"I Wasn’t Sure If We Would Ever Be Friends Again" (Matt & Thomas Open Up)

Introducing: The Yes Theory Podcast: Welcome to Yes Theory — the audio experience. We’re your hosts Thomas Brag, Ammar Kandil, and Matt Dajer. You may know us from our YouTube channel with the same name, or maybe not. We believe the best things in life are outside your comfort zone. We’re talking about meaning, connection, you know all the good stuff. Over the last 5 years, we’ve made a habit of seeking discomfort and creating videos about it. We’ve had the unthinkable honor of traveling around the world, conquering everyday fears - with friends, strangers, celebrities, and each other. In this show, we’re going to reflect on some of the experiences we’ve never shared before, digging into our own personal archives. We’ll also be chatting with expert guests and friends to find out why this idea of “seeking discomfort” is so powerful. We’re super excited to bring you this show. Subscribe wherever you’re seeing this trailer. New episodes drop weekly—starting very, very soon. Learn by The Yes Theory Podcast

3 min listen

How To Chase Your Dreams: Before Yes Theory, we were just three guys trying to figure out what we wanted to do in life. We didn’t know much, just that we didn’t want to walk predictable paths. Luckily, we each had mentors that inspired us to stop thinking and start doing--anything and everything outside our comfort zones. In this episode, we call back two of those early mentors to talk about why having novel experiences is so crucial for creativity, meaningful relationships, and business. And how it is truly the foundation for making any dream happen. Jason Silva is the host of the award winning show, Brain Games, and is a self-described epiphany junkie. Ben Nemtin is the acclaimed writer, public speaker, and television personality from Matt’s favorite MTV show, The Buried Life. Together, these two wise stages help us figure out - how do we start breaking routine and chasing our dreams (even in the world’s current conditions)? Is now really the time to prioritize our personal goals? by The Yes Theory Podcast

31 min listen

The End of a Chapter: Things are changing in our little Yes Theory world, as well as the broader world, and we aren’t sure what the future holds. Thomas is headed back to Europe for the foreseeable future, and Matt’s stepped back from hosting. It really feels like the end of a chapter (with a new one coming close behind). To celebrate and close the last chapter properly, and to end the season on a high note, we took a new spin in this episode. Just like in Episode 8, there are no guests (besides the people that just pop into the recording). Instead, we travel with Ammar, Thomas, and Matt to the demolition site of their first home together, and listen as they bury their very own treasure -- a time capsule full of memories from this last chapter together. They reflect on the spirit that brought them together, and how unlikely it was that they were able to get this podcast into the world this year. We started the season talking about how crazy, uncertain, and out of control this year ha by The Yes Theory Podcast

31 min listen

The Problem With Productivity: Ever struggled to do your laundry, re-register your car, or make time to go to the dentist? It might make you feel like you’re terrible at “adulting,” but it turns out that’s actually more normal than you think and there might be a pretty solid explanation: burnout. Anne Helen Peterson, author of Can’t Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation, joins Matt in this episode to talk about the costs of living in an achievement-obsessed culture, how monetizing what you love can get in the way of building a life, and the systemic issues that have perpetuated a system of workaholism. We also hear personal burnout experiences from members of the Yes Theory community. And through these accounts, we realize - we’re all struggling to find a sense of balance in our lives. Generationally, we have no safety net. Job security feels like an illusion and pension-style retirement packages are a relic of the past. And the alternative offer of personal freedom - by The Yes Theory Podcast

37 min listen

What Makes Our Friendship Work: Matt, Thomas, and Ammar have a picturesque kind of friendship. They’ve made memories on nearly every continent, built a business, and chased down their wildest dreams… together. But what you don’t see on screen is that their friendship isn’t always easy. In fact, it rarely ever is. As is the case with many things in life, it’s leaning into the hard, uncomfortable parts that makes all of the beautiful parts possible. For Matt, Thomas, and Ammar that looks like a mix of going off and doing tough personal work alone, and coming back together to have hard, honest, and deep conversations as frequently as possible. It’s love, commitment, and discomfort -- on repeat. So in this episode, we’re switching it up a bit. There are no guests. We travel into Yes Theory’s basement to listen to one of many raw, vulnerable conversations between Matt, Thomas, and Ammar. They talk to each other about some recent struggles, how their relationship has changed throughout the by The Yes Theory Podcast

34 min listen

The Path to a Kinder World: Remember the golden rule: treat others the way you want to be treated? You probably learned it in kindergarten. Chances are you haven’t really upped your kindness game since. Most of us haven’t. The older we get, the more responsibilities, anxieties, and personal pursuits take over. And kindness simply doesn’t make the to-do list. It’s not that we think kindness is any less important than in kindergarten. No, it’s the opposite. Most people agree that practicing kindness is more important than ever. But there’s a gap, between what we say we value as a society, and what we do. In this episode, we’re getting to the source on how to close that “kindness gap.” Houston Kraft, a kindness advocate and educator, explains how we can overcome what gets in the way of deep kindness and start incorporating it into our daily lives. François Clemmons, also known as Officer Clemmons on the acclaimed Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, shares stories about Fred Rogers, and how he by The Yes Theory Podcast

