In this episode, George and James get into the topic of self-acceptance and the relationship between it and meditation. James begins by recounting the history of his own refusal and consternation towards the notion, as verbalized to George many years back, and the context in which this refusal arose. After years of the discussion having been put on the back burner, James discusses the precipitating event that led him back to rekindling friendship with George, at which time the discussion of the need for self-acceptance arose. Threads about the necessity of self-acceptance for functional romantic relationships, as well as the intense barriers to the same that come up on account of developmental trauma, are all discussed, both personally and in the abstract. The episode ends with a nod towards the journey of meditation as a means of fostering and enhancing self-acceptance, with the paradoxical goal of the same being the non-identification of self with what we take to be our normal every day sense of self.