Why a Harvard Professor Blows Bubbles at Strangers

Why a Harvard Professor Blows Bubbles at Strangers

Most of us are building lives we are not fully present for. We optimise, produce, tick things off and tell ourselves we will get to the good stuff once things calm down. But things rarely calm down. They speed up. And one day you look around and realise your kids have stopped coming to you, your relationships are running on autopilot, and the life you worked so hard to build is one you are barely in. That was the realisation Harvard Professor Dr Jeff Karp had during Covid. The skill that had helped him survive school, build a world-leading lab and found 13 companies had also made him very good at moving through life without stopping to notice it. What makes Jeff’s response interesting is that he did not begin with a retreat, a reinvention or some huge life overhaul. He started interrupting patterns. Change the question you ask your kid at dinner and see what happens. Take a different route. Drink tea instead of coffee. Blow bubbles at strangers in traffic and watch people put their phones down and smile. His argument is that changing one small thing can make you aware of all the other things you have been doing without ever really choosing them. We also talk about anti-convenience, why Jeff sometimes washes dishes by hand, and why I can happily spend an hour making gluten-free ravioli from scratch. Not because doing things the long way is always better, but because efficiency is not always the point. Jeff has spent decades inventing technologies that save lives. Turns out one of the most important experiments he ever ran was learning how to be present in his own. Key episode highlights * Why the skill that helped Jeff survive school later began costing him in adult life * How changing one small pattern can reveal the rest of your operating system * The question: when did you decide to do the same things every day? * Why bubbles in traffic became Jeff’s favourite form of pattern interruption * How anti-convenience can create presence without turning your life upside down * Why our brains default to familiar, low-energy behaviours * What happens when you ask your children a better question than “how was your day?” * How silliness can shift the energy of a room and give other people permission to join in Chapters 00:00 Bubbles, productivity and disconnection02:43 The skill that saved Jeff as a child06:18 When he realised his children had stopped coming to him07:22 How our attention gets hijacked13:57 Why exhaustion can become addictive17:42 The hidden cost of constant productivity21:11 Why the brain defaults to low-energy patterns25:24 The patterns running our lives28:33 How pattern interruption works35:22 Which patterns should we keep?42:46 Why a Harvard professor blows bubbles in traffic48:53 Anti-convenience and doing things the long way52:05 What a bountiful life means to Jeff57:13 The most important experiment he has run on himself Guest Bio Dr Jeff Karp is a biomedical engineer and professor of anaesthesia at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. His laboratory develops bio-inspired medical technologies, including tissue adhesives, targeted therapies and medical devices. He has co-founded numerous biotechnology companies and is the author of LIT: Life Ignition Tools, which draws on the strategies he developed while growing up with ADHD and learning differences. https://www.jeffkarp.com/ [https://www.jeffkarp.com/] About Bountifull Podcast The Bountifull Podcast explores what it means to live a bountiful life through honest conversations with fascinating people from around the world. Hosted by Sian Simpson, each episode brings together stories, ideas and experiences from science, psychology, relationships, creativity, culture, work and everyday life. From wellbeing and personal growth to resilience, connection, purpose and joy, Bountifull offers practical insight and fresh perspectives to help you build a richer, more meaningful life. New episodes weekly. https://www.bountifullworld.com/ [https://www.bountifullworld.com/]

