Men Talking Mindfulness

Jon Macaskill & Will Schneider
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Mental Health

Men Talking Mindfulness is a weekly podcast on men’s mental health, mindfulness, meditation, overall wellness, and leadership, hosted by retired Navy SEAL Commander Jon Macaskill and Stanford University Ambassador of Compassion Will Schneider. New episodes every Monday. This show is for men who are doing fine on paper and know something is still off. Leaders, operators, veterans, tradesmen, dads... anyone carrying real pressure and tired of pretending it isn’t there. Every week Jon and Will sit down with psychiatrists, performance coaches, combat veterans, authors and everyday men to talk honestly about what we are all dealing with and what actually helps. Stress, sleep, anger, loneliness, focus, fatherhood, faith, testosterone, grief, burnout, and the daily practices that help a man come back to himself. No posturing. No lectures. Real conversations, real tools, and a mindfulness practice you can actually use. Past guests include Jocko Willink, Mark Divine, Howard Behar, Rich Diviney, Dr. James Doty, Steven Pressfield, John Eldredge, and Dr. Mark Gordon. Jon served 24 years in the Navy, 17 of them as a SEAL, and now teaches mindfulness and meditation to leaders in construction, engineering, manufacturing and defense. Will has taught yoga and mindfulness in New York City for nearly two decades and strips the fancy words away so the practices stick. Together they co-founded Focus Now Training and the Awareness to Action community. If you have been told to meditate and never understood why it should matter to you, start here. Mindfulness will not make your stress disappear. It changes your relationship with it. That is the whole game. Find the full back catalog, show notes and ways to work with Jon and Will at mentalkingmindfulness.com. Join the community at awareness2action.com.

  1. 6d ago

    Jiu-Jitsu World Champion At 64: David Meyer On Taming The Ego And Writing Your Next Chapter

    David Meyer was one of the first Americans ever to earn a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. He’s an eleven-time world champion, he holds the Coral belt, and he turns 64 this month — and still trains seven seven-minute rounds against men half his age. He’s also the co-founder and former CEO of Adopt-a-Pet.com, and now runs Food System Innovations. When Will asks what keeps him going, the answer has nothing in it to buy: hydrate, protect your sleep, cycle what you train so something is always recovering. His line on discipline reframes the whole thing — it’s easy for him to train today because he trained yesterday. Then Jon asks about ego, and David draws a distinction worth the whole hour: ego isn’t something to get rid of, because it’s your identity. It’s something to tame. He covers the deathbed test, the paradox that the only way to improve is to train against people who beat you, and what he tells himself when he gets wound up — the mountains are laughing. And when Jon describes being introduced at parties as “my friend the Navy SEAL” rather than as Jon, David doesn’t tell him to let it go. He tells him to expand it. IN THIS EPISODE, YOU WILL LEARN:1. Why longevity has no cheat code, and what gets built instead by an ordinary day repeated2. How David trains and recovers at 64 — cycling muscle groups, protecting sleep, and giving stiffness the time it now needs3. Why ego is not the enemy, and what taming it looks like in the moment — including the deathbed test and “the mountains are laughing”4. The paradox of competition: the way to get better is to train with people who beat you, and the way to win more is to care less about winning5. What happens to a man when the title goes — and why expanding an identity beats letting one go CONNECT WITH DAVID MEYER•  The Ageless Warrior Lab Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-ageless-warrior-lab/id1840239491•  Food System Innovations: https://www.fsi.org•  His bio and background: https://www.fsi.org/david-meyer• Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/agelesswarriorlab/ STAY CONNECTED WITH MTM•  Join the MTM community — text MTM to 33777•  Website: mentalkingmindfulness.com•  Take our Free Assessment - https://focusnowtraining.com/assessment-page•  Awareness to Action program: focusnowtraining.com/a2a•  Focus Now Training: focusnowtraining.com •  Work with us / speaking inquiries: focusnowtraining.com/contact Produced by Robert Lopez: https://cratesaudio.com

