Chessa and I go way back. She is a Biblical scholar turned elementary school therapist and an all-around thoughtful, compassionate, and charming human being. We talk about accepting and working within the limits of compassionate care, whether with her clients, her family, or her husband. This was one of the first episodes I recorded and is one of my favorites.Want to support the show? Consider a free trial of The Great Courses Plus. Try it for free for a month and the Mapping Minds Podcast will get a little kickback.

BJ Miller is a palliative care physician, an instructor at UCSF's School of Medicine, and the coauthor of A Beginner's Guide to the End: Practical Advice for Living Life and Facing Death. He also founded Mettle Health, an online team of end-of-life specialists who are innovating palliative care.

The quote at the end of the show is read by Paul Bowles in the film The Sheltering Sky (based on Bowles' book with the same name). This episode is dedicated to Sarah.

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In the world of esoteric mysticism, psychedelic exploration, and counter-cultural thought, few people are as enigmatic and thoughtful as Erik Davis. His writing places contemporary cultural phenomena within the context of a greater human story, which he accomplishes masterfully in his book High Weirdness: Drugs, Esoterica, and Visionary Experience in the 70s. To learn more about Erik's work, visit his website or find him on Twitter @erik_davis.

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It's a rare person who makes their life about caring for others. Erica Siegal is one of those people. She is a therapist in the Phase III clinical trials for MDMA, a powerful medicine for individuals suffering from treatment-resistant post-traumatic stress disorder. She is also the founder of NEST Harm Reduction, an organization that provides harm reduction services and training in many different contexts. To learn more, visit nestharmreduction.com or follow her on Instagram @nestharmreduction. 

Want to support the show? Consider a free trial of The Great Courses Plus. Try it free for a month and the Mapping Minds Podcast will get a little kickback.

I’m so grateful to have Dave Pizarro as our first guest. He is a psychology professor at Cornell University and the cohost of Very Bad Wizards, a podcast that influenced the creation of our show. We explore his work, his religious upbringing, and the ways in which our evolutionary impulses can be hijacked by culture and belief.

Mapping Minds is a podcast about consciousness through the lens of spirituality, science, and philosophy. Jimmy Sudekum hosts the conversation with experts in their respective fields, weaving the common thread between disparate, often clashing topics. Coming soon!