What draws people to history?  Niche interests?  Recognizing shared human experiences in different times and cultures?  We explore these ideas and more in this episode.  Starting by what interests people about history, moving through the cyclical nature of civilizational rise and decline, and history giving us examples of greatness (note: "great" is completely detached from morality; a person can be great and have high historical influence yet still be a horrible individual), this episode is our attempt at laying a groundwork for further exploration of the ego and human experience.

Kristy Bohan Edmunds is a cofounder and contributor to The Cognitive Dissonance Podcast. Kristy received her BS in Psychology with a minor in Chemistry in 2018, and an MS in Psychology in 2020 and is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst. She serves clients with intellectual and developmental disabilities such as Autism Spectrum Disorder as a behavior consultant in Oregon. Kristy takes a behavior analytic perspective to life and uses this philosophy to inform her work and her day to day life. Kristy believes in psychology as a hard, natural science.

Mitchell Croot is one of the founders and contributors to The Cognitive Dissonance Podcast. A father of four, a US Army veteran, and a former high school educator, and counseling student, Mitchell holds a BA in History with a minor in Secondary Education from Catawba College and an MA in History from the University of North Carolina in Charlotte. His interests include colonial North America, the American Revolution, culture and cultural transmission, philosophy, psychology, and music.

In this episode, we discuss the evolution of ethics, its origins, and its functions.  We also explore professional ethical codes and how and why they offer boundaries for socially acceptable behaviors.  Enjoy!

Kristy Bohan Edmunds is a cofounder and contributor to The Cognitive Dissonance Podcast. Kristy received her BS in Psychology with a minor in Chemistry in 2018, and an MS in Psychology in 2020 and is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst. She serves clients with intellectual and developmental disabilities such as Autism Spectrum Disorder as a behavior consultant in Oregon. Kristy takes a behavior analytic perspective to life and uses this philosophy to inform her work and her day to day life. Kristy believes in psychology as a hard, natural science.

Mitchell Croot is one of the founders and contributors to The Cognitive Dissonance Podcast. A father of four, a US Army veteran, and a high school educator, Mitchell holds a BA in History with a minor in Secondary Education from Catawba College and an MA in History from the University of North Carolina in Charlotte. His interests include colonial North America, the American Revolution, culture and cultural transmission, philosophy, psychology, and music.

What do High Priest Imhotep, Druidic Leader Diviciacus, Edward Alexander Crowley, Franz Anton Mesmer, and Grigori Rasputin all have in common?  Find out during this latest episode where we explore some key examples throughout history of the archetypal Mystic.

Works Cited:

Wildung, D. (1977). Egyptian Saints: Deification in pharaonic Egypt. New York University Press. p. 34.

Fuhrmann, Joseph T. (2012). Rasputin: The Untold Story. Trade Paper Press.

Kristy Bohan Edmunds is a cofounder and contributor to The Cognitive Dissonance Podcast. Kristy received her BS in Psychology with a minor in Chemistry in 2018, and an MS in Psychology in 2020 and is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst. She serves clients with intellectual and developmental disabilities such as Autism Spectrum Disorder as a behavior consultant in Oregon. Kristy takes a behavior analytic perspective to life and uses this philosophy to inform her work and her day to day life. Kristy believes in psychology as a hard, natural science.

Mitchell Croot is one of the founders and contributors to The Cognitive Dissonance Podcast. A father of four, a US Army veteran, and a high school educator, Mitchell holds a BA in History with a minor in Secondary Education from Catawba College and an MA in History from the University of North Carolina in Charlotte. His interests include colonial North America, the American Revolution, culture and cultural transmission, philosophy, psychology, and music.

In this episode, we examine the spread of Christianity into Europe from the perspective of cultural transmission and state building in the void left by the collapse of the western Roman Empire.  How did those peoples wrestle with differing world views?  What does our understanding of those times tell us about who we are today?

Works cited: 

The Age of Faith, Will Durant, Fine Communications, 1997.

Children of Ash and Elm, Neil Price, Basic Books, 2022.

The Anglo Saxons, Marc Morris, Pegasus Books, 2021.

Kristy Bohan Edmunds is a cofounder and contributor to The Cognitive Dissonance Podcast. Kristy received her BS in Psychology with a minor in Chemistry in 2018, and an MS in Psychology in 2020 and is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst. She serves clients with intellectual and developmental disabilities such as Autism Spectrum Disorder as a behavior consultant in Oregon. Kristy takes a behavior analytic perspective to life and uses this philosophy to inform her work and her day to day life. Kristy believes in psychology as a hard, natural science.

