The Genetics of Health with Dr. Sharad Paul

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This show is about you, not about me. I want to help you find practical, real world ways to dial in your health and mindset so you can finally lose that weight and feel strong and energized. Stop settling for less than your personal best. It's time to find out how to look and feel better than ever. And I'll be right here with you the whole way. Hey, it's JJ with a super cool guest today, Dr. Sherrod Paul. And I am kind of obsessed with everything, genetics, nutrigenomics. And so this is kind of a fun, a fun discussion today because Sherrod Paul is a medical doctor who's a skin cancer surgeon. He's an evolutionary biologist and a social entrepreneur and a professor over at Auckland University of Technology. Yes, he's an Aussie. He also was featured in time and 2015. He was awarded the prestigious Ko Awa Tia International Excellence Award for leading health improvement on a global scale. But he talks very differently about genetics and some of the different genetic tendencies than what I've heard before and also is going to describe a secret to health that I've never heard anyone else talk about. And then of course, we're going to get some great skin tips from him. And he works in Australia where they have the highest rate of skin cancer. So he has an interesting take on skin and an interesting line about skin and that you cannot have good health and bad skin. They don't coexist. All right, Dr. Sherrod Paul, welcome to the show. Happy to have you here.

Oh, I'm glad to be here. Thank you for having me.

Oh yes, you've got quite an interesting background here. I am just so intrigued and I want to jump right in and know how you got into all of this. Like, how did you become a doctor, especially a skin cancer surgeon and an evolutionary biologist. What, like, what happened? What's your story?

All right, so firstly, I think becoming a doctor was relatively easy in the sense that decision only because everybody in my family is a doctor. And so it was really something I was exposed to. And my. I was born in England and my parents actually did some medical mission work in India. So, you know, I grew up around in a rural hospitals and patients and things. So it was really, I think it was in my DNA really. When I finished training, my original training was really plastic surgery to do with burns and trauma. And it's really just because I am based in New Zealand and Australia down under, just because of the high uv, we have a massive skin cancer problem. So really I ended up using those skills and more branching off into skin cancer. So that was the story of my personal practice. Going back to the next thing you said on evolutionary biology is there are two things. One, and with skin is one cannot have. Have bad health and good skin. So really, in studying the genomics for skin cancer, I realized it was really the genomics of good health. And then I guess the next step from that was in understanding why are certain people, you know, lactose intolerant or why do some people. And you could really then predict who would be based on their backgrounds or where they came from and things like that. And I guess my other interest in evolutionary biology is because my expertise is in reconstructing things and also developing skin care, that I often work with animals. So I guess when you work with, you know, primates and animals and it makes a fun sidelight, it actually also means that you have to study how. What's the difference between animals and humans? And you find, not a lot. So.

So I love what you just said, that you cannot have bad skin and good health.

That's right. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, yeah.

That, that is so huge. I, you know, I GRE up struggling with cystic acne, like for years and years and years and going to the dermatologist and being told, you know, I need to take these medications. And I'd go, isn't it like diet or. No, no, you know, so it's just great to hear that affirmed. Now, I know that I was reading your bio and you've been at this for 30 years working as a document and you have never lost a day of work. You've never been lost a day of work because you were sick.

That's right. That's true. Crazy, I know, but I did. You know, the funny thing is it's really only when people started interviewing me for various things. And it was, everybody was amazed at 20 years and then it was 25 and now it's 30. So it's really, I'm not counting, but it's, it's more a curiosity that everybody brings up.

Well, I remember I had a really cool nutrition mentor early on and he said, you just, you shouldn't get sick. I think we all kind of accept, oh yeah, you're going to get the cold, you're going to get the flu, it's just normal. And he said that's not normal. And it was such a mindset shift for me.

That's right. Because we also underestimate things like, you know, the impact of stress and how we deal with things. Because most things in life outside, you know, even our diet and everything else, is how we deal with what we eat or how we deal with what we do. And I think one of the things, you know, like you were saying earlier, acne and things and you know, when adults come with it, typically it's an emotional issue or it's a dietary one. So really, I think if you are generally sensible and not, you know, eating too much processed food or junk food or too much stuff with chemicals in them, generally, you know, will have good health as long as you keep active.

What about you? Like, what do you think is the secret behind 30 years of not missing a day of work because of being sick?