    Jiu-Jitsu World Champion At 64: David Meyer On Taming The Ego And Writing Your Next Chapter

  2. Oct 19

    How Loneliness & Poor Sleep Control Your Cravings | Dr. Jason Linder, Trauma Therapist

    Most men who eat when they are already full have decided the problem is willpower. Dr. Jason Linder spends this episode taking that explanation apart and handing back something more useful. Jason is a bilingual trauma and relationship therapist in San Diego, an EMDR Certified clinician and EMDRIA-Approved Consultant, and an adjunct professor at Alliant International University. In his clinical experience, almost every addictive pattern he has treated — substance or process — sits on top of two things: not enough high-quality human connection, and unresolved past experience that still has a pull on the present. The quantity of relationships is beside the point. One person can bring grief, vulnerability and overwhelm to change the picture. IN THIS EPISODE, YOU WILL LEARN: Why compulsive eating sits on top of connection and unresolved experience rather than a lack of disciplineThe three things most men were never given permission to bring to anyone — grief, vulnerability and overwhelm — and what it costs to carry them aloneHow short sleep raises hunger signalling, and why evening cravings tilt toward sugar, salt and fatHow to tell nutritional hunger from emotional hunger, and what the emotional kind is actually asking forWhat urge surfing is, plus four small mechanics that change a meal: chew fully, set the utensil down, no screens, stop earlier in the eveningCONNECT WITH DR. JASON LINDER•  Alliant International University faculty page: https://www.alliant.edu/faculty/jason-linder•  Writing at Psychotherapy.net: https://psychotherapy.net/blog/author/jason-linder-lmft•  Therapy practice — San Diego, California clients only: https://dr-jason-n-linder.clientsecure.me•  Instagram — @drjasonnlinder•  Linkedin — https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-n-linder-psyd-8871a68b/ Take our FREE 5-minute Assessmenthttps://focusnowtraining.com/assessment-page  STAY CONNECTED WITH MTM•  Join the MTM community — text MTM to 33777•  Website: mentalkingmindfulness.com•  Focus Now Training: focusnowtraining.com•  Awareness to Action program: focusnowtraining.com/a2a•  Work with us / speaking inquiries: focusnowtraining.com/contact Produced by Robert Lopez: https://cratesaudio.com

    How Loneliness & Poor Sleep Control Your Cravings | Dr. Jason Linder, Trauma Therapist

  3. Oct 12

    Operator Syndrome: Dr. Chris Frueh on the Hegseth Memo and What Actually Heals

    You do not have to have kicked in a door overseas for this conversation to land. Training alone carries a heavy physiological burden and the injuries it leaves behind have a name. Dr. Chris Frueh is a clinical psychologist and professor of psychology at the University of Hawaii–Hilo with more than 30 years working alongside combat veterans, special operators, contractors, and first responders. He was lead author on the 2020 medical paper that coined the term “operator syndrome,” and his book of the same name is written for operators and their families rather than for clinicians. Dr. Mark Gordon introduced him to Jon, and this episode pick s up exactly where the Gordon conversation left off. Chris explains what operator syndrome actually is and how it differs from PTSD, gives the fullest public account we’ve heard of what Secretary Hegseth’s July 15 announcement and follow-up memo actually said, and lays out a genuinely hopeful recovery path — starting with tests almost anyone can get. As he puts it: this is not a life sentence of horrible misery. IN THIS EPISODE, YOU WILL LEARN:1.  What operator syndrome is — and why PTSD is only one possible piece of it2.  How the same symptoms get called depression when the real driver may be hormones, sleep, or inflammation3.  What the Hegseth July 15 announcement and one-page memo actually said — including the context most coverage missed4.  The first moves in a recovery plan: hormone and cardiometabolic panels, a sleep study, and lowering inflammation5.  Why bringing your partner into the process changes the outcome — and how to start that conversation More about Dr. Chris Frueh:1.  Website: https://www.chrisfrueh.com2.  Book: Operator Syndrome (Ballast Books) — available on Amazon and via his website3.  The original 2020 Operator Syndrome paper is free to download from chrisfrueh.com4.  Instagram: @drchrisfrueh GET MORE FROM MTM:Join our free weekly Substack newsletter → Click HERECheck out our MTM Website to see what else we are up too! https://mentalkingmindfulness.com/ GET FOCUSED!!Does your company need help, or would you like to reduce safety incidents??Head over to https://focusnowtraining.com/ - we have you covered! Produced by Robert Lopez https://www.cratesaudio.com/

