x

75% of people globally want unbiased news (Pew Research) but are concerned they're not getting that.

Get balanced coverage with Symby. See how stories are covered across diverse outlets and spot when one side covers a story the other skips.

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

00:51:27

Where does our individuality come from?

Life Examined ·

2022/11/05

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?

en-us

00:50:27

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

Life Examined ·

2022/10/29

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

en-us

00:51:58

Carl Safina: Wolves, whales and the wonders of nature

Life Examined ·

2022/10/22

Jonathan Bastian talks with Carl Safina, naturalist, marine ecologist, and founding president of The Safina Center at Stony Brook University in New York, about the beauty and wonder of the natural world. Author of several books including “Beyond Words: What Animals Think And Feel” and, most recently, “Becoming Wild: How Animal Cultures Raise Families, Create Beauty, and Achieve Peace,” Safina explores the inner lives of animals and the role that culture and family play in the behavior of

en-us

00:51:59

A guide to self discipline and the science behind...

Life Examined ·

2022/10/15

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.

en-us

00:52:28

Dopamine Nation: Living in an addicted world

Life Examined ·

2022/10/08

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

en-us

00:52:58

Nutrition and mental health: Exploring the surprising...

Life Examined ·

2022/09/30

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.

en-us

00:52:28

Kieran Setiya: A philosopher’s guide to life’s hardships

Life Examined ·

2022/09/24

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

en-us

00:42:14

Alain de Botton on the complexity of modern love

Life Examined ·

2022/09/17

Philosopher Alain de Botton shares his thoughts on love and relationships. Psychologist Tracy Dennis-Tiwary explains why anxiety is on the rise.

en-us

00:52:00

Effective altruism and our collective human heritage

Life Examined ·

2022/09/10

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.

en-us

00:52:29

How to find a therapist — and why it can be so hard

Life Examined ·

2022/09/03

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.

en-us

00:52:29

Big life decisions and uncertainty: a toolkit

Life Examined ·

2022/08/27

Economist Russ Roberts discusses the challenges of using rationality when facing big life decisions. Entrepreneur Susannah Furr discusses navigating and thriving with uncertainty.

en-us

00:52:29

How culture creates emotions — and how technology...

Life Examined ·

2022/08/20

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

en-us

00:52:29

The search for our psyches: A new path forward in...

Life Examined ·

2022/08/13

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

en-us

00:51:59

How animal senses reveal the hidden world around us

Life Examined ·

2022/08/06

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.

en-us

00:50:31

Global loneliness and the wonders of human touch

Life Examined ·

2022/07/30

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.

en-us

00:51:28

The philosophy of middle age: From projects to process

Life Examined ·

2022/07/23

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

en-us

00:50:27

Predicting the future: The true story of the...

Life Examined ·

2022/07/16

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

en-us

00:52:27

Behind the front lines of drug legalization and harm...

Life Examined ·

2022/07/09

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

en-us

00:51:29

Robert Macfarlane on nature, language, and music

Life Examined ·

2022/07/02

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

en-us

00:51:57

The weaponization of shame

Life Examined ·

2022/06/25

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.

en-us

335 results

Similar Podcasts

Voices of Life

APG Mannheim

Promo Estereo Podcast

Promo Estereo

Talking Timelines Podcast

Talkingtimelines

גיקונומי

ראם שרמן ודורון ניר

Drømmefanger

Drømmefanger