In this episode, I got together with Aikido teacher Richard Moon, a 6th-dan black belt who has been practicing the art for more than five decades. Richard began studying Aikido in 1971 under Robert Nadeau Sensei, a direct student of the founder of Aikido, Morihei Ueshiba. Over the years, he has trained across multiple awareness and martial disciplines, and has brought the principles of Aikido beyond the dojo: into leadership development, conflict resolution, and international peace-building work.

Our conversation explores Aikido not simply as a martial art, but as a deeply embodied practice for living. Through the training of balance, connection, and responsiveness, Aikido develops the capacity to stay centered under pressure and to work with energy rather than against it.

We talk about how this kind of somatic practice can shape how we move through everyday life: how we navigate relationships, make decisions, lead others, and respond to conflict. At its heart, Aikido offers a practical lens into learning relational and intrapersonal skills through an embodied practice.

For me personally, Aikido has become one of the most enriching ways to learn self-management, do personal development work, and, quite frankly, stay sane in these times. In this conversation, Richard shares insights from decades of practice on how the principles of harmony, connection, and awareness of our energy can transform how we meet challenges and live better.

You can find out more about Richard's thoughts on aikido via his YouTube channel at @moonsensei. Check out, for example, this video that beautifully connects aikido with everyday life.

Richard's book Quantum Aikido: The Power of Harmony can be found here. It's also available in Finland through Suomalainen Kirjakauppa.

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Sisu is a reserve of inner strength but it's also a way for us to know ourselves and impact the world in a positive way. Cultivating these reserves of inner strength starts with self-care and continues through self-inquiry. its power then extends to the world through our inspired acts of deep courage and compassion.

Thanks for tuning in! You can find out more about sisu, find links to research, and check out Gentle Power: A Revolution in How We Think, Lead, and Succeed Using the Finnish Art of Sisu at www.sisulab.com.

Sisu is great, love is greatness.

In this episode, I’m joined by leadership coach and community builder Joppe Quaedvlieg for a heartfelt conversation about communication, personal agency, and what it actually takes to create trust, safety, and belonging, and how we can do this rather simply with one interaction at a time.

Joppe is the creator of Descriptive Communication, a practical approach to expressing what we want and need in ways that others can actually understand. His work grew out of lived experience: years of not knowing what he wanted, learning to people-please, and eventually realizing how much of our suffering and lost opportunity results from not being able to express ourselves clearly - to ourselves or to others.

We explore:

• Why the question “What do you want?” is so difficult but also transformative
• How vague language hides practical needs
• The link between clarity, nervous system safety, and trust
• Why descriptive communication builds agency, courage, and responsibility
• How community is created not through good intentions, but clear asks
• What leadership, relationships, and collaboration look like when honesty replaces performance
• Joppe's views on sisu

Joppe also shared his own poem, “I Consider Us a Village,” and walks us through the thinking behind his community practice Help Me Help You, showing how simple, specific requests can unlock collective resources we already have but rarely use.

I found the conversation both philosophical and practical. It’s about language, but even more it is about presence and the courage to be real with each other.

If you’re interested in leadership development, want tips to improve your relationships or are a community builder, or more generally, yo want to learn how to communicate with more clarity, this episode offers tools that you can start testing out immediately.

Check out Joppe's work at his website artiqula.com. There you can find his courses, coaching offerings, and also Joppe's 2025 book Reaching Escape Velocity!

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Sisu is a reserve of inner strength but it's also a way for us to know ourselves and impact the world in a positive way. Cultivating these reserves of inner strength starts with self-care and continues through self-inquiry. its power then extends to the world through our inspired acts of deep courage and compassion.

Thanks for tuning in! You can find out more about sisu, find links to research, and check out Gentle Power: A Revolution in How We Think, Lead, and Succeed Using the Finnish Art of Sisu at www.sisulab.com.

Sisu is great, love is greatness.

Scott Barry Kaufman is a big inspiration to me in research and the human sciences. He is a humanistic psychologist, the creator of self-actualization coaching, and simply a refreshing person who brings a sense of “keeping it real” to the world of self-development.

Scott is a professor of psychology at Columbia University, the director of the Center for Human Potential, and among the top 1% most-cited scientists in the world for his research on intelligence and creativity (= wow, the academic sisu this has required).

He also hosts The Psychology Podcast. With over 25 million downloads, it’s one of the leading psychology podcasts globally.

Scott’s foundation lies in humanistic psychology, which emphasizes the importance of meaning, wholeness, and the lived experience of being human. Rather than sinking into all sorts of neurosis over what the ego likes to label as “good–bad” or “right–wrong,” this perspective invites us to feel into all the complexity (and wonder) that comes with being human.

We spoke about a wide range of topics, such as creativity, human potential, feeling like an impostor at times (and why it can actually be a good thing), his hopes and hesitations about the future, and what it means to be true to your heart.

Last year, Scott published his 11th (!) book, Rise above! You can explore Scott's work and many valuable resources at scottbarrykaufman.com. I warmly recommend checking it out. The site is a treasure trove of insight.

