A Good, Long Podcast: Lessons for a Good, Long Life Ronan Levy

This episode touches on something that honestly scares the living daylights out of me, and that is getting cancer at a ridiculously young age.

So why would I start the first official new episode of this podcast about longevity talking about early onset cancer?

When you hear Florence Shaffer’s story about the diagnosis giving her clarity and finding direction and meaning in the impermanence of life, you’ll understand.

Florence is a technology executive who has worked all over the world in beauty, luxury fashion, automotive, film, real estate, construction, healthcare and hospitality.
Her wide ranging experiences have led her to launch a new company called Becoming (StartBecoming.co) which focuses on the intersection between humanity and technology by making the world’s experts in various holistic wellness fields accessible to the masses.

This is one you won’t want to miss!

Head over to www.instagram.com/ronandlevy to connect with me on Instagram.

After a brief hiatus, Ronan is back with a new focus for the podcast.

While being non-ordinary is fun and insightful, there is more to life to explore.

So say hello to A Good, Long Podcast: Lessons for a Good, Long Life. A podcast in which we speak with people from all walks of life about the wisdom they've received on how to live a good and long life.

Produced by Chris Van Loan II, Van Loan Film Co.
Cover Art by Walker Munro.
Music by Jahzzar.

As 2023 has been a year of profound changes, ups and downs and lots of confusion and uncertainty for me, I couldn't think of a better episode to send this year off with than this one with Ben "Doc" Askins.

Give a listen and you'll understand why.

Ben "Doc" Askins is a no-one. But he is also Banksy’s erudite elder brother, a Deadpool wannabe, and the Shadow of the world’s most interesting man.

When artificial intelligence has a fever dream, it dreams of being Doc.

But if you actually care about qualifications, here is what you need to know about Ben. He has degrees in Outdoor Education, Intercultural Studies, Physician Assistant Studies, and Divinity. He has nearly two decades of experience practicing and teaching wilderness, tactical, and expeditionary medicine in the military. In civilian life, he is a Psychiatric Physician Assistant with an evidence-focused and integrative approach to mental health that includes extensive experience providing ketamine-assisted psychotherapy, medicine management, and spiritual direction. He is certified with the Multidisciplinary Association on Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) in MDMA-assisted psychotherapy. Ben is a member of the Wilderness Medical Society, a National Outdoor Leadership school alum, a veteran of the Global War on Terrorism, and has completed postgraduate training in Neuropsychiatry and Genomics.

I won't even attempt to put together show notes on this one because it would be a failed pursuit. But it was an awesome conversation.

If you're not nauseated by the end of this conversation, check out Ben's work here.

Danny Morel is a life coach and spiritual leader guiding millions throughout the world to awaken, heal and transform their lives. But don't tell him that. Because he doesn't like those labels, and I can understand why. There's something weird about calling yourself a spiritual leader.

But sometimes doing this work, whatever you call it, is going to mean you're going to run into people who want to get it but sometimes just...don't.

And maybe I'm one of those people. How can I say this? Even though I really want to buy into a lot of what Danny says, there's something about it that just doesn't land for me. I can't tell you why. Maybe it was just my mood that day. Maybe I just see the world differently. Or maybe there is something incomplete about what Danny is preaching. I don't know.

But I do know that, notwithstanding my ambivalence about some of the elements of this conversation, that there are some great insights shared and, that what I'm trying to do with this podcast is try to elevate truth as much as possible. And the truth is that there's something that just doesn't sit right for me in this conversation. And maybe that's all the truth that needs to be shared.

Learn more about Danny and his work here.

I can't help but love it when some people f*ck with authority, especially when they are on the right side of history. Prof. David Nutt is one of those people.

David is currently the Edmond J. Safra Professor of Neuropsychopharmacology and director of the Neuropsychopharmacology Unit in the Division of Brain Sciences.  He is also the Chair of DrugScience (formally the Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs (ISCD)) and President of the European Brain Council.

But he's probably best known for up-ending everything we were taught about drugs in high school after he authored a study published in the Lancet that showed, through a multi-criteria analysis, that things like cannabis, psilocybin and LSD weren't nearly as harmful to people as was our then (and still, frankly) vice, alcohol.

And we should all be grateful he did because in many ways that was a pivotal moment for the psychedelic renaissance and the start of a healthy reexamination of psychoactive compounds in our society.

His recent book, Psychedelics: The Revolutionary Drugs That Could Change Your Life - a Guide From the Expert, was published in June 2023 and is now available for pre-order in Canada and the US. You can get your copy here.

This is a reposting of a recent episode of the podcast Making Sense with Sam Harris called "The Bright Line Between Good and Evil", reshared with Sam's consent and with a brief commentary from me at off the top.

I am resharing this because it opened my eyes to things I hadn't considered, and I think it's important for these thoughts to be heard, considered and, if appropriate, responded to.