Mark sits down with Dr. Frank W.J. Anderson, a board-certified OB-GYN, professor emeritus at the University of Michigan, and longtime mindfulness teacher trained under Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach. Dr. Anderson is the author of A Guide to the Mindful Awareness Perspective, host of the Exploring Awareness podcast, and founder of the Mindful Awareness Institute — and in this episode, he steps onto a pickleball court for the very first time.
What follows is a conversation about what Dr. Anderson calls "the awareness of awareness" — a simple but often-missed idea that most of us are aware of our breath, our body, our thoughts, without ever knowing that we're aware. He walks through his "4+2 path," the metaphor of "Hacklandia" (the habits, assumptions, and conditioning we all carry) and "Maptopia" (the return to presence, joy, and connection), and how both show up the moment you step to the service line.
They also dig into the origins of pickleball itself — three dads in a backyard on Bainbridge Island in 1965, building a game with no real athletic barrier to entry — and why Dr. Anderson believes that origin story is, at its core, a presence practice. From there, the conversation moves into what happens when competition, ratings, and pressure start to crowd out that original spirit, and how a single breath before a serve can reset the whole moment.
This one isn't just for pickleball players. It's for anyone who's ever reacted before they meant to.
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