Uncommonly Remarkable

Turning 50 and Rethinking What Comes Next

Send us Fan Mail As I approach my 50th birthday, I’ve been thinking about why I started Uncommonly Remarkable, what the show has taught me, and what I want it to become. The podcast began as a way to understand the lives of remarkable people—not just what they accomplished, but how they became who they are. Along the way, the conversations expanded from friends and colleagues to authors, physicians, trainers, and experts exploring health, longevity, sleep, breathing, and the complicated process of aging. But making the show also taught me something about myself. In this episode, I reflect on the journey so far, the finite nature of time, and why the next chapter of Uncommonly Remarkable will include more of my own thoughts, fears, observations, discoveries, and questions. This is not the end of the conversations. It is the beginning of a different kind of one. Uncommonly Remarkable℠ is a health and wellness show focused on understanding how the body works and how everyday choices shape long-term health. I’m Artis Beatty, a doctor of optometry and Chief Medical Officer at MyEyeDr. While my professional background informs how I think, the perspectives shared here are my own.

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What is a Peptide, Really?

Send us Fan Mail Recommended next listen: In Conversation: Daniel Tausan — Peptides, GLP-1s, and Stress Peptides seem to be everywhere. They're discussed in conversations about healing, GLP-1 medications, hormones, healthy aging, and longevity—but if someone asked you to explain what a peptide actually is, could you? After recording my conversation with Daniel Tausan, I realized we spent nearly an hour discussing what peptides do without ever stopping to answer that first, foundational question. In this episode, we slow things down. Rather than focusing on specific peptides or whether you should use them, we build a framework for understanding what peptides are, how they differ from proteins and hormones, and why scientists have become so interested in them over the past decade. More importantly, we'll explore a much bigger idea: your body is constantly communicating with itself through chemical signals, and peptides are one part of that remarkable conversation. By the end of this episode you'll understand: • What peptides actually are—and what they aren't • How peptides relate to amino acids and proteins • Why the word "peptide" doesn't tell you what something does • Why scientists view peptides as biological signals rather than magic solutions • Why understanding this changes the way we think about modern medicine If you'd like to hear these ideas applied to healing, hormone production, GLP-1 medications, stress, and healthy aging, be sure to listen to my conversation with Daniel Tausan after this episode. Uncommonly Remarkable℠ is a health and wellness show focused on understanding how the body works and how everyday choices shape long-term health. I’m Artis Beatty, a doctor of optometry and Chief Medical Officer at MyEyeDr. While my professional background informs how I think, the perspectives shared here are my own.

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Peptides, GLP-1s, and Stress: What Actually Improves Your Health?

Send us Fan Mail Peptides are everywhere right now. GLP-1 medications continue to dominate health conversations. And stress may be having a bigger impact on long-term health than most people realize. In this episode, I sit down with Daniel Tausan to explore what peptides actually are, how they work inside the body, and why they have become such a popular topic in health and longevity circles. We discuss: • What peptides are and how they function as biological signals • Why stimulating a system can be different from replacing it • The growing interest in peptides for recovery, performance, and longevity • BPC-157, healing, and the importance of rehabilitation and movement • GLP-1 medications, weight loss, and the habits that determine long-term success • Why health interventions work best when they support—not replace—healthy behaviors • The relationship between stress, perception, and physical health • What research suggests about stress, longevity, and resilience One of the central themes of this conversation is that no intervention can completely replace personal participation. Whether we're talking about peptides, GLP-1 medications, exercise, nutrition, or stress management, lasting health still depends on the choices we make every day. This is Uncommonly Remarkable In Conversation Uncommonly Remarkable℠ is a health and wellness show focused on understanding how the body works and how everyday choices shape long-term health. I’m Artis Beatty, a doctor of optometry and Chief Medical Officer at MyEyeDr. While my professional background informs how I think, the perspectives shared here are my own.

