Radical Health Radio

By every standard metric I was doing great, and I was also miserable, which is where this episode starts.

The cult of seriousness has convinced us that every walk needs a step count, every hobby needs a purpose, and every hour needs an output. My argument is that this obsession with self-optimisation is inefficient, inhumane, and the fastest way to drain the joy out of a life you're supposedly building.

The head is a scarcity factory that runs on prediction and protection, and it will keep you safe by keeping you small. The heart plays a completely different game, and most of us have lost access to it because feelings are inconvenient in a culture that only rewards output.

Andrew Wilkinson's line about successful people being "a walking anxiety disorder harnessed for productivity" sits at the centre of this one for a reason.

There's a specific question I heard years ago that broke my brain and pushed me off the ladder I was climbing. If you've been performing your way through a life that doesn't feel like yours, this is the reframe I wish someone had handed me sooner.

You’ll learn:

[0:00] Introduction

[2:02] The head as a scarcity factory built for survival

[3:34] When everything in life needs a purpose

[5:45] A ladder leaning against the wrong wall

[7:30] Caring less does not mean caring about nothing

[9:16] Asking what your heart wants over your head

[11:29] Why a good question beats any answer given

[13:19] You are the cause of and solution to your problems

[15:01] Dropping the cult of seriousness as a frequency shift

Resources Mentioned:

Ste’s Post - Care Less | Instagram

Find more from Ste:

Ste Lane | Instagram

Radical Health Radio | Instagram | YouTube

Heart and Soil Supplements | Website | Instagram | X | YouTube

Skye sat on the idea of posting his workouts for three months because he knew that the second he hit publish, there was no going back.

Skye Mackintosh is the Daily Reps guy, and he's spent the past year proving you don't need a gym, a trainer, or hours a day to get in real shape. He started with pushups and jump squats. Nothing else.

What drew me in was his reason for posting. He didn't do it to build a brand. He did it because he knew that if strangers were watching, he'd finally have to follow through.

We get into the moment his ego took a hit strapping on a weighted vest, why he just told his job of nine years he's done, and how consistency actually works when you're sick, tired, or having a bad day.

There's a real conversation in here about people outsourcing their thinking to AI, why authenticity is becoming the rarest thing online, and how being bored around a campfire might be more valuable than any productivity hack. He also gets into fatherhood, marriage, and the standards he reads to himself every morning.

If you've ever felt intimidated by fitness content or told yourself you don't have time, this one will hit differently.

You’ll learn:

[0:00] Introduction

[3:16] How slogging for hours in the gym became unsustainable

[9:20] Why intensity is the real lever behind 20-minute workouts

[16:11] Reducing friction and designing your environment for consistency

[25:06] Learning to celebrate a milestone that feels like just who you are

[30:59] Finding yourself in silence and boredom

[36:46] What actually changed in Skye's mind and body after one year

[42:17] Imposter syndrome and standing in the fire of online criticism

[47:46] The books, perspectives, and simplicity principles that have shaped how he thinks

[63:13] Marriage, fatherhood, and what truly matters most

[67:57] What's next for Skye, from a possible book to speaking on big stages

Resources Mentioned:

Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey | Book or Audiobook

Essentialism by Greg McKeown | Book or Audiobook

Effortless by Greg McKeown | Book or Audiobook

The Power of Bad by John Tierney and Roy F. Baumeister | Book or Audiobook

Find more from Skye:

Skye Macintosh | Instagram

Daily Reps | App

Find more from Ste:

Ste Lane | Instagram

Radical Health Radio | Instagram | YouTube

Heart and Soil Supplements | Website | Instagram | X | YouTube

The sun is not as damaging as you've been told… Zaid Dahhaj shows us where the research breaks.

Zaid runs The Circadian Classroom and studies circadian biology from first principles, which is how he ended up pulling apart the mainstream narrative around melanin, melanoma, and sunscreen.

Once you understand that the research demonising UV is largely built on isolated UV exposure, nocturnal mice, albino mice, and keratinocyte-only petri dishes, the whole "sun causes cancer" story starts to look a lot less airtight.

Melanin gets reframed here as an active defence system rather than damage on a ledger. It's photoprotective, it dissipates UV as heat, and it even chelates certain heavy metals.

Night shift work is classified as a probable carcinogen, and most people are living a low-grade version of it: dark days indoors, and bright nights under LEDs. That's the inversion Zaid keeps coming back to.

We also take a serious look at sunscreen chemistry, vitamin D3, sunglasses and eye health, seed oils and burn risk, and how to build a solar callus without frying yourself on a beach in Costa Rica.

You’ll learn:

[0:00] Introduction

[8:05] Night shift work's carcinogen classification and what it reveals about us all

[11:21] Circadian repair restores UV-damaged cells so there's no accumulated damage

[20:41] The sun-cancer research is built on nocturnal mice and isolated UV

[30:34] The melanoma overdiagnosis problem and dermatology's stage zero caution

[34:26] A tan isn't damage, melanin works as nature's sunscreen

[47:16] The case for actively seeking the sun, and when to do it

[51:58] Sunglasses remove one leg of the circadian stool

[58:46] SPF 50 blocks the very anti-cancer vitamin D your skin needs

[1:09:26] The exact daily routine to build your solar callus without burning

Resources Mentioned:

My Circadian App | Website

Tap Zap App | Website

In Defense of Sunlight by Rowan Jacobsen | Book or Audiobook

Dr. Jack Kruse | Website

A. Bernard Ackerman, MD | Wikipedia

The Rapid Rise in Cutaneous Melanoma Diagnoses by Welch, H.G. et al. | Article

Teo Soleymani, MD | LinkedIn

Use code SUN to get 50% off Zaid’s 80/20 Circadian Course here.

