Damiaan Denys is a professor of psychiatry at the University of Amsterdam and the co-editor of "Deep Brain Stimulation: A New Frontier in Psychiatry."

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(00:00) Early Fascination With Human Nature

(02:18) Difficult Father and Survival Through Understanding People

(04:07) Boredom With Protocolized Psychiatry

(06:34) From Anti-Psychiatry to Evidence-Based Medicine

(10:01) What Psychiatry Is Supposed To Do

(12:27) Defining Mental Disorders and Cultural Relativity

(15:42) Choosing Psychiatry’s Biggest Mysteries

(18:04) Human Nature as Fundamentally Problematic

(20:07) OCD, Addiction, and Dopamine Theory

(23:41) Deep Brain Stimulation Origins

(26:08) Understanding Obsessions and Compulsions

(29:31) How Brain Stimulation Alters Brain Circuits

(33:12) Instant Personality Changes After Stimulation

(36:41) The Woman Who Cleaned Sixteen Hours Daily

(40:04) Self-Confidence as the Hidden Mechanism

(43:17) One Root Behind Many Psychiatric Disorders

(46:09) Why Deep Brain Stimulation Remains Rare

(49:22) Building a Future Around DBS Treatment

(53:06) The Three-Part DBS Treatment Team

(56:14) Depression Patient Rediscovers Music and Art

(58:47) DBS as Stimulation of the Mind

(01:01:08) Fragility, Vulnerability, and Human Connection

(01:05:18) Soul, Transcendence, and Psychedelic Experiences

(01:08:42) Leaving Academia and Returning to Human Beings

(01:11:36) Autonomy, Modern Life, and Resisting Comfort

Steve Stewart-Williams is a professor, an evolutionary psychologist, and the author of The Ape that Understood the Universe and his newest book, A Billion Years of Sex Differences: How Evolution Shaped the Minds of Men and Women

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(00:00) Falling In Love With Evolutionary Psychology

(03:30) Explaining Human Behavior Through Evolution

(06:57) Why Sex Differences Evolved

(10:28) Writing A Book On Controversial Science

(12:21) Average Differences And Statistical Overlap

(15:17) Human Parenting Shrinks Sex Differences

(17:44) Male Interest In Casual Sex

(21:19) Evidence Across Cultures And Species

(25:23) What Men And Women Want

(29:18) Physical Attraction And Resource Preferences

(32:32) Replication Crisis And Scientific Confidence

(34:55) Ashley Madison And Sexual Marketplace Realities

(36:27) Gamma Bias And Delta Bias Explained

(40:18) Aggression Differences Between Men And Women

(44:19) Toddler Violence And Puberty Changes

(47:27) Neuroticism, Sensitivity, And Personality Differences

(52:34) Politics, Academia, And Sex Difference Denial

(57:21) Academic Freedom And Substack Independence

(60:38) Why Truth About Sex Differences Matters

(63:44) Harms Of Exaggerating Sex Differences

(66:27) Harms Of Minimizing Sex Differences

(69:17) Gender Equality Paradox In Scandinavia

(71:34) Let People Be Themselves

Kathryn Mannix is a palliative care doctor and the author of With The End In Mind.

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(00:00) Regret, mistakes, and living fully

(02:05) Hospice work and “encountering death”

(04:40) Early medicine: oncology training and dying patients

(07:20) Falling out of love with oncology research culture

(10:10) The hospice “statement from fate”

(13:05) Ordinary dying vs Hollywood’s scary version

(16:05) Living while dying: love, family, relationships

(19:05) Practical “sadmin”: sorting life before death

(22:10) Why regret gets a bad rap

(25:30) Doing the work: turning wounds into scars

(28:55) Dying environments: people and mood matter most

(32:10) Nana’s wisdom: losing familiarity with dying

(35:40) Medicine “kidnapped dying” and death taboo

(38:50) Values-based planning: “what matters most to me”

(41:55) Death education, pets, and breaking secrecy

(44:10) What dying looks like: hearing and breathing changes

(47:25) Trauma from misunderstanding dying sounds

(50:35) Comfort meds, guilt, and what happens after death

Jonathan Zimmeramn is a Professor of History of Education at the University of Pennsylvania, and the author of the books "Free Speech: And Why You Should Give a Damn" and "Whose America?: Culture Wars in the Public Schools."

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(00:00) intro

(00:27) Polarized, pessimistic America

(02:10) From Birchers to viral clicks

(05:05) Decline of religion as fuel

(08:12) “Love thy enemy” vs “I hate my opponents”

(10:45) Cross-tribe media: why I watch Fox

(13:18) Dopamine diets and tribal brains

(16:02) Roots beyond social: 90s, higher ed divides

(18:40) Education sorts and isolates by degree

(21:15) Overlaps and humbling lessons from Fox (Ukraine, MIC)

(24:05) Charlie Kirk: free-speech ideals and contradictions

(27:22) Assassination & the internet underworld

(30:10) Boys, meaning, and failing institutions

(33:05) Digital cults, religion, and liberal education

(36:10) Learned Hand’s “spirit of liberty”

(38:22) Printing-press analogy, AI, and Postman’s question

(41:05) Phones out K-16 and secondhand distraction

(43:38) Anxiety on campus and adult responsibility

(45:30) Free-speech hypocrisy & the “American Hour” proposal

Judith Thurman is a staff writer at "The New Yorker," and the author of many books, including "Isak Dinesen: The Life of a Storyteller" and "Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette."

