We met with psychiatrist, professor emeritus and best selling author, Peter Kramer, to explore depression, antidepressants and his fiction and non-fiction body of work. His most recent novel is Death of the Great Man, a political who-done-it satire about the improbable clinical relationship between a narcissistic despot and his psychotherapist. Our conversation covered equal parts general psychiatry and book discussion. His clinical work has served and shaped Kramer's work as a novelist. As Jennifer Egan described in an earlier Grey Matter episode, Kramer sees literature as a unique vehicle for putting ourselves into other peoples' shoes. This is similar to the task of the psychotherapist, who seeks to assist patients by getting into their minds to spur them to self-examination. Spoiler alert - The Great Man is fashioned after Donald Trump. Among the many dimensions of the book, it wants us to think about standing behind and accepting someone who uses lying as a prime political technique. Other themes are selfishness versus selflessness, intimacy versus autonomy, death, truth, and the perils of giving way to despotism over the long term. Woven throughout the conversation is commentary on the efficacy of antidepressants and their impact on personality, depression as a multi-system disease, "retirement" when still working, psychiatrists giving advice, self-assessment, non-attachment, the Media's portrayal of mental health, psychiatric diagnoses using bots, the fluidity of diagnoses, Freud, sidelining intellectuals, and the difficulty of "out-trumping" Trump. Join us.

We met with one of the preeminent figures of American journalism, James Fallows, to discuss equal parts world affairs and the craft of journalism. Fallows brings the perspective of a lengthy and illustrious career covering a vast array of domestic and international issues, including politics, technology, Asia, aviation and hometown America, to name a few. We touch on all of these to get his perspectives on Trump's presidency and current legal challenges, AI, social media, US/China relations, working as Carter's speech writer, the news industry in general, and much more. A believer that "transparency is the new objectivity," Fallows openly acknowledges upfront the aspects of his political background that are potentially relevant to his views. While today there are so many things happening at a distance that alarm us, Fallows ends by reminding us that he consistently finds great resilience and possibility when he goes local to get a closer look. His observations are informative and sober, but ultimately optimistic. Join us.

We met with expert psychiatrist, Ira Steinman, to explore the little-understood world of schizophrenia. While this may seem like a niche topic, Steinman's insights into the condition reveal valuable lessons for all of us. Recounting cases from his 2009 book, Treating the Untreatable, and from his clinical practice, Steinman describes how he helps his patients discover from where their symptoms arise, and how their symptoms serve them. He has then seen untreatable patients cured, and in many cases, fully freed from reliance on antipsychotic medications. Many of these recoveries are nothing short of miraculous. Steinman explains how victims of schizophrenia suffer from extreme dissociative disorder. We don't need to suffer from the most debilitating symptoms of schizophrenia to appreciate the cautionary emphasis on the importance of bringing the self together, and cultivating a unity and coherence within ourselves. Join us.

We met with renowned Middle East correspondent and journalism lecturer, Janine Zacharia to do a round up on Middle East current events. The scorecard is sobering. We are at an inflection point. While popular attention turns to Russia and China, press freedoms across the region continue to decline. The circulation of deliberately false information is a central cause. This fuels rampant political polarization, which in turn helps autocrats win. Violence and oppression against journalists is on the rise. Our own internal political dysfunction makes coherent foreign policy nearly impossible. As America's standing and influence in the region wanes, China (who requires no standards for human rights or press freedoms) is more than happy to fill in our vacuum. So Zacharia asks an existential question - how might we restore respect for fact-based news? This is the lifeblood of functioning democracy. There are no easy answers, but she helps us see that this one leverage point has implications for the entire globe. Join us.

It seems anxiety and depression surround us, and perhaps plague us personally. To help us understand the domain of the mind, we met with pre-eminent Stanford psychiatrist and hypnosis expert, David Spiegel to explore applications of psychotherapy and self-hypnosis. Our hour of conversation proved to be an invaluable primer for everyone, whether we are currently in care, know someone who is, or might find ourselves facing anxiety and depression in the future within ourselves or within a loved one. Spiegel gave us helpful insights on approaching post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, depression, emotional triggers, pain, chronic or terminal illness, and generally managing our mental states to live better lives. We briefly touched upon how his smartphone-based self-hypnosis app, REVERI, makes this healing modality accessible to anyone. Spiegel gave us cautionary advice for loved ones of a person in treatment for anxiety and depression. We also talked about the broader social aspects of psychology, including guns and mass shootings, the scapegoating of mental illness, AI, admissibility in court of hypnosis-based testimony, and much more. Join us.

ChatGPT took the world, and our imaginations, by storm when it became the first consumer app to reach one million users in five days - the fastest in history. The opportunities and the threats are boundless, but we don't know what we don't know. We invited technology analyst Jeremiah Owyang to help us sift through the reality and the hype. Owyang minces no words when he asserts that AI will be the most consequential technology to debut in our lifetimes. The upheaval and displacement will be great, but it will also enable us to reset our relationship to work towards what is inspirational and enlightening. Will AI help us become more human? How will we protect ourselves from bad actors? How will we confirm what is true? How must society adjust? How close is AGI - Artificial General Intelligence - to becoming on par with human intelligence, and how will we know? Will our behavior change if AGI learns how to treat us by how we treat others? There's no squeezing the genie back into the bottle. Join us for a peek of the brave new world that lies ahead.

It seems that China is in the news every day. To dig in deeper on this issue, we met with Orville Schell - one of the world's foremost experts on China and US/Sino relations - to help us understand the Chinese perspective and to learn more about China's leader, Xi Jinping. We dove deep into China's radical successes, its challenges, its resilience, its leverage, its sense of grievance and victimization, its anti-Western diplomacy, and its troubling aspirations. It has become the strongest member of an autocratic block of nations positioned to resist liberal democracy throughout the world. Despite this worrying preeminence, we know surprisingly little about China's enigmatic party leader, Xi Jinping. Not only is saber-rattling bad for business, actual military conflict could blow the global economy to blazes. Schell leaves us with the understanding that now is the time to conjure "Kissinger-esque" creativity, and summon new approaches to preserve the peace with Asia's Middle Kingdom. Join us to learn more.

When British novelist Robert