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PODCAST

Life Examined

Life Examined is a one-hour weekly podcast exploring psychology, philosophy, spirituality — and finding meaning in the modern world. The show is hosted by Jonathan Bastian.

society & culture

All Episodes

00:03:15

Midweek Reset: Michael Pollan on psychedelics

Life Examined ·

2024/04/24

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.

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00:51:59

Michael Pollan’s long and strange trip: shifting...

Life Examined ·

2024/04/21

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.

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00:03:11

Midweek Reset: The lesson of Costa Rica

Life Examined ·

2024/04/17

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.

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00:51:58

Laughter, leadership, and Improv: navigating the...

Life Examined ·

2024/04/14

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.

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00:03:02

Midweek Reset: Mood follows action

Life Examined ·

2024/04/10

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.

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00:51:58

Are you in a relationship with a narcissist?

Life Examined ·

2024/04/07

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

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00:04:00

Midweek Reset: Peaceful protest

Life Examined ·

2024/04/03

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.

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00:51:58

Freud: What he said, why he matters

Life Examined ·

2024/03/31

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]

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00:03:20

Midweek Reset: Authenticity trap

Life Examined ·

2024/03/27

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.

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00:51:58

Mapping the darkness; the science behind sleep

Life Examined ·

2024/03/24

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

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00:03:14

Midweek Reset: When to Quit

Life Examined ·

2024/03/20

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.

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00:51:56

Splintering: When a divorce and first child arrive...

Life Examined ·

2024/03/17

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.”

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00:03:45

Midweek Reset: The Retirement Myth

Life Examined ·

2024/03/13

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.

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00:51:55

How to build community in an age of isolation

Life Examined ·

2024/03/10

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.”

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00:03:40

Midweek Reset: The wisdom of moss

Life Examined ·

2024/03/07

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.

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00:51:58

‘Re-sparkling’: The science behind embracing variety...

Life Examined ·

2024/03/03

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.

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00:03:22

Midweek Reset: Are you addicted?

Life Examined ·

2024/02/28

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.

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00:50:28

Inciting joy: Poet Ross Gay on gardening, grief, and...

Life Examined ·

2024/02/25

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.” Delve deeper into

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00:51:57

Heartbreak and divorce: reflections on endings,...

Life Examined ·

2024/02/18

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.

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00:03:15

Midweek Reset: The Art of Love

Life Examined ·

2024/02/14

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.

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335 results

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