In our 300th episode (actually episode 301, but we wanted to save it for Dr. Howk), Dr. Lisle and Dr. Howk take a break from solving listener problems and answering listener questions and instead turn towards answering some fun, personal questions.
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02: Stepping Stones to Self-Esteem
What does “self-esteem” actually mean? In this episode, Dr. Lisle goes over the history of the study of self-esteem. Then he explains his own discoveries of esteem processes including self-esteem. As it turns out, nobody can give you “self-esteem”. Dr. Lisle explains that self-esteem is quite literally esteem of your self, so it is how you view yourself. So, what’s called “low self-esteem” or “high self-esteem” is entirely based on how you view yourself. However, this view is not easily changed, as Dr. Lisle describes a concept called the “internal audience” – a sort of social meter sitting inside your mind that views your own behavior & effort in context with expectations. When you impress your ‘internal audience’ through diligent effort, you feel higher self-esteem. In this episode, Dr. Lisle describes what you can do to impress your internal audience and therefore improve your self-esteem.
01: Happiness vs. Pleasure : What is the goal of life?
In the very first episode of the Beat Your Genes podcast, Host Nate Gershfeld talks with Dr. Doug Lisle, PhD about the purpose of life, happiness vs. pleasure, and the psychological mechanisms that guide our behavior.
Dr. Lisle talks about some important findings namely, that purpose of life (biologically) is quite simple – to spread our own genes and ensure their survival into the next few generations. Because of this, our entire biology, physiology, and psychology is built around this goal. It’s been like this for the entire history of our species and we have survived in nature due to this goal. All of a sudden, comes the modern environment of convenience and innovation in an incredibly short time frame. With this new environment comes a new set of challenges that our brains were never designed to solve. In this podcast and in future episodes, Dr. Lisle methodically describes what role the mind and, therefore, our behavior plays in our life experience and satisfaction.