Books Recommended by Mike Glover

Michael Easter, New York Times bestselling author of The Comfort Crisis, is a journalist and professor renowned for exploring how modern science and ancestral wisdom intersect to improve health, resilience, and performance.

The book, blending self-help, anthropology, and adventure narratives, draws from Easter’s global expeditions—embedding with monks in Bhutan, Special Forces operatives, and remote tribes—to examine humanity’s struggle with modern comfort.

A visiting lecturer at the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) and co-founder of its Public Communications Institute, Easter’s work as a Men’s Health contributing editor and podcaster informs his contrarian insights on habit formation and human potential. His follow-up bestseller, Scarcity Brain, further dissects evolutionary psychology’s role in consumer behavior.

Easter’s ideas have been adopted by Major League Baseball teams, Fortune 500 companies, and military units, while his media reach spans The Joe Rogan Experience, CBS Saturday Morning, and NPR. The Comfort Crisis has been translated into 10 languages, cementing Easter as a leading voice in redefining 21st-century well-being.

1. Modern comfort causes chronic diseases by eliminating evolutionary stressors
2. 33-day wilderness challenges reboot mental health through "misogi" principles
3. Rural happiness surpasses urban comfort via nature exposure and community size
4. Dunbar’s number proves 150-person communities optimize human well-being
5. Toughening phenomenon balances comfort/discomfort to prevent burnout and anxiety
6. Reward food drives overeating while hunger food signals true nourishment
7. Arctic hunting expeditions reveal humans thrive in volatile environments
8. Voluntary discomfort increases creativity more than predictable routines
9. Alcohol and tech numbing compound isolation despite connectivity illusions
10. Bhutanese death contemplation practices boost life satisfaction through impermanence
11. Japanese "death cleaning" rituals clarify priorities by embracing mortality
12. NBA athletes use ancient samurai methods to build mental endurance

Anna Lembke, MD, is the New York Times bestselling author of Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence and a Stanford University professor of psychiatry specializing in addiction medicine.

A clinician-scholar with over 50 peer-reviewed publications, her work bridges neuroscience and behavioral health, exploring compulsive overconsumption in a world of abundant dopamine triggers. Her 2016 book, Drug Dealer, MD, was hailed by the New York Times as essential reading on the opioid crisis.

Lembke’s expertise extends to media, including her appearance in Netflix’s The Social Dilemma and interviews on NPR’s Fresh Air and the Huberman Lab podcast. As chief of Stanford’s Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic, she combines clinical practice with systemic solutions to behavioral addiction.

Dopamine Nation has been translated into 30 languages and cemented Lembke’s status as a leading voice in understanding modernity’s impact on mental health.

1. Dopamine drives compulsive seeking, not just pleasure—modern tech exploits this neurochemical loop.
2. Addiction includes behaviors like scrolling and shopping, defined by harming consequences despite awareness.
3. Pleasure-pain balance tips toward pain with overindulgence, requiring higher dopamine doses for satisfaction.
4. Dopamine fasting resets reward systems by abstaining from instant-gratification triggers like social media.
5. Self-binding strategies—deleting apps or avoiding triggers—prevent relapse into high-dopamine habits.
6. Consumer culture mimics drug addiction, lowering pain tolerance and elevating boredom sensitivity.
7. Mindfulness without judgment helps observe cravings and recalibrate neural set points.
8. Abstinence restores joy in simple pleasures like nature or face-to-face connection.
9. The brain’s “hedonic treadmill” escalates cravings in affluent societies, worsening mental health.
10. Embracing discomfort rebuilds dopamine resilience, countering modern avoidance of minor pain.