The conversation we had moved something in me, which I felt afterward. What I can make of it is that witnessing authenticity stirs us, brings us closer to our center and to each other. It feels grounded and safe, and we are indeed finely tuned to sense it.

Especially in the context of a recorded conversation, where we tend to seek to perform and give “the right answers” (which is, of course, very human), it felt beautiful to witness such realness.

The discussion brought back a thought my Aikido teacher once shared with me: “It’s easy to be clever. It’s much harder to be loving.”

Thanks for listening and for being part of the sisu journey <3

If you enjoyed the content, please leave a review if you like, or share the podcast link so it can find its way to people who might enjoy it.

Support the show

Sisu is a reserve of inner strength but it's also a way for us to know ourselves and impact the world in a positive way. Cultivating these reserves of inner strength starts with self-care and continues through self-inquiry. its power then extends to the world through our inspired acts of deep courage and compassion.

Thanks for tuning in! You can find out more about sisu, find links to research, and check out Gentle Power: A Revolution in How We Think, Lead, and Succeed Using the Finnish Art of Sisu at www.sisulab.com.

Sisu is great, love is greatness.

Right now, outrage seems as rampant as complacency, and both are lost opportunities from the vantage point of of life force. Being a "constructive badass" is a path to growth, change, and leadership amidst high pressure situations. The more we develop the skill of constructive dissent and engage in the art of insubordination—how to speak up with courage and clarity—we create degrees of freedom for courage in the everyday.

For this Sisu Lab episode, I had the joy of interviewing Professor Todd Kashdan, one of the world’s most cited psychologists and a curious thought leader on courage, character, and all things psychological flexibility. This conversation rocked such a unique flow of exploring life, ideas, and the co-creative space possible between curious humans anywhere that it felt like a real highlight. The experience itself, to me, speaks of how can help each other rise to our best just by being genuinely excited about each other (like kids!) and viewing moments of interaction as opportunities to unearth something valuable together.

Todd and I jammed about:

• How to dissent effectively without breaking connection
• Why good people may struggle to be brave when it matters most
• The difference between being a principled rebel vs. a reactive troublemaker
• Why true change-makers often face delayed rewards—and how sisu can help us stay the course
• Balancing activism with mental health, and what keeps us going through long fights for change
• The gift of witnessing each other fail—and grow and heal together
• What it means to be an “upstander” (with a nod to educator Jackson Katz)
• How everyday acts of courage and kindness shape the bigger environment we call our life

Todd’s insights come from decades of research—and deep skin in the game. He’s the author of several brilliant books, including Curious, The Upside of Your Dark Side, and most relevantly: The Art of Insubordination.

🎧 If you’ve ever struggled to find your voice in the face of injustice—or wondered how to process with combining courage and compassion (or to navigate the difference between power vs. force)—this is for you.

If this has value to you, please share with everyone you know. And let me know who you'd like me to interview!

Thanks again, Todd. This was exquisite!

Shownotes:

Todd's website and books: www.toddkashdan.com.

Rainer Maria Rilke: Letters to a Young Poet.

Jackson Katz TEDx with over 2 million views.

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Sisu is a reserve of inner strength but it's also a way for us to know ourselves and impact the world in a positive way. Cultivating these reserves of inner strength starts with self-care and continues through self-inquiry. its power then extends to the world through our inspired acts of deep courage and compassion.

Thanks for tuning in! You can find out more about sisu, find links to research, and check out Gentle Power: A Revolution in How We Think, Lead, and Succeed Using the Finnish Art of Sisu at www.sisulab.com.

Sisu is great, love is greatness.

I’m joined for a conversation by Monique Borst, an entrepreneur, advisor and performance coach with 15 years in senior leadership positions. Monique has said, "Our businesses and personal lives are a mirror reflection of where we are on our own self-development journey, and can only be as successful as we are aware and in control of our thoughts and emotions."

Together, we’ll unpack what it means to lead with strength and empathy, to balance resilience with grace, and to embrace vulnerability as a force for healing.

When we do this work that can take a bit of sisu not just in the traditional way of doing something physically tough ... but the courage it takes to steal the gold from the night of subconscious to find the treasures we discover in our quiet, inner places can illuminate the everyday moments of business, leadership, and community.

For this episode you can reflect if you like:

💡 What does gentle power mean to you?

💡 How can we, as leaders and as humans, step forward with balance, authenticity, and wholeness?

The episode is dedicated to the memory of dear late friend Stéphane LeBlanc, a Canadian pioneer of conscious leadership.

You can find our guest Monique Borst on LinkedIn, where she shares her thoughtful content and her website at MoniqueBorst.com,

Support the show

Sisu is a reserve of inner strength but it's also a way for us to know ourselves and impact the world in a positive way. Cultivating these reserves of inner strength starts with self-care and continues through self-inquiry. its power then extends to the world through our inspired acts of deep courage and compassion.

