Do your ideas belong to you—or are they secretly running the show?

If identities can calcify into cages, how do you melt them back into something alive?

In this episode, we talk with therapist and writer Mike Ross about the weird life of ideas: how they form, how they spread, and how they quietly start making decisions for us. We go from punk rock and tattoos to liminal spaces, Robin Williams, Gen Alpha chaos ("67"), emotional granularity, and Mike's concept of cognitive alchemy—naming and reshaping the stories and feelings that shape us.

If you've ever felt lonely online, stuck in your own head, or hungry for something more real than the feed, this one's for you.

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Key Topics

• The weird life of ideas: when thoughts become "drivers," not visitors

• How identities calcify (and what it takes to loosen them)

• Why the early Internet felt like salvation—and the modern feed feels like a beige matrix

• What we lose when algorithms replace serendipity

• Liminal spaces and why they mess with us (in a good way, sometimes)

• Tattoos, punk rock, and identity as signal

• Robin Williams, grief, and the stories we inherit

• Gen Alpha chaos and the mysterious "67" energy

• Emotional granularity: getting specific about what you're feeling

• "Cognitive alchemy": turning stuck inner material into something usable

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Resources + Links

• Mike Ross — (add your preferred link/handle here)

https://www.linkedin.com/in/lordofthestrange/

https://lordofthestrange.substack.com/

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MAD Warfare™ is hosted by narrative strategist Jocelyn Brady and cognitive neuroscientist Sean Anthony Guillory.

Edited and produced by Amine el Filali.

Visit madwarfare.com for extra giggles.

Send your wishes, weird ideas, dream guests, and sponsorship inquiries (yes, again) to [email protected].

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Fair Use

This show is MAD enough to include homages, short clips, and references that provide vital context and/or moments of joy. We deeply respect every creator's work and use these moments for educational, artistic, and transformative purposes under Fair Use. If we missed an attribution or you'd like to collaborate, reach out—we're happy to chat.