Freedomain with Stefan Molyneux

"You've spoken with me before, and it helped so much. I just was itching to talk with you one more time about my own children, because before we spoke about my family of origin.

"So, my daughter is eight years old. She's a wonderful girl, super fun and creative and goofy... but she has what I'll call 'dark mode,' where it's a lot of negative behaviors, panic attacks, screaming, expressing feelings of worthlessness. It's just... it's terrible. It's terrible for her. It's terrible to experience.

"I'm worried about what you say sometimes, that adage about, by seven years old, someone's personality is sort of set for life.

"So, what I'm hoping to get out of the conversation is, what what did I do to create this dark mode? What I'm doing to try and repair it, if that's enough? I'd like to get your perspective on everything that I've done as a parent and how I can be better at it.

"Another part that of this that really terrifies me is that my my own sister, at seven years old, there's this family story about how she ran away for the afternoon. When my parents found her, she was screaming and raging at them, telling my parents to kill her! My parents kind of tell it as just, 'Well, we don't know what what happened!' and they never did anything for her. Her life has turned out by her own estimation, she's just a wreck and we have like zero relationship now. To see that same thing echoing in my own daughter is just: 'Ahh! I need to do something!'"

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"I had an intense dream a couple days ago. Earlier that day, I had rejected a girl because she was making too many rapid changes in her life to match my needs in a relationship. Because of my concern that this is unsustainable for a life long relationship, I called it off a couple days after we started talking.

As I fell asleep, I was considering what I wanted from a relationship, outside of a life long relationship and a start to a family.

I found myself in a convenience store with friends, and I noticed a girl down the aisle kept looking at me, until eventually I found her just staring at me. I said "hi" to dispel the mystery, and she began to tell me something that disturbed me, being too explicit about her tragic past, and how she wants a family in the future. I slipped out of the store by pretending to go to the bathroom, and I went down the street to where I knew my friends would show up.

The girl finds me again outside, and after a scuffle, she ends up locked in a clear vessel containing septic waste. My friends walk up, and see the situation, and one of them points out a lever that fills and drains the septic tank. He demonstrates by flooding the tank to the top and draining it again. I see this, and repeatedly fill the tank a number of times, trying to punish the girl until she gives up her affectionate pursuit. When I drain the tank the final time because I think she had learned her lesson, she had disappeared!

I shudder, and chase after my friends who had continued down the street. We walk past a clear swimming pool, and I notice there's a murky blob near the bottom of the pool, and it moves and begins to surface.

I see a 2 year old toddler girl, with mottled black skin, and I knew at once she was related to the girl in the septic tank. I tried to keep my eye on this walking corpse while also sticking with my friends, but eventually my friends slipped out of view. I then turned around, and embraced the 2 year old's cold body, where she vanished. The soul seemed to merge with me. I started to weep."

Transcript: https://freedomain.com/i-dreamed-of-punishing-women-freedomain-call-in-show-transcript/

In this episode, we analyze Maurice Sendak's "Where the Wild Things Are" and explore themes of discipline, power, and the importance of rules. We discuss Max's sociopathic behavior, the role of media manipulation, and the fear of social rejection. We also examine the significance of prioritizing love over material possessions and the evaluation of claims. With thought-provoking analyses and personal stories, this episode provides valuable insights to consider.

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Locals Questions Answered 5 Jan 2024

What do you think about having feelings of superiority and disdain for most strangers? When I'm walking around at Walmart for example I will often find myself making commentary in my head about how much of a disaster most of these peoples' lives must be, given their appearance (and the controllability of it). Just going by their obscene weight, lack of hygiene, generally sickly appearance, or the fact they have tattoos, piercings, a tacky outfit showing way too much skin, etc., I feel like I can assume most people's personal lives are a mess and that I would get bored after 5 minutes in conversation with any one of them if I stopped and said hi. I don't know why but I feel drawn to a sense of comfort about being deeper and less impulsive than all these other people. It's something I wish didn't occupy my mind so much and I fear it could also make me anti-social.

Transcript: https://freedomain.com/why-you-scorn-people-transcript/

7 January 2024 Sunday Morning Livestream

What can we discover in Shakespeare's works? How does Stefan Molyneux approach the characters in his writing?

Transcript: https://freedomain.com/shakespeare-unpacked-freedomain-livestream-transcript/

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"I got divorced in 2022, married since 2017. It was a "amicable divorce", but that is a loaded term. She asked for a divorce because she said that we weren't good together. That broke me. I didn't believe it, but then I realized why she was saying it. All the little things that I was ignoring came crashing home and I realized that she cheated on me.

