▶️ Connect with Richard on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardatherton-firsthuman/

Richard is joined by Rupert Brown, a fractional Chief Transformation Officer.

In January 2005, Rupert was driving down a motorway when he heard on the radio that Procter & Gamble had just bought his company, Gillette, for $57 billion. Nobody had thought to tell the employees first, and so started Rupert’s quest to figure out how to do change well.

Rupert has since penned Lost in Transformation: Discover the Leadership Blind Spots Derailing Change, detailing his time at Gillette and elsewhere. He has over 30 years of HR experience across some of the world's most complex organisations.

Rupert’s experiences taught him something most change stalls because leaders can't see their own blind spots: the arbitrary deadlines that crush emotional processing, the flattery that makes us say yes without thinking, the inner voice we never make time to hear. We dive into the wisdom gained from Rupert’s interviews with over 30 executives as well as his own formidable track record.

We discuss:

• Five blind spots derailing change
• Kairos vs Kronos timing
• Why empathy disappears at work
• Three levels of resistance explained
• Leading with integrity under pressure

Links: Rupert’s Website

▶️ Connect with Richard on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardatherton-firsthuman/

Most of us know that modern tech is hijacking our nervous system at some level, and, if you’re anything like me, even after trying to get a lot of ‘tech hygiene’ right, you’re still feeling some of the effects.

On this episode of Being Human, Richard Atherton is joined by Justin Hai, an award-winning British entrepreneur and author of the international bestseller, Stress Nation: Escape the Technology Trap and Eliminate Stress. Justin started his work in health in the biotech skincare industry. His company, Alastin, which specialises in regenerative skincare with peptides and growth hormones, was sold to Galderma in 2022 for over a billion dollars. But in the process of his research, Justin stumbled upon something he called "the master hormone": cortisol.

Justin discovered that increased levels of cortisol suppress melatonin, leading to sleep deprivation, which stops the body from producing the necessary hormones – and once this cycle keeps going, things start falling apart. Weight gain, brain fog, poor libido, mood swings, and exhaustion. Not as individual issues to deal with, but all manifestations of an underlying problem are being exacerbated each year due to technology.

We discuss:

• Why cortisol is the master hormone and how it controls everything
• How the modern world removed your body's natural off switch
• Why 95% of the supplements you're taking are destroyed in your stomach
• Men go through menopause too — and most have no idea
• Simple daily habits that bring cortisol down and sleep quality up

Links: Stress Nation - The Book

▶️ Connect with Richard on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardatherton-firsthuman/

What if your healing journey that took you years could have taken months and the tool to get there is growing in the Colombian jungle?

In this episode of Being Human, Richard Atherton is joined by Sam Believ, marine engineer and founder of Lawayra, an ayahuasca healing retreat in the Colombian countryside. Born in the Soviet Union and raised in post-independence Latvia, Sam grew up in a household shaped by intergenerational trauma: alcoholic, abusive father, an emotionally unavailable mother, and a culture where emotions were a sign of weakness. He channelled everything into his engineering career, built the life he was supposed to want, and found himself empty.

After quitting his job and travelling South America, Sam discovered ayahuasca in Colombia. Initially it was out of curiosity, he then rediscovered it in a crisis. When the lockdowns forced him to stop for the first time in his life, everything he had suppressed caught up with him. A ceremony gave him both his healing and his purpose. He never left.

Today Sam has guided close to 3,000 people through ceremonies at LaWayra, where the mission is simple: connect, heal, grow.

We discuss:

• Surviving Soviet childhood trauma and escaping intergenerational pain
• Why achieving the "right" life left him completely empty
• What actually happens inside an ayahuasca ceremony
• Therapy vs ayahuasca
• Addressing abuse by shamans

Links: LaWayra Retreats Sam's Website

▶️ Connect with Richard on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardatherton-firsthuman/

What if your body could tell you exactly where you're out of balance—before it shows up as illness or burnout?

In this episode, Richard sits down with Daniel Zavrel, co-founder of ConsciouzScan, to explore a cutting-edge, powerful technology that claims to map your body and mind through your energy field.

From his early career in consulting at Accenture, to his shift into spirituality and human performance, Daniel shares how this technology is being used with elite athletes, executives and individuals seeking deeper awareness.

Daniel performs a full body scan on Richard to reveal how this technology works.

