MINDRAMP PODCASTS

This is a reading of an article I wrote for the Fall 2024 edition of 3rd Act Magazine. I recall the 60's and 70's when many of us had a youthful passion to create a better world. 

Now, decades later, we may not have the energy and exuberance of our youth, but we can still be passionate about our values and our convictions. We can still work to realize our dreams for a better world. 

I also suggest that we have the additional responsibility to use our status as elders to articulate a vision of a better form of humanity. We human beings are wondrous creatures, but are deeply flawed in ways that are dangerous to the health, well-being and survival of our world.  Just as we have worked to bend the arc of history towards greater equality and justice, we should, in our mature years, aim to bend the arc of evolution towards a more advanced form of humanity.

Support the show

Support our work to promote creative aging. Subscribe to the MINDRAMP Podcast.

This episode summarizes my current thinking (as of September 2024), about how we can manage our minds to flourish as we age.  I suggest that the quirky nature of our mind is more understandable when we realize that we have multiple, semi-independent minds that compete for our attention. 

I offer four examples of multiple minds . Each one causes its own form of confusion and suggests just how we need to manage our minds to overcome conflict, confusion and mental distortions. The four multiple mind frameworks are:

• Hemispheric Lateralization
• The entropic Mind
• The Extended Mind
• Functional Brain Networks

I conclude by explaining how  various practices of meditation effectively address the mind-management objectives for each framework. 

I succumb to my weakness for acronyms and suggest an A.I.M. approach to mind-management. Awareness - Impact - Modification. We can: 1) use the disciplines of meditation to become more aware of how our mind works, then 2) we can evaluate the positive or negative impact of the various mental states that compete for our attention, and finally, 3) we can learn to modify those mental states in ways that enhance our ability to flourish as we age. 

Support the show

Support our work to promote creative aging. Subscribe to the MINDRAMP Podcast.

The indictment of former president Donald J. Trump related to his attempts to overthrow the 2020 election is, arguably, the most significant trial in American history.  We are all witnesses to history and should understand the full extent of the charges against Trump and the nature of the evidence being offered to back up those charges. 

To that end, I hope this reading of the full indictment makes the text more accessible to more people. 

NOTE: For those of you who listened to the previous podcast that went through page 27 of the indictment, you can pick up the thread at around the 1 hour mark of this podcast with the heading, "Defendant's Attempt to Leverage the Justice Department to  use Deciept . . . "

Support the show

Support our work to promote creative aging. Subscribe to the MINDRAMP Podcast.

Trump and MAGA Republicans are following a playbook for the future (Project 2025) that was put together by The Heritage Foundation and The Danube Institute of Hungary. 

The Danube Institute is dedicated to spreading Viktor Orban's vision of authoritarian rule around the world and The Heritage Foundation is a willing partner in this project.  

A vote for Republican's this November is a vote for an authoritarian vision of America that runs counter to the spirit of the American Revolution, The American Constitution and American democracy. 

Support the show

Support our work to promote creative aging. Subscribe to the MINDRAMP Podcast.

In addition to taking personal responsibility for your brain health and mental well-being, you must recognize that the environment you live in and the social support systems that are available to you also have a profound effect on your brain and mind. 

In this episode I am revisiting an 2022 interview I conducted with Daniel R. George, author with Peter Whitehouse of AMERICAN DEMENTIA: BRAIN HEALTH IN AN UNHEALTHY SOCIETY. 

I feature Danny's comments on: 

• How brain health is affected by the global environment and by the political and economic systems that are in place.
• Why social support systems put in place mid-20th century resulted in declining rates of dementia.
• Why conservative, market-driven policies begun in the 1970s and 80s reversed that decline, causing higher rates of dementia.
• The tragedy of deaths of despair
• Examples of the kind of social support systems that promote brain health, well-being and flourishing. 

Support the show

Support our work to promote creative aging. Subscribe to the MINDRAMP Podcast.

