DO HARD SHIT

56 | The Astronauts Who Survived Space by Thinking Like Dead Men (How to Stay Calm in Chaos)

When an explosion crippled Apollo 13, three astronauts were stranded 200,000 miles from Earth, running out of oxygen, and facing the very real possibility that they would die in space.
 
No backup. No rescue. No second chances.
 
So how did they survive?
 
Not by brute strength. Not by luck. But by staying calm when panic would have killed them.
 
Astronauts are trained to think like they’re already dead—because in a crisis, emotions will get you killed.
 
This is the true story of how three men faced certain death—and made it back home. And by the end of this episode, you’ll know exactly how to train your own mind to stay calm under pressure.
 
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
 
🔥 How Apollo 13 turned into a survival mission in deep space
🔥 The psychological training astronauts use to stay calm in extreme conditions
🔥 Why fear is useless in a crisis—and what to do instead
🔥 How breaking problems into 30-second decisions can save your life
🔥 A challenge to start rewiring your brain to handle stress like a pro
 
Panic kills. Staying calm wins. And the people who master that? They survive what should have destroyed them.

55 | The Man Who Made Millions by Doing Nothing (Why Restraint is a Superpower)

He wasn’t a CEO. He didn’t start a business. He never chased a big break.
 
Ronald Read was a janitor and gas station attendant—a quiet, ordinary guy who lived simply. Nothing about him screamed “millionaire.”
 
So when he died and left behind $8 million, people were stunned.
 
How did a man with a modest paycheck end up wealthier than most people will ever be?
 
Because he mastered the one skill most people never will—patience.
 
This is the story of how doing nothing—when done right—can be the most powerful move of all.
 
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
 
🔥 How a janitor quietly built an $8 million fortune without anyone noticing
🔥 Why most people destroy their own success by chasing quick wins
🔥 The power of compounding—how small, consistent moves lead to massive results
🔥 Why restraint, patience, and discipline beat hustle every time
🔥 A challenge to start making moves today that your future self will thank you for
 
Most people fail—not because they aren’t smart enough or don’t work hard enough, but because they never learn how to sit still.

54 | When Good People Go Bad (The Stanford Prison Experiment)

It started as a simple experiment.
 
A fake prison. A group of college students. Some assigned as guards, others as prisoners—just for research. No real stakes. No real consequences.
 
But within days, it spiraled into something terrifying.
 
The “guards” became cruel, abusive, and power-hungry. The “prisoners” became broken, submissive, and helpless. And the man running the experiment—Dr. Philip Zimbardo—let it happen.
 
This is the true story of the Stanford Prison Experiment—one of the most disturbing studies in psychology. And what it proves?
 
Most people don’t do bad things because they’re evil.
They do them because the system changes them before they even realize it.
 
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
 
🔥 How college students became sadistic guards in just six days
🔥 Why people blindly follow roles—and how your environment shapes you more than you think
🔥 The psychology of power—how authority warps decision-making
🔥 How to recognize when a system is influencing you without your awareness
🔥 A challenge to question where in your life you’re following the rules—without realizing who made them
 
The scariest prisons aren’t the ones with bars. They’re the ones you don’t even see.

53 | The Chess Player Who Beat the System (How to Outsmart People Who Underestimate You)

He wasn’t the best player. He wasn’t a prodigy. But he kept winning—beating grandmasters, dominating tournaments, and leaving experts scratching their heads.
 
Amarey Clynes didn’t play chess the way everyone else did. He played his opponents. He understood one thing that most people never do:
 
People don’t play the game in front of them—they play the game they think they’re in.
 
This is the true story of how an unknown player exploited human psychology to take down the best—and how you can apply the same tactics to outthink anyone.
 
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
 
🔥 How Amarey Clynes beat grandmasters without being the best player
🔥 The three psychological traps that make smart people beat themselves
🔥 How speed, confidence, and unpredictability can manipulate decision-making
🔥 Why perception beats reality in chess, business, and life
🔥 A challenge to start applying strategic thinking in your own battles
 
Winning isn’t about being the smartest—it’s about understanding how people think. And the ones who know that? They don’t just play the game. They control it.

52 | The Town That Went Insane (The Power of Mass Hysteria and Groupthink)

It started with one person.
 
Then five.
 
Then twenty.
 
Within days, over 400 people were dancing uncontrollably in the streets—some laughing, some screaming, some collapsing from exhaustion. Some danced until they died.
 
This isn’t a myth. This actually happened in 1518 in Strasbourg, France. A real event, with no clear explanation. Was it a disease? A curse? Or something even scarier—mass hysteria?
 
This episode dives into how the human brain can be hijacked by the crowd, why people lose control without realizing it, and how this same phenomenon is still happening today.
 
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
 
🔥 The insane true story of the Dancing Plague of 1518—how an entire town lost control
🔥 How mass hysteria works—why people start believing and doing things that make no sense
🔥 The psychology of groupthink—why we follow the crowd, even when it’s leading us off a cliff
🔥 How social media, news cycles, and trends are hijacking your brain the same way
🔥 A challenge to recognize when you’re being swept up in the madness—and take back control
 
Most people don’t realize when they’re dancing. The only way to stay in control… is to stop moving with the crowd.

