Traction Podcast

Traction Podcast

The Traction Podcast provides founders with the tools to optimize their mind, body, and business for peak performance.

  1. 6d ago

    Dr. Nnamdi Orakpo: The ADHD Diagnosis Nobody Is Testing For

    Most high performers treat sleep like a negotiation. Something to borrow from.Something to sacrifice.Something to fix later. But the body does not negotiate forever. In this episode, Dr. Nnamdi Orakpo joins Lloyed Lobo on Traction to unpack why sleep is one of the most important operating systems behind performance, mental health, metabolism, recovery, and long-term function. Dr. Orakpo is a Stanford sleep medicine physician, psychiatrist, MD, PhD, and clinical assistant professor. His work spans insomnia, sleep apnea, narcolepsy, trauma-associated sleep disorders, ADHD, anxiety, depression, PTSD, ketamine therapy, TMS, virtual reality neurofeedback, and GLP-1 medications for sleep apnea and obesity. This conversation is not about generic sleep hygiene. It is about what sleep reveals. Why insomnia is often not just a sleep problem. Why sleep apnea can silently wreck energy, mood, blood pressure, metabolism, and cognition. Why trauma shows up at night. Why founders can feel productive while their brain is running on fumes. And why the future of sleep medicine may combine psychiatry, neuromodulation, metabolic care, and technology. We cover: Why sleep is foundational to founder performance The difference between insomnia, poor sleep, and sleep apnea Why high performers often normalize sleep deprivation How sleep impacts mood, attention, decision-making, and emotional control The hidden relationship between sleep and trauma Why obesity and sleep apnea reinforce each other How GLP-1s may change the sleep apnea conversation Where ketamine and TMS fit into modern psychiatry What virtual reality neurofeedback may unlock for insomnia and chronic pain Why sleep trackers help some people and make others worse The practical sleep reset every founder should understand This episode is for founders, executives, parents, clinicians, and high performers who want to stop treating sleep like a soft topic. Because your sleep is not separate from your performance. It is the foundation underneath it. Lloyed Lobo - https://www.linkedin.com/in/lloyedlobo Dr. Nnamdi Orakpo - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nnamdi-orakpo-md-phd-47793835/

  2. Aug 6

    Kenny Santucci: The Fatal Assumption Behind Modern Healthcare

    Kenny Santucci became famous competing under pressure on MTV’s The Challenge. But the most important competition of his life began years earlier. As an overweight, self-conscious teenager, Kenny discovered wrestling and strength training. Fitness did not just change his body. It changed how he saw himself, how he carried himself, and what he believed he could become. That transformation took him from reality television to coaching, gym ownership, and the creation of Strong New York, one of the country’s most iconic fitness and wellness communities. In this episode, Kenny joins Traction to unpack why strength is not just physical. It is confidence. Discipline. Energy. Resilience. And belonging. We talk about what entrepreneurs actually need from fitness: a plan that survives busy weeks, a body that can sustain ambition, and a community that makes consistency easier. We explore: Why physical transformation changes identity How founders can build strength without turning fitness into a second job The minimum effective training dose for busy entrepreneurs How to balance strength, cardio, mobility, and recovery Why random workouts create random results How to lose fat without losing muscle, energy, or confidence Why fitness is becoming the new social life, and strength is belonging This is not about six-pack abs. It is about building the physical and emotional capacity to lead, parent, perform, and stay useful for the long game. For entrepreneurs, strength is not vanity. Strength is infrastructure, strength is belonging.  Kenny Santucci: - https://www.instagram.com/kennysantucci/ Lloyed Lobo: - https://www.instagram.com/lloyedlobo

  3. Jul 1

    Silicon Valley Veteran: “Why Buddhist Monks Won't Get Us to Mars”

