There’s a secret to solving stress and burnout at work. It’s surprisingly simple: breathe. According to science journalist James Nestor, breathing is the key to transforming our lives. After a decade of travelling the world to find out what went wrong and how to fix the way we breathe, he turns conventional wisdom about our most basic biological function on its head. James Nestor teaches us that even small adjustments to our breathing can profoundly improve our work efficiency, sports performance, anxiety and sleep. Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love, calls James’ work “a fascinating scientific, cultural, spiritual and evolutionary history of how humans breathe – and how we’ve all been doing it wrong for a long, long time.”

“It doesn’t matter what we eat, how much we exercise, how resilient our eyelashes are, how thin, young or wise we are – none of it will matter if we don’t breathe correctly. That’s what these researchers have discovered. The missing pillar in health is breathing. It all starts there.” (James Nestor)

In this revealing talk, James Nestor draws on his best-selling book “Breathing. A New Science of a Lost Art” condensing years of field research, information found in the most unexpected places (think ancient burial sites, secret Soviet installations, and New Jersey choir schools) into a coherent strategy to improve our breathing, and therefore our lives. Filled with groundbreaking research and exciting stories, James’ talk shows us what breathing does for our physical and mental well-being and how we can do it better.

About the speaker:

James Nestor is an author and journalist. To date, he has written for publications such as Scientific American, the New York Times, The Atlantic and the San Francisco Chronicle. He has spoken on the importance of proper breathing at Stanford School of Medicine, the United Nations, and Global Classroom (World Health Organization+UNICEF), as well as on over 60 radio and television programs, including Fresh Air with Terry Gross, ABC’s Nightline, CBS Morning News, and dozens of NPR programs. James has also teamed up with National Geographic explorer and marine scientist David Gruber to create the CETI Project – an ambitious undertaking to help us connect with and better understand the animals we share the planet with. Using technologies such as machine learning and artificial intelligence, the CETI Project hopes to one day break down communication between species and has been accepted as a TED Audacious Project.

James Nestor is the author of the best-selling book Breath: The New Science of Lost Art, published in Romania by Lifestyle Publishing. The book spent 18 weeks on The New York Times non-fiction bestseller list in its first year of publication and was a bestseller in Germany, Spain, Croatia, Italy and the UK. As of April 2023, Breath has sold over two million copies worldwide and has been translated into over 35 languages by 2022. In Romania it is one of the most read and recommended books on self-discovery.