Collective Insights Blog

Our Favorite Biohacks For an Optimized Mind and Body

Each year we research the latest neurohacking and biohacking trends and when we find a technique or tool that holds promise of increasing peak performance, we test that hack in our daily lives and we're excited to share these tried and tested biohacks with you.

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The Ethics of Technology and the Future: An Interview with Douglas Rushkoff

Futurist media theorist, author, podcast host, and Professor of Media Theory and Digital Economics at CUNY/Queens, Douglas Rushkoff joins Jamie Wheal to share the emergence of crypto fascism among QAnon, left-wing conspiracies, the new thought plandemic, digital memes as occult sigils, and the end of the world.

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How to Create Successful New Year's Resolutions

One of our co-founders, Daniel Schmactenberger, shares his favorite resources for creating successful New Year’s Resolutions, or better yet, a life planning template.

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The Science of Dating: An Interview with Helen Fisher

Sexologist and anthropologist, Helen Fisher, Ph.D. joins Jamie Wheal in this interview. She was at Rutgers Univestiry and Kinsey institute, and she is the Chief Science Officer of match.com. Fisher is the leading voice of how we mate and date. She shares the surprising insight that there has been no culture that aligns how we ought to be and how we want to be in regards to relationships, romance and sex. She shares about her own relationships, and shares why she thinks millennials are so smart with how they date in a method she calls slow love. Read on to learn more.

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Morning Routines of Leaders: Habits from the Founders of Qualia

We hope the routines from these leaders inspire you to create your own habits to provide clarity and all-day focus, so you can tackle the tasks in your life with purpose.

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How to Level Up Your Focus With Meditation

In the most simplistic of statements: the ability to focus is vital because it’s the gateway to all thinking, perception, memory, learning, reasoning, problem solving, and decision making. And meditation is the powerful neurohacking tool you need to get started.

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Eight Healthy Morning Habits to Physically, Mentally, and Emotionally Start Your Day

Find a successful person and you will find a structured morning routine.

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You Can Set Yourself up for Success and Get Into Flow States Every Single Day

Your life can be hacked.  In fact it's being hacked all the time without your permission.  Advertising, fast food, fast information (social media), it all affects how you feel and operate in your world and ultimately affects the life you create for yourself.  

But the good news is, you can take control and hack it yourself.

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Creating Great Habits for Sleep: An Interview with Molly Maloof, MD

If you can sleep, then you need sleep. Oftentimes people will sacrifice sleep in the name of productivity, but that actually makes you less effective and less productive. Dr. Molly Maloof is on the frontier of personalized medicine, medical technology, health optimization, and scientifically-based wellness endeavors. She joins us to share how sleep works and what we can do to get a better night’s sleep.

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How Metabolism Supports Immunity

Immunometabolism is the crosstalk between metabolic and immunological processes. Mitochondria, the cellular structures that generate cell energy, are key elements in the crosstalk between metabolic and immune signaling pathways. 

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Harnessing the Power of Your Breath

We breathe all day long without ever giving it much thought, but we'd like to invite you to explore what is possible when you can harness the power of your breath. Learning to control the breath is one of the most powerful (and free!) neurohacks we have for improving concentration, managing stress, developing optimal health, and guiding our spiritual advancement.

This article will cover:

  • What is breathwork?
  • How does breathwork work?
  • What does breathwork do for your body and mind?
  • Breathwork training practices

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Tools for Trauma: An Interview with Dr. Gabor Maté

What do we do now to create a world where human needs get met? On this HomeGrown Humans episode, physician and renowned addiction expert, Dr. Gabor Maté, joins Jamie Wheal for a timely and relevant conversation on trauma. Dr. Maté is highly sought after for his expertise on a range of topics including addiction, stress and childhood development. Dr. Maté sheds light on the importance of awareness and compassion for oneself and others. Disempowerment and passivity is bad for your health.

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Harness the Power of Your Brain-Body Connection: An Interview with Amy Cuddy

We are joined today by American social psychologist, best-selling author and TED Talk speaker, Amy Cuddy, Ph.D. She is known for the “Power Posing” technique. We dive into the benefits of the expansive pose and how it can shift our endocrine or hormonal balances. Amy also shares her personal experiences of embodiment as a ballet dancer and a Deadhead. 

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Upgrade Your Life: An Interview with Kash Khan

We are joined by the creator of Educate Inspire Change, an educational platform with over 3.5 million followers, Kash Khan. We dive into Kash’s life story on what inspired him to create his page and how the use of plant medicine has helped him throughout this journey as a father, a son and an entrepreneur. He offers his wisdom on ayahuasca journeys and shares about the documentaries he has made on this powerful plant medicine work being done in Costa Rica.