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(00:00) “How’d you get to be that thing you are?”—origin story

(02:18) Precocious reader, teacher mom, “foreordained” to write

(04:52) Yes-and-no confidence; from drivel to good

(07:10) Poet in Europe: barmaid, tutor, no money

(09:48) 1970s NYC—dangerous, electric, cheap rent, first bylines

(12:22) Nation → Ms. magazine → journalism takes off

(14:05) Knocking on The New Yorker’s door; Gottlieb says yes

(16:40) How a New Yorker piece gets made—editors, rewrites, heat

(19:12) Subjects and boundaries: strong & “lost” women

(21:58) Emily Wilson to Vanessa Beecroft; fasting spa detour

(24:41) Writing (against) Gertrude Stein; Handmaid’s Tale hindsight

(27:20) Why Stein’s “cult” endures—salon as tourist attraction

(29:58) Anne Frank’s freedom to feel; the monumental annotation

(32:36) Amelia Earhart—image-making, legend, and dying young

(34:28) Biographies as marriages; choosing a life to live with

(35:57) Isak Dinesen begins: Ms. piece, Denneny, the $10k “bride price”

(38:43) Rethinking colonialism—Kenyan correspondent, mea culpa

(41:52) Writing life: night vs. morning, momentum, humility; truth famine & journalism’s role

Liesbeth van der Horst is the director of the Verzetsmuseum - the Museum of WWII Resistance in Amsterdam.

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(00:00) Origins of the Resistance Museum

(02:05) Moving Locations and Growth

(04:12) Becoming Director in 2003

(06:45) Lessons from Resistance Figures

(09:30) The 1940 German Invasion

(13:10) Early Occupation and Dutch Nazis

(16:42) The February Strike of 1941

(21:20) Gradual Anti-Jewish Measures

(25:18) Deportations and Camp Westerbork

(29:35) Dutch Traditions of Tolerance

(33:10) Hiding, Families, and Anne Frank

(38:28) Who Resisted and Why

(42:15) Gerrit van der Veen’s Story

(44:50) Fake IDs and Underground Efforts

(47:08) Remembering Resistance Fighters

(49:05) Why the Museum Still Matters

Lisa Marchiano is a Jungian analyst and is the co-host of This Jungian Life podcast.

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(00:00) Finding Jung Feels Like a Native Tongue

(02:10) Early Memories: Mother and Jung’s Mysterious Books

(04:35) The Story of Jung’s Bell and the Paranormal

(06:20) From History and Humanitarian Work to Inner Crisis

(08:15) A Breakup Sparks a Deep Depression

(10:50) The Columbus Avenue Bookstore Ritual

(13:10) Stumbling Upon “On the Way to the Wedding”

(15:35) Reading the Book That Changed Everything

(18:10) Writing Down Dreams and the Rabbit Hole Begins

(20:25) Realizing Suffering Has Meaning

(22:50) Deferring Law School for Work in Bosnia

(25:05) Growing Doubt About Her Career Path

(28:15) The Phone Call to the Jung Institute

(31:10) Refusing the Call but Unable to Let It Go

(34:20) Wrestling With Persona and Prestige

(38:15) Choosing Social Work Over Law

(41:40) The Calling Becomes Stronger in Bosnia

(45:05) Returning to New York and Social Work School

(48:20) Balancing Training With Motherhood

(50:40) Why Jung’s Ideas Are So Beautiful and Expansive

(55:20) The Rise of Jung’s Popularity and the Podcast

(60:15) Depth Versus Ideology: Why Jung Resonates Today

(64:10) Jungian Work as a Container for Meaning

(67:50) Defining Synchronicity and Its Significance

(70:00) Her Mother’s Legacy and Final Reflections

Walter Robinson is an investigative journalist, an editor-at-large at "The Boston Globe," and is the Donald W. Reynolds Visiting Professor of Journalism at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.

This is a rebroadcast of episode 42, from 2022.

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(00:00) Intro

(00:58) A path to journalism

(10:00) The power and state of the Catholic Church during the late 80s and 90s

(21:40) "The Boston Globe's" "Spotlight" team

(28:10) The Catholic Church's reputation before the Spotlight team’s investigation

(35:59) What was revealed in the church’s internal documents

(40:56) The Church’s consistent strategy of protecting abusive priests

(46:58) Nearly every bishop in every diocese knew about abuse and participated in a cover-up

(53:27) The role of the Church's celibacy vow in incentivizing abuse

(59:36) What explains the abusive behavior of Catholic Church priests?

(01:04:06) Women's second-class status and the role of a free press

(01:07:55) The need for a full confession from the Church

(01:15:48) The role of investigative journalism today and why it matters

(01:20:43) The importance of investigative journalists to think outside the box

Mark Clifford is president of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong and the author of "The Troublemaker: How Jimmy Lai Became a Billionaire, Hong Kong's Greatest Dissident, and China's Most Feared Critic."

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00:00 Intro

00:57 Mark's relationship with Jimmy Lai

06:40 Jimmy's journalism in Hong Kong

10:41 The source of Jimmy's devout anti-communism

18:27 Jimmy's interest in journalism

21:35 Was Jimmy optimistic about Hong Kong's future?

24:27 China's public enemy #1

33:22 Jimmy's core principles

39:40 Lessons from Jimmy's example

44:14 Hong Kong and JImmy's future

49:47 Jimmy's eccentricities and flaws

James Hollis is a Jungian psychoanalyst and the author of many books, including "A Life of Meaning," which is the primary subject of our conversation.

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00:00 Intro

01:05 Why Jim wrote "A Life of Meaning"

05:28 The shadow

08:38 Why confront one's shadow?

10:48 The numinous and finding your calling

25:20 Lethargy is a threat to living

29:55 A modern culture of distraction

32:28 Jim's decision to become a public educator

37:02 Jim's growth beyond his family of origin

44:30 Psychopathology

48:26 Sin: missing the mark

55:15 Fear - the spirit of evil is negation of the life force by fear

58:50 Jim is a "recovering nice person"