    Andy Johns helped build some of the most important growth engines in Silicon Valley. Facebook. Twitter. Quora. Wealthfront. He worked across nine billion-dollar companies, became one of the most respected growth leaders in tech, and reached the level of career success most founders dream about. Then he walked away. Because achievement had stopped working. In this episode, Andy joins Lloyed Lobo on Traction to unpack the hidden cost of high performance. We talk about burnout, workaholism, childhood trauma, addiction, therapy, spiritual awakening, and the identity crash that hits when the thing that made you successful starts destroying you. Andy shares why he left a seven-figure VC career, how he rebuilt his life through deep inner work, and why so many founders are running from pain under the cover of ambition. This is not a conversation about hacks. It is a conversation about truth. You will learn: Why external success can mask deep internal suffering How childhood trauma can drive achievement addiction Why workaholism is often socially rewarded self-abandonment How to know when enough is enough What burnout feels like before it becomes a collapse Why therapy, writing, spirituality, and community can become performance tools How high performers can rebuild identity after leaving the game Why the body often keeps score before the mind admits the truth What founders need to understand about mental health, meaning, and self-authored success This episode is for founders, operators, and high performers who have won on paper but feel something breaking underneath. Because sometimes the most important growth is not company growth. It is inner growth. Lloyed Lobo- https://linkedin.com/in/lloyedlobo Andy Johns- https://linkedin.com/in/andrewjohns/

  4. Jun 17

    Dr. Steven Muskal: Why Your Wearables Are Making You Sicker

    What if the future of human performance is not another supplement, another wearable, or another biohack, but a better relationship with your own data? Dr. Steven Muskal has spent more than four decades at the edge of AI, chemistry, biology, and drug discovery. Before AI was cool, he was using neural networks to study protein structure. Before everyone was talking about personal AI, he was building AI-Steve, a system designed to act like a memory layer, research assistant and cognitive mirror of his own thinking. In this episode, Steve joins Lloyed Lobo on Traction to unpack how AI, biology, food, sleep and personal data are converging into a new operating system for health and performance. Steve shares how his work in AI-driven drug discovery shaped the way he thinks about human biology, why he believes prevention is often easier than treatment, and why optimizing your own health starts with listening to how your body responds. We cover: How Steve used neural networks for protein structure prediction before modern AI exploded Why food needs to become structured data before it can become personalized medicine How founders can think about sleep, movement, hot and cold therapy, nutrition and recovery Why N-of-1 experimentation matters for health optimization How to avoid hallucinations in AI systems when real decisions are on the line Why the future of health will be personal, measurable and AI-assisted This is a conversation for founders, builders and high performers who want to stop guessing and start measuring. Lloyed Lobo- https://linkedin.com/in/lloyedlobo Dr. Steven Muskal- https://linkedin.com/in/stevenmuskal/

  5. Jun 3

    The GLP-1 Revolution Explained by a Doctor Running 20+ Pharma Trials

    Dr. Tom Elliott has spent more than four decades at the forefront of diabetes, endocrinology, and metabolic health. He is the founder and medical director of BC Diabetes, an associate professor at UBC, and has been involved in more than 20 pharmaceutical clinical trials exploring the future of obesity, diabetes, and GLP-1 therapies. In this episode, Dr. Elliott breaks down why obesity, insulin resistance, and prediabetes have exploded across modern society, and why many founders and high performers are quietly damaging their metabolic health through stress, poor sleep, alcohol, sedentary work, and overstimulation. We explore the science behind Ozempic, GLP-1 agonists, retatrutide, testosterone decline, fertility, fasting, aging, addiction, and the future of preventative medicine. Dr. Elliott also explains why some patients in clinical trials “begged to stop” after losing too much weight, and how these drugs may extend far beyond weight loss into addiction recovery and longevity research. You will learn: Why more than 150 million Americans may be prediabetic What GLP-1 drugs actually do inside the body Why Ozempic is affecting fertility, appetite, and addiction How stress and sleep deprivation damage metabolism Why muscle mass and strength matter as you age The relationship between testosterone, aging, and performance How modern food environments accelerate obesity and insulin resistance This is a wide-ranging conversation on diabetes, longevity, performance, and the future of human health with one of Canada’s leading endocrinologists.

