Growing Up with Delia Burgess

Erica Komisar, LCSW is a New York based psychoanalyst, parent coach and author. With 30 years of experience in private practice, she works to alleviate pain from individuals who suffer from depression, anxiety, eating, and other compulsive disorders.

A graduate of Georgetown and Columbia Universities and The New York Freudian Society, Erica is a psychological consultant bringing parenting and work/life workshops to clinics, schools, corporations, and childcare settings.

Erica is also the author of the book Being There: Why Prioritizing Motherhood in the First Three Years Matters and Chicken Little The Sky Isn’t Falling: Raising Resilient Adolescents in the New Age of Anxiety and has appeared on major media networks such as CBS, ABC, FOX, and NPR. She is a regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, New York Daily News, and FOX 5 NY. She is a Contributing Editor to the Institute for Family Studies.

She lives in New York City with her husband, optometrist, and social entrepreneur Dr. Jordan Kassalow with whom she has three teenage and young adult children.

We also discuss growing up in Detroit with that surname...

John Hittler is the co-founder of Evoking Genius, a transformational business-coaching firm based in San Jose, California. Father of seven, happily married, competitive athlete, and dedicated volunteer in the field of domestic violence, John spends his free time dancing Tango with his wife, cooking for his friends and family, and traveling to places he has not yet visited. John can be reached at evokinggenius.com

Grace Nikae began touring internationally as a concert pianist at 13 years old...

(I was going to ask her the definition of "child prodigy" and then found out she'd been on TV as a 3 y.o. solving algebraic equations and reading from a Mark Twain novel, so checks out.)

Grace has done many incredible things (e.g. after leaving her international solo career she wrote 8 best selling novels under a pseudonym, taught herself to code and somehow ended up as marketing director of a 5 star hotel in Hawaii, started a TikTok on leadership and grew her audience to 80k followers etc. etc.)

HOWEVER this conversation is really about the human story underneath all of that. Loneliness, suffering, isolation. What triggered the decision to leave music. Her attitude to following her curiosity. We all need to feel loved and that we belong 💛

Very special conversation xx

Dave Sherwood is Co-Founder and CEO of BibliU.

BibliU is an education technology company, specialising in digital textbook provision for universities.

Originally from Western Australia, Dave was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University but left his studies after 18 months having founded BibliU.

Georgie is a legend / lawyer based in Melbourne who is passionate about food & diet culture.

insta: @conceivingitall

podcast: Conceiving it All - the podcast

She sent me a million books / resources to include in the show notes:

ADHD

ADHD 2.0, Edward M Hallowell, Dr. John J. Ratey

Scattered Minds, Gabor Mate

Dr Arthur Stabolidis (psych in Melbourne does online stuff)

Body Image / Race / Criminal Justice System:

The Mother Wound, Amani Haydar

Witness, Louise Milligan

The Body is Not an Apology, Sonya Renee Taylor

More Than a Body, Lindsay & Lexie Kite

Unapologetic Eating, Alissa Rumsey

Hood Feminism, Mikki Kendall

Also:

A Little Life, Hanya Yanagihara

Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar, Cheryl Strayed

Untamed, Glennon Doyle

Kai lives in Tampere Finland. He is a ghostwriter, podcaster and former MMA fighter. @edge_of_obsess

Joshua "Blackstar" Boateng, professional boxer 3-0 (1KO)

Jimmy teaches argumentation and critical thinking as an associate professor at Crafton Hills College, California.

"To have four passionate, interesting, curious, intellectual, stimulating, motivated and driven adult children is by far my greatest pleasure and joy in life."

Jenny is a yoga teacher, breathwork, movement and meditation instructor based in London, UK. 

​Originally from the North East, her passion lies in connecting people to their bodies and their minds in an accessible, creative, and warm way. 

Jenny initially trained in Theatre, having been one of 4 girls out of 2000+ applicants to be accepted into the world renowned Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.

She then set up and ran a successful dance party company before training in yoga and fitness.

Mike Simon is a Somatic Coach, Movement Artist & Reiki Practitioner based in London.

Twitter: @themikegsimon

Ben Freeth, MBE is a British-born Zimbabwean farmer who successfully sued Mugabe in an international court in 2008. Since winning the lawsuit he has been harassed and his farm burnt to the ground. His family's story was told in a BAFTA nominated documentary, Mugabe and the White African (2009) and subsequently Ben's first book of the same title.

Shana is a psych student turned coach based in Pretoria. @thriveminds1

Henry Okraglik is the Global Director of Digital at WSP

Ron is back on the pod to talk about his new venture: bringing pickleball to Australia

Mark Burgess is studying an MA of Political Economy at King's College London.

Ian Taylor is a voice teacher based in London.

Recorded in August 2022

Benjamin Yeoh is a senior portfolio manager of global equities, he is also an award-winning playwright.