    Operator Syndrome: Dr. Chris Frueh on the Hegseth Memo and What Actually Heals

  4. Oct 5

    The Four Questions: Vaisesika Dasa on Attention, Purpose, and the Power of Service

    Out of every punctuation mark in every language, Vaisesika Dasa argues the question mark is the most powerful.  Why, because a question is a hook that pulls the answers already around you closer. Vaisesika Dasa left an ordinary path at 15 to become a monk, chasing questions most people never stop to ask. He has spent his life studying a traditional line of Vedic teaching and translating the Bhagavad Gita into something genuinely usable for professionals and seekers in the modern world. His book, The Four Questions: A Pathway to Inner Peace, distills it into four questions anyone can carry: Where am I investing my attention right now? What is the lesson? What is my purpose? And how can I be of service? In this conversation with Jon and Will, he makes the case that attention is our only real asset, that life is a schoolhouse rather than a bed, and that the fastest way to feel connected to your own life is to serve something beyond it. IN THIS EPISODE, YOU WILL LEARN:1.  Why your attention is your most valuable asset — and how to get a real return on it2.  The one-question practice that pulls you back into the moment when you drift3.  How to turn setbacks into lessons by changing the question you ask4.  A simple exercise for getting clear on your purpose and writing your own personal constitution5.  The hierarchy of service — and why serving out of love outperforms serving out of fear or gain More about Vaisesika Dasa:1.  Book: The Four Questions: A Pathway to Inner Peace — https://www.thefourquestionsbook.com2.  Website: https://www.vaisesikadasa.com3.  Published by the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust — also available on Amazon GET MORE FROM MTM:Join our free weekly Substack newsletter → Click HERECheck out our MTM Website to see what else we are up too! https://mentalkingmindfulness.com/ GET FOCUSED!!Does your company need help, or would you like to reduce safety incidents??Head over to https://focusnowtraining.com/ - we have you covered! Produced by Robert Lopez https://www.cratesaudio.com/

    The Four Questions: Vaisesika Dasa on Attention, Purpose, and the Power of Service

  5. Sep 28

    How Howard Behar Overcame Depression and Realized Asking for Help is Our Biggest Strength

    Howard Behar helped grow Starbucks from 28 stores to more than 15,000 and at 80, he found himself in a treatment center for depression. Howard is the former president of Starbucks North America and the founding president of Starbucks International, a longtime advocate of servant leadership, and the author of It’s Not About the Coffee and The Magic Cup. He returns to Men Talking Mindfulness for one of the most candid conversations we’ve had: what depression actually felt like in his body, why acknowledging it was the hardest and most important step, what treatment really looked like (including the setback when he thought he was ready to go home), and what keeps him well now. His message is direct and hopeful.  Depression is a sickness, not a weakness, nobody is beyond its reach, and people around you genuinely want to help if you let them. If you or someone you know is struggling, call or text 988. IN THIS EPISODE, YOU WILL LEARN:1.  Why depression is a physical illness as much as a mental one — and what it felt like in his chest2.  Why acknowledging it was the hardest step, and what changed the moment he did3.  What treatment actually looked like, including the setback that taught him he wasn’t done yet4.  The two-week marker: when ongoing symptoms are a signal to reach out rather than wait it out5.  What keeps him well now — ongoing counseling, real routine, and letting people in More about Howard Behar:1.  Website: http://howardbehar.com/2.  Books: It’s Not About the Coffee and The Magic Cup — available on Amazon3.  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/howard-behar-24ba274/4.  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Hpbehar5.  If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline) Take our Awareness to Action COURSE (A2A) 12 modules structured curriculum on attention, presence, practices & performance — plus an inspiring community built in for connection. https://focusnowtraining.com/a2a-course GET MORE FROM MTM: Join our free weekly Substack newsletter → Click HERECheck out our MTM Website to see what else we are up too! https://mentalkingmindfulness.com/ GET FOCUSED!! Does your company need help, or would you like to reduce safety incidents?? Head over to https://focusnowtraining.com/ - we have you covered! Produced by Robert Lopez https://www.cratesaudio.com/