51 | The Lottery Winner Who Lost Everything (The Psychology of Success and Self-Sabotage)

Winning $315 million in the lottery should have been the best thing that ever happened to Jack Whittaker. Instead, it ruined his life.
 
Within a few years, he was broke, his family was destroyed, and he wished he had never won at all. Why? Because money doesn’t fix your problems—it magnifies them.
 
This is the true story of how sudden success can be a curse, not a blessing—and what it teaches us about handling success before it handles you.
 
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
 
🔥 The insane rise and fall of Jack Whittaker—how he went from millionaire to rock bottom
🔥 Why most people self-destruct when they get what they want
🔥 How money, power, and success expose who you really are
🔥 The psychology of sudden wealth—and why most people lose it all
🔥 A challenge to make sure you’re building habits that keep you strong—before success shows up
 
Because getting what you want doesn’t make you stronger—it just makes you more of what you already are.

50 | The Conman Who Outsmarted The Worlds Smartest People (Perception vs. Reality and the Power of Confidence)

He had no real qualifications. No degrees. No training. And yet, he convinced the world he was a doctor, a lawyer, a pilot, and a college professor—without ever stepping foot in a classroom.
 
Frank Abagnale Jr. didn’t just forge checks—he forged identities. He didn’t beat the system by being the smartest guy in the room—he beat it by understanding how people think.
 
This is the true story of one of history’s greatest conmen, and what it reveals about confidence, perception, and why people believe what they expect to be true.
 
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
 
🔥 How Frank Abagnale Jr. tricked banks, airlines, hospitals, and law firms into believing he was legit
🔥 The psychology of deception—why confidence matters more than competence
🔥 How to use perception and body language to influence how people see you
🔥 Why most people are held back by doubt—while others fake it ‘til they make it
🔥 A challenge to start owning the room and acting like you belong—before anyone questions it
 
The world doesn’t run on reality—it runs on belief. And the people who understand that? They don’t just play the game. They win it.

49 | The Experiment That Proved Free Will Might Be an Illusion (Controlling Your Mind)

You think you’re in control. You think you decide when to act, when to speak, when to move. But what if I told you your brain makes decisions before you’re even aware of them?
 
In the 1980s, neuroscientist Benjamin Libet ran an experiment that shook the foundations of philosophy and psychology. His research suggested that your choices aren’t really yours—your brain decides first, and your conscious mind just takes credit afterward.
 
So what does that mean for free will? Are we all just biological machines running on autopilot? Or is there a way to hack the system?
 
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
 
🔥 The mind-blowing experiment that suggests your brain makes choices before you do
🔥 Why free will might be a lie—or at least, not what we think it is
🔥 How your habits and environment might be controlling your decisions without you realizing it
🔥 The veto effect—how to take back control of your mind in the split second before you act
🔥 A mental challenge to start recognizing when you’re actually in control—and when you’re not
 
Because if you’re not making your own decisions… who is?

48 | The Prisoner Who Refused to Break (The Power of Self Talk and Controlling the Mind)

Seven years. That’s how long James Stockdale survived as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. Beaten, starved, locked in solitary confinement—every single day designed to break him. But he didn’t break. He found a way to outlast the pain, control his own mind, and stay strong when everything was designed to destroy him.
 
This is the story of a man who turned torture into a test of willpower, and what it teaches us about surviving our own battles. Because suffering isn’t what breaks you—how you handle it is.
 
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
 
🔥 The insane true story of James Stockdale’s survival in a Vietnamese prison camp
🔥 How to control your mind when everything is against you
🔥 The Stockdale Paradox—why balancing brutal honesty with hope is the key to endurance
🔥 The mental strategies POWs used to resist breaking under torture
🔥 A practical challenge to help you train your mind for resilience—starting today
 
Pain doesn’t break you. Panic does. The strongest people aren’t fearless—they just know how to fight their battles in the mind first.

47 | The Man Who Walked Out of the Jungle Alone (Mental Endurance and the Survival Mindset)

For 29 years, Hiroo Onoda believed he was still at war. Alone in the jungle, cut off from reality, he refused to surrender—even when the world had moved on without him. This is the true story of a soldier who fought an invisible enemy long after the battle was over, and what it teaches us about knowing when to let go.
 
Most people aren’t stuck in the jungle with a rifle—they’re stuck in jobs, relationships, and mindsets that should have ended years ago. In this episode, we break down why people refuse to quit, how to recognize when you’re fighting the wrong battle, and what it really takes to walk away. Because the scariest thing in life isn’t losing the war—it’s wasting years fighting one that already ended.
 
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
 
🔥 The insane true story of Hiroo Onoda—the soldier who refused to surrender for 29 years
🔥 Why people stay stuck in unwinnable battles (and how to spot when you’re doing it)
🔥 The sunk cost fallacy—how your brain tricks you into holding onto things that no longer serve you
🔥 The psychology of quitting—why it’s not failure, it’s strategy
🔥 A practical challenge to help you recognize what’s holding you back right now
 
Because sometimes, the strongest thing you can do… is walk away.