Two Percent with Michael Easter

#27: The Best No B.S. Self-Improvement Books | Alex Wieckowski (Alex & Books)

Summer is peak reading season, so it only made sense for Michael, author of “The Comfort Crisis” & “Scarcity Brain,” to sit down with Alex Wieckowski of Alex & Books, the man who has read two books a week for the past decade. Together they build a list of some of their favorite books, including one hidden gem from Tolstoy, “A Calendar of Wisdom.” Alex tells the true survival story that made complaining impossible for him. He also reveals the classic novel that scared him into cleaning up his habits. Then they play overrated or underrated with the biggest self-improvement books ever written: Atomic Habits, Man's Search for Meaning, 12 Rules for Life, The 4-Hour Workweek and more. Alex then reveals the skill that helps him remember every book he reads, turning its lessons into actions. They also get into lifting weights with Alex Hormozi, the trap of "next book syndrome," and whether AI will ever replace real writing. 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. 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 Chapters: 00:00 Cold Open 00:50 Welcome to Two Percent + Meet Alex (Alex & Books) 01:32 How to Pick Your Next Book 02:08 Hidden-Gem Self-Improvement Books (Tolstoy & The Power of Myth) 05:56 The Forgotten Highlander: The Wildest True Survival Story 08:26 Why Evolution Kept Anxiety & Depression 10:47 The Picture of Dorian Gray: The Novel That Fixes Habits 13:35 East of Eden & Having Agency 14:39 Pure-Entertainment Picks (Disappointing Affirmations & A Confederacy of Dunces) 18:42 Overrated or Underrated: Atomic Habits, Man's Search for Meaning & More 24:52 The Cult Question: The Elephant in the Brain & The True Believer 28:11 Books for Athletes: Mindset & Zen Shooting 31:18 How to Actually Remember What You Read 34:28 A Day With Alex Hormozi (and Getting Called Weak) 36:49 What Self-Improvement Gets Wrong: "Next Book Syndrome" 39:52 The Comfort Crisis Lessons Alex Uses Daily 40:54 Will AI Replace Books? 42:23 Wrap-Up

These Sports Protect Your Brain Against Dementia

It turns out that tennis might be one of the best things you can do to protect your brain from dementia as you age. For this episode of Two Percent, Michael Easter sits down with neuroscientist Dr. Tommy Wood, author of The Stimulated Mind, to explain why sports that make you think while you move are amazing for your brain. The list includes tennis, pickleball, martial arts, and even strongman competitions. They get into why the world's most physically active elders in an Amazonian tribe have some of the lowest dementia rates ever measured. They also cover what "open-skill" sports actually do to your brain on an MRI scan, and how modern exercise got so boring the moment we split the body from the mind. Then Michael opens the mailbag for an AMA. He shares how to stay fit while traveling and names the single best exercise if you could only pick one. Finally, he settles a debate that has haunted him since college: what is the actual difference between a sport and a game? 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. 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 Chapters: 00:00 - Intro: could a sport protect your brain? 01:24 - Michael's high-school tennis career 02:40 - Dr. Tommy Wood on movement and the brain 04:57 - What "open-skill" sports actually are 06:37 - How we invented exercise and made it boring 08:52 - Hunter-gatherer elders and the world's lowest dementia rates 11:54 - Tommy's own sport (strongman) and the social factor 13:59 - The first-ever Two Percent AMA begins 14:18 - AMA: staying fit while traveling 16:40 - AMA: the one exercise you'd do forever 19:09 - AMA: the revamped Two Percent shop 20:30 - AMA: how often to train your VO2 max 23:30 - AMA: if humans evolved to run, why the injuries? 28:00 - Dept. of Ridiculous Questions: sport vs. game 29:27 - Outro

How to Stop Playing Somebody Else’s Game and Finally Feel Happy

Ever feel like you're winning at life on paper, hitting your steps, your salary goals, your sleep score, and somehow still feel worse? This episode explains why. Host Michael Easter sits down with the thinker who's lived rent-free in his head for five years: C. Thi Nguyen, a philosophy professor at the University of Utah and author of The Score: How to Stop Playing Somebody Else's Game. They dig into a phenomenon Nguyen calls "value capture." The moment you start chasing a number, the metric quietly takes over the goal you actually cared about. He walks through vivid examples like how his weight tracker made him eat worse, and why a friend quit rock climbing because it lowered his step count. From there, they zoom out to how this applies to playing video and board games, and how you can in fact use metrics and 'games' to make your life happier, so long as you don't get obsessed. They also discuss longevity culture, and the single question a student wrote on her phone that pulled her out of five years of depression: “Is this the game you really want to be playing?” 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 Joey Fischground. Our theme music is by the Heater Manager. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Why Our Brains Lie About How Bad Things Are - And How to Stop It

