▶️ 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 La Wayra, 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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▶️ 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

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

What if creativity isn’t a talent for the few, but the defining quality of being human?

In this episode of Being Human, I’m joined by Fredrik Haren, global creativity expert, speaker, and author of The World of Creativity. Fredrik has spent decades travelling the world studying where ideas come from and why modern organisations and education systems so often crush creative thinking.

We explore why creativity has little to do with confidence, why having ideas brings profound joy, and how each of us carries an “inner theme”: a unique perspective the world needs.

If you’re someone who sees yourself as ‘not creative’, or if you struggle to get your creativity flowing, this episode is a must-watch.

We explore:

• How we don’t create for others
• Why creativity defines humanity
• How the get the ideas flowing
• The joy of having ideas
• Discovering your ‘inner theme’

Links: Fredrik’s Website

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

What actually happens when the sense of “self” disappears — and does it make you wiser?

In this episode of Being Human, I’m joined by Ken Wilber, one of the most influential philosophers of human development and the founder of Integral Theory, something which played a big role in my own intellectual development. Ken shares his early awakening experience, in which he experienced a complete dissolution of the separate self, and explains why spiritual awakening alone does not equal psychological maturity or ethical wisdom.

We explore the crucial distinction between waking up and growing up. And why this explains how many spiritual gurus and their communities can become so toxic. Drawing on decades of scholarship, meditation, and systems thinking, Ken offers a comprehensive framework for understanding consciousness and development. This helps us to appreciate the multiple vectors and methods of human expansion.

We explore:

• What happens when the self dissolves
• Waking up vs growing up
• Stages of human development
• Why maturity still matters

Links: Ken’s Website