Calm CEO explores mental health & leadership with industry icons in new book ‘Recharge’
Calm CEO, David Ko’s new book ‘Recharge’ is a transformative guide to mental wellness — helping to boost your mental battery through shared wisdom and strategies.
As anxiety rates, stress, and burnout continue to rise across the U.S. (and the world), the conversation around mental health has become more prominent and more important. Most of us need all the tools, support and wisdom we can access to help us navigate the challenges of real life.
And that’s exactly what Calm CEO, David Ko, is offering in his new book, Recharge: Boosting Your Mental Battery, One Conversation at a Time.
Ko’s book weaves together personal anecdotes from his own experience and those of other well-known figures, with practical strategies to manage stress, boost work-life balance, and build emotional resilience. In visualizing the mind as a battery, Ko offers readers a simple yet powerful tool to understand and recharge their mind, and ultimately transform their lives as a result.
All proceeds from the book will be donated to the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
The inspiration behind ‘Recharge’
Like many of us, Calm’s CEO, David Ko, has navigated his own mental health journey, which started as a teenager when he experienced moments of intense panic. But it wasn’t until decades later, when he became CEO of Calm, that Ko realized those moments of frozen fear were panic attacks.
“People didn’t talk about their feelings in the 1980s,” Ko says. “Especially coming from an immigrant family, we were taught to power through. We didn’t have conversations about mental health – we didn’t know how.”
Through working at Calm, Ko not only learned to recognize and manage his stress, but discovered that countless others were seeking the same tools and language to better care for themselves and support those around them, too.
“Because of what I’ve learned at Calm—gaining the knowledge, vocabulary, and, honestly, the courage to talk about mental health—I decided to write a book,” Ko says. “I wanted to share my journey and the conversations I’ve had along the way to guide and encourage all of us to take care of the batteries that run our lives: our brains.”
Your brain is a battery
Most of the time we think of our brain as a super-computer, helping us make millions of daily decisions. In the book, Ko shares that the better metaphor is to think of the brain as a battery that powers these millions of decisions that need recharging.
Relating to the brain as a battery, Ko illustrates the way stress, anxiety, depression, and burnout can drain our mental and emotional energy. And how, just like we recharge our electronic devices, our minds also need to be recharged regularly to keep ourselves mentally and physically healthy.
More about ‘Recharge’
In Recharge: Boosting Your Mental Battery, One Conversation at a Time, Ko combines dives into a series of compelling conversations with leading mental health experts, renowned athletes, and celebrated entertainers including:
Randall Park (actor and comedian) who shares how mindfulness has helped him cope with panic attacks;
Macklemore (rapper) who discusses addiction, and the role of mental health support during recovery;
Delilah (radio personality) who explores the power of faith and community in overcoming challenges;
Jack Rowe (former Chairman and CEO of Aetna Inc.) who discusses the significance of mental health in the corporate environment
John Sculley (former Apple CEO and Harvard Medical professor) who highlights the importance of mental health in our daily lives;
Carl Nassib (NFL player);
and more
These conversations, along with Ko’s own journey, highlight the importance of addressing mental health head-on — breaking through fear and stigma to create a foundation for meaningful change.
How the book offers value for leaders
While Recharge is essential reading for anyone prioritizing their mental well-being, Ko wrote it especially for leaders. That doesn’t just mean individuals running a team or company, it extends to those managing a family, household, and even their own well-being.
From a professional perspective, Ko firmly believes that mental health needs to be part of workplace culture because only then will companies thrive. The need for mental health support in professional contexts was brought sharply to light during the COVID-19 pandemic when the pressure and reality of work-life balance became unavoidable.
Ko shares that one way companies and leaders can foster better mental health in the workplace is by providing resources like flexible working hours, support programs and providing space and time for meaningful conversations.
