On Living: Recent Episodes
Leanh Nguyen, Ph.D.
What does it mean to be human? What do we make of this life? How do we hurt, and heal, one another? What does it take to love? What does it cost to hate? How do we stay fully alive to our humanity? How do we find the means to behold beauty and kindness? How do we live fully and authentically? Through this series of intimate, thought-provoking conversations, you will have a chance to reflect on questions about survival, fulfillment, connection, living and dying well. We encounter a deep place of questioning and, ultimately, awaken toward the powerful questions and ambitions that lay unbidden in our daily existence. Dr. Nguyen brings 25 years of engagement with trauma survivors, refugees of war and persecution, immigrants from all over the world, and patients from all walks of life. As with her work, this show is an opportunity to explore the meaning of being alive and to support people in the ambition toward a life fully lived.
In this final episode on Voice America, Dr. Nguyen opens up the question about what her profession offers toward the struggle to be human.
Dr. Nguyen continues to make her case for human connection by questioning the forces behind curiosity, Friendship, and psychotherapy.
In continuing to make her case for kindness and tenderness, Dr. Nguyen examines the forces that prevent our recognition of each other's humanity and corrupt our sense of connection to each other.
Dr. Nguyen gives a retrospective of the series. In her review of what has been gleaned from her conversations with guests, the host highlights the basic fact of the human condition and speaks of the current breakdown in mutual recognition and connection in human intercourse.
This episode circles back to her debut hour and makes an impassioned argument for kindness and tenderness.
In this last interview of a guest for the show, the host features a Vietnam-based foundation that is devoted to the empowerment of women and youth via the fight against human trafficking.
Dr. Nguyen’s conversation with the Director of Pacific Links Foundation exposes the historical, socio-economic and human conditions in Pacific Asia that makes trafficking a lucrative business. They also discuss the strategies to restore dignity and power to victims of trafficking.
In this special, intimate episode Dr. Nguyen is in conversation with a celebrated concert pianist about her work.
The host interviews her fellow Vietnamese about her life experiences and insights as a musical prodigy, an immigrant, and a teacher. Her guest will also share her own insights into her favorite composers. The conversation seeks to tease out the parallels in her musical training and her training for life.
In this episode, Dr. Nguyen is in conversation with the Executive and Artistic Director of Carnegie Hall, about his view on Art and Life. Through this interview about his mission at Carnegie Hall, Sir Clive Gillinson speaks with Dr. Nguyen about his view on the value of the arts, the meaning of happiness, and the parallels between the making of an artist and successful living.
The host is in conversation with two senior staff about the value of Art in our lives Specifically, she interviews the Chief Marketing Officer on the creative aspect of her job in making music accessible to the general public, and the Assistant Director of the Early Childhood program on the rewards and challenges of facilitating the creative impulse in young children and their families.
Dr. Nguyen interviews a psychoanalyst-cum-painter who devoted many years to painting portraits of homeless people. As her guest reports on the life stories of these marginalized, forgotten individuals, the host probes into his own process of being with them. In particular, she asks about the act of looking at another human being --what it requires of him and what it brings to him in terms of understanding theirs and his own humanity.
Dr. Nguyen interviews a fellow psychologist about his work with troubled youth. The conversation explores the role of the creative arts in helping repair the emotional damage wreaked on adolescents that come from a history of childhood deprivation, racism, poverty, and abuse. The host and her guest also reflect on how the arts function as a resource in the project of staying connected as humans.
This episode explores what breaks down in the sense of self and of connection when people go through a divorce, and what resources we can call on to remain in kindness and trust.
Dr. Nguyen interviews a divorce mediator who has worked with couples in the belief that conflict can be a tremendous opportunity for growth and transformation. Their conversation touches on the nature of fear and hate, as well as the hope that moves at the center of divorce. The host and guest discuss the element in their work that aims to support human connection.
Dr. Nguyen interviews her guest, a financial planner and former hedge-fund research analyst, about the role of money in living. The conversation explores how our value systems, purpose, and emotional conflicts play out in our use of money.
Dr. Nguyen continues the conversation with Pardiss Kebriaei about her work with the detainees of Guantanamo Bay. Specifically, in part 2, Pardiss Kebriaei describes how these men survive comments on what she sees as the psychic deformities that are incurred by US policies regarding national security and counter-terrorism. She also reflects on how the connection that she formed with these men over the years of her advocacy on their behalf.
