December 3, 2025

Tracy Doyle

Does any of this this sound like you at all: A professional woman who “has it all together” on the outside—but feels emotionally bankrupt, underappreciated or disconnected on the inside. You’re burned out from the load at work, you are getting cross with people because they don’t get you, appreciate you or live up to your standards, and your personal relationships are suffering. You’re reactive rather than being calm when you are questioned, challenged or under stress. Your brain is consistently feeding you reasons to feel distrustful, inadequate, hopeless. You seek validation from others. Everything seems to escalate into a “storm,” and you don’t know how to stop it. 

If any of this rings true, then you need Tracy Doyle’s new book Life Storms: Finding Your Clear Sky: Practices to Overcome Negative Thinking, Build Connection and Find Fulfillment. Through deep examination of her own experience, Tracy identified the roots of burnout that led to the Reaction Cascade which spiraled into self-centered thinking -- fueling her conflicts, uncontrolled emotions, and disconnection in relationships.

Life Storms offers Tracy’s Aurora Method, 8 practices that create mindful awareness, revamped thinking and actions that lead to a calm life of fulfillment and relationship success at work and home. In other words, Clear Skies.  

Discovering these processes was no easy task for Tracy Doyle! It took years to come to terms with the homelife trauma that marred her way forward—an undiagnosed bipolar mother; an alcoholic absent step-father; an uncle who sexually abused her; children in the neighborhood who bullied and sexually assaulted her; a mother and drug-addicted, mentally ill half-sister who felt entitled to be supported by her. 

Nevertheless, Tracy put herself through college (the first in her family), got a degree in psychology and counseling, worked in a clinic, then discovered an unexpected opportunity in pharmaceutical sales and ultimately built her own international multi-million-dollar company in medical communications. Along the way, she received multiple regional honors, including the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in Healthcare Solutions and Services, and was featured by Forbes, Entrepreneur, and Inc. as one of the region’s most dynamic female business leaders.

Tracy was also very successful financially as she climbed the ladder, but the road was never easy, and her thinking and behavior shaped by her early life experiences affected all interpersonal relationships, stalling her progress. She did not recognize the signs of emotional burnout as she spiraled into unkind, demanding, arrogant self-centered thinking and behavior. She never felt recognized, appreciated or understood. It wreaked havoc at work and nearly cost her the love of her life. In her mid-30s the pressure reached a breaking point. Tracy painfully recounts her traumatic upbringing, her many missteps, the turning point, and the slow movement forward as she taught herself a different way. 

Eventually, through therapy, intense inner work, reading books authored by leading figures who each held a piece of the puzzle and her own counseling experience, Tracy realized that she was the catalyst for why her life was filled with storms she created or was unable to respond appropriately to. She sought clear skies—and began creating the practices that would ultimately make up The Aurora Method—and free her from the past. 

The 8 practices in The Aurora Method open the way to:

Redirecting fear-based and self-centered thinking Letting go of the past hurt and release the weight of resentment Strengthening emotional security from the inside out Restoring connection in one’s personal and professional relationships Embracing daily mindfulness as the foundation for inner peace Navigating life’s daily turbulence with clarity, courage and purpose. 

Today, Tracy has grown a highly successful coaching practice helping women escape the recurring thinking and fear driving their emotional burnout and unfulfilled lives, no matter how successful they are! Through her book, masterclasses, and eight-week course, Tracy empowers professional women to break free from the patterns keeping them stuck, so they can lead their lives with calm, clarity, and confidence — reminding them that no matter how turbulent life feels, clear skies are always within reach.

Emotional Health and Freedom, Personal Development, Inspirational, Motivational

United States

Tracy Doyle is a nationally recognized entrepreneur, emotional wellness advocate, and author of Life Storms: Finding Your Clear Sky. Her journey from a childhood shaped by trauma and instability to becoming an award-winning business leader and resilience coach is a testament to the power of reinvention and healing.

After building a multimillion-dollar medical communications company and earning regional accolades like the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, Tracy faced a breaking point: emotional burnout. This personal crisis became the catalyst for her transformation and the creation of the Aurora Method—a practical, psychology informed, mindfulness-based framework helping professional women overcome burnout, reshape limiting beliefs, and reconnect with themselves and others.

