Hardcore Humanism with Dr. Mike

What’s up Hardcore Humans! We are wrapping up Season 2 of the Hardcore Humanism Podcast with a special bonus episode where we talk with Jerry Cantrell -- founding member, musician, singer songwriter of the rock band Alice In Chains. 

 In Hardcore Humanism therapy and coaching we want you to apply principles of humanistic psychology to your life so you can find your purpose, work hard to achieve it, and build a community around you who will support your most authentic and purpose-driven life. And what Jerry describes in our conversation is how he has been able to find his purpose in music, work hard towards building his career, and find the community that understood, supported and shared in his vision. He explained how his love of music gave him the determination to face the anxiety of playing live music. And he kept following his purpose no matter where it took him. 

 One of the key goals of humanistic psychology is to help pull back the barriers that people face so that they can self-actualize and lead an authentic, purpose-driven life. And one of the things that Jerry talks about in our conversation is how much of his art can be understood as “pulling back the clutter” to discover the best song. Similarly, in our own lives it is that place where we can work hard without necessarily pushing the process in a specific direction – but rather have faith in the process as we develop and build a purpose-driven life.

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Welcome to another episode of the Hardcore Humanism Podcast. Today we are talking with a fantastic and inspiring husband wife team, Rick Allen and Lauren Monroe. Many of you know Rick as the drummer for the legendary rock band Def Leppard. Rick is also a visual artist – check out his website RickAllen.com for his upcoming showcases in collaboration with the Wentworth Gallery. And Lauren is a spiritual healer as well as an artist and musician – you can check out her new album Under The Wolf Moon at LaurenMonroe.com. And together they have formed The Raven Drum Foundation, a non-profit that helps people heal through a variety of methods, including drumming. Within the Raven Drum Foundation Rick and Lauren have launched Project Resiliency, which utilizes holistic healing approaches to a range of populations, including mothers and children who have suffered domestic violence, wounded soldiers who struggle with PTSD and cancer patients. 

 Now for those of you who are not aware, Rick joined Def Leppard in the late 1970’s when he was 15 years old. The band then went on to huge success with their 1981 album High ‘n’ Dry (1981). Then they had even more success with their classic 1983 album Pyromania, with classic songs such as “Photograph” and “Rock of Ages.” Def Leppard’s infectious blend of classic rock and heavy metal put them on top of the world. There was no stopping them. 

 But in December of 1984, Rick was in a car accident that ultimately resulted in the amputation of his right arm. This was a devastating shock to the rock community. As a human being, I felt for Allen. As a fan, I couldn’t help but wonder if I would ever hear new Def Leppard music again. But then in 1986, what seemed like a miracle occurred. Def Leppard played the Monsters of Rock Festival held at Castle Donington in England. How could this be? During our conversation, Rick described how his friend Peter Hartley created electronic pedals so that rather than playing the drums the more conventional way, with two hands and one foot, Allen could play with two feet and one hand. As soon as Allen was out of the hospital, he tried out Hartley’s creation. And in 1987, Def Leppard, with Allen on drums, released Hysteria, an album that went on to sell over 20 million records worldwide. The album included hits such as “Animal,” “Love Bites,” and the monster stadium rock anthem “Pour Some Sugar On Me.” Def Leppard was back and stronger than ever. And they have gone on to be one of rock’s most enduring and productive bands, releasing albums and play shows for the past 30 plus years. In 2019, Def Leppard was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. 

And now Rick has taken his personal experience and combined it with Lauren’s experience in healing and the arts to form the Raven Drum Foundation and Project Resiliency. And one of the concepts that Lauren talks about is what they called “aggressive vulnerability.” This is the idea that vulnerability is not a weakness, it is a strength. When we can embrace vulnerability, we not only can build ourselves as creative and innovative people, but also develop our empathic capacity to help others. 

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Welcome to another episode of the Hardcore Humanism Podcast. Today we are talking with musician, podcaster and activist Rain Phoenix. Rain is the founder of Launch Left – a creative space for artists which includes among other things a record label and podcast. The goal of LaunchLeft is to empower creative artists by providing them a platform and opportunity to shine. Rain is also a musician - her 2019 album River was inspired by the tragic death of her brother River Phoenix in 1993. 

 And that brings us to one of the topics that I talked about with Rain in our conversation – the universality of loss. Unfortunately, we all have experienced or will experience loss at some point in our lives. This loss can manifest in many different ways. It can be the loss of a loved one, the loss of job or career goal or the loss of our physical or mental health. In fact loss is such a certainty that it is crucial that we have an understanding of how to conceptualize loss and how to cope with it. 