Ben shares ideas on sustainability, investing, autism, arts, theatre and how to live a better life at:

www.thendobetter.com / Ben Yeoh Chats podcast

Jimmy Hutton is a cognitive hypnotherapist helping clients live happier, freer, more connected lives free from the limiting beliefs holding them back.

www.jimmyhuttontherapy.co.uk

Neil Ganju is back.

Books mentioned:

The 48 Laws of Power - Robert Greene

You Are the Message: Getting What You Want by Being Who You Are - Roger Ailes

How to Win Friends and Influence People - Dale Carnegie

John Anthony Bird, Baron Bird, MBE is a British social entrepreneur and life peer in the House of Lords. He is best known as the co-founder of The Big Issue, a magazine sold by street vendors who are homeless or vulnerably-housed.

Bird was born in 1946 in a Notting Hill slum to a poor London Irish family. He became homeless at age of five, spent time in an orphanage, in young offenders institutions and prison during his youth.

In 1991, Bird launched The Big Issue with Gordon Roddick, co-founder of The Body Shop.

Bird was nominated for life peerage in October 2015 to become a non-party-political "people's peer", sitting as a crossbencher.

His work focuses on dismantling the root causes of poverty in the UK, with an emphasis on the well-being of future generations, early intervention and prevention.

John Collins has a PhD in nuclear physics. At 28 he was employed by De Beers to develop the world's first lab grown diamond. He is currently a non-faculty associate of the Cambridge Judge Business School and an Ethics & Responsible Innovation Advisor. His purpose is to help others achieve their purpose.

Listen to John's Growing Up episode at: Ep. 17 - Dr John Collins, PhD: inventing the lab grown diamond

Alex is a behavioural scientist and digital health researcher at Action Lab, Monash University with a passion for health, wellbeing, behavioural science and implementation.

Alex is passionate about utilising behavioural science, policy, and programmes to achieve health outcomes.

Jazz Singh was born in East London. He had a successful career in the City as a wealth manager before losing everything to drug addiction, ultimately ending up behind bars, spending three years in prison.

Jazz was released last April (2022) and emerged from prison with newfound clarity and purpose. His mission is to rehabilitate society's perception of prisoner leavers and seeks to ensure his life serves as an example not a warning to others, demonstrating that transformation and redemption are possible for anyone, regardless of their past.

Jazz serves as a Director of B-Radical, a profit-for-good organisation that helps businesses turn their diversity, Corporate Social Responsibility and 'Environmental Social and Governance' rhetoric into meaningful action by leveling the playing field for Radical people and communities.

Jazz seeks to create a society where everyone, regardless of their past or circumstances, has the opportunity to thrive and contribute meaningfully.

Susan Anderson is a practicing psychotherapist, founder of the Abandonment Recovery Program and author of 'The Journey from Abandonment to Healing: Surviving Through and Recovering from the Five Stages That Accompany the Loss of Love.'

Susan has over 30 years of clinical experience and research helping victims of abandonment trauma heal heartache, grief and shame and overcome patterns of self-sabotage.

Susan had her own adult abandonment experience when her beloved marital partner of almost 20 years suddenly left her for another woman.

Toby Young is a British social commentator. He is the founder and director of the Free Speech Union, an associate editor of The Spectator, and creator of the Daily Sceptic. He is the author of 'How to Lose Friends and Alienate People', a memoir about his time at Vanity Fair in New York, which became a bestseller and was adapted into a Hollywood film. Toby co-founded the West London Free School which opened in 2011. Following a higher education board appointment by then Prime Minister Theresa May in 2018, Toby faced a flood of criticism resulting in his resignation and the loss of four other roles.

Kristy McSweeney works in media and political strategy. She is the founder of the PR Counsel and regularly appears on Sky News. Kristy ran as the Liberal Party candidate for Swan in Western Australia at the 2022 federal election.

Leo van Veenendaal is the author of 'The Iboga Experience: Stories, experiences and advice from the sacred & secret plant that saves, heals, and transforms lives'

Leo is a Peru-based environmental engineer originally from Australia. For much of his adult life he suffered from IBS and treatment resistant depression & anxiety. At a point of desperation Leo began working with indigenous plant medicines, including Ayahuasca in Peru in 2016 to heal IBS and his brain.

In 2018 Leo was initiated into Iboga and Bwiti at Ebando in Gabon. He has continued working with and learning about plant medicines since. Working with Iboga totally transformed Leo's psyche and life. The relentless cloud of negative thoughts that haunted him vanished.

Leo is now apprenticing with plant medicines in Peru and hopes to open a retreat centre one day.

Resources:

If you need to speak to somebody urgently, there are people who will listen and help.

Shout:⁠ Text 'SHOUT' to 85258 (UK)⁠

Samaritans (Free call service)⁠: 116 123 (UK)

Outside the UK: Search 24/7 crisis support services to find services in your country