Through her book, masterclasses, and eight-week course, Tracy empowers professional women to break free from the patterns keeping them stuck, so they can lead their lives with calm, clarity, and confidence — reminding them that no matter how turbulent life feels, clear skies are always within reach.

December 4, 2025

Joel Steele

My purpose is to entertain and inspire people! Through my new book, Life Switch, I share all of the entertaining and lesson-packed highs and lows I've experienced personally and professionally. Everyone is pre-wired for success and happiness, but not everyone knows how to flip the switch to power on the best version of themselves. That's exactly what I aim to do with readers, listeners and watchers.

To further impact the world in a positive way, I am donating $1 million to charity if Life Switch sells 1 million copies. Each reader has a chance to made a real difference and be a part of something that has never been done before!

Business, Health & Lifestyle, Kids & Family, Psychology, Personal Development, Self Help, Inspirational, Motivational, Sports & Recreation

USA

Joel Steele is living proof that your lowest moments can lead to your greatest breakthroughs. By age 25, he’d faced bankruptcy, near-death experiences, and life on the edge. But through raw self-awareness and bold decision-making, Joel flipped the switch—and completely rewired his life.

Today, Joel is a financial expert, entrepreneur, author of the new book Life Switch, keynote speaker, and a member of the ownership group of two professional sports teams. He’s also a devoted husband and father who believes living a rich life isn’t measured just by money.

December 4, 2025

Brent Johnson

I am the host of The Global Freedom Report.  I am also the author of The American Sovereign: How to Live Free from Government Regulation, which is the #1 book on sovereignty in the world! For 35 years I have successful taught people how to free themselves from government regulation, protect their property, and reduce or eliminate their liabilities and taxes. I teach freedom from government, as the Founding Fathers intended,  I am a great guest and an excellent host with a tremendous show.

Entertainment, News, Local News, World News, Local, National, World, Regional

US

Brent Johnson is host of the long running #1 hit freedom talk show The Voice of Freedom, and also hosts the hit show, The Global Freedom Report, the only freedom variety show in the world!Brent is also the author of The American Sovereign: How to Live Free from Government Regulation, the spiritual book, The Quiet Voice of God, and his newest book, The Pursuit of Happiness: Freedom and the Human Spirit. He has a superb web site at www.freedomradio.us; where you can also listen to The Voice of Freedom podcasts and webcasts; you can link from there to The Global Freedom Report, too.  You can also call him toll-free at 888-385-3733 that’s 888-385-FREE. For more than thirty years, Brent has had great success teaching those who want to know practical, genuinely workable methods on how to live free from the endless encroachment of Big Brother.  He is bureaucratically invisible and is left alone by the IRS and not harassed at all by government regulators.  Brent is a truly modern day freedom fighter.

December 5, 2025

Sharmeen

I'm the Founder and CEO of Lyyvora, a Lending-as-a-Service platform transforming funding for North American healthcare practices. After leading product design teams in France and Canada and building award-winning enterprise products, I set out to solve a simple but critical problem: clinics with perfect repayment records still wait weeks for a "maybe." My own experience with 47 bank rejections sparked our streamlined approach, and today, we're actively managing deals from $20K to $2M, with multiple lender partnerships live across Canada and the U.S.

Arts, Design, Business, Investing and Finance

Canada

Sharmeen Aqeel is the Founder and CEO of Lyyvora, a lending platform built for healthcare clinics. She helps clinics get funding without dealing with bank delays or confusing lender rules. Her background is in product and UX design, with more than 13 years leading design teams in fintech and software companies across Canada and France. She has interviewed dozens of clinic owners to understand their financial challenges and uses those insights to connect them with the right lenders through one streamlined process. Her work focuses on making funding easier, faster, and more transparent for clinics that want to grow.

December 8, 2025

Marc J Defant PhD

I recently published a peer-reviewed paper in Sexuality & Culture titled “Evolutionary Psychology and the Crisis of Empirical Rigor in Feminist Studies.” Follow this link if you are interested in seeing the paper: https://rdcu.be/eOkj. The paper argues that much of modern feminist scholarship has drifted from empirical science into ideology, rejecting biological and psychological evidence that explains sex differences in behavior, preferences, and outcomes. Drawing on research in evolutionary psychology, neuroscience, and behavioral biology, I examine topics such as the gender pay gap, patriarchy, and rape theory through an evidence-based lens -- and show how the data tell a very different story from what’s usually taught in feminist studies on campus or in "woke" media.