Thanks for tuning in! You can find out more about sisu, find links to research, and check out Gentle Power: A Revolution in How We Think, Lead, and Succeed Using the Finnish Art of Sisu at www.sisulab.com.

Sisu is great, love is greatness.

The following interview is with distinguished neurosurgeon Dr. James Doty and it's a listen that is likely to make you feel a bit stronger and make you think more deeply about leadership, your daily habits, and the gift of life. I have been following Dr. Doty's work for about a decade and was deeply honored for this chance to learn from the master himself. He is a compassion researcher, NY Times bestselling author, and philanthropist. Dr. Doty is also a clinical professor of neurosurgery and Founder & Director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE) at Stanford University School of Medicine.

He recently published a new book called Mind Magic: The Neuroscience of Manifestation and How It Changes Everything. We had a thrilling and heartwarming conversation - a warm recommendation to add this seminal book to your near-future reading list!

You can find Mind Magic here: Mind Magic on Amazon (leave a review if you read the book and find it inspiring - this is always invaluable to authors <3) and learn more about Dr. Doty's work on his website: James R. Doty MD.

Finally, here is another fantastic interview with Dr. Doty by John R. Miles.

Support the show

Sisu is a reserve of inner strength but it's also a way for us to know ourselves and impact the world in a positive way. Cultivating these reserves of inner strength starts with self-care and continues through self-inquiry. its power then extends to the world through our inspired acts of deep courage and compassion.

Thanks for tuning in! You can find out more about sisu, find links to research, and check out Gentle Power: A Revolution in How We Think, Lead, and Succeed Using the Finnish Art of Sisu at www.sisulab.com.

Sisu is great, love is greatness.

This episode is about the paradox of putting healing and performance in the same sentence. Join me for an inspiring conversation with Dr. Phil Maffetone, a visionary in endurance sports for over four decades, an author, musician, and coach. Known for his MAF Method, which emphasizes aerobic training and fat-burning, Phil’s approach has helped athletes achieve world class level of performance. However this method applies to every-body out there to create more sovereignty, health and happiness.

In today’s episode, we delve into Phil’s groundbreaking philosophies and practical tips for enhancing fitness, well-being, and body awareness. Whether you're a seasoned athlete or a beginner, discover MAF to ultimately to become your own coach, make sustainable decisions, and cultivate resilience and self-leadership. Plus, we explore topics like nutrition, intuition, meditation, and making lifelong healthy choices. Tune in for a conversation around ideas that have deeply impacted my own journey over the past decade!

Philip's homepages: The MAF Method
https://philmaffetone.com/

The Music of Philip Maffetone
https://maffetonemusic.com/

The Maffetone Method Running Group on FB that I mention (9.7K members and it's a very active and friendly group) https://www.facebook.com/groups/1452390158396719

MAF Profile: Mission to heal: https://philmaffetone.com/maf-profile-mission-heal/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR3dj0exmFNSb61qyTw8UnkPeCk1cskOg-_zGshXKLYo9mq5yJo_TPtAOuU_aem_ZmFrZWR1bW15MTZieXRlcw

Phil Maffetone speaks about the details of MAF, nutrition, running, recovery
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TPrenWWK9U

"We are in this for fun and to bed happy" another great interview with Phil (Floris Gierman) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyE2J5pcWcA

Phils's Red and Yellow book of endurance and fitness that were mentioned in the show can be found here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Philip-Maffetone/author/B001K88UYE?ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

Enjoy the exploration!!

Support the show

Sisu is a reserve of inner strength but it's also a way for us to know ourselves and impact the world in a positive way. Cultivating these reserves of inner strength starts with self-care and continues through self-inquiry. its power then extends to the world through our inspired acts of deep courage and compassion.

Thanks for tuning in! You can find out more about sisu, find links to research, and check out Gentle Power: A Revolution in How We Think, Lead, and Succeed Using the Finnish Art of Sisu at www.sisulab.com.

Sisu is great, love is greatness.

Welcome to a new season of the Sisu Lab podcast! In this episode, I got heart to heart with emotional intelligence and wellbeing expert, Dr. Emma Seppälä. We dove into the mortal mortar life, took a dip the river of life force and finally, circled into the gentle powers we all possess within to elevate our humans condition: We talked about

sovereignty.

Big word.
It will change and challenge your world.

Sovereignty is also the primary topic (and name) of Emma's book that comes out next week. Pre-order Emma's new book by April 18th and join her (and me as her discussion host!) for an online fireside chat as a pre-order gift. Find the books'a beautiful landing page at www.iamsov.com

Support the show

Sisu is a reserve of inner strength but it's also a way for us to know ourselves and impact the world in a positive way. Cultivating these reserves of inner strength starts with self-care and continues through self-inquiry. its power then extends to the world through our inspired acts of deep courage and compassion.

Thanks for tuning in! You can find out more about sisu, find links to research, and check out Gentle Power: A Revolution in How We Think, Lead, and Succeed Using the Finnish Art of Sisu at www.sisulab.com.

Sisu is great, love is greatness.