I think from first thing, I think is also being positive. You know, positivity is a big part of good health as well. And you know, people generally tend to get negative or react to something. So, you know, life always throws you things which are unexpected or something which isn't good. But typically that's not what does your damage, it's how you react to it. And I think I tend to have, and I do varied things and I'm very busy, but I don't actually let it get to me because I always think, always do the things I love. So I think, you know, like, for example, yesterday I was working till quite late and we had a patient running a bit late and we were like nearly at 7pm And I'm telling everybody, where is he? Let's go, let's go. And everybody's, where's this energy coming from? And I think it's really because you just do the things you're good at and what you enjoy doing. Because if you're doing something where you have to clock in and clock out and it's just a job, and even if it was a job, you have to make it fun. Otherwise I think you won't be positive. So I think that's the first thing, and I think the second thing is the processed food thing. You know, we do eat too much stuff, which is not, from an evolutionary point of view, natural or good for us. And I think I don't eat. I eat very little out of a packet. You know, I have Watson blueberries for breakfast and during the day I don't eat much. And mostly I have a lot of fruits and vegetables, a lot of fish, not as much, you know, red meat, things like that. And I think, you know, these are themes. You look around the world, like in places, what we call the blue zones, and things around the world where people live longer and healthier. These are general themes which have been repeated over and over again beyond the.

Processed foods and the diet. Let's go back over to the positive mindset because looking at all of your information, you talk a lot about generosity, about positivity. Were you raised with this? Like, is this how you grew up? Or where did this come from?

Yeah, no, I wasn't traced with it because I think the rest of my family don't necessarily react to things the same way as I do, but I always try and break things down into the immediacy of them. So, for example, you're faced with a problem. The first thing you think is, can you control this or can't you? If it is something within your control, then, you know, make the changes. If it's not within your control, you can't do anything anyway, so you may as well just smile about it. And. And I think, you know, this kind of little detachment, you know, the Zen kind of attitude, it actually really helps my work. It really helps because in work, you know, it's a high stress job, but you find that. And the second thing I think is also communicating with people. You know, be honest, be open. People tend to, you know, the more I don't keep that much of a gap between myself and my patients in the sense that, you know, sometimes they'll ring me up and they'll. I had this funny story. I was in Ireland at a writers festival in June, and I was just about to go on stage and my phone is always on and everybody has my mobile and somebody just rings me. I thought, there's a number I don't know. And I just answered it. And this was this 90 year old patient of mine said, what's G dash dash dash dash and it's on your forehead. And I said, glabella. And she said, I'm about to win the crossword competition. And I knew that you would know this and I actually thought, you know, everybody laughed when I told them this story and I thought, you know, that's cute that people think that they can actually communicate with you and you're not gonna get upset about it. And I think, you know, that's the key to life is, you know, interacting, being real. I think sometimes as we go higher and achieve more things, we become not accessible. And I think that's not good for health.

Yeah. I was listening to Dr. Lyssa Rankin, did a TED talk on connection and how social isolation was akin to smoking 15 cigarettes a day. That's right.

And the other thing you think about is, you know, if you think about it, as you become more and more successful, it's just because you start thinking of yourself as well as something special, you also get more isolated or your networks become smaller and smaller. So. So I think in some ways that's not so good for health because of the fact that. Exactly. You know, if you're having more connections, there should be meaningful connections, not just to get you somewhere.

Well, and especially if you know what everything you're saying about positivity, which I had a. My son almost was killed in a car accident. And that is our mindset. And positivity is what pulled him through it. It really is who you hang out with. You hang out with a bunch of negative people, it's hard to stay positive.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Now in, in your book, which I am fascinated by it because it's. You talk about things that you don't normally hear about in terms of health, where you talk about generosity, you talk about anxiety. Let's talk specifically about generosity because you talk about generosity here and how it can make such a difference in your health. Let's explore.

Yes. So basically, actually, this was funny. I think it was the Hebrew University of Jew Jerusalem, I think, who did this study. And they actually had about 200 odd people in an online game. And each one was given, I think $12 or something. And they basically kept changing the amounts and they looked at behavioral patterns. So you had a choice of giving some to other people to help them out or just amassing more or cheating others out of their money. And they then also had. These were people who were then studied and what they Found is that fundamentally the people are more generous, were a third more likely to have better health than more ungenerous. So, so, you know, the, you know, the funniest thing is best reason for you to give other people may be actually a selfish one, but that's okay. And I think so. So I really think that was a good lesson in general. And I think so more people you find who are more giving actually end up having better health. And this is time and time again been seen in different studies. And people who suddenly changed their life from having a big corporate kind of lifestyle where they were just amassing massive fortunes and then they changed their life, started giving more, they actually found that it improved their health. So, and that's partly to do with the way, you know, human beings. One of the reasons why we, you know, us have such a big footprint on a planet today compared to other animals is because we cooperated and looked after each other in colonies. So we didn't evolve to be this isolated, I mean, myself kind of person, because if that was the case, we would not have survived because the world was much more dangerous, you know, 100,000 years ago or 50,000 years ago. And that's where the next thing comes. With that came this anxiety response as well.