I believe your audience would be interested in an honest, data-driven discussion of these issues -- one that challenges dogma but stays grounded in peer-reviewed science. I’d be happy to discuss the paper and would welcome the opportunity to appear on your podcast to discuss its findings and implications for academic freedom and public discourse.

Earth & Space, Cosmology, Philosophy, Physics & Metaphysics, Psychology, Biology & Chemistry, Climate Change

United States

Marc J. Defant is a professor of geology/geochemistry at the University of South Florida. Before he became involved in research related to the misuse or misunderstanding of science by society, he specialized in the study of volcanoes—more specifically, the geochemistry of volcanic rocks, the associated processes within the mantle, and the origin of the continental crust. He has been funded by the National Science Foundation, National Geographic, the American Chemical Society, and the National Academy of Sciences, and has published in many internationally renowned scientific journals including Nature. He has written a book entitled Voyage of Discovery: From the Big Bang to the Ice Age and published several articles for general readership magazines such as Skeptic, Free Inquiry, and Popular Science and appeared on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast. He has been Editor of Geology and an Associate Editor of the Journal of Geophysical Research. Dr. Defant was also invited by the Chinese Government to be a keynote speaker at a symposium on the continental crust and has given invited talks at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Columbia University, Universitè de Bretagne (Brest, France), University of California at Los Angeles, University of Georgia and Tennessee, and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, as well as many others. Defant was one of the first American scientists allowed to work on volcanoes in the isolated and militarily sensitive area of Kamchatka, Russia, when it was still part of the old Soviet system through a cooperative joint grant between the Soviet Academy of Sciences and the National Science Foundation. He has presented a Tedx talk on Why We are Alone in the Galaxy. 

December 9, 2025

Shannan Kym

As “New Year, New You” stories take shape, author and TEDx speaker Shannan Kym offers a refreshingly authentic perspective on recovery and reinvention. In Find The Answers Within You: Ten Pathways Toward Self-Discovery, Shannon draws on her six years of sobriety, 80-pound weight loss, escape from an abusive marriage, and journey toward becoming a bodybuilder and motivational speaker to share a framework for lasting change rooted in lived experience.

Please refer to the press release below for additional information, and let me know if you would be interested in speaking with Shannan or seeing a review copy of the book. Watch the book trailer here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1M_AEgYAH7QNH2I7qF0z_wiwLSrz_0Csy/view.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

From Addiction and Trauma to Empowerment: New Book Reveals 10 Pathways for Real, Lasting Change

NEW YORK, Dec. 9, 2025 — Shannan Kym grew up in a family where addiction, violence, and extreme dysfunction were normalized. Robbed of her childhood, she was forced to grow up at a very young age. For years, she abused her body, gained excessive weight, and let herself be taken advantage of by toxic people, including the narcissist she married. She experienced career highs and lows and suffered the loss of a child. Eventually, Kym hit rock bottom, but on August 17, 2019, everything changed. That day, she made up her mind to stop letting addiction control her life. She also decided to get real, let go of her past hurts, embrace forgiveness, and focus on living each day with gratitude, purpose, light, and love.

In her new book, Find The Answers Within You: Ten Pathways Toward Self-Discovery, Kym reveals her tragedies and triumphs, and shares 10 pathways for readers to be inspired to live by.

In Part I, Kym tells her story of trauma and addiction. Part II follows her healing journey. In Part III, she presents readers with a guide to achieving change and discovering their own life’s purpose: “Ten Pathways to Rise Above Your Past and Live a Harmonious Life.” Filled with spiritual insights and practical lessons, the pathways include:

Awakening. Starting with a lightbulb moment, awakening involves clearly seeing all the trauma in your own life, understanding how it triggered your addiction, and acknowledging that you have the power to break free.

Responsibility. Being responsible requires the courage to face yourself, rather than continue living in denial or blaming others, and take control of the life you want to live and the person you want to be.

Forgiveness. Forgiving others is only part of this pathway. You also need to forgive yourself for tolerating, enabling, and perpetuating abuse.

Wanting. What do you really want for yourself and your life moving forward? Finding the answers begins with daring to ask yourself that question.

