Life Examined: Recent Episodes
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KCRW's Life Examined is a one-hour weekly show exploring science, philosophy, faith — and finding meaning in the modern world. The show is hosted by Jonathan Bastian. Please tune in Sundays at 9 a.m., or find it as a podcast.
Johnsons points out that being engaged in the larger questions of our existence is also healthy for us. “We need this exposure to the universe to invoke humility, to kindle our humanity, to really spark creativity and curiosity.”
Johnson also speculates on the existence of extraterrestrial life and unexplained sightings, suggesting that, given the vastness of the cosmos, it’s more likely than not that other forms of life exist. “I think it's probably more likely than not that they exist…If there is extraterrestrial life, chances are that they are probably millions or 10s of millions of years more technologically advanced than we are…If they don't want to be seen, we're not going to see them.”
One thing that Kelsey Johnson does want us to see more of is the night sky. Currently, there are only two spots in the eastern half of the country “that can still reach levels of darkness in the night sky that are considered pristine. And that is extreme northern Minnesota, right on the Boundary Waters, there's a little pocket. And in extreme northern Maine, right up, in the top near Canada.”
Losing access to the night skies results in a further disconnection from the universe. As Johnson points out, the only “accessible forms of awe to humanity over millennia has been the night sky, and now 80% of the global population doesn't have access to it.”
“If they don't have access to [a dark sky], they don't know what they're missing, and they don't know what is being lost.”
Johnson points out that light pollution has largely gone unnoticed, yet its impact on our ecosystem has been devastating. "It's affecting all the flora and fauna," she says. "It now has traceable impacts on a whole host of things related to human health. Everything from insomnia and depression to cancer."
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*This episode originally aired on July 23, 2023.
Navigating the relentless pace of the modern world often means being bombarded by daily distractions, sleep deprived and perhaps a little stressed or anxious. It’s not easy. When it comes to looking for a moment of reflection and recalibration, it’s worthwhile to reexamine some of the philosophies and practices rooted in one of the world’s oldest cultures: Japan.
Jonathan Bastian talks with Pico Iyer, travel writer and author of “The Half Known Life: In Search of Paradise.” Born and raised in England, Iyer spent much of his younger adult life in New York and California before moving to Japan in 1992. From his first day there, Iyer recalls, he felt, “a mysterious sense of recognition … as soon as I spent my first morning in Japan walking around near the airport in Tokyo — not, obviously, an interesting or romantic place — I felt, ‘I know this place and this place knows me.’”
More: In search of paradise — and why travel writer Pico Iyer says it may be within
Since then, Iyer has discovered that the more time he spends there, the better. Perhaps that’s because, at 66, he’s aged into a society in which being “older” is also culturally revered and embraced.
“Maybe the real reason I wanted to move was [because] it's a very mature, seasoned old society. For me, going to Japan was like seeking out an elder,” Iyer says. “I've reached the age when I really want to learn how to live and what it all means, and I felt that Japan could offer that as well as anywhere.”
The Eastern philosophy that dominates Japanese cultural traditions centers itself on a strong sense of community. In contrast to the US, where individualism is revered, Japanese society is generally collectivistic, with people often viewing themselves and others as members of cooperative groups or units. Accordingly, older members of Japanese society are respected for their wisdom and maturity.
More: The external and internal pilgrimage: Author Pico Iyer on the purpose of journeying in modern times
Iyer also discusses the concept of impermanence, a tenet of Buddhist philosophy that Iyer says is “deeply woven into every fabric” of Japanese society.
“Every April, everyone races out to see the cherry blossoms, precisely because they last for only ten days. And if they were to last, even for a month, there'd be none of the excitement and none of the sense of grabbing the moment,” he says. “[It’s a] Japanese truth, which is a universal truth: Nothing lasts forever.”
Pico Iyer, pictured here, explains that in Japanese culture, “the fact that nothing lasts is a reason that everything matters, every moment matters, and one can't take anything for granted.” Photo courtesy of Derek Shapton.
More: Spiritual writer Pico Iyer says now is the time confront who we really are
Social and medical anthropologist Iza Kavedžija has done extensive research and fieldwork with two distinct groups of people in the Kansai region of Japan. Her primary focus, and the subject of her book “Making Meaningful Lives: Tales from an Aging Japan,” has been examining how older members of Japanese society are cared for by the community and by one another.
In Osaka, Kavedžija observed that in order to maintain social links and ties, older people have created a social network — a sort of social safety net that they need in order to live well. Surprisingly, it's Japan's older generation that’s “driving societal changes,” explains Kavedžija. “We don't tend to think of older people as those who are driving the processes of social change and crafting new social relations, but that's exactly what they were doing.”
Another practice Kavedžija observed in her research, and which in recent years has gained international traction as a lifestyle philosophy, is that of ikigai, which translates to “reason for being.”
“Ikigai can sometimes be quite a modest pursuit, some small hobby or small set of interests, or even a form of attention,” explains Kavedžija. “Being able to observe the birds in the garden through the window, and being able to do that every day, and that simply gets you out of bed, can be seen as a form of ikigai. … It's looking out for those small things in life that kind of get you going.”
Kavedžija says Japanese philosophy is very much guided by the principles of humility, gratitude, and community. What struck her, particularly in her research with the elderly, was the cultivation of broad networks of care.
“Even among fairly old people in their 80s and 90s, they themselves were not only just recipients of care, but were very caring and involved in numerous caring relationships, which would scaffold other people's lives,” she says.
While researching Japanese society, Iza Kavedžija, pictured here, observed that, “when disposing of things, people would often kind of thank things for their service, or try to find a good home for an item, passing it on to someone who needs it. And this way of being in the world is quite helpful in a society where there's a lot of objects, and there's a lot of consumerism.”
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Writer and winter enthusiast Katherine May revels in the winter months. While the long, dark evenings invite us to huddle indoors and disconnect from the world, they also offer a chance for reflection, remembrance, and a reset in our lives. As May explains, this season is a time to pause and recalibrate for many.
“Winter is a season of dread as a time of year when grief surfaces. There are people who will be spending their first Christmas alone, or maybe their fifth Christmas alone – everything will be out of place.”
May, author of the book Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times, encourages embracing those feelings of loss and loneliness that seem to creep in with the cold. She argues that “this time of year, we're often so tired and grumpy” that “we have to treat ourselves like children sometimes, who are in need of a nap, in need of a snack, in need of a bit of quiet time.”
The cure for this? May encourages going outdoors and looking to nature for inspiration and guidance, pointing out that even at the bleakest, darkest time of year, life goes on.
“Think about it in terms of hibernation, in terms of really drawing back. It becomes this beautiful process of rebirth to me and this paring back of what we need teaches us something really profound. Which is that life goes on, even in the most compromised of circumstances.”
To wrap up 2024, Life Examined host Jonathan Bastian and producer Andrea Brody reflect on their year, both on and off the air. They share what defined the year for them personally, highlighting the guests and conversations that left a lasting impact—from the chaotic, unpredictable world of Burning Man to a deeply personal story of loss, and much more.
Delve deeper into life, philosophy, and what makes us human by joining the Life Examined discussion group on Facebook.
Brad Stulberg, author of Master Of Change: How To Excel When Everything Is Changing — Including You shares his observations of humanity, resourcefulness, and community after his hometown of Asheville, North Carolina was hit by Hurricane Helene. The devastating storm left residents without power, water, and communications for days on end.
In the aftermath of the storm, neighbors sprang into action by sharing, gathering, and helping each other wherever they could. Stulberg shares this anecdote about observing his community:
“People came together like I had never seen before. And for those that aren't familiar with western North Carolina, Asheville is a very blue political place, but the surrounding areas are quite red… All of that just completely went away, it was just pure connection on a human level.”
Stulberg likens this experience of hope and resilience to the concept of "tragic optimism," as described by Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl’s book Man's Search for Meaning. Frankl argues that even in the face of pain and despair, we can choose to remain hopeful and optimistic. “We need to be able to look these tragedies in the eye,” Stulberg explains, “expect that they're going to happen and at the same time be optimistic – trudge forward with a hopeful attitude. And Frankel would argue, not in spite of those tragedies, but actually because of them. There's so much in life that is hard, what is going to sustain us through the hard times is also embracing the beautiful when it's there and holding on to it.”
All proceeds from the sale of Brad Stulberg’s book, Master Of Change: How To Excel When Everything Is Changing — Including You, through the end of the year will go towards relief funds helping those impacted by Hurricane Helene in Western North Carolina.
Stulberg, who frequently writes and speaks about mental health and human potential, also addresses his concerns about a current (and well-documented) crisis of masculinity. He does this by sharing some of the latest data on mental health and friendships. “Men are four times as likely than women to die by suicide, right now,” Stulberg tells us. “Nearly half of male teens say that they've never dated — almost double the rate of previous generations. 30 years ago, a majority of young men said that they had over six good friends. Today, the majority of young men say they have only three friends and 15% of young men report having no close friends.”
While there is no single cause for “the increase in loneliness and the male loss of status or feeling like you don't matter,” Stulberg highlights one observation he’s made, and that’s the change in youth sports. Once a community-driven, recreational outlet, “youth sports [have] become increasingly professionalized now. In many areas, you have to pay to play, it's all about travel teams. So these outlets that men used to have to feel really good about themselves are harder to access for a lot of folks.”
Delve deeper into life, philosophy, and what makes us human by joining the Life Examined discussion group on Facebook.
A warning to listeners: The following conversation references suicide, suicidality, and content that is inappropriate for young listeners.
Even before the pandemic, there was an increasing awareness of the decline in mental health of children and young adults. Researchers and scientists have talked and written about rising levels of anxiety in today’s youth, and many have pointed to the pervasiveness of smartphones and social media, which have exponentially magnified concerns for the mental well being of a generation.
Andrew Solomon, writer and professor of clinical psychology at Columbia University Medical Center, recently penned an article for The New Yorker titled “Has Social Media Fuelled a Teen-Suicide Crisis? ” In his piece, Soloman investigates what’s fuelling the the spike in suicide among Americans between the ages of ten and twenty-four. Quoting the work of Dr. Judith Edersheim at Harvard, Solomon says: “It’s like taking little children and putting them in an all night casino where they serve chocolate flavored bourbon. It's designed to be addictive, it is addictive and that addiction has devastating consequences.”
Solomon interviews dozens of parents and shares the poignant and heart wrenching accounts of how so many of them were totally unaware of the online world in which their children were living. As one father who had lost his son to suicide explained to Solomon, “I was, I thought, such a good father. I checked around the house every night. I locked the doors. I made sure my children were safe. I didn't know that the lion was already inside the house.”
Solomon further explains that this all has so much to do with the insidious nature of the algorithms, which feed not on vulnerabilities, but bring about a sense of normalization. If a kid looks at content about being a little depressed, Solomon tells us that “then they start showing you people who are more depressed. “They want to hook you,” he continues, “what they send you has to gradually become more extreme and eventually you escalate to people who are killing themselves on camera and posting it on social media platforms while they are doing it.”
Parents, educators and lawmakers are working hard to bring attention to this; some argue that social media is only “only one layer” in the crisis.
Lawsuits have made their way to the Supreme Court but so far, Solomon informs us: “The Supreme Court has refused to overturn Section 230. The legislative work that was supposed to have an effect on placing constraints on the operations of social media companies, have all got stuck in committee, despite the ‘bipartisan agreement that there need to be restraints.’”
Solomon advises parents to educate themselves and talk to their kids, though inevitably the younger generation who has grown up with technology is going to be ahead of the game. “The idea of being able to monitor all of what your children are doing is a ludicrous fantasy,” Solomon admits. “So I think that's all not very effective, but you can at least be aware and talk to your children.”
Delve deeper into life, philosophy, and what makes us human by joining the Life Examined discussion group on Facebook.
This week British author Raynor Winn reflects on healing, hope and resilience. Finding herself homeless and coping with her husband’s recent health diagnosis - Winn and her husband set off on a long distance walk. As they set out together they discover how their perspective changes - and how much of their anxiety and bitterness melt away.
This episode with Raynor Winn was originally broadcast, October 8th, 2023
*This episode was originally broadcast Saturday, June 26th, 2021
Over the past few decades, Buddhism and psychology have served as bridges connecting Eastern and Western thought. Believing that nothing is permanent, Buddhism presents an honest understanding of our minds — how we spend so much of our time thinking about the past and future, and struggle to stay in the present. Harnessing these insights, psychologists and therapists have incorporated Buddhism into therapy by teaching mindfulness meditation practices, and the power of observing our own thoughts and emotions rather than trying to get rid of them.
KCRW’s Jonathan Bastian talks with Tara Brach, a clinical psychologist who has spent decades studying Buddhism, meditation, and the incorporation of Eastern thought into her Western practice. She holds a PhD in clinical psychology, and has spent dozens of years studying Buddhism and meditation. Brach, one of the most sought-after Buddist teachers in America, explains why the stillness of meditation is “exquisite,” and how the simplest of acts may be the purest. Her books include “Radical Acceptance, Embracing Your Life With the Heart of a Buddha,” “True Refuge: Finding Peace and Freedom in Your Own Awakened Heart,” and most recently, “Trusting the Gold: Uncovering Your Natural Goodness.”
This week Rabbi Steve Leder on why we should consider what we leave those closest to us when we die to include a legacy letter or ‘ethical will.’ Rabbi Leder reminds us that it’s not only our material possessions that matter when we’re no longer around but what will be cherished most are our words, our guidance, and our love and gratitude.
This episode with Rabbi Steve Leder was originally broadcast, May 28th 2022
Potawatomi botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer discusses the philosophy of a “gift economy” in her latest book The Serviceberry, expanding on the theme of reciprocity from her 2013 book Braiding Sweetgrass.
At a time of increasing consumerism and declining natural resources, gifting, Kimmerer reminds us, is a truly renewable resource. She draws on the example of the serviceberry and its remarkable ability to give:
“In my Potawatomi language, the word for berry ‘min’ is also the root word for gift and for gift giving. So when you see them hanging there ... They're just meant to attract us, right? And they do! They have what we need in sweetness, flavor, and calories. Every time I pick berries, it just opens that sense of ‘I didn't work for these. I didn't deserve these. I don't own these, and yet here they are in my bowl.’”
The serviceberry works as a simple metaphor for Kimmerer to explain why the “gift economy” is so ecologically important. Kimmerer explains that a small dish of berries can multiply with every exchange. Its currency isn’t measured in dollars and cents, but in the sense of community and relationships that gifting and gratitude fosters.
“The goods and services that economics are meant to provide for us, they are material, they are the things that we need in order to live,” Kimmerer continues. “Those are often commodities, but the things that we hold most precious, like pure water, the taste of wild berries, and the regard of our neighbors — the trust of our neighbors — those can never be commodified. For those, we have a ‘gift economy.’”
The Serviceberry is an invitation to think about how we live our lives. Drawing on native beliefs and traditions, Kimmerer explains that the abundant fruits of the humble serviceberry serve as a sweet reminder of our interdependence. It reminds us that all flourishing is mutual, “from bees, to birds, to microbes, to us.”
With the limitations of resources and the finite nature of water and minerals — we should strive for an “economy of balance rather than growth.”
Delve deeper into life, philosophy, and what makes us human by joining the Life Examined discussion group on Facebook.
This week clinical psychologist and author Dacher Keltner delves into the science and mysteries surrounding awe and shares that awe is not just found in nature or music but most often in the moral beauty of other people.
This episode with Dacher Keltner was originally broadcast, February 4th, 2023
The plight of Black farmers in America has a dark history. The trauma of stolen lands and exploited labor may explain why there are now relatively few Black and Indigenous people in farming, agriculture, or even within environmental activism.
Leah Penniman is one farmer fighting to change that. Penniman explains that there’s a rising generation of Black and brown farmers reexamining their relationship to the land and reclaiming the farming and agricultural practices once held by their ancestors.
Penniman, who is the co-founder of Soul Fire Farm, says that “Black farmers had already declined from 14% of the nation's farmers in the early 1900s to just about 1% today.” As a result of racism and discrimination Penniman says, “millions of acres of land were lost out of the Black community, and with that so much intergenerational wealth and knowledge.”
Penniman says her mission with Soul Fire Farms was to help end racism and injustice in the food system and explore and embrace of her own ancestral heritage to the land and agriculture; “nature as a source of spiritual connection permeates African diasporic thinking and very much informs the way we [operate] at Soul Fire, but also [how] the broader rising generation are conceptualizing our relationship to the land.”
“The food system pertains to all of us. All of us eat, so all of us are connected. All of us are complicit, but also all of us have these immense opportunities to contribute to change as consumers in the food system.”
For over 20 years the Reverend Lennox Yearwood has also been fighting for racial and environmental justice. Born in Shreveport, Louisiana, Rev. Yearwood has always had a strong affinity for music; “all music, particularly hip-hop and jazz. R&B, the Blues… for me, music was really more a pathway to the soul, just a way to escape. Music is so uplifting, it's so encouraging, it's just so beautiful — particularly with instruments and singing.”
Rev. Yearwood is President and CEO of the Hip Hop Caucus — a national nonprofit, nonpartisan organization which began in 2004 and leverages hip-hop culture to encourage young people to vote and participate in the democratic process. Rev. Yearwood’s passion for music ties into his environmental activism and his work on human rights issues in the Gulf Coast region after Hurricane Katrina.
“Hip-hop’s roots are based in people who have been put in sometimes very difficult situations. They're using their cultural expression to shape their political experience. They’re talking about what they're going through, and they're trying to use music and culture to explain and sometimes bring light to situations.”
“Chuck D said that [hip-hop] ‘became the CNN for those communities.’ And so … listening to that, hearing that music, and hearing the power behind it definitely drew me into wanting to be a part of it.”
More: Chuck D on creating ‘naphic grovels,’ embracing mistakes (Press Play, 2023)
Rev. Yearwood is actively involved in seeking environmental justice. He continually highlights racial disparities and heightens awareness of the social and economic issues that negatively impact Black people. The Hip Hop Caucus’ short film Underwater Projects sheds light on the coastal urban flooding happening in Norfolk, Virginia — including its effects on a historically Black public housing community.
