Podbit · On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Riz Ahmed started filming Star Wars: Rogue One — his first-ever studio movie — and one week in, woke up unable to walk. He was hospitalised for 2.5 months, dropped to under 50 kilograms, and feared he might die. While friends texted about his Star Wars photos, he was desperately trying to get a nurse's attention so he wouldn't wet the bed.
Where this was said
At 37:20 · chapter starts 32:07
Riz Ahmed shares something he says he has never discussed publicly before. In 2015, one week into filming Star Wars: Rogue One — his first ever studio movie — he woke up unable to get out of bed. What he initially dismissed as a pulled muscle rapidly worsened. He ended up at the hospital where he was born, near his parents' home, and was immediately told to be admitted. His response — 'I can't, I'm filming Star Wars' — was met with blunt medical urgency. He spent 2.5 months in hospital. [1] — Riz Ahmed "Riz Ahmed started filming Star Wars: Rogue One — his first-ever studio movie — and one week in, woke up unable to walk. He was hospitalised…" 37:20 His weight dropped to just under 50 kilograms. He couldn't lift his arms or swallow food — a darkly ironic detail given that his cast and crew kept sending meals to his ward. While friends texted in excitement about his Star Wars set photos appearing online, he was trying to attract a nurse's attention so he wouldn't wet the bed. He describes the entire episode as drawing directly on the autobiography of Mogul Mowgli, the film he later made about an artist who suddenly loses the ability to walk.
Riz Ahmed used to think acting was about putting on a mask. Now he thinks it's about taking one off. The most personal thing is the most universal thing — which is why Bait is built entirely from his own insecurities, neuroses, and real life.
Riz Ahmed spent 2.5 months in hospital with an autoimmune condition that left him unable to walk, dropping to under 50 kilograms, during the filming of Star Wars: Rogue One.
During his hospitalisation Riz Ahmed's weight fell to just under 50 kilograms — approximately 100 pounds — and he lost the ability to lift his arms or swallow food.
Anxiety is not fear. Fear has an object — a wolf, a threat. Anxiety is the vertigo of standing at the edge of infinite possibility and knowing that choosing any one thing closes off all the others. Kierkegaard argued that the depth of your anxiety is proportional to the depth of your potential.
AI nailed Andrew Huberman's vertigo-vs-low-blood-pressure diagnosis because that pattern has been reported millions of times. But every patient's liver is different and data on liver surgeries is scarce worldwide — making solo robot surgery dangerous. The rule is simple: data abundance means AI can help; data scarcity means keep the human in the loop.
Fei-Fei Li's father had liver surgery performed by a da Vinci robot guided by a surgeon. The result: 10 times less blood loss than a typical procedure. This isn't replacement — it's the gold standard of human-machine collaboration, where the human's judgment and the robot's precision combine.
US drug overdose deaths fell from 110,000 to roughly 70,000 — the biggest CDC-recorded single-year drop ever. Men's rates fell 27% in one year, and the steepest decline of all was among 15–24-year-olds, down 37%. The crisis narrative around young men needs to make room for signs of genuine progress.
Kessler thought his grief expertise would protect him. It didn't. When his son David died unexpectedly, he found himself on the floor — and eventually realized that acceptance alone wasn't enough. That unmet need became the sixth stage: finding meaning.
Grief isn't just death — it's any unwanted change. Kessler lectured at Coca-Cola and General Mills not because they had lots of funerals, but because change management is grief management. People who grieve well live well.
Witnessing someone's grief isn't just emotional support — it's an essential act of healing. Kessler argues grief is a severance and connection heals it. But real witnessing has two steps: seeing the pain AND affirming the person's capacity to recover.
Avoiding grief isn't free — it's exhausting. Kessler's beach ball metaphor nails it: pushing a small balloon down is easy, but holding a massive beach ball underwater takes constant, draining energy. Unattended feelings don't disappear; they just consume you.
Most people try to control their environment to avoid triggers. Kessler flips this entirely: triggers aren't problems to manage around — they're a detailed map to your pain and your healing. Every trigger points directly to what needs attention.
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