How to Stay Human on the Internet with Renée DiResta

In this episode, I’m joined by Renée DiResta, Associate Research Professor at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy and author of Invisible Rulers: The People Who Turn Lies into Reality, who studies social media, online manipulation, AI, misinformation, and how messages move across the internet. This conversation started with a simple question: how do we stay safe online? But it quickly became about something much bigger. How do we protect our attention? How do we know what is real? How do we keep our values intact in online spaces that are often designed to make us reactive, anxious, outraged, or hooked? Renée explains how social media platforms are not neutral. They are built around growth, engagement, data, advertising, and keeping us there. Every scroll, pause, like, and click teaches the system more about us, which means the content we see is not random. It is selected, tested, and pushed towards us because the platform thinks it might hold our attention. We talk about AI slop, scams, fake images, old videos being recirculated as new, online manipulation, audience capture, online conflict, and why it is becoming harder to tell the difference between what is real, what is fake, and what is technically real but being used in a misleading way. One of the biggest ideas from this conversation is that discernment is now a practice. It is not just about fact-checking something after the fact. It is about noticing when something is trying to bypass your judgement in the first place. Renée also shares how she talks to her own children about technology, online safety, chat platforms, privacy, and the importance of keeping communication open when something goes wrong. This is a conversation about the internet, but really it is about agency. About slowing down, paying attention, and remembering that a bountiful life is one where your time, your attention, and your choices still belong to you. Episode Highlights * How Renée came to study social media, misinformation and online manipulation * What platforms and algorithms are designed to do with our attention * Why AI is making scams, fake content and deception harder to spot * How to tell the difference between what is real, true and misleading * Why discernment is now an essential life skill * How the internet can make us more reactive, performative and disconnected from our values * What audience capture means for creators and online behaviour * How to talk to children about privacy, trust and online safety * Why a healthier relationship with technology begins with awareness, not fear Timestamps 00:00 Why the internet makes everything feel urgent 01:35 Renée’s path into studying social media and misinformation 09:18 What platforms and algorithms are really designed to do 18:10 Online communities, loneliness and rabbit holes 19:45 AI scams, fake content and online deception 26:51 Discernment, truth and learning to pause before reacting 31:08 Online manipulation and how new technology gets exploited 40:12 Audience capture and staying authentic online 47:53 Online behaviour, values and taking back your attention 55:33 Kids, online safety and open conversations about technology 01:00:18 AI chatbots, companionship and emotional risk 01:04:23 What it means to Renée to live a bountiful life Guest Bio Renée DiResta [https://www.reneediresta.com/] is an Associate Research Professor at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy and the author of Invisible Rulers: The People Who Turn Lies into Reality. Her work focuses on adversarial abuse online, including social media manipulation, misinformation, scams, AI-generated content, influence operations and child safety. Before joining Georgetown, she was the research director at the Stanford Internet Observatory, where she studied the abuse of online platforms and how digital systems shape public conversation. Bountifull Podcast  [https://bountifullworld.com/] Bountifull is a podcast exploring joy, wellbeing, creativity, connection and what it means to live a more meaningful life.

Clearing the Fear and Dismantling Limiting Beliefs with Marley Rose Harris

In this episode, I’m joined by Marley Rose Harris, founder of the Higher Self app and creator of the Clear the Fear method. I wanted to speak to Marley because I was interested in how she works with fear. Where it starts, how it gets stored, and why it can keep showing up in decisions around money, love, work, safety and self-worth. Marley’s life changed after losing her dad to suicide. That loss sent her into a lot of grief, but also into trying to understand what actually helps people heal. Over time, that became the work she now does with limiting beliefs, subconscious patterns and the stories people keep living from, often without realising it. We talk about Clear the Fear, self-trust, emotional safety, family, money, and the strange ways fear can keep us attached to lives we say we do not want. Marley also walks me through one of my own money ceilings in real time, which was slightly confronting, but probably useful. This is a conversation about fear, but really it is about what sits underneath it. Episode Highlights * Marley’s work with the Clear the Fear method * How fear can show up in money, love, work, safety and self-worth * Losing her dad to suicide and how grief changed the direction of her life * Why Marley became interested in limiting beliefs and subconscious patterns * The stories we carry without realising they are shaping our lives * Why fear often comes back to a lack of safety * Building self-trust and learning to feel safe within yourself * What happens when you stop running from a feeling and actually let yourself feel it * How old beliefs can create ceilings around what we allow ourselves to receive * Marley walking me through one of my own money ceilings in real time * The link between pain, pleasure and the choices we keep making * Why family, friendship and feeling at home matter more than Marley once realised Chapters 00:00 Marley on money, family and what really matters00:48 Meet Marley Rose Harris03:12 Marley’s story and choosing a different path06:58 Losing her dad and beginning to heal12:38 Scarcity, abundance and changing old beliefs15:03 Why fear often comes back to safety20:43 Self-trust and creating safety within yourself31:04 How Clear the Fear works41:03 The stories we carry without realising it54:08 Pain, pleasure, money and what we move towards Guest Bio Marley Rose Harris is the CEO and founder of Higher Self and creator of the Clear the Fear method. Her work focuses on subconscious reprogramming, limiting beliefs, fear, self-worth, money, relationships and the patterns that keep people stuck. Through the Higher Self app, Marley offers tools including hypnosis, meditations, affirmations, NLP, Clear the Fear and Neuro-Linking, designed to help people work with the beliefs and fears underneath the surface. She also works with clients through mentorship, combining subconscious reprogramming, emotional clearing and coaching. In this episode, Marley shares how grief, healing and her own experience of rebuilding her life shaped the work she does today. https://www.marleyrose.ca/ [https://www.marleyrose.ca/] About Bountifull Bountifull is a wellbeing and personal growth podcast exploring what it means to live a bountiful life through stories of joy, resilience, creativity and connection. Each episode features interesting people from diverse backgrounds sharing ideas, experiences and practical wisdom for living with more meaning, courage and joy. https://www.bountifullworld.com/ [https://www.bountifullworld.com/]