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When Self-Help Stops Working

Send us Fan Mail Most people assume that if something works, they should keep doing it. And for a while, that’s true. Routines, habits, and structure can help you manage stress and bring things back under control. But there’s a point where those same approaches stop producing the same result—and most people don’t recognize it when that happens. Instead, they try to do it better. More consistency. More discipline. More control. In this episode, I walk through why that instinct can start to work against you, how the gap between effort and outcome gets misread as personal failure, and how to recognize when what you’re doing is no longer matched to what you’re dealing with. This isn’t about abandoning self-help. It’s about understanding where it applies—and where it doesn’t. If you’re enjoying Uncommonly Remarkable, you can follow or subscribe wherever you’re listening. It helps more people find the show. Uncommonly Remarkable℠ is a health and wellness show focused on understanding how the body works and how everyday choices shape long-term health. I’m Artis Beatty, a doctor of optometry and Chief Medical Officer at MyEyeDr. While my professional background informs how I think, the perspectives shared here are my own.

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Not All Struggle Is the Same

Send us Fan Mail Most people collapse very different experiences into the same category — stress, burnout, depression — and assume they’re all versions of the same thing. They’re not. And when you misread what you’re actually experiencing, the response doesn’t match. Sometimes that means underreacting to something serious. Sometimes it means treating something normal like it’s a crisis. In this episode, I walk through the differences between stress, emotional distress, depression, and crisis — not as clinical labels, but as functional states that require different responses. I also explore why certain groups, including military personnel, veterans, and first responders, face higher risk, how repeated experience shapes mental patterns through neuroplasticity, and where the line is between self-help and getting help. The goal isn’t to diagnose anything. It’s to give you a clearer way to recognize where you are — so you can respond in a way that actually helps. If this episode resonates, consider sharing it with someone who might need it. Uncommonly Remarkable℠ is a health and wellness show focused on understanding how the body works and how everyday choices shape long-term health. I’m Artis Beatty, a doctor of optometry and Chief Medical Officer at MyEyeDr. While my professional background informs how I think, the perspectives shared here are my own.

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Why People Keep Falling Off the Wagon

Send us Fan Mail If you have ever tried to change how you eat, how you train, or how you take care of yourself, there is a moment that almost always shows up where it feels like you have stopped or fallen off. In this episode, I look at that moment more closely. Most people interpret it as a break in consistency, but it is often not a break at all. It is part of the pattern. The expectation that consistency should feel smooth, continuous, and controlled does not match how routines actually unfold in real life, where interruptions, shifts in structure, and changes in energy are normal. Over time, the role of novelty becomes more apparent. What initially feels engaging and purposeful becomes familiar, and that familiarity is often misinterpreted as a loss of discipline or motivation, even though it is a natural transition into repetition. From there, it becomes easy to assume that something has gone wrong, when in reality the experience has simply changed. This episode explores why that shift happens, why willpower is often misidentified as the problem, and how routines are shaped not only by intention but also by environment and underlying biological signals. When you look at the full pattern, consistency is not defined by the absence of disruption, but by what continues through it. Key ideas from this episode: Why the feeling of “falling off” is often part of the pattern, not a break from it The difference between how consistency is expected to feel and how it actually shows up The role of novelty and why repetition feels different over time How boredom and changes in structure are often misinterpreted Why willpower is often incorrectly identified as the limiting factor The role of environment in supporting or disrupting routines The emerging understanding of how biological signals may influence patterns of behavior ••Why consistency includes disruption rather than avoiding it Uncommonly Remarkable℠ is a health and wellness show focused on understanding how the body works and how everyday choices shape long-term health. I’m Artis Beatty, a doctor of optometry and Chief Medical Officer at MyEyeDr. While my professional background informs how I think, the perspectives shared here are my own.

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You Can’t See Your Own Health Clearly

Send us Fan Mail Last time, I talked about how the visual standard for the human body has changed over time, and how what looks strong or healthy today would have looked unusual just a few decades ago. But even if you understand that those standards are distorted, there’s a deeper problem: most people still can’t accurately evaluate their own health. In this episode, I explore why that happens. The tools people rely on—what they see in the mirror, what the scale shows, how they feel day to day—are constantly changing, which makes the signal unstable. At the same time, the reference point people compare themselves to has shifted, often toward highly curated or unrepresentative examples. When both the signal and the reference point are unclear, the evaluation never settles. From there, behavior starts to change. People adjust constantly, respond to short-term feedback, and end up misreading whether what they’re doing is actually working. The result isn’t a lack of effort or discipline. It’s a measurement problem. This episode looks at how that problem develops, and why the signals people rely on most are often the least reliable over time. Uncommonly Remarkable℠ is a health and wellness show focused on understanding how the body works and how everyday choices shape long-term health. I’m Artis Beatty, a doctor of optometry and Chief Medical Officer at MyEyeDr. While my professional background informs how I think, the perspectives shared here are my own.

