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Albert Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci, Alfred Hitchcock, Sherlock Holmes… these are some of the iconic names dominating the cultural narrative that men far supersede women in talent, accomplishment, and genius. The true question is, while the gender ratio in the world is 101.7 men to every 100 women, why is the genius exclusively favoring one gender or it is that the opportunities to let out one’s own inner genius is not created equal?

On this episode, journalist, TV producer, and author of 15 popular books including the New York Times bestseller, The Gratitude Diaries and The Genius of Women, Janice Kaplan, discusses why the talent and genius of women has been unacknowledged, dismissed, or even wrongfully attributed to men. As we think of educating our girls and position women to make their mark on this world, explicit effort must be made to identify, encourage, and celebrate the unique skills in women because it’s not the norm for them to be recognized as geniuses.

About Janice Kaplan
Dr. Chesney is a licensed clinical psychologist with unique expertise in the application of Janice Kaplan is a journalist, TV producer, and the author of many popular books including the New York Times bestseller The Gratitude Diaries and her newest book, The Genius of Women. Janice was the editor-in-chief of Parade magazine and the executive producer of more than 30 primetime network television specials. She has appeared frequently on TV shows including Today and Good Morning America and she hosts the daily podcast The Gratitude Diaries on iHeartMedia.

Website:

• www.janicekaplan.com

Books:

• The Genius of Women
• The Gratitude Diaries
• How Luck Happens

About Host, Sucheta Kamath
Sucheta Kamath, is an award-winning speech-language pathologist, a TEDx speaker, a celebrated community leader, and the founder and CEO of ExQ®. As an EdTech entrepreneur, Sucheta has designed ExQ's personalized digital learning curriculum/tool that empowers middle and high school students to develop self-awareness and strategic thinking skills through the mastery of Executive Function and social-emotional competence.

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In 2002, American writer Augusten Burroughs’ memoire, Running with Scissors, was launched and spent eight weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. The memoir is littered with a litany of bizarre childhood encounters experienced by young Burroughs, whose emotionally unstable, aspiring poet of a mother sends him to live with her psychiatrist. The book, while entertaining, captures the confusion and pain of growing up in a household with no rules, no boundaries, and no guidance. Our good faith effort to raise well-adjusted, emotionally balanced and psychological-wise children and teens is far too often met with challenges, uncertainty, and even chaos revealing the herculean task of preparing children to become responsible adults.

On this episode,  licensed clinical psychologist, expert in the application of TEAM CBT (Cognitive Behavior Therapy) to children and adolescents and  director of the new Feeling Good Institute-New York City, Taylor Chesney, Psy.D., discusses how hard it is to educate children on top of raising them to become well-adjusted adults. She shares her work in improving mental health and coping skills while getting kids to cooperate, engage, and manage themselves.

About Taylor Chesney, Psy.D.
Dr. Chesney is a licensed clinical psychologist with unique expertise in the application of TEAM CBT to children and adolescents. A graduate of the School-Clinical-Child Psychology Psy.D. program at Pace University in New York City, Dr. Chesney then trained with Dr. David Burns at Stanford University and her fellow therapists at FGI for several years mastering TEAM CBT. She teaches TEAM CBT for the Feeling Good Institute and is the director of the new Feeling Good Institute-New York City. Dr. Chesney also supervises psychiatry residents in the Department of Psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

Websites:

• www.feelinggoodnyc.com
• www.feelinggoodinstitute.com

About Host, Sucheta Kamath
Sucheta Kamath, is an award-winning speech-language pathologist, a TEDx speaker, a celebrated community leader, and the founder and CEO of ExQ®. As an EdTech entrepreneur, Sucheta has designed ExQ's personalized digital learning curriculum/tool that empowers middle and high school students to develop self-awareness and strategic thinking skills through the mastery of Executive Function and social-emotional competence.

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Working memory is the most vital component of strong Executive Function as it allows for processing multifaceted information and tracking new systems we deploy to manage change or challenge with adaptive flexibility. For example, greeting people with a handshake or a hug was thrown out the window during the pandemic. In the fall of 2021, when people began to return to business-as-usual, people needed a new system to communicate their level of comfort with social proximity and interpersonal space. Some proposed a three-dot system - green dot for hugs, yellow for elbow bump, and the red for keeping a distance. By thinking on their feet,  creative marketers and  event organizers created bracelets, stickers, and dots on their lanyards so that the participants could show who’s comfortable with what level of touching and handshaking.

