Prevention is Cure

From the Hardiness podcast with Dr Paul Taylor

If you think ease and comfort are the keys to happiness, think again. This episode explores how deliberately embracing life's challenges, through movement, fasting, cold exposure, and mental resilience, can transform your health, happiness, and purpose. Grant Schofield, an esteemed researcher and author, reveals that life's true reward lies in choosing the hard path, strong in the knowledge that it leads to a more vibrant, resilient life.       

Choose your path, and in doing so, choose your future. And for those ready to take action, Grant’s new book Choose Your Hard distils these powerful principles into actionable step because the path to a better life is a deliberate choice.

00:00 The Role of an Emeritus Professor
02:57 The Academic Publishing Industry
05:54 Understanding Misogi and Personal Challenges
09:00 Fasting and Autophagy Explained
12:01 The Science of Metabolism and Immune Function
15:04 Psychological Aspects of Fasting
17:58 Preparing for a Fast: Strategies and Mindset
20:58 Physical Responses and Adaptations During Fasting
25:51 The Role of Stress in Health
27:28 Choosing Your Hard: Embracing Life's Challenges
35:19 Agency and Responsibility in Health
40:10 Movement: The Foundation of Health
46:43 Dopamine: The Devil's Seesaw
52:41 Hard vs. Soft Dopamine: Resetting the System
53:28 The Irony of Pleasure and Pain
55:24 Facing the Elements: Hot and Cold Exposure
01:01:38 Understanding Emotions and Their Ownership
01:05:18 Finding Meaning and Purpose in Life

Prof Grant Schofield is joined by Sam Schofield on this episode that dives deep into the placebo, and 'nocebo' effect, exploring how belief, self-narrative, and perceived feedback can measurably change your physiology, performance, and recovery. From Roger Bannister's four-minute mile to sham knee surgeries, sleep score dangers, and the milkshake study, this episode makes the case that the mind is the most underused lever in health and medicine.

Prof. Grant Schofield and Kayla dive into the science and break down the five key hormones controlling appetite, insulin, leptin, ghrelin, the incretins (GIP & GLP-1), and cortisol and explain why willpower alone can never beat a dysregulated hormonal system. They explore metabolic flexibility, why cycling in and out of ketosis is normal human physiology (not a fad), and how exercise context should drive your fuelling strategy.

What if the secret to a long, healthy life isn't making things easier, it's choosing the right kind of hard?
In this episode, Prof. Grant Schofield and Kayla sit down to celebrate the launch of Grant's new book, Choose Your Hard: The Science of Doing Hard Sh*t to Build Health That Lasts a Lifetime.

They unpack the seven truths behind lasting health and performance, from the biology of hormesis and the dopamine trap, to nutrition, facing the elements, managing distraction, owning your emotions, and finding meaning.

Whether you're a high performer or just starting out, this episode will challenge you to stop chasing the easy path and start choosing your hard, deliberately and with purpose.

Grant and Kayla follow up on Claude's viral AI essay with Claude's own response, they unpack new research on AI-induced "delusional spirals," a Nobel laureate economist's dire warning about AI and human thinking, and the cultural moment we're in with films like WALL-E and Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die.

Then stay tuned to hear about nutrition: the omega-3 to omega-6 ratio crisis, a landmark 1.8-million-person study on vegan diets and colorectal cancer, why minced beef may build muscle better than steak in older adults, and the sobering reality that modern fruits and vegetables contain a fraction of the nutrients they did in 1950.