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When the Human Body Became an Unrealistic Standard

Send us Fan Mail very generation carries an idea of what a healthy or strong human body is supposed to look like. The surprising part is how dramatically those expectations change even though the biology of the human body remains largely the same. From ancient sculpture to action figures, from Batman to Barbie, cultural images of the body have gradually shifted toward more extreme and exaggerated forms. Over time those images begin to feel normal, and people start comparing themselves to standards that very few humans could realistically sustain. In this episode, I explore how body expectations have evolved across history and popular culture, why modern media amplifies those ideals, and how those changing expectations influence the way people see themselves. More importantly, we ask a simpler question: what does a capable human body actually need in order to function well across an entire lifetime? Because the answer to that question often looks very different from the images we see most often. Uncommonly Remarkable℠ is a health and wellness show focused on understanding how the body works and how everyday choices shape long-term health. I’m Artis Beatty, a doctor of optometry and Chief Medical Officer at MyEyeDr. While my professional background informs how I think, the perspectives shared here are my own.

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Vision Is Infrastructure

Send us Fan Mail I have intentionally avoided talking about eyes on this show — even though I am an optometrist — because I never wanted the conversation to narrow into prescriptions and lenses. But vision is larger than refractive error. Vision determines autonomy. It affects how safely you drive, how steadily you move, and how independently you age. It also provides one of the only direct windows into living neural tissue and blood vessels anywhere in the body. In this episode, I explain why clarity alone does not define visual health, how contrast sensitivity and color discrimination can change before acuity does, how systemic conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia reveal themselves in ocular tissue before symptoms appear, and why routine eye exams function as both performance evaluation and systemic insight. The hope is to reframe eye care as infrastructure maintenance — not cosmetic correction. Uncommonly Remarkable℠ is a health and wellness show focused on understanding how the body works and how everyday choices shape long-term health. I’m Artis Beatty, a doctor of optometry and Chief Medical Officer at MyEyeDr. While my professional background informs how I think, the perspectives shared here are my own.

You’re Asking the Wrong First Question

Send us Fan Mail We recently talked about protein as infrastructure — an ongoing expense tied to what we expect our bodies to maintain. That framing still stands. But there’s a broader mistake that often shows up before we even get to the accounting. When we want to improve muscle, recovery, or long-term health, we usually start by asking how much protein we should eat. The question isn’t wrong. It’s just rarely the first one that matters. In this episode, I explore why hierarchy matters more than detail — why mechanical stress and recovery come before macronutrient precision, why sleep shapes adaptation more than we admit, and why optimization layered onto instability rarely produces resilience. Muscle is built through stress, repair, and time. Protein supports that system. It does not initiate it. If we’re serious about strength and healthspan, the first question isn’t how much. It’s what comes first. Uncommonly Remarkable℠ is a health and wellness show focused on understanding how the body works and how everyday choices shape long-term health. I’m Artis Beatty, a doctor of optometry and Chief Medical Officer at MyEyeDr. While my professional background informs how I think, the perspectives shared here are my own.

Protein Isn’t the First Question

Send us Fan Mail Protein dominates health conversations — but are we focusing on the wrong lever? In this conversation, Carson and I unpack muscle preservation, hormones, fiber, and where peptides actually fit into long-term health. Protein is one of the most talked-about nutrients in modern health culture. But true protein deficiency in the United States is rare — while other foundational elements of health are often overlooked. In this conversation with Carson, we step back from the macro-counting mindset and look at the bigger physiological picture. We discuss: • Why protein deficiency is uncommon — and why fiber deficiency is not • The real drivers of muscle preservation as we age • Resistance training vs. macronutrient obsession • Sleep, endocrine balance, and recovery • The difference between exogenous hormones and peptide stimulation • Growth hormone modulation and long-term risk • Short-term performance vs. long-term healthspan This episode is less about how many grams you’re eating — and more about which levers actually move the needle. If you care about strength, recovery, metabolic health, and longevity, this conversation reframes where your attention might belong. Uncommonly Remarkable℠ is a health and wellness show focused on understanding how the body works and how everyday choices shape long-term health. I’m Artis Beatty, a doctor of optometry and Chief Medical Officer at MyEyeDr. While my professional background informs how I think, the perspectives shared here are my own.