Eternally hopeful and with a strong sense of faith, Rev. Yearwood is optimistic that things can be done to make life better: “When we come together, we do well. That's my prayer, that's what keeps me excited, motivated, and lets me know that at some point in time… That the power of humanity is just an amazing, beautiful thing.”
Delve deeper into life, philosophy, and what makes us human by joining the Life Examined discussion group on Facebook.
This week clinical psychologist George Bonanno at Columbia University explores resilience and challenges some traditional notions about trauma and says that humans are far better at confronting and coping with adversity than we think.
This episode with George Bonanno was originally broadcast September 17th, 2023
Throughout our lives we face situations that require a response. While events unfold around us, how we choose to react — or whether we choose to react at all — is entirely within our control.
The concepts of justice and virtue are central to author Ryan Holiday’s latest book, Right Thing, Right Now: Good Values. Good Character. Good Deeds. Holiday explores how the ancient Greek philosophers Marcus Aurelius, Aristotle, and Seneca sought to provide a more pragmatic approach to happiness and virtue… And whether those same principles can impact how we live today. “The Stoics,” Holiday says, “are all about focusing on what's in your control.”
With the U.S. election just days away there’s a palpable sense that with whichever candidate emerges victorious, it could signal the beginning of the end for their opponents.
Whether this election is truly different from those of the past, or simply a byproduct of hyperfocus from the media — voters shouldn’t throw their hands up in despair. Throughout American history, everyday people have driven change in small and incremental steps. And these steps are largely unseen and unheralded.
In her book The Small and the Mighty; Twelve Unsung Americans Who Changed the Course of History, author and former high school teacher Sharon McMahon emphasizes that now is not the time for apathy: “We get so caught up in Trump vs. Harris, that it's easy to forget that our real lives are being deeply impacted by the people who literally work on the other side of town. … We do not have to wait for the right leader to win an election.”
McMahon says hope is a key element in fighting any anxiety we may have about the election. “Hope is not a feeling that you wait to experience,” McMahon tells us. “Hope is not attached to an individual. It is not attached to the outcome of an election.”
“Hope is a choice that we can make,” she continues, “Hope is an orientation of the spirit. In the words of Bryan Stevenson: ‘It's an orientation of our spirit, and we do not have the luxury of giving up hope.’ Because hope is our only chance at making positive change in the United States and in the world.”
The deep political divisions in America have fostered a belief that as a nation we have become increasingly tribal. In fact, if you listen to any pundit, “tribalism” is used in a negative way.
In his new book TRIBAL: How the Cultural Instincts That Divide Us Can Help Bring Us Together, author Michael Morris explains why the words triablism or tribe are not only misused, but also misunderstood. Tribes used to be referred to as “an enduring community,” Morris says. “During the era of colonial expansion and imperialism, tribalism started taking on a negative connotation involving notions of stasis and primitivism.”
“The distinctive way of social life in our species is living in very large communities that transcend kith and kin, that are that are glued together by shared ideas, by shared beliefs, otherwise known as culture,” Morris affirms. “And so, large groups held together by cultural glue is the human form of social organization. Otherwise known as tribal living.”
Morris highlights that tribes have played a crucial and positive role in human evolution. Tribes are, “what enable us to collaborate intellectually. And almost everything impressive that humans have built has come from intellectual collaboration.”
Tribes also facilitate the sharing of knowledge as Morris further imparts: “Today, 99% of what you and I know is not something that we figured out directly ourselves. It's the knowledge that we inherited. We can not only do impressive things based on other people's knowledge, but we can collaborate with other members of our culture because we have this shared legacy of knowledge in common with them.”
Delve deeper into life, philosophy, and what makes us human by joining the Life Examined discussion group on Facebook.
This week Oliver Burkeman journalist and author of “Meditations for Mortals” discusses the complexities of trying to be perfect in an imperfect world. Accepting our limitations, he says, is a pathway to liberation and happiness.
This episode with Oliver Burkeman was originally broadcast October 27, 2024
Journalist and author Oliver Burkeman discusses the complexities of happiness, well-being, and productivity — emphasizing the futility of seeking a single solution.
Burkeman offers guidance on why we shouldn’t sacrifice the very essence of living in search of perfection and doing it all. Treasuring those simple moments in daily life, which doesn’t mean settling for less, Burkemans says, “is a precondition for a really full life.”
Delve deeper into life, philosophy, and what makes us human by joining the Life Examined discussion group on Facebook.
This week Kate Murphy, journalist and author of “You’re Not Listening: What You’re Missing and Why It Matters,” sheds some light on the value of true friendships, why quality is often more important than quantity and why it is so important to give time and space to the friendships we truly care about.
This episode with Kate Murphy was originally broadcast June 5th, 2021
As the years go on and as science and research advances, we’re learning more and more about how animals are able to use sound and vibrations to effectively communicate with each other. Elephants, for example, can communicate through seismic vibrations felt through the pads of their feet.
So what do we know about the nature of sound? How has it defined who we are and how we live? What role does it play in the lives of hearing individuals, deaf individuals, and everyone in between?
In his book Experiencing Sound: The Sensation of Being author Lawrence Kramer writes that “sound is an agent of transformation.” Throughout human history, “sound is one of the fundamental phenomena that links us to the sense of inhabiting and sharing a world.” Of all the human senses, contrary to what we might think, sound is “a uniquely empowered form of sensory experience that links us to our lives and our being more intimately than sight does.”
“Sound is always inside us as well as outside us, and heightened experiences of sound really take that vibratory presence and amplify it so that our most intense experiences of sound are really whole body experiences.”
Carolyn Korsmeyer, research professor of philosophy at the University at Buffalo and author of several books including, Making Sense of Taste; Food and Philosophy explains why there’s so much more to taste than flavor. “Taste,” Korsmeyer says, “deserves greater respect and attention.” In addition to providing physical pleasure, eating and drinking bear symbolic and aesthetic value in the human experience.
“One of the prejudices against taste is that it's all in your mouth,” Korsmeyer shares. “It's only about the flavor that is happening in your taste buds right now. But it is usually outer-directed as well. I am not just tasting, I'm tasting a strawberry. I'm not just drinking, I'm drinking a Coca-Cola — or a beer, or a glass of wine, [etc.] So taste, people think of it as being entirely subjective. By that, I think they mean it's just yours, but it really isn't.”
She also talks about the evocative nature of the human touch. Korsmeyer argues that touch, along with being psychologically beneficial, can offer a deeper and perhaps even spiritual connection. “When you are in the presence of something very old, or very special, or [something] that belonged to someone whom you have an attachment to and you touch it, you are, in a sense, feeling that age. That specialness, that person … There's a proximity and an intimacy that touch permits that I think is often overlooked.”
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This week Judson Brewer psychiatrist, neuroscientist at Brown University and author of “Unwinding Anxiety: New Science Shows How to Break the Cycles of Worry and Fear to Heal Your Mind” addresses how we can recognize certain behaviors that trigger anxiety disorders. Continually worrying feeds into an anxiety habit loop and the more we worry, the more anxious we become.
The amazing sights of the vast African savannas are familiar to many of us through the lens of superb documentary films and videos. Though there are many animals we watch with awe, there’s one rather peculiar looking animal that captivates the heart — the elephant.
So much about elephants make them intriguing creatures: The oversized ears, the unique nature of their trunks (which, by the way, have more muscles than an entire human body), and perhaps most of all the fact that they’re a lot like us. Elephants are loving, loyal, intelligent, family oriented, and great at teamwork.
Elephant scientist and author Caitlin O’Connell has spent the last 30 years in Namibia’s Etosha National Park studying elephants. Amongst the many things O’Connell’s observed is the value and effort elephants place on greeting, playing, and communicating with each other. These are behaviors which O’Connell has observed could help us understand ourselves better.
“The most powerful thing that struck me in the beginning,” O’Connell says, “is the importance of greeting. They may have only been separated for a few minutes, because the matriarch is older and slower, and she took a little longer to get to the waterhole than the rest of the group. All of a sudden [once she arrives] they have a huge greeting ceremony for her. Each one will place their trunk in her mouth and they get all excited and flap their ears. Also, for elephants, part of the greeting is urinating and defecating because they get so excited … But just seeing all of these rituals that we can see in our own lives and the importance of them, it's always a reminder to me that, ‘wow, we take some of these things for granted, that they don't.’”
O’Connell, a conservation biologist at Harvard Medical School and award-winning author of Wild Rituals: 10 Lessons Animals Can Teach Us About Connection, Community, and Ourselves, has specifically focused on researching the ways elephants communicate with each other — including the intriguing ground-based vibrations of an elephant’s “rumble.”
“For a long time we knew that elephants emit these low frequency rumbles in the range of 20 hertz for a female, 10 hertz for a male,” O’Connell tells us. “They communicate in this way so that [their sounds] travel long distances … Those signals are something that they use to coordinate.”
Perhaps the most touching and moving ritual O’Connell describes, is how one elephant will grieve the loss of a family member: “They would touch the bones in a way that it wasn't like a salt lick — like [the way that] you see some animals sucking on bones of other species — [theirs] was more a tactile exploration. They would take the end of their trunk and press it down [for example] on the hip of this individual [elephant].”
“He [the elephant] would take the sand, a little bit moist as it hasn't been that long since this [other] elephant passed away, and he would take the sand and press it against his chest and press it behind his ears in such a delicate way that it was almost as if he was trying to carry him. It was really compelling. I just have never seen that before.”
This week Peter Wohlleben, renowned German forester and author of “The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate,” talks about the age-old connection between humans and the forest and encourages us to take notice. Wohlleben says that research indicates sitting under a tree or ‘forest bathing’ is beneficial for our health - it can reduce blood pressure and help us to stay calm and relax.
Why do we get bored? And what exactly happens to us when we experience boredom? Like joy and anxiety, boredom is a state of mind. Being bored does not mean you’re lazy and it has little to do with external factors like new cars, gadgets, or experiences.
James Danckert, professor of psychology and director of the Cognitive Neuroscience Area at the University of Waterloo, has been studying why we get bored. He studies the reasons behind why boredom occurs, alongside the effects that boredom can have on our minds and the larger purpose that it can serve. Danckert says, “people confuse boredom with the couch potato, some sort of laziness and inaction, but it can't be further from the truth. When we're bored, we're really quite motivated and we want to be doing something… we just can't figure out what.”
The definition that Danckert feels perfectly captures what boredom is comes from Leo Tolstoy in Anna Karenina. Tolstoy describes boredom as “the desire for desires.”
And regardless of how active or engaged a person is, the feelings of boredom are familiar to most as a “restless, agitated experience.” “The key,” Danckert says, “is to recognize those signs early on, to calm down, and think of some options out of it … You need to let the little things that normally would bore you suddenly thrill you.”
And Danckert says that “boredom is often associated with a lack of meaning.” What we feel is that, “what you're doing is not meaningful, or your life doesn't feel quite meaningful to you and that's going to be a key component of being bored.”
“To ensure that you don't get bored,” Danckert says, “you don't have to start pursuing a cure for cancer, you don't have to do anything grand, you don't have to choose an activity that somehow is momentous — you just have to choose something that matters to you, and that could be big [or] small.”
Kids most often associate boredom with having nothing to do, but Danckert says there is a good deal of work to suggest that “we have over-scheduled our kids and that makes them more anxious than you might imagine.” “Kids need their downtime,” Danckert says. When we overschedule them, we are “taking away their agency.”
Danckert also suggests that parents do too much: “When kids come to us and they say that they're bored, are we doing the right thing in terms of responding to that? Of course, you don't want to give them full control because they're kids, they'll make big mistakes, and you want to have some safety net around them. But over-scheduling is not a solution to boredom.”
Danckert also highlights the fact that boredom can be the root of many maladaptive behaviors:
“There's lots and lots of instances where aggressive, violent, and abhorrent behaviors are blamed on boredom. But I would suggest that we can't really blame boredom for those kinds of things. I think boredom is a call to action. We have to take ownership of what actions we choose in response to boredom.” People who are prone to boredom,” Danckert says, “are also a little bit lower in self-control. They don't have great control over their actions and their emotions, and so those people might be more likely to choose those kinds of maladaptive and abhorrent responses.”
“Boredom isn't likely to make you a genius sculptor, painter, or guitar player any more than it's likely to turn you into a killer. So what we do with boredom is really up to us.”
Ultimately the feeling of boredom is a call to action, it highlights a need to be agentic. What we decide to do when we feel this way is ultimately up to us, but a tip that Danckert offers is to find the little things that matter: “Celebrate those little things and engage with them with intentionality.”
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This week Jamil Zaki, professor of Psychology at Stanford University and author of “Hope for Cynics: The Surprising Science of Human Goodness,” talks about our need to rebrand hope as a culture. ‘Hope,’ Zaki says, is the idea that things could turn out better than we might otherwise be led to believe and suggests ways and strategies we can take to combate our own cynical perspectives.
This episode with Jamil Zaki was originally broadcast Sept 15th, 2024
*This episode originally aired on November 12, 2022.
Jonathan Bastian talks with Lauren Ober, producer, podcast host and executive producer of The Loudest Girl In The World shares her personal journey of her later-in-life autism diagnosis.
Later, Francesca Happe Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at King's College London about advances and autism diagnosis and how that has impacted the way society sees neuro-divergency?
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What does it mean to lead a happy and fulfilling life?
Most of us seek happiness through pleasure, calm, and order — preferring to avoid the discomfort, confrontation, and anxiety that comes from obstacles and challenges. And while less worry and work, along with more time to relax and have fun may sound appealing… Life rarely happens as we plan it and that might just be a good thing.
According to philosopher Lorraine Besser: “There is this notion that we have, that once we get to the end goal we'll experience fulfillment. [We think] that justifies making all these sacrifices to [our] day to day lives in pursuit of this kind of elusive goal.”
Besser, professor of philosophy at Middlebury College and author of The Art of the Interesting; What We Miss in Our Pursuit of the Good Life and How to Cultivate It argues that there’s an overlooked and important element to leading a good life called “psychological richness.” Besser says, “what makes psychologically rich experiences distinct is that they're not always pleasant.”
“The good life,” Besser argues, “is not always going to be this perfect, safe, [and] happy one. But the good life is going to be a life that involves challenges and putting yourself in uncomfortable places.” Besser explains further that this is not a matter of reframing the difficulties and obstacles. “Many of us feel that, when we're experiencing painful feelings, there's only really two routes available,” Besser shares. “Either we've just got to block them out and [not] let them invade our lives, or we've got to somehow turn them around and make them good.”
Instead, Besser tells us, “there is another really important way. We can just sit with them and allow ourselves to feel them. Those difficulties and the uncomfortableness will prompt the kind of cognitive engagement we're looking for, if you allow it to sink in.”
A “good life,” involves embracing all emotions. Even if those little surprises are unpleasant and might (on the surface) make us feel less happy, they are all part of life. According to Besser, “they don't have to interfere with our living good lives, so we can embrace them and experience value from them.”
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This week Esther Perel, psychotherapist, bestselling author and the host of the podcast “Where Should We Begin?” talks about a sexual recession. Perel says that compared with previous generations Gen Z is having less sex and becoming increasingly isolated - and the more time spent online is resulting in less time spent on the skills, experience or patience that help make a relationship work.
This episode with Esther Perel was originally broadcast September 8th, 2024
If you feel like we’re living in an era marked by increased mistrust, political tension, and cynicism — you’re not alone, research confirms this shift. Research shows that in 1972, half of Americans believed that most people were trustful. By 2018, the percentage had fallen to only a third.
The rise in distrust and cynicism is a central theme in the book Hope for Cynics: The Surprising Science of Human Goodness, by Stanford psychologist Jamil Zaki. Zaki explains that cynicism is not just human nature, it is directly impacted by our environment. “If you look across both space and time, inequality and cynicism track one another,” Zaki says. “So in more unequal nations, states, and counties people trust each other a lot less. In times that have been more unequal, people have generally trusted each other a lot less than during more egalitarian times.”
What we hear in the media on a daily basis also feeds our fears and disillusionment, fostering distrust. “There's something known as ‘mean world syndrome,’” Zaki continues. “The more that people tune into the news, whether it's on their phones, on the radio, on television — the worse they think people are. You might go the realist route and say, ‘well, yeah, because they're informed.’ But it turns out that the more that people tune into the news, the more wrong they are about others.”
Zaki, who also directs the Stanford Social Neuroscience Lab, explains that there’s some science pointing to the fact that cynicism can be a self-fulfilling prophecy. “Human beings are psychologically adaptive, we are molded by our environment,” Zaki says. “And so if you're in an environment where it feels like people can't trust each other, where people have to look out only for themselves, then you will become mistrustful. You will become more selfish.”
Tania Israel, professor of counseling psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and author of Facing the Fracture: How to Navigate the Challenges of Living in a Divided Nation, says the remedy for dealing with people we don’t agree with is not to disengage or set boundaries. Instead, she suggests a three-pronged approach to bring about a less contentious dialogue. First, to reduce our consumption of negativity from our phones and TV. Second, broaden our own capacity for understanding and empathizing. For example, Israel says: “We so seldom say, ‘here's what I'm thinking, these are the limits of my understanding. What am I missing?’ And really inviting something that's outside of what we have been focusing on in terms of information or narrative.”
Finally, Israel advocates for engaging with your community — participating and demonstrating that you are open. “Not to say that we need to change our minds,” Israel points out. “Or not to say that we need to agree with where that other person is coming from, but to always want to know where they're coming from. More is a great stance to be in.”
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This week Robin Stern, psychoanalyst, and author of “The Gaslight Effect: How to Spot and Survive the Hidden Manipulation Others Use to Control Your Life,” talks about gaslight effect. What to watch for in a relationship or perhaps with a manager, coworker or doctor and how to succesfully navigate the feelings of invalidation that accompany that behavior.
This episode with Robin Stern was originally broadcast July 14th 2024
Few people offer greater insight, sensitivity, and expertise on human relationships and sexuality than Esther Perel.
Born and raised in Belgium, Perel’s studies took her from Hebrew University in Jerusalem, to the United States where she built a career in couples and family therapy. Today, she is internationally acclaimed for her profound insights into eroticism and intimacy. She’s an author and the host of the popular podcast “Where Should We Begin?”