Playing the Hand You're Dealt with Holly Cardew

In this episode, I’m joined by Holly Cardew, an Australian entrepreneur, founder and friend of mine, for a conversation about ambition, self-belief, work, independence and what it means to build a life that actually feels like your own. Holly has always had a very practical kind of confidence. She does not wait until she knows everything before she starts. At 12, she was packing sponges for $5 an hour. At 14, she was working at McDonald’s and learning about systems, speed and efficiency. At 18, she moved to Paris, studied in French, and worked out how to get by as she went. That same approach has shaped her life as a founder. When she did not know how to build websites, she Googled it. When she could not afford big teams, she found contractors. When she felt like an outsider in San Francisco, as a non-technical founder without the usual Silicon Valley background, she kept going anyway. What I love about Holly is the way she thinks about life. She does not spend a lot of time worrying about whether the world is fair. Her view is that everyone is dealt a different hand of cards, and the real question is how you play yours. In this conversation, we talk about building companies, raising money, remote work, failure, confidence, asking questions when you do not know the answer, and the emotional stamina it takes to keep going when things are hard. But more than anything, this episode is about mindset. Holly is ambitious, but she is also clear-eyed about the sacrifices that come with ambition. For her, a bountiful life is about being true to what you want, finding the people and places that give you energy, and continuing to build, learn and grow in the direction that feels right to you. Episode Highlights * Playing the hand you have been dealt, rather than getting stuck on whether life is fair * Learning independence early through work, money and figuring things out for yourself * Starting before you feel ready, and learning what you need as you go * Building confidence as an outsider, especially without the usual Silicon Valley background * The value of asking questions, even when you do not know the technical answer * Why ambition often comes with sacrifice, and how to be honest about that * The emotional side of building companies, and the pressure founders quietly carry * Remote work, team culture and treating people as part of the company, no matter where they are * Failure as something to learn from, rather than something that defines you * Designing a life around energy, curiosity, people and places that make you feel alive Chapters 00:00 – Playing the hand you have been dealt02:06 – Growing up in Sydney and learning independence early06:17 – Early jobs, McDonald’s and learning systems10:37 – Moving to Paris at 1812:20 – What a bountiful life means to Holly13:38 – Learning by doing and building from scratch18:43 – Building ambitious things and solving hard problems26:24 – Raising money and finding the right investors29:25 – The emotional side of building companies31:34 – Feeling like an outsider in Silicon Valley35:08 – Remote work, team culture and designing a life that works37:34 – Ambition, sacrifice and what “enough” looks like Guest Bio Holly Cardew is an Australian e-commerce entrepreneur who has spent more than a decade building in online retail and technology. She splits her time between Sydney and San Francisco, and has been recognised by Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia for her work in retail and e-commerce. Bountifull Podcast The Bountifull Podcast explores what it means to live a bountiful life through conversations with interesting people from diverse backgrounds. Hosted by Sian Simpson, the podcast brings together voices from psychology, science, business, creativity, health, relationships, spirituality, food, nature and personal growth to explore how we can live with more joy, resilience, connection and meaning. https://www.bountifullworld.com/ [https://www.bountifullworld.com/]