On this episode, retired school psychologist, Associate Professor, School Psychology Program Director at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse and current Test Development Project Director for Schoolhouse Educational Services, Dr. Milton J. Dehn, discusses the link between working memory and metacognition and Executive Function and ways to support and promote the development of these skills to improve the learning experience of children and functional outcomes for all.

About Dr. Milton J. Dehn
Milton J. Dehn, Ed.D., was a practicing school psychologist, an Associate Professor, and School Psychology Program Director at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse until his retirement. Currently, he is the test development project director for Schoolhouse Educational Services. His interests include assessment of cognitive abilities, memory, dyslexia, and executive functions and using a pattern of strengths and weaknesses approach to the identification of specific learning disabilities.

Website:

• www.SchoolhouseEducationalServices.com

Book:

• Essentials of Working Memory Assessment and Intervention
• Working Memory and Academic Learning
• Helping Students Remember

About Host, Sucheta Kamath
Sucheta Kamath, is an award-winning speech-language pathologist, a TEDx speaker, a celebrated community leader, and the founder and CEO of ExQ®. As an EdTech entrepreneur, Sucheta has designed ExQ's personalized digital learning curriculum/tool that empowers middle and high school students to develop self-awareness and strategic thinking skills through the mastery of Executive Function and social-emotional competence.

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The human frontal-lobe evolution has made it possible to do the right thing, particularly when that right thing is really hard to do. While faith, religion, and spirituality give individuals the essential inner strength, attachment, and security, it is the mature frontal lobes that turn on moral reasoning - a bridge towards an ultimate sense of hope and meaning.

On this episode, licensed clinical psychologist and Professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences at Case Western Reserve University, Julie Exline, Ph.D., shares her research on the interface of clinical, social, and personality psychology, and spirituality, religion, and existential concerns. Her work shows that suffering ignites personal growth and spiritual struggles end up elevating people’s lives.

About Dr. Julie Exline
Julie Exline, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.  Her research centers on the interface of clinical, social, and personality psychology, with a special focus on topics involving spirituality, religion, and existential concerns. She served as Principal Investigator on two projects funded by the John Templeton Foundation: one on religious/spiritual struggles and another on supernatural attributions. She is a licensed clinical psychologist in Ohio and has been certified as a spiritual director through the Ignatian Spirituality Institute at John Carroll University. She is a Past President of the Society for the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality (SPRS; American Psychological Association’s Division 36) and was chosen to receive the Margaret Gorman Early Career Award, Virginia Sexton Mentoring Award, and William James Award from SPRS. With Dr. Kenneth Pargament, she co-authored the 2021 book Working with Spiritual Struggles in Psychotherapy: From Research to Practice. Her current research focuses on a wide array of themes around spiritual struggles and supernatural attributions, including gratitude and anger toward God, perceptions of after-death communication, beliefs about supernatural evil, and the many ways that people perceive “God’s voice” in their lives.

Website:

• https://psychsciences.case.edu/faculty/julie-exline/

Book:

• Working with spiritual struggles in psychotherapy: From research to practice

About Host, Sucheta Kamath
Sucheta Kamath, is an award-winning speech-language pathologist, a TEDx speaker, a celebrated community leader, and the founder and CEO of ExQ®. As an EdTech entrepreneur, Sucheta has designed ExQ's personalized digital learning curriculum/tool that empowers middle and high school students to develop self-awareness and strategic thinking skills through the mastery of Executive Function and social-emotional competence.

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‘A quick trip to Tahiti’ is what it feels like when our mind wanders. No matter what we do, where we are, or how important or valuable the task in front of us is, our minds wander. Interestingly, the research shows that we are less happy when our mind wanders than when it doesn’t and what we think about during our mind wandering state is a far stronger predictor of our happiness than tasks we are in the middle of performing. Yet, the mind highjacked by mind-wandering can stay oblivious to its short trips.

On this episode, researcher, author, and distinguished professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences at the University of California Santa Barbara, Jonathan Schooler, Ph. D., discusses his work in human cognition; particularly mind-wandering, its disruptive nature, its hidden benefits, and its link to meta-awareness. As he explains, since the mind is only intermittently aware of engaging in mind wandering, enhancing meta-awareness can be an important process to heighten monitoring and improve executive function.