Find more from Zaid:

Zaid K. Dahhaj | Instagram | X | Website

The Circadian Classroom | SubStack

Find more from Ste:

Ste Lane | Instagram

Radical Health Radio | Instagram | YouTube

Heart and Soil Supplements | Website | Instagram | X | YouTube

Miesha Tate spent her whole life chasing a UFC world title, and when she won it, it broke her.

Miesha is a former UFC Women's Bantamweight Champion, one of the fighters who cracked women's MMA open at the highest level, and someone who has now spent almost as much time deconstructing what that pursuit cost her as she did chasing it.

We sat down in Malibu and got into the parts of the story you don't usually hear. The moment she realised the gold belt didn't solve a single one of her problems. The years of eating disorders, distilled water weight cuts, and amenorrhea she was privately navigating while headlining pay-per-views. The pregnancy loss earlier this year that forced her to look at what her fighting career had done to her hormones. And the coach whose death became the reason she started her podcast.

Miesha is direct about what she got wrong: the war she waged with her own body, the intuition she overrode because she'd signed on the dotted line, and the mental health cost of being the "strong woman" everyone pointed to. She's also honest about what actually helped her rebuild, from cognitive behavioural therapy to prayer to learning, for the first time in her life, how to be present.

If you've ever confused discipline with self-punishment, this one will resonate.

You’ll learn:

[0:00] Introduction

[9:53] 99% of a cage fight happens inside your own head before the walk out

[15:20] How winning the belt became the biggest breaking point of Miesha’s life

[24:15] The eating disorder, the weight cuts, and drinking distilled water for 72 hours

[40:09] Women need 100 to 300 more calories in the luteal phase, and no diet accounts for it

[52:36] The pregnancy loss she believes was tied to years of under-fueling her body

[1:04:19] How prayer, reconnection, and a cognitive behavioral therapist pulled her out of the darkness

[1:14:40] The balloon exercise that taught her presence for the first time in her life

[1:25:57] Why Miesha believes public school was designed to divide the nuclear family

Resources Mentioned:

ROAR (Women Are Not Small Men) by Stacy T. Sims, PhD | Book

The Period Brain by Sarah E. Hill, PhD | Book

Hold On To Your Kids by Gabor Maté, MD and Gordon Neufeld, PhD | Book

When The Body Says No by Gabor Maté, MD | Book

Dr. Kayla Osterhoff | Website

Find more from Miesha:

Miesha Tate | Instagram | X | Website

Built for Growth | Podcast

Apogee Boise (Micro School) | Website

Find more from Ste:

Ste Lane | Instagram

Radical Health Radio | Instagram | YouTube

Heart and Soil Supplements | Website | Instagram | X | YouTube

Most people think big wave surfers are fearless. Luca says fear is the only place courage can exist.

Luca Padua is a big wave surfer from Half Moon Bay, California, who grew up two miles from Mavericks, one of the most dangerous waves on Earth. He surfed it for the first time at 13, lived with Laird Hamilton and Gabby Reece for six years, and now runs Bigger Than Waves, a project supporting veteran mental health through VETS.

What surprised me is how honest Luca is about being scared. He was the cautious kid his mom had to walk down the high dive.

He argues fear is intelligence, not weakness. Courage isn't innate; it's built through training, like the pool sessions with Laird that once made him black out. That framing runs through every story he tells, from his first drop at Mavericks with the jagged Boneyard rocks below him to sitting shoulder to shoulder with his childhood heroes in the lineup.

We also get into his path away from enlisting in the military, the letter from a special operations friend that changed his direction, and why he believes purpose has to come before performance.

You’ll learn:

[0:00] Introduction

[6:04] Big wave surfers aren't fearless, and the only place courage can exist

[10:33] The lore of Mavericks and what makes an 80-foot wave so deadly

[23:49] Luca’s fallout with his parents after that first Mavericks session, and finding his path forward

[37:16] The lesson Laird Hamilton taught him about being faithful in the small things

[42:01] Almost enlisting in the military, and how Bigger Than Waves and VETS was born

[53:48] What training with Ido Portal and Christian McCaffrey taught him about being a beginner

[1:00:39] Navigating social media as a distraction machine while staying on the righteous path

Resources Mentioned:

Laird Hamilton | Website

VETS (Veterans Exploring Treatment Solutions) | Website

The Almanack of Naval Ravikant by Eric Jorgenson | Book

Inside Maverick's: Portrait of a Monster Wave by Doug Acton | Book

In Waves and War | Netflix

Find more from Luca:

Luca Padua | Instagram | YouTube

Bigger Than Waves | Instagram | Website

Find more from Ste:

Ste Lane | Instagram

Radical Health Radio | Instagram | YouTube

Heart and Soil Supplements | Website | Instagram | X | YouTube