The Jamie MacDonald Show

We spend years building ourselves. The career, the reputation, the personality — the references and the in-jokes and the way we walk into a room. Then some of us pick it all up and move it somewhere else. And discover, sometimes painfully, that none of it travels.I recently spoke with Brooke Black — American music publicist, podcast host, and what she describes as a reluctant Dane. She accidentally moved to Denmark with her Danish husband and two small children during COVID, and has been figuring out who she is ever since. She hosts What Are You Doing in Denmark?, the biggest podcast for internationals in the country, and she came on with a kind of clear-eyed honesty about expat life that I don’t often hear.This issue is presented by:I’ve been using BioOptimizers products as part of my evening routine — especially during busy weeks when recovery feels off. Bioptimizers is offering JamieLivesWell readers 15% off sitewide below.The self you built doesn’t pack wellBrooke spent her twenties in New York, her thirties in LA. She was the breadwinner, the career woman, the loud, enthusiastic, culturally-fluent person in every room. And then:“All of the things that I’ve cultivated, my career, my personality, all these little details that I have painstakingly created as part of me that I thought were the great things about me — don’t matter. Because you’re in a brand new country.”That landed for me. We often talk about moving abroad as an adventure, a fresh start. And it is. But it’s also a kind of quiet dismantling. Your wit relies on shared references. Your confidence relies on being understood. Strip those away and you’re left asking a harder question: what’s actually there?The invisible weightOne thing Brooke described that I hadn’t heard articulated quite like this before is the sheer cognitive cost of living somewhere not built for you. After five years in Denmark, she still catches herself doing things wrong without realising. Every interaction — the train, the grocery store, the school gate — requires a little extra processing.“You are void of personality because you’re just trying to follow what’s happening.”And that drain compounds. What’s left over for your relationships, your kids, your work? She put it simply: you can never expect another place to rise to the expectations you built somewhere else. The adjustment isn’t lowering your standards — it’s recalibrating what matters.What Denmark gets right (and what the PR leaves out)Brooke is thoughtful about not selling Denmark as a dream. Yes, the trust is real — laptops left open on trains, babies sleeping outside cafés, an eight-year-old biking herself to school through a gate with no security. Yes, the five weeks of annual leave, the stress leave that carries no stigma, the kids who get to play with real knives and take real risks.But the winters are dark. The seasonal depression is real. Danes are warm, but slowly — and they will absolutely reach across you in a supermarket rather than say excuse me. It took Brooke two years in Copenhagen to build friendships where she felt she could be herself.“Loneliness is one of the toughest things to try and solve anytime you move to a new place and try to find your place within it.”That’s not a Denmark problem. That’s the expat condition. And it’s worth naming honestly.What the glass-half-full thing is actually aboutNear the end of our conversation, we got onto something I’ve felt myself — the American enthusiasm, the pointing at things and going wow, the willingness to talk to strangers. Brooke said she’s started cringing at it after years of toning herself down for Danish sensibilities. But she doesn’t want to lose it entirely.The happiest countries, she thinks, aren’t happier because they’ve lowered their expectations. It’s more like they’ve adjusted them — to what they actually have, not what they think they should have. There’s something worth sitting with in that.You can find Brooke on Instagram and TikTok at @brookblackjust and her podcast What Are You Doing in Denmark? is on all platforms. If you’re thinking about moving to Denmark, she genuinely welcomes the DMs.Now press play. The full conversation is worth your time.More episodes: Get full access to Jamie MacDonald at www.jamieliveswell.com/subscribe

