Our guest Scott Sonnon has had an interesting, heartbreaking, and inspiring journey. Despite doctors and teachers claiming that he would “never amount to anything academically or athletically,” Scott Sonnon overcame childhood obesity, learning disabilities, and joint disease -- he's now a martial arts champion, author, and dyslexia advocate. Notably:

• Men’s Health Magazine calls Scott the creator of the "World’s smartest workout,"
• Men’s Fitness Magazine named Scott as one of the top trainers in the world, and
• Black Belt Magazine lists him as one of the most influential martial artists of the century. 

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Nelson Lauver is a nationally syndicated radio broadcaster (150+ radio stations), a dyslexic, an award winning author, an entrepreneur, a storyteller and foundation founder.

Nelson’s inspiring journey of triumph, from an emotionally and physically abused illiterate boyhood, to an actualized adulthood–as an poignant agent of change,  has inspired thousands. Nelsons story is just as much an exploration on the many forms of intelligence as it is a study on the art of resilience.

“My parents... Like many parents of that time accepted, and many parents still today accept... that there are only three kind of children, the children that will be doctors, Lawyers and Indian Chiefs, …and then you have kids that are in the middle...  and then you have the kids like me, the dumb kids... the funny thing is, in many cases, those kids were the smartest kids in the room.”

Are you easily distracted by the tapping of your co-workers pencil, by your family member talking loudly on the phone, or by a barking dog?

Researchers have been investigating the differences between people with different levels of distractibility, or levels of ” sensory gating”. Turns out people with low sensory gating or “leaky filters” are correlated with higher levels of real world creative achievement.

In this episode with creativity researcher Darya Zabelina we get into an in-depth conversation about what constitutes a creative processing style. We talk about the neurobiology of creativity, if you should force your self to focus more- and if so what are the possible trade-offs, the problem with many creativity tests used in psychology studies, how to make school and work environments more creativity friendly and more!

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Dr. Peter Gray is a research psychologist, viral TEDx presenter, professor at Boston college, author, and a brilliant and controversial learning theorist. Dr. Gray’s research specializes in the role and importance of play in learning, and how non traditional student-driven educational environments affect students in the long term, like the Unschooling and Sudbury movements.

In this episode, we discussed a range of topics and questions, including:

• Do kids need school to become well educated? (Dr. Gray’s research indicates that they do not!)
• What techniques can we use to infuse a sense of play and intrinsic motivation in your child and in every day adult life?

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"When traditional schools kill a child’s motivation, you can help regain it by involving more play both in and out of the classroom, throughout all aspects of learning. Focus on the process of learning, not just the end goal.” — Dr. Peter Gray