Odyssey & Alchemy: Men's Inner Transformation and Depth Psychology with Martin Prihoda

Martin Prihoda | Mindfulness Podcast & Men's Work Expert
  • 5.0 (2)
  • Mental Health

Odyssey and Alchemy is a weekly long-form interview podcast on inner transformation — men's work, spirituality, mindfulness, and depth psychology — for men ready to do the inner work. Host Martin Prihoda, former Bollywood photographer and author of The Weary Traveller, sits down for deep, unhurried conversations with therapists, teachers, yogis, and healers — exploring how men heal, wake up, and build a conscious relationship with themselves. No life hacks. No quick fixes. Real conversations about the inner life, for men in the middle of their own transformation — and anyone walking that road with them.

  1. 12h ago

    Ep 40: De-Masking Men: Dr. Richard Oelberger on Men's Work

    What's left of a man when the job, the marriage, or the mask he's worn for decades finally cracks? Dr. Richard Oelberger earned the nickname "Dr. Zero" doing suicide prevention work on Skid Row alongside the LAPD — going out in the middle of the night to talk people down from the edge. A somatic psychologist and author of The Zero Method, he now runs men's groups and a twice-yearly men's retreat through the Remarkable Men's nonprofit. In this conversation we explore inner transformation through the lens of identity collapse — what actually happens in the body when a man loses the job, marriage, or role he built his entire sense of self around, why chaotic or dysregulated childhoods teach kids to become "mini parents" long before their nervous systems can handle it, the somatic tools Richard uses to release stored anger and grief, and how nervous system regulation — not willpower — is what actually lets a man change a pattern instead of just managing it. We also get into shadow work, the Sanskrit concept of samskaras, and why healing has to come before real transformation can happen. This one gets personal — Martin opens up about his own father's death by suicide, and the two find real common ground in what it costs a man to keep the mask on this long. If this conversation moved something in you, a rating or review helps more men find this work. Martin's book, The Weary Traveller's Guide to a Life Worth Living, is available now.

  2. 6d ago

    Ep 39: Is Andrew Tate Raising Your Son? Dr. Gloria Vanderhorst on Men's Work and Raising Boys

    A little boy told his therapist what happens to his tears when he's not allowed to cry: "They go down into my tummy, they turn into rocks, and then they come right back out and I throw them around the room." Dr. Gloria Vanderhorst is a licensed psychologist who has spent 30 years in the room with boys — and with the grown men those boys become. Her argument is simple: you can't give your son permission you've never given yourself. In this conversation we explore men's work and why the emotional range boys are born with gets narrowed by infancy — not by nature, but by us. We get into what's actually happening inside a boy the first time he's told to stop crying, why suppressed emotion resurfaces as rage, addiction, and physical illness in grown men, why teenage boys are drawn to influencers like Andrew Tate and trends like T-maxing when no one else is offering them significance, and the simple emotional healing tool — a feelings sheet, taped to the fridge — that can change how a family actually talks to its sons. This is why men die roughly ten years younger than women, why the secondary emotions of unprocessed feeling fill our jails and end half our marriages, and what it actually takes to raise a boy who doesn't have to swallow his tears. If this conversation moved something in you, a rating or review helps more people find this work. Martin's book, The Weary Traveller's Guide to a Life Worth Living, is available now.

  3. Aug 10

    Ep 38: I Don't Get Angry, I Grow a Tumor Instead: Dr. Alena Candova on Nervous System Regulation

    Willpower has a ceiling. You can out-hustle almost anything — except a nervous system that's still bracing for a threat. Dr. Alena Candova spent years being the person who had it together — capable, resilient, checking every box — without realizing she was running on survival instincts, not actual alignment. A chiropractor turned nervous system expert, she's the author of Grace Over Grit, and she works with high performers, many of them men who've built their entire identity on grit. In this conversation we explore nervous system regulation and why most self-help gets it backwards — willpower isn't the ceiling, an unregulated nervous system is. We get into how childhood emotional suppression rewires the body for hyper-vigilance, why unexpressed anger and unprocessed emotion can manifest as physical illness, the four pillars of nervous system mastery, and why real strength looks like vulnerability, not armour. This is a conversation about what's actually happening underneath the grit — and why grace, not more willpower, is what finally lets the nervous system come home. If this conversation moved something in you, a rating or review helps more men find this work. Martin's book, The Weary Traveller's Guide to a Life Worth Living, is available now.