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Take Control of Chronic Stress: Q&A with Dr. David Rabin

Imagine having the tools to manage your stress levels, even on the most challenging of days. The co-founder, co-inventor and Chief Innovation Officer of Apollo Neuro, Dr. David Rabin, is a psychiatrist and a neuroscientist who has studied mental health extensively with a particular interest in new, promising, non-invasive treatments that don't carry a significant risk. He co-created the Apollo device, which is wearable technology that uses vibration to balance the nervous system. Apollo brings the body back into balance by sending safety signals to our brains through our sense of touch, just like when someone gives us a hug on a bad day. Read on for a Q&A with Dr. David Rabin.

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What Is Insulin? Understanding The Role of Insulin in Metabolism and Healthy Aging

Insulin is a hormone produced by beta cells in the pancreas with a central role in the regulation of metabolism and cell energy reserves. The major metabolic action of insulin is to regulate blood glucose levels and to promote the storage of energy substrates as macromolecules that can be mobilized between meals or in contexts of high energy demand.

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How to Make an Impact: An Interview with Daniel Schmachtenberger

Today Jamie Wheal is joined by Daniel Schmachtenberger. Daniel is co-founder of Qualia, and now his central interest is long term civilization design: developing better collective capacities for sense-making and meaning-making, to inform higher quality choice-making. In this interview they discuss human behavior and how to have good discernment.

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What Is Oxidative Phosphorylation?

Oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) is the major pathway of ATP production. ATP is the energy-rich molecule that powers cellular processes that require energy input. OXPHOS occurs in mitochondria and uses energy extracted in the metabolism of cellular fuels, particularly in glycolysis, fatty acid oxidation, and the citric acid cycle, to power the production of ATP.

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How to Care for Your Soul: An Interview with Sue Phillips

We are joined today by the co-founder of Sacred Design Lab, an ordained Unitarian Universalist minister, Sue Phillips. She is the co-author, with colleagues Angie Thurston and Casper ter Kuile, of Design for the Human Soul. We dive into the American religion and how this has shifted throughout the years. Sue reminds us of the value in tradition, as many people are grasping to design their own completely new spiritual practices. 

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Optimizing Female Hormones: An Interview with Dr. Christiane Northrup

Dr. Heather Sandison is joined by women’s health expert, visionary health pioneer, wellness speaker, and New York Times Best-Selling author, Dr. Christiane Northrup. We dive into women’s health and how to balance female hormones. 

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Introducing Jamie Wheal on Collective Insights

HomeGrown Humans is actualizing human potential in the rapidly changing world we’re in. Jamie Wheal will host episodes on the Collective Insights podcast with today’s most brilliant minds and hearts in a true spirit of inquiry, to engage in generative dialogue and perhaps break through to new levels of understanding and sensemaking about our changing world and the place of humanity within it.

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How Does The Immune System Work? Part 2: The Adaptive Immune System

The adaptive immune system is responsible for the more complex and optimized immune responses that develop when innate immunity is insufficient to manage a threat. It is the specific immunity we acquire over time as the immune system is challenged with new antigens and learns to deal with them.

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What Is The Citric Acid Cycle?

The citric acid cycle, also known as the Krebs cycle or tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle, is a circular loop rotating through eight organic acid intermediates (e.g., citrate, malate, oxaloacetate). This cycle plays a critical role in moving cell energy production forward, because it is the first pathway of the final stage of energy extraction from nutrients, in which carbon units are fully oxidized. The intermediate products formed in this cycle are also used to build molecules including proteins, DNA, and RNA.

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The Benefits of Grounding: An Interview with Clint Ober

We are joined by the innovator behind the Grounding Movement and CEO of Earth FX Inc., Clint Ober. He is known for the Earthing movie and the author of Earthing: The Most Important Health Discovery Ever. We dive into the benefits of grounding and how it can help the body relieve inflammation. We go over science around grounding the tools we can use to help us ground effectively. 

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Optimize Sleep and Manage Stress: Q&A with the CEO of Gravity Blanket

Imagine waking up more often from truly refreshing sleep. The founder and CEO of Gravity Blanket, Mike Grillo, struggled immensely with sleep, which launched him into a personal exploration of solutions to get better rest. In 2016 the Gravity Blanket was developed. The Gravity Blanket uses the power of "deep touch pressure stimulation" to simulate the feeling of being held. This increases serotonin and melatonin, the hormones responsible for relaxation, and decreases cortisol, the hormone responsible for stress which leads to a deeper, healing sleep. Read on for a Q&A with Mike Grillo.

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