podcast

Surprise Waning Crescent: Leslie and Neil on cultivating calm during coronavirus chaos

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It's not a full moon. It's not a new moon. 

The moon is currently a crescent and slowly waning before Chapter 50 arrives with the new moon next week.

So why this episode of 3 Books? 

Because we are swimming in unprecedented seas. I am feeling stress and anxiety around coronavirus. And I can tell by your DMs, tweets, comments, and voicemails to 1-833-READ-A-LOT that you're feeling it, too.

Of course we are!!

I am worried about what happens when we all wake up feeling scared and mortal and alone at the same time. I am worried an invisible enemy that may already be inside us or people we love. I am worried for my sister and friends on the front lines. I am worried about the health of my parents and grandparents-in-law. I am worried about feeling isolated and distanced... and so many more things. 

Today I welcome back my wife Leslie and we sit down on our basement couch, after putting the kids to bed, to have an open-hearted talk about cultivating calm during coronavirus chaos. 

We discuss things like: 

  • How do we create systems to control our media consumption?

  • How do we stay connected in this disconnected time? 

  • What do we say to children and preteens?

  • How can we take care of ourselves as we go through this trauma?

  • What are some ways we can practice self-care?  

  • And much, much more... 

If you need an empathetic voice, a compassionate voice, a loving voice, a tender voice, or a guiding voice, I can’t wait for you to meet or remeet my lovely wife, Leslie. (Chapter to Chapter Club members will of course know Leslie from Chapter 1 of 3 Books.)

During our chat we set up a chair for you in the basement beside us. (We honestly did.) It has a thick wooly blanket and a cup of lavender chamomile tea. 

I hope you'll join us. 

Let's go! 

Listen to this Surprise Chapter of 3 Books:

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Chapter 49: Dr. Andrea Sereda’s oddly original offerings on opioid overdosing

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Welcome to Chapter 49!

Today we sit down with Dr. Andrea Sereda at the Sherbourne Health Centre on the east side of downtown Toronto, an area of the city sometimes known for its challenges with drug abuse.

Who is Dr. Andrea Sereda?

Dr. Andrea Sereda is a family physician who practices street outreach medicine. She provides care through the London InterCommunity Health Centre in London, Ontario and works with the emergency safer supply substitution program to prescribe hydromorphone, an opioid used by injection drug users to reduce the risk of contaminated street drugs.

Wait! What?

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Yes, on the face of it, Dr. Andrea Sereda gives drugs to drug users but there is a lot more to the story. We are going right to the front lines of the opioid epidemic which, even before the end of this conversation, will take 10 lives in North America alone. (To illustrate the issue more deeply, 8,048 Americans died of opioid related drug overdoses in 1999. What about now? Well, the number was 47,600 in 2017, which is the most recently available data.)

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It will take ingenuity, creativity, and passion to address this issue. As you’ll hear, Dr. Andrea Sereda offers all three in spades. Her views are often provocative, sometimes controversial, and she will argue that drugs should be decriminalized and why we should indeed give drugs to drug users. What about the challenges to these ideas? The critics? The controversies? We get into that, too. And we are fortunate enough to use Andrea’s three most formative books as a launchpad into this conversation.

I am so grateful to Dr. Andrea Sereda for sharing so much of her life, her journey, and her practice with all of us.

I find her and her work incredibly challenging, intriguing, and inspiring.

I hope you do, too.

Let’s go!

Listen to Chapter 49 of 3 Books:

Click here to Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Overcast, Spotify, or Google Play.

What You'll Learn:

  • Why should drugs be given to drug users?

  • Should drugs be decriminalized? Why or why not?

  • What is actually more harmful -- the drugs themselves or the quality of drugs?

  • How can we reduce stigma on people in our communities living with mental illness, drug addiction and homelessness?

  • Can drugs be considered a ‘basic need’?

notable quotes from Dr. andrea sereda:

“I failed at being an astronaut so therefore I am a doctor.” Dr. Andrea Sereda #3bookspodcast

“There’s this feedback loop where their mental illness gets blamed on their drug use except it’s their mental illness that’s driving their drug use.” Dr. Andrea Sereda #3bookspodcast

“Are the drugs making my patients sick or is it the fact that they are criminalized and prohibited and they have to use an unclean, unregulated, unreliable street supply, making my patients sick?” Dr. Andrea Sereda #3bookspodcast

CONNECT With Andrea:

word of the chapter: 

Resources Mentioned:

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Chapter 48: Michael Bungay Stanier on massive moons and the magic of metaphor

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Welcome to chapter 48!

I am so excited to sit down with the one and only Michael Bungay Stanier on a pair of folding lawn chairs on his front porch in the Roncesvalles neighborhood of Toronto.

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Michael’s mind is like a box that you open and a whole bunch of springs suddenly fly out in all directions.

Here’s his Amazon biography to give you a taste of this guy: “Michael was banned from his high school graduation for the ‘balloon incident’, he was sued by one of his law school lecturers for defamation, he gave himself a concussion digging a hole one day as a laborer, he was fired on his first shift as a garage attendant and he’s held a number of jobs where he had little to no impact.”

Should we stop there?

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No, I’ll keep going. Michael is an Australian who goes to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. He meets a beautiful Canadian woman who he falls in love with and follows back to Canada. He founds company called Box of Crayons which teaches 10-minute coaching strategies so busy managers can build stronger teams. He wins numerous awards for Coach of the Year and writes a book called The Coaching Habit which turns into a huge phenomenon with (in only 3+ years) sold over 700,000 copies and scored over 2000 Amazon reviews. (Sidenote: The book was published by Jesse Finklestein of Page Two Publishing, our guest in Chapter 23)

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Never one to rest on his laurels, as this chapter drops Michael is just about to release the follow up to The Coaching Habit which is called The Advice Trap: Be Humble, Stay Curious & Change the Way You Lead Forever.

I love Michael Bungay Stanier. He’s one of the most fascinating minds in my life, and I feel so grateful and honored to call him a friend. I hope you fall in love with him too.

In this chapter, we talk about making complex things simple, finding And of course, his three most formative books.

Let's go!

Listen to Chapter 48 of 3 Books:

Click here to Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Overcast, Spotify, or Google Play.

What You'll Learn:

  • What surprising thing actually gave us civilisation on the planet?  

  • In a world of endless everything, how do we develop the critical skills to be filterers and translators?

  • From that, how do we go about making complex things simple? (Michael is a virtuoso at this.)

  • How do we actually think about maximizing our tiny, short lives?

  • When should you zig when others zag?

  • When should you think about provoking curiosity rather than create certainty?

  • And, of course, what are the incredible Michael Bungay Stanier’s 3 most formative books?

notable quotes from michael bungay stanier:

“Who doesn’t need a bit more sparkliness in their lives?” Michael Bungay Stanier #3bookspodcast

“Almost everything is going to be better the forth time you write it.” Michael Bungay Stanier #3bookspodcast

 “We are a ridiculously unlikely outcome / this is a special life you have and you only get one shot at it.” Michael Bungay Stanier #3bookspodcast

CONNECT With Michael:

word of the chapter: 

Resources Mentioned:

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