    How Howard Behar Overcame Depression and Realized Asking for Help is Our Biggest Strength

  6. Sep 21

    Hegseth's Testosterone Plan: A Doctor Who Treats Veterans Responds | Dr. Mark Gordon

    The average man today is walking around with meaningfully less testosterone than his grandfather had at the same age — and the fix the military is reaching for may be aimed at the wrong target. Dr. Mark Gordon returns to Men Talking Mindfulness for his third appearance to unpack the quiet war on male hormones. He’s a pioneer of hormone-and-brain medicine, Medical Director of the Warrior Angel Foundation, and featured in the documentary Quiet Explosions. This episode centers on a live policy moment: a Pentagon directive associated with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that would screen service members over 30 for low testosterone and offer TRT, with the goal of a more capable, resilient force. Dr. Gordon shares the good news underneath the headline — the goal is right, and the biology is fixable — while making a clinical case that simply injecting testosterone is the wrong target, because it shuts down the body’s own ability to produce it. Jon and Will dig into what actually drives low T, why everyday ibuprofen may be quietly part of the problem, and the root-cause path that restores a man’s own hormone engine. IN THIS EPISODE, YOU WILL LEARN:1.  Why the average man today carries far lower testosterone than his grandfather did — and what’s driving the decline2.  The Pentagon’s proposed directive (tied to Secretary Hegseth) to screen service members over 30 for low T and offer TRT — and Dr. Gordon’s clinical case for a smarter target3.  How everyday NSAIDs like ibuprofen (“vitamin M”) can quietly interrupt the brain’s signal to make testosterone — and how to work around it4.  Why blast and TBI exposure can leave blood testosterone looking “normal” while brain hormone production is devastated — and why an injection can’t reach that5.  The root-cause approach that restores your own production — pulsed clomiphene, calming inflammation and cortisol — instead of shutting your system down More about Dr. Mark Gordon:1.  Educational site: https://www.tbihelpnow.org2.  Store (10% first-time discount, funds veteran treatment): https://www.millenniumhealthstore.com3.  Neurosteroid hormone paper — available on his website and Instagram4.  Documentary: Quiet Explosions: Healing the Brain — featuring Dr. Gordon and the Warrior Angel Foundation5.  Book: Peptides for Health — available via millenniumhealthstore.com (00:00) - Cold open (01:18) - Welcome to Men Talking Mindfulness (01:27) - The 60-second version: why testosterone is falling (02:11) - Meet Dr. Mark Gordon (03:26) - One-breath grounding practice (04:04) - Hormones 101: what the endocrine system does (06:14) - What disrupts your hormones (10:15) - 'Vitamin M': the military's ibuprofen habit (10:58) - How ibuprofen shuts down the testosterone signal (12:02) - Selenium and Brazil nuts: reversing the damage (16:13) - The Pentagon's TRT directive - and Mark's objection (17:10) - What ten years of veteran data shows (19:43) - What an 'optimal' testosterone level really is (21:39) - Fertility, Clomid and dosing mistakes (24:32) - Case file: Quiet Explosions (27:38) - Hormones and psychedelic-assisted therapy (30:53) - The brain's own pharmacy (36:10) - Breaking the NSAID wall (38:22) - Brain injury, LH and reading the labs (42:34) - Inflammation, pain and peroxynitrite (44:20) - What a listener can do without a military-grade panel (47:31) - Reversing MS: Tim's story (50:50) - First steps for a new patient - and what it costs (53:59) - Closing thoughts and where to find Dr. Gordon Check out our Awareness-to-action Self Mastery COURSE & COMMUNITY: 12 modules on attention, presence & performance. Work at your own pace plus a community built for Inspiration and connection. 1.  www.focusnowtraining.com/a2a-Course JOIN US IN PERSON — Future Events and Retreats. 1.  Live in-person event: Warrior Defined. We will be in Charlotte, NC, September 25, 2026 more info HERE:  Or mentalkingmindfulness.com GET MORE FROM MTM: Text MTM to 33777 — free weekly newsletter 1.  Subscribe: mentalkingmindfulness.com 2.  FNT: focusnowtraining.com BRING FNT TO YOUR TEAM: 1.  focusnowtraining.com/contact Produced by Robert Lopez | https://www.cratesaudio.com/