The exploration of human sexual desire is as complex as it sounds. Our ideas of intimacy are varied and sex today can be measurable and perfunctory. “[It’s] often seen as an act, something you do,” says Perel. “How often do you do it? How many? How hard, how long? How frequent?”
But desire and the erotic is a quality of aliveness and vitality, distinct from sexuality. “You don't measure eroticism,” Perel continues. “It's a quality of experience, but you know when you feel it.”
Eroticism is: “Sexuality transformed by the human imagination. It's infinite. It's surrounded by ritual, by celebration, and it's often transgressive. It's often lured by the forbidden. A lot of it is actually in our head and between our ears… not necessarily between our legs.”
Perel tells us that the key ingredients are “curiosity, playfulness, mystery, imagination” … “the forbidden elicits curiosity, and the curiosity activates the imagination.”
Perel argues that we need to do more than just recognize and celebrate this as a wonderful part of who we are. “[Our] core emotional needs are expressed in the coded language of sexuality. Sex is never just something you do. Sex is a place you go.”
Esther Perel’s latest project, which she calls her “Desire Bundle,” features two online courses: Bringing Desire Back and Playing with Desire. They launch later this September.
Esther Perel’s An Evening With Esther Perel: The Future of Relationships, Love & Desire is currently on tour. See her live at the YouTube Theater in Los Angeles on September 10th. More info here.
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*This episode originally aired on January 28, 2023.
Jonathan Bastian talks with Harvard Medical School Professor of Psychiatry Robert Waldinger about his latest book, “The Good Life: Lessons from the World's Longest Scientific Study of Happiness.” Waldinger is also director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, the home of the world’s longest-running studies on happiness. The project has followed 724 men — ranging from “Harvard sophomores to inner-city Boston boys” — and their subsequent spouses and families, since 1938, and now encompasses three generations of people.
Waldinger says that although there is no blood test for happiness, researchers are able to examine and evaluate happiness from various angles.
“We ask people, ‘Are you happy? How happy are you?’ We also ask other people, their partners, their kids and follow their work lives,” he explains, adding that psychologist Sonya Lubomirski calculated that “about 50% of our happiness is determined by inborn factors, about 10% is determined by what our life circumstances are right now, and the remaining 40% is under our control.”
What was the surprise discovery from the study? While it’s important to look after your health, eat right, and exercise, the most significant impact on happiness, Walindger says, was that “the quality of our relationships predicts who's gonna be happy and healthy as they get older … one of the most important things we need is a person who we know will be there for us in times of stress.”
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Later, Jonathan Bastian speaks with Cassie Holmes, author of “Happier Hour: How to Beat Distraction, Expand Your Time, and Focus on What Matters Most,” about maintaining a happy lifestyle. Time, Holmes says, isn’t just the problem — it’s the solution.
“Time is so important, because how we spend the hours of our days sum up to the years of our lives,” she explains. “And as we're looking to feel happier in our days and about our lives, it's crucial to understand how we invest this resource of time and to make the most of the time that we have.”
Holmes offers some tools and tips on being happier and how to harness time towards doing so. She encourages people to “actually track their own time, write down what they are doing and rate coming out of that activity, on a 10 point scale, how they feel,” she says. “That will allow you to pick up on whether those ways of connecting and socializing are truly satisfying and truly fulfilling.”
*This episode originally aired on October 25, 2023.
This week, economist and author of “Wild Problems: A Guide to the Decisions That Define Us,” Russ Roberts offers a different perspective and approach to tackling some of life’s biggest challenges and decisions.
According to Chaplain Devin Sean Moss, death “informs how we live.” The idea of impermanence —the notion that everything is in a constant state of flux— and a “meditation on finitude,” Moss suggests, is a “cheat code of sorts to making deliberate and intentional decisions and forces the hand of what are my values…to know what my core is about.”
For most people, the subject and contemplation of death and dying is hardly a source of inpiration. We fill our lives with work, travel, and spending time with friends and family. These are life affirming activities to keep our minds from wandering too far down to our inevitable end.
For Devin Moss, confronting death has been both equally a sobering and inspiring journey. As a Humanist Chaplain, Devin Moss forged a year-long bond with Phillip Hancock who was executed by the state of Oklahoma for a double murder. Moss’s experience was chronicled by the New York Times and the subject of an earlier Life Examined.
More: Facing death without God: Spiritual care in the final hours of a death row inmate
Today, Moss writes and hosts the podcast The Adventures of Memento Mori in which he explores the science, mysticism, culture, and mystery of death. Moss regularly grapples with his own mortality and says its a mistake for our culture to shy away from the topic - “the inability to talk about it on a societal level has very harmful byproducts.” Moss suggests that the message society perpetuates is that there is a misunderstanding of what it means to be finite, and that “everything is limitless.”
And when it comes to death itself, Moss urges listeners not to be deterred by fear or not knowing what to do or say. “Just be okay with the unknown and do all that you can do to make it about the other person, to heck with being good at it or knowing what you're doing.” For Moss, it’ss “the ability, not what I can learn from this person as they pass, but more like, how can I ensure that their passing is maintained as a sacred act within a sacred space.”
Delve deeper into life, philosophy, and what makes us human by joining the Life Examined discussion group on Facebook.
This week James Danckert, psychology professor at the University of Waterloo in Ontario and co-author of “Out of My Skull: The Psychology of Boredom,” provides some tips for parents to deal with kids who say they are bored. As boredom is a natural occurrence, Danckert advises parents not to over schedule their kids or find things to keep them busy. Instead, whenever they can, parents should stand back more and allow their kids to take more agency in how to navigate being bored.
This segment with James Danckert is from an upcoming episode of Life Examined.
Finding an ideal partner can be an elusive quest. Over the past three decades, attitudes on relationship roles and dynamics have shifted. Thanks to online dating, people of all ages have the opportunity to cast a wider net, expanding their horizons and redefining their expectations.
The journey doesn't stop at finding a partner; maintaining a healthy and fulfilling relationship is the ultimate goal. As challenges arise, seeking support from a therapist before issues become deeply rooted can prove to be one of the most effective ways to foster a lasting connection.
When it comes to relationships, a friendship can hold a far more nuanced and significant place in our hearts, than perhaps we fully appreciate.
The Platonic relationship, an ideal talked about by the ancient Greek Philosopher Plato, recognizes the existence of a closeness of mind and soul between two people, absent of any physical attraction. This kind of affection and tenderness is captured in letters and stories throughout history — friendships that have been as deep and intimate, meaningful, and powerful as any romantic relationship, and, says author Raina Cohen, “friendships could be the thing that makes life feel full and complete.”
This week, Robert Waldinger, director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development and co-author of “The Good Life: Lessons from the World's Longest Scientific Study of Happiness,” talks about the merits of meditation. As a Zen practitioner Waldinger says meditation has helped him stay present, connect with the richness of life and worry less about the things that really don’t matter.
In today’s job market, “good communication skills” is often listed as a top requirement. This essential ability not only helps you connect and collaborate with others but also effectively express your needs within the workplace. Strong communicators can unite us, foster positivity, and create a sense of shared potential. Moreover, today’s technology has made communication more accessible and rapid than ever before.
Despite all the advances in tech, true connection remains elusive and we often fail to make meaningful connections with the people in our live who matter. The art of conversation is complex but science can offer insights into why these connections are so challenging to achieve.
According to Charles Duhigg, author of Supercommunicators; How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection, “our ability to communicate with each other is the thing that has set our species apart and made us so successful compared to other species.”
When Charles noticed challenges in his own communication, he turned to science for answers. Advances in neuroimaging have allowed neuroscientists and psychologists to uncover that “every discussion is made up of multiple different kinds of conversations,” and they tend to fall into three buckets. “Practical conversations where we're talking about solving problems, emotional conversations where I tell you what I'm feeling,” and “social conversations, about how we interact with each other and interact with society.”
“Super communicators,” Duhigg says, have the ability to “ listen for what kind of conversation is happening” and are able to “match back.” The science behind this, as Duhigg explains it, is called "neural entrainment"— the synchronization of neural activity that is both fundamental to and the goal of communication. The reason super communicators can make a conversation feel effortless, leaving you feeling positive is because “you've achieved that neural synchronization. Your brain has evolved to give you a reward sensation associated with that. Connection is felt deep within the body and “our brains have evolved to encourage this kind of communication, to encourage this kind of bonding…since it's been so helpful to survival.”
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This week, Kemi Nekvapil, leadership coach and author of “Power: A Woman’s Guide to Living and Leaving without Apology” shares a couple of power practices that can help women and especially women of color feel more empowered and reconnect with who they are. When it comes to standing in one's own power, Nekvapil says, practice, role play and experimentation are essential tools in helping to help change existing behavior patterns.
This episode of Life Examined with Kemi Nekvapil was originally broadcast October 15th, 2023
There may be no greater pain in life than that of losing a child; the gaping hole felt when a young life is abruptly cut short, leaving parents to deal with a void that can be difficult to comprehend, and a journey to make sense of the heartache that follows.
For poet Rosemerry Wahtula Trommer, the pain is palpable and the grief — the kind of grief only a mother can know — remains unwavering . Tragically, her son Finn took his own life just before reaching his 17th birthday. In the wake of this unimaginable tragedy, Trommer found herself irrevocably changed; it was through the power of words and poetry that she began to find solace amid her sorrow.
Despite the lasting grief in her heart, Trommer is also profoundly grateful to her son. “He my teacher. How much that boy taught me all the things I didn't want to know. I never wanted to learn that things couldn't be fixed. I never wanted to learn that I couldn't be perfect, that I couldn't make the world the way I wanted it. And he taught me again and again and again, how to say yes to the world as it is.”
Reflecting on how she now sees the world, Trommer is struck by “the sweetness and the bitterness, the joy and the grief, the love and the loss and how, as humans, this is what we're asked to meet over and over and over.”
Grief, Trommer says, demonstrates a powerful paradox. It’s central to who we are as humans. It’s “ever mysterious and ever changing and so deeply sorrowful and so profoundly loving,” at the same time.
“Maybe this is the thing that's most exciting for me right now – is this sense of not believing anymore that we're supposed to be happy. That in fact, some of the most profound, wonderful life-affirming, moments have been so difficult.”
“Meeting Your Death”
Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
Because there are no clear instructions,
I follow what rises up in me to do.
I fall deeper into love with you.
I look at old pictures.
I don’t look at old pictures.
I talk about you. I say nothing.
I walk. I sit. I lie in the grass
and let the earth hold me.
I lie on the sidewalk, dissolve
into sky. I cry. I don’t cry.
I ask the world to help me stay open.
I ask again, please, let me feel it all.
I fall deeper in love with the people
still living. I fall deeper in love
with the world that is left—
this world with its spring
and its war and its mornings,
this world with its fruits
that ripen and rot and reseed,
this world that insists
we keep our eyes wide,
this world that opens
when our eyes are closed.
Because there are no clear instructions,
I learn to turn toward the love that is here,
though sometimes what is here is what’s not.
There are infinite ways to do this right.
That is the only way.
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This week, Alain de Botton, philosopher, author and founder of The School of Life talks about why today’s social and cultural environment is contaminating our peace of mind. De Botton suggests that in order to switch off and achieve some kind of balance in our lives, we need to become better editors and curators of what we are exposed to and shut out as much external negativity and noise as we can.
Sarah Hill, professor of social psychology at Texas Christian University and author of This is your brain on birth control: The surprising science of sex, women, hormones and the law of unintended consequences, shares her journey into exploring the effects of oral contraception on mental health. “I actually spent my early career studying the way our sex hormones can affect psychological states and motivation…and the desire to attract romantic partners.” It wasn’t until Hill went off oral contraception herself that she began to connect the dots. “I started to feel so differently, that I started to really wonder what we did not know and about the way the pill affects the brain and the way that women experience the world.”
Hill recounts her personal experience and the research she conducted on the Pill’s effects, highlighting a range of impact on physical and mental wellbeing. Everything from “having less energy” to “being at a greater risk for depression and anxiety,” and how “it can reduce sexual desire and sexual functioning.”
Emily Dossett, a clinical associate professor of Psychiatry & the Behavioral Sciences at USC’s Keck School of Medicine, addresses another often-overlooked aspect of women’s health: the prevalence of mental health disorders before, during, and after pregnancy. Dossett underscores that “pregnancy is a time of tremendous and rapid physiological change,” and that “if a woman is susceptible, really to anything; diabetes, hypertension, cardiac disorders,” that pregnancies with those disorders “are more likely to come to the forefront or even emerge for the first time. The same is true for mental illness.”
Dossetts points out that society tends to attach immense joy to pregnancy and the celebration of pregnancy that women feel ashamed, even stigmatized, if they mention or complain about how they feel. “We're just realizing how common some of these challenges are in terms of mental health because we're just now at a point where we're allowing women to actually speak up about it.” Roughly “one out of every four to five women” suffer from some kind of mental disorder, Dossett says, with depression and anxiety being most common.
Because there has been little research on women’s mental health and pregnancy, Dossestt explains that there’s a general “lack of understanding and comprehension and naming of these disorders in the mental health world.” And when it comes to medication; “ the FDA, which approves all drugs, does not permit pregnant or lactating people to be included in drug trials.”
So, what options are available for women who require medication and aspire to conceive? “The question is not really whether or not these medications are safe but it's more of a risk, risk analysis for each individual person,” Dossett says.
“I firmly believe everyone has the right to have a child. Everyone has the right to not have a child and everyone has the right to raise a child in a safe and healthy environment. Those are the tenets of what we call reproductive justice. And I believe they apply to people with mental illness just like anyone else.”
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This week, Terry Real, renowned couples therapist and author “Us: Getting Past You and Me to Build a More Loving Relationship” reflects on the keys to building a successful long term relationship. In order to change inherited behaviors and dysfunction, Real cites his own struggle with family trauma and offers hope that with courage, discipline and hardwork change is indeed possible.
This episode of Life Examined with Terry Real was originally broadcast June 23rd, 2024
If you’ve ever been accused of ‘gaslighting' someone, you might find yourself unsure about what exactly you're being accused of. The term is the latest amongst a growing collection of popular psychological buzzwords used to describe manipulative or calculating behavior, but it's often misused and misunderstood.
The term originated from the 1940s black-and-white film Gaslight where a husband manipulates his wife into thinking she’s crazy by subtly adjusting the intensity of their home's gas lights when she’s alone in the house. The husband denies there’s anything wrong with the lights, leaving his wife distraught, confused, and questioning her own memory and sanity.
In her book The Gaslight Effect: How to Spot and Survive the Hidden Manipulation Others Use to Control Your Life “The Gaslight Effect,” psychoanalyst Robin Stern explains why this word has gained so much prominence in both personal and professional relationships, particularly among women. “Seeing many women come into my office who were otherwise in their lives the presidents of their company, professional practice, or very successful –good decision makers who felt comfortable in groups, socialized quite a bit, suddenly, in their romantic relationship were uncertain; felt a kind of dislocated or unmoored, felt unstable and second-guessed themselves all the time, [saying to themselves], am I too sensitive, am I too paranoid?”
Stern says that “gaslighting” is an “insidious and sometimes covert form of emotional abuse.” Being gaslit is “a power dynamic repeated over time where the gaslighters intention is to undermine and destabilize the ‘gaslightee’ and lead that person to second-guess themselves, to question their own identity and ultimately their sanity and their character at different times.”
Stern argues that being able to spot this type of behavior is important. When “gaslighting” happens professionally, it can be tough to tackle. For example, Stern cites doctor/patient relationships and warns that “if your doctor minimizes your symptoms, if he or she continually interrupts you or accuses you of being too preoccupied with your symptoms, or refuses to order follow-up tests or if you constantly feel like your doctor is rude, condescending, belittling, or passing it off, as ‘that's your age, or you're a woman, or you're a new mom’ or whatever it is, you're being gaslighted.”
After recognizing the behavior, Stern suggests taking action. “Opt out of those power struggles and sort out the truth from the distortion…Nobody needs to put up or should put up with abuse. It is not acceptable for anyone to be intentionally hurting someone else.”
*This episode originally aired on July 2, 2022.
British writer Robert Macfarlane grew up loving mountains. A keen hiker, he says mountains are in his DNA – Macfarlane's father was a mountaineer and his grandfather oversaw some of the early expeditions and the first summit of Mount Everest in the 1950s.
Macfarlane’s own passion for the extremes of the mountains and the wilds of the outdoors fostered yet another interest: writing. In his first book “Mountains of the Mind,” Macfarlane explored why he fell in love with mountains and sought answers as to why so many climbers are willing to die for love of rock and ice.
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Macfarlane is a fellow at Emmanuel College at Cambridge University in the UK. He has written numerous books focused on nature and landscape, including “Landmarks” and “The Old Ways,” which led to an exploration of the subterranean world, the topic of his latest book “Underland: A Deep Time Journey.”
“The trodden paths are the beginning of the underworld if you like because they are land hollowed by feet, by time and by wheels, so there were lots of things pointing me down,” Macfarlane says.
While the upper world is the place of the gods and awe, he says, the subterranean world is an unseen place — one for burial and hiding. Macfarlane also shares his passion for language and metaphor, explaining that the “underworld” is where “matter meets metaphor” — and that negative words like “down,” “dark,” or “depressed” are deeply ingrained into our language.
Jonathan Bastian talks with Robert Macfarlane about his connection to the landscape and about his exploration and interest in what lies beneath our feet. As a writer, Macfarlane shares his love for language and metaphor and is particularly interested in “gathering words which seemed much more vibrant, reciprocal, and dynamic.” For Macfarlane, the rediscovery of language furthers a connection to the natural world, and Macfarlane says there’s even a map highlighting the regional terms for “creek” across North America.
So how has language and the Tale of Gilgamesh impacted his latest project? Can music and song breathe life into ancient stories - in a way that writing can’t?
Macfarlane speaks about his interest in music and how it connects to his love of nature and storytelling. He explains how he connected during the pandemic with actor and singer/songwriter Johnny Flynn, and how Epic of Gilgamesh, became the “nourishment that drove the writing of 11 songs” that now appear on the album “Lost in The Cedar Wood.”