Mitchell Croot is one of the founders and contributors to The Cognitive Dissonance Podcast. A father of four, a US Army veteran, and a high school educator, Mitchell holds a BA in History with a minor in Secondary Education from Catawba College and an MA in History from the University of North Carolina in Charlotte. His interests include colonial North America, the American Revolution, culture and cultural transmission, philosophy, psychology, and music.

In this episode, we discuss Homo naledi, a recent hominid species discovered in southern Africa, their apparent ritualistic burials, and how interesting it is that they exhibit behaviors akin to Homo sapiens some 200,000 years earlier.  We also discuss creation myths and the underlying theme of ordering chaos and it's parallels with limiting infinite possibility space rendering that space useful and meaningful.  It's a deep yet fun conversation that Kristy and Mitchell both hope you enjoy.

Kristy Bohan Edmunds is a cofounder and contributor to The Cognitive Dissonance Podcast. Kristy received her BS in Psychology with a minor in Chemistry in 2018, and an MS in Psychology in 2020 and is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst. She serves clients with intellectual and developmental disabilities such as Autism Spectrum Disorder as a behavior consultant in Oregon. Kristy takes a behavior analytic perspective to life and uses this philosophy to inform her work and her day to day life. Kristy believes in psychology as a hard, natural science.

Mitchell Croot is one of the founders and contributors to The Cognitive Dissonance Podcast. A father of four, a US Army veteran, and a high school educator, Mitchell holds a BA in History with a minor in Secondary Education from Catawba College and an MA in History from the University of North Carolina in Charlotte. His interests include colonial North America, the American Revolution, culture and cultural transmission, philosophy, psychology, and music.

Forward: I apologize to our listeners for my audio in this episode.  Everything started off fine, but my microphone glitches out after the first 1/3 of the episode.  Switching to a back up allowed us to finish the episode at the cost of my audio quality.  Please remember that, while we strive to bring our listeners the best quality podcast that we can produce, we pay out-of-pocket for everything and make nothing in return.  This is a casual intellectual outlet for us, and as long as it remains a hobby we will continue to run a higher risk of things like this happening.  If and when we can begin garnishing support from our audience, then we can increase the consistency of quality productions.

This episode was a ton of fun to prepare for and record! Kristy and I discuss mythology, specifically focusing on Egyptian mythology (the Myth of Osiris) with some Roman mythology mixed in.  In true Cognitive Dissonance Podcast style, we dive deep into analyzing why humanity has dispositions towards creating myths and what those myths can tell us about human psychology.  This will be a multipart series, and we plan to cover a wide variety of myths from many different cultures as starting points for exploring the greater human experience.  We hope you enjoy listening to it as much as we enjoyed recording it!

Kristy Bohan Edmunds is a cofounder and contributor to The Cognitive Dissonance Podcast. Kristy received her BS in Psychology with a minor in Chemistry in 2018, and an MS in Psychology in 2020 and is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst. She serves clients with intellectual and developmental disabilities such as Autism Spectrum Disorder as a behavior consultant in Oregon. Kristy takes a behavior analytic perspective to life and uses this philosophy to inform her work and her day to day life. Kristy believes in psychology as a hard, natural science.

Mitchell Croot is one of the founders and contributors to The Cognitive Dissonance Podcast. A father of four, a US Army veteran, and a high school educator, Mitchell holds a BA in History with a minor in Secondary Education from Catawba College and an MA in History from the University of North Carolina in Charlotte. His interests include colonial North America, the American Revolution, culture and cultural transmission, philosophy, psychology, and music.

Well, this was a unique episode.  We start of discussing the psychology of games, then we examine a bit of role clarity and role acquisition.  Afterwards, we explore a deep rabbit hole about the role of government, expectations for individuals, the nature of rights, and balancing policy between interventions and preservation of individual liberties.  I debated whether to publish this episode or store it as a back-up, but Kristy and I both agreed that we do an excellent job modeling how to have a conversation with healthy disagreement, which is a skill that we are losing as a society.  