    Hegseth's Testosterone Plan: A Doctor Who Treats Veterans Responds | Dr. Mark Gordon

  7. Sep 14

    The Barbarian in You: Ed Hinman on Vigor, Wonder, Fellowship, and Trusting Your Own Heart

    The parts of you that feel most alive — the vigor, the wonder, the real friendship — aren’t gone. They’re just waiting for you to make a little room for them again. Ed Hinman is a U.S. Naval Academy graduate, an eight-year Marine Corps veteran, and an executive protection specialist at Gavin de Becker & Associates — who left a paved path to chase what he loved, earned a master’s in history, and turned his writing into a career. His book, The Barbarian in You, is built on three pillars every man can reclaim: vigor (physical effort and aliveness), wonder (awe, imagination, meaning), and fellowship (real male connection). In this episode, Ed joins Jon and Will to make a genuinely hopeful case: living well doesn’t take a blown-up life or heroic willpower — it takes intention, a willingness to be the fool, and the courage to trust your own heart. Just showing up, he reminds us, is ninety percent of it. IN THIS EPISODE, YOU WILL LEARN:1.  The three pillars of a life that flourishes — vigor, wonder, and fellowship — and how to build more of each2.  How to make real friendships as a grown man (Ed started a book club that’s thrived for 13 years)3.  How to tell a genuine calling from ego — and the simple litmus test that reveals it4.  Why filling your own cup lets you give from the overflow, not the reservoir5.  How to move through dark seasons — reach for your people, and remember you don’t have to go alone More about Ed Hinman:1.  Website and Book - https://www.barbarianinyou.com/2. Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/ed_hinman/3. Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@edwardhinmanbarbarian  Check out our Awareness-to-action Self Mastery COURSE & COMMUNITY: 12 modules on attention, presence & performance. Work at your own pace plus a community built for Inspiration and connection. 1.  www.focusnowtraining.com/a2a-Course JOIN US IN PERSON — Future Events and Retreats. 1.  Live in-person event: Warrior Defined. We will be in Charlotte, NC, September 25, 2026 more info HERE:  Or mentalkingmindfulness.com GET MORE FROM MTM: Text MTM to 33777 — free weekly newsletter 1.  Subscribe: mentalkingmindfulness.com 2.  FNT: focusnowtraining.com BRING FNT TO YOUR TEAM: 1.  focusnowtraining.com/contact Produced by Robert Lopez | https://www.cratesaudio.com/

    The Barbarian in You: Ed Hinman on Vigor, Wonder, Fellowship, and Trusting Your Own Heart

  8. Sep 7

    Pain Is a Doorway: Alexander Love on Forgiving His Father’s Killer, Turning Toward What Hurts, and Why Being a Good Man Takes Courage