About Jonathan Schooler, Ph.D.
Jonathan Schooler Ph.D. is a Distinguished Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences at the University of California Santa Barbara.  He earned his BA from Hamilton College in 1981 and his Ph.D. from the University of Washington in 1987. His research on human cognition explores topics that intersect philosophy and psychology, such as how fluctuations in people’s awareness of their experience mediate mind-wandering and how exposing individuals to philosophical positions alters their behavior.  

He is also interested in the science of science (meta-science) including understanding why effects sizes often decline over time, and how greater transparency in scientific reporting might address this issue. A former holder of a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair, he is a fellow of a variety of scientific organizations, on the editorial board of a number of psychology journals and the recipient of major grants from both the United States and Canadian governments as well as several private foundations. His research and comments are frequently featured in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The New Yorker, and Nature Magazine.

Website:

• https://labs.psych.ucsb.edu/schooler/jonathan/

About Host, Sucheta Kamath
Sucheta Kamath, is an award-winning speech-language pathologist, a TEDx speaker, a celebrated community leader, and the founder and CEO of ExQ®. As an EdTech entrepreneur, Sucheta has designed ExQ's personalized digital learning curriculum/tool that empowers middle and high school students to develop self-awareness and strategic thinking skills through the mastery of Executive Function and social-emotional competence.

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When we think of equitable teaching and learning we must first get our assumptions right. Instead of thinking of teaching as a process of transmitting knowledge, we need to think about teaching as a process of transforming hearts by making a connection through culture and representation. Those of us invested in teaching and reaching children know that the hardest work we will ever do is to ignite their natural intellectual curiosity while nurturing their sense of belonging. However, according to an at-risk youth and college dropout turned award-winning educator, Brandon P. Fleming, “We can’t reach people we don’t understand”.

On this episode, nationally acclaimed Assistant Debate Coach at Harvard University, Founder/CEO of the Harvard Diversity Project, and author of MISEDUCATED: A Memoir, Brandon P. Fleming, shares his story of struggle, success, and service which has inspired millions around the world. Strong and well-built Executive Function makes it possible to overcome personal adversity, but evolved Executive Function skills make world transformation possible. 

About Brandon P. Fleming
Brandon P. Fleming is a nationally acclaimed Harvard educator and author of MISEDUCATED: A Memoir. His story of struggle, success, and service has inspired millions around the world. An at-risk youth and college dropout turned award-winning educator, Fleming is Assistant Debate Coach at Harvard University and Founder/CEO of the Harvard Diversity Project. Fleming was recruited to join the Harvard debate faculty at the age of 27. Harvard later approved Fleming’s proposal to establish a new department within the university system called the Harvard Diversity Project – an unprecedented pipeline program of the Harvard Debate Council. Fleming now leads an executive staff and board that has raised over a million dollars to enroll over 100 students of color into Harvard’s international summer debate residency on full scholarship. Fleming recruits underserved youth with no prior debate experience who he then trains to compete against hundreds of elite debaters from over 25 different countries around the world. For four consecutive years, since the program’s inception in 2017, every cohort trained by Fleming has won the international competition. News of the achievement instantly went viral and broke national headlines, being featured on CNN, ESPN, GMA, and many more. Fleming has established a groundbreaking organization that is pipelining Black youth into Ivy League and elite colleges & universities.  Fleming’s story, erudition, and achievements have enabled him to use his voice to inspire and impact lives in places ranging from federal prisons to global platforms such as the United Nations General Assembly. At the age of 29, Forbes Magazine named Fleming to the Forbes 30 under 30 list.  In 2020, The Root Magazine named Fleming one of the top 100 most influential African-Americans in the United States.  And in May 2021, North Carolina Wesleyan College bestowed upon Fleming the honorary Doctor of Humanities degree.  

Websites:

• https://bpfleming.com
• https://harvarddcdp.org 

About Host, Sucheta Kamath
Sucheta Kamath, is an award-winning speech-language pathologist, a TEDx speaker, a celebrated community leader, and the founder and CEO of ExQ®. As an EdTech entrepreneur, Sucheta has designed ExQ's personalized digital learning curriculum/tool that empowers middle and high school students to develop self-awareness and strategic thinking skills through the mastery of Executive Function and soc

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What is as ubiquitous as air, water, and earth, but possibly more potent than all three? It’s a story. The human brain, while swept up in the forcefield of stories, is enthralled, molded and shaped by it, but is also readily deceived by the artful embellishments by powerful story-tellers, including an unreliable narrator within. Our daily consumption of narratives presented in the form of news clips, Tiktok clips, social media posts, novella, novels, plays, or films capture our imagination while shaping our beliefs, ideas, and even our ideology.  While stories may feel like all they do is carve a path through the landscapes of make-believe, they are far more powerful and integral to our ability to navigate life's complex social-interpersonal conflicts and unimagined or unimaginable human experiences.

