Episode Details

The most powerful thing a man can do is pause before he reacts.

Joel Laforet has been coaching bodies and minds for 28 years. He founded Awaken Yoga, built a garage gym, and is seven years sober — he recorded this conversation fresh off a kettlebell hike up Mount Erskine.

In this conversation we explore men's work and what it actually looks like to be strong and soft at once, how sobriety cleared the noise that kept Joel from hearing his own inner voice, the samskaras — old imprints — that run a man's life without his permission, early fatherhood at 21 and the years he wasn't the man he wanted to be, and why breaking a bad habit is less about willpower and more about learning to pause.

This is a raw, unpolished conversation between two men trying to figure out what it means to train hard, sit still, and still be very much a work in progress.

If this conversation moved something in you, a rating or review helps more men find this work. Martin's book, The Weary Traveller's Guide to a Life Worth Living, is available now.