Together, they explore:

• How one super simple 5-minute yoga technique transformed one CEO’s health
• How stress actually shows up in the body
• The link between focus, emotion and energy
• Why high performers often miss the real source of their exhaustion
• And what it means to “listen” to your body at a deeper level

Whether you’re sceptical or curious, this conversation will challenge how you think about health, performance and consciousness.

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Want to learn more about the ConsciouzScan method in general first? Then visit: https://checkout.consciouz.com/consciouz-body-mind-scan?revision=1

▶️ Connect with Richard on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardatherton-firsthuman/

What if many chronic symptoms - pain, IBS, migraines, fatigue, insomnia - aren’t caused by damage in the body, but by patterns in the brain?

In this episode of Being Human, Richard Atherton speaks with Nora Rodden, CEO and co-founder of the health app Nervana. After being hit by a car during university, Nora developed chronic back pain that persisted for five years despite countless treatments and no obvious lasting damage in her body. Later, severe digestive issues and insomnia followed.

Everything changed when she joined a clinical trial exploring neuroplastic pain, the idea that the brain can learn and sustain physical symptoms long after an injury has healed.

Through mind-body techniques including journaling, somatic awareness and visualisation, Nora eliminated her pain and restored her sleep.

Her experience led her to build Nervana, an AI-guided program designed to help people retrain their brain-body response and recover from chronic symptoms.

We discuss:

• Facing the triple whammy of chronic pain, GI symptoms and insomnia
• The "medical" trial that changed her life
• The drug-free approach that cured her symptoms in 3 months
• Her ground-breaking providing relief from pain
• Should Advil carry a warning?

Links: Nervana App

▶️ Connect with Richard on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardatherton-firsthuman/

Why do the same painful patterns keep repeating in our lives, in love, work, and relationships?

In this episode of Being Human, Richard Atherton is joined by New York Times Best Selling Author Katherine Woodward Thomas. Katherine originated the concept of Conscious Uncoupling through her book of the same name. She’s the author of the huge hit Calling in The One and has just released What's True About You.

Katherine shares how the stories we developed in childhood, which she calls “source fracture stories,” quietly shape our adult lives, relationships, and future possibilities. We think these are just “who we are,” but what if these are actually false stories developed way before we had the capacity to truly understand our lives?

We discuss:

• The real point of manifestation (it's not the result)
• When visiting the past is valuable and when it's not
• Who is really the toxic one in your relationship?
• What therapy gets wrong
• The path forward for a merging of therapy and coaching

Links: Katherine’s Website

▶️ Connect with Richard on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardatherton-firsthuman/

Is hope naïve or is it the missing ingredient in modern leadership?

In this episode of Being Human, I speak with Jen Fisher, former Chief Wellbeing Officer at Deloitte and author of Hope Is the Strategy. After experiencing severe burnout herself, Jen discovered that hope isn’t wishful thinking — it’s a measurable, actionable skill grounded in research.

We explore why burnout may actually be a symptom of hopelessness, how leaders unintentionally kill hope through language and behaviour, and why cultivating agency, multiple pathways, and honest truth-telling transforms culture. Jen shares practical tools, including hope audits, hope spotting, and the power of vulnerability in leadership.

We discuss:

• Burnout as a crisis of hopelessness
• What real hope actually means
• Leadership language that builds or kills hope
• Practical tools to cultivate hopeful cultures

Links: Jen’s Website

▶️ Connect with Richard on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardatherton-firsthuman/

What happens when trust breaks down in relationships, in leadership, in organisations?

In this episode of Being Human, I speak with Dennis and Michelle Reina, founders of the Reina Trust Building® Institute and authors of Trust & Betrayal in the Workplace. Drawing on decades of research and lived experience, they explain why trust is far more fragile than most leaders realise, and why rebuilding it requires courage, accountability, and choice.

We explore the three dimensions of trust, how victimhood traps us in blame, and why trust repair is not about forgetting but about responding differently. This is a deeply human conversation about conflict, repair, and responsibility, relevant to leaders, partners, and anyone navigating broken expectations.

We discuss:

• Growing up with an alcoholic father
• Why trust is fragile
• The anatomy of betrayal
• Victimhood vs responsibility
• Practical steps to rebuild trust

Links: Reina Trust Building