4.7 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 1 October 2025
⏱️ 68 minutes
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What if the very thing you’ve been hiding from the world is actually the doorway to real connection?
On today’s episode, we sit down with legendary comedian, TV host, actor, and producer Howie Mandel - best known for Deal or No Deal, America’s Got Talent, and decades of stand-up. But the real story isn’t what Howie does. It’s how he thinks.
In this candid and deeply human conversation, Howie shares his lifelong journey with OCD and anxiety, his complex relationship with performance, and how comedy became both a shield and a bridge. Together with Dr. Mike, he explores what it means to embrace our humanness, manage the noise inside our heads, and show up vulnerably - onstage and off.
You’ll learn:
If you’ve ever wondered what would happen if you brought your hidden self into the light, this episode is your invitation to find out.
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| 1:23.4 | finding mastery for 35% off your first subscription order. I was on a live broadcast, the Howard Stern radio show. I had a panic attack and I said, hey, listen, I'm going to pass out right now. Legitimately, I have something called obsessive-compulsive disorder. I've been diagnosed. I'm medicated. And if you don't open the door for me right now, you're going to have to call 911. I thought I was in a commercial break. I saw that this whole thing had been broadcast nationally. There was probably the darkest, most devastating moment I can remember. What if the very thing you've been hiding from the world is actually the doorway to real connection? I wandered out into the street. And right away, somebody came up to me and they were, are you Howie Mandel? And I didn't even make eye contact. I looked down and I went, yes. They go, I just heard you on Howard Stern. And I just went, oh, shit, what do I do now? And he said two words, me too. And I went, me too. What are you saying? He goes, I have obsessive, compulsive. Thank you so much for talking about. |
| 2:18.0 | Welcome back. We're welcome to the Finding Mastery podcast where we dive into the minds of the world's |
| 2:22.9 | greatest thinkers and doers. I am your host, Dr. Michael Jervais, by trade and training a high |
| 2:27.4 | performance psychologist. And the idea behind these conversations, it's simple. It's to sit with the |
| 2:31.9 | extraordinaries, to learn, to really learn about how they work from the inside out. |
| 2:36.7 | This is not about hacks or shortcuts. It's about understanding what they are searching for, how they organize their inner world and the skills they've built to shape themselves and their craft. |
| 2:46.6 | Today's conversation is with the one and the only, Maui Mendel. He's a legendary committee, a TV host, actor, producer. Now, the real story, though, it isn't what he does. It's how he thinks. I happen to have mental health issues, which were not addressed, nor would be addressed, in the era that I come from. Really late in life in my 40s, I was diagnosed. But living with ease, for lack of a |
| 3:08.7 | better term, demons inside of me, I never felt comfortable. In this raw and revealing conversation, |
| 3:15.5 | we go deep into Howie's Psychology and how comedy has been both a shield and a bridge for him. |
| 3:20.7 | April 19th, 1977, I went to a comedy club in Canada and somebody dared me to get up |
| 3:26.9 | on stage. I have all these strangers just looking at me, expecting me to deliver something, and I had |
... |
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