Find The Answers Within You: Ten Pathways Toward Self-Discovery

Publisher: Balboa Press

Release Date: January 20, 2026

ISBN: 979-8765262719

Available from https://www.amazon.com/Find-Answers-Within-You-Self-Discovery/dp/B0FRNHCQFY

Arts, Literature, Health & Lifestyle, Psychology, Mental Health, Self Help, Spiritual

USA

Shannan Kym is an internationally award-winning author, TEDx public speaker, certified professional life coach, and transformational mentor. After breaking free from the grip of alcoholism and childhood abuse, she found her purpose to share her life story to help others unravel their past, overcome the genetic blueprint of addiction and abuse, and find their own greatness. She lives in Alberta, Canada, and travels to the States extensively.  

December 10, 2025

Adaku Mbagwu

Guest: Adaku Mbagwu — Founder, The Healed Hero Community | Creator of The Strategic Vulnerability Method™ | Global Voice for First-Born Daughter Leadership Psychology

Adaku Mbagwu is redefining leadership for high-achieving women. As the global authority on First-Born Daughter Leadership Psychology and creator of The Strategic Vulnerability Method™, she brings a timely, transformative lens to burnout, identity, and emotional power — especially for women who have spent a lifetime being “the strong one.”

Her story is powerful and deeply relatable. Born in Nigeria as the first daughter in a large family, Adaku became an emotional and practical caretaker long before she had a childhood. After her family lost everything and moved to the UK, that sense of responsibility intensified. She learned to survive by over-functioning — a pattern that later led to severe burnout, emotional collapse, and a failed suicide attempt early in her career.

Her turning point came through intensive spiritual and emotional healing. As she rebuilt herself from the inside out, she discovered the psychological patterns that shape first-born daughters worldwide: over-responsibility, hyper-independence, emotional suppression, and the belief that love must be earned through service. Using the tools she developed in her recovery, she went on to build a multimillion-pound business, proving that healing isn’t separate from success — it fuels it.

Yet even at the height of financial achievement, she felt spiritually misaligned. Choosing purpose over comfort, she walked away from the business she built and stepped fully into her calling: guiding first-born daughters to break generational patterns and embody a new form of leadership rooted in emotional truth, inner safety, and authentic power.

Today, Adaku leads The Healed Hero Community, a global movement supporting eldest daughter executives and entrepreneurs in transforming burnout into ease, clarity, and sustainable success. Her work blends psychology, spirituality, leadership development, and trauma-informed identity work — offering a voice the world urgently needs.

This topic is especially relevant now. Women’s burnout has reached historic levels. Eldest daughters are trending globally as millions begin recognizing shared emotional patterns. Corporations are searching for solutions that go deeper than surface-level wellbeing programs. And high-performing women are craving success that doesn’t cost them their mental and emotional health.

Adaku speaks directly to these women — and to the leaders who support them. She explains why first-born daughters rise quickly yet often feel isolated at the top, how childhood roles shape leadership styles, and why Strategic Vulnerability is becoming the next frontier of effective leadership.

Radio-friendly talking points include:

The First-Born Daughter Identity Trap

Why so many successful women feel alone at the top

The emotional burden of being “the strong one”

How childhood roles shape business and leadership patterns

Why eldest daughters burn out faster — even when thriving professionally

Strategic Vulnerability: the leadership skill women were never taught

How healing became the foundation of a multimillion-pound business

How high-achieving women can break over-functioning without guilt

Listeners will gain empowering, practical insights:

How to identify the emotional patterns behind burnout

How to shift from emotional labor to emotional power

How to create boundaries without guilt

How to receive support without feeling weak

How to build success that feels aligned, not exhausting

Adaku is a rare voice — blending lived experience, spiritual depth, and business credibility. She offers a fresh, necessary conversation for today’s climate: how high-achieving women can succeed without abandoning themselves.

She would be a powerful and resonant guest for your show.

Business, News, Careers, Management, Courses & Training, Education Technology, Psychology, Self Help, Spiritual

Mexico

Born in Nigeria as the first daughter in a family of seven, Adaku grew up carrying adult responsibilities long before she had a childhood. After her family’s sudden financial collapse, she became emotionally and practically responsible for her mother and siblings, learning early to perform, provide, and solve problems. These survival patterns later propelled her into a high-performance career where she built a £2.4 million recruitment company - yet they also led to burnout, emotional disconnection, and a breaking point that left her questioning who she was and what she wanted.