Sleep Loss Changes Your Mind Before You Notice

Send us Fan Mail Most people who say they function fine on six hours of sleep are not lying. They are describing how it feels. The problem is that sleep loss alters perception before it causes obvious collapse. I explore how sleep architecture recalibrates emotional regulation, decision-making, and cognitive bandwidth; why subjective performance stabilizes while objective performance declines; how REM and deep sleep shape perception; and how modern habits fragment complete sleep cycles. Rather than focusing on muscle recovery or performance optimization, this episode examines the psychological cost of incomplete sleep and the mechanism-based steps that restore full cycles. Uncommonly Remarkable℠ is a health and wellness show focused on understanding how the body works and how everyday choices shape long-term health. I’m Artis Beatty, a doctor of optometry and Chief Medical Officer at MyEyeDr. While my professional background informs how I think, the perspectives shared here are my own.

Protein Is an Ongoing Cost

Send us Fan Mail The body doesn’t follow nutrition rules. It keeps accounts. You can also checkout the video version of this episode here: https://youtu.be/ClVdbSaG_8Q Protein is one of the places where that accounting becomes visible. Muscle tissue is constantly being built and broken down, and when intake doesn’t consistently exceed the cost of what the body is being asked to maintain, the system adjusts quietly. Not through breakdown, but through reduced margin. In this episode, I explain why protein functions less like advice and more like infrastructure—why moderation only works when total intake clears demand, why aging raises the cost without announcing it, and why inefficiency often appears long before obvious loss. This is not about chasing targets or extremes. It’s about funding the assets you expect your body to keep. This is Uncommonly Remarkable. Thanks for listening. Uncommonly Remarkable℠ is a health and wellness show focused on understanding how the body works and how everyday choices shape long-term health. I’m Artis Beatty, a doctor of optometry and Chief Medical Officer at MyEyeDr. While my professional background informs how I think, the perspectives shared here are my own.

Why Supplements Don’t Work the Way People Expect

Send us Fan Mail Most people take supplements expecting clear, predictable results. In practice, supplements rarely work that way — not because they’re useless, but because expectations are misaligned with how the body actually adapts. In this episode, I explain: Why supplements feel inconsistent even when people “do everything right” The difference between support and substitution Why context matters more than the product itself How expectations, physiology, and behavior quietly shape outcomes This isn’t a takedown of supplements. It’s a clearer way to think about what they can — and can’t — reasonably do. Uncommonly Remarkable℠ is a health and wellness show focused on understanding how the body works and how everyday choices shape long-term health. I’m Artis Beatty, a doctor of optometry and Chief Medical Officer at MyEyeDr. While my professional background informs how I think, the perspectives shared here are my own.

Pillars Break. Pyramids Endure.

Send us Fan Mail This is an authored monologue from Uncommonly Remarkable℠. Burnout doesn’t usually come from a lack of motivation. It shows up in people who are capable, disciplined, and consistent—often the ones holding the most responsibility. In this episode, I explore why burnout is often caused by structure rather than effort, how identity load becomes concentrated over time, and why relying on a single pillar for meaning and stability makes even strong systems fragile. I introduce an alternative model—one that distributes load, restores margin, and allows ambition to continue without collapse. This is a conversation about design, not disengagement; architecture, not grit. Uncommonly Remarkable℠ is a health and wellness show focused on understanding how the body works and how everyday choices shape long-term health. I’m Artis Beatty, a doctor of optometry and Chief Medical Officer at MyEyeDr. While my professional background informs how I think, the perspectives shared here are my own.

Why Most Fitness Plans Fail (It’s Not Discipline)

Send us Fan Mail This is an authored monologue from Uncommonly Remarkable℠. Most people don’t fail at fitness because they lack discipline — they fail because they’re running a system that was never designed for real human lives. In this episode, Artis explains why motivation-based fitness plans break down, how time and complexity sabotage consistency, and why better design beats willpower every time. Drawing from a recent conversation with PJ Glassey, this monologue reframes fitness as an engineering problem rather than a character test. If fitness has always felt harder than it should, this episode offers a simpler, more sustainable way to think about progress — one built around routine, fit, and realistic behavior instead of hype. Uncommonly Remarkable℠ is a health and wellness show focused on understanding how the body works and how everyday choices shape long-term health. I’m Artis Beatty, a doctor of optometry and Chief Medical Officer at MyEyeDr. While my professional background informs how I think, the perspectives shared here are my own.

