Modern WisdomChristmas Special | Hacks, Fails & New Year Plans
CHAPTERS
- 0:00 – 2:20
Festive setup: voice-activated jumper lights & Christmas banter
Chris welcomes Jonny and Yusef and sets a playful Christmas tone with costumes, a toy bird on the mic, and Jonny’s flashing jumper gag. The group riffs on the “say lights” bit and settles into the episode’s year-in-review theme.
- •Introductions and festive atmosphere
- •Attempted 'voice-activated' jumper lights joke
- •Explaining visuals for audio listeners
- •Preview of the episode: hacks, habits, fails, and 2019 plans
- 2:20 – 4:52
Year starts rough: hospital recovery, 'Project Swol,' and the norovirus drive home
Yusef describes beginning the year after serious illness, weight loss, and recovery that became 'Project Swol'—a public return-to-baseline challenge. Chris matches with his own miserable start to 2018: norovirus hitting during an event and a desperate three-hour drive home.
- •Yusef’s infections, hospital stay, and weight dropping 10kg below baseline
- •Turning recovery into 'Project Swol' and the idea that training foundations persist
- •Chris’ norovirus onset at a Manchester event
- •The frantic decision-making: hotel vs friend’s toilet vs driving home
- 4:52 – 6:49
From bodily functions to food rules: pork pitfalls and Christmas eating as a Muslim
The conversation veers into crude humor and then into a practical topic: how Yusef avoids pork around Christmas and in everyday foods. They discuss 'stealth porking' in pizzas and Italian dishes versus obviously haram holiday items like pigs-in-blankets.
- •Comedic tangent about things going in/out of the body
- •Navigating haram foods during Christmas
- •Hidden pork risks in pizza/ravioli and Italian cuisine
- •Obvious vs hidden ingredients and social eating situations
- 6:49 – 11:09
Jonny’s biggest food fail: nut reaction at a wedding (and the panic-management playbook)
Jonny recounts a wedding where a seemingly safe cucumber sandwich triggered a severe nut reaction, prompting him to try making himself sick and scramble for an EpiPen without alarming his girlfriend’s gran. The story expands into how allergic reactions escalate and how quickly things can go wrong.
- •Wedding buffet allergy risk and false reassurance
- •Immediate mouth/lip tingling and the attempt to self-induce vomiting
- •The social pressure: hiding panic during a wedding
- •Identifying pesto/nuts as the likely culprit and severity vs prior reactions
- 11:09 – 13:24
If there’s no EpiPen: dark humor, improvised triage fantasies, and 'Crank' research
They spiral into a hypothetical: what would friends do if someone went into anaphylaxis without an EpiPen? Suggestions include tracheotomy with a biro, turning someone upside down, and keeping adrenaline high—then comparing it to the movie Crank.
- •Brainstorming emergency actions without proper tools
- •Biro tracheotomy and 'turn them upside down' ideas
- •Adrenaline as a theme: agitation, slaps, screaming
- •Pop-culture reference to Crank as 'research'
- 13:24 – 16:51
Best habit upgrades: journaling systems, note review, and 'just-in-time' learning
The episode pivots into wins: Yusef’s journaling with Day One and structured review through reminders, while Jonny challenges the value of notes without revisiting them. They debate capturing insights versus implementing lessons immediately, referencing spaced review and the Feynman technique.
- •Day One journaling as insight capture vs full diary
- •Evernote/Pocket workflow and timed reminders for review
- •Critique of 'taking notes as completion' vs applying concepts
- •Writing ideas in your own words and the role of revisiting
- 16:51 – 18:03
Chaos interlude: Yusef takes his trousers off mid-episode (boiler broke)
A comedic interruption derails the habits discussion when Yusef removes clothing on-camera, revealing leggings, and explains his boiler broke so he’s wearing layers. Chris tries to keep the conversation moving while the others react.
- •Unexpected on-camera wardrobe change
- •Explanation: broken boiler and multiple layers
- •Audio vs YouTube experience contrast
- •Returning to journaling and routines afterwards
- 18:03 – 21:05
Chris’s sacred morning routine: journaling, meditation, reading timer, ROMWOD, writing, gym—no phone
Chris details the morning routine he now treats as non-negotiable and a major quality-of-life upgrade. He outlines the sequence (outside air, coffee/breakfast, journaling, meditation, timed reading, mobility, writing, gym) and emphasizes avoiding phone distractions.
- •Treating morning routine as 'sacred' rather than optional
- •Specific routine stack: air outside → breakfast → journal → meditate
- •Timer-based reading habit and ROMWOD mobility
- •Writing 500 words and training before the day 'starts'
- •Minimal phone use to protect focus
- 21:05 – 26:56
Jonny’s mindset shift: Derren Brown’s 'Happy,' process goals over outcome goals, and simplifying habits
Jonny explains how Derren Brown’s book challenged his prior obsession with targets and 90-day outcomes. Atomic Habits reinforces the idea that identity/process and small changes matter more than distant milestones, and they explore why process goals improve day-to-day happiness.
