About the Episode: Let’s say you are fat. Is that your fault? Can you really do anything about it? Can we predict that you’re gonna be fat when you’re gonna grow up? Or is that just because of how your parents raised you? This is just one of the many interesting topics that Professor Robert Plomin and I will get into today. Now Professor Plomin is a psychologist and geneticist best known for his work in twin studies and behavior genetics. He is ranked among the 100 most eminent psychologists in the history of science. Just let that sink in. Apart from his incredibly impressive scientific career, Robert also wrote a book with which he hopes to reach beyond the scientific community called “Blueprint: How DNA Makes Us Who We Are”. And I found out about all this by listening to a podcast he did with Sam Harris, after which I started wondering what the point even was of making the monocle moments podcast. We will talk about this. Other topics include whether or not parenting matters, the impact this may have on medical insurance, but mostly how the discoveries could make people’s lives better. Although Robert’s message is purely about his research, and he does not get into emotion all too much, I think you’ll enjoy Robert’s soft spokenness and honesty in this conversation. Shownotes: Book: https://amzn.to/30ldPj3 Email: [email protected] Find out about your own DNA: https://www.23andme.com/ Sam Harris Podcast with Robert Plomin: https://samharris.org/podcasts/211-the-nature-of-human-nature/ Intelligence Squared Debate: https://www.intelligencesquared.com/events/parenting-doesnt-matter-or-not-as-much-as-you-think/

Ananda works in the beauty industry, worked as a model and now she wrote the book “Poems of Recovery”. In this vulnerable conversation, we discuss her eating disorder, how she learned to open up about it, and what the recovery process looked like. We further get into dating while having an eating disorder. Lastly, we talk a bit about motorbikes because of our shared love for them. I hope you enjoy! Ananda’s Instagram https://www.instagram.com/anandaaaa/ Get Ananda's book on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2WUJplG Get Ananda’s Book on Boekscout: https://www.boekscout.nl/shop2/boek.php?bid=10708 Get Ananda's Book on Bol.com: https://www.bol.com/nl/p/poems-of-recovery/9300000006065197/?bltgh=pyrL-7NaIawXfk2inFRNQQ.1_4.5.ProductImage Amazon Link: Coming Soon! If your country is not in the list, just email [email protected] Marissa Klouwer - Helped Ananda a lot during recovery: https://www.instagram.com/marissaklouwer/ Current Sports Coach https://www.instagram.com/iamtaylorellis/

Chris Beljaars is the founder and CEO of Underdogs, where they teach ‘Underdogs’ to code and then they hire them for projects. Underdogs include prisoners, refugees and people with Autism. Chris also happens to be the master of storytelling and in this conversation we talk about how he got to underdogs, how he selects prisoners for the programme and how he rejects them if he has to. Furthermore, we talk a fair share about prejudice. Are people born a criminal? Lastly, we discuss how Chris went from Nerd to Super Social Nerd. I hope you enjoy! Shownotes: Website: https://underdogs.nl/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-beljaars-24728b60?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_profile_view_base_contact_details%3BU%2FrwKM96QciO3kXUBdf7fQ%3D%3D Phone: +31683658802 Lazarus Reflect discussed: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lazarus_sign#:~:text=The%20Lazarus%20sign%20or%20Lazarus,similar%20to%20some%20Egyptian%20mummies).

Myrthe Frissen is my guest today. She is the founder of Vegetables Without Border, which is an amazing project that was started in order to tackle food waste. However, once the project got going and started getting bigger, they realized it also helps bringing people together in meaningful ways, and it promotes healthy eating to people. So Myrthe is an MD herself, and she’s specializing in environmental medicine, and in this conversation we talk about vegetables without borders, we talk about what made her go vegan, why she doesn’t every really bring up that she is vegan, apart from in this conversation because I asked her, and we talk about changing human behaviour. And then in the end we also talk about why she decided to no longer work in the hospital. Enjoy! Shownotes: Vegetables Without Borders: Vegetables Without Borders (VWB) is a volunteer organization that saves surplus food from ending in the trash by cooking up a storm of delicious plant-based dishes and inviting fellow citizens for a free buffet.* The Rotterdam born initiative ended in the top 5 of national volunteer organizations in 2018, and is was invited to speak at the first edition of topconference “The Netherlands making an impact” (NMI). *Due to the measures concerning the coronacrisis the community center closed and the volunteers have set up the first 100% vegan foodbank to redirect their usual wastestreams to the people most in need, a spin-off named “Veggies to the Rescue”. About Myrthe Myrthe Frissen is a medical doctor and clinical researcher currently specializing in environmental medicine. You can contact her for further information about Vegetables Without Borders, plantbased nutrition and its environmental as well as health effects, zero-waste-cooking, recommendations for healthcare providers such as dieticians or any other question that come to mind after hearing this podcast (including how to be optimistic about hopeless futures). If you are ever in Rotterdam or Schiedam feel free to drop by the project and have dinner with us (reservations are recommended). Links: Website https://www.groentenzondergrenzen.nl/?lang=en Instagram https://www.instagram.com/groentenzondergrenzen_gzg/?hl=nl Mentioned Article (about the journalist who asked how she could be so happy) https://versbeton.nl/2019/12/ons-kent-ons-dineren-bij-groenten-zonder-grenzen/ Media Report VWB https://www.rijnmond.nl/media/95841/Groenten-Zonder-Grenzen-een-oplossing-voor-voedselverspilling-en-eenzaamheid The Game Changers https://gamechangersmovie.com/ Forks Over Knives https://www.forksoverknives.com/