We live in a culture that treats busyness as a badge of honour. The more you do, the more you’re worth.In this week’s episode, I sat down with Lorena Bernal — author, speaker, and the founder of LiveLoveBetter — and within the first few minutes she said something that stopped me in my tracks. When I asked her who she really is, beneath the career and the roles and the accolades, she didn’t hesitate:“A soul with a little girl kind of vibe. Very happy and grateful to be living a human experience on earth.”That answer struck a chord.The storm in your headLorena’s take on burnout cuts through the noise. It’s not simply about working too hard — it’s about living too far from the present moment. She describes it as getting lost in a storm of worries, future plans, and the nagging fear of not doing enough.“If you go back to the present and do what you’re doing at this moment, suddenly it loosens that weight you have.”It sounds almost too simple. But the more I think about it, the more I believe simplicity is the point. We’ve overcomplicated rest, wellness, even parenting — turning each of them into another performance to optimise.Achievement without foundationOne of the most honest moments in our conversation came when Lorena described being at the peak of her Hollywood career and experiencing a profound loss at the same time. No amount of professional success could touch the emptiness she felt.“I feel so empty and it’s going so well. What I thought would give me what I wanted in life is not even close to fulfilling the emptiness I feel inside.”That’s a hard thing to admit. Harder still to use it as a turning point. But she did. And I think a lot of high performers will recognise that feeling — the gnawing sense that something vital is missing even when everything looks perfect on paper.The one thing worth doingWhen I asked Lorena for a single daily practice that’s genuinely shifted her mental health, she didn’t sell me a morning routine or a supplement stack. She said: stop, breathe, and feel grateful — not as a concept, but as a felt experience in your body.“Thank you for my heart beating. Thank you for my breathing. Just that, a few seconds, regulates your whole nervous system.”There’s something quietly radical about that. In a world that’s monetised mindfulness and turned self-care into a productivity tool, she’s pointing back to something far older and simpler.Lorena’s book It Starts With You is a good place to begin if any of this resonated. You can also find her at livelovebetter.co.uk.Now press play. The full conversation is worth your time.Instagram: @jamieliveswellTikTok: @jamieliveswellSubstack: JamieLivesWellYouTube: @jamieliveswellLinkedIn: Jamie MacDonaldWebsite: jamieliveswell.com Get full access to Jamie MacDonald at www.jamieliveswell.com/subscribe

One thing that stayed with me from this week’s podcast with Remnant MD was this idea that the body often knows before the mind does.We talked a lot about the gut — not just digestion, but the growing understanding that gut health may influence mood, energy, intuition, and overall wellbeing more than we realize.I’ve noticed this in my own life too.Usually when I feel anxious, foggy, exhausted, or just “off,” my body has been trying to tell me something long before my brain catches up.JamieLivesWell is presented by Just Thrive:https://justthrivehealth.com/JAMIELIVESWELLI’ve been paying more attention to gut health recently, and one brand I’ve liked is Just Thrive. Their probiotics are designed to survive digestion and actually reach the gut effectively — which is a surprisingly important detail.🧠 The Gut Does More Than Digest FoodOne of the most interesting parts of the conversation was discussing how disconnected many of us have become from our bodies.Modern life teaches us to override signals constantly:* push through exhaustion* scroll instead of resting* ignore stress* numb discomfortBut the body keeps communicating anyway.And increasingly, research around the gut-brain connection suggests the gut may play a much bigger role in mental and emotional wellbeing than we once thought.Lately I’ve become more aware of how differently I feel depending on:* what I eat* sleep* stress* sunlight* time in natureYou can feel the difference.Sometimes wellness starts with paying attention again.Not obsessing.Not optimizing everything.Just noticing what actually makes you feel good.The full podcast with Remnant MD is above if you’d like to listen.Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jamieliveswellYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/@jamieliveswelTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@jamieliveswell Get full access to Jamie MacDonald at www.jamieliveswell.com/subscribe

A line from a recent podcast conversation has stayed with me all week:“All words are magic spells. Be very conscious of how you use them to describe yourself.”I recently sat down with artist Adam Henry to talk about burnout, creativity, meditation, and self-talk.And what struck me most was this:A lot of us are exhausted not just because of what we’re doing — but because of the way we speak to ourselves while we do it.I should be doing more.I’m behind.I haven’t done enough.That kind of thinking quietly shapes how we experience life.This issue is presented by:I’ve been using BioOptimizers products as part of my evening routine lately — especially during busy weeks when recovery feels off. BioOptimizers is offering JamieLivesWell readers 15% off sitewide below.Burnout Isn’t Always About WorkAdam described burnout not as overwork, but as becoming exhausted by the story he was telling himself.That felt very real to me.At one point he said:“The best performers aren’t always ‘on.’ They’re just better at turning it on and off.”Toward the end of the conversation, I asked him what he would tell his younger self.His answer:“Believe in yourself and quiet all the chatter.”Honestly, I think a lot of us need that reminder right now.Further Reading: Get full access to Jamie MacDonald at www.jamieliveswell.com/subscribe