Yeah, let's talk about this anxiety response because you talk about that it used to be super dangerous and now it really isn't. But yet we're even more anxious. So what, what has happened here?

That's right. I mean, firstly, it's a lot of imagined anxiety, I think. I can't remember who said it, but it's in the books. I think there's a famous saying saying, most of the things we're scared of have actually never really happened. And it's actually really true. Because if you think about past and you look at all the literature, life is very dangerous. Like one. And I think 20 people were killed by some predators when man first left Africa. Right? Now, even with a fear of terrorism and, you know, other people and everything else, we live in the safest of times, you know, population wise. I was actually, when I was researching for the book, I looked at, you know, if you look at Shakespeare's time and you look at a lot of his stories that, you know, murders and violence and things like that, it was really. Because the murder rate at that time in Oxford, I think, was 1 in 350 people. And, you know, it's a sleepy little town and in London was something like 1 in 500. And today the murder rate would be probably, I Don't know, five for a million or something much safer. But we actually suddenly think, oh my God, you know, there's been an attack there, let's be careful. And so with this anxiety comes the over surveillance. So we then don't let our children free any longer. So the whole society becomes more and more closed off and then more and more negative because then you start getting suspicious of others. And then the whole thing says, you know, society is no longer society, it's just, you know, colony of individuals.

What about this whole thing with sluggish genes? I am kind of fascinated by this just because my ex husband I think must have the sluggish genes. He's, he's an awesome guy, but I always say, you know, he's just like super smart with no ambition. And I was like, so is there such a thing? Because I see that you've, you speak about this, the sluggish genes and laziness is this like, yes, inherited trait.

So the first thing we must always go back to is understanding that genesis are our blueprint, but they're not our destiny. So, so now, so basically what it means is, yes, there are some people who fundamentally like, like I do this gene test for, it's all about eating and exercising for your gene type, right? It's called the GT21 and people can order it. But what that test does is we look at specific exercise patterns and food patterns. And what we know is that certain people are actually inherently super motivated to do things and exercise. So there people who are fundamentally supercharged, but there are, you know, like the energizer bunnies of this world, but there are people who also are fundamentally unmotivated. But here's what's interesting is when many studies were done in mice and humans and even a lot of mice studies where these mice with these sluggish genes were put on a treadmill and made to do endurance exercise, they started expressing more, not only positive, but also more energetic genes. So in other words, while you may be born that way, you can overcome it if you make a little bit of effort. And the key to it is doing some regular endurance exercises. You know, it could be running, cycling, swimming, walk, walking, whatever.

So what have you learned? Like what would be your top tips now that you, you live in one of the most dangerous parts of the world for skin, for skin cancer, and you've studied all this biology and what would be some tips for. I'm kind of, I'm totally switching gears here over to skin. But I was like looking at your website, looking at your genetic tests, looking at the skin care that you've coming out, I'm like, oh, my gosh. So what are some tips that you could give people, Especially since you started this whole conversation saying that you cannot have great skin if you're in poor health and you can't have, you know, great health and bad skin. So what, what can we do that is going to make our skin healthier? Because I'm sure it's going to make our health better too.