  4. Aug 6

    Ep 37: Losing a Teen to Suicide | Neal Tricarico on Grief, Purpose & Post-Traumatic Growth

    On March 24th, 2024, Neal Tricarico's autistic son Anthony attempted suicide. Nine weeks later, on May 25th, Anthony passed. Neal had spent 20 years in rooms with Tony Robbins and Steve Leshansky helping other people transform their lives. He thought that was the career. It turned out to be the training. He didn't perform his way through the grief. He didn't wait for closure. He built the Endurant Movement instead — an inner transformation framework for people carrying pain that never resolves, who've stopped waiting to feel better and started learning to carry it differently. In this conversation, Martin and Neal go to places most podcasts won't. Martin shares his own loss — his father's suicide when he was 21, and how that single event set him on 30 years of contemplative practice. Together they explore what grief actually is, what identity becomes when the role you built your life around gets torn out, and what's possible on the other side of the most unimaginable pain a parent can face. They go deep on: autism spectrum disorder and the devastating gap in mental health protocols for neurodiverse youth; why children with Anthony's diagnosis are nearly 30% more likely to die by suicide — and what no one is talking about; the nine weeks between Anthony's attempt and his passing, and what Neal calls the "in-between"; how a community of 75 strangers praying on Zoom carried a family through the uncarriable; Tony Robbins, post-traumatic growth, and what 20 years of transformation work actually prepares you for; mediumship, soul communication, and the decision to let Anthony go; the Endurant Method — a framework for moving from suffering to pain to purpose; the Buddhist philosophy of observing pain rather than fleeing it; and why grief is not something to complete — it's love with nowhere to go, waiting to be redirected. This is one of the most honest, most human conversations on this podcast. If you've lost someone, if you're carrying something that won't resolve, if you're trying to understand what purpose looks like after devastation — this one is for you. If you or someone you know is struggling, please reach out to the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988. 🌐 Learn more about Neal's work and the Endurant Movement: https://www.endurantmovement.org/ Odyssey & Alchemy is a podcast about the journey inward and the transformation that follows — hosted by Martin Prihoda from Salt Spring Island, BC.

  5. Aug 3

    Ep 36: Compulsive Sexual Behavior, Shame & What Men Really Need to Heal - Fran Frye

    Most men who struggle with compulsive sexual behavior are told the same story: you're an addict, count the days, wear the chip, fail, repeat. Fran Frye doesn't buy that script — and she's built an entire practice proving why it fails. Fran is a certified sex counsellor based in Charleston who works exclusively with men on compulsive sexual behavior. She's also a sexual assault survivor, a 13-year military spouse, a rape crisis hotline volunteer, and a death doula. Her premise is direct: this isn't addiction — it's a nervous system pattern. And patterns can change. In this conversation, Martin and Fran go straight at the topics most podcasts won't touch. They explore: why compulsive sexual behavior is fundamentally a regulation problem, not a moral failure; the critical difference between sexual compulsivity and addiction — and why the distinction matters for healing; how pornography rewires desire and what getting it back actually looks like; shame as fuel rather than cure — and how to redirect that energy; why NoFap, streak trackers, and Sexaholics Anonymous set men up to fail; sexual transmutation and the Eastern philosophy of moving erotic energy through the body; what happens in a marriage when the browser history gets found; how childhood attachment patterns and religious shame drive compulsive behavior in adult men; and why the nervous system — not willpower — is the real battleground. This is one of the most honest conversations about male sexuality you'll find anywhere. No clinical hedging. No shame spiral. Just the truth about what's happening in men's bodies — and what's actually on the other side of the work. 🌐 Find Fran at: franfrye.com Odyssey & Alchemy is a podcast about the journey inward and the transformation that follows — hosted by Martin Prihoda from Salt Spring Island, BC.