In my discussion with Ninarosa, we talk about what it's like to be a Digital Nomad. Ninarosa has her own business for building strategic websites since 2016. Furthermore, she's has been all over the world, while still making money with her business and working hard from all those locations. We get into the fun and not so fun sides of the Digital Nomad life, we talk about surfing and horseback riding, morning routines, and interesting stories from being a Digital Nomad.  I hope you all enjoy!

James Orrigo is a Social Entrepreneur & Motivational Entertainer who uses original music to entertain & personal stories to inspire. When he was in high school, he suffered from a severe brain injury. During his recovery, he discovered a passion for using music to help others, especially his mother battling terminal cancer. His life is a testament to the power of overcoming adversity, never giving up, & living purposefully through service to others. His innovative programs are preserving legacies & stress the importance of living a meaningful life. Orrigo has worked with top companies including Children's Cancer Research Fund, Google, FastCap, Toontastic, Foundation Medicine and more. James and I talk more in depth about these experiences and we uncover how he deals with the grief, how he brings happiness, ways that other people can do this too and much more. Enjoy!

Dr. Mark Goulston is the best selling author of seven books including “Just Listen,” which became the top book on listening in the world, is one of the world’s pre-eminent experts on empathic listening and speaks globally on that topic. He is an executive coach, advisor and confidante to CEOs from entrepreneurs to the Fortune 500 and helps them become more impactful by increasing their non-technical skills to match their technical skills. He has been a UCLA professor of psychiatry for more than twenty years, trained FBI and police hostage negotiators and been one of the country’s leading experts on suicide prevention co-creating and moderating the multi-honored documentary, Stay Alive: An Intimate Conversation About Suicide Prevention. He hosts the all 5/5 reviewed podcast, My Wakeup Call, where he interviews influencers like Lauren, Larry King, Ken Blanchard, Norman Lear and many others about wakeup calls that changed their lives. Find out more about him at: markgoulston.com. Enjoy!

Kevin Langeree is one of the world’s best Kitesurfers, professional YouTuber and Entrepreneur. He won the most important kitesurfing competition, The King Of The Air, no less than 3 times! Furthermore, his YouTube show the KevVlog has been growing steadly, some videos have over half a million views. My personal favourite is “If it ain’t Dutch, it ain’t much”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wCe1DT6Ww4 Since 2020, his new kite brand ReedinKites is in full production and you can now get their products. Make sure to check out: https://www.reedinkites.com/ In this conversation we talk about what it looks like to prepare for a competition, to follow you passion, nature vs nurture in kiting, the struggles of being a pro athlete, entrepreneur and content creator at the same time, and much more. Enjoy!

Whatsup.Tony is a growing content maker on Instagram (25k Followers) and Facebook. He currently works for Nas Daily during the week and creates his own videos during the weekend. In his videos, his signature is it’s focus on compassionate videos, smiles and relatable life lessons. In this episode we get into how he got to where he is today, how he met Nas.Daily and the difficulties in becoming a full-time content creator. Enjoy! You can find him on Instagram: @Whatsup.Tony https://www.instagram.com/whatsup.tony/ On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Whatsuptonyofficial NasDaily www.NasDaily.com https://www.facebook.com/nasdaily/

Loic is a data scientist and probably one of the most rational people I know. It seems like he has pondered on every topic in existence and has smart things to say about them. He is really good at learning and teaching. In this episode we get into learning and teaching, coding, riddles, mathematics and financial independence. At the end I ask some difficult questions from the book of questions which gets us into some interesting discussions. SnowNotes: Why we sleep https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1501144324/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1501144324&linkCode=as2&tag=monocle03-20&linkId=5960b2fb80a38d287f52a96270d36b3a Kurtzgezagt https://www.youtube.com/user/Kurzgesagt Article about what we called "The Boundry of Knowledge": https://ardalis.com/the-more-you-know-the-more-you-realize-you-dont-know Video explaining the picture of a black hole: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_GVbuddri8 Code for the toilet paper numbers (requires jupyter notebook for graph): https://github.com/loicrw/Random-problems/blob/master/Random%20Problems/Toilet%20Paper%20Numbers.ipynb Math olympiad that talks about invariants and how difficult it is to gauge question difficulty: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M64HUIJFTZM Video about why your friends have more friends than you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEjhO65FYks Rotterdam ai bootcamp link: https://lovelacecamp.ai About going back to your "base happiness": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedonic_treadmill The Egg short story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6fcK_fRYaI Let's plant 1,000,000 trees! https://teamtrees.org/ Loic's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lo%C3%AFc-rold%C3%A1n-waals-60b51383/