How much control do we really have over ourselves and our inner worlds?

Sure, we can choose to take one action or another physically, but do we really control the things that drive those actions?

Do we actually have control over the internal reactions we call emotions?

In this weeks episode, we explore what it means to have a healthier relationship with our emotions and, in turn, feel more in control of our lives. With the help of existential therapist Viktor Frankl and Vietnamese Buddhist monk and prolific author Thich Nhat Hanh, we explore the ideas, theories, and practices behind emotional regulation.

We may discover that we do not need to be overwhelmed by our emotions or try to silence them. Instead, perhaps we should treat our emotions like a crying infant, meeting them with acknowledgement, understanding, patience, love, and peace.

Are you alone?

Am I?

Are we all?

And is loneliness a fundamental part of being alive? Something forced upon us? Something we choose? Or something far more personal?

In this weeks episode, we dig into the experience of true loneliness: where it comes from, why it occurs, and what, if anything, we can do about it. With a jam packed exploration of the works of French existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre, Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Japanese novelist Osamu Dazai, we examine how much control we really have over our loneliness and how much responsibility we have to understand where it comes from.

We may discover that loneliness does not always originate in the world outside of us, but within ourselves, and that finding our place in a society we desperately want to belong to may require us to look inward first.

Are philosophers good people?

Do they actually live the kinds of lives they tell the rest of us to aspire to?

Or are they all talk and no action?

In this weeks episode, we take a hard look at the lives of some of our favorite philosophers and the ways they sometimes seemed to completely contradict their own teachings. With thinkers like Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Michel Foucault, and Albert Camus on the chopping block, we ask whether we can still trust their ideas after discovering the flaws, contradictions, and troubling choices in the lives they lived.

With the gentle but clear guidance of American thinker and writer bell hooks, we confront a difficult question: what do we do when someone whose ideas have changed us turns out to be deeply flawed in ways that challenge everything we thought we knew about them?

Perhaps the person who gives us a powerful idea does not have to be the person we want to become.

Do you like eating meat?

Is it delicious in every possible way?

Does it remind you of good times with family, friends, or traveling?

Same.

So why am I vegan? And why am I asking whether you should be?

In this weeks episode, I step away from the usual ethical and moral arguments surrounding veganism and animal consumption. Instead, we use the question of whether we should be vegan as a way to explore something much more personal: who we are, what we believe, and what happens when our choices force us to confront our own values.

With the help of thinkers like Jean-Paul Sartre and Peter Singer, we explore how a seemingly simple question like "Should I be vegan?" can become an opportunity for genuine self examination, regardless of where we ultimately land.

Do I love my country?

If I do, does that make me toxic?

If I don't, does that make me a traitor?

Is there even a right answer anymore?

And what does it really mean to be a patriot today?

In this weeks episode, I explore what it means to love your country in a genuine and authentic way, and how patriotism can be expressed through action rather than blind loyalty. With the help of thinkers like Jonathan Haidt and Timothy Snyder, we take an honest look at the difference between patriotism and nationalism, and how each can either strengthen or weaken the societies we hope to build.

We may discover that we have misunderstood patriotism on a massive scale, and that this misunderstanding is shaping far more of our world than we realize.

What does it mean to be liberal?

To follow liberal ideology?

To be left wing?

And what does it mean for me to call myself a liberal in the modern world, in the nation where I was born?

Surprisingly, that is a much more complicated question than it might seem.

In this weeks episode, I turn to several thinkers to try to understand what it actually means to be a liberal and whether it is an identity I want to claim for myself. With the help of philosophers like Isaiah Berlin and John Rawls, among others, we explore what liberalism was originally intended to be, what it has become, and whether it still reflects the values we hold today.

Perhaps the deeper and more frightening question is this: how do I know what my values and beliefs actually are if I don’t feel like I fit neatly anywhere?

Why am I so bored all the time?

Why is nothing entertaining enough for me anymore?

Am I boring?

Are other people boring?

Have I simply become too accustomed to having endless entertainment at my fingertips?

Or is something else going on?

In this weeks episode, we take a long, hard look at boredom and what it actually means to us. With the help of German philosopher Martin Heidegger, along with a brief appearance from Korean philosopher Byung Chul Han, we explore the different ways boredom can take hold of our lives and what, if anything, we can do about it.

Perhaps we will discover that boredom is not something we should be running from, but something we desperately need to pay attention to... before our world passes us by.

What does it mean to be healthy?

Really.

Not what the latest fad tells us. Not what we are constantly told we should be doing. And not even what the government says. What does it actually mean to live a healthy life?

In this episode, we stop and seriously ask how we know what is healthy for us in the first place. Is health really as straightforward and scientific as we tend to assume, or is there something deeper going on? With the help of voices from across history, including American journalist and author Michael Pollan, we take a closer look at what it means to pursue health and how we might actually achieve it.

And we might be surprised by just how far into the past we have to look for some of the answers.

Am I a bad parent?

Did I have bad parents?

Is there even such a thing as a good parent?

As a therapist, I am not sure there is a question I have heard more often or spent more time exploring. Throughout my career, clients have asked what it really means to be a bad parent, and whether anyone can truly be called a good one.

In this weeks episode, I dive into these questions with the help of British psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott and his groundbreaking idea of the "good enough" parent. Together, we explore what it actually means to parent well, why we so often hold ourselves to impossible standards, and why the qualities that matter most may not be the ones we expect.

Perhaps being a good enough parent really is... good enough.

Should I have kids? Should you? Should anyone, for that matter?

Is anyone ever truly ready to become a parent? Do we really know why we want children? And if we do, how can we tell when we are actually ready?

In this weeks episode, I explore what it really means to have a child and the questions we should be asking before making one of the biggest decisions of our lives. With the help of thinkers like German psychoanalyst Erik Erikson and Jewish philosopher Martin Buber, we move beyond the practical concerns of parenting to ask what it truly means to welcome another human being into the world.

Perhaps being ready has less to do with having all the answers and more to do with understanding the responsibility of the question itself.