Yeah. I think the key thing is to, first of all, like. Like the things we discussed, you know, first of all being positive, not stress, because stress response is a massive thing. So one, when I was studying the science of aging because, you know, when my skincare practice in, other than dealing with skin care, everybody wants to know about aging. So we have the scanner in which we can scan your face and we can actually see where you're getting wrinkles now and where you're going to get them in about 20 years, if you really wanted to know. But what we've actually found is every time you develop a new wrinkle, you're actually getting some new lymphatic vessels forming underneath. So it's actually, there's something fundamental. People who age faster are actually having something else going on in their life. So I guess the first tip is, you know, being positive, eating well, getting any exercise, all the sensible things. But otherwise, on specific tips on actual skin care, you know, the key thing is not too much sun exposure, that you get burnt, having enough vitamin D in your system, which means that, you know, eating enough fish. And if you're not, and eat, you know, if you're not a fish eater and vegetarian, then, you know, vitamin D supplements, provided you don't have any hormonal problems. And I guess the key things, what I found for skin health would be, you know, having enough vitamin D, having enough hydration. So moisturizing your skin is most, you know, underdone. So most people don't enough. And also things which dehydrate your skin in moderation. You know, people drink too much alcohol, things like, which of course, is a big, you know, dehydrating thing. For example, when we biopsy your skin, all we do is we keep putting it in cereal, alcohol, till it gets so dehydrated that we can cut it up because it's like wax. So really everything in moderation, plenty of, you know, hydration and plenty of activity because, you know, that increases your blood flow. And I think generally. So being sluggish is not good Being negative is not good. Eating too much junk, which we know you were mentioning the sluggish genes, and there was actually a study which was done on mice. It was a very funny thing because they call this diet the American cafeteria diet.

Right?

I don't know if it is a standard American cafeteria diet, but basically it was, you know, coke and junk food, like, you know, fast food. And what they found is mice we ate that not only gained weight, but they also got negative and angry and had a higher rate of depression. And of course, with it, they had bad skin. So what is interesting is that if you eat really bad food, which is metabolically bad because it's just too processed, and what you actually find is it gives you bad skin as well. So. So when we deal with acne, like I said, the commonest cause in adult acne is something like that or the typical things, like, you know, eating. For some people, especially in women after 40, one of the commonest things I find is very. People become lactose intolerant as we get a bit older. And it's a natural thing because, you know, no creature is designed to drink the milk of some other animals. So, you know, it is fundamentally unnatural. And I think if we do it into adulthood after a while, it can affect skin as well.

It was the number one thing that I did that cleared up my skin was pulling out dick.

So that's why. Okay, that's the first thing I tell you. Absolutely.

It was.

Yeah. 30 years of press of struggling with skin, three days of pulling out dairy. I was like, oh. So, yep, I. And it just. All it takes is a little bit. Now, let's flip over to you real quick. And what I want to know is what is one thing you do every day that you feel like makes a big difference in your life?

I think the. The first thing is generally getting up and being positive about the day, because even if you're tired and you get up, it's very easy to start the day thinking, oh, my God, do I have to go to work today? I think the day you get that feeling, you need to do something else. And I think the second thing is the importance of keeping moving, being flexible. So even if I'm a long day at work and I come back, always, you know, we'll do some stretching or some exercises using my own body weight. I don't have time much to go to the gym, but, you know, I have a treadmill at home, or you run outside. It's good to just do some form of endurance exercise every day. And A little bit of stretching and sink, even if it is just 10 minutes. And that does change not only your outlook, but also changes your ability to deal with other things because of the, you know, chemicals. And, you know, how we were talking earlier about the stress response, what we should have added was the reason stress is bad is his stress response or the anxiety when life was dangerous is. It was just a fire alarm. So you needed to know if there was some noise in the background. You need to be heightened sensitivity. You needed to be able to hear it. So basically, these were, you know, anxiety is a good fire alarm is telling you something's wrong, so you're anxious. But the problem is we tend to use it inappropriately. So. So when you're anxious, obviously, to start off with your secreting, you know, adrenaline and then noradrenaline, and then you've got cortisol steroid, and all these steroids with time will make you gain weight. They suppress your immune system. So. So the fundamental thing is when you're anxious, that's a warning system. And you've got to therefore think, okay, is there something really here I need to be anxious about? And if not, no, just move on with it. So, you know, it's like, even when children, when they fall down and they come to me and parents are very, very anxious and injury, the first thing you try and rationalize, you say, okay, first things. Is the bone broken? Yes. No. Is the skin broken? Yes. No. Is there anything? Yes.

No.

And then, all right, go back and play. You know what I mean? You just have to be sensible about it. We overuse this anxiety response, and I think exercise helps us deal with it because it secretes all these helpful endorphins and things, and we don't get enough.

And teaches your body how to handle stress, how to. How to burst and recover.

Absolutely.

Take a little stress. And, you know, I was thinking back to when my kids were little, and one of my kids, one of my sons fell and hit his mouth and started to bleed. And my first response I'm looking at was like, kind of panic. And then I looked him, I go, oh, you're okay. And he's like, okay.

That's it.