Her journey through meditation, spiritual practice, trauma healing, and intensive coaching became the foundation of her life’s work. Today, Adaku teaches firstborn daughters how to break cycles of overfunctioning, perfectionism, and emotional suppression while stepping into leadership grounded in peace, power, and authentic self-expression.

Through The Healed Hero Community, Adaku guides executives, entrepreneurs, and emerging leaders through her transformative Strategic Vulnerability methodology that integrates subconscious healing, emotional mastery, and conscious leadership. Her mission is to impact 100,000 firstborn daughters worldwide and disrupt the unspoken patterns that hold back some of the world’s most capable women.

Adaku currently works with clients globally through her membership, private coaching, live events, and corporate partnerships.

December 10, 2025

Dr Joan Hangarter AKA Joan of Angels

A guest your audience won’t just listen to — they’ll feel.

Dr. Joan Hangarter—widely known as Joan of Angels—is a no-nonsense, destiny-activating force of nature who helps spiritually awakening women retrieve the gifts they hid to survive… and step into the destiny they’ve been carrying for lifetimes. She is the creator of Soul Blueprint Activation™, a transformational method that guides women into the next incarnation within this lifetime — without the breakdown, confusion, or spiritual chaos that usually comes with awakening.

What makes Joan special isn’t just her message.
It’s the way she delivers it.

A rare fusion of clinician, intuitive, channel, and visionary artist, Joan blends neuroscience, soul-code retrieval, multidimensional psychology, and galactic insight into a grounded, practical, deeply activating conversation that listeners experience as a transmission, not information.

For more than 40 years, Joan has helped thousands reclaim their voice, recover lost confidence, and reconnect with their true purpose… especially women 45+ who suddenly find themselves asking, “Who am I now?”
What others call a breakdown, Joan calls a coded initiation.
What others see as being “lost,” Joan recognizes as the moment destiny finally takes over.

Your audience will feel that.

WHAT MAKES JOAN A MAGNETIC GUEST

On air, Joan brings clarity, warmth, humor, and high-frequency energy that lifts the entire conversation. She speaks to what so many women secretly feel but rarely put into words:

Why midlife feels like a spiritual earthquake Why everything that once worked… suddenly doesn’t Why identity theft, illness, divorce, loss, or collapse often precede spiritual awakening Why women hide their gifts — and what happens the moment they decide to reclaim them

Joan is particularly gifted at translating cosmic messages into grounded steps people can apply immediately.
Listeners walk away feeling seen, empowered, and reconnected to something ancient inside them.

This is why she’s been featured on Coast to Coast AM, global summits, metaphysical podcasts, and transformational platforms worldwide.

THE STORY THAT HOOKS AUDIENCES

Joan doesn’t teach theory.
She embodies what she teaches.

After losing everything — her home, stability, identity, and sense of purpose — Joan experienced a spontaneous awakening that opened her intuitive gifts, her channel, and her now-famous angelic and galactic artwork. Her paintings carry channeled frequencies that support healing, remembrance, and destiny activation.

This story alone makes her unforgettable, deeply relatable, and emotionally compelling.

TOPICS JOAN DELIVERS BRILLIANTLY ON AIR

• Soul Blueprint Activation™: Why your destiny begins exactly where you feel most broken
• Midlife Awakening: Reinvention after 45 as a spiritual initiation
• Multidimensional Healing: Navigating intuitive reactivation, timeline shifts, and identity expansion
• Destiny Mapping: How to decode the signs, synchronicities, and inner whispers guiding your next chapter
• Star Lineages & Cosmic Identity: Understanding your galactic inheritance and why it matters now
• The Psychology of Spiritual Emergence: How to stay grounded while awakening fast

She bridges two worlds — the grounded science of transformation and the cosmic realms of higher consciousness.

That duality = host gold.

 WHY BOOK HER NOW

Your audience will not forget her.
They will screenshot the episode.
They will share it with friends.

Joan doesn’t give “interviews.”
She creates experiences.

As a gift to your listeners, she offers a complimentary Holiday Soul Vision Clarity Session — a 45-minute guided activation that helps women reconnect to their inner truth and step powerfully into the next stage of their destiny.

Joan is also the Executive Producer of the New Living Expo and a featured collaborator with Portal to Ascension, placing her at the center of the global consciousness movement.