Music, Macfarlane muses, is “the purest form of magic to me. Writing is labor and trial work and concentration, perspiration and locked rooms. No one would ever want to watch a writer write, right? It's paint drying, it's grass growing, but musicians. ...are magicians weaving a golden thread that they pluck from the air.”
This week, Rabbi Steve Leder, author of “For You When I Am Gone: Twelve Essential Questions to Tell a Life Story” reflects on the legacy we leave after we’re gone and suggests that rather than a long list of accomplishments, it’s the quality of our relationships, throughout our lives that have the biggest impact on our own happiness and how we are cherished and remembered by others.
This episode of Life Examined with Rabbi Steve Leder was originally broadcast May 28th, 2022
*This episode originally aired on January 14, 2023.
From our earliest ancestors, we’ve been travelers — first as nomadic tribes, and later as raiders, traders, explorers, and colonizers. Whether by ship or by foot, it’s human nature to move and explore.
Jonathan Bastian talks with travel writer, podcaster, and vagabond Rolf Potts about the merits of travel. Potts is the author of several travel books, including Vagabonding and Marco Polo Didn't Go There. In his latest book, The Vagabond’s Way: 366 Meditations on Wanderlust, Discovery, and the Art of Travel, Potts explains why travel is good for us and how the unexpected part in a journey can change us for the better.
“The best gift to travel is just allowing yourself to be surprised,” says Potts. “Stumbling into serendipity, having a bad time, and realizing that it's not as bad as you thought it would be. We forget how easy it is to adapt, how helpful people are, and how we can figure it out and have a great time doing it.”
“One of the gifts of travel is to sort of blow those habits open and be vulnerable and almost childlike in your relationship to the world again,” says world traveler Rolf Potts. Photo by Fritz Liedtke. In “The Vagabond’s Way: 366 Meditations on Wanderlust, Discovery, and the Art of Travel,” author Rolf Potts encourages you to sustain the mindset of a journey, even when you aren't able to travel, and affirms that travel is as much a way of being as it is an act of movement.
Today, technology, cheap flights, and bucket-list trips have made travel easier, more affordable, and somewhat predictable. Potts says that’s also limited our options and possibilities as travelers.
“We're all in lockstep, following our phone, looking at a screen as a window into a place that we've traveled so far to come to, instead of just sort of following our nose or following our eyes or following our ears,” he says.
When it comes to modes of transportation, Potts shares his tips on exotic ways to travel without becoming overly dependent on flights.
“Train culture around the world is really fun to experience and it doesn't have as many emissions,” he suggests. “Stay on the sea over land and go those hardships, don't fast-forward your way through the world with a bunch of flights — slow down a little bit.”
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After 30 years of experience counseling couples, therapist Terry Real reflects on what makes building a long-term relationship difficult and the skills needed to keep a partnership intact. Reals says that even with changing dynamics and non-traditional partnerships, the age-old problems still exist.
“Despite all of the gender fluidity and all of the experimentation, a two-person paired-for-life, monogamous core, is still alive and well and extremely difficult.”
The pressure is on to find that “perfect” someone, yet, despite the romantic “idealization” of coupledom, promoted by a booming dating and marriage industry, the reality is that most couples won’t last a decade together, much less a lifetime. The US Census Bureau reports that most marriages last on average 8 years. Real says the odds in the U.S. are that roughly 50% of all marriages will end in divorce - “the failure rate on marriage has hovered at about 40-50% for half a century.”
The reason, Real explains, is that “we want to be lifelong lovers; we want long walks on the beach, we want heart-to-heart talks, great sex in our 60s and 70s but we don't have the skills to match this new ambition. We are trying to be lifelong lovers in a culture that does not cherish relationships.” We live in a society, Real argues, that asserts individualism. “We don't teach our sons and daughters and non-binary kids how to fight fair, how to stand up for yourself in a loving way. We don't teach the basic skills of relationships in this culture because we don't value it.”
So what are the chances a couple has to beat the odds? What’s the key to staying together? According to Real, it’s “hard work” and “it’s very rare that people have the discipline.” Relationship skills need to be learned and practiced. Real suggests that “basic relationship skills [be] taught in elementary and junior high.”
Real, who’s also the founder of the Relationship Life Institute and author of numerous books including most recently Us: Getting Past You and Me to Build a More Loving Relationship, talks specifically about the impact of inherited family pathologies. He advises the reopening of childhood trauma to heal old wounds;
“Family pathology rolls from generation to generation, like a fire in the woods, taking down everything in its path until one person in one generation has the courage to turn and face the flames. That person brings peace to their ancestors and spares the children.”
In his book, Us: Getting Past You and Me to Build a More Loving Relationship, author Terrance Real says “we don't teach the basic skills of relationship in this culture because we don't value it. We're supposed to just know how to do it and most long-term relationships crash and burn. The failure rate on marriage has hovered at about 40-50% for half a century.”
Terry Real, pictured here, says “ you can have a superlative relationship if you're with a partner you love who is also in on the game and willing to do the work themselves. If both of you are willing to do that and you have the basic chemistry that drew you to each other to begin with,you can do it. But it's very rare that people have the discipline and the know-how to build it all.” Photo courtesy of Terrance Real at The Relational Life Institute
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Terry Real, renowned couples therapist and author of Us: Getting Past You and Me to Build a More Loving Relationship, shares insights and strategies on the building of long-term relationships in a society that values individualism and personal growth.
Psychiatrist Judith Orloff and musicologist Zachery Wallmark talk about the transformative power of empathy and how it impacts greater connection, compassion and our well-being.
This week, Katherine Morgan Schafler, author of The Perfectionist’s Guide to Losing Control, explores our relationship with the ideal of being a perfectionist. Morgan Schafler encourages greater self-awareness in managing perfectionism, saying it’s OK to be inspired without the expectation that we will ever achieve that goal.
Doctor Elizabeth Comen and Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Linda Greenhouse talk about gender bias and its lingering impact on women’s healthcare and reproductive rights.
This week, Casper ter Kuile, co-founder of Nearness, and author of “The Power of Ritual,” discusses the value of building community and coming together, and offers some practical advice for forging meaningful connections including the ability to shift away from some of our accustomed patterns of giving advice and instead offer our full attention, loving presence and just listen.
Jonathan Bastian talks with writer, lecturer, and author Susan Cain about the sweet joy of sadness. Cain, author of Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole, reflects on the touch of sweetness that comes from sadness and despair and shares how a greater acceptance of these emotions can be beneficial and even therapeutic. Delve deeper into life, philosophy, and what makes us human by joining the Life Examined discussion group on Facebook.
This week, Ryan Holiday, speaker and author of “Discipline is Destiny: The Power of Self Control” shares some advice on the stoic virtue of self discipline. Holiday says that in today’s world of abundance, self discipline and self imposed boundaries are fundamental to meeting our potential, achieving balance and leading a good life.
Psychologist Katherine Morgan Schaflter talks about her book The Perfectionist’s Guide to Losing Control, the universal desire to seek perfection, and the need for greater self-awareness in managing perfectionism.
Pulitzer-prize winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen discusses his memoir “A Man of Two Faces: A Memoir, A History, A Memorial” and the challenges and pain he faced growing up a Vietnamese refugee.
This week, Gloria Mark , Professor at the University of California at Irvine and author of the book “Attention Span:A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness and Productivity,” explains how much harder it has become to resist the urge to be distracted mostly because of the constant access to our our digital devices. Mark says we should be more cognizant of these types of distractions and suggests asking yourself before you next reach for your phone whether doing so will provide any value.
Scott Galloway discusses his book "The Algebra of Wealth" and the growing disconnect between young people and their economic futures.
This week, Kieran Setyia, professor of philosophy at MIT and author of “Life Is Hard: How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our Way” reflects on failure and suggests we push back on how we frame our lives through successes and failures, winners and losers. Doing so, Setyia says, doesn’t make us succeed more but allows “failure to take a different shape and have less centrality” in how we value our lives.
Journalist Abraham Lustgarten and scientist-turned-activist Rose Abramoff discuss the impacts of climate research on human migratory patterns and activism.
KCRW Life Examined host Jonathan Bastian makes a guest appearance on KCRW’s How’s Your Sex Life, and talks about his insights on relationships, divorce and heartbreak.
This week, Scott Galloway NYU professor, podcaster and author of “The Algebra of Wealth: A Simple Formula for Financial Security,” reflects on life’s blessings. Galloway says he’s grateful for the many successes in his life, which he attributes not to hard work but to the people, time and circumstances that made them possible. His message to others who share his good fortune, "don't hoard wealth,” spend it on time and experiences with your friends and your family.
After years of working at the intersection of immigration and education, journalist Lauren Markham offers a different approach to writing about immigration that may lead to greater understanding. In her book A Map of Future Ruins: On Borders and Belonging, Markham talks about challenging narratives and stories, looking at our own history, and asking what it means to belong to a place.
This week, renowned writer and author Michael Pollan on the new science of psychedelics. Pollan describes how new treatments using psilocybin can open pathways in our minds and when used with supervision, have been successful in treating depression, anxiety and addiction.
Renowned writer and author Michael Pollan delves into his three-decade odyssey exploring America's food systems. With six bestselling books to his name, Pollan's pioneering inquiries have raised the fundamental question: ‘What’s in our food, and where it comes from?’ Pollan also explores plants that influence our consciousness, citing caffeine as a prime example.
This week, psychology and education professor at Columbia University, Peter Coleman explains why in turbulent times at home and across the globe, Costa Rica remains peaceful and stable. In the aftermath of bloody conflicts, Coleman says, Costa Rica intentionally chose to stop war and designed their country around that vision.
Neil Mullarkey, comedian, actor, and author of In the Moment: Build your confidence, creativity, and communication at work, shares his journey into comedy and writing and how he recognized the power of comedy at an early age. He’s toured the world, working with well-known comedians like Mike Myers, with whom he founded the Comedy Store Players in London. Mullarckey found that the skills he learned in his improv classes translated well into leadership and management.
This week, Brad Stulberg writer and author of “The Practice of Groundedness: A Transformative Path to Success that Feeds – Not Crushes – Your Soul” on behavioral action and why the best way to feel good and bring about a change in mood is to force ourselves to start or to get going, even if when we don’t feel like it.
Jennifer Chatman, Professor of Management at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, looks at the role of narcissism in leadership and why CEOs of corporations “are more likely to be narcissistic than the population at large, by about 6%.” Ramani Durvasula, clinical psychologist and author of It's Not You: Identifying and Healing from Narcissistic People, provides the clinical definition of narcissism. She explains how those traits can be present in others and the harm and hurt they cause. “They're so grandiose, your simple piece of feedback can spin them out into a rage,” she says.
This week, clinical psychologist and Buddhist teacher Tara Brach on activism and how easy it is to unintentionally absorb the hate and anger leveled at others. Brach suggests that rather than reacting with the same anger, try taking an additional step and move to a place of reflection, care and understanding.
Paul Bloom, Professor of Psychology at the University of Toronto and the author of Psyche: The Story of the Human Mind, explores the history and controversial legacy surrounding the renowned 20th century Austrian neuroscientist Sigmund Freud. Modern psychotherapy has come a long way over the last century. Many of Freud’s bizarre theories on psychosexual development and the Oedipal complex have been debunked, yet Bloom points out that in the field of psychology, “there's no figure now [who’s] anything close to Freud, either in influence or in scope.”
This week, Denis McManus, professor of philosophy at the University of Southampton reflects on authenticity and the allure of being true to ourselves and suggests that while authenticity may be having a moment, it is just one of many values we should aspire to.
Award-winning journalist and writer Kenneth Miller delves into our long and mysterious relationship with sleep and explores the scientists who embarked on pioneering sleep research. In his book Mapping the Darkness; The Visionary Scientists Who Unlocked The Mysteries of Sleep Miller posits that “for a long time, sleep was really [just] a sideline for scientists,” and sleep researchers struggled to be taken seriously in a field, which for most of the 20th century, had viewed sleep as a wasteful habit or something to be overcome.
This week, corporate speaker, former professional poker player and author of “Quit: The Power Of Knowing When To Walk Away, ” Annie Duke says knowing when to quit can be helpful when it comes to relationships or jobs and that fear of the unknown or being alone, shouldn’t be an excuse for inaction.
Acclaimed writer Leslie Jamison takes us on an intimate and honest personal journey, navigating the devastating collapse of her marriage and the joy of becoming a mother for the first time. In her latest memoir, Splinters: Another Kind of Love Story, she recounts her relationships with men, her parents, her child, and herself, drawing on her own lived experiences in order “to ask about what it feels like to be alive.”
This week, Yale professor of psychology Paul Bloom offers another perspective on retirement. Although leisure and free time are appealing, research indicates that a more balanced approach involving some work may be healthier, more rewarding and make us happier.
While our modern lifestyles offer many advantages and independence, they have also led to a rise in loneliness as we’ve become less reliant on the communities that once held us together. Casper ter Kuile, former Harvard divinity scholar and co-founder of the community-building project Nearness, argues that the connections and community we build with each other “is what lifes all about.”
This week, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Indigenous ecologist and author of Braiding Sweetgrass speaks about the virtues of moss and how one of the smallest and humblest plants on the planet can teach us to live more sustainably and harmoniously with the world around us.
While good habits and rituals are beneficial, brain scientists and psychologists also say the key to a fulfilling and happy life is novelty, variety, and disruption from our routines. In her book Look Again; The Power of Noticing What Was Always There, co-author and MIT neuroscientist Tali Sharot sources decades of research illustrating that greater sensitivity, appreciation, and innovation happens when we dishabituate.
This week, Anna Lembke, addiction specialist at Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic, and author of “Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence,” provides the clinical definition of addiction and says it’s becoming easier than ever adopt addictive behaviors but harder to spot the addiction in ourselves.
Jonathan Bastian talks with Ross Gay, poet, essayist, and professor of English at Indiana University. Author of “The Book of Delights,” Gay’s latest collection of essays and poems is “Inciting Joy,” in which he ponders sources of joy, from caring for his father, to skateboarding, gardening, and playing pickup basketball.
“Joy is what emerges from our tending to one another through the difficulty, making it possible to survive the difficulty,’ says Gay. “Joy emerges from that.”
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In his article “Science can explain a broken heart. Could science help heal mine?,” Los Angeles Times columnist Todd Martens shares his story of heartbreak and explores the science behind physical and emotional suffering. Matthew Fray, relationship coach and author of This Is How Your Marriage Ends; A Hopeful Approach to Saving Relationships, reflects on his divorce and flags some seemingly benign behaviors that over time can undermine love and trust in a relationship.
This week, philosopher and writer Alain de Botton says, simple as it sounds, there's nothing more enduring and attractive in a partner than being fully and completely heard and understood.
According to psychologist Gloria Mark, the average attention span is just 47 seconds. Mark, a two-decade veteran in researching attention, says our ability to focus is declining at an alarming rate and is impacting our health. Much of this increase is due to our modern, fast-paced lifestyles and technology. Mark underscores the implications for children while emphasizing the potential for behavioral reversal.
This week, clinical psychologist and Buddhist teacher Tara Brach on suffering, the negativity bias and why it’s a good idea not to overly fixate on the negative in our lives.
Devin Sean Moss, humanist chaplain, writer, and host of The Adventures of Memento Mori podcast, discusses belief, prayer, and his role as a chaplain providing spiritual care. Throughout 2023, Moss provided support and counseling to Phillip Hancock , a death row inmate, before and during his execution by the State of Oklahoma. Moss reflects on his interactions with Hancock, delving into the significance of compassion, prayer, and the unique challenges posed by Hancock's explicit rejection of the Christian faith.
“He was a fascinating human, incredibly smart,” says Moss. “He had the Bible practically memorized and I think he struggled with faith. I really do believe that he wanted to believe, but knowing what he had gone through his entire life, I can completely see why one in his position would not believe.”
This week, historian George Makari explores the powerful human emotion of hate, xenophobia and fear of the other and says some people “fall in hate, the way the rest of us fall in love.”
Theresa MacPhail, associate professor of science and technology studies at Stevens Institute of Technology and author of Allergic: Our Irritated Bodies in a Changing World, discusses the origins of allergies, tracing their discovery back to British physician Charles Blackley who put hay fever on the map. Alanna Collen, evolutionary biologist and author of 10% Human: How Your Body's Microbes Hold the Key to Health and Happiness, explores the link between our microbiomes and the likelihood of developing allergies.
This week, Iza Kavedžija, a cultural anthropologist who lived in the Kansai region of Japan, while researching the older members of Japanese society, talks about how Japanese culture values the modest pursuit - a concept called ikigai- small actions or interests, like making tea, that if done masterfully and with full attention provide fulfillment and meaning in life.
Christian Wiman, author of Zero at the Bone: Fifty Entries Against Despair, discusses life after being diagnosed with a rare and incurable form of his cancer and how preparing for death influenced his thought, faith, and poetry. Wiman, the Clement-Muehl Professor of Communication Arts at Yale Divinity School, examines anguish and despair and his “real desire to make faith more the center of my life, not to live it quietly to bring it into my work to bring it into my life.”
This week, Anna Lembke, addiction specialist at Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic, and author of “Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence,” discusses the human tendency to lie and why telling the truth not only brings us closer together but is actually healthy for us. The intimacy created from being truthful, Lembke says, is a wonderful and healthy source of dopamine.
Robert Sapolsky is a professor of biology, neurology, and neuro-surgery at Stanford University. He’s also a neuroendocrinology researcher and author. In his newest book Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will, he posits that extensive scientific research indicates that our decisions and choices in life are largely out of our control. Neuroscience, genetics, evolutionary theory, and child development are several factors that can help us understand how we act is predetermined, contrary to popular belief.
This week, Oliver Burkeman, journalist and author of Four Thousand Weeks; Time Management for Mortals explores our relationship with time and asks how our common belief that our ultimate happiness or contentment will only happen at some point in the future - perhaps when we’ve got a top job, house or kids- is impacting our sense of happiness and contentment day to day.
Katherine May, British writer and author of Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times, shares her love of the winter months, describing her physical feelings when immersed in the cold local sea as a “sensory delight.” Writer, surfer, and swimmer Bonnie Tsui shares stories from her latest book Why We Swim and explains why humans have such a long and deep connection to water.