On today's podcast, Distinguished Fellow in the English Department at Washington and Jefferson College and an author whose writing is at the intersection of science and art, and whose work has been covered in-depth by publications including Science, Nature, Scientific American, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and Oprah Magazine, Jonathan Gottschall, discusses how and why storytelling has evolved as a means to ensuring our survival. Since Executive Function skills allow us to manage our life, our goals, and our actions while tuning out unsavory emotions and amping-up motivation or grit, it might be good to think about the role stories play in tackling mental rigidity and emotional inflexibility that challenges and chaos invoke.

About Jonathan Gottschall
Praised by Steven Pinker as “our deepest thinker about the powerful role of stories in our lives,” Jonathan Gottschall is a Distinguished Fellow in the English Department at Washington & Jefferson College. His writing at the intersection of science and art has been covered in-depth by The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, Scientific American, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Oprah Magazine, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Science, Nature, and on shows like Radiolab, Morning Edition, National Geographic’s StarTalk with Neal de Grasse Tyson, and The Joe Rogan Experience. Jonathan is the author or editor of eight books, including The Professor in the Cage: Why Men Fight and Why We Like to Watch (Penguin 2015), The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human (Houghton 2012), and The Story Paradox: How Our Love of Storytelling Builds Societies and Tears them Down (Basic Books, November 2021), which is a about the dark side of humanity’s storytelling instincts.  

Website: http://www.jonathangottschall.com

Books: 

• The Story Paradox: How Our Love of Storytelling Builds Societies and Tears them Down
• The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human
• The Professor in the Cage: Why Men Fight and Why We Like to Watch

About Host, Sucheta Kamath
Sucheta Kamath, is an award-winning speech-language pathologist, a TEDx speaker, a celebrated community leader, and the founder and CEO of ExQ®. As an EdTech entrepreneur, Sucheta has designed ExQ's personalized digital learning curriculum/tool that empowers middle and high school students to develop self-awareness and strategic thinking skills through the mastery of Executive Function and social-emoti

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The highest rent you’ll ever pay is for the hurts, sorrows, and unforgiveness that occupy the space in your heart and mind. While thinking of those hurtful breakups, toxic relationships, unresolved lies, or the unrepairable damaging acts of others, it may be hard to channel the wisdom of poet Edwin Hubbel Chapin, "Never does the human soul appear so strong as when it foregoes revenge.” However, what ancient wisdom already has known, the research now shows that there's an extraordinary healing power in taking steps to forgive others and even yourself.

On this episode, Commonwealth Professor Emeritus working from the Department of Psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University, clinical psychologist, and author, Dr. Everett Worthington, Ph.D., discusses how forgiveness is a choice and a skill that can emerge with appropriate mental framing and psychological and prosocial practices.

About Everett L Worthington, Jr
Everett Worthington, Ph.D., is Commonwealth Professor Emeritus working from the Department of Psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University. He holds a Faculty Affiliate appointment at the Institute for Quantitative Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University (Human Flourishing Program). He continues to be active in research and speaking around the world. He is a licensed Clinical Psychologist in Virginia. He has published over 40 books and around 500 articles and scholarly chapters, mostly on forgiveness, humility and positive psychology, marriage, and family topics, and religion and spirituality. He also has developed the REACH Forgiveness model being tested currently in a global grant-funded randomized controlled trials in 5 countries (six sites), and he has developed numerous other positive psychological interventions.

Website: www.EvWorthington-forgiveness.com 

Books: 

• Forgiving and reconciling: Bridges to wholeness and hope
• Heroic humility: What the science of humility can say to people raised on self focus
• How do I forgive? (A brief pamphlet)
• Moving forward: Six steps to forgiving yourself and breaking free from the past
• The power of forgiving

About Host, Sucheta Kamath
Sucheta Kamath, is an award-winning speech-language pathologist, a TEDx speaker, a celebrated community leader, and the founder and CEO of ExQ®. As an EdTech entrepreneur, Sucheta has designed ExQ's personalized digital learning curriculum/tool that empowers middle and high school students to develop self-awareness and strategic thinking skills through the mastery of Executive Function and social-emotional competence.

