About the Podcast
The Beat Your Genes Podcast began in early 2016 from a conversation about a concept Dr. Lisle had mentioned in his weekly talks at True North Health Center. While working at the center, Nate would sit in on Dr. Lisle’s weekly talks and was fascinated watching him answer question after question in such incredible depth. The concept that he weaved into all of this was “Beat the Genes” – essentially the following concept: 1) that our genetic code drives our behavior to further the survival & reproduction of our genes and when our behavior is successful or moving towards success of these goals, we feel good, motivated, confident, and happy 2) Throughout our natural history, there was no way to earn these feelings without diligent effort, perseverance, and some luck. 3)The modern environment allows for conditions that hijack this process, and 4) As a result, people can be spinning their wheels in futility and feeling very unhappy or even confused. The cycle can continue with no end in sight unless we put a spoke in the wheel and orient ourselves in a more worthwhile direction. By understanding the underlying mechanisms of motivation and happiness, we have a much better shot at living a joyous life and feeling the moods of happiness. Our intelligence is then quite literally overriding our genetic instincts thus Beating Your Genes.
Around September 2019, Jen Howk, PhD joined the Beat Your Genes podcast to offer her wisdom on all the topics particularly dating & politics. She offers thoughtful insights from a female evo psych perspective about dating and calls on her Harvard PhD background & experience in all things politics.
About Douglas J. Lisle, Ph.D.
Douglas J. Lisle, Ph.D., is the founder of a new method of approaching human psychology and wellbeing. He describes this approach as Esteem Dynamics – its core insights adapted from a revolutionary biological approach to psychology. Central figures having major influence on Dr. Lisle’s thinking include Richard Dawkins, John Tooby and Leda Cosmides, David Buss, Steven Pinker, and Geoffrey Miller. All of these individuals are considered academic A-list thinkers in evolutionary theory and human psychology. Somewhat surprisingly, insights from these trailblazers has yet to reach mainstream clinical psychology, and thus major advances stemming from some of the world’s greatest thinkers have yet to be systematically applied to problems of helping people improve their lives. Esteem Dynamics is the first such effort – born of Dr. Lisle’s 25-years of clinical experience wedded to the deep insights into human nature now available via evolutionary psychology.
Dr. Doug Lisle received his undergraduate education from the University of California, San Diego (summa cum laude). He completed his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at the University of Virginia, where he was awarded the Presidents Fellowship and was a DuPont Scholar. He was then appointed Lecturer in Psychology at Stanford University, and worked on the research staff at the Department of Veterans Affairs at the National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Palo Alto, California. His research and clinical interests have broadened to include health and wellness, self-esteem, relationship satisfaction, the treatment of anxiety disorders and depression, and optimizing achievement motivation. In addition to his work with Esteem Dynamics, he is currently the Director of Research for the TrueNorth Health Center and also serves as the psychologist for the McDougall Wellness Program, both located in Santa Rosa, California.
About Jen Howk, PhD
Dr. Jen Howk is an author, researcher, and interdisciplinary social scientist who uses the powerful insights of Esteem Dynamics both academically and clinically. She earned her B.A. with honors from the University of Washington in Seattle, and completed her M.A. and Ph.D. in political science at Harvard University. Dr. Howk’s graduate work and ongoing research explore questions at the intersection of social vulnerability, resilience, and well-being.
Dr. Howk is a born and raised Alaskan, but now calls Santa Rosa, California home, where she works as both a lecturer and psychology coach who applies the Esteem Dynamics framework to a variety of clinical problems.
Dr. Howk’s clinical interests are wide-ranging, but she is especially passionate about helping clients through problems of esteem processes, romantic misery, addiction and recovery, and mastering the pathways of human motivation.
About Nathan Gershfeld
After having a life-changing health experience, Nathan changed careers from being an electrical engineer to a chiropractor. This led him down the path of health promotion through healthy living where he had experienced tremendous results as a patient at the True North Health Center.
Following an internship under Dr. Alan Goldhamer, he joined the doctors at the world-renowned True North Health Center from 2011-2014. In 2014, he moved back to Southern California to begin his own private practice which included supervision of water-fasting. He ran a full-time in-patient fasting & health education program called The Fasting Escape which has now become a remote fasting program where patients can do a doctor-supervised fast from the comfort of their own home (or Airbnb).
Nathan currently serves on the board of the True North Health Foundation, a 501 (c)(3) non-profit foundation dedicated to research in the areas of health promotion and medically supervised water-only fasting and is the producer and co-creator of the Beat Your Genes podcast