This week, Cassie Holmes, Professor of Marketing and Behavioral Decision Making and author of “Happier Hour: How to Beat Distraction, Expand Your Time, and Focus on What Matters Most,” suggests ways to value and savor the more ordinary moments and says when it comes to finding happiness, it helps to measure those less extraordinary moments in our lives.
Jonathan Bastian talks with psychologist Paul Bloom about the role that hardship and pain play in living a good life. Bloom, author of “The Sweet Spot,” explores why — from running a marathon to eating spicy food — suffering helps us to thrive and gives us satisfaction.
British author Katherine May offers some (heart)warming advice on winter and explores simple ways to rediscover the joy of enchantment.
This week, Harvard divinity scholar Casper ter Kuile talks about the power of ancient ritual and how incorporating a tech sabbath and switching off our phones, can help us refocus and recenter our lives.
Carl Safina, ecologist and founding president of The Safina Center at Stony Brook University in New York, shares his experience raising a small owl. Safina recounts what he learned and why this period of his life was so joyful in his latest book Alfie and Me: What Owls Know, What Humans Believe. Writer Jennifer Ackerman, who’s written several books on birds and is author of What an Owl Knows:The New Science of the World's Most Enigmatic Birds, describes why the owl is the absolute apex predator.
This week, British author Katherine May offers a (heart) warming perspective on winter. Rather than dread or endure the cold and dark days, rediscover some of the simple ways to enjoy some of the beauty and stillness that winter offers.
Elizabeth Rush, Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of The Quickening: Creation and Community at the Ends of the Earth, describes her voyage to the most remote place on earth, Antarctica, to see the Thwaites Glacier, a crumbling sheet of ice the size of Florida. It’s melting so fast that it's known as the "doomsday glacier.”
“The only thing I could think of as a metaphoric likeness was the wall in Game of Thrones,” says Rush. She shares her thoughts on individual climate action, carbon footprints, and how her experience in Antarctica framed her own dilemma on motherhood in a rapidly warming world.
“If I'm gonna wish a child into this world, I have to wish this world upon that child, so I better be part of the change,” Rush says.
Yiyun Li, writer and author most recently of a collection of short stories Wednesday’s Child: Stories, talks about the beauty of storytelling and how she uses stories to explore the relationship between parents and their children — including mothers, like her, who suffer the loss of a child: “That's one thing that literature does well, is to examine losses in life,” she says. In the 20 years since Li arrived in the US from China, Li has become a prolific writer, publishing five novels, three short story collections, and a memoir. She’s also currently director of Princeton University’s creative writing program. While achieving professional success, Li has navigated private tragedy and loss. She shares how the garden and gardening have become both sanctuary and metaphor for life. “It’s a place,” Li says, where “nothing works perfectly.”
This week, cognitive scientist and professor of psychology at Yale University Lori Santos explains that negative emotions are very much part of the human experience and essential to leading a happy life. Leaning into these emotions and accepting them is better for us than trying to dismiss or suppress them.
Jonathan Bastian talks with Dr. Anna Lembke, director and chief of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic, about the role of dopamine in the brain. She also offers advice on keeping the pursuit of pleasure in check and maintaining balance and contentment, and discusses her New York Times bestseller “Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence.”
“We're living in an adicto-genic world,” says Lembke. “In which almost all substances and human behaviors, even behaviors that we typically think of as healthy and adaptive, like reading, have become addicted, have become drug refined, in some way made more potent, more accessible, [and] the internet has absolutely exploded this phenomenon.”
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Lisa Miller, professor of clinical psychology at Columbia University and author of “The Awakened Brain; The New Science of Spirituality and Our Quest for an Inspired Life,” talks about the connections between a spiritual life and mental health, specifically what happens inside the brain when a religious or a spiritual practice are introduced. Miller, a scientist and not a theologian, talks about her personal experience, work and research to develop a “new foundationally spiritually based treatment to help awaken our natural spiritual awareness..the awakened brain.”
This week, professor and director of the Convergent Behavioural Science Initiative at the University of Virginia Leidy Klotz explains why when it comes to solving problems or finding ways to improve our lives - subtraction rather than addition can be the less instinctive but often the most effective solution.
Oliver Burkeman, journalist and author of Four Thousand Weeks; Time Management for Mortals, explores our relationship with time and the modern obsession with time management, efficiency, and making the most of this valuable resource. Depressing as it may sound, Burkeman says, the average person has about 4,000 weeks. Drawing on history and philosophy, Burkeman offers a sane and sensible approach to how we spend our time, and suggests that we “not buy into the idea that more and more efficiency, and processing more and more tasks, is the path to happiness.”
This week, psychology and education professor Peter Coleman explains that conflicts and disagreements are not just normal in relationships but actually a good thing - we don’t learn without conflict.
Professor of American Indian Studies Mishuana Goeman addresses the common misconceptions about Native American land and the ties between the land and language.
Indigenous ecologist and author of Braiding Sweetgrass Robin Wall Kimmerer draws on the knowledge of Indigenous peoples and speaks to the value of living in reciprocity with the natural world. A member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation Kimmerer explains how our relationship with the planet can improve through a better understanding and appreciation of Indigenous culture.
“Human beings are newcomers here to this earth, and our existence is entirely dependent upon the gifts of the other beings who are already here,” she says.
Mishuana Goeman (Tonawanda Band of Seneca) is a professor of Gender Studies and American Indian Studies at UCLA’s Institute of Environment and Sustainability and Special Advisor to the Chancellor on Native American and Indigenous Affairs. She says Indigenous communities held strong ties to the land, and those ties varied from tribe to tribe through language, art, and song.
Robin Wall Kimmerer is a guest speaker at UC Santa Barbara’s Arts and Lecture Series Tuesday November 14th at 7:30pm at Campbell Hall. Learn more about this and other events at artsandlectures.ucsb.edu.
Welcome to the Midweek Reset from Life Examined, where host Jonathan Bastian takes a small pause for a new perspective.
Doctor Sunita Puri and hospice and palliative RN Hadley Vlahos share their perspectives and first-hand experiences helping people approach the end of life. Puri, who is the Program Director for the Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship at the UMass Chan School of Medicine, says that more and more Americans are electing to die at home. Vlahos, author of The In- Between: Unforgettable Encounters During Life's Final Moments, recounts some of the humbling and “beautiful” first hand experiences she’s had with her patients in the last stages of life. Later, biocultural anthropologist and Tibetan medical doctor Tawni Tidwell talks about some of the work she does with the Thukdam Project at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Center for Healthy Minds and how neuroscientists are learning more about what happens to the body after death.
Welcome to the Midweek Reset from Life Examined, where host Jonathan Bastian takes a small pause for a new perspective.
Psychology and education professor Peter Coleman explains that conflict is “a necessary component of the human condition.” As the Director of the Morton Deutsch International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution at Columbia University, Coleman has worked with families, communities, and entire nations on building constructive resolutions and sustainable peace. Coleman says that humans have the ability to cooperate, resolve conflict, and solve problems together because we're “fundamentally hardwired to need each other. We don't learn without conflict.”
Welcome to the Midweek Reset from Life Examined, where host Jonathan Bastian takes a small pause for a new perspective. This week, mentor and author of “Deep Listening: Impact Beyond Words” Oscar Trimboli shares his tips on how and why to become a better listener.
Kemi Nekvapil, executive coach and author of POWER: A Woman’s Guide to Living and Leaving without Apology,
shares how women are shifting the landscape when it comes to leadership and power. Allowing for an abundance of power enables us to promote and support each other, rather than hold power over each other and compete.
“I'm not afraid of your power,” says Nekvapil. “If I have power, I will happily stand alongside you, support you, and elevate your power in the same way that you will elevate my power, because we're both standing in who we truly are in the world.”
Katty Kay, journalist and coauthor of THE POWER CODE: More Joy. Less Ego. Maximum Impact for Women (and Everyone), further explores the history and meaning of power.
“Most of the studies of power and what power is, what it means, who has it, and how it should be wielded, have been drawn up by men over the centuries,” says Kay. “Understandably, they were the ones that had power.”
Welcome to the Midweek Reset from Life Examined, where host Jonathan Bastian takes a small pause for a new perspective. This week, educator and meditation specialist Sharon Salzberg shares an instruction from the Tibetan Buddhist tradition on finding a Middle Path and maintaining a healthy emotional life.
Long-distance walker, writer, and author Raynor Winn describes her 1000 mile walk from Scotland to the South West of England. With tents, backpacks, and minimal supplies, their plan was to walk the 230-mile Cape Wrath Trail — some of the toughest terrain in Britain. But after they completed that trek, they kept on walking.
Winn talks about her passion for walking, how she feels “intrinsically enmeshed with the natural world,” and why she finds walking incredible distances to be transformative. Walking, Winn explains, had been the only thing that helped Moth, whose symptoms from a Parkinson’s-like disease had become increasingly dire.
“When we walked on the coast path, it had just been about a walk,” she says. “It had been about walking because we had nowhere to be, but we discovered this change in his health and we'd sort of hung onto that over the years after, because we’ve tried to keep walking as much as possible. “
Jonathan Bastian talks with Annie Duke, corporate speaker, former poker player, and author of “Quit: The Power Of Knowing When To Walk Away” about how poker informed her decision making. Duke sees quitting a vital skill and shares some of her tools and strategies. Whether you're an athlete, partner, or employee, Duke provides a better understanding when to quit and when to show grit.
“There's no doubt that my previous life as a professional poker player, which went from 1994 to 2012, definitely informs my thinking about the importance of quitting as a skill. Because when to fold and when not to fold and being really good at that decision, is probably the single biggest thing that separates great poker players from amateurs.”
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Jonathan Bastian talks with economist Russ Roberts, author of “Wild Problems: A Guide to the Decisions That Define Us,” about a variety of approaches to tackling some of life’s big decisions, and how those decisions play a part in who we are and will become. Later, Susannah Furr, entrepreneur and co-author of “The Upside of Uncertainty: A Guide to Finding Possibility in the Unknown,” shares her life story on starting a new business and offers tips on how to move forward and deal with fear and regret.
Delve deeper into life, philosophy, and what makes us human by joining the Life Examined discussion group on Facebook.
Psychologist George Bonanno, author of “The End of Trauma: How the New Science of Resilience Is Changing How We Think About PTSD,” explores the history, science, and nature of trauma. He says that contrary to popular opinion, trauma plays a significant role in building human resilience and that people are overwhelmingly resilient to adversity. Trauma or traumatic events, Bonanno says, have “become an easy and convenient excuse as to why we can’t function.”
Ross Gay, poet, essayist, and author of Inciting Joy, shares how losing his father impacted not only his writing, but more or less everything else that he now does. Witnessing his own sorrow, Gay says, was both terrifying and a revelation: “If you can't be close to your sorrow, then you're gonna miss your life.
Brad Stulberg writes and teaches about mental health and well-being, and is author of several books, most recently Master Of Change: How To Excel When Everything Is Changing — Including You. Stulberg dives into the science and some of the ancient wisdom behind change. The ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus, who wrote about the nature of reality and its relationship to change, famously said, “no man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.”
“There's one tragedy that none of us can avoid, which is that the things that we love are going to change,” says Stulberg. “And yet, in spite of it, we can still trudge forward with a hopeful attitude because this is the life that we have, these are the cards that were dealt, and it serves us no good to despair.”
Writer and expert on stoic philosophy Ryan Holiday explores the history and power of self discipline. Behavioral scientist and professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School Katy Milkman explains the science behind forming habits.
Amir Levine, associate professor of psychiatry at Columbia University and co-author of Attached: The New Science of Adult Attachment and How It Can Help You Find—and Keep—Love, explains the origins and science behind attachment theory and how human bonding is a necessary element “from the moment we are born until we die.”
As infants, humans’ bond between mother or caregiver is essential, what Levine calls “a necessary element in our thriving, just as much as food and water.” When those patterns of attachment are formed, they can also carry through into adulthood and impact subsequent bonds and attachments.
Attachment theory was pioneered by British psychiatrist and child development specialist John Bowlby, whose research included working with children displaced during The Blitz in WWII London.
“What they noticed [was] even though they were able to give them food and shelter, because there were so many, they didn't pay much attention to engaging with them,” Levine explains. “A lot of these very young infants and kids failed to grow properly and develop.”
Lori Gottlieb, relationship therapist, podcast host, and author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone, shares her experience both personally and professionally with couples therapy. Gottlieb says the de-stigmatization of mental health has helped normalize having a therapist, although its growing visibility on social media may have the opposite effect and creates a false idea of what therapy can and cannot do.
“Therapy is a relationship in and of itself,” says Gottlieb. “A safe space where you can slow things down, look at ways that you interact or move through the world in this relationship so you can change it in those outside relationships.”
Andrew Leland, writer and author of “The Country of the Blind: A Memoir at the End of Sight,” shares his experience of slowly losing his sight after being diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a rare genetic eye disease for which there is no cure. From using a cane to learning braille and researching the history of inventions for the blind, Leland describes the accommodations he’s sometimes reluctantly made during his transition. Embracing the experience has expanded his perspective. Sometimes, he says, “the thing that seems to go wrong actually turns out to be the thing that makes it great.”
Anthony Rostain, Chair of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health at Cooper University Health Care and co-author of “The Adult ADHD Tool Kit: Using CBT to Facilitate Coping Inside and Out,” explains that the recent rise in Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) diagnoses among adults may be connected to an increasing awareness and acceptance of mental disorders, compelling many who have suffered in silence to now seek help and get treated.
“When we look at the rates of ADHD in adults in the United States, we estimate that about 4% of the population of adults has ADHD,” Rostain says. “However, not even a quarter of them have really been assessed or treated. So there's a large number of people out there who were never diagnosed who are discovering it now.”
Moira O’Connell, a BCBA (board certified behavioral analyst) from Massachusetts, shares her experience discovering that she had ADHD as an adult, and what it felt like struggling to stay focused and organized.
“I can't be organized,” says O’Connell. “My husband would talk to me and I would never listen, which I would just always attribute to, ‘I'm not a multitasker.’ I can't chew gum and walk at the same time, but what it really was was that I was having trouble focusing and attending.”
Pico Iyer, traveler writer and author of “The Half Known Life: In Search of Paradise,” Pico Iyer explores his love for Japan and why it remains, for him, the “most unique and distinctive place I've ever been.” Iyer shares why he’s drawn to the culture’s appreciation of community and elders.
“In California, many of us are trying to be as young and full of energy and enthusiasm [as possible], but in Japan, which is a very hierarchical place, the older the better, because age connotes wisdom, maturity, and experience,” Iyer says.
More: In search of paradise — and why travel writer Pico Iyer says it may be within
Iza Kavedžija, social and medical anthropologist at Cambridge University and author of “Making Meaningful Lives: Tales from an Aging Japan,” describes some of the principals and traditions which abound in Japanese culture and imbue a sense of meaning, purpose, and well-being into many older generations of Japanese people.
“We don't tend to think of older people as driving the processes of social change,” says Kavedžija, “but that's exactly what they were doing.”
Jonathan Losos, evolutionary biologist at Washington University and author of “The Cat's Meow: How Cats Evolved from the Savanna to Your Sofa,” explores the evolution, peculiarities, and joys of our feline friends. Long before grumpy cat memes, cats were worshiped by the ancient Egyptians, and archaeological evidence suggests they were domesticated as far back as 10,000 years ago on the island of Cyprus.
The ancestor of the domestic cat is a species called the North African Wildcat. Losos explains the evolution of the cat, their history of domestication, and how they have evolved from an ancient divine symbol to the common and loveable house cat.
“Cats are consummate predators. There's this wildness to them and they are as good a predator as there is on the planet,” Losos says. “I think one of the appeals to many people of having cats as pets is that you've got a little bit of the Serengeti in your own living room.”
Tracy McMillan, TV writer and author of Why You're Not Married . . . Yet: The Straight Talk You Need to Get the Relationship You Deserve discusses how her traumatic childhood and series of failed relationships led her on a voyage of personal self discovery and “correction.” Married and divorced three times, McMillan draws on her personal experience as well as the hundreds of couples she’s talked to on her reality TV show Family or Fiancé, which she hosts on The Oprah Winfrey Network. She dives deep into her own shortcomings, demystifies the stigma of divorce and talks about why attachment and avoidance are the key indicators as to whether a relationship will last or not.
Michael Specter, MIT professor, science journalist, and author of “Higher Animals: Vaccines, Synthetic Biology, and the Future of Life,” explains the enormous impact that new technologies like mRNA, CRISPR, and A.I. are having on our lives, particularly when it comes to medicine. New Yorker staff writer and author of “Future Sex: A New Kind of Free Love” Emily Witt talks about some of the latest research into reproduction and women's fertility.
Tara Brach, Buddhist teacher, psychologist, podcaster, and founder and guiding teacher of the Insight Meditation Community of Washington, talks about journey into Buddhism and the importance of meditation, mindfulness, and trusting our “inner gold.” Brach is author of “Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life with the Heart of a Buddha” and “Trusting the Gold: Uncovering Your Natural Goodness.”
Later, Sharon Salzberg, educator, co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society, and author of “Real Life: The Journey from Isolation to Openness and Freedom,” shares experiences from her early life traveling to India and discovering meditation, and the “unparalleled” sense of learning she discovered while studying under S.N. Goenka and others.
Joshua Coleman, psychologist, senior Fellow with the Council on Contemporary Families, and author of “The Rules of Estrangement: Why Adult Children Cut Ties and How to Heal the Conflict,” describes firsthand his experience of family estrangement, which he says was “incredibly painful.” Coleman explains how his personal experience led to further research on family estrangement, including interviewing thousands of parents whose adult children have broken contact with them.
Minimalism is enjoying a resurgence, but can a minimalistic lifestyle and aesthetic bring peace and calm? Does having less stuff bring happiness?
Philosopher Will MacAskill argues that protecting the future of humanity is the moral priority of our time. Historian Tyrone McKinley Freeman explains philanthropy’s rich tradition within the African American community.
Jonathan Rosen, writer and author of “The Best Minds: The Story of Friendship, Madness, and the Tragedy of Good Intentions,” tells the story of his childhood best friend Michael Laudor and his demonic battle with schizophrenia. The story is a cautionary tale of what can happen when good intentions lead to the worst possible outcome. Rosen describes how Michael’s life spiraled out of control, the challenges of dealing with mental illness, and addresses some of the ongoing failures to help the mentally ill.