If you turn on the news right now, you'll be hit with a sea of negativity, and it can convince you the world is falling apart. It isn't. Host Michael Easter sits down with two guests to explain why our minds are literally built to outweigh the bad, and how you can bias yourself back toward the positive. First, meditation teacher Cara Lai offers a tip to instantly disarm anxiety: ask yourself "what if what's happening right now is exactly what's supposed to be happening?" She also shares what a year alone in the woods battling Lyme disease taught her about suffering. Then Roy Baumeister, one of the most cited psychologists alive and author of the landmark paper "Bad Is Stronger Than Good." joins to discuss the negativity bias. Why does one critique drown out a sea of compliments? Why do bad days carry over while good days don't? He explains the 5-to-1 ratio of positive experiences to negative experiences that predicts whether a relationship lasts, plus the evolutionary reason we're wired this way. And finally, the Boston Marathon study that will change how you watch the news for good. 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.

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Daily Habits To Keep Your Brain Sharp As You Age | Neuroscientist Tommy Wood

Cognitive decline as you age is not inevitable — but whether you keep your edge depends almost entirely on what you do right now. Host Michael Easter sits down with Dr. Tommy Wood, a neuroscientist and performance consultant who works with Formula 1 teams. His book, The Stimulated Mind, changed how Michael thinks about staying mentally sharp. They get into why sleep may be the most important factor in preventing cognitive decline, why retirement may be the most dangerous thing you can do to your brain, and the science behind "super agers" who keep their 50s brains into their 80s. Then they confront the question of A.I.: is it quietly making us dumber? They also cover the surprising exercise that beats the gym for your mind: dancing. And finally, they explain why you should be willing to suck when trying new things. 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.

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USMNT’s Quarter Finals Odds + Why Being a Sports Fan is Good For You

Every four years, Americans suddenly remember soccer exists. The World Cup is here and it may be the single biggest sporting event in human history: 48 teams, 104 games over 39 days, and a final that draws north of a billion viewers. Host Michael Easter sits down with two guests to make the case. First, soccer writer Leander Schaerlaeckens, author of The Long Game, on why this World Cup is bigger than ever. He also shares his take on if the USMNT can actually make a deep run, the players you need to know, and why America took so long to get good at the world's game. Then psychologist Dr. Daniel Wann, who has studied sports fans for 40 years, explains why caring about sports is one of the most underrated things you can do for your mental health. The World Cup and fandom might be exactly what a lonely, divided country (and world) needs right now. 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.

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Why We Argue About Health Like It’s Religion: Long Covid, Seed Oils & Diets

Why do people lose their minds over seed oils, raw milk, carnivore diets, and long Covid? Alan Levinovitz isn't a doctor or a health journalist — he's a religion scholar. And from that vantage point he noticed something you can't un-see: the way most of us think about health functions exactly like a religion, complete with ideas of purity, contamination, salvation, and tribes that turn on you the moment you question the doctrine. Michael Easter sits down with Alan to unpack his explosive WIRED piece on long Covid and the vicious backlash it triggered. They get into why so many of our fiercest health arguments aren't really about data at all — they're about identity. Alan shares more points to illustrate his thesis, like the “guru” who mailed strangers his own feces to prove a health theory, and how the term "natural" in wellness circles became a stand-in for "holy." 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.

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Why the Enhanced Games Flopped: Billionaires, PEDs, and a $1M World Record

What if you juiced a roster of athletes to the gills with performance-enhancing drugs and let them compete for a million-dollar prize? That's the Enhanced Games — the billionaire-backed "Steroid Olympics" held in Las Vegas — and the results were not what investors expected. Michael Easter sits down with journalists Chris Gayomali and Sam Eagan, hosts of the Superhuman podcast, who were embedded with the founders, athletes, and scientists during the games. Despite being hyped as the future of human performance, almost no world records actually fell. In many cases, non-enhanced athletes beat the juiced ones. Within about a day, it became clear the event was really a marketing engine for selling testosterone and peptides to the public, and a glimpse of how we're increasingly being sold a frictionless, "enhanced" version of ourselves, all with the swipe of a credit card. 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 Joey Fischground. Our theme music is by the Heater Manager. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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The Science of UFC Weight Cuts: How Fighters Lose 20 Pounds in 5 Days (What It Teaches About Diets)