If your audience is ready to remember who they are…

Joan is the guide who opens that door.

 

Alternative Health, Paranormal, Near Death Experiences, Inspirational, Motivational, Access Consciousness, Angel Communication, Mystic & Seer, Psychic & Intuitive

United States

Dr. Joan Hangarter—widely known as Joan of Angels—is the woman women turn to when their old life collapses and their real destiny begins. A transformational guide, intuitive channel, and visionary artist with 40+ years as a Doctor of Chiropractic and counselor, Joan brings a rare fusion of clinical precision, multidimensional seeing, and galactic intelligence into one revolutionary method: Soul Blueprint Activation™.

Where most mentors teach mindset, Joan works at the level of soul-coded memory—helping spiritually awakening women 45+ retrieve the gifts they hid to survive, reclaim the power they abandoned to stay safe, and step into the higher timeline they’ve been carrying for lifetimes.

Her own awakening was forged through profound dissolution—losing everything she relied on and emerging with psychic sight, visionary painting abilities, and a direct connection to higher realms. Her angelic and galactic portraits are considered “frequency transmissions,” activating remembrance and realignment in those who view them.

Joan’s work stands apart because she blends:

Neuroscience + spiritual psychology (for grounded transformation)

Intuitive mapping + destiny timelines (for clarity and direction)

Star lineage and multidimensional awareness (for cosmic remembrance)

40 years of clinical and mentoring experience (for real-world embodiment)

This is her secret sauce: she bridges the cosmic and the clinical—making mystical revelation not only accessible but actionable.

Featured on Coast to Coast AM, dozens of metaphysical and empowerment podcasts, and global summits, Joan is also Executive Producer of the New Living Expo, placing her at the leading edge of the consciousness movement.

Her most in-demand speaking topics include:
• Soul Blueprint Activation™
• Midlife awakening & reinvention
• The psychology of spiritual emergence
• Intuitive reactivation & destiny mapping
• Star lineage remembrance
• Multidimensional healing across lifetimes

Joan’s interviews don’t just inspire—they activate. Listeners consistently describe her presence as warm, disarming, deeply intuitive, and life-changing. She carries the unusual ability to speak cosmic truth in grounded language, helping people feel seen, validated, and guided into the next chapter of their lives.

If your audience is ready to remember who they truly are, Joan of Angels is the one who opens that door.

Core interview themes include:

🌟 Why so many women feel “lost” or disconnected in midlife
Joan reveals how identity crises, breakdowns, and “dark nights” are actually initiations coded into the Soul Blueprint. She explains how to tell the difference between being lost and being called.

🌟 Soul Blueprint Activation
How to retrieve one’s original gifts, purpose, confidence, and inner knowing.
How to identify what part of your destiny is “timed” to unfold now.
How the nervous system interacts with spiritual awakening.

🌟 Intuitive Reactivation & Timeline Shifts
Why intuition shuts down (especially after 45).
What it feels like when it reawakens.
How to step out of the “old self” timeline and into your true trajectory.

🌟 Spiritual Emergence vs. Emergency
Joan breaks down the psychology of awakening in a way that empowers—not frightens—those going through profound transformation.

🌟 Galactic Memory & Star Lineages (optional for metaphysical shows)
How galactic consciousness interfaces with personal destiny.
Why more people are remembering their multidimensional origins now.
How star codes can accelerate healing and reinvention.

Joan’s Story
Her own collapse and rebirth is a central part of what makes her relatable and compelling:
She lost everything—her home, identity, and sense of direction—then underwent a profound awakening during which angelic and galactic visions began coming through her artwork. These portraits now carry channeled frequencies that support healing and remembrance.

This lived experience makes Joan uniquely suited to guide listeners through their own transitions, initiations, and rebirths.

Audience Takeaways:
Listeners walk away from her interviews feeling:
• seen and validated
• hopeful and empowered
• awakened to their deeper gifts
• clearer about their purpose
• less afraid of change
• more connected to their intuition

December 12, 2025

Sharon Niv PhD

As co-founder of Joyous, Sharon has helped build the largest psychedelic medicine company in history, treating over 84,000 patients with a revolutionary approach to mental health that combines cutting-edge neuroscience, artificial intelligence, and a radically reimagined business model that's disrupting the entire psychiatric industry.

