Modern Wellness Podcast

Today on the show the brilliant Alex Zatarain (@alexzatarainj) is our guest, cofounder of Eight Sleep. She joins Oli to discuss all things sleep! Eight Sleep’s revolutionary Pod 5 uses a sensor-embedded mattress cover to track biometrics (including heart rate, HRV, respiratory rate and sleep stages) and then actively improve sleep by adjusting bed temperature in real time, waking users during lighter sleep, and optionally mitigating snoring via an adjustable base that elevates to open airways. Alex explains why temperature is a key sleep signal, how our modern indoor environments disrupt regulation, and how Eight Sleep's Autopilot mode uses algorithms and new AI capabilities to respond to, and predict, sleep needs using tags like alcohol, late meals or stress, alongside large-scale data. It's mind blowing stuff, and as we say all the time on the show - sleep is so important, and yet so often overlooked. So get ready to chuck out your old pillows.

We start with the news that as individuals, we bear at least 80% of the responsibility for our ill health in old age, according to a report aimed at challenging the belief that physical decline is either inevitable or primarily the responsibility of the state. The report, launched at the Smart Ageing Summit in Oxford last month, argues that individuals have far greater control over their longevity than is commonly understood. The authors call on the government to take legislative action on alcohol comparable to restrictions on smoking. Read more on The Guardian.Next up, neurowellness is moving from niche to mainstream as people realise one of their biggest health bottlenecks isn’t willpower, it’s nervous system overload. Sleep has become the on-ramp. Wearables turned a private struggle into a daily metric: “What’s your sleep score?” When scores stay low, the message is clear: the autonomic nervous system is stuck in low-grade fight-or-flight, showing up as fragmented sleep, anxiety, inflammation, brain fog, hormonal disruption and burnout. And in trending, Adrienne looks at the rise of Pro-aging. People embracing old age, and the changes to the body that come with it. From grey hairs, to laughter lines, why shouldn’t we be proud of how our body looks, even in later life? A message from Sammi:I’m taking part in a fundraising challenge this week for CALM (suicide prevention), in memory of our friend Dan who passed away in 2019.6 of us (friends of over 30 years) are attempting to cross every vehicle chain ferry in the UK - in an electric car - in under 24 hours.It came from a line in Dan’s eulogy about a conversation on the Cowes chain ferry. Felt like something he would have loved.The BBC are filming it and the Royal Navy are getting involved so it’s turning into a big one.Suicide is the leading cause of death for men under 50 and young people aged 15–39 in the UK, so it’s a cause that really matters.If you’re up for supporting, here’s the link: https://www.chainferrychallenge.com/donate-to-calm-and-win(You can also guess our finishing time + win a piece of art)You can check out everything about the challenge here:https://www.chainferrychallenge.com/homeThank you 🙏

In today's special Wednesday Interview show Sammi is joined by the remarkable Esmée Gummer (@esmee_ldn). At one point, Esmée was told that she’d never walk again – but now she’s preparing to host a run club in every city in the UK and get a million people moving in the process. The Nation's 5k is a project launched by community leader Esmée where she's taking a free 5k club to every city in the UK, arriving at each city on foot by running 5,000km to the 77 events over 99 days. In this chat she discusses the challenge further, and the motivation behind it, in a truly inspiring conversation. Once you've listened head over to https://www.thenations5k.com/ and get involved!

First up, to mark its expansion across Europe with new stores opening in luxury destinations like Cannes and Saint-Tropez, Alo launched the Alo Voyage: Wellness Club at Sea, which recently set sail to offer an invitation-only experience aboard a 72-meter private yacht. Aboard the yacht, guests are invited to partake in elevated wellness offerings like lymphatic drainage, IV therapy and pilates. Sounds nice doesn’t it?Next, it’s the news we all know really, but studies show that spending 120 minutes in nature per week is associated with good health and wellbeing. The researchers found that compared to no nature exposure contact, exposure of at least 120 mins in nature was associated with a 59% increased likelihood of reporting good health and 23% higher well-being.And in trending, step forward one of two of our in-house hot men. Move over Healthspan, Hotspan is the new goal. How long can you maintain your hotness? Apparently that’s the new goal for the modern man.A message from Sammi:I’m taking part in a fundraising challenge next month for CALM (suicide prevention), in memory of our friend Dan who passed away in 2019.6 of us (friends of over 30 years) are attempting to cross every vehicle chain ferry in the UK - in an electric car - in under 24 hours.It came from a line in Dan’s eulogy about a conversation on the Cowes chain ferry. Felt like something he would have loved.The BBC are filming it and the Royal Navy are getting involved so it’s turning into a big one.Suicide is the leading cause of death for men under 50 and young people aged 15–39 in the UK, so it’s a cause that really matters.If you’re up for supporting, here’s the link: https://www.chainferrychallenge.com/donate-to-calm-and-win(You can also guess our finishing time + win a piece of art)You can check out everything about the challenge here:https://www.chainferrychallenge.com/homeThank you 🙏

In today’s fascinating interview, Oli interviews Dan Murray (@danmurrayserter) founder of brand Heights, who produce science-backed supplements for your brain and gut.They cover everything from Dan’s background in entrepreneurship and even podcasting, and how his experience with panic attacks, insomnia and broader mental health challenges led him to seek root causes beyond SSRIs and sleeping pills.Dan explains how marketing challenges within the supplementation space has prompted Heights to focus on scientific dosages, in-house research, and storytelling. From building an audience via a newsletter to early organic advocacy from customers like Stephen Fry and Steven Bartlett, this is a wide ranging conversation that is essential for anyone that wants to understand more about supplementation and its place in the wellness industry. 

First up, we start with the worrying news that people in the UK are sending thousands of unregulated substances that claim to support weight-loss and wellness to laboratories for testing, as experts say the underground market for injectable peptides has exploded. With the relative ease that people are able to get subscriptions, via online pharmacies, or other means, it seems like this worrying rise of unregulated substances being normalised isn’t going anywhere for now. Next up, we look at the latest tech trend, as in 2026, the stress-lowering, sleep-boosting hack to know is activating your vagus nerve – not via meditation or yin yoga, but by outsourcing the task to an electrical Vagus Nerve Stimulation device. Put simply, the vagus nerve is the body’s internal superhighway, sending messages between your brain and organs and facilitating the shift into ‘rest mode’. There are lots of products out there in the market, from chairs to headbands, so what do the team think? And in trending Adrienne looks at the rise of cosy gaming, which is a genre of video games and a cultural movement focused on relaxation, comfort, and low-stress play.A message from Sammi:I’m taking part in a fundraising challenge next month for CALM (suicide prevention), in memory of our friend Dan who passed away in 2019.6 of us (friends of over 30 years) are attempting to cross every vehicle chain ferry in the UK - in an electric car - in under 24 hours.It came from a line in Dan’s eulogy about a conversation on the Cowes chain ferry. Felt like something he would have loved.The BBC are filming it and the Royal Navy are getting involved so it’s turning into a big one.Suicide is the leading cause of death for men under 50 and young people aged 15–39 in the UK, so it’s a cause that really matters.If you’re up for supporting, here’s the link: https://www.chainferrychallenge.com/donate-to-calm-and-win(You can also guess our finishing time + win a piece of art)You can check out everything about the challenge here:https://www.chainferrychallenge.com/homeThank you 🙏

Today on the show Adrienne speaks with Edward Thomas, Founder of Paragon Studio, a UK-based designer and manufacturer of luxury gym equipment and bespoke wellness spaces. Drawing from a background as super-yacht crew, Ed is a prominent entrepreneur in the high-end fitness sector. In this wide ranging conversation, Ed explains how his first business, Gym Marine, grew by designing yacht gyms, and how that specific brand of wellness evolved over 12 years from basic outdoor cardio setups to dedicated indoor gyms with strength training, recovery tools, and features like saunas, cold plunges, red light, and even onboard cryo chambers. You may well have seen Ed on LinkedIn, where like today he discusses his journey launching Paragon Studio, early product design mistakes around scalability and cost, and the importance of hiring a skilled team and embracing latest technological advancements. It's a fascinating listen for entrepreneurs and wellness fanatics alike, now whose got a yacht we can borrow?

There's lots for the team to delve in to this week! First up is the news that as of April 2026, Spotify and Peloton have partnered to launch a new fitness hub featuring over 1,400 on-demand, ad-free, and guided workout classes for Spotify Premium users globally. The content includes strength, yoga, cardio, and Pilates classes, along with specialized curated playlists, accessible directly within the Spotify app.Next up, with the ever increasing rise of health tracking, health anxiety is on the rise. Health Anxiety, or Illness Anxiety Disorder, is a fear and preoccupation with the belief that one has, or is in danger of developing, a serious illness like cancer, ALS, or a heart attack, but as technology allows us to track our biomarkers like never before, is this anxiety creeping in to every day life too? And finally, in Trending, Adrienne is looking across the pond at Miami. Is it becoming the new global wellness hub? A message from Sammi:I’m taking part in a fundraising challenge next month for CALM (suicide prevention), in memory of our friend Dan who passed away in 2019.6 of us (friends of over 30 years) are attempting to cross every vehicle chain ferry in the UK - in an electric car - in under 24 hours.It came from a line in Dan’s eulogy about a conversation on the Cowes chain ferry. Felt like something he would have loved.The BBC are filming it and the Royal Navy are getting involved so it’s turning into a big one.Suicide is the leading cause of death for men under 50 and young people aged 15–39 in the UK, so it’s a cause that really matters.If you’re up for supporting, here’s the link: https://www.chainferrychallenge.com/donate-to-calm-and-win(You can also guess our finishing time + win a piece of art)You can check out everything about the challenge here:https://www.chainferrychallenge.com/homeThank you 🙏