3 MINUTE MONDAY

Hi friend,

This week I found out I’m the 8th biggest podcast in the world.

Just… wild.

I’ve never worked so hard on anything in my life. The last few years have just been a permanent sprint. I’ve done 3 episodes a week for nearly 6 years now. I’ve done it with a snapped Achilles, I’ve done it on no sleep, I’ve done it with a broken heart, I’ve done 4 episodes in a day, I‘ve done it in Hawaii and Guatemala and Sydney. There hasn’t been a single bedroom of any house that I’ve lived in for a decade which I haven’t used as a studio.

I started this thing in 2018 in my old office in Newcastle upon Tyne with a single Blue Yeti USB microphone and an iPhone. Never took outside investment, never joined a network, never took money or paid money to bring a guest on the show.

Then this year I recorded with Alain de Botton, Naval Ravikant, McConaughey #2 on the set of Interstellar for episode 1000, Hormozi #5 for 4 hours, Cbum #3 post-retirement, and went on Rogan twice. It’s been so epic.

That being said, holy shit 2025 has been hard. It’s been the toughest 12 months of my life. I know it’s cool to make everything look effortless and like you’re never shaken up, but honestly my nuts have been kicked so many times that they’re 2 dimensional now. Holding all of this together hasn’t felt easy but I’m really proud that I did. The private victories are just as meaningful as the public ones.

Modern Wisdom is unbelievably personal to me. It’s a thinly veiled autobiography masquerading as a podcast. More importantly I genuinely think these conversations make the world a better place. They make people feel less alone and teach them what really matters in life. I don’t always have answers but I think I consistently ask the right questions to people who might do. Doing this has made me a better person, and I hope it’s done the same for you too.

What a wild wild ride man. Thank you for sticking with me. 2026 is going to be incredible. I’m not stopping.

I love you all x
​

Onto what I’ve been thinking about.

Imagine explaining modern fear to a caveman…

And yet, that’s the whole point.

We inherited a nervous system calibrated for lions, and we’re using it to navigate awkward conversations and underwhelming careers.

Evolution never updated the software, it just repurposed it.

Your ancestors needed courage to keep their bodies alive, you need courage to keep your identity intact.

It’s almost comic when you zoom out: the same species that once stared down hungry predators now breaks into a sweat trying to say “Something needs to change.”

But it’s not because we’ve become pathetic, it’s because the monsters changed shape.

Old dangers could kill your body; the new ones threaten your belonging.

Your whole biology gears up for exile from the village that only exists now as a group chat.

Your body still thinks you’ll die alone in the wilderness if you tell the truth - it’s the residue of a limbic system designed for a world that no longer exists.

And this is where the real suffering begins.

Not in the fear - but in your shame about the fear.

A voice inside says, “How dare you be upset by this? Other people had it so much worse. Don’t you know how small and feeble this makes you???”

Sure, maybe there were more kinetic threats in the past. But knowing that your life isn’t collapsing doesn’t stop your heart racing as if it is - it just makes you feel guilty for crying in the ancestral equivalent of a feather bed.

It’s not just the fear that hurts.

It’s the feeling that your fear is illegitimate.

That your emotions need to pass some mythical severity threshold before you’re “allowed” to feel them.

This is The Shame Of Small Fears; the belief that because your life is comfortable, your panic must be ridiculous.

But your nervous system doesn’t know that.

It only knows threat - and it reacts to a difficult conversation the same way it once reacted to a rustle in the dark.

Your biology is ancient, your circumstances are modern, and your feelings sit in the crossfire.

This is why modern bravery is both smaller and harder.

Smaller because the stakes are rarely life or death.

Harder because the threats are invisible.

You can’t swing an axe at uncertainty. You can’t outrun heartbreak.

So the new acts of courage are quieter.

Telling the truth.

Saying no.

Walking away from a career that looks great on paper but feels wrong in your chest.

Letting your friend down rather than letting yourself down.

Admitting you want more from your life than the version of you that other people are used to.

These aren’t heroic in the old sense, but they are valiant in a new one.

Because the modern world rarely demands danger from you, but it constantly requests honesty. And honesty is terrifying.

There’s no applause for doing the right thing.

No war medals for ending the wrong friendship.

No epic poems for learning to tell the truth gently.

But these are the decisions that actually shape your life.

Bravery now is knowing the world won’t end if you speak up, yet your stomach still drops as if it might… and doing it anyway.

Your nervous system doesn’t care whether the threat is a bear or a boundary, it reacts the same way.

So be gentle with yourself if you get scared by “normal” stuff. You’re allowed to feel the way you feel.

And shaming yourself for your emotions only adds a second wound to the first.

(also - absolutely DO NOT shame yourself for shaming yourself. Please be kind to yourself this week. I mean it <3)

​

MODERN WISDOM

I do a podcast where I pretend to have a British accent.
​

This week’s upcoming episodes:

Monday.
Brett Cooper - what is happening with the civil war inside of the Conservative commentator space right now? Listen now on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Thursday.
Thursday.
Macken Murphy - one of my favourite psychology nerds on the newest research into modern dating. “How many breakups have been due to penis size?” is in there. Really.

Saturday.
Joshua Citarella - how do we know when the Left has gone too far? What is the reality of spending a decade going into extreme political rabbit holes?

​

THINGS I'VE LEARNED

1.
​Sex Differences in the Use of Cosmetic Surgery

“Women accounted for 93.5% of cosmetic surgery procedures conducted in the UK in 2024.

The most popular procedures were breast augmentation, breast reduction, tummy tucks, eyelid surgery, and liposuction.

Men were far less likely to go under the cosmetic surgeon’s knife, but when they did, the most popular procedures were rhinoplasty, eyelid surgery, male breast reduction, ear correction, and liposuction.” — Steve Stewart-Williams

​

2.
​The Social Golden Rule.

“Put in the effort you hope to receive” — Billy Oppenheimer

​

3.
​What drives a lot of bad behaviour in men.

“It’s way easier to be a dick and get rejected than be a really great guy and get rejected.

It permanently allows them to have the excuse of ‘I could have got her if I’d really wanted to put the effort in, but I couldn’t be bothered’.” — Macken Murphy

​

LIFE HACK

Bed naps are overrated, sofa naps are underrated.

Self-explanatory, inarguably true.
​

Big love,
Chris x

Try my productivity drink Neutonic.
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PS
Don't forget you can access all episodes 10 hours earlier than YouTube by Subscribing on Spotify - https://spoti.fi/2LSimPn or Apple Podcasts - https://apple.co/2MNqIgw.