3 MINUTE MONDAYHi friend, You should do an end of year review - it’s the one time of the year that’s culturally appropriate to fully focus on reflection. My favourite free end of year review process is here. Enjoy x Below is a list of the Top 15 most played episodes on audio of 2025. Perhaps unsurprisingly, that epic Naval episode came in at #1, it's so so good. Gonna have to do something special to beat that in 2026. It’s great to see such a range of topics performing well, I love how varied I can go with the show and everyone still enjoy it. If you'd like to get me a Christmas present, just press Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It's the best way to support the show. And if you already have - please send some of these episodes to friends <3 A massive thank you to everyone that’s been sharing and supporting me throughout this year, I love you all. Merry Christmas x Modern Wisdom Top 15 Episodes (2025) 1 - #922 - Naval Ravikant - 44 Harsh Truths About Human Nature Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2KyMXeMQS0djxazcFJZaSb?si=c9bda6191eb540e4 2 - #952 - Alex Hormozi - 41 Harsh Truths Nobody Wants To Admit Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0Aiz21ilntajgctpNPur7D?si=VHw4-X4SQtmPbVDVvYPMwg 3 - #949 - Jocko Willink - How To Build Unstoppable Confidence Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1UdGh0Q8d4llRAqKxfG0M2?si=heN-XhO3T_ODY6seXbUszA 4 - #1000 - Matthew McConaughey - The Art of Living a Courageous Life Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7IBDXdAwLV61tNwviny5QN?si=bG0lpU0yQCOxyuynQn8sHw 5 - #961 - Mark Manson - 19 Raw Lessons To Not Mess Up Your Life Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7BZRHlX5SnRSlPaqnpvfdK?si=hjDgt5m2RbuTvv39pwXjUg 6 - #994 - Sam Sulek - The Endless Pursuit of Progress Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2gfKTbIyXKLJpXb5wsPQOF?si=S41WUqBZTFKlxJgqh0FrFQ 7 - #964 - Simon Sinek - How To Find Meaning When Life Feels Overwhelming Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7jymUFu6DpeQQHuNvvU6rh?si=C5-yHTZBTlKGQBDc2ByWPg 8 - #940 - Cameron Hanes - The Harsh Price Of Extreme Performance Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5qxPvpy8SNdmvI3MnOWrYD?si=mTy-6tj1T_677elrDmEURA 9 - #889 - Tony Robbins - How To Build An Extraordinary Life Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0k2sBDGSIDND2lYl10vsT6?si=vK39ErxeT7OHK60LyEjeCA 10 - #898 - Alain de Botton - How To Fix Your Negative Patterns Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0A2NVklBnqV9xuhv08TMYh?si=NfdsP2LMTA6ZaHfTDtRUzg 11 - #970 - Dr Mike Israetel - Exercise Scientist’s Masterclass On Motivation, Habits & Discipline Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2DBQLECLPwPf8Ei2djjmCN?si=LFXDPoC4QzekU_Xq2HFJhA 12 - #997 - Bonnie Blue & Louise Perry - The Modern Sex Work Debate Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6RGbHksToIPYN5R4ECDtwU?si=R00UCjHWTZqJXLQh5n8_jw 13 - #953 - Jimmy Carr - Decoding The Secrets Of A Meaningful Life Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7KAWThnryrQpIpHfaVo2d6?si=JrEzdccwR2iW48UQARPU2A 14 - #913 - Andrew Schulz - Why Does Modern America Feel So Insane? Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/27ioJxuf85smMJTWyuWvIJ?si=BiqDBAIQQXehaZI0cd1m2w 15 - #1006 - Chris Bumstead - Life After Olympia: Fatherhood, TRT & Finding Purpose Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0xjZR6I2ESIF8tA9tm5uiB?si=qwGtMOIHQo2suxb-KVoDXA MODERN WISDOMI do a podcast where I pretend to have a British accent. This week’s upcoming episodes: Monday. Thursday. Saturday. THINGS I'VE LEARNED1. A new study published in Sex Roles found that the words women use for their genitals are associated with body image, sexual pleasure, and certain health behaviours. In everyday, non-sexual contexts, women who used playful or childish terms such as “hoo-ha,” “vajayjay,” “lady parts,” or “cookie” tended to report more negative genital self-image. They were also more likely to believe their partner enjoyed oral sex less, to use vaginal cleaning products, and to express interest in cosmetic genital surgery. These links appeared to be driven by underlying discomfort or shame about their bodies. In contrast, language shifted during sex. Women were far more likely to use vulgar or embodied terms such as “pussy” or “cunt”, and this was associated with greater sexual pleasure, more frequent orgasms, and stronger desire for oral sex. The same words that can feel crude or inappropriate in public contexts appeared to function as confidence-building and empowering during sex. Interestingly, vague euphemisms like “down there” or “private area” were not linked to negative outcomes, contrary to expectations. The researchers stress this is correlational, not causal - language may shape sexual experience, reflect it, or both. But the pattern is consistent: infantilising language tracks shame; embodied language tracks pleasure. 2. The keyboard you’re using right now wasn’t designed to make you fast. It was designed to stop a Victorian machine from breaking. Early mechanical typewriters jammed if you typed too quickly, so in the 1870s Christopher Latham Sholes rearranged the keys specifically to slow people down. He spaced out common letter pairings so neighbouring metal arms wouldn’t collide. The world’s most widely used interface was designed to deliberately slow people down. And yet here we are, 150 years later, still using it. QWERTY became the world standard by solving a problem that no longer exists. Why didn’t we update it? Because once schools, secretarial pools, businesses and entire industries trained everyone on QWERTY, switching became too costly. Typing courses, habits, hardware layouts, shortcut design and office culture all reinforced the old system. This is classic path dependency: once a bad default becomes institutionalised, it becomes almost impossible to uproot. The funny thing is that better keyboards do exist. Dvorak (1936) reduces finger travel by around 50 percent, and expert typists in one Human Factors study reached 74 percent higher speeds than their own QWERTY baselines after retraining. Colemak and Workman are even more ergonomic for modern computing. But almost nobody switches. Hardware is QWERTY. Employers use QWERTY. Shortcuts are QWERTY. Everyone already knows QWERTY. So we carry on typing slowly on a layout designed to prevent typewriters from tangling themselves. We still type slowly today because typewriters jammed in the 1870s. 3. “Let everything happen to you. Beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final.” — Rilke LIFE HACKRead more this week. Honestly this period between Christmas and New Year is so great for slowing down intentionally. Snag a good fiction book from my reading list and get stuck into it. Give yourself the gift of not doomscrolling your way through the holidays. Big love, Try my productivity drink Neutonic. PS |