What Are You Addicted To?

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I am a fan and regular listener of the podcast Hidden Brain.

In the recent two-part podcast, The Paradox of Pleasure and The Path To Enough, host Shankar Vedantam interviews Dr. Anna Lembke, medical director of Stanford Addiction Medicine and author of Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence. This book should be required reading.

We are wired to seek pleasure. We are all addicted to something: drugs, food, news, gambling, shopping, gaming, pornography, texting, TikToking, Instagramming, Facebooking, YouTubing, tweeting (or now Xing). The smartphone is the modern-day hypodermic needle, delivering digital dopamine 24/7. We have all become vulnerable to compulsive overconsumption.

The problem is that the relentless pursuit of pleasure leads to pain. We must learn how to keep dopamine in check by managing our consumption.

If you say, “Thank God, I don’t have that problem!” you are addicted to denial!

We Are Coming To Asheville. What Do You Recommend?

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We get phone calls and emails from friends, friends of friends, clients, and blog readers who say, “We are coming to Asheville. What do you recommend?” We have so many choices and so little time! Click on Asheville for a link to a map of downtown Asheville.

I began this blog back in September 2015 and I update as we experience more of Asheville and Western North Carolina. For example, today we had lunch at Mother Bakery, Wine Shop, and Cafe. I had the most incredible egg salad sandwich ever!

Click on this link to get updates on where to go, what to drink, what to eat, and where to stay in the Asheville area!

Wait! What? Blaine Greenfield Interviews Me!

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Blaine Greenfield interviewed me on his podcast, “Blainesworld.” Blaine and I first met in 2010 through  Leadership Asheville. We discuss my blog, the Art of asking questions, Blue Ridge Public Radio, Camp Joy, my book, “What’s On Your Rear End?,” PetchaKutcha, Braver Angels, leaving a legacy, and tattoos!