 Yet, as common as loss is, it can often be something of a taboo topic. We are allowed to talk about our loss for a time. We are allowed to grieve for a time. But after that, we are expected to just move on and get over it. But that is often not how loss works. Our past is not just our past. It informs our lives as we move forward. And a loss, even if it was from decades ago, can still actively inform how we think, feel and what we do in the world. And one of the things that is so powerful about how Rain is approaching the issue of loss is that she is saying it’s OK that we may struggle with loss in one form or another throughout our lives. 

 Rain’s approach to loss and the universality of loss is part of a much larger concept that she discussed with me, which is the concept of what Rain calls “militant love.” In the Hardcore Humanism therapy and coaching program, we want you to apply principles of humanistic psychology to your life so you can find your purpose, work hard to achieve it, and build a supportive community around you who will support your most authentic and purpose-driven life. And one of the most important humanistic principles is the notion of unconditional positive regard. It’s that idea that all human beings deserve to be treated with kindness, respect and dignity. 

 And Rain’s concept of militant love takes that notion even a bit further. The term militant is often used in a negative way, implying that someone is violent. But as Rain describes it, it means that in order to really show our humanity, we need to be committed to loving ourselves and to loving others. And maybe some may view that as militant in that it’s confrontational and extreme. But considering how easily we can be unloving to ourselves and others, and how confrontational and extreme we can be at times by being unkind, maybe it’s OK that we get a bit more extreme and confrontational in how we love ourselves and others. And for many people, when we find our purpose in life, it is because we love something so much that we want to really put our heart and soul in it, just as Rain explains how she approaches militant love.

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This week on The Hardcore Humanism Podcast,  we are talking with Joe Mulherin, also known as nothing, nowhere. Joe recently released the album Trauma Factory, which has gotten great reviews, including a cool review from Pitchfork saying the album “glows with conviction and sometimes uncomfortable honesty.” And in October Joe hits the road with a tour of the United States, so check out shows near you. 

Now there are many physical and emotional health benefits to leading a purpose-driven life. And in order to understand and embrace our purpose, we need to be connected in with ourselves. We have to listen to ourselves -- what we like, what we don’t like -- and how we tend to go about doing things in our life. When we can connect in with ourselves in this basic way, we then begin to understand ourselves on a deeper level and discover our purpose, and how to work towards that purpose.

 During our conversation, Joe talks about is how he connects in with himself. And the first and perhaps most important step we can take in connecting in with ourselves is to not be afraid of who we are – how we feel, think and do things. This may seem like it’s easy – but it can be so difficult for so many of us. Many of us have been told that how we feel isn’t valid, that we need to disconnect from ourselves in order to function and get what we want in the world. And so, Joe’s simple resolution to connect with himself is so simple and yet so powerful.

 Joe talks about the fact that he has a very active and creative mind. This can be wonderful if our goal is to be a compelling songwriter and passionate performer, but it can feel scary when we are not sure if our mind will ever stop when we want it to stop. But Dr. Mike and Joe explore how important it is to still embrace and listen to that part of ourselves in order to discover our purpose in life. 

 One of the most powerful messages that we can draw from the conversation with Joe is that we all have something about us that we are convinced may interfere with our happiness and having the life we want. And oftentimes we will avoid whatever that part of us is at all costs in the hopes that we can overcome it by ignoring whatever it may be. But that rarely works. Even if there is something we want to manage – mental or physical illness, something about our past or fears about our future – we need to face it head on and understand it in order to fully accept and connect with ourselves as we pursue a purpose-driven life.

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What’s up Hardcore Humans! This week on The Hardcore Humanism Podcast, we are talking with John Joseph. Many of you know John as the lead singer of the legendary New York Hardcore band Cro-Mags -- including their seminal hardcore album Age of Quarrel -- and more recently as the lead singer of Bloodclot! John is also an Ironman competitor and an author. In his book, Evolution of a Cro Magnon, he describes how he overcame abuse, incarceration, homelessness and addiction to build the life he wanted. John has written several other books, including The PMA Effect and his new books Unf*ck Your Health and Hardcore Kitchen. 

 And John has recently started his own coaching business where he focuses on the concept of discipline. In our conversation, John explains how with everything he has been through, he never stops grinding. One of the biggest risks we face when we experience mental or physical illness or extreme stressors like John has faced is that we stop moving forward because it is so difficult to just keep going. Many of us naturally take an all-or-none mentality that if we can’t do things fully to the best of our abilities, it’s a waste of time to do anything. And sometimes when we are at our lowest, we can try to think through even basic routines to connect to ourselves and to develop and maintain our discipline. And we have to give ourselves credit for just doing what we need to survive, before we can think of thriving. Later, when we are not undergoing so much stress, we can build on that discipline to work further towards our purpose. The other point that John made was that he always sought out mentors – people to whom he looked for guidance to build his life. And even if we don’t have direct access to mentors, we can look to others that we see in the world as inspirations to help us work towards our goals.