While traditional antidepressants struggle to achieve 30% response rates, Joyous delivers 68% response rates for depression with effect sizes exceeding 2.0. They've achieved this while maintaining zero serious adverse events across their massive patient population, creating what may be the best risk-reward profile ever documented in mental healthcare.

Sharon brings a unique cognitive science perspective on why this works, having developed a theory that combines trauma processing, nervous system regulation, consciousness studies, and predictive processing. Her framework explains how daily low-dose ketamine creates a "psycholytic" state - a partial dissociation that allows patients to fully experience the nervous system sensations associated with anxiety, depression, and trauma while maintaining a phenomenological experience of spaciousness. Instead of being overwhelmed by these sensations, patients can finally feel and release them from a place of safety. The brain's predictive processing mechanisms, normally locked in loops of threat detection and negative prediction, get a chance to update their models. It's like being able to feel the storm while standing in the eye of the hurricane - present with the experience but not consumed by it. The neuroplasticity inherent to ketamine and the new synaptic pathways established promote long-lasting benefits.

The AI component amplifies this therapeutic effect. Joyous has collected over 3 million data points from patient experiences, feeding sophisticated algorithms that personalize treatment in real-time. The system doesn't just track symptoms - it predicts optimal dosing adjustments, identifies early warning signs of non-response, and recognizes patterns that human clinicians might miss. Every patient interaction teaches the system, continuously improving its ability to match individuals with their ideal treatment protocol.

From a business perspective, Sharon's journey represents a masterclass in scaling complexity. Healthcare startups usually fail because they underestimate regulatory hurdles, but Joyous navigated FDA regulations, DEA requirements, state medical boards, and insurance complexities while growing from zero to 84,000 patients. They built a vertically integrated system spanning telemedicine, pharmacy operations, patient monitoring, and clinical protocols - all while maintaining startup agility. Instead of building expensive clinics, they went directly to patients' homes, slashing costs by 93% while actually improving outcomes.

The scaling story defies Silicon Valley wisdom. Rather than "move fast and break things," Joyous had to move fast while breaking nothing - people's lives were at stake. They grew 50-fold in two years while maintaining exceptional safety records. Sharon can share how they solved the classic chicken-and-egg problem of needing data to prove efficacy but needing efficacy to get patients, ultimately building the largest real-world evidence base in psychedelic medicine.

The human impact drives everything. Behind those 84,000 patients are stories of parents who can finally engage with their children, professionals who've reclaimed their careers, and individuals who describe it as "getting their life back." The treatment costs just $129 per month - less than many people spend on coffee - democratizing access to breakthrough mental healthcare.

As an engaging conversationalist who's been there from inception, Sharon brings both scientific depth and compelling storytelling to every interview. She can discuss the challenges of convincing investors to back psychedelics, the ethical considerations of scaling consciousness-altering medicine, and the future implications as mental healthcare shifts from symptom management to actual neurological transformation.

This story sits at the intersection of neuroscience breakthroughs, AI innovation, business disruption, and social justice - offering listeners a window into how technology and compassion can combine to solve one of humanity's greatest challenges. Sharon's unique ability to weave together complex science with accessible explanations and real human stories makes her an ideal guest for exploring this paradigm shift in mental health.

Business, Alternative Health, Medicine, Psychology, Emotional Health and Freedom, Mental Health, Personal Development, Self Help, Spiritual

USA

Sharon Niv, Ph.D. is a cognitive psychologist exploring how contemplative and therapeutic methods can reshape mental wellness. Her work spans mindfulness, cognitive science, and the psychology of consciousness, with a special focus on how altered or expanded states of mind can promote emotional growth and resilience.

In 2022, Sharon co-founded Joyous PBC, a public benefit company dedicated to making mental health care more affordable and accessible through low-dose, or psycholytic, approaches to ketamine treatment. At Joyous, she leads clinical research, designs digital therapeutics optimized for the psycholytic state, and developed Joyous for Therapists—a free training and collaboration program helping clinicians integrate these methods safely into their practice.

Sharon is passionate about bringing new insight to the conversation on mental health: how lighter-touch, more personalized approaches to psychoactive medicine can unlock self-understanding, compassion, and long-term healing. She hopes to share with your audience how cognitive mechanisms of psycholytic and psychedelic medicine can inform a new era of personalized, evidence-based mental wellness.