Nick Pollard, "The People Displeaser," is a speaker and life coach who advocates for honest, authentic living through mindful boundaries, free of people-pleasing.

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(00:00) Intro

(01:00) When Nick's was homicidal and suicidal

(04:09) Nick's father

(09:10) How Nick got his life together

(18:08) Why Nick focuses on people-pleasing

(23:25) Symptoms of a people-pleaser

(26:44) Why do people become people-pleasers?

(31:23) Your rules for life and a personal bill of rights

(37:23) Establishing personal boundaries

(42:39) Confronting fear and quotes from Jim Hollis

(49:16) People-pleasers often have few same-sex friends

(57:11) When should former people-pleasers leave relationships?

(01:09:15) Nick's relationship deal-breakers

Pico Iyer is a novelist, a travel writer, and the author of many books, including his most recent, "Aflame: Learning From Silence," which is the subject of this conversation.

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(00:00) Intro

(00:00) Intro

(00:58) Santa Barbara, June 1990

(04:25) The New Camaldoli Hermitage

(07:30) Pico's life when he first went to New Camaldoli

(11:08) Silence elicits gratitude, what's shared and what's essential

(16:10) Intentionally turning off technology

(22:39) Creating a wise amount of "cathedral time"

(25:53) Embracing silence as a non-religious person

(32:03) Leonard Cohen exploring his inner landscape in silence

(36:05) How Pico has developed from his 100+ hermitage visits

(41:35) Saying no in order to prioritize space for silence

(47:07) How to begin a life with more silence and contemplation

(50:41) Silence as an antidote to despair

(54:36) What Pico has learned from the Dalai Lama

Orville Schell is an author, a journalist, a China scholar, and the director of the Asia Society's Center on U.S.-China Relations.

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(00:00) Intro

(01:00) Orville's entering China in the 1970s

(07:10) Was was China like in the 1970s?

(10:09) The palpable fear in China in the 1970s

(14:55) The details of Mao Zedong the Cultural Revolution

(20:40) What preceded Communism in China?

(25:32) Why was Communism appealing to Chinese revolutionaries?

(30:11) China in the 1970s and how it reopened to the world

(37:10) Why did China not become free after the 1980s?

(41:39) 1989 and Tiananmen Square

(45:28) China in the next few years

(52:19) How might China become free?

(55:26) Why China matters

Joseph Goldstein is an author, the co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA, and is one of the most influential and important figures to bring vipassana meditation practices into the American mainstream.

A rebroadcast from 2022.

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(00:00) Intro

(00:45) How Joseph ended up in Asia a young man

(04:39) Reason for interest in Buddhism and meditation

(08:59) Immersing in the study of the mind

(12:41) The Buddha’s teachings

(18:52) Joseph's psychological state when first exposed to Buddhism and meditation

(21:01) The daily habits, discipline, and rituals to try to achieve Enlightenment

(27:14) Deciding to devote his life to meditation

(30:11) Communicating to his mother his desire to devote his life to Buddhism

(32:59) Metaphysical views pre and post meditation

(37:46) Buddhism is non-theistic

(40:14) What is the Dharma?

(44:48) Integrating Buddhist teachings with practice and The Noble Eightfold Path

(53:37) The first step to use mindfulness to ease psychological suffering

(01:01:24) Awareness versus the weather pattern of one's mind

(01:04:30) Using mindfulness to respond, rather than to react

(01:15:37) Dealing with grief

(01:24:50) How can we improve our lives by being mindful?

James Hollis is a psychoanalyst, one of the world's most prolific Jungian thinkers, and the author of many books, including "Living An Examined Life."

A rebroadcast from 2021.

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(00:00) Intro

(01:02) Jim's transition from academia to psychoanalysis

(06:24) The decision to pursue psychoanalysis as a full-time profession

(10:59) Gathering the courage to pursue psychoanalysis

(18:19) What about Jung’s work resonated with Jim?

(30:16) Jim's process of helping people navigate the transitionary phases of their lives

(41:31) The most pressing issues Jim sees facing Americans

(48:24) The primary blockers to growth and self-healing

(51:54) Discerning the difference fears you should avoid and fears you should face

(57:01) Exhausted relationships vs. relationships that need endurance

(01:09:02) The ratio of men vs. women seeking counsel and therapy and how it’s changed over the years

(01:13:21) Why most men tend to suppress their innermost emotions

(01:19:49) Jim's explanation of Joseph Campbell’s ‘hero’s journey’

(01:25:31) How to live an examined, authentic life

Elizabeth Economy is a political scientist, a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, a China expert, and the author of multiple books, including "The World According to China" and "The Third Revolution: Xi Jinping and the New Chinese State."