  6. Jul 30

    Ep 35: Losing Her Son to Opioid Addiction — The Trimesters of Grief: Katie Rizzo

    What if grief isn't something you get over, but something you carry to term? Katie Rizzo is a scientist, longtime high school biology teacher, and mother of three who lost her oldest son Nicholas to an opioid overdose in 2024. Instead of looking away, she studied it — turning her research and her grief into her book, The Trimesters of Grief. In this conversation we explore emotional healing after losing a child to addiction, why grief moves in trimesters — invisible, then undeniable, then impossible to hide — the trauma and shame that keep families of addicts silent, what opioids actually do to the brain and body, and why naming the disease out loud might be the thing that saves the next kid. This is a conversation about carrying grief instead of curing it — and why the sunlight, not the silence, is what finally lets a family breathe. If this conversation moved something in you, a rating or review helps more people find this work. Martin's book, The Weary Traveller's Guide to a Life Worth Living, is available now on Amazon

  7. Jul 29

    Ep 34: Acting, Inner Transformation & the Masks We Wear: Bill Marchant

    What happens when the mask you wear for a living starts wearing you? Bill Marchant has spent nearly four decades inside the craft of acting — on screen in Chappie and Stargate SG1, behind the camera on his own feature Everyone, and for 35 years training actors at Vancouver Film School before recently retiring from the role that shaped his life. In this conversation we explore men's inner work and the mask every man wears without noticing it, how three decades of coaching actors taught Bill to tell the difference between real vulnerability and rehearsed emotion, what Buddhism and non-attachment revealed to him about suffering, shame, and the roles men are conditioned to perform, and why the loneliest thing about masculinity is being seen for the performance instead of the person underneath it. This is a conversation about what's left when the character is gone and you're just standing there as yourself — and why that's the hardest role any man will ever play. If this conversation moved something in you, a rating or review helps more men find this work. Martin's book, The Weary Traveller's Guide to a Life Worth Living, is available now.

  8. Jul 25

    Ep 33: Perimenopause for Men, Part 1 | What's Really Happening to Her | Dr. Talina Hermann

    Happily married on Friday, divorcing on Sunday, back to normal by Tuesday. If that sounds familiar, this episode is for you. Dr. Talina Hermann is a doctor of acupuncture and Chinese medicine, clinical herbalist, and functional medicine practitioner. When conventional medicine failed to explain her own health struggles, she went looking for answers — and built a career giving them to others as founder of the Montecito Wellness Clinic. Her belief is simple: perimenopause isn't a decline, it's a turning point. And today, she's here for the men who love these women. In part one of Perimenopause for Men we explore what perimenopause actually is and why it can start as early as the late 30s, how estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone work as the nervous system's buffer — and what happens in a woman's body and mind when that buffer disappears. We get into why her labs come back "normal" when everything else says otherwise, brain fog, 3am wake-ups, and the shortened fuse, why desire shifts from spontaneous to responsive — and why so many men wrongly conclude she's falling out of love. Talina also gives men the practical playbook: what to say and what never to say, why witnessing beats fixing, why her sleep is the first thing to protect, andropause — the men's-side transition nobody talks about — and the Chinese medicine concept of the Second Spring: why this chaotic passage ends with the most empowered, unapologetic version of the woman you married. If the woman you love has changed and you've been taking it personally — this conversation will change how you see everything. Part two drops next week. Connect with Dr. Talina Hermann: [her links] If this conversation moved something in you, a rating or review helps more men find this work. Martin's book, The Weary Traveller's Guide to a Life Worth Living, is available now. — Odyssey & Alchemy is a weekly long-form interview podcast on men's inner transformation — men's work, spirituality, mindfulness, and depth psychology — hosted by Martin Prihoda, author of The Weary Traveller. Deep, unhurried conversations with therapists, teachers, yogis, and healers, for men ready to do the inner work. 📖 The Weary Traveller: [book link] 🌐 martinprihoda.com | alchemynow.ca

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Odyssey and Alchemy is a weekly long-form interview podcast on inner transformation — men's work, spirituality, mindfulness, and depth psychology — for men ready to do the inner work. Host Martin Prihoda, former Bollywood photographer and author of The Weary Traveller, sits down for deep, unhurried conversations with therapists, teachers, yogis, and healers — exploring how men heal, wake up, and build a conscious relationship with themselves. No life hacks. No quick fixes. Real conversations about the inner life, for men in the middle of their own transformation — and anyone walking that road with them.

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