video is Maria Paz Mendez Hodes. Our editor is Ryan Mulhern. Our theme music is by the Heater Manager.

GET A FREE GUIDE TO EXAMPLES OF MISOGI. GO TO https://www.twopct.com AND ENTER YOUR EMAIL.

I share similar insights around health and wellness here: https://substack.com/@michaeleaster https://instagram.com/michael_easter/ https://linkedin.com/in/michael-easter-b208848/ https://facebook.com/easter.michael https://tiktok.com/@michael_easter6 https://x.com/Michael_Easter

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Art is not a luxury. According to Daisy Fancourt, one of the world's foremost researchers on arts and health, it is a missing pillar of health, right next to sleep, diet, and exercise. People who regularly engage with the arts have about half the risk of developing depression over the next ten years. Music has outperformed anti-anxiety meds before surgery in head to head studies. And new research finds that arts engagement slows biological aging about as much as exercise does.

Michael sits down with Daisy Fancourt, author of Art Cure, to unpack the science that shows how arts engagement may be the missing pillar of modern healthcare. Then Iraq war veteran and ceramic artist Jesse Albrecht tells the story of coming home from combat, how art became his lifeline - and why his story and the power of creativity apply to everyone.

Learn more at twopct.com

Two Percent is hosted by Michael Easter. Today’s episode was produced by Joey Fischground, Robbie Hiser, Dana Brawer and Julia Nutter. From Kaleidoscope, our executive producers are Mangesh Hattikudur and Kate Osborn and Julia Nutter. From iHeart, our executive producers are Katrina Norvell and Nikki Ettore. Our Head of Video is Maria Paz Mendez Hodes. This episode was edited by Will Mayo. Our theme music is by the Heater Manager.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Most of us assume America's biggest health problem is obesity. Dr. Gabrielle Lyon, a physician for 20 years and the founder of Muscle-Centric Medicine, argues we have spent 50 years fighting the wrong problem. We are not over fat, we are under-muscled, and obesity is a symptom of unhealthy skeletal muscle.

Michael pushes on where the argument is strongest and where it might miss. They get into whether you can have too much muscle, and why she believes GLP-1s could trade the obesity epidemic for a sarcopenia epidemic (too little muscle). They also cover the new dietary guidelines for protein, why your first meal of the day matters most, and the visceral "why" that keeps her Navy SEAL husband working 100-hour weeks. Her whole prescription fits in one sentence: lift hard, prioritize your protein, and get your mind right.

Two Percent is hosted by Michael Easter. Today’s episode was produced by Joey Fischground, Robbie Hiser, Dana Brawer and Julia Nutter. From Kaleidoscope, our executive producers are Mangesh Hattikudur and Kate Osborn and Julia Nutter. From iHeart, our executive producers are Katrina Norvell and Nikki Ettore. Our Head of Video is Maria Paz Mendez Hodes. This episode was edited by Will Mayo. Our theme music is by the Heater Manager.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Robert Young Pelton spent his early career as an advertising executive with 50 employees, a Rolls Royce, and a half acre on the ocean. At 40, he walked away from it to become a journalist and report from the world's most dangerous places. In the 30 years since, a Liberian rebel has put a bullet two inches from his ear, a Colombian death squads have held him at gunpoint for ten days, and he’s arranged secret dinners between American generals and Taliban leaders. His method has never changed: show up, sit down, ask about their kids, and understand why people do what they do.

This conversation is packed with some of his wildest stories and lessons for a life well travelled. Robert shares why traveling is statistically safer than staying home. He also shares how the State Department uses their travel warnings for political reasons, rather than communicating how safe a region actually is. Plus, the rule he lives by at 70, happy and married for almost 50 years: the clock is ticking, so don't be afraid to reinvent yourself.

This episode is not suitable for children as it contains descriptions of violence.

Two Percent is hosted by Michael Easter. Today’s episode was produced by Joey Fischground, Robbie Hiser, Dana Brawer and Julia Nutter. From Kaleidoscope, our executive producers are Mangesh Hattikudur and Kate Osborn and Julia Nutter. From iHeart, our executive producers are Katrina Norvell and Nikki Ettore. Our Head of Video is Maria Paz Mendez Hodes. This episode was edited by Ryan Mulhern. Our theme music is by the Heater Manager.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.