Catalyst: A Podcast of Thought

Catalyst is a podcast for people who want their thinking to lead somewhere. I’m Dr. G, an executive coach, ethnographer, and relentless reader of nonfiction. I spend my time studying ideas, breaking them down, and translating them into something usable. Each episode is a distillation, one idea, examined, challenged, and applied. Not more information. Connected thinking. Shared thoughts.

Catalyst: A Podcast of Thought is a society podcast hosted by Greg Schnagl, with 22 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Greg Schnagl hosts Catalyst: A Podcast of Thought, a society show with 22 episodes published.

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  Catalyst: A Podcast of Thought

  Flow with Force: Chapter 6 - Flow Is Not Passive

  Sep 10, 202619 min

  We often misunderstand flow as letting go, stepping back, or simply going with whatever happens. But flow isn’t the absence of effort or agency. It’s a different way of engaging. Flow asks us to stay close enough to reality to respond to what is actually happening rather than forcing what we think should happen. In this episode, I explore the difference between impact and influence, control and participation, and reactive force and aligned force. Through stories from playing the guitar and golf, parenting, leadership, and even a frantic moment with a dog, I consider what happens when we stop equating intensity with engagement. Sometimes the most engaged thing we can do is not make something happen but meet what happens with intention. In doing so, we allow ourselves to be present and fully participate in our life.

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  Catalyst: A Podcast of Thought

  Flow With Force: Chapter 5 - Golf Is Not a Game of Control

  Sep 3, 202623 min

  Golf has a funny way of exposing us. For me, it exposed a lifetime habit of equating effort, intensity, and control with performance. The harder I tried to control my swing, the less natural it became. In this episode of Catalyst , I explore the difference between performing and participating, intention and expectation, and force and presence. Golf has taught me that sometimes the best thing I can do is prepare, choose a target, step beside the ball, and simply swing. Along the way, I explore false urgency, the body’s response to an imagined future, and what happens when we stop asking the present moment to prove something about us. Perhaps force can make things happen. But presence allows us to participate in what is happening. And influence may live somewhere between the two.

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  Catalyst: A Podcast of Thought

  Flow With Force: Chapter 4 - When Our Body Talks, But We Don’t Listen

  Aug 5, 202624 min

  For most of my life, I believed discipline could solve almost anything. If something wasn't working, I assumed I simply hadn't found the right strategy. Work harder. Prepare better. Tighten the routine. Apply a little more force. Then my body introduced me to a lesson that refused to negotiate. In this episode of Catalyst , I reflect on a decade-long journey toward understanding a rare autoimmune condition and how that experience gradually transformed my relationship with pain, uncertainty, and control. What began as an effort to solve a medical mystery slowly became an invitation to examine something much deeper, not what my body was doing to me, but what it was trying to tell me. Along the way, I explore the difference between hypervigilance and awareness, why false urgency often begins in the imagination long before it reaches the body, and how learning to recognize, recalibrate, and relax has reshaped not only my health, but also the way I approach leadership, relationships, and everyday life. Ultimately, this episode isn't about illness. It's about learning to see the body as a teammate rather than a machine and discovering that some of our most important lessons aren't spoken in words. They speak in signals.

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  Catalyst: A Podcast of Thought

  Promises Made. Promises Kept. The Art and Science of Closing the Loop

  Jul 20, 202612 min

  Every promise creates an opening, whether it's made to someone else or to ourselves. Until that promise is fulfilled, renegotiated, or released, our minds continue to carry it. In this episode, I explore the neuroscience, psychology, physiology, and sociology of "closing the loop," revealing why completion reduces mental load, strengthens trust, and quietly shapes identity. More than a lesson in productivity, this is an invitation to view follow-through as one of the simplest and most powerful expressions of integrity.

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  Catalyst: A Podcast of Thought

  Flow With Force: Chapter 3 - When Force Stops Working

  Jul 10, 202616 min

  There comes a point when trying harder no longer produces better results. In fact, it can begin producing the very friction we're attempting to eliminate. In this episode of Catalyst , I explore why force becomes our default strategy, why it serves us so well for so long, and why it eventually reaches a point of diminishing returns. Through stories from the golf course, instructional coaching, leadership, teaching, and my own health journey, I examine what happens when competence quietly becomes constriction and when effort begins interfering with the very outcomes it once created. This episode is not an argument against discipline, preparation, or hard work. Force has its place. The invitation is to become more discerning about where force belongs and where it does not. Sometimes our greatest challenge isn't learning how to push harder, but recognizing when the situation is asking for something different. Awareness, timing, and context often accomplish what additional force cannot. If you've ever found yourself working harder while feeling less effective, this episode is an invitation to pause long enough to notice what your situation is actually asking of you.

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