2025 Recap with Dr. Pete

🎙️ 2025: A Year of On Air With Dr. Pete
What an incredible year it’s been! Thank you to every listener who tuned in, shared feedback, and helped grow this community. As we look back on 2025, here are just a few of the standout moments and engaging conversations we were honored to bring you on On Air With Dr. Pete: 

🧠 Inspirational Guest Stories

• Spiritual Awakening with Catherine Duncan — a soulful discussion on living present and inspired.
  iHeart
• From Ivy League Injury to Lifelong Acceptance with Ken Kunken — a powerful reflection on resilience and life after adversity.
  iHeart
• Broadway to Bestsellers with Troy Horne — a journey of creativity, grit, and purpose.
  iHeart
• Surviving Blindness with Clay Moffitt — redefining vision and personal growth.
  Listen Notes
• How Dogs Teach Us About Purpose with Chris Bingham and Tambo — heartwarming and motivational.
  Podcast App

🎓 Expert Mental Health & Life Skills Conversations

• Radical Acceptance & Real Life Skills with Dr. Shireen Rizvi — exploring DBT & CBT in everyday life.
  iHeart
• Personality Traits & “Otroverts” Explained with Dr. Shannon Sauer-Zavala — diving deep into human personality science.
  iHeart
• Finding Balance in a World of Constant Crisis — practical tools for wellbeing.
  Listen Notes

🎧 Show Community & Behind-the-Scenes

• Meet the Producer! — Dr. Pete introduces his producer and lifelong friend, Leigh Castelli, sharing what it takes to make the show happen.
  iHeart

📬 We Want Your Ideas!
As we gear up for another exciting year of podcasts with On Air With Dr. Pete, we want to hear from YOU!
Send your show ideas, questions, or topics you’d like us to explore to:
👉 hello@leighcastelli.com

🙏 Thank You!
We are deeply grateful for your support and for being part of this journey. Here’s to another year of thoughtful conversations, growth, and connection through powerful storytelling and mental health awareness. 💛