UFC fighters routinely lose 10 to 20 pounds in the 5 days before a weigh-in — then put it all back on in the 24 hours before stepping into the Octagon. It is one of the most extreme metabolic feats in sports, and almost no one talks about what it actually teaches us about everyday fat loss. In this episode, Michael Easter sits down with Tyler Minton, the nutritionist behind some of the UFC's top fighters and current advisor to Naval Special Warfare. Tyler nearly died from his own weight cut years ago preparing for a fight, which sent him on a long quest for knowledge to rebuild how elite combat athletes prepare. He breaks down the exact protocol fighters follow and why the old "eat less, run more" model destroyed careers. Finally, they discuss the science behind UFC weight cutting and what it reveals about crash diets, GLP-1s, and why most diets cause rebound weight gain. 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.

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UFC Champion Miesha Tate On How to Wake Up After Life Punches You In The Face

Miesha Tate became UFC women's bantamweight champion by choking out Holly Holm in the fifth round at the MGM Grand. Two weeks after the highest moment of her life, she realized the title hadn't fixed anything. The next loss almost ended her. She packed her dog into a Kia, drove up the coast, and rebuilt herself layer by layer. She came back to fighting on her own terms, synced to her hormonal cycle for the first time in 15 years, and called the comeback the best fight of her life. In this episode, Michael Easter sits down with Miesha and they go deep on what she learned walking onto an all-boys high school wrestling team. They unpack her first MMA fight where she fell in love with fighting, despite a broken nose. Then they get into why winning a world title left her contemplating suicide. They explore what Gabor Maté's books changed for her. And they name the single biggest mistake she made for 15 years of her career: training from a male model of fighting instead of from a women’s biological reality, hormonal cycle and all. 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.

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Embrace the Heat To Get Stronger, Happier & More Resilient This Summer

When it gets hot, most of us hide indoors with the AC cranked, the workouts moved inside, and the thermostat parked at 72°F all summer long. But humans evolved in the heat, and the new science says we can still use it to get stronger, healthier, and (maybe most surprisingly) happier. In this episode, Michael Easter sits down with two of the best people in the world on the subject of heat. Ashley Paulson, the Badwater 135 course record holder (a 135 mile race through Death Valley), finished in 21 hours and 44 minutes, beating the old record by 2.5 hours. She shares what 120°F at 11 p.m. actually feels like and the mindset that lets her thrive in it. Then Bill Gifford, author of Hot Wired: How the Hidden Power of Heat Makes Us Stronger, talks about how your body adapts in 4 to 5 sessions of sauna treatment. Michael closes with a hydration playbook and the 1960s WHO research that nailed the perfect summer drink. 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.

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This Executive Coach Works With The Top 0.01% & is Sharing Her Secrets | Dr. Julie Gurner

Dr. Julie Gurner has a two-year waiting list. The Wall Street Journal calls her the real-life Wendy Rhodes (the psychologist from the show Billions). Her clients are CEOs, founders, billionaires, and elite operators. But she started her career inside a supermax prison. In this episode, Michael Easter sits down with Dr. Julie Gurner to unpack what actually separates the top 0.01% from everyone else: audacity, what-if-it-goes-right thinking, and using anger as fuel. She also explains why "be humble" might be the worst career advice you have ever received. 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.

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I Walked a Marathon a Day for 45 Days | Dr. Andy Galpin Made Me His Lab Rat

A year ago, Michael Easter walked 850 miles across southern Utah in 45 days — about a marathon every day. Dr. Andy Galpin turned him into a lab rat, studying his body before, during, and after his 45 days in the desert. What he found surprised both of them. In this episode, Michael sits down with Dr. Andy Galpin — the world’s top performance scientist and co-founder of Absolute Rest. He is the guy MVPs, Cy Young winners, and Hall of Famers call when something isn't working. They go deep on what 850 miles in 45 days actually does to a human body, what wearables get right and where they fail, and the 5-pillar exercise protocol that makes a body ready for anything. 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 Joey Fischground. Our theme music is by the Heater Manager. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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