"Now she is alone with a baby that is not mine. She is having a crisis and my heart hurts so much for her..."

Transcript: https://freedomain.com/should-i-raise-my-wifes-boyfriends-child-transcript/

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Dear Stefan,

I hope this mail reaches you well! I'm a 36 year old man and I have been together with my 34 year old wife for over 4 years. We got married 1,5 years ago and have been living together for a bit longer than that. Since we met our lives have been completely designed to start a family, as soon as possible. This has been the biggest wish for both of us for a long time. Every decision in the last couple of years was made with this in the back of our minds.

In the months after our marriage we noticed that we were having trouble conceiving. Since we didn't want to waste any time we went to a fertility clinic as soon as possible to see where the issues lie. After almost a year of testing and uncertainty we recently found out that I am suffering from a case of premature male infertility. The reason for this is still a mystery and it seems like we are nearing the end of possible tests and treatments that medicine can provide.

We are both having a very hard time accepting this fact and don't know how to move on from this point. We have differing opinions on possibilities for the future (or lack thereof) and how to move on from this point. I personally feel responsible for this burden and have lost my positive outlook on life. I'm struggling to find meaning in life without the possibility of starting our own family. I am very worried about my thought patterns of late, where it feels like life itself has suddenly lost all value. I frequently have suicidal thoughts and, even though I know better than to act on them, they scare me intensely. Everything I used to enjoy seems irrelevant and meaningless now, and I'm just going through the motions of everyday life. To make matters worse, it feels like this verdict is tearing us apart as a couple, since we can't seem to agree on how to move forward.

I hope you can help us on the path of resolving our issues and finding a positive way forward, or at least how to be able to carry this burden. Thank you for all your great work!

Transcript: https://freedomain.com/how-to-survive-infertility-call-in-show-transcript/

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5 January 2024 Livestream

Get READY to OBLITERATE your insecurity!

Transcript: https://freedomain.com/the-speech-of-the-gods-transcript/

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How do you convince someone a job is not just about the money, even though you understand it’s important. Let’s say you are offered a job at a company that pays 6 figures but they have DEI hiring practices or if they are union but you personally don’t agree with unions, in spite of all the “benefits”. How do you stand on principals in the face of an increasingly hostile job market?


My first son won the genetic lottery when it comes to looks, now my wife is pregnant with our second one, and, it pains me to admit this as the father, based on the ultrasounds it looks like he was not so lucky. Without going into detail, there is a big chance he will be bullied/rejected his entire life because of his looks, and I presume it will also cause a lot of envy with his older brother.

Do you have any advice for me as father, and for my future son to navigate the possible bullying/rejection and keep his self-esteem up, especially at an early age, when I know other kids will be cruel to him?


Can severe migraines be caused by an abusive or traumatic childhood? I have a coworker that gets debilitating headaches with 10/10 severity (e.g., crying in agony) semi-regularly, yet imaging and MRIs reveal no physical abnormalities. I haven't been able to delve too much into his childhood, but know his parents divorced, and he's a bit unstable overall. He added these migraines started up again recently after he and his siblings began planning their mother's 60th birthday.

I already recommended therapy since I think that's a good idea in general for any one. Just curious if you had heard anything about childhood trauma lying dormant for decades only to manifest in this way years or even decades later.


Transcript: https://freedomain.com/never-give-up-locals-questions-answered-transcript/

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Recorded December 2020

Dear Stefan,

I am a 37-year-old woman and I'm having trouble reconciling the current relationship I have with my mother. I was raised by a single mother. She and my father divorced when I was four. And growing up, we were very close. She was everything I thought a decent mother should be. She was very loving, supported, and always wanted the best for me. I considered her a friend and confidant. As I have gotten older, gotten married, and had children of my own, our relationship has taken a downward turn. I have come to realize that she is very immature and has very little self-esteem. And from incidents that have happened between me and her over the last 10 years, I have lost a lot of respect for her. I am starting to see her for who she really is and it's been a very hard realization. My mom doesn't really have a lot of people close to her in her life. Her immediate family have either passed away or she is estranged from them. And I have no brothers or sisters. So I feel like I am all she has. This puts a lot of pressure on me to keep in touch with her, plan addings for her and my kids to meet up, etc. But after a fight we had very recently, I am becoming less inclined to want to see her. I need help understanding my role in the life of my mother and what obligations I have to her. Would love to hear your perspective.

Thank you, Stefan.

Transcript: https://freedomain.com/mom-said-f-u-freedomain-call-in-transcript/

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