Topic
Men's health
This is the part of the archive closest to the coaching Dai does every day. Testosterone, fatherhood, friendship, and the particular way men tend to wait until something is serious before mentioning it.
He uses his own history here more than anywhere else on the show, including the years he would rather not repeat.
4 reads · 3 answers · 3 episodes
Read
September 2026
Why you're tired all the time
Most men over forty who feel exhausted are not sleep deprived. What is actually going on.
November 2015
No longer fat, sick and nearly dead
The earliest written record of the two percent framework.
July 2022
One year of putting my mental health first
The origin of MERGE60, republished from LinkedIn.
September 2026
The DadBody project: what it is, who it is for, and why it works
Seven years ago I went looking for four dads over 40 to test an idea. What it became, and what it refuses to promise.
Questions answered
Each one gathers the passages from Dai's own transcripts and writing that answer it.
What does the archive say about low testosterone?
Dai Manuel's own experience with low testosterone, testing and the lifestyle side. Your doctor makes the call.
Why am I so tired in my 40s?
Why fatigue creeps in after 40 and the lifestyle levers that fight back, from Dai Manuel's episodes and writing.
What does the archive say about men's mental health?
Conversations about asking for help, isolation and depression in men, from Dai Manuel's guests and his own writing.
Listen
Episode 133
From Hits to Healing: Shea Emry’s Path from the CFL to Men’s Health Advocacy
Dai Manuel and Shea Emry talk about Shea's journey from CFL player to men's health advocate, including his experience with college and professional football. Shea discusses the challenges and growth he encountered during his career, emphasizing learning from failure and mentorship.
August 14, 2024 · 1:12:24 · Shea Emry
Episode 38
The Weight of Willpower: Carl Berryman's Path to Purposeful Fitness
Dai Manuel and Carl Berryman discuss applying gym principles, like measuring and progressive overload, to other life areas, including relationships. Berryman shares how this approach helped him overcome depression and improve his relationship after a personal crisis in 2020.
January 3, 2024 · 49:43 · Carl Berryman
Episode 27
Overcoming Low Testosterone Naturally: My Journey from Feeling 84 at 34 to Optimal Health
Dai Manuel covers his health journey, including a chronic autoimmune diagnosis and his experience with low testosterone levels as a young man. He shares how a functional medicine practitioner helped him restore his hormone levels through a two-year protocol involving supplements and microdosing HGH.
December 8, 2023 · 19:17
Related topics
Closest first. The ones at the top share pieces with this page.
Stress and recovery
Most of the men Dai coaches are not undertrained, they are underslept and permanently switched on. These episodes deal with that directly: what chronic stress does over years, and the short practices that take the edge off a day.
3 pieces in common
Mental health
Dai has spoken publicly about his own low points, including on a TEDx stage, and these episodes carry that same tone. Nothing here pretends that exercise fixes depression or that a morning routine replaces professional help.
2 pieces in common
Personal growth
This is the widest part of the archive, and the one that ties the rest together. The episodes deal with self awareness, honest reflection, and the uncomfortable stretch where you can see what needs to change before you are able to do it.
1 piece in common
Fitness
Thirty years of coaching sits behind these episodes, and the training advice in them is deliberately unfashionable. Strength, movement you can repeat, and sessions short enough to keep in a real week.
1 piece in common
Nutrition
Food episodes on this show avoid rules you cannot keep. Protein, hydration, ultra processed food and the long argument with diet culture all get covered, usually with a guest who works in the field.
1 piece in common
Longevity
Healthspan, not lifespan. These episodes deal with what it takes to still be carrying your own bags at eighty, and with the research on the places where people manage it routinely.
1 piece in common
Resilience
Most of these are guest episodes, and most of the guests have been through something genuinely difficult. Illness, addiction, grief, losing a career.
1 piece in common
Mindset
Mindset is the subject Dai comes back to more than any other, and never as a slogan. Across these episodes he treats it as something practical: what you say to yourself at six in the morning, what you decide a bad week means, and whether you are willing to be a beginner at something in your forties.
3 reads · 3 answers
Habits
Two percent of a day is roughly thirty minutes, and the whole show is built on what a person can do with that. These episodes deal with the mechanics: how a habit starts, what breaks it, and how to restart without treating a missed day as a verdict on your character.
4 reads · 6 answers
Motivation
Dai's position on motivation is blunt: it is a nice passenger and a terrible driver. These episodes are about what carries you on the days when the feeling is not there, and they include the Monday episodes that were designed to be listened to on the way into the week.
3 reads · 3 answers
Goals
A goal that only works when life is calm is not a goal, it is a wish. These episodes cover how Dai sizes a target, what he does with the gap between where somebody is and where they say they want to be, and why the first goal is usually the wrong one.
2 reads · 3 answers
Mindfulness
Stillness is one of the four anchors in Dai's own approach, and it gets the least airtime in most fitness conversations. These episodes cover meditation, breathing and gratitude without the incense.
2 reads · 2 answers
Work and life
Dai spent years as an executive before coaching full time, and these episodes carry that. Productivity, leadership, and the honest maths of where the hours in a week actually go.
2 reads · 4 answers