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What’s up Hardcore Humans! This week on The Hardcore Humanism Podcast we are talking with musician, singer and songwriter Amy Lee of Evanescence. Many of you know Evanescence for their powerful songs such as “My Immortal,” “Going Under,” and of course my favorite “Bring Me To Life.” 

Now one of the things that I’ve always enjoyed about Amy’s music in Evanescence is how she has written about and explored darkness in her music. She’s tackled difficult themes such as death, addiction and depression but she always seems to have one foot in the light. There is a striving, a hope for, as Rolling Stone put it, redemption. And many people feel that in order to have light in our lives – to feel happy, fulfilled and connected, we need to crush the darkness. But sometimes when the world doesn’t feel good to us, we need to be able to experience darker emotions like fear, anger and sadness to accurately reflect our authentic reality. If we ignore our darkness, we risk avoiding and suppressing our feelings. And since we wouldn’t be coping with our feelings in a more direct way, we would actually become more anxious, more depressed and more likely to turn to unhealthy substances as we struggle with how we feel. And we wind up feeling disconnected from our true and authentic selves because we tried to avoid or suppress our darkness.

But at the same time, just as we don’t want to fear darkness, we want to be open to embracing the light. Even if things aren’t going how we want in our lives, it is critical that we allow ourselves to be in touch with the light – the happiness, the connection to others, the feelings of accomplishment – that we may feel as we pursue the life we want. This gives us hope, something to strive for – a reason to cope with the darkness. And we need that dynamic relation between light and dark in our lives to keep us moving forward.

In our conversation, Amy talks about the importance of exploring darkness, particularly in her music. And one of the issues we particularly talk about is the concept of grief. Amy talks about her sense of spirituality and how it guides her in her exploration of darkness and using her music to find meaning. One of the most important things that we can do to lead a fulfilling and authentic life is to not be afraid of darker emotions or difficult times. As we pursue our purpose, these times will come and these feelings will emerge. If we are truly pushing ourselves to build an actualized and authentic life, there have to be tough times. But our goal is to learn from them as we pursue our purpose, rather than see them as signs of defeat. When we face difficult times like loss, it is critical that we learn how to embrace the darkness while also having an eye on finding the light. Leading a purpose-driven life means pushing ourselves in ways that may not always work out. And we have to embrace all aspects of our experience to become our authentic self.

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Today on The Hardcore Humanism Podcast we are talking with the musician, singer-songwriter, entrepreneur and philanthropist Linda Perry. Now, many of you know Linda as the leader of the band Four Non-Blondes and their big hit “What’s Up.” And for years, Linda has also been a prolific songwriter for other artists, writing hit songs like “Get The Party Started,” which was performed by Pink and “Beautiful” performed by Christina Aguilera. Linda has been such an accomplished songwriter that in 2015 she was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Most recently, Linda has partnered with the Repost by SoundCloud marketing and distribution platform to develop independent artists. And she just helped curate the Rock and Relief concert series to raise money for CORE (Community Organized Relief Effort), a non-profit organization dedicated to crisis response, including providing access to COVID vaccines and testing during the pandemic.

Over the years, as I heard about everything Linda is doing, the word that always came to my mind was empowerment. It was always so impressive to recognize that she just kept working and in so many different ways, on so many different levels. And in the Hardcore Humanism therapy and coaching program, our goal is to empower you to find your purpose, and work hard to achieve that purpose so that you can lead a fulfilling and authentic life. And when I hear about someone like Linda, I think, that’s exactly the type of person we want on The Hardcore Humanism Podcast, so we can learn some of the nuances of how someone like Linda is able to be so consistently be productive and purpose-driven over the course of decades in her career.

There’s so much that we can take away from the conversation with Linda, but there are three major things I wanted to highlight. The first is that Linda describes how regardless of whatever barrier she faces, she is determined to keep going. And this is so important when we are pursuing a purpose-driven life. The results we want may or may not always happen, but we have to keep putting in the effort to give ourselves the best chance to achieve our goals. 

Second, we talk about how even though Linda is a hard charger, and really kicks ass in her career, she tries not to lose sight of one of the most important things that drives an artist and philanthropist, which is empathy. And so, we hope that as people become the Hardcore Humans they want to be, they are understanding and empathic rather than critical and judgmental of others wherever they are on their journey.

And finally, and perhaps relatedly, Linda talks about one of the unfortunate downsides of being a driven and high achieving person. As we push ourselves to succeed, we can run the risk of that enthusiasm and drive turning into self-criticism and despair if we don’t achieve our goals. But we hope that just as you are understanding and empathic with others, you are similarly gentle and kind with yourself as you pursue your life goals.

