Anna Machin, an evolutionary anthropologist at Oxford University, unpacks the idea that love is as vital as food or water for our well-being. She details how love fosters health and longevity, while also examining the significance of friendships in our lives. Caitlin Doughty, a refreshing mortician and author, brings a humorous touch to the topic of death, discussing embalming, post-mortem processes, and even what happens if someone dies on an airplane. Together, they challenge societal taboos and advocate for a more open conversation about love and mortality.
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insights INSIGHT
Why Showers Boost Creativity
The shower creates a state similar to meditation by shutting down outside sensory stimulation.
This state broadens attention and helps generate creative solutions to problems.
insights INSIGHT
Love as a Survival Need
Love is not an emotion but a fundamental human need like food or water.
Its neurochemical basis evolved to motivate investment in survival-critical relationships.
insights INSIGHT
Love's Health Benefits Explained
Strong, loving relationships boost mental and physical health significantly.
This may be due to social support, positive neurochemicals, and immune system enhancement.
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In 'Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?', Caitlin Doughty addresses various questions about death, including what happens to our bodies after we die. The book covers topics such as ancient Egyptian death rituals, the science of skeletons, flesh-eating insects, and how to bury a pet to make it a mummy. It features an interview with a clinical expert on discussing death with young people and confronts common fears of dying with candid and humorous facts.
The American way of death
Jessica Mitford
Jessica Mitford's 'The American Way of Death' is a groundbreaking work of investigative journalism that exposed the exploitative practices prevalent in the American funeral industry during the 1960s. Mitford meticulously documented the industry's manipulative sales tactics, exorbitant pricing, and deceptive marketing strategies that preyed on grieving families. Her unflinching critique sparked public outrage and led to significant reforms in funeral regulations. The book's impact extended beyond the funeral industry, highlighting the vulnerability of consumers during times of grief and the need for greater transparency and ethical practices in all businesses. Mitford's work remains a powerful example of investigative journalism's ability to effect social change.
Why we love
The Nature and Chemistry of Romantic Love
Helen Fisher
In this book, Helen Fisher uses fMRI brain scanning to investigate the brain circuitry of romantic love, arguing that it is a primary mating drive hardwired into our brains by millions of years of evolution. Fisher discusses romantic love among peoples around the world, the activation of brain regions associated with intense addiction when in love, and the evolution of love. She also explores other primary mating drives such as lust and attachment, and the future of romantic love in the digital age.
Who hasn’t had a brilliant idea or revelation while taking a shower? It seems the shower is a place where we do some of our best thinking. Why is that? This episode starts with an explanation. https://www.headspace.com/articles/shower-epiphanies
What is love? Is it an experience, or an emotion or something else? According to Anna Machin, an evolutionary anthropologist at Oxford University, love is a human need that is as important as food, sleep or water. Listen to our discussion and you will realize how important having love in your life is and how it impacts your health and longevity. Anna is the author of the book Why We Love: The New Science Behind Our Closest Relationships (https://amzn.to/3SzC8mp).
Death is a hard subject for many of us to discuss. Yet, it is hard not to be curious about it because it affects us all – when we lose someone or when ultimately we must face it ourselves. However, it is not a tough topic for Caitlin Doughty to discuss. Caitlin is a mortician, funeral home owner and bestselling author and she talks about death in a much lighter and interesting way. Listen as she joins me to discuss some of the fascinating things about death such as: What happens if the person next to you on an airplane dies? What is embalming? Is it true that hair and fingernails continue to grow after death? Can you keep your father’s skull after he dies? Caitlin is the author of Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? (https://amzn.to/3SArg7C).
Your refrigerator likely has a drawer for produce. And that turns out to be a lousy place to keep it. As you have no doubt experienced, the produce drawer is where a lot of food goes to rot and die. There is a better place to keep produce so it actually gets eaten. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120430140027.htm
Something You Should Know 
