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.
Predictions that AI would eliminate radiologists were spectacularly wrong. Since those predictions, Mayo Clinic's radiology staff grew 55% and the specialty became the second-highest paid in medicine. The reason: AI automated scan-reading, but only 36% of a radiologist's time was ever spent doing that.
Self-help fails because people are sold one universal cure by the hyper-responders who had a transformative result from it. The real problem is context: every method works for the right person at the right time, which is almost never you just because the author says so.
Spencer Greenberg was once so socially anxious his heart pounded just approaching a stranger. His therapist gave him homework: go to a bar alone, talk to 5 strangers. Starting with asking for the time, he worked up to asking men for hugs — and his anxiety fell dramatically in 6 months.
A person who flies regularly but obsessively checks weather forecasts before every flight is not doing exposure therapy — they're teaching their brain that flying is only safe with the ritual. Safety behaviors prevent the brain from ever learning that the feared thing is actually fine.
The worry-time technique assigns all worries to one scheduled slot (e.g. 5 PM). Every time a worry surfaces, you write it down and ban yourself from engaging with it until that time. When 5 PM arrives, most worries feel trivial and the act of batch-worrying exposes how little it actually accomplishes.
In a randomized study of 20 habit techniques, 'habit reflection' stood out: recall a past habit you successfully built, write down what helped you succeed, then apply those same strategies to your new habit. It works because it's self-adapting — it uses whatever worked for YOU.
The tiny habits technique — always having a minimal version of your habit you can do when life gets in the way — keeps the mental machinery of habit formation from breaking. Paradoxically, people given a tiny-habit fallback option were MORE successful at the full habit, not less.
Fears and worries act like playground bullies — they want to ambush you. But when you deliberately seek them out and choose the time of engagement, they lose their power. The volitional act of starting the fight on your own terms is one of CBT's most underappreciated insights.
Most downtime defaults are things you regret immediately after — phone scrolling, binge TV. 'Glad you did it' activities meet the same need for rest but leave you feeling like you spent your time well. The switch from a bad screen to a documentary, a book, or a walk costs almost no extra effort but compounds into identity over time.
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