  6. May 20

    Julia Klim: When Health Optimization Starts Backfiring

    Julia Klim is redefining what it means to live and perform well in a high-pressure world. As former Head of Strategic Partnerships at Equinox Group, she helped transform the brand from a luxury gym into a full-spectrum healthspan platform. She launched Optimize by Equinox, an elite longevity program that pairs members with doctors, trainers, nutritionists, and sleep coaches using deep biometric data. Julia writes the Substack “In Search Of”, where she challenges the idea that health can be “hacked.” She argues that many high performers are quietly dysregulated despite doing everything right, and that nervous system health, immune resilience, and cellular energy are the real foundations of long-term performance. Julia is known for cutting through wellness hype, questioning over-optimization, and exposing why more tools, more supplements, and more protocols often make people worse, not better. In this episode, Julia breaks down why anxiety, fatigue, brain fog, and burnout are usually signs of autonomic overload, not lack of discipline. We explore how chronic stress, inflammation, and mitochondrial dysfunction quietly erode performance, and why your body must feel safe before any optimization works. You will learn: Why you cannot biohack your nervous system How hidden dysregulation shows up in high performers What biomarkers and signals actually matter Why supplements fail in threat mode How to build real resilience instead of chasing hacks Why environment, relationships, and routines drive recovery How to perform at a high level without burning out This is a grounded, science-backed conversation for founders and leaders who want to win for decades, not just quarters. Julia Klim - In Search Of: https://readinsearchof.com - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliaklim/ - X/Twitter: https://x.com/klimjuls - Instagram: https://instagram.com/klimjuls Lloyed Lobo - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/lloyedlobo - Instagram: https://instagram.com/lloyedlobo

  7. May 6

    National Gold Medalist: “Supplements Are Useless If You Ignore These 3 Basics”

    Caroline Mundell has been competing at the highest levels of Olympic weightlifting while running two gyms and raising three kids.  She is a 7x Provincial Masters Olympic Lifting Champion, 2x National Champion, Bronze medalist at the 2018 World championships Barcelona, and most recently the 2025 National Functional Fitness Gold Medalist. Her background in behavioral neuroscience and sports science is what makes her framework different, she understands both why your brain resists change and exactly what to do about it. In this episode, we cover: Why your metabolism isn't slowing down due to age, and what's actually happening instead The real reason busy founders stall despite doing "everything right" Why cold plunges aren't delivering what the wellness industry promised, especially for women The supplement mistake costing thousands while three basics go ignored Why strength training in your 40s matters more than any biohack on the market The mindset shift that separates people who transform their health from those stuck in the planning phase Caroline Mundell:https://www.linkedin.com/in/caroline-mundell-9803ba39/ Ray Waliahttps://www.linkedin.com/in/raywalia/

  8. Apr 15

    He Studied $6.4 Trillion Worth of Founders. Here's What They Shared | Mark Macleod | Traction

    Mark MacLeod, founder of Limitless.CEO, has sat with some of the most consequential founders in tech. As Ex-CFO of Shopify and FreshBooks, GP at Real Ventures, Canada's largest seed fund, and founder of a leading SaaS investment bank, he has personally overseen over $1 billion in exits. He has seen exactly what ends a founder's run, and it is rarely the market. After studying 11 founders who built a combined $6.4 trillion in enterprise value, Mark rebuilt his entire philosophy around one idea: your personal health is the ceiling of your company. Today he runs Limitless, a program where CEOs train like elite athletes to scale their companies without sacrificing their health, their families, or their longevity. In this episode, we cover: Why the number one reason founders came to Mark looking to exit was not valuation How fit CEOs have outperformed the S&P 500 by 2.5x over four years and what that actually means for how you lead The biomarker dashboard Mark uses to predict his own performance quarters in advance What Zuckerberg, Chesky, and Tobi Lutke share that most founders overlook entirely The earliest warning signs that a high performer is headed toward a breakdown Why your nervous system is your company's operating system How to design your role around your zone of genius the way Tobi did at Shopify If you are building for decades and not just surviving the next funding round, this conversation will change how you think about the relationship between your body and your business.

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5
out of 5
26 Ratings

About

The Traction Podcast provides founders with the tools to optimize their mind, body, and business for peak performance.

Information

  • Creator
    Traction Podcast
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    177
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Traction Podcast
  • Show Website
    Traction Podcast

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