When Discipline Is a Coping Mechanism

Send us Fan Mail This is an authored monologue from Uncommonly Remarkable. We tend to recognize mental health struggles when they look like crisis — when things fall apart, when someone withdraws, when distress becomes visible. But many people struggle in a different way. They function. They perform. They stay disciplined. And because of that, their distress often goes unnamed. In this monologue, I explore a pattern that shows up frequently — especially in men — where discipline becomes a coping mechanism. Structure, control, and self-regulation begin as stabilizing tools, but over time can turn rigid, narrowing life rather than expanding it. This often appears around eating, exercise, body image, and performance, where behaviors that look admirable on the outside quietly carry emotional weight underneath. This isn’t about blame or diagnosis. It’s about learning to recognize when discipline is serving health — and when it’s being used to manage uncertainty, anxiety, or identity pressure instead. Some of this thinking has been shaped by past conversations on the show. If this topic resonates, there’s a longer and more nuanced conversation available with George Mycock, where we explore these ideas with clinical depth and care. Uncommonly Remarkable℠ is a health and wellness show focused on understanding how the body works and how everyday choices shape long-term health. I’m Artis Beatty, a doctor of optometry and Chief Medical Officer at MyEyeDr. While my professional background informs how I think, the perspectives shared here are my own.

Personal Health Is Still Your Responsibility — Even in a Broken System

Send us Fan Mail This is an authored monologue from Uncommonly Remarkable. Personal health responsibility is not about blame — it’s about clarity. In this episode, I explore the line between what healthcare systems are built to do and what they can never fully own for us. Acute care saves lives. But long-term health still depends on daily decisions, awareness, and personal agency. This is a conversation about responsibility, not judgment — and about what changes when you stop waiting for systems to do work only you can do. This is Uncommonly Remarkable. Thanks for listening. Uncommonly Remarkable℠ is a health and wellness show focused on understanding how the body works and how everyday choices shape long-term health. I’m Artis Beatty, a doctor of optometry and Chief Medical Officer at MyEyeDr. While my professional background informs how I think, the perspectives shared here are my own.

Ep. 68 Julius Torelli — Gratitude, Discipline, and the Long Game of Health

Send us Fan Mail I’m joined by cardiologist Julius Torelli for a conversation on how thoughts, stress, and daily habits shape physical health. We explore chronic illness, the limits of modern medicine, the physiological effects of gratitude, and what it means to take ownership of well-being. Julius also shares his path from traditional cardiology to founding Gratefully Well. Learn more at https://gratefullywell.com Uncommonly Remarkable is a health and wellness show focused on understanding how the body works and how everyday choices shape long-term health. I’m Artis Beatty, a doctor of optometry and Chief Medical Officer at MyEyeDr. While my professional background informs how I think, the perspectives shared here are my own. Uncommonly Remarkable℠ is a health and wellness show focused on understanding how the body works and how everyday choices shape long-term health. I’m Artis Beatty, a doctor of optometry and Chief Medical Officer at MyEyeDr. While my professional background informs how I think, the perspectives shared here are my own.

Why Gratitude Changes the Body Before It Changes the Mind

Send us Fan Mail This is an authored monologue from Uncommonly Remarkable. Gratitude is usually treated as a mindset shift — but the body experiences it first. Chronic stress, dissatisfaction, and vigilance create a real physiological cost over time, even when we don’t feel “burned out.” In this episode, I explain why gratitude isn’t abstract or emotional fluff, but a biological signal that influences the nervous system, recovery, and long-term health. This is Uncommonly Remarkable. Thanks for listening. Uncommonly Remarkable℠ is a health and wellness show focused on understanding how the body works and how everyday choices shape long-term health. I’m Artis Beatty, a doctor of optometry and Chief Medical Officer at MyEyeDr. While my professional background informs how I think, the perspectives shared here are my own.