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(00:00) Intro

(01:00) Xi Jinping's father's story

(07:16) The Cultural Revolution

(12:02) "China's Holocaust" between 1950's-1970's

(13:10) Why Marxism resonated in China

(21:43) Darker aspects of the Cultural Revolution

(33:48) The rise of Xi Jinping and the rise of China's economy

(38:33) The meme of Xi Jinping as Winnie the Pooh

(41:43) Xi Jinping's personality and vision for China

(46:27) The near-term future of U.S-China relations

(53:00) What America can do to win Cold War 2.0

James Holland is a historian and the author of many books, including Normandy '44: D-Day and the Epic 77-Day Battle for France.

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(00:00) Intro

(00:46) The state of the world in June 1944

(14:48) What was D-Day like for an average Allied soldier

(21:13) Is D-Day the most important military conflict in history?

(27:01) "Steel not flesh"

(32:43) The Atlantic Wall

(41:08) Cooperation and morale among the Allied troops

(45:31) Dick Winters and men like him

(51:15) Why James has committed so much of his life to WWII history

(54:45) How can we best honor and remember veterans?

Noam Dworman is a businessman, the co-host of the podcast "Live From The Table," and the owner of the world-famous Comedy Cellar in Greenwich Village, NYC.

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(00:00) Intro

(00:59) How The Comedy Cellar came to be

(02:38) Noam's dad, Manny

(07:05) Why did Manny start The Comedy Cellar?

(10:42) Notable comics early at The Comedy Cellar

(12:00) The way to fame for comics pre-internet

(14:32) Identifying comedic talent

(18:36) Patrice O'Neal

(24:12) How Noam took over The Comedy Cellar

(27:37) The scene at The Comedy Cellar in early 2000's

(29:52) Why The Comedy Cellar is so popular

(32:19) The design of The Comedy Cellar venue

(36:58) Quotes from Noam about free speech

(38:11) Louis CK, free speech, and woke culture

(43:58) How the left has changed regarding free speech

(47:22) Comedy as a refuge

(50:23) Defining wokeness and a story about Noam's daughter

(56:30) The state of wokeness and cancel culture

(59:02) Comedians and intellectuals with courage

(01:02:58) What's next for Noam and The Comedy Cellar

Sir Richard Evans is a historian, and the author of many books, including The Third Reich Trilogy, The Pursuit of Power: Europe 1815–1914, and Hitler's People: The Faces of the Third Reich, which is the primary focus of this conversation.

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(00:00) Intro

(01:00) The young Hitler

(04:11) The Nazis were conservative, middle class Germans

(10:20) How Hitler rose, his talents as a speaker

(19:52) The Reichstag Fire and The Enabling Act

(27:57) The romantic and personal life of Hitler

(31:39) Hitler's romantic interest in Joseph Goebbels's wife

(35:52) Demythologizing the Nazis: a story of Himmler in the sauna

(39:27) "Ordinary Men" by Christopher R. Browning

(44:50) The story of Dr. Karl Brandt

(49:34) Why history and studying the Nazis matters

(52:19) Threats to freedom and democracy in the modern world

(54:22) Donald Trump is not a fascist

Glenn Loury‬ is an economist, a professor at Brown University, a podcaster, an essayist, and is the author of "Late Admissions: Confessions of a Black Conservative" and the essay "The Case for Black Patriotism."

A rebroadcast from 2022.

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(00:00) Intro

(01:01) Get to know Glenn Loury

(03:56) South Side of Chicago culture when Glenn was a boy

(06:11) Fatherhood at 18, working at RR Donnelley & Sons, and Mr. Andres

(15:01) Opportunity launches Glenn to Northwestern and MIT

(19:34) The culture and opportunity of MIT

(28:48) The first African-American tenured economics professor in Harvard, at 33

(37:30) Glenn's interest in politics and his heterodox political philosophy

(47:44) A memorable incident with Glenn's uncle Alfred

(55:35) How Glenn's conservatism informs his views on the campus

(01:01:57) Glenn's defense of Western culture

(01:06:43) "The Case for Black Patriotism"

(01:23:17) An American Living "The American Dream"