Mind Meets Machine
Mind Meets Machine is a video podcast by Avik where mental health, AI, and business collide in the most human way. Real conversations with founders, therapists, doctors, and creators. Practical tools, clear insights, and zero fluff. Learn to think clearer, work smarter, and live better in a tech-driven world.
Episodes
91 episodes
Walking Your Talk In A World Built To Distract You with Doug Red Hail Pineda
Loneliness can hit hardest when you’re surrounded by people and still feel like nobody sees what you’re carrying. We slow things down with Doug Redhill Banada to ask a sharper question: what if a “spiritual path” is not mystical escapism, but t...
.png)
What If You Are Not Stuck, Just Unheard with Billy Seol
You can want change with your whole heart and still feel like something invisible keeps pulling you back. That tension is not proof you are weak. It is often proof that a system is running, and you have not been shown how to read it yet.
.png)
When The Numbers Add Up But You Do Not with Dan Beech
The numbers can finally add up and still leave you asking a harder question: is this actually it? We slow down and look at the inner side of financial success, the part most people never say out loud. I’m joined by Dan, an executive, investor, ...
.png)
Trauma, Dissociation, And The Way Back To Yourself with Isa lara Marie
Disconnection rarely shows up with a warning label. It can look like “fine” on the outside while you quietly feel absent from your own life, second-guessing every decision, pushing through days that never fully land in your body. That’s where w...
.png)
How Feeling Lost Can Teach Self Trust with James Tsai
Not knowing what comes next can feel like danger, not curiosity. When that alarm goes off, we often do the same thing: tighten up, go inward, and force a decision just to feel safe again. We slow that moment down and ask a sharper question: wha...
.png)
How Experience Plus AI Unlocks New Peak Performance with Ted Yang
What if your best performance isn’t behind you? That one assumption quietly shapes careers, confidence, and how we think about aging. I sit down with Ted Yang, an MIT engineer, entrepreneur, former Bridgewater and Citadel finance executive, and...
.png)
Why Your Brain Loves Aha Moments Too Much with Brigitta Dau
You can know exactly what’s holding you back and still feel stuck. That’s the tension we dig into as we unpack the gap between insight and embodied change and why “thinking your way through it” often fails when your nervous system does not feel...
.png)
Regenerative Medicine Works By Sending Signals Not Replacing Cells with Dr. Tommy Rhee
The biggest lie regenerative medicine ever sold us is also the easiest to believe: that “live stem cells” turn into whatever tissue you need. We pull that idea apart with Dr. Tommy Rhee, a Navy aviator, sports chiropractor with 30 years of expe...
.png)
Why Your Ego Loves To-Do Lists with Steve Barton
You can hit every goal on paper and still feel strangely disconnected from your own life. That’s the leadership trap we’re naming out loud: pushing harder, moving faster, and slowly drifting away from what you said mattered most.We sit ...
.png)
How An Iranian Activist Turned Loss Into A Human Rights Mission with Zolal Habibi
Grief can break a person, or it can set a direction. We talk with Zolal Habibi, an Iranian human rights activist who has spent more than 25 years advocating for political prisoners, women, and freedom seekers. Her story begins with a wound that...
.png)
It Is Never Too Late To Start Writing with Paula Panariello
Retirement is supposed to be quiet, but sometimes the quiet is exactly where your next identity shows up. Avik sits down with novelist Paula Panariello, who didn’t “always dream of being a writer” and didn’t plan to start a creative career afte...
.png)
The Mountain Reveals Who You Are Under Stress with Dr. Shanea Clancy
The mountain is the one place your job title cannot protect you. When the cold hits, oxygen drops, and the route turns ugly, you get immediate feedback on who you are and how you lead. That is the lens I bring to this conversation with Dr. Shan...
.png)
How To Stop Founder Chaos With One Breath with Chris Franks
Ambition can build a company, win a race, and change your life, but it can also quietly pull you away from yourself. We sit down with Chris Franks, founder and CEO, University of Colorado faculty member, author, podcast host, and six-time Ironm...
.png)
The Small Moments You Keep Missing with Ulrika Torquato
Joy does not disappear. We just train ourselves to postpone it. Avik sits down with Ulrika Torquato to name a strange habit many of us share: treating happiness like it lives somewhere up ahead, after the goal, after things calm down, after lif...
.png)
How Hidden Emotional Pain Shapes Love And Work with Ben Oofana
Something can be “in the past” and still be living in your body. If you’ve ever felt like you’re doing all the right things yet you keep repeating the same relationship patterns, bracing for criticism at work, or holding back from real closenes...
.png)
Regeneration Starts When We Stop Settling For Net Zero with David Gottfried
The planet can feel like a weight right now, not because people do not care, but because the scale is overwhelming. We are good at naming what is broken, yet still hungry for a map that makes hope actionable. That is where regeneration comes in...
.png)
Seeing The System In Toxic Relationships with Carine Van Hee
That late night thought, “Was I too much?” can feel like the final verdict on a relationship. But what if the confusion wasn’t evidence that you’re broken, and was actually part of the pattern that kept you stuck?We sit down with Carine...
.png)
Work Is Not Family with Katie Hadiaris
A job can end at 6 pm, but your body might still be working at midnight. That is the quiet cost we want to name, especially when the workplace wraps it in a friendly phrase like “we’re a family here.” We sit down with trauma-informed workplace ...
.png)
You Do Not Need AI To Replace You with Drew Dorenfest
If you have ever wondered whether “automate more” really means “disappear from your own business,” you are not alone. I sit down with Drew Dorenfest, a video editor turned small business growth partner, to get honest about what AI and automatio...
.png)
Joy-First Entrepreneurship with Russell Nohelty
The most dangerous lie in entrepreneurship is also the most common: sacrifice your joy now and you can “earn” happiness later. We push back on that trade, because we have both seen what it creates: founders who hit milestones and still feel emp...
.png)
How To Build Spaces Where Disabled People Belong with Jennifer Chassman Browne
A room can feel welcoming and still be quietly exclusive. We start with a simple test that every space runs: who fits here without having to ask? Then we follow what that question reveals about disability, belonging, and inclusion in the system...
.png)
What If Your Symptoms Are Trying To Help You with Donna Donahue
You can do the therapy, read the books, explain your past perfectly and still feel your body brace like the danger never left. That confusing gap between understanding and safety is where a lot of real trauma recovery lives, and it often takes ...
.png)
How To Use AI Without Losing Self Trust with Catherine Crestani
A machine can give you a polished answer in three seconds. The harder question is what happens to you when you stop sitting with your own questions long enough to hear what you actually think.We talk with Catherine Christine, an inner a...
.png)
Stop Letting Fear Drive The Story with Jenna Schutt
A crisis doesn’t just test your life, it tests your inner wiring. When the body becomes unfamiliar or the future stops feeling predictable, most of us discover we’ve been building our coping strategies on autopilot. That’s why this conversation...
.png)
The Real Business Behind A Speaking Career with Marianne Hickman
You can feel it when a message is real, and you can also feel the moment someone talks themselves out of saying it. We start from that quiet tension: speaking changes lives, yet most of us keep waiting for permission, credentials, or confidence...
.png)