University of Washington Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Mark Sullivan, co-author of “The Right to Pain Relief and Other Deep Roots of the Opioid Epidemic,” explains common misconceptions surrounding pain and what some doctors and the medical community get wrong when it comes to diagnosing pain and managing relief.
Elaine Scarry, author of “The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World,” describes the many dimensions of pain and why, when we are in pain, language and words fail us.
“A key — absolutely key — feature of physical pain is the elimination of agency, the elimination of consent,” Scarry says.
LSD and Ecstasy were once the hippy-trippy illegal substances for concerts, raves, and parties. Now these psychedelics are back in the news — this time for their positive impact on trauma and depression.
Today nearly one in five American adults lives with a mental illness, and PTSD will affect an estimated 7.7 million Americans at some point in their life. That’s according to NAMI, the National Alliance of Mental Illness.
Over the past 30 years, researchers and psychotherapists have discovered the transformative benefits of treating trauma, depression, anxiety and drug addiction in controlled therapy sessions using methylenedioxy methamphetamine (MDMA).
KCRW explores how psychedelics and specifically MDMA have shifted the paradigm when it comes to the treatment of trauma, and what the de-stigmatization and medical legalization of these drugs could mean for future treatments of mental disorders.
Teepa Snow, founder of the dementia support community Positive Approach to Care and author of “Understanding the Changing Brain: A Positive Approach to Dementia Care,” has spent 40 years working and advocating for those living with dementia and Alzheimer’s.
She addresses our common misperceptions about the disease and why training is so important when it comes to care — not just for the patient but also for the caregiver. She also discusses building connections between patients and caregivers, and how one person’s experience caring for her father helped her build empathy through storytelling.
Meghan O’Gieblyn, author of “God, Human, Animal, Machine: Technology, Metaphor, and the Search for Meaning,” writes about the intersection of humanity and technology. She joins us to explore what happens when technology matches our creative, psychological, and intellectual needs — and how that impacts who we are as a species. Plus, how chatbots are evolving as a useful tool in combating loneliness, depression, and anxiety and aid in tackling our mental health crisis.
Jennifer Senior, Pulitzer-prize winning essayist for the Atlantic, tells the story of mourning, love and recovery. Bobby McIlvaine died in the Twin Towers on 9/11. In her latest book “On Grief; Love, Loss, Memory” author Jennifer Senior reflects the lives of the McIlvaine family and how 20 years after the loss of their son Bobby, their unspeakable grief lingers on. Senior shares their moving personal story and insight into how the long reach of grief impacted all of their lives in very different ways.
Kenji Yoshino, Chief Justice Earl Warren Professor of Constitutional Law at New York University School of Law and the director of the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging, provides practical tips and suggestions for a new way of having conversations about our differences that will help us get beyond cancel culture.
In his latest book, “Say the Right Thing: How to Talk About Identity, Diversity, and Justice,” which Yoshino co-authored with David Glasgow, he argues that cancel culture has meant that important conversations about identity are being avoided as people are scared that what they say might seem offensive or be taken the wrong way.
Poet and philosopher Jennifer Michael Hecht shares how poetry provides joy, insight, and wisdom. In her latest book, “The Wonder Paradox: Embracing the Weirdness of Existence and the Poetry of Our Lives,” Hecht ponders our need for the sacred, and says that seeking out a poem or verses that speak to our daily challenges in life can become a kind of secular replacement for faith. Later, Hecht openly talks about her bouts with depression and offers hope to those reckoning with suicidal ideation.
Legal scholar Adam Benforado explains how prioritizing our children’s future is the least costly and most effective way to address the major problems we face, whether that's poverty, or health or crime. Later, education reform specialist John Rogers says an increase in violent and hostile rhetoric within the public school system damages democracy and psychologist Erika Felix discusses the impact of gun violence, stress and trauma has on kids.
German forester and author Peter Wohlleben explains how trees have a sophisticated method of communication and the ability to feel and heal. Author Susan Orlean talks about our love and relationship with animals, and what our fascination with them tells us about ourselves.
Hungarian-born network scientist and author of “The Formula: The Universal Laws of Success,” Albert-László Barabási, explains the disconnect between performance and success, and provides a better understanding of what success really is.
Geneticist Amander Clark and religion, culture, and gender studies professor Samira Mehta discuss how science and religion define when human life begins. Later, bioethicist and philosopher Nancy Jecker reflects on the moral, ethical, and practical challenges of defining personhood.
British author Katherine May offers some (heart)warming advice on winter and explores simple ways to rediscover the joy of enchantment.
Win or lose — the art and nature of games have a deeper impact on our lives than we might imagine. What’s the appeal, and what do we learn about ourselves?
Black writers and poets Quraysh Ali Lansana and Ishion Hutchinson share how their poetry is shaped by history, tradition, and the unearthing of forgotten histories.
Coach and author Brad Stulberg examines the science behind reaching our full potential, whether it be at work or in our personal lives. And shares his very personal story about getting diagnosed with OCD later in life.
Psychologist and author Dacher Keltner shares the science and mysteries surrounding awe, and suggests we make finding awe part of our daily lives.
Dr. Robert Waldinger, director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, unlocks some of the secrets discovered via 80 years of research on happiness. Later, UCLA Professor of Marketing and Behavioral Decision Making Cassie Holmes reflects on how those who make the most of their time can be happie
Renowned travel writer and author Pico Iyer reflects on how different cultures and peoples see life and death and find their own versions of happiness and paradise.
Traveler and author Rolf Potts shares his philosophy on meaningful travel and how embracing the unexpected can change us for the better.
Historian and author Rutger Bregman examines the science and the history behind human nature and argues that the human mind is wired to be good.
Host Jonathan Bastian talks with David Whyte about the power of the written and spoken word. Whyte, a poet, philosopher, and speaker, discusses his latest collection of poems, “Still Possible,” in which he continues to explore vulnerability, relationships, and “the conversational nature of reality.”
Journalist and author Will Storr explains how status influences everything we do. Whether consciously or subconsciously, we all seek to be of value and feel accepted. Author Chuck Thompson says today’s status ideals have shifted; status is not reflected in the clothes you wear, but more about what you do for society.
Science journalist and author Lydia Denworth explains the value of friendship and what we can learn from primates about the value of social bonds. Author, public speaker, and podcast host Oscar Trimboli explains the science behind listening and provides tips on how we learn to listen well and pay attention.
Philosopher and writer Chloé Cooper Jones explains how recognizing and appreciating moments of beauty in the world around her helped her come to terms with her own body and self-perception. Professor Shailen M. Singh says society needs to embrace a more equitable, inclusive, and humanizing approach, especially towards children with disabilities.
Jonathan Bastian talks with Sharon Salzberg educator, co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society, and author of several best selling books including “Real Life: The Journey from Isolation to Openness and Freedom,” about her early life traveling to India and discovering meditation, and the “unparalleled” sense of learning she discovered while studying under S.N. Goenka and others. “I think back to some of those conversations, because the retreats were not completely silent in those days,” Salzberg recalls. “And the other thing was tremendous friendships, which are enduring environments to this day. Physically, it was very hard, people were getting sick, and the conditions were very tough, but it didn't matter. And that was really fascinating for a Western person to see, too.”
Jonathan Bastian talks with Annie Duke, corporate speaker, former poker player, and author of “Quit: The Power Of Knowing When To Walk Away” about how poker informed her decision making. Duke sees quitting a vital skill and shares some of her tools and strategies. Whether you're an athlete, partner, or employee, Duke provides a better understanding when to quit and when to show grit.
“There's no doubt that my previous life as a professional poker player, which went from 1994 to 2012, definitely informs my thinking about the importance of quitting as a skill. Because when to fold and when not to fold and being really good at that decision, is probably the single biggest thing that separates great poker players from amateurs.”
Delve deeper into life, philosophy, and what makes us human by joining the Life Examined discussion group on Facebook.
Psychologist and Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at King's College in London Francesca Happe talks about the progress in autism diagnosis especially in women and dispels some of the myths. Podcaster and writer Lauren Ober shares the story of her own later-in-life autism diagnosis.
We all have characteristics unique to ourselves, from our intelligence and sexual orientation to our height, weight and food preferences. Where do these traits come from? Are we genetically pre-programmed? What can we learn from studying twins? Why do they display so many similar characteristics even when raised apart? Beyond hereditary and experience, is there also something else in the mix that makes us who we are?
Clinical Psychologist Julia Rucklidge discusses the role of nutrition in treating and preventing mental health disorders. Author Michael Moss talks about how food is being designed to keep us wanting more.
Clinical Psychologist Julia Rucklidge discusses the role of nutrition in treating and preventing mental health disorders. Author Michael Moss talks about how food is being designed to keep us wanting more.
Jonathan Bastian talks with Kieran Setiya, professor of philosophy at Massachusetts Institute of Technology about some best practices when it comes to coping with pain, loneliness, loss, and failure. Setiya’s latest book is Life Is Hard: How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our Way.
“Let's never stop acknowledging that life is hard, not in a bleak way, but I hope, in the end, a constructive way,” Setiya says. “ Try to approach the good life philosophically with attention to that, not some abstract theory”
Delve deeper into life, philosophy, and what makes us human by joining the Life Examined discussion group on Facebook.
Jonathan Bastian talks with Kieran Setiya, professor of philosophy at Massachusetts Institute of Technology about some best practices when it comes to coping with pain, loneliness, loss, and failure. Setiya’s latest book is Life Is Hard: How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our Way.
“Let's never stop acknowledging that life is hard, not in a bleak way, but I hope, in the end, a constructive way,” Setiya says. “ Try to approach the good life philosophically with attention to that, not some abstract theory”
Delve deeper into life, philosophy, and what makes us human by joining the Life Examined discussion group on Facebook.
Philosopher Alain de Botton shares his thoughts on love and relationships. Psychologist Tracy Dennis-Tiwary explains why anxiety is on the rise.
Philosopher Will MacAskill argues that protecting the future of humanity is the moral priority of our time. Historian Tyrone McKinley Freeman explains philanthropy’s rich tradition within the African American community.
Psychiatrist Wesley Boyd talks about the challenges of accessing mental health care. Writer Charlotte Cowles describes her own experience seeking therapy for the first time.
Economist Russ Roberts discusses the challenges of using rationality when facing big life decisions. Entrepreneur Susannah Furr discusses navigating and thriving with uncertainty.
Jonathan Bastian talks with cultural psychologist Batja Gomes de Mesquita, author of “Between Us: How Culture Creates Emotions” who makes the case that emotions are not innate but are rather shaped but our surroundings and cultures, made as we live our lives together. Later, Rosalind Picard, founder and director of the Affective Computing research group at the MIT Media Lab, explains how advances in AI can help computers analyze our emotions with the ultimate goal of making human lives better. Delve deeper into life, philosophy, and what makes us human by joining the Life Examined discussion group on Facebook.
Jonathan Bastian talks with Daniel Bergner, contributing writer for the New York Times, about his brother’s struggle with bipolar disorder and how the search for a better understanding inspired his latest book, “The Mind and the Moon: My Brother’s Story, the Science of Our Brains, and the Search for Our Psyches.”
“The propulsion of the book is just acknowledging and dealing with that family fear, which I know so intimately,” Bergner says. “Not preaching against medication but raising questions about the way we view our psyches, about the way we think about mental health, and about the limitations of medications.”
Bergner brings readers on a journey, following three people who experience varying mental disorders, including depression, anxiety, and symptoms of psychosis. Bergner speaks with researchers and top neuroscientists asking why we are still so far behind in understanding the way the mind works, how this affects modern treatment options, and also makes the case for alternatives to biological psychiatry.
Delve deeper into life, philosophy, and what makes us human by joining the Life Examined discussion group on Facebook.
Ed Yong explores the hidden realms and senses of the animal kingdom. David Peña-Guzmán discusses the dream world of animals and what goes on when they sleep.
In the wake of the pandemic, there is much to be done to restore human connectivity, but loneliness is hardly a new phenomena. Long periods of isolated living in an increasingly virtual world is taking a toll on our health.
Jonathan Bastian talks with philosopher Kieran Setiya, author of “Midlife: A Philosophical Guide” about the meaning and feeling of hitting midlife and how philosophy helped provide answers to Setiya’s own anxieties and perceived failures. Later, Geoff Dyer, author of “The Last Days of Roger Federer And Other Endings” examines what it means to give up something you love and why last works and best works don’t need to follow a chronological order. Delve deeper into life, philosophy, and what makes us human by joining the Life Examined discussion group on Facebook.
Jonathan Bastian talks with Sam Knight, staff writer for the new Yorker, about his latest book, “The Premonitions Bureau: A True Account of Death Foretold.” Knight tells the true story of British psychiatrist John Barker, who after learning that several people had predicted the 1966 Aberfan disaster in Wales, became convinced that premonitions and the ability to see into the future were real. “[Barker] had this idea to call a friend of his who was a science reporter at the Evening Standard in London,” Knight says, “to put out a national call for premonitions.” Delve deeper into life, philosophy, and what makes us human by joining the Life Examined discussion group on Facebook.
On this week’s Life Examined, we’re teaming up with KCRW’s Bodies podcast. In “Do Less Harm,” the second episode of the new season, producer Hannah Harris Green travels to West Virginia, where despite government push back, activists are handing out clean needles and the opioid overdose medication Narcan. Host Jonathan Bastian talks with Green and Bodies creator and host Allison Behringer about their new season and Green’s experience meeting people who use drugs in rural West Virginia. We also hear from Dr. Carl Hart, Columbia University psychologist and author of “Drug Use for Grown Ups,” on why he thinks the legalization of recreational drug use is important.
Jonathan Bastian talks with Robert Macfarlane, fellow at Emmanuel College at Cambridge University, about his love of the mountains and his latest fascination with the subterranean world, which is the subject of his latest book, “Underland: A Deep Time Journey.”
“I'm fascinated by where matter meets metaphor,” Macfarlane says. “The underworld is … this unbiddable, scarcely known, deep ground that we walk on every day, we walk on the crust, our feet are the things that keep us in contact with the earth, they are palms, as it were, to the ground.”
Macfarlane also shares his passion for language and metaphor in nature and his latest musical project, “Lost in The Cedar Wood.” with singer/songwriter Johnny Flynn.
Delve deeper into life, philosophy, and what makes us human by joining the Life Examined discussion group on Facebook.
Cathy O’Neil talks about the increase and profiteering in public shaming. Siva Vaidhyanathan asks whether shame is an effective tool against racism and to promote social justice.
Primatologist Frans de Waal examines the significance of biology and culture on gendered behavior, and neuroscientist Lise Eliot debunks the theory that the male and female brains are different.
Jonathan Bastian talks with Clive Wynne, psychologist and founder of the Canine Science Collaboratory at Arizona State University, about the science behind studying dogs and what makes them so unique. Wynne, also the author of “Dog is Love: Why and How Your Dog Loves You,” says that, “dogs, like ourselves, have a capacity, drive, and desire to have strong emotional bonds with members of other species.” Delve deeper into life, philosophy, and what makes us human by joining the Life Examined discussion group on Facebook.
Jonathan Bastian talks with Tracy Dennis-Tiwary, professor of psychology and neuroscience and director of the Emotion Regulation Lab at Hunter College, about the anxiety epidemic and her book “Future Tense; Why Anxiety Is Good for You (Even Though It Feels Bad).” “Anxiety is a feature of being human,” Dennis-Tiwary says. “It’s not a bug, it's not a malfunction. We can learn and work through it.” Delve deeper into life, philosophy, and what makes us human by joining the Life Examined discussion group on Facebook.
Jonathan Bastian talks with Steve Leder, the senior Rabbi of Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles about tragedy, grief, and the loss of a child in the aftermath of the massacre in Uvalde, Texas. Rabbi Leder also discusses his new book “For You When I Am Gone: Twelve Essential Questions to Tell a Life Story,” the legacy we leave behind when we die, and the writing of an “ethical will.” Delve deeper into life, philosophy, and what makes us human by joining the Life Examined discussion group on Facebook.
For hundreds of years, doctors and scientists have grappled with understanding schizophrenia. It’s a mysterious mental illness characterized by delusions, hallucinations, paranoia, and disorganized speech. Understanding what caused the condition remained rudimentary, and there was a period when therapists blamed parents, and especially mothers, for contributing to the condition. KCRW hears the heartbreaking yet ultimately inspiring story of the Galvin family, where six out of their 12 children developed schizophrenia. Also, mapping the human genome has ushered in a massive sea change in the diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric disorders, helping put mental illness and schizophrenia in the mainstream of biomedical research.
*This episode originally aired on March 12th, 2021
Jonathan Bastian talks with writer, lecturer, and author Susan Cain about the sweet joy of sadness. Cain, author of “Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole,” reflects on the touch of sweetness that comes from sadness and despair and shares how a greater acceptance of these emotions can be beneficial and even therapeutic. Delve deeper into life, philosophy, and what makes us human by joining the Life Examined discussion group on Facebook.
Jonathan Bastian talks with Florence Williams, science writer and author of “Heartbreak: A Personal and Scientific Journey,” about the pain that comes with a breakup and why it’s so hard to move on. Later, Sandra Langeslag, associate professor of psychological sciences at the University of Missouri-St. Louis and Aimee Lutkin, writer, performer, and the author of “The Lonely Hunter: How Our Search for Love Is Broken: A Memoir,” discuss the cure for heartbreak and misconceptions about coupledom.
Jonathan Bastian talks with writer Johann Hari about our diminishing ability to focus. Hari, author of “Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention — and How to Think Deeply Again,” shares how our modern lifestyle, from phones and food to sleep and technology, is impacting our levels of concentration, with research showing that juggling from one task to another comes at a cost.
Psychedelic drugs can induce profound spiritual and mystical connections. We explore how these experiences positively impact mental health and the therapeutic value of ketamine.
Win or lose — the art and nature of games have a deeper impact on our lives than we might imagine. What’s the appeal, and what do we learn about ourselves?
History is full of examples of mortals unintentionally mistaken for gods. So why do we see godliness in others, and what if we had a divine counterpart within ourselves?