Visit us: https://officialdrpete.com

Transcript

A Year-End Reset And Reflection

SPEAKER_00 0:17

Hello and welcome back to your last episode of On Air with Dr. B for 2025. And it is one of those times of years where everyone's just reflecting. And I was watching something on social media where some grumpy old man, I think that was his handle. Not I'm not labeling or judging him. Uh, and he was saying, like, it's not happy new year's. You know, uh sort of the grammar of it, but uh happy new year to y'all. I hope 2025 was what you wanted to be, and if it wasn't, that's also okay. Because if it wasn't, now's an opportunity for you to reset, rewind, play. So that reset is just to say, come back to this moment. Don't wait for anything. You'll hear me say in 2026 when we're there about uh and and if you've listened to any of the elsewhere things that I've written, you know that I say that you don't have to wait to use the good China, you don't have to wait to make a uh New Year's resolution last year. I know we did have a couple episodes on that. They don't they don't exist. And so I wanted to take some time just to reflect on 2025 because uh, you know, it was just what it was. One of the things is you will often hear people, and I love that I'm just becoming my parents, and maybe you realize that too. It's that it's that like all state commercial or whatever it is, you know, where you're uh turning into your parent, where you're thinking, you know, saying things that your parents would say and you never thought that you would, and that's okay. And history does repeat itself. So when you're finding yourself kind of being like, well, this is the best president or the worst president, or wow, there's been so many sort of tragedies happening, life is so terrible. And you know, it can be, and maybe yours is in this moment. And I think when we look back, it probably was, you know, 30 years ago something similar. And people have always kind of found themselves in situations, and that's really where I just love bringing this to you, bringing some of the guests that we have here on On Air with Dr. Pete, and then just my training in psychology and Zen, you know, being able to say, like, hey, this is not that different. It might feel different, but it's not, you know, and so I'm one of the things that I like that we've been able to do here, and shout out to Lee Costelli, you know, the best producer ever, only producer of on air with Dr. Pete, and only producer I've ever worked with on a podcast. But just for kind of putting together some topics that are pretty amazing, like this evolving mental health landscape. It is remarkable where this all started for where it is today. And by it, I mean just this whole idea of mental health. Um, I, you know, grew up in the 80s. I'm an elder millennial and to think about some of the challenges that people around me had, and we didn't have a name for it. We just called them crazy or we just sort of judged them or whatever we did with that. So I like that we've been able to bring that to you in a very objective kind of way, in a way that says, like, here's how this mental health landscape is evolving. Um, but we're also going to say, like, let's normalize this, you know, burnout. Let's normalize uh how to create resilience, you know, how to create meaning. What are your values? These are things that we're able to do. So uh one of the things that Lee and I are very you know passionate about is just having to give some conversations around stress, trauma, recovery, but tools, tools and tips, you know, having people on that are experts around these topics, uh, because a lot of times if I'm working with a team or an organization, I'll come in and I'll say, Who's felt stressed in the last you know, two weeks? And 100% of the people will raise their hand. So this is something that we all experience, uh, you know, career stuff, students, parenting, how to kind of help kids with the academic pressures that we have today. You know, we had some great guests around that, you know, maybe being mental health month. We brought some you know experts in around there. And and to think about, I remember I've had, you know, done assessments like psychological evaluation after one when I met with the parents, I said, you know, maybe just let the kid be a kid today. You know, and and and that might not sound clinical and that might sound judgmental, but so what if you have like a 4.0 and amazing grades? Okay, that's important. I understand that. And if you do that with a at such a cost that you don't, you know, that it imp negatively impacts your health and well-being, then for what? And and you can reflect on that as a parent, but also as a professional if you're listening. I do that a lot with some of the coaches I work with. You know, these are really demanding jobs. And if you can not enjoy the fruit of your labor, what is the point of the labor? Finding meaning in that is really critical. What about just the we, you know, in 2025 we focused on the productivity culture and importance of rest and reflection? You'll hear that over and over again. And every high performer I work with is like, well, I just, you know, someone else will be getting the edge. And but what if rest and recovery is part of the edge? You know, that's what I want us to think about because oftentimes what I think we're what we are not what I think, what we're learning is that that's the case. You know, if we're able to build in some rest and recovery in the science of that, we're going to be able to more, you know, optimize our performance. I will always bring you evidence-based practices. I am board certified in cognitive behavioral therapy. And so for me, evidence-based empiricism, understanding the science of why people do what they do and what works for those things. Everything that you will hear from me integrates some aspect of mindfulness, some contemplative practice and mind-body approaches. We had people talking about substance use, other sort of traumas like physical traumas, emotional trauma, losing children, losing body, you know, and ability, thinking about disability. These were, you know, things that are just really, really heavy. And hopefully what we're doing is finding some nuance in the compassion around this. You know, um, there we had such guests on about that really just embody all of this. They embody contemplative practices, whether they know it or not, you know, they embody compassion, they embody resilience. And you might not be feeling resilient in this moment, and that's okay. Because