It's so funny. You learn that in life. You like. It's like if you're little kids, if you react and act like they hurt themselves, they hurt themselves. If you went, oh, boop, you're okay. They're like, oh, we're okay. It's kind of a good way to go through life.

Once you're okay, then you can actually rationally think about how do we deal with this if there's something to be dealt with. But I think if you lose your equilibrium, then you're just totally. It's like. Speaking of generosity, to give you an example, this. You know, I'm half embarrassed to tell the story, but what it was is like, just this week a patient stole my cell phone, right? And it was funny because I always kept my phone on my desk next to where I sit relatively close to patients, and then we can examine their skin and things like that. And it suddenly just disappeared during the day. And it was a day I do totally free work and so nobody paid me anything. And then at the end of the day, it was really funny because it was reaching the end of the day and I could not even believe that it would happen to me, that I was telling my nurses that I said, oh, you know, I think I'm getting a bit of memory loss, like my dad. I was like, you know, because I've never left this room, but I can't find my phone. I must have. And it was really only at like 6, 6:30 when we finished for the day, I rang the provider Offer Telecommunications, and they were like, oh, yes, yes, your phone was driving down this road at a bot three hours ago. And that's like, oh. So anyway. But what I think everybody else, when I heard this, including other patients, were more angry for me than I was because I was like, all right, it's gone. It's a bit of inconvenience because I hadn't backed up some of the last photos and things, but it's okay. So the first thing is I need another phone. So let's try and organize that. Let's see. So I think you just can go into more rational kind of a mode. And you don't. Because if I were to get even when in my insurance said, you have to speak to the police first. So I spoke to the police and they were like, you know, it would be very easy. You just give us a list of all the patients for the day. And I said, no, I don't want to do that. I said, for two reasons. I said, one is I still respect how I treat them and their confidentiality. And the second thing is I don't really want to think the next time any of those on this day come, I don't want to have their names in my head. So I said, let's just forget it. And. And, you know, I was fine. You know, I think, you know, you are lucky in life that you lose a phone and it's. You can cope with it. So I think, you know, and, and I was just thinking about it afterwards. It did not spoil my equilibrium other than it being a nuisance. And I thought, oh, well, you know, I was thinking the positive, you know, what happened is because we are so addicted to our phones because you have to be. If you're running a medical practice and doing a lot of things that I do that I'm always having to check messages. You know what, I thought this was great. I had like a nearly 24 hour detox because I had. So I thought this was great. I was thinking to myself the next day, you know, it's great. You know, I've been without my phone for a day and you know, life is still going on. The world has not fallen in, no big emergencies happen. So, you know, it's all good.

There you go. It's how you view things and reframe them. I always say it's how you show up and it's your choice. So I love that. Now, now I was on your website. You've got all sorts of cool stuff. That genetic test you talked about, which is really interesting. You've got skincare coming out. I know you've got something cool for everybody listening, which by the way, we will put this in the show notes. And because your first name's a little different, I will do it@jjvirgin.com Dr. Paul. D, R, P, A, U, L. That's easy. Everyone can get that one. So tell everyone what you've got for them that we'll be putting into the show.

Make a little special thing for your listeners. What we're going to do is just basically my tips for health and especially tips for skin care. And what I'm going to do is I probably add a few recipes of how you can make your own skin care at home. At least here some things which you can do with yourself kind of skin care at home. So at least share some secrets that you can actually make your own, you know, cleansers and moisturize.

Cool. Awesome. Thank you so much for that. And we'll also include information about Dr. Paul's genetic tests and I know we have a discount coupon for that too. So lots of cool stuff. Make sure you go to jjvirgin.com Dr. Paul to get all that cool stuff. And thank you so much for taking time out.

Real pleasure.

Super appreciate it.

Thank you very much.

All right, I'm gonna hopefully meet you when I get myself over to Australia here one of these days.

That's right.

Yes. All right, thank you again. And for everybody listening, stay with me. After the break, I'll be answering the listener question. Ready to lose fat fast and keep it off forever.