Continuing with the effort to explore how the wounded lets the light enter, the episode features a conversation with an attorney whose work is devoted to defending the constitutional rights of people against governmental abuse in the context of national security. In particular, the host and her guest speak about the men who were/are held Guantanamo Bay, as a result of America's campaign against terrorism following the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center. The discussion centers on what has been stripped of their humanity, how these men manage to hold on to their humanity in the face of ongoing dehumanization, and how their attorneys connect with these men.
Dr. Nguyen interviews a fellow psychologist who specializes in treating children and families on issues of traumatic loss. The conversation explores the process of becoming a person and the resources and priorities as well obstacles that are currently at play in helping our children toward being fully human.
The host interviews a fellow Vietnamese immigrant about her work as a doctor, a human rights activist, and a politician. The guest is Dr. Mai-Khan Tran who ran for Congress in the wake of the election of Donald Trump. She will speak with Leanh Nguyen about the motivation and purpose in her work as a physician and an activist. The conversation revolves around the link between caring for children and caring for the world, the coherence between protecting human lives as a doctor and a politician.
A doula speaks with the host about what we need to protect and cultivate during the birthing process. Dr. Nguyen and her guest talk about how the de-humanizing forces of medical technology and racism affect infant mortality, but also how lives are saved by the process of connecting with another human being and with oneself.
The guest is a psychotherapist who identifies her work with being a psychoanalyst and a feminist. Dr. Nguyen speaks with Jane Hassinger about her work with abortion providers in Africa and Asia. The conversation will explore notions of personhood across cultures and the values and conceptions of a good human life.
In this special episode, the host interviews Imam Khalid Latif on his work as a university chaplain and a leader in multi-faith initiatives. The conversation explores the meaning of faith and its role in the project of living. The host and her guest also discuss the challenges and resources that our contemporary society has in the effort to stay human.
A conversation with a psychoanalyst in her 80s whose most recent project is to export psychoanalysis to China is an opportunity for the host to explore and compare notions of happiness, good living, an personhood in the East versus the West. Dr. Nguyen also asks her guest to speak of her own personal process of finding her purpose and engaging with Life.
In conversation with her guest, Dr. Nguyen continues to explore the journey from being derailed by Life to finding one's purpose in life.
Jeffrey Descovic lost 16 years of his life to a wrongful conviction. He is now dedicated his life to reforming prosecutorial conduct and fighting to exonerate the wrongfully convicted.
Leanh Nguyen will ask him to examine his process of coming to terms with the traumatic blow of his life and finding his way back to the light.
Dr. Nguyen interviews Susan Hoemke, author of the recently published Healing Scarred Hearts: A Family's Story of Addiction, Loss, and Finding Light. The conversation will explore the author's journey back to life after losing her son to drug addiction and her process of finding purpose in writing and activism.
The wound is where the light enters. Dr. Nguyen re-visits this saying by the Sufi poet Rumi as she reviews the work and reflections on trauma that she has presented on the show. Reflecting on the challenges and blows of living, she poses the task as letting the light enter in order to find purpose and meaning to one's existence.
Dr. Nguyen continues to offer her answer to the question of what makes life worth living through an examination of her experience with another survivor of trauma. In this account, she will look at how helplessness and crushing disappointment are managed by turning to a drive toward invulnerability. she will recount how the traumatic loss of control is “survived” by a compulsion to force others to submit to his will or reject him. The fear of rejection and the fight against the uncontrollability of life are expressed through a rigid refusal to acknowledge one’s humanity, and to allow others to offer him their humanity.
Dr. Nguyen will address the question of what makes life worth living via describing her work with a trauma survivor from the Vietnam War. She will speak about the essential, life-saving value of connecting with another human being, as well as the tremendous fears that make the fundamental task of human connection so weighty and elusive to those who have suffered life-destroying disappointment.
The hour is open to questions and reflections from listeners. Dr. Nguyen will take questions from listneners via email or call.
In this episode the host explains the historical and emotional bases to the questions that she poses on the show. She talks about the piece of her personal history as a child of the Vietnam War which led her to work with refugees and trauma survivors. This work led her to the questions and insights about the human struggle for connection that for her life's mission.
In this episode at the end of the pilot run, the host takes stock of her conversations on the show. She shares her reflections and questions about continuing on with the theme. Particularly, she will talk about her reasons for continuing and her hopes for engaging in the question of what makes life worth living.
This episode features Dr. Nguyen in conversation with a fellow human rights advocate. I n a previous episode, their conversation focused on examining the assumptions and aspirations behind the concept of human rights. Here, Leanh Nguyen and Carol Prendergast discuss the motivations that underlie the work of human rights. In particular, they reflect on the personal factors that drive their work, and how the advocacy for others may both help overcome as well as replicate the original personal wounds in their individual history.