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What is an intriguing difference between a four-year-old's versus a forty-year old’s approach to the world? Only one of them is inquisitive and inventive with a rich inner explorer. However, by the time the curious and inventive four-year-old enters their late teens, there is a remarkable depletion in their sense of exploration. There’s something about the way we educate and raise children that drains their inquiring minds from investigating life’s mysteries and tackling problems that interest them.

On this episode, Senior Lecturer in Psychology and Founding Director of the Program in Teaching at Williams College and author of multiple books including The Intellectual Lives of Children, Dr. Susan Engel, discusses what fuels children’s curiosity: a sense of inquiry and inventiveness. To raise self-sufficient children who possess strong executive function means to figure out ways to hang back while nurturing their inner Dora the Explorer.

About Susan Engel
Susan Engel is Senior Lecturer in Psychology and Founding Director of the Program in Teaching at Williams College. She is co-founder of an experimental school in NY State, where she was the educational advisor for 18 years. Her research interests include the development of narrative, curiosity, and invention. Her current research examines how children pursue ideas. Her scholarly work has appeared in journals such as Cognitive Development, Harvard Educational Review, and the American Education Research Journal. Her writing on education has appeared in The New York Times, Bloomberg View, The Nation, The Atlantic Monthly, Salon, Huffington Post, and The Boston Globe. Her books include: The End of the Rainbow: How educating for happiness (not money) would transform our schools, The Hungry Mind: The origins of curiosity in childhood, and The Children You Teach: Using a Developmental Framework in the Classroom. Her ninth book, The Intellectual Lives of Children, was published by Harvard University Press, this past January.  She and her husband Tom have three sons and two very young grandchildren.

 Books: 

• The Intellectual Lives of Children
• The Hungry Mind: The Origins of Curiosity in Childhood
• The End of the Rainbow: How Educating for Happiness (Not Money) Would Transform Our Schools

About Host, Sucheta Kamath
Sucheta Kamath, is an award-winning speech-language pathologist, a TEDx speaker, a celebrated community leader, and the founder and CEO of ExQ®. As an EdTech entrepreneur, Sucheta has designed ExQ's personalized digital learning curriculum/tool that empowers middle and high school students to develop self-awareness and strategic thinking skills through the mastery of Executive Function and social-emotional competence.

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Entering a space full of strangers can be as scary as entering a snake pit. The brain cannot help but think “oh-no” and is likely to look for an exit strategy. Even though humans are social creatures, approaching or engaging with strangers invokes unparalleled fear or social anxiety that keeps us from making connections, sharing, or seeking help. Is this hesitation to talk with strangers legit and true?

On this episode, Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Essex and introvert who has grown to love talking to strangers in her Twitter series #Talking2Strangers, Dr. Gillian Sandstrom, discusses how blind we are to the positive effects of interacting with strangers, and how there’s a way to shift and pivot from such mindsets to grow to making more meaningful connections with the world around us.  

About Dr. Gillian Sandstrom
Dr. Gillian Sandstrom is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Essex. She studies the benefits of and barriers to having minimal social interactions, with people like strangers and weak ties (i.e., acquaintances). She is an introvert who has grown to love talking to strangers. She shares her stories of #Talking2Strangers on Twitter @GillianSocial, in the hopes of encouraging more people to reach out and connect.

Website:

• https://www.gilliansandstrom.com

Recommended Books: 

• The Power of Strangers, by Joe Keohane
• We Need to Talk, by Celeste Headlee
• Sorry I'm Late, I Didn't Want to Come, by Jessica Pan
• https://hbr.org/2020/04/why-you-miss-those-casual-friends-so-much

About Host, Sucheta Kamath
Sucheta Kamath, is an award-winning speech-language pathologist, a TEDx speaker, a celebrated community leader, and the founder and CEO of ExQ®. As an EdTech entrepreneur, Sucheta has designed ExQ's personalized digital learning curriculum/tool that empowers middle and high school students to develop self-awareness and strategic thinking skills through the mastery of Executive Function and social-emotional competence.

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