one of the things I want to do is always bridge uh psychology education, public discourse, you know, have topics that maybe other people don't want to talk about. Because, I mean, as a psychologist, that's what we got to do. You know, you got to talk for the things other people don't want to talk about. But, you know, we want to be sure that you're getting some kind of practical takeaway every time you tune in. As you know, our episodes are not going to be terribly long. You know, I'm I admire those that are able to and and are interested in listening to somebody for a long period of time. Um, I'm not, you know, so I often say I teach the way I want to be taught, you know, I coach the way I wanted to be coached. Uh, and so for me, I was always like, just give me the information, let's go, you know, and and anyone on my team knows that. It's it's uh let's let's be let's be effective, uh, let's be efficient. Ultimately, you know, 2025 for me uh was about kind of really just getting this out there more, but also like healing, you know, healing collectively. You know, one of the things I've read about is like collective trauma. And, you know, this is something that happens across in all different sorts of things, right? Whether it's some sort of tragedy or uh, you know, geographical or or what. It doesn't, you know, lots of different ways that we can collectively experience things. I'm really into this collective healing, you know, not in a way that has to feel uncomfortable or, you know, but just in a way of like, hey, can I or Dr. Pete bring you a little bit of that? You know, ways that we can collectively heal. Um, it's nonlinear, so it's not like we're gonna just all of a sudden like tune in and three weeks later we'll feel great. Um, because this is not therapy. Uh, you know, we've got some links for people that are looking for that, but this is just about sort of you know, information, stories, motivation, uh, ways that we can just, you know, really kind of cultivate the skill. That's what we do in a lot of the cognitive behavioral therapy that I do. It's how skillful can I be? If I have an employee that I don't like, how skillful can I be with that employer? A manager I don't like, you know, a family member that I don't like. Now, this may all sound really kind of triggering. You're like, wait, how do you not like somebody like that? Well, it's very possible. You don't have to like everybody. You know, you just have to learn how to be skillful with people. And so, you know, I think one of the jokes I've been saying in 2025 a lot is that I'm having a midlife crisis um and that I'm a sociopath. But those are uh just two of my kind of inside jokes with my people. And so the midlife crisis is probably actually pretty accurate. I'm 45 in 2025, and uh that's you know, kind of smack in the middle. I mean, I if I make it to 90, you know, who knows? You know, because what we do in mindfulness is we're just in the present moment. You know, um, what I've done is just really focus on my health and well-being. And so that meant, you know, working with a trainer, kind of getting my body, my back right, my shoulder, you know, 20-year, you know, sport injury, and uh it feels good, you know. So I'm okay with my midlife crisis. I'm not judging it, it's just where it is. The sociopath piece is because about being skillful. So sometimes you're like, you have to act as if, you know, so sometimes you're not, you know, 100% accurate with yourself. And I always think of Jim Carrey's movie Liar Liar, you know, you don't always have to just be, and you're not, you know, that's why that movie was so funny and kind of touched people because no one is a hundred percent truthful. What I often say in the therapy room is you might get close to 100% in therapy, but no one even gets to 100% in therapy. So if you can't with a professional who legally cannot say anything that you're saying in the room be 100% truthful, then uh, you know, that's just part of the human condition. So that's sort of why I've been joking, saying I'm a sociopath and that, you know, just that being skillful with people, you know. And so again, you know, there might be just people in your life that you just have to be a little bit more skillful with than others, you know, meaning you have to just, you know, take a couple more deep breaths or diffuse from your thoughts a bit more, or just, you know, accept that the person is what they are and maybe they're not giving you exactly what they need, what you need. That might be an opportunity for you to then cut them out, but it also might be an opportunity just to be skillful because there are some benefits. It might not be 100% benefit, but there are some benefits. So I am, you know, wanting to close out 2025 with just emphasizing how important it is to stay present, stay connected, find a way that you can sustain your well-being. You know, I don't like band-aids and quick fixes. They're they're okay temporarily, but they're not something that we want to do over and over again. You know, so I am just so thankful for the three people that download every episode. No, I'm just kidding. But I'm so thankful for the people that are, you know, tuning in. And I really hope in 2026 that you'll tune in, you'll share with some of your friends, uh your colleagues, you know, because our idea is this collective healing. You know, so for 2025, as I look back, my goal, goal Lee Castelli, the producer, is can we get some collective healing? Because, you know, we are all suffering. That's that Zen nature, the first noble truth. That is one of our plans for 2026 is to bring you some more Zen into this. But you may or may not know that I have been studying Zen for about 20 years almost. And so as a Zen teacher, just want to bring to you some Zen so that you can, you know, maybe learn a little bit around that. I realize there's not a huge platform for that. And so we're gonna integrate that in 2026. So uh, you know, again, I really am just so thankful for anyone that tunes in and hopefully you will like, follow, and share wherever you listen to your podcast. We are at everything's at official Dr. Pete. You know, that's the handle on all the you know uh Instagrams and websites. So have a wonderful 2025 holiday season. Don't get too, too stressed, let it all go. Don't fix family problems during that time, and just commit. Commit in this moment, don't wait till 2026. But until then, I hope you have a wonderful holiday season, a happy new year. And until I see you next year, spread a little kindness, stay well.