In this episode, Dr. Nguyen will be in conversation with a veteran teacher. She will interview her guest about her experience teaching in NYC public school. They will discuss the values and intentions that are implicit in the mandate for Elementary School education in the United States. The purpose of this conversation is to glean insights into what the current culture values of the foundation of childhood learning.
This episode will feature an interview with Jay Rodriguez, a Grammy-nominated musician. A consummate and multi-faceted artist, her guest has been described as producing sounds that contain “perfectionism kissed by chaos.” Dr. Nguyen will discuss with him the marriage between making music and living life, and the commitment to being open to the sounds and fury of life.
Join in this intimate and educational conversation about the notion of human rights. Dr. Nguyen and Carol Prendergast, an international human rights advocate, will review the history of the human rights movement and discuss the underlying assumptions and hopes about the rights and protections that humans are entitled to.
Dr. Nguyen and her guest will also reflect on the personal evolution in their trajectory in the professional work.
This episode explores the changing definitions of family and the current view of the best interest of the child in the contemporary, post-modern culture, as practiced in matrimonial law and adjudicated in Family Courts.
In the interview of her guest, a practicing divorce attorney and a leader in the field of matrimonial law, Dr. Nguyen discusses key legal cases that reflect the questions and aspirations that our society currently holds about what makes a family, who is deemed a parent, and what a child needs in order to thrive.
Dr. Nguyen will speak with her guest about his experience as an immigrant and a musician in NYC. The conversation will cover his experience of being persecuted in his native country, struggling in NYC as an immigrant, gaining political asylum, and living his passion for music.
In this episode Dr. Nguyen is in conversation with Jeffrey Deskovic, who was exonerated after serving 16 years in prison and went on to dedicate his life to fighting for the wrongfully convicted. Their conversation will discuss the mission of his Foundation for Justice, but will also explore the triumphs and losses of his journey back to society after his release from jail. Together Dr. Nguyen and her guest will examine the process through which he found his life's purpose and will explore the meaning of survival and heroic.
In this episode Dr. Nguyen continues the conversation with a former patient, who overcame the legacy of childhood abuse and adult-onset trauma. The conversation will explore the psychological injuries of abuse, the key challenges and factors in facilitating his return to being human, and his insights into the therapeutic process of recovery. Dr. Nguyen and her guest will also dialogue on aspects of their working relationship that were mutually transformative and facilitated their respective growth.
In this special episode Dr. Nguyen will engage in a conversation with a former patient. A gay man who had suffered childhood abuse and homophobic persecution in his native Argentina, Julian escaped to New York to seek freedom and safety. His work with Dr. Nguyen lasted several years and helped him weather the trauma of telling his life history during the asylum application process, an HIV+ diagnosis, illegal immigration status, and, most wrenching of all, the de-humanizing legacy of his traumatic past.
The conversation will re-visit the crucial stages in their work together and examine the notions of living with trauma, survival, intimacy, hate, and the struggle as well as beauty of becoming human after having been robbed of your mind and violated in your body.
In this 2nd episode, Dr. Nguyen continues to lay the foundation for the conversation about what it means to be human, by talking about psychological trauma. She will take the listeners through the psychic landscape of the traumatized mind, detailing the capacities that have broken down and describing the fears and un-expressed longings that keep the traumatized individual in a deadened, stagnant way of being.
In particular, she will speak of how trauma interrupts meaning-making and the sense of purpose, how the desire for human closeness and trust in human connection are abandoned in favor of self-sabotage and alienation, and how creativity and intimacy are put in the service of confirming loss and damage rather than generating opportunities for growth and faith.
Dr. Nguyen will engage with callers in discussing the effects of trauma, and exploring the psychological capacities and accomplishments that we all ordinarily pursue and take for granted.
In this opener episode Dr. Nguyen explains the premise of the show and the importance of asking the question of what makes us human.
She explores the qualities and struggles that distinguish our human existence and make us who we are. How do our daily concerns separate us from other species? From one another? What makes us humans that special? What do our struggles say about our values? What do our fears say about our deepest desires? What do we reach for when we talk about that quality of human? Does the world currently support our strivings?
In this conversation, Dr. Nguyen will speak of her work with trauma survivors as a way to illuminate the importance of asking these questions. She also invites the listeners to share their own reflections on the topic and their own struggles with the task of being human.
This opener episode lays the grounds for the conversations to come and for Dr. Nguyen's belief in the importance of questions as a means to connect.