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Welcome back. This is the time where I answer a listener's question and hopefully you've been popping over and jumping on. When I'm on Facebook Live or Instagram Live, I tend to do them both together because that is where I pick up a lot of these questions. I also pick them up on my wall at JJ Virgin Official on Facebook, and of course in the comments @jj virgin on Instagram. And we've been talking about genetics today. I've actually been talking about genetics a lot on my podcast. And so I got a write in from Jonathan on my last Instagram saying, jj, do you think we should get genetic testing done? And here's my take on all this. I was fortunate enough to meet the founder of Pathway Genomics and I used to go around the country actually teaching about their pathway fit test. So I did that test. I've done 23andMe. I've run that through Prometheus. And here's the big thing that you want to remember about genetic testing. I think, you know, it'll be great when that's just standard course that we should all be doing it, especially because there's just good information to know about your potential risks and how you should behave. But remember, genes load the gun. And this is Dr. Jeff Bland's statement. Credit him. It's such a brilliant one. Genes load the gun. Lifestyle pulls the trigger. I actually think that we all should live as if we have the genetic predisposition towards cancer, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, dementia. But here's the thing. If you look at like the statistics, clearly the rise in all these is not a genetic issue because genetics don't change like that. Right? So what we really need to think about is you may have the genetic predisposition for something, but you can completely shift that by how you behave. So what if we all just behaved as if we did so that we don't ever have the issue in the first place, Right? Like, if you knew you had the genetic predisposition towards diabetes, how would that Change the way that you behaved, because if that would change it so that you ate a little bit more cleaner, that you made sure you got your sleep, that you made sure you optimize your vitamin D, took your Omega 3, got in good exercise to get insulin sensitive, balanced your blood sugar, why don't we just do that right now? Because it's going to pay off whether or not you have those genetics. Right? And that's really the key takeaway is I think genetic testing has definitely got its place. I just went and reviewed my numbers and results again, but it really didn't change anything in any of my behaviors because I'm already doing everything that I can and continually sharpening the saw of how I can optimize my health, of how I can lower my risk factors, of how I can be healthier. And I think it's a, it's a. I know it's a journey. Like, you know, the big thing that I would tell you the way I developed all my programs is to pick one thing to work on, get that dialed, and then go to the next thing. So if right now you aren't where you want to be, say in terms of blood sugar balance, start with the sugar impact diet, work on that, then work on your sleep. Then when you get that dialed, work on exercise. You know, just start to do one thing at a time. I've always got something that I'm working on, some healthy habit that I'm focusing on, but I don't try to do 10 at once because I know that if I try to do 10 at once, I'll do none at once. Right. So it's just like bringing the enemy into the house, bringing some, you know, food that's a trigger food for you into the house and thinking you won't eat it, of course you will. So let's be kind to ourselves and come from a place of making, making, setting yourself up for better success. All right, I wanted to do a shout out to CC8462 from the USA who gave us a 5 star review on iTunes. So informative. Thank you, JJ for the great information and I appreciate you back. CC8462 sounds like a Star wars character and I appreciate everyone for leaving those reviews on itunes. It helps a bunch. We are focused on getting this information out far and wide to the world. As you see, I get super cool guests and I want to make sure that we get their information shared and that you get something that you can take that is actionable. Especially today, there was some really interesting, different actionable information around genetics, especially the whole idea of positivity, which is definitely one we can control and you can put into place right now. And being generous. I loved that, that people who are generous are healthier. How cool is that? All right, I will see you next week.

That's all for this episode of the JJ Virgin Lifestyle show, which marks another step towards a healthier body and mind. Don't forget to rate, review and subscribe to the show and we'll talk to you next week. The holidays mean more travel, more shopping, more time online and more personal info in more places that could expose you more to identity theft. But LifeLock monitors millions of data points per second. If your identity is stolen, our US based restoration specialists will fix it, guaranteed or your money back. Don't face drained accounts, fraudulent loans or financial losses alone. Get more holiday fun and less holiday worry with LifeLock. Save up to 40% your first year. Visit LifeLock.com podcast terms apply hello listeners.

This is Anne Bogle, author, blogger and creator of the podcast what Should I Read next? Since 2016, I've been helping readers bring more joy and delight into their reading lives. Every week I take all things books and reading with a guest and guide them in discovering their next reading. They share three books they love, one book they don't, and what they've been reading lately, and I recommend three titles they may enjoy reading next. Guests have said our conversations are like therapy, troubleshooting issues that have plagued their reading lives for years and possibly the rest of their lives as well. And of course, recommending books that meet the moment. Whether they are looking for deep introspection to spur or encourage a life change or a frothy page turner to help them escape the stresses of work, school, everything, you'll learn something about yourself as a reader and you'll definitely walk away confident to choose your next read, with a whole list of new books and authors to try. So join us each Tuesday for what Should I Read Next? Subscribe now wherever you're listening to this podcast and visit our website. What Should I read next podcast.com to find out more.