Know What You See with Brian Lowery

In this Know What You See short, Brian reflects on how the strategy of selection determines our sense of self worth .

In this Know What You See short, Brian considers why being thoughtful about travel can help us get the most out of it.
Why do you travel? Leave a message with your thoughts at brianloweryphd.com/contact.

 Stay tuned for new episodes of Know What You See coming this fall and follow @knowwhatyouseepod on Instagram.

We’ve been looking at the forces in our lives that shape who we are and who we can be: our relationships, our social identities, our ability to choose. But all of this exists in the shadow of the knowledge that we will all die. This is so terrifying that most of us try to avoid thinking or talking about it. But what would change if we were better prepared for death and dying? How would it transform our lives right now?

Guest: Adriana Prosser, Death Doula

In the day-to-day of our lives, how often do we feel truly moved? Many of us think we have to get away from our daily reality to experience awe--the feeling that something is so wondrous and mysterious it's a little scary. It can feel like only extraordinary encounters with say art or majestic experiences of nature evoke awe, and we are left with too little of it. But maybe we can learn to cultivate awe and by doing so bring greater meaning to our lives.

Dacher Keltner, Professor of Psychology at UC Berkeley, founder and director of the Greater Good Science Center, and host of the podcast The Science of Happiness.

We like to believe that we are masters of our own fate, that we are the cause of our choices and actions. But what if that's not true? Imagine that all of our choices and actions are simply the product of history—whether that goes back one minute or 1000 years—and biological and environmental forces that we often don’t even understand. In this episode we're exploring the question of whether free will exists and whether we should even want it to.

Brian’s guest is Robert Sapolsky: Professor of Biology, Neurology, Neurological Sciences, and Neurosurgery at Stanford University and author of Determined: A Science of Life without Free Will.

Race and gender are thought by many to be immutable features of our biology. In some places and spaces, we see significant challenges to this way of thinking about gender, but the biological view of race has proved more durable. How do we understand racial identity from individual and community perspectives? What’s changing about how we define race and how that shapes our interactions with the world around us?

Our guest:

Rebecca Tuvel: Associate Professor and Chair of Philosophy at Rhodes College.

For many of us, gender is an important part of how we understand ourselves. It affects everything, from the way we present ourselves physically, to how we make sense of others' interactions with us. But what determines our gender? The answer to this question is more complicated than we might think. The way we understand gender can reveal a lot about who we are and who we can be.

Our guests:

Schuyler Bailer: author, educator, American swimmer and advocate for LGBTQ+ rights.

Rebecca Tuvel: Associate Professor and Chair of Philosophy at Rhodes College.

With so many of us now working at home or on a hybrid schedule, the line between our employment and our personal lives has been blurring. What does work/life balance mean when the boundaries keep shifting? What does our nostalgia for pre-pandemic workplace comedies like The Office say about who we are and who we used to be? And is the dystopian drama series Severance a warning, or a kind of wish fulfillment?

Guests:

Dr. Pamela Rutledge, Director of the Media Psychology Research Center, Fielding Graduate University

Katie Glasser, production intern

For more about host Brian Lowery, go to knowwhatyousee.com.

What goes into making a home? For many, it means a physical space, that’s true, and the useful objects we collect within. But it’s also a repository for our memories and aspirations. How we build or decorate our homes signals who we are, our tastes and values, and the signs of our success. It’s where we feel safe and connected, and where we welcome others we trust. But does a home need to be a fixed place to be a stable one?  

Guests:

Le'Shaun Williams - Rapper, designer, photographer and YouTube content creator, current ex-pat

Noami Grevemberg - Author of "Living The Vanlife" and Founder of Diversify Vanlife.

For more on Brian Lowery, visit knowwhatyousee.com.

A spouse, a soul-mate, a life partner - however you define “the one”, the search for that person is often confusing and fraught with challenges and doubt. And in a world with so much choice, is it better to enlist the opinions of those who know you best, like your family and friends? Or can more “objective” support like matchmakers and algorithms narrow down the field and yield true love?

Guests:

Barry Schwartz, Professor Emeritus in Social Theory and Social Action at Swarthmore

Radha Patel, founder of Single to Shaadi

For more about host Brian Lowery and the show, go to knowwhatyousee.com.