Jonathan Bastian talks with Meghan O’Rourke, writer, poet, and author of “The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness,” about her 11-year search to find out what was wrong with her. Later, David Agus, professor of medicine and CEO of the Lawrence J. Ellison Institute for Transformative Medicine at the University of Southern California, explains autoimmune disease, long COVID, and what the future holds for diagnosis and treatment.
KCRW’s Jonathan Bastian talks with behavioral scientist Leidy Klotz about his new book ‘Subtract: The Untapped Science of Less.’ Klotz explains why we need to re-examine our human desire for more, more, more, and why it often prevents us from seeing the easier and more effective solutions. We also hear from Vanessa Patrick, professor of marketing at the University of Houston, on the art and language of saying “No.” Writer Simon Usborne reflects on how gymnast Simon Biles’ and tennis player Naomi Osaka’s decisions to say “No” impact the world of sports and elite athletes, and ultimately, on ourselves.
Delve deeper into life, philosophy, and what makes us human by joining the Life Examined discussion group on Facebook.
Jonathan Bastian talks with Laurie Santos, cognitive scientist and professor of psychology at Yale University and host of “The Happiness Lab” podcast about her research into the science of happiness. Later, Will Davies, professor of political economy at Goldsmiths University of London and author “The Happiness Industry” discusses why we are so interested in measuring happiness in the first place.
Jonathan Bastian talks with George Makari, historian and author of “Of Fear and Strangers: A History of Xenophobia,” about the origins of xenophobia and why people get gratification from hate. Later, Alexis Okeowo, staff writer at The New Yorker and author of “A Moonless, Starless Sky,” and Danish documentary filmmaker Simon Lereng Wilmont discuss the reality of refugee camps and children stuck in war zones.
Jonathan Bastian talks with Margaret MacMillan, historian and author of “War: How Conflict Shaped Us,” about how war has defined our lives and our culture. Later, Edward Tick, psychotherapist, poet and author of “Warrior's Return: Restoring the Soul After War,” and Rabbi Steve Leder speak about the invisible wounds of war, the feeling of helplessness in the presence of evil, and building resilience.
Jonathan Bastian talks with Mark Epstein, psychiatrist, psychologist, and author of “The Zen Of Therapy: Uncovering a Hidden Kindness in Life,” about the role of Buddhism in his practice of psychotherapy. Modern psychotherapy, he says, has stepped into the void left by the abandonment of religious rituals.
Epstein shares stories and anecdotes about his patients, illustrating the links between Buddhism, the theories of influential British pediatrician and psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott, and Freudian psychoanalysis.
Minimalism is enjoying a resurgence, but can a minimalistic lifestyle and aesthetic bring peace and calm? Does having less stuff bring happiness?
Jonathan Bastian talks with philosopher Alain de Botton about gaining a better understanding of love and relationships. Author of “Why You Will Marry the Wrong Person,” “How Proust Can Change Your Life,”and founder of The School of Life, de Botton shares his recipe for love, fulfillment, and what dating apps get wrong when it comes to finding the ideal partner.
Remembering the life and legacy of Thich Nhat Hanh, the Vietnamese Buddhist monk, Zen master, poet, and influential peace activist.
Dr. Carl Erik Fisher and journalist Shayla Martin reflect on the history and meaning of addiction and the challenges for people of color seeking recovery in AA.
Jonathan Bastian talks with Dr. Jonathan Reisman about his passion for adventure and fascination with the human body chronicled in his book “The Unseen Body: A Doctor's Journey Through the Hidden Wonders of the Human Anatomy.” Going beneath the skin, from blood and urine to the liver and kidneys, Reisman shares his unique perspective with the human body and the natural world.
As we enter the new year, is this an opportunity to embrace some new ideas and gain a better understanding of who we are and the world around us? Jonathan Bastian talks to Buddhist scholar Pico Iyer about the prospects for optimism and what author Graham Greene has taught him about human frailty and vulnerability. And Vedanta nun Pravrajika Vrajaprana shares wisdom and hope from the writings of Swami Vivekananda.
Amidst the devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic, two years of fighting the coronavirus has produced transformative advances in medicine, science, and the practice of healthcare. Jonathan Bastian talks with Dr. David Agus about the future of medicine and with Dr. Daniela Lamas about advanced care planning and insight into end of life care.
On this week’s Life Examined, psychologist and co-author of “Born to Be Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life” and “The Compassionate Instinct” Dacher Keltner talks about the science of awe and why we need a daily dose. We also talk with cultural psychologist Dr. Yuria Celidwen about how the practices of Indigenous communities enhance prosocial behavior, and how the appreciation of awe also helps forge community bonds.
Jonathan Bastian talks with Josh Cohen, a psychoanalyst and professor of modern literary theory at Goldsmiths, about the cultivation of healthy aimlessness. Cohen’s recent book, “Not Working: Why We Have to Stop,” explores why doing nothing and seeking solitude — whether at home or at work — can provide balance needed for a healthy life.
The season of giving upon us — but what are the best, and most impactful, ways to bestow your generosity? Jonathan Bastian talks with professor Roland Geyer about the best types of sustainable and environmentally friendly holiday gifts, and with Luke Freeman, director of charitable community “Giving What We Can,” about the most effective ways of giving.
Jonathan Bastian talks with psychologist Paul Bloom about the role that hardship and pain play in living a good life. Bloom, author of “The Sweet Spot,” explores why — from running a marathon to eating spicy food — suffering helps us to thrive and gives us satisfaction.
Despite increasing attention to equity, diversity, and inclusivity, the pay gap for women has not shifted much over the last 15 years. According to one study of the median hourly earnings for full and part time workers in 2020, women earned 84% of what men earned. Jonathan Bastian talks with NPR host and author Stacey Vanek Smith about empowering women in the workplace and how Machiavelli’s “The Prince” might serve as a much needed resource. Later, professor of linguistics Deborah Tannen and author and poet Marguerite Pigeon join to discuss projecting confidence through lingusitic style and fashion.
Jonathan Bastian talks with Susan Orlean about our love and relationship with animals. Orlean, staff writer for the New Yorker and acclaimed author of several books, discusses her latest collection of essays, “On Animals,” in which she explores her fascination and curiosity with all creatures, both feathered and four legged, and asks what our interaction with animals tells us about ourselves.
Host Jonathan Bastian talks with ethnobotanist Dr. Cassandra Quave about the amazing medicinal potential of plants and her global search for natural compounds — long known to traditional healers — that could help save us from the looming crisis of untreatable superbugs. We also hear from Dr. Marion Nestle, New York University professor emeritus of nutrition, food studies, and public health, on the health benefits — both real and fictitious — of nutritional supplements. From probiotics to vitamins, why do we take supplements without any scientific evidence that they do any good?
Host Jonathan Bastian talks with David Whyte about the power of the written and spoken word. Whyte, a poet, philosopher, and speaker, discusses his latest collection of poems, “Still Possible,” in which he continues to explore vulnerability, relationships, and “the conversational nature of reality.”
On this week’s Life Examined, how health organizations and employers are recognizing that workplace burnout is a real and growing problem. In 2019 the World Health Organization officially identified workplace burnout as an “occupational phenomenon.” Today burnout is reaching epidemic proportions and many employees say the pandemic has made the problem worse. Host Jonathan Bastian talks with burnout expert and author of “The Burnout Epidemic” Jennifer Moss about why overwork has reached epidemic proportions and what employers can do about it. We also hear from Sebastian Cruz, a former hedge fund employee, who says overwork forced him to not only to quit his job but shift careers.
On this week’s Life Examined, host Jonathan Bastian talks with avid outdoor enthusiast Jaqueline L. Scott about how she fell in love with nature and birdwatching, and her efforts to make the outdoors a more welcoming and inviting space for Black people. We also hear from Yale environmental professor and historian Dorceta Taylor about the evolution of the environmental movement and how grassroots organizations, Indigenous communities, and other minorities are shaping the conversation around climate and environmental issues.
Host Jonathan Bastian talks with J.M. Thompson about how running has been a personal voyage of discovery and healing from severe depression. Thompson, a clinical psychologist, is author of “Running Is a Kind of Dreaming: A Memoir,” in which he explores childhood trauma, suicide, and the powerful medicine of ultra running.
This holiday season, as we finally enjoy the ability to gather in person, the question on many people’s minds is how to respond when a family member says they’re not vaccinated. Do we exclude our friends when they refuse to trust vaccines? How hard is it to change someone’s point of view? And what role does courage play when it comes to stepping up and doing the right thing? Host Jonathan Bastian talks with psychologist and author Tania Israel about opening a dialogue with unvaccinated friends and family members. We also hear from Ryan Holiday, stoic philosopher and author of “Courage is Calling: Fortune Favors the Brave,” who explains that courage isn’t just bravery, but the ability to care about others more than we do ourselves.
On this week’s Life Examined, how health organizations and employers are recognizing that workplace burnout is a real and growing problem. In 2019 the World Health Organization officially identified workplace burnout as an “occupational phenomenon.” Today burnout is reaching epidemic proportions and many employees say the pandemic has made the problem worse. Host Jonathan Bastian talks with burnout expert and author of “The Burnout Epidemic” Jennifer Moss about why overwork has reached epidemic proportions and what employers can do about it. We also hear from Sebastian Cruz, a former hedge fund employee, who says overwork forced him to not only to quit his job but shift careers.
On this week’s Life Examined, we’re teaming up with KCRW’s Bodies podcast. In “Do Less Harm,” the second episode of the new season, producer Hannah Harris Green travels to West Virginia, where despite government push back, activists are handing out clean needles and the opioid overdose medication Narcan. Host Jonathan Bastian talks with Green and Bodies creator and host Allison Behringer about their new season and Green’s experience meeting people who use drugs in rural West Virginia. We also hear from Dr. Carl Hart, Columbia University psychologist and author of “Drug Use for Grown Ups,” on why he thinks the legalization of recreational drug use is important.
On this week’s Life Examined, we explore why rationality matters amidst a time of mass misinformation. Host Jonathan Bastian talks with Steven Pinker, Harvard psychologist and author of “Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters” about our ability to sort fact from fiction. We also hear from evolutionary biologist David Sloan Wilson about how the human species is evolving to become better caretakers of each other and the planet.
At a time of disconnection and distraction in the world, have we forgotten the importance of listening? Most of us are not shy about sharing our stories or voicing our opinions. But we spend much less time truly taking in what someone else says. How can asking Having better listening skills would help us build better relationships with our friends, families, and coworkers. And asking thoughtful questions would lead to less confusion and chaos. KCRW learns how to better hear what the world around us is saying.
Host Jonathan Bastian talks with Harvard psychologist Deirdre Barrett about our collective fascination with dreams and how COVID dreams have changed over the last year. Later, we hear from Dr. Rafael Pelayo, author of “How to Sleep: The New Science-Based Solutions for Sleeping Through the Night,” about the science of sleep and why getting a good night’s sleep has become so difficult.
Host Jonathan Bastian talks with Meghan O'Gieblyn, author of “God, Human, Animal, Machine: Technology, Metaphor, and the Search for Meaning” about how advanced AI technologies are changing how we think about ourselves and our faith. Later, writer Linda Kinstler talks about the influential role of the tech sector on faith. And Dr. Beth Singler from the University of Cambridge in the U.K. discuses how religion is being renewed and reshaped by modern technology.
KCRW’s Jonathan Bastian talks with cognitive scientist and philosopher Alison Gopnik about the minds of babies and children. What makes babies such avid learners, and can parents help shape who they will become? Gopnik explains that the evolutionary long human childhood results in years full of exploration and learning. On the other end of the spectrum, neuroscientist, musician, and author of “Successful Aging: A Neuroscientist Explores the Power and Potential of Our Lives” Daniel Levitin explains what the latest research shows about the mind as we age. While infants are constantly exploring and making sense of the world, by the time we reach our 70s and 80s, we've built up a whole lot of experience — enabling us to be better problem solvers.
KCRW’s Jonathan Bastian talks with behavioral scientist Leidy Klotz about his new book ‘Subtract: The Untapped Science of Less.’ Klotz explains why we need to re-examine our human desire for more, more, more, and why it often prevents us from seeing the easier and more effective solutions. We also hear from Vanessa Patrick, professor of marketing at the University of Houston, on the art and language of saying “No.” Writer Simon Usborne reflects on how gymnast Simon Biles’ and tennis player Naomi Osaka’s decisions to say “No” impact the world of sports and elite athletes, and ultimately, on ourselves.
This is the second in a two-part series about utopian societies, exploring community living and America’s history with utopian ideas, sects, and cults. What was the appeal back then, and how do they operate today? This week, KCRW’s Jonathan Bastian talks with religion professor Ben Zeller about the characteristics of utopian societies, including sects and cults. We also hear from Chris Jennings, author of “Paradise Now: The Story of American Utopianism,” about the utopian communities of 18th and 19th century America. And Anna Newcomb, founder and resident of a co-housing community, describes her life and the appeal of living in Blueberry Hill.
This is the first in a two-part series about utopian societies exploring the benefits of community cooperation and its dark sides — how the rejection of the status quo can morph into extremism and fanaticism. This week, KCRW’s Jonathan Bastian talks with Akash Kapur about his childhood memories growing up in Auroville, a utopian community in southern India. Kapur is the author of “Becoming India: A Portrait of Life in Modern India.” His latest book, “Better To Have Gone: Love, Death and the Quest for Utopia in Auroville,” explores
On this week’s Life Examined, psychologist and co-author of “Born to Be Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life” and “The Compassionate Instinct” Dacher Keltner talks about the science of awe and why we need a daily dose. We also talk with cultural psychologist Dr. Yuria Celidwen about how the practices of Indigenous communities enhance prosocial behavior, and how the appreciation of awe also helps forge community bonds.
Kenneth Rosen, journalist and author of “Troubled: The Failed Promise of America’s Behavioral Treatment Programs,” takes a closer look at the “tough love” industry and the damaging legacy of wilderness therapy boot camps through the eyes of four former residents — and his own personal experience being forcibly taken from his home as a teenager. Host Jonathan Bastian also talks with Will White, the author of “Stories from the Field: A History of Wilderness Therapy” and teaching lecturer at Plymouth State University, about the history and positive effects of wilderness therapy programs.
Brian Earp, researcher and co-author of “Love Drugs: The Chemical Future of Relationships,” talks about the range of positive effects that MDMA, also known as ecstasy or molly, have on relationships. What could de-stigmatizing MDMA mean for couples therapy? KCRW also talks with the clinical director of the Gottman Institute and founder of the Center for Relationship Wellness about the essence of a successful relationship.
On this week’s Life Examined, scientist and author of “Ageless: The New Science of Getting Older Without Getting Old” Andrew Steele talks about the race to turn back the clock on the aging process. We also talk with University of Florida Sociology Professor Monika Ardelt about the wisdom that comes with old age. Can being wise help you age successfully?
The average person takes about 25,000 breaths a day but the majority of us give little thought as to how the air actually goes in or goes out of our lungs. What have we misunderstood about the breath and how can healthy breathing habits help both our physical and mental well being?
Ancient stoic wisdom is having an unexpected modern day resurgence. Whether it’s daily Instagram quotes, blogs, or good old fashioned books — the writings of Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, and Epictetus are today enjoying something of a comeback. And their appeal is wide, including entrepreneurs, hipsters, sports figures, and even parents.
KCRW’s Jonathan Bastian talks with renowned Buddhist teacher and psychologist Tara Brach about meditation, mindfulness, and trusting our “inner gold.” Her books include “Radical Acceptance, Embracing Your Life With the Heart of a Buddha,” “True Refuge: Finding Peace and Freedom in Your Own Awakened Heart,” and most recently, “Trusting the Gold: Uncovering Your Natural Goodness.”
For African Americans, June 19 (Juneteenth) is both a celebration of freedom and an occasion of somber remembrance. It marks the day in 1865 when enslaved African Americans in Texas learned that they were free — two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed. Until recently, only a handful of states, including Texas, have acknowledged June 19 as a historical date that’s just as significant as Memorial Day, Labor Day, and Independence Day. How should we embrace and celebrate America’s not so glorious past, and could Juneteenth change the way we think about our nation? Artist and poet Sybil Roberts Williams shares her way of celebrating Juneteenth and why the arts are so important in shaping the future self-identification of African Americans. We also talk about how Black people still need to be fully acknowledged in U.S. history books — with University of Texas history professor Austin Peniel Joseph.
Music has always played an important role in cultures across the globe and across the millenia. The discovery of a 40,000-year-old bone flute in a German cave showed that hominids, our prehistoric ancestors, could use a tool to produce sound. Technology continues to impact the history and evolution of music, from the lyres depicted in the art of ancient Greece to the orchestras, synthesizers, and electronics used today. Music professor and author Michael Spitzer traces our history of and relationship to music, and tracks the impact music has had on our lives, from Mozart and jazz to Beyonce and hip-hop. Harvard psychiatrist David Silberswieg also discusses how listening to music enhances brain function. Could listening to music help with depression and Parkinson’s disease?
Friendship is one of the most important components and predictors for emotional and physical well being. A good friendship can last a lifetime, but it’s never too late to make new friends, as long as we devote time and energy to that effort. As we re-engage with one another after a year of isolation, who will we choose to interact with, and why does hanging out with our friends feel so good? On this week’s “Life Examined,” science journalist and author Lydia Denworth explains the science and evolution behind friendship and what primates can teach us about the value of social bonds. She says that “a good friendship is as important to our health as diet and exercise.” We’ll also hear from journalist Kate Murphy about why the pandemic has provided us with a useful opportunity to drop the friends that drain and drag you down.
Trees and forests have long been a source of inspiration for art and poetry. The modern environmental movement says forests and trees are on the front lines of fighting climate change by absorbing CO2 and cooling the planet with their leafy canopies. But trees may be far more evolved than their passive exteriors would lead us to believe.
We explore the healing power of trees and why a good forest bath might be the best way to de-stress your life.
German forester and author Peter Wohlleben explains how trees have a sophisticated method of communication and collaboration, and even have memories. We also hear from naturalist and forest therapy guide Ana Ka’ahanui, who describes how slowing down and being still among the trees might be far more beneficial than taking a rigorous hike.