On July 6, congressman Jamie Raskin send President Biden a letter encouraging him to caucus with Democratic leaders to hear their concerns about his continuing in the campaign. On July 21, Biden decided to withdraw from the campaign and to endorse Vice-President Kamala Harris to take his place on the ticker. 

Much of Raskin's letter consisted of deep raise for President Biden and his legacy. He praised Biden as "a truly great and magnificent leader."  I want to share a partial reading of Raskin's letter to highlight what a brave, selfless and patriotic act Joe Biden performed in stepping down from his position of ultimate power. Further, I want to use Raskin's eloquent words to hold Biden's presidency up as a model of kind of character we want in a president of the United States.  

Support the show

Support our work to promote creative aging. Subscribe to the MINDRAMP Podcast.

This episode explores how and why psychedelics, like psilocybin, are capable of making our minds more plastic and malleable. Research on Psilocybin has found that the drug de-synchronizes the Default Mode Network (DMN). 

The DMN is a brain network that becomes active when we are day-dreaming, when our mind wanders. I think of the DMN as the producer of our conceptual mind. It creates our concept of a Self, our ego. It concerns itself with how we relate to and are perceived by others.  It is the part of the brain, therefore, that is egocentric, selfish and greedy; the region that causes us to worry about social status and to feel competitive with others' it is the area of the brain that causes self-doubt and self-criticism. The DMN is the part of the brain that makes us neurotic or even psychotic. 

So, getting the DMN to shut up is a good thing in and of itself.  Researchers who are studying the therapeutic benefits of psychedelics are finding that a psychedelic trip quiets the DMN and makes it more receptive to replacing negative and maladaptive thoughts with healthier ones.   

Support the show

Support our work to promote creative aging. Subscribe to the MINDRAMP Podcast.

Neuroscientist Robin Carhart-Harris has developed the "Entropic Mind Hypothesis" that suggests our minds operate along a continuum of conscious states ranging from organized and even rigid on one end to the opposite extreme of disorganized, even chaotic at the other. 

Carhart-Harris suggests that our minds work best when they are in the middle of the continuum at a so-called point of "criticality." Our minds flourish, in other words, when we find the middle ground; where our minds are balance yet flexible. 

A strategy for flourishing, therefore, is to become more aware of where are minds are along the entropy continuum and to learn how to move easily from organization to disorganization and back as best suits the situation. 

Support the show

Support our work to promote creative aging. Subscribe to the MINDRAMP Podcast.

On July 11, The New York Times' editorial board called on voters to reject Donald Trump's reelection bid, stating that the former president is "unfit to lead" a second term. It is an important statement that should be read, or listened to, by anyone interested in the well-being of our country. 

The NYT Editorial Board builds its argument around five key qualities that they say are essential in a President who is fit to lead our country; the find Trump failing in each area:

• MORAL FITNESS
• LEDERSHIP
• CHARACTER
• RESPECTFUL LANGUAGE
• RESPECT FOR THE RULE OF LAW

To facilitate greater exposure of the statement by the NYT Editorial Board,  I’m offering a full reading of the editorial. Please take the 30 minutes to hear what the Editorial Board has to say, and share it with others. 

Please vote in the Presidential election, and please vote to defeat Donald Trump and his MAGA supporters.

Support the show

Support our work to promote creative aging. Subscribe to the MINDRAMP Podcast.

Buddhist philosophers say that our "Self" is an illusion and that we can be much happier once we recognize this hallucination and learn to live without a Self. What does this mean?

I think the Buddhists mean we need to escape from the dictates of our EGO. But, what would life without an ego be like? Can we exist in the real world without an ego?

The story of Jill Bolte Taylor, as told in her book My Stroke of Insight offers insight into what life might be like without an ego. Her experience also suggests that we need our ego, but - as the Buddhists suggest - we need to keep limit it's influence on our thinking and behavior. 

Support the show

Support our work to promote creative aging. Subscribe to the MINDRAMP Podcast.