    In 1998, Alexander Love’s father was murdered. Years later, he sat down — on Zoom — with the man who did it. And what he found there was not what anyone expected. Alexander Love is an acupuncturist, developmental coach, and senior faculty at the Newfield Network, where he created the Lumina Process — an integrative approach to shadow work weaving together Eastern wisdom, Integral theory, parts work, and polarity work. His TEDx talk is titled “How Embracing Pain Creates a Legacy of Love,” and his forthcoming book, the Evolutionary Gestures Trilogy, opens with the story of his father’s murder and the restorative justice dialogue he pursued with the man convicted of it. In this solo conversation with Will (Jon was away), Alexander makes a radical, gentle case: pain is not something to escape but a doorway to walk through — and the courage to turn toward it is what actually makes a good man. IN THIS EPISODE YOU WILL LEARN: 1.  Why pain is a doorway, not a problem to eliminate — and what opens when you turn toward it2.  The restorative justice dialogue: forgiveness, and why “hero and villain” falls apart on contact with a real human3.  The belief that human beings are fundamentally good — even the man who took his father4.  The three-step practice: turn toward, locate the sensation in the body, and lovingly embrace it5.  Why the cultural story that “real men feel no pain” is a marketing myth — and being a good man takes the opposite More about Alexander Love:1.  Website: alexanderlove.org3.  TEDx talk: “How Embracing Pain Creates a Legacy of Love” — search on YouTube4.  Newfield Network (9-month coach & personal transformation training): https://www.newfieldnetwork.com Check out our Awareness-to-action Self Mastery COURSE & COMMUNITY: 12 modules on attention, presence & performance. Work at your own pace plus a community built for Inspiration and connection. 1.  www.focusnowtraining.com/a2a-Course JOIN US IN PERSON — Future Events and Retreats. 1.  Live in-person event: Warrior Defined. We will be in Charlotte, NC, September 25, 2026 more info HERE:  Or mentalkingmindfulness.com GET MORE FROM MTM: Text MTM to 33777 — free weekly newsletter 1.  Subscribe: mentalkingmindfulness.com 2.  FNT: focusnowtraining.com BRING FNT TO YOUR TEAM: 1.  focusnowtraining.com/contact Produced by Robert Lopez | https://www.cratesaudio.com/

    Pain Is a Doorway: Alexander Love on Forgiving His Father’s Killer, Turning Toward What Hurts, and Why Being a Good Man Takes Courage
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About

Men Talking Mindfulness is a weekly podcast on men’s mental health, mindfulness, meditation, overall wellness, and leadership, hosted by retired Navy SEAL Commander Jon Macaskill and Stanford University Ambassador of Compassion Will Schneider. New episodes every Monday. This show is for men who are doing fine on paper and know something is still off. Leaders, operators, veterans, tradesmen, dads... anyone carrying real pressure and tired of pretending it isn’t there. Every week Jon and Will sit down with psychiatrists, performance coaches, combat veterans, authors and everyday men to talk honestly about what we are all dealing with and what actually helps. Stress, sleep, anger, loneliness, focus, fatherhood, faith, testosterone, grief, burnout, and the daily practices that help a man come back to himself. No posturing. No lectures. Real conversations, real tools, and a mindfulness practice you can actually use. Past guests include Jocko Willink, Mark Divine, Howard Behar, Rich Diviney, Dr. James Doty, Steven Pressfield, John Eldredge, and Dr. Mark Gordon. Jon served 24 years in the Navy, 17 of them as a SEAL, and now teaches mindfulness and meditation to leaders in construction, engineering, manufacturing and defense. Will has taught yoga and mindfulness in New York City for nearly two decades and strips the fancy words away so the practices stick. Together they co-founded Focus Now Training and the Awareness to Action community. If you have been told to meditate and never understood why it should matter to you, start here. Mindfulness will not make your stress disappear. It changes your relationship with it. That is the whole game. Find the full back catalog, show notes and ways to work with Jon and Will at mentalkingmindfulness.com. Join the community at awareness2action.com.

Information

  • Creator
    Jon Macaskill & Will Schneider
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    472
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Jon Macaskill & Will Schneider
  • Show Website
    Men Talking Mindfulness

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