35 min listen

Let's Turn This Year Around: If 2020 was a question, it would be… how the heck do you make the best of a situation when you can’t even understand the situation? When we asked Harvard Professor and Atlantic columnist, Arthur Brooks, he said so matter of factly, “You have to be an entrepreneur about your life.” And when we asked Ozan Varol, the self-described perpetual dropout (but more importantly the rocket scientist, lawyer, professor, and author behind the book Think Like a Rocket Scientist), he told us the story of why he dropped out of a comfortable, well-paying career in the middle of a pandemic. Together, these two brilliant academics help us understand - is now the time to play it safe or take risks? What can we do to make the best of this year? How can we move through this vast uncertainty, and make 2020 a year worth remembering? Or should we just follow Thomas’s lead and ditch this whole year and find some buried treasure? This episode is sponsored by: Liquid I.V. - Get 2 by The Yes Theory Podcast

24 min listen

The Courage to Hope: “Hope makes you follow your dreams,” says actress Dina Shihabi, from the Amazon Original Jack Ryan. “I would have nothing in my life if I didn't have hope.” We’re living through a pretty dark time right now. There’s this constant stream of negative news coverage and criticism. It’s hard to feel certain or confident about anything. Which is why it’s more important than ever to tap into our collective reserve of hope - the belief that life can be better tomorrow than it is today. In today’s episode, Ammar sits down with Dina to talk about how growing up in Arab countries shaped how they view themselves and the world, and how hope was (and still is) the backbone to their wildest dreams. They share personal stories of needing to overcome cultural friction and disbelief, and finding ways to fuel that inner hope when no one else believed in them. Through Ammar’s and Dina’s stories of growing up, moving away from home, and chasing their dreams we come to see: hope is by The Yes Theory Podcast

35 min listen

The Antidote to Anxiety: Pandemics and vast uncertainty aside, life is hard. And for whatever reason, it seems to be getting harder. Studies have shown that the average kid today experiences more anxiety than the average psychiatric patient in the 1950s. It feels like there’s this undercurrent of anxiety to everything we do. But instead of dealing with it, we fill our calendars with back-to-back appointments and our lives with endless distractions. We do everything we can to avoid having that anxiety bubble up. But what if we didn’t? What if we stopped trying to numb and distract? What would it look like to just accept anxiety as a fact of life and deal with it head on? That’s what we’re getting after in this episode. Along the way, Matt shares the intimate details of how he’s grappled with anxiety through the years and Ammar discusses his inability to meditate. Most importantly, Andy Puddicombe, the former monk and co-founder of the meditation app Headspace, stops by to help us to by The Yes Theory Podcast

38 min listen

Why We Seek Discomfort: From climbing up snow-capped mountains in our boxers to running marathons with no training, one of the core pillars of Yes Theory is seeking out the big heart-pumping, mind-bending physical experiences that force us beyond our limits. But what’s the point of doing all this? Are big challenges effective at helping us build daily exercise and wellness habits? Or is it more for show? The science -- of extending past our physical limits -- is layered and complex. But at the most basic level -- the real reason we take on challenges outside our comfort zones is to prove to ourselves that we can. When you do something you thought you couldn’t do, you get to tell yourself a new story about who you are. And that story is priceless, or more precisely the cost of pushing through the challenge itself. In this episode, we hear from Matt, Thomas, and Ammar about various experiences they’ve had -- pushing themselves physically, and committing to daily habits -- in the pursui by The Yes Theory Podcast

26 min listen

The Evolution of our Friendship: What have we been up to since last season? Well... by The Yes Theory Podcast

43 min listen

A Global Identity Crisis: Identity...crisis? None of that here. Tune in to hear how Yes Theory deals. by The Yes Theory Podcast

39 min listen

Yes Theory is BACK! Season 2 Premieres July 14: We are so excited to welcome you back to yet another season of the Yes Theory Podcast presented by Headspace Studios. This season, we will take deep dives into topics that are near and dear to our heart, exploring the internal discomforts that allow us to learn as we grow on this crazy journey. We can't wait for you to join us. by The Yes Theory Podcast

2 min listen

Break Free From Your Old Ways: Feeling stuck can get you down. Here's how Thomas and Ammar break through it. by The Yes Theory Podcast

40 min listen

How to Make a Change: Have you ever seen someone staring back in the mirror that you didn’t like? We all experience “mirror moments” -- where we see ourselves and the paths we’re headed down clearly. In these moments, we can decide to continue the course or make a change. Sometimes we are seeking big changes -- like choosing to pursue a completely new career or end a relationship. Sometimes we’re vying for simpler -- like just choosing to meditate for five minutes a day or get dressed in the mornings. No matter how big or small the change you want to make is, it can be tough to get yourself to the breaking point -- where you actually commit… fully. So, today, we called on the decorated, plant-powered endurance athlete Rich Roll for some inspiration. He shares with us some of his most intense transformational moments -- from when he first decided to get sober to when he began running endurance races. His repeated transformation proves that you are never too old or too late to change. by The Yes Theory Podcast

37 min listen

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"I Wasn’t Sure If We Would Ever Be Friends Again" (Matt & Thomas Open Up)

"I Wasn’t Sure If We Would Ever Be Friends Again" (Matt & Thomas Open Up)

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