Inside the Mind of Award Winning Documentary Maker Christopher Seward

In this episode, I'm joined by Christopher Seward, a documentary filmmaker and editor whose work includes Fahrenheit 9/11, Sicko, Ariel Phenomenon (UFOs), One Child Nation, and more than 40 documentary films. Christopher edited top-grossing documentaries including Fahrenheit 9/11, winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes, and Sicko, both earning him American Cinema Editors Guild awards for Best Documentary Editor of the Year. He has also served as supervising and consulting editor on The Food Cure, Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead, Wake Up, and Fire in the Blood. Christopher's work sits at the intersection of truth, emotion, curiosity, and perspective. As an editor, he has spent his career shaping complex, confronting stories into films that people can watch, feel, and understand. This conversation explores the craft of documentary storytelling, and goes much deeper than film. We discuss curiosity as a way of moving through the world, the difference between facts and emotional truth, the role of humour in difficult stories, and why being seen may be one of the deepest human needs we share. Christopher also shares his own story, from growing up surrounded by art, nature, and service, to the Navy, time on the Navajo reservation, studying cinematography at NYU, and building a life rooted in community, gratitude, and creative purpose. In This Episode, You’ll Discover * Why curiosity can create common ground, even when people disagree. * How Christopher thinks about finding the universal human thread inside complex stories. * Why facts alone are not always enough in a post-truth world. * The role of emotional truth in documentary filmmaking. * How humour can help people stay with difficult or painful subjects. * Why documentaries need space, rhythm, and moments of relief. * How Christopher’s time on the Navajo reservation shaped his spirituality and view of nature. * What losing his father young taught him about impermanence, process, and savouring life. * Why community requires showing up, not just belonging. * How nature helps Christopher process the intensity of his work. * Why a bountiful life may begin with changing how we define bounty. Timestamps 00:00 – Opening reflection on truth, purpose, and being seen 01:20 – Introduction to Christopher Seward 02:39 – Growing up with art, nature, service, and imagination 06:44 – Spirituality, church, curiosity, and questioning 09:18 – What it means to live a bountiful life 12:30 – Advice to his 25-year-old self 14:34 – Self-trust, intuition, and learning to listen to your gut 17:00 – Losing his father young and learning impermanence 19:30 – Time on the Navajo reservation and indigenous wisdom 26:10 – Studying cinematography and finding documentary editing 30:13 – How to shape complex stories 32:39 – Facts, emotional truth, and storytelling in a post-truth world 35:34 – Working on intense documentaries and difficult subjects 38:24 – Nature, perspective, and staying well while telling hard stories 40:10 – Ariel Phenomenon and the power of first-person storytelling 45:08 – Authenticity over spectacle 46:02 – What Christopher looks for in a story 48:25 – Humour, pain, pacing, and making hard subjects watchable 51:04 – Tentpole scenes and the gravity of story 55:37 – Nature as our operating system 58:36 – Community, homecoming, and building belonging 01:04:42 – Quickfire round Guest Bio Christopher Seward is a documentary filmmaker and editor whose work spans more than 40 documentary films. His credits include Fahrenheit 9/11, Sicko, Ariel Phenomenon, One Child Nation, and many other projects exploring politics, human rights, social issues, identity, and the unseen stories that shape our world. His work is grounded in curiosity, emotional truth, and a deep interest in helping people see complex subjects through a more human lens. Bountifull Podcast Bountifull is a personal growth and wellbeing podcast exploring what it means to live a joyful and meaningful life.