- •Five-hour flight 'conversion' after listening to Happy
- •Outcome goals as fleeting moments vs daily lived experience
- •Process goals and simplifying personal development
- •Tiny environment tweaks (like phone placement) as leverage points
- 26:56 – 32:22
Coffee and caffeine fails: the 'heaped spoon' meltdown and Jonny’s tea-gear rabbit hole
Yusef describes his inability to moderate caffeine, reintroducing coffee, and getting wrecked by a slightly-too-heaped spoon—leading him to quit again. Jonny shares his own 30-day no-coffee challenge, overcompensating with specialty teas and new gear, and they segue into sauna and swimming plans.
- •Caffeine sensitivity, 'borrowed wakefulness,' and afternoon crashes
- •The infamous 'heaped spoon' coffee incident and heart-rate anxiety
- •Jonny’s no-coffee agreement and tea obsession (yerba mate, puerh, sencha)
- •Planning sauna sessions and a new swimming routine
- 32:22 – 35:29
Sauna overexposure: chasing 'Rhonda Patrick benefits' until it becomes unbearable
Jonny explains why he avoids sauna now: he once overdid it while studying for exams, stacking intense sessions far beyond recommended doses. The group discusses tolerance curves, overdoing good things, and ruining a previously enjoyable stimulus through excess.
- •Studying era: regimented routine plus heavy sauna use
- •Chasing recovery/health claims and doing too much volume
- •Tolerance 'cliff' after 10–20 minutes
- •Overexposure causing aversion (like 'too much Malibu')
- 35:29 – 40:21
Teenage disaster stories: DIY rosé, projectile vomiting, and the casein-caseinate nightmare
They trade classic 'too much of something' tales: Jonny’s homemade rosé experiment leading to vomiting mishaps, and Chris’s own wine disaster causing extensive cleanup and apology letters. Yusef adds a protein horror story: early MyProtein casein caseinate turning into a disgusting sludge and ending on his math notes.
- •Mixing red/white wine into 'rosé' and the aftermath
- •Chris’s projectile vomiting story and costly cleanup
- •Casein caseinate as thickening 'sand lump' protein
- •Ramadan calorie strategies gone wrong and lingering consequences
- 40:21 – 51:16
Wins & tools: whiteboard reminders, Pomodoro tomato, and ignoring 'C-player' critics
Yusef shares a practical win: using a bedroom whiteboard for visual cues (Pomodoro tomato) and rotating motivating quotes—especially Josh Waitzkin’s idea to ignore 'C players.' They connect it to modern life where everyone has opinions online and discuss handling criticism when creating publicly.
- •Whiteboard as a 'serial reminders' system
- •Pomodoro habit anchor via a tomato drawing
- •Josh Waitzkin quote: 'Do not concern yourself with opinions of the C players'
- •Creators vs armchair critics and filtering feedback sources
- 51:16 – 1:06:23
New Year planning philosophy: resolutions vs rolling starts, mortality as motivation, and 'do fewer things better'
They debate New Year’s resolutions: Jonny avoids the 'January 1st new me' trap, while Chris likes the forced reflection and periodization. The discussion turns morbid but useful—awareness of mortality, avoiding life drift, and making fewer, better changes (Atomic Habits approach of one habit at a time).
- •Pros/cons of January 1st as an arbitrary reset
- •Avoiding 'writing off' the weeks before starting
- •Mortality awareness and periodic reviews to prevent life drift
- •Slogan shift: 'Do fewer things better' and habit sequencing strategy
- •Practical prep: remove friction before launch day (e.g., gym shoes)
- 1:06:23 – 1:10:01
Deep focus stack: Cold Turkey app, fixed-schedule productivity, and book recommendations
Jonny and Yusef explain how the Cold Turkey blocker helps enforce deep work by restricting apps/sites and even locking the computer via 'Frozen Turkey.' They connect it to Cal Newport’s Deep Work (fixed schedules) and recommend a short list of books to reset habits and productivity in 2019.
- •Cold Turkey blocks distracting websites/apps on timers or schedules
- •Frozen Turkey mode: hard lockouts and forced stop times
- •Messaging windows to prevent constant context switching
- •Book recs: Deep Work, Atomic Habits, Happy (Derren Brown)
- 1:10:01 – 1:18:33
Precision practice & training intensity: meditation metrics, 'work done = time × intensity,' and widowmaker squats
Yusef introduces Daniel Ingram’s quote—'Wishy-washy practice leads to wishy-washy results'—and a quantified view of meditation progress. The group ties this to gym training: most people aren’t close to overtraining, adaptation is huge, and brutal benchmarks like 20-rep squats reveal mental limits before physical ones.
- •Meditation as a skill: tracking sensations per second as a performance metric
- •Quote: 'Wishy-washy practice leads to wishy-washy results'
- •Overtraining fears vs under-effort reality; adaptation through volume
- •Chris’s formula: work done equals time × intensity
- •Widowmaker squats / 'Squats and Milk' as an extreme example