The decision to have a child is quite possibly the most daunting and consequential any of us can make. But recent data and research on the well-being of parents may give some would-be parents reason to press pause. A child does provide meaning and purpose but does having children make us happier? Also how will the climate crisis and the COVID pandemic impact the decision on whether or not to have kids?
LSD and Ecstasy were once the hippy-trippy illegal substances for concerts, raves, and parties. Now these psychedelics are back in the news — this time for their positive impact on trauma and depression.
Today nearly one in five American adults lives with a mental illness, and PTSD will affect an estimated 7.7 million Americans at some point in their life. That’s according to NAMI, the National Alliance of Mental Illness.
Over the past 30 years, researchers and psychotherapists have discovered the transformative benefits of treating trauma, depression, anxiety and drug addiction in controlled therapy sessions using methylenedioxy methamphetamine (MDMA).
KCRW explores how psychedelics and specifically MDMA have shifted the paradigm when it comes to the treatment of trauma, and what the de-stigmatization and medical legalization of these drugs could mean for future treatments of mental disorders.
Repentance and reflection was once the utopian ideal of the penitentiary system. Back then, the ideal was not to punish but to provide a solitary space or sanctuary from the evils of the outside world in which to repent. Today, that ideal has been swallowed by a massive prison industrial complex, but despite being overcrowded and underfunded, some prisons do offer educational programs like writing classes. KCRW explores how poetry and writing have provided meaning for formerly and currently incarcerated people, plus how prison writing serves as a window into life inside America’s incarceration system.
Throughout history, there have always been a small group of people who prepare for doomsday. Today, according to a YouGov poll conducted in 2020, roughly one in five Americans feel that an apocalypse is coming. So what’s the obsession with the end of times, and do America’s historical roots inspire survivalism? KCRW’s Jonathan Bastian learns about the lives and mindsets of people who think the apocalypse is around the corner. Journalist Mark O’Connell crosses the globe in search of preppers and shares his experiences. We also explore the psychology and religious beliefs of preppers, and examine whether the Book of Revelations offers an alternative way to understand apocalyptic moments with Williams College Professor Jaqueline Hiligo and Yale University Professor Yii- Jan Lin.
Authenticity is a quality many of us admire and aspire to, but what does it mean to be truly yourself? Philosophers both ancient and modern have struggled with the question of authenticity and whether we do the right thing because we judge it to be so, or because others praise our deeds. KCRW learns about what it means to be genuine and whether we have more than one inner self. We also explore the challenge of fitting in, and how imposter syndrome disproportionately impacts women of color and minorities.
For much of the 20th century, the consensus was that our memories are fixed and stored in the brain as literal recordings of past events. Modern research, however, has given us a better understanding. Memories constantly change. They expand, shrink, and expand again. Our memories can also be manipulated and altered by suggestion. KCRW learns about the failings and malleability of memory, and the controversy when it comes to witness testimony in court. We also learn how nostalgic memories can help us cope in difficult times.
At a time of disconnection and distraction in the world, have we forgotten the importance of listening? Most of us are not shy about sharing our stories or voicing our opinions. But we spend much less time truly taking in what someone else says. How can asking Having better listening skills would help us build better relationships with our friends, families, and coworkers. And asking thoughtful questions would lead to less confusion and chaos. KCRW learns how to better hear what the world around us is saying.
KCRW’s Jonathan Bastian talks with acclaimed nature writer Terry Tempest Williams about the art and beauty of language, rebirth, and rediscovery. Her books include “Finding Beauty in a Broken World” and “The Hour of Land: A Personal Topography of America’s National Parks.” Williams’ latest collection of essays is called “Erosion: Essays of Undoing.”
Hosted by KCRW DJ and iconic voice of Los Angeles, Garth Trinidad, and written & produced by KCRW On-Air Promo Director Adria Kloke; the Moments are your snack-sized invitation to a serene space.
From hunter gatherers and agrarian societies to colonialism and corporate conglomerates, the need to eat has played a pivotal role in shaping our evolution. It has driven human history and shaped our past. But is the instinct that helped our ancestors survive being manipulated today? Is our food being deliberately designed and marketed to be more addictive? Also, simple rituals and slowing down may help us better connect with our food, ourselves, and nature.
Hosted by KCRW DJ and iconic voice of Los Angeles, Garth Trinidad, and written & produced by KCRW On-Air Promo Director Adria Kloke; the Moments are your snack-sized invitation to a serene space.
Hosted by KCRW DJ and iconic voice of Los Angeles, Garth Trinidad, and written & produced by KCRW On-Air Promo Director Adria Kloke; the Moments are your snack-sized invitation to a serene space.
Hosted by KCRW DJ and iconic voice of Los Angeles, Garth Trinidad, and written & produced by KCRW On-Air Promo Director Adria Kloke; the Moments are your snack-sized invitation to a serene space.
Hosted by KCRW DJ and iconic voice of Los Angeles, Garth Trinidad, and written & produced by KCRW On-Air Promo Director Adria Kloke; the Moments are your snack-sized invitation to a serene space.
Hosted by KCRW DJ and iconic voice of Los Angeles, Garth Trinidad, and written & produced by KCRW On-Air Promo Director Adria Kloke; the Moments are your snack-sized invitation to a serene space.
Hosted by KCRW DJ and iconic voice of Los Angeles, Garth Trinidad, and written & produced by KCRW On-Air Promo Director Adria Kloke; the Moments are your snack-sized invitation to a serene space.
Hosted by KCRW DJ and iconic voice of Los Angeles, Garth Trinidad, and written & produced by KCRW On-Air Promo Director Adria Kloke; the Moments are your snack-sized invitation to a serene space.
Hosted by KCRW DJ and iconic voice of Los Angeles, Garth Trinidad, and written & produced by KCRW On-Air Promo Director Adria Kloke; the Moments are your snack-sized invitation to a serene space.
Worry and anxiety are common problems for most of us, especially during a global pandemic. Stress produced by lockdowns, working from home, and caring for children and the eldery has caused a spike in anxiety and depression. But according to one psychiatrist and researcher, anxiety is also a bad habit we can learn to control. KCRW also speaks with another researcher about neuroscience and promising new treatments for mental disorders. Could electric brain stimulation rewire our brains to help with conditions like dementia and Alzheimer’s?
For hundreds of years, doctors and scientists have grappled with understanding schizophrenia. It’s a mysterious mental illness characterized by delusions, hallucinations, paranoia, and disorganized speech. Understanding what caused the condition remained rudimentary, and there was a period when therapists blamed parents, and especially mothers, for contributing to the condition. KCRW hears the heartbreaking yet ultimately inspiring story of the Galvin family, where six out of their 12 children developed schizophrenia. Also, mapping the human genome has ushered in a massive sea change in the diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric disorders, helping put mental illness and schizophrenia in the mainstream of biomedical research.
In the wake of the pandemic, there is much to be done to restore human connectivity, but loneliness is hardly a new phenomena. Long periods of isolated living in an increasingly virtual world is taking a toll on our health.
Nine states, including California, have enacted Medical Aid in Dying legislation, allowing those who are terminally ill to end their lives peacefully by taking doctor-prescribed medication. The process of qualifying for this legislation is rigorously managed — few people fit the criteria and even fewer decide ultimately to follow through. So what’s the importance of control in how we face death? Why do endings matter, and not just for those who die?
From Bronze Age farmers to New World colonialists, land ownership has been prized, sought after, inherited and fought over. The hunger for land has resulted in wars, class structure, persecution and the displacement of thousands of Indigenous tribes. Today, financial security and adulthood is still marked by owning a house on a plot of soil but is owning private property a sign of a civilized or uncivilized society? Is it time for governments and communities to finally consider how the native people, who originally shepherded the land thoughtfully and soundly, might once again be considered its rightful “owners.”
For the thousands of workers not on the front lines of COVID-19, the pandemic has ushered in a new era, not only in how we work but how we approach the jobs we do. Will we ever return to the office; the rows of desks and the 9-5 work day? Also author and journalist Sarah Jaffe on why we should expect a lot more from our jobs and not just pay.
When it comes to intimate relationships one size does not fit all. Marriage and monogamy have a long history dating back thousands of years and even today value the emotional and financial security that comes with “tying the knot.” Research suggests however that happiness is not exclusive to those who are in monogamous relationships. Some people are happiest single and others choose many lovers. Polyamory or consensual non-monogamy is under increased scrutiny offering couples new ways to redefine their relationship.
If you go back far enough in time our common ancestor might be a cuddle fish or an octopus. Though evolution has taken us on different paths, there is still much that connects us to the animal world and to the thoughts and experiences that give it shape. Philosopher and scientist Peter Godfrey-Smith explores the oceans and provides some illuminating insight on the origins of the mind and the nature of consciousness. Also poet and author Aimee Nezhukumatathil on how observing the natural world may mean more than we realize for our physical and mental health.
Ancient stoic wisdom is having an unexpected modern day resurgence. Whether it’s daily Instagram quotes, blogs, or good old fashioned books — the writings of Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, and Epictetus are today enjoying something of a comeback. And their appeal is wide, including entrepreneurs, hipsters, sports figures, and even parents.
Historically men have been the figureheads of our religious institutions but it has been women who have played a fundamental role in establishing and sustaining them. How has religion shaped the way we think about gender? Is it time for a more expansive vision for women from within the church?
The peaceful transition of power for the first time in US history appeared to hang in the balance this week. Americans around the country witnessed the breakdown of an assumptive world and the violation of the US Capitol left many saddened, confused and angry. How should we make sense of what has happened without normalizing what we have seen? What happens to ferment this type of extremist behaviour?
The novel coronavirus pandemic is a daily reminder of how quickly life can change. Theoretical physicist Brian Greene joins KCRW’s Jonathan Bastian and discusses the meaning of impermanence and living in the here and now. Poet and essayist Jane Hirshfield explains why poets treasure pondering life’s abysses and how words and imagery disseminate the world around us.
KCRW’s Jonathan Bastian talks with Rabbi Steve Leder the Senior Rabbi of Wilshire Boulevard Temple and author of the upcoming book “The Beauty of What Remains: How Our Greatest Fear Becomes Our Greatest Gift”
Modern humans are an indoor species. In normal times, the majority of us spend nearly 90% of our time shuttling between our homes, schools, stores, restaurants, and gyms. Yet unlike the great outdoors, we know relatively little about the indoor world in which we live. Just how much is our productivity and well being influenced by our indoor space? Can a small space nurture the creative process?
Infectious diseases have long shaped human history, from the 14th century Black Death and the 1918–19 influenza pandemic to today’s emergence of the COVID-19. As new vaccines are getting ready to be administered against this latest pandemic, what’s the long history behind their discovery? And why are they still hotly debated despite their many global public health successes in eradicating deadly diseases like smallpox and polio.
Many people yearn to feel connected to something larger than life. For some that’s a belief in God and religion, but that number is starting to dramatically decline. According to a 2019 Pew Research survey, a quarter of the US population today say they have no religious affiliation. Secularism has skyrocketed over the last three decades in America and added to that equation, there’s also an increase in self-described atheists, those who completely reject any form of supernatural deity. So why are Americans turning away from God and what does it mean to be an atheist in today’s America?
KCRW’s Joanthan Bastian talks with author Nicole Krauss. Her latest collection of short stories is titled “To be a Man”
Most people say merit-based success is the result of hard work and dedication. Those who achieve success typically enjoy the rewards: a better income, praise and recognition. Less talked about is the role of luck — like a natural born talent or timing and class. How do we reckon with a meritocratic society that is actually heavily stacked against those who are less fortunate? And in today’s society, if you want to compete and win in the global economy you need to go to college, but is the mantra “education, education, education”misplaced? Does a college degree further divide Americans into winners and losers?
Over the last 50 years, our notion of masculinity has been steadily changing. Feminism and the shift in gender roles has seen increasing parity between the sexes and culturally we’re embracing a diverse array of sexual identities. So how are these changes impacting our perceptions of what it means to be a man and can men unlearn the old models of sexism, patriarchy and aggression? And are men today actually much happier in more egalitarian relationships at work and more emotionally connected with family?
Americans today are deeply divided politically and even with an election around the corner that’s unlikely to change anytime soon. So what’s the solution to bridging the gap? How do we learn to talk to each other even when we vehemently disagree? Is there any value to taking the time to understand why people think differently, hear differing perspectives and experiences rather than arguing opinions and debating facts? Is, as Abraham Lincoln famously said, the “best way to destroy an enemy to make him a friend” and to recognize that what divides us politically also can unite us.
Psychedelics have been used for thousands of years but in a provocative new book “The Immortality Key” author Brian Muraresku explores their impact on early Western civilization. Were the ancient Greeks, Romans and early Chrisitians influenced in their religious practices by psychedelics? Psilocybin, known by many as magic mushrooms, is being used to treat an array of mental disorders, from anxiety and depression to addiction and end of life issues with profound effects for patients. Today, the medical community is once again embracing research into the therapeutic benefits of hallucinogens.
Just weeks away from a historic election, what role will religion play in influencing the candidates and getting out the vote? KCRW’s Jonathan Bastian talks with Randall Balmer, professor of religion at Dartmouth University and an episcopal priest who explains that the influence of religion in today’s political landscape is a relatively new phenomena in America’s history. Later we’ll ask two ministers whether leaders of faith should use their platforms to express their political points of view or should they stay silent?
We all have characteristics unique to ourselves, from our intelligence and sexual orientation to our height, weight and food preferences. Where do these traits come from? Are we genetically pre-programmed? What can we learn from studying twins? Why do they display so many similar characteristics even when raised apart? Beyond hereditary and experience, is there also something else in the mix that makes us who we are?
Astrology has been used for centuries to provide meaning and guidance. How does that translate in 2020? Science dismisses the practice as silly and lightweight but today’s millennials are embracing astrology in record numbers and social media and smartphone apps have turned it into a booming business. What’s the appeal and why are young people turning away from traditional organized religion?
The recent fires and extreme heat waves had a devastating impact on much of the west coast of America. In California, Oregan and Washington State thick smoke blanketed the region, confining millions of people to their homes for days. Will our rapidly changing climate impact not just how but where we chose to live? Is extreme weather impacting our emotional well being? And is there a better way to talk about climate change that’s less wonky and more relatable?
At times of loss and crisis many of us turn to God, whether we believe or not. For some, the Gospels of the Bible provide wisdom and prayer comfort to recenter their lives but increasingly, everyday rituals at home and at work are providing that guidance. Are fitness classes and spiritual consultants filling the void in our spiritual lives?
The most advanced technology ever discovered is the three pound organ encased inside our skulls. In his latest book, “Livewired” neuroscientist David Eagleman describes why our brains are constantly changing: the more the brain absorbs the more it adjusts. How has the pandemic impacted this amazing brain circuitry? And what are the impacts on children's brains, stuck at home with extended hours of screen time?
For millennia, machines and innovation have transformed our society including our most intimate relationships with one another. The plow, washing machine, chatbots and Artificial Intelligence have shaped relationships in the past and continue to impact how we interact with each other today and into the future. Will new advances in technology diminish the need for human to human interaction?
The decision to have a child is quite possibly the most daunting and consequential any of us can make. But recent data and research on the well-being of parents may give some would-be parents reason to press pause. A child does provide meaning and purpose but does having children make us happier? Also how will the climate crisis and the COVID pandemic impact the decision on whether or not to have kids?
The average person takes about 25,000 breaths a day but the majority of us give little thought as to how the air actually goes in or goes out of our lungs. What have we misunderstood about the breath and how can healthy breathing habits help both our physical and mental well being?
For those who love to surf, the act of riding the waves is both a physical and spiritual experience. But for some,it is also a religious one. Britt Merrick, surfer and former lead pastor of Reality Ministries in Carpinteria talks with KCRW’s Jonathan Bastian about surfing and its interconnection with his Christian faith.
The pandemic has placed death and the acknowledgement of our mortality front and center in our consciousness and yet when it comes to dying, we understand little and do even less to prepare for it. Is there a good way to die? How do the funeral rights and bereavement rituals in other cultures provide solace and comfort?
Professor Yolanda Pierce, Dean of the Howard University School of Divinity, talks with KCRW’s Jonathan Bastian about the history and the legacy of the Black church and its connection with the Black Lives Matter movement.
Author Timothy Egan talks with KCRW’s Jonathan Bastian about walking the Via Francigena and how his experiences walking the pilgrim’s trail gave him a greater understanding of Christianity, life and faith.
Award-winning poet and essayist Jane Hirshfield joins KCRW’s Jonathan Bastian to talk about her latest collection of poems, "Ledger," Buddhism and the importance of words and imagery in times of great upheaval.
Deirdre Barrett, dream researcher and assistant professor of psychology at Harvard University, joins KCRW’s Jonathan Bastian to discuss how the prolonged global pandemic has impacted the way we dream. Why are we having such vivid dreams at this time — and why are so many of us dreaming about bugs and jail cells?
Deirdre Barrett, dream researcher and assistant professor of psychology at Harvard University, joins KCRW’s Jonathan Bastian to discuss how the prolonged global pandemic has impacted the way we dream. Why are we having such vivid dreams at this time — and why are so many of us dreaming about bugs and jail cells?
Deepak Chopra, renowned wellness expert and author of “Metahuman: Unleashing your infinite potential,” joins KCRW’s Jonathan Bastian and offers his perspective on the current global pandemic. He says we are grieving an old way of life. Now is the moment to reevaluate our lives, habits and existence. Also, grief expert David Kessler explains why grief is an emotion that arises out of unwanted change.
The novel coronavirus pandemic is a daily reminder of how quickly life can change. In his latest book, “Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe,” theoretical physicist Brian Greene talks about processing those changes, explores the meaning of impermanence, and explains the importance of living in the here and now.
California Surgeon General Dr. Nadine Burke Harris talks about the latest science behind trauma, and how toxic stress can literally change our brains, our immune systems and our genes. Also an imam and rabbi share how their faith, teachings, and prayer provide comfort and healing from trauma.
The debut episode of KCRW’s show Foxhole features author Pico Iyer, who shares how these unusual times can be an opportunity for inner-growth. And a Hindu nun and Tibetan Buddhist teacher offer advice for how to quiet our minds when we’re alone and anxious.