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This week on The Hardcore Humanism Podcast, we are talking with the man, the myth, the legend, George Clinton of Parliament Funkadelic. It is hard to overstate Clinton’s influence on music. With a music and stage show so innovative and with an impact on so many genres -- everything from Hip Hop to funk to psychedelic and rock music - it’s easy to see why they were given the 2019 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In addition to Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic keeping the funk rolling by playing shows this summer and fall, Clinton is also an accomplished visual artist, including his recent work “Lockdown Series 01.”

I was absolutely thrilled to get a chance to talk with him about how he has approached his life and his career. Naturally, I was curious to try and understand the creative mindset of someone who has had, and continues to have such a prolific artistic career. And one of the main things that George and I talk about is the concept of obsession. Unfortunately, there has generally been a negative connotation to the term obsession. It’s seen as a mental health problem – where you can’t get unwanted thoughts out of your mind. And for many people, especially people who suffer from obsessive-compulsive disorder, this type of obsession can be painful and interfere with our leading a healthy and fulfilling life.

But the term “obsession” can actually refer to a very invigorating and energizing process by which one is consumed by their purpose. This type of obsession feels like as Clinton describes it, when people are “in the zone” or what has been described as “flow.” It’s more like a life affirming drive in which there is something that is so important to us that we throw ourselves into it, and continue to work to make progress – whether it’s our work, art, music, a sport or family and friends. And if we embrace this form of obsession, it can help achieve our life goals as we embrace our authentic selves.

During our conversation, Clinton talks about his obsession with phenomena and the concept of phenomena – remarkable cultural events that go beyond momentary popularity or interest. These are things that seem to transcend and drive our culture and society forward. And it was fascinating to hear Clinton describe his obsession with phenomena since he then went on to create a phenomenon in Parliament Funkadelic that is still contributing to the development and evolution of our culture. And we talk about a concept that I feel is particularly important now: the notion of One Nation Under A Groove – which is one of Parliament’s album titles. It’s that vibe that he describes as connecting to the mothership, where we are all invited into the artist’s obsession and can get that good feeling together, if only for a moment. We can learn so much from George about how we can connect with our own mothership or obsession, be in the zone and live a purpose-driven life.

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What’s up Hardcore Humans! This week on The Hardcore Humanism Podcast we are talking with musician, singer songwriter Tim Booth of the band James. James has a new album out now called All The Colours of You. And one of the themes addressed in this album is how we understand and cope with existential angst or fear of death. And this fear can be such a powerful force in people’s lives, to the point where it’s overwhelming. In the worst cases it can cause us to worry constantly, panic and even fall into depression as we struggle with the concept of death. 

During our conversation, Booth talks about this issue in a couple of ways. First, he talks about managing existential angst in terms of pursuing his music. And one of the things Tim describes is the importance of improvisation and getting into a state of flow as he and his band create new music and perform. Tim also discusses how he has spent a great deal of his life exploring different methods of coping with feelings like anxiety or depression that may emerge from existential angst. Tim shares his experiences using therapy, meditation, dance and psychedelic drugs under the guidance of a shaman as ways of exploring his emotions and beliefs in his ongoing process of evolving and growing.

 One of the most important takeaways that we can have in our own exploration of a fear of death is that there are many possible ways that we can cope. There are medications, therapies, thoughts and behaviors that all may play a role in our unique exploration and management of our fear. And this can be an ongoing process in our life as we pursue our purpose. The key is to be open-minded to different options and see which approach works best for each of us, and which makes us feel that we are living our best and most authentic life.

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This week on The Hardcore Humanism Podcast we are talking with musician, singer and songwriter Tim McIlrath of the punk rock band Rise Against. Rise Against is known for being very outspoken on a range of social justice issues such as animal rights and environmentalism. 

One of the themes of their new album Nowhere Generation is the disparities that exist in our society. There are intense disparities that exist in this world for people based on race, gender, sexual orientation, religion and economic resources. So not everyone gets the same access to education, health care, jobs, healthy food and clean air among other things. 

One of the core principles of humanism and humanistic psychology is that all people have value, and it is our job as individuals and as a society to help people realize their potential in life. So these disparities that exist run counter to what we hope for in a humanistic society. And then the question is when we face these types of disparities – and we see that there are systems in place that interfere with our ability and the ability of others to achieve purpose in life, what do we do?

McIlrath talks about addressing the issue of disparity on two fronts. The first is the concept of agency – empowering people to find their purpose in life and work to achieve it no matter what obstacles they face. This is a very core tenet of punk rock – the idea that our ideas, hopes and dreams matter, even if we are marginalized in some way. And the second front McIlrath talks about is taking on the system – identifying and challenging the structures that exist that interfere with people having equal opportunity to live the lives they want. And what’s particularly important is that we can do both. We can work both to find the agency to build the life we want and to change the system and structures that hold people back. And these concepts that McIlrath discusses are so very much in line with core humanistic principles – that everyone has value. And it is our goal as individuals to work towards our purpose in life and to help others do the same.

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