The Mental Fitness Podcast

What This Harvard Psychiatrist Missed for 40 Years

560 views · 3d ago · 48:43

Guest: Dr. Ken Duckworth

Content note: This episode includes discussion of suicide and suicide loss. What does a Harvard psychiatrist learn when he stops talking and starts listening to 130 people living with mental health challenges? The answers might surprise you. Some of the most useful mental health wisdom doesn’t come from a textbook. It comes from people who have lived it.

Don't Fix Yourself, Create Yourself: The 14-Day Self-Experiment for Mental Fitness

8.2K views · 1w ago · 46:26

We're always looking for the perfect routine, the right self-help book, or the one habit that will finally improve our mental health. But what happens when those quick fixes don't work? Dave and Luke explore why the search for a perfect solution can leave us feeling like we're the problem, and how approaching mental fitness with curiosity instead of judgment can change that.

You're Not Stuck With the Brain You Have: A Psychiatrist on Lifestyle Before Medication

9.4K views · 2w ago · 50:58

Guest: Dr. Steven Storage

Most of us know what we should be doing for our mental health. Sleep more, move more, eat better. Knowing isn't the problem. Doing it consistently is. Dave and Luke sit down with Dr. Steven Storage, a double board-certified psychiatrist, to explore a simple idea: mental health is brain health, and your brain isn't stuck the way it is. Dr.

Why Do I Keep Doing This? The Agency Reset for Habits You Don't Even Enjoy Anymore

45K views · 3w ago · 53:33

Have you ever kept doing something you already decided you wanted to stop? Dave and Luke explore the gap between what we decide and what we actually do, and what that gap can tell us about our agency. They unpack why we can feel stuck in compulsive habits even when we know better or no longer enjoy them.

Name It Before You Fix It: Why Finding the Right Word for a Feeling Changes Everything

24K views · 1mo ago · 49:55

Guest: Jil Hunter

When Jil Hunter's body started shutting down after the birth of her fifth child, she went looking for a physical diagnosis. What she actually needed was language for what she was feeling. Dave and Luke are joined by Jil Hunter, creator of the YouTube series Lulubug's Garden, to talk about her years-long journey with severe postpartum anxiety.

Are You Living or Just on Autopilot? The Aliveness Audit and the Science of Vitality

54K views · 1mo ago · 46:20

Most of us measure our health by what we can track. But there's a second half to the equation that never shows up on a wearable: vitality. Dave and Luke define what vitality is and why so many people struggle with it. You can be free of mental illness and still feel like you're going through the motions, somewhere between struggling and truly flourishing. Learning to recognize that middle ground can help us understand what might be missing from our day-to-day lives.

Stop Drinking the Poison: The Science of Forgiveness, for Others and for Yourself

16K views · 1mo ago · 35:34

Forgiveness sounds simple. Until you’re the one trying to do it. Dave and Luke dig into what forgiveness actually involves, and what it doesn’t. They start with the story of Everett Worthington, a psychologist who spent his career researching forgiveness, only to have his own research tested when he experienced a devastating personal loss.What happens when the person studying forgiveness has to put his own research into practice, and when the hardest person to forgive turns…