Kristy Bohan is a cofounder and contributor to The Cognitive Dissonance Podcast. Kristy received her BS in Psychology with a minor in Chemistry in 2018, and an MS in Psychology in 2020 and began working on her certification in Behavior Analysis. She serves clients with intellectual and developmental disabilities such as Autism Spectrum Disorder as a behavior consultant in Oregon. Kristy takes a behavior analytic perspective to life and uses this philosophy to inform her work and her day to day life. Kristy believes in psychology as a hard, natural science.

Mitchell Croot is one of the founders and contributors to The Cognitive Dissonance Podcast. A father of four, a US Army veteran, and a high school educator, Mitchell holds a BA in History with a minor in Secondary Education from Catawba College and an MA in History from the University of North Carolina in Charlotte. His interests include colonial North America, the American Revolution, culture and cultural transmission, philosophy, psychology, and music.

Welcome back to another exciting episode! In this episode, Kristy and Mitchell trace how embodiment of various social roles unlocks new genetic potential as our bodies respond to new environments by synthesizing proteins that we had been unable to before. Further, we explore how new environments stimulate neuroplasticity allowing us to reshape our cognitive structures and think about the world in new and different ways. In short, our conclusion is that major life events do not just change a person metaphysically or philosophically, they actually change a person down to the molecular level. How fascinating!

Kristy Bohan is a cofounder and contributor to The Cognitive Dissonance Podcast. Kristy received her BS in Psychology with a minor in Chemistry in 2018, and an MS in Psychology in 2020 and began working on her certification in Behavior Analysis. She serves clients with intellectual and developmental disabilities such as Autism Spectrum Disorder as a behavior consultant in Oregon. Kristy takes a behavior analytic perspective to life and uses this philosophy to inform her work and her day to day life. Kristy believes in psychology as a hard, natural science.

Mitchell Croot is one of the founders and contributors to The Cognitive Dissonance Podcast. A father of four, a US Army veteran, and a high school educator, Mitchell holds a BA in History with a minor in Secondary Education from Catawba College and an MA in History from the University of North Carolina in Charlotte. His interests include colonial North America, the American Revolution, culture and cultural transmission, philosophy, psychology, and music.

What a wild ride of an episode! In this one, Kristy and I cover a very wide range of topics relating to social groups and their influence on individual psychology from prisons to military service to cults to social media mobbing. There's too much to type out, so you'll just have to listen!

Kristy Bohan is a cofounder and contributor to The Cognitive Dissonance Podcast. Kristy received her BS in Psychology with a minor in Chemistry in 2018, and an MS in Psychology in 2020 and began working on her certification in Behavior Analysis. She serves clients with intellectual and developmental disabilities such as Autism Spectrum Disorder as a behavior consultant in Oregon. Kristy takes a behavior analytic perspective to life and uses this philosophy to inform her work and her day to day life. Kristy believes in psychology as a hard, natural science.

Mitchell Croot is one of the founders and contributors to The Cognitive Dissonance Podcast. A father of four, a US Army veteran, and a high school educator, Mitchell holds a BA in History with a minor in Secondary Education from Catawba College and an MA in History from the University of North Carolina in Charlotte. His interests include colonial North America, the American Revolution, culture and cultural transmission, philosophy, psychology, and music.

New year, same old show! We decided to start the new year with a new multipart series on social psychology. Now, more than ever, social psychology matters in ways it never has before. With social media and a myriad of social pressures that we engage with and consume hour by hour and day by day, understanding social psychology can have a major impact on how we live our day to day lives.

Kristy Bohan is a cofounder and contributor to The Cognitive Dissonance Podcast. Kristy received her BS in Psychology with a minor in Chemistry in 2018, and an MS in Psychology in 2020 and began working on her certification in Behavior Analysis. She hopes to be board certified in early 2022 where she will continue to service clients with intellectual and developmental disabilities such as Autism Spectrum Disorder as a behavior consultant in Oregon. Kristy takes a behavior analytic perspective to life and uses this philosophy to inform her work and her day to day life. Kristy believes in psychology as a hard, natural science.

Mitchell Croot is one of the founders and contributors to The Cognitive Dissonance Podcast. A father of four, a US Army veteran, and a high school educator, Mitchell holds a BA in History with a minor in Secondary Education from Catawba College and an MA in History from the University of North Carolina in Charlotte. His interests include colonial North America, the American Revolution, culture and cultural transmission, philosophy, psychology, and music.