How to Be an Adult

About How to Be an Adult

Do you find yourself wishing that your parents had taught you more about how to take care of yourself, your emotions and your health? This show offers practical guidance for outwardly successful but inwardly lost adults like you. It’s the philosophy of life that you should have received when you turned 18, but didn’t. Each episode attempts to arrive at principled answers to a single question about how we might find happiness and peace. We are driven by a mission to democratize self-assurance.

Publisher

Luke Chao and Kate Voss

Category

education · health & fitness · society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

25 Aug 2023

Latest episode

17 Sept 2026

Latest episodes

39 episodes in the feed.

1. 17 Sept 2026

   How to Disappoint Others (Ep. 39)

   Because this podcast is called How to Be an Adult, and we take our promises seriously, you will never see us release an episode titled “How to Never Disappoint Others” or “How to Avoid Criticism.” In this episode, Luke Chao talks about how to disappoint others in a principled manner: Disappointment results from an internal mental mismatch between a person’s expectations and reality; it does not exist in the external world. Living an authentic life and pursuing creative or entrepreneurial goals inevitably leads to disappointing some people due to the diversity of opinions and values. It is impossible to be universally liked, and trying to avoid disappointing others often results in personal resentment, bitterness, or the betrayal of one’s own principles. Individuals should be the primary authority over their own lives, as they are best positioned to know their own constraints, needs, and capabilities. Saying ‘no’ to others does not require extensive justification or a watertight argument; a simple, direct refusal is sufficient to maintain personal boundaries. When facing disappointment, criticism or even anger from others, you should consider whether you have failed a moral principle; if you are acting in alignment with your personal values, it is not an error. The only person you truly cannot afford to disappoint is yourself, since you are the only individual you are guaranteed to live with for your entire life. Table of Contents 0:00 – Introduction 4:27 – Adulthood Requires Disappointing Others Sometimes 13:06 – No Is a Complete Answer 21:03 – Stay True to Yourself 23:38 – Disappointment Does Not Harm Others 29:33 – Outro Listen above, on Apple Podcasts or on Spotify, or watch the full video on YouTube. Remember to like, subscribe and share! The post How to Disappoint Others (Ep. 39) (https://www.morpheusclinic.com/how-to-disappoint-others-ep-39/) appeared first on The Morpheus Clinic for Hypnosis (https://www.morpheusclinic.com).

2. 22 Jul 2026

   How to “Be Yourself” (Ep. 38)

   “Just be yourself!” We’ve all heard this platitude, but without specific instruction in what it means, the advice is rather useless. In this solo episode, Luke breaks down how to be yourself, and six enemies of your authentic self: Being authentic as an adult means embracing your individuality rather than compromising your values, thoughts, or feelings to meet external standards or please others. Individuals like Rosa Parks, Einstein, and Gandhi are viewed as iconic because they trusted their own moral compass and inner judgment rather than conforming to the expectations of their time. The primary enemies of an authentic self include toxic shame, performative niceness (people-pleasing), fear of rejection, the pressure to conform, and getting caught in competitive status games. We consider people-pleasing to be passive-aggressive because it involves suppressing one’s true thoughts and feelings, which eventually erupts negatively. Status games are zero-sum competitions that fosters misery through constant social comparison; in contrast, living authentically is a positive-sum game where each person can thrive on their own unique path. Adults are encouraged to use their own intelligence to solve life problems by asking themselves well-formed, substantive questions instead of speculating on what others might think. Self-actualization, according to Abraham Maslow, is a lifelong journey that becomes possible once basic needs are met and one chooses to act with integrity and self-esteem. You are not an inferior version of anyone else, including parents or peers, nor their illusions fio you, and you are inherently lovable just as you are. Table of Contents: 0:00 – Intro 1:18 – Parable of the tiger who was raised by wolves 2:38 – You are incomparable with other individuals 6:30 – Trust your own adult judgement 9:13 – Prompt engineer your brain 11:56 – Questions to ask yourself 13:51 – Enemies of your authentic self: Introduction 14:04 – Enemy #1: Toxic shame 17:59 – Enemy #2: Performative niceness 22:47 – Enemy #3: Fear of rejection or criticism 25:15 – Enemy #4: Conformity 26:06 – Enemy #5: Neediness 28:28 – Enemy #6: Taking the status game too seriously 33:11 – Abraham Maslow and self-actualization 42:55 – Outro Listen above, on Apple Podcasts or on Spotify, or watch the full video on YouTube. Remember to like, subscribe and share! The post How to “Be Yourself” (Ep. 38) (https://www.morpheusclinic.com/how-to-be-yourself-ep-38/) appeared first on The Morpheus Clinic for Hypnosis (https://www.morpheusclinic.com).

3. 6 Jul 2026

   How to “Take Care of Yourself” (Ep. 37)

   If you’ve ever heard the clichéd phrase, “take care of yourself,” you might have been flummoxed about how, especially if your needs were unmet in early life. Yet, as Luke will argue in this episode, taking care of yourself is a defining feature of adulthood: at last, you have a capable guardian. We shall use Maslow’s hierarchy of needs as a framework: As adults, we serve as our own primary caregivers, responsible for meeting our own needs rather than relying on parents, partners, or employers. Taking care of oneself is a positive-sum game, analogous to the airline safety instruction to ‘put on your own mask first’ before assisting others. Neglecting self-care erases oneself from one’s own life, a behavior that must be unlearned to improve well-being and capability to support others. We use the hierarchy of needs framework by Abraham Maslow to categorize requirements from basic physiological needs to higher-level self-actualization. Setting clear boundaries through verbal communication is a modern method for ensuring personal safety and security. You are encouraged to examine inherited behaviors from your parents and intentionally choose to overcome generational neglect by prioritizing your own well-being and values. Table of Contents: 0:00 – Introduction 2:01 – You Are Your Primary Caregiver 11:04 – Count Yourself In 13:43 – Self Care Is a Positive-Sum Game 18:10 – Introduction to Maslow’s Hierarchy 18:38 – Physiological Needs 19:09 – Safety and Security Needs 21:09 – Love and Belonging 21:57 – Respect and Esteem 22:25 – Self-actualization 27:09 – The Impact of Your Upbringing 30:41 – Outro Listen above, on Apple Podcasts or on Spotify, or watch the full video on YouTube. Remember to like, subscribe and share! The post How to “Take Care of Yourself” (Ep. 37) (https://www.morpheusclinic.com/how-to-take-care-of-yourself-ep-37/) appeared first on The Morpheus Clinic for Hypnosis (https://www.morpheusclinic.com).

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

624,226

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Spotify

5.0 / 5

12 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 33 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

8

Social presence

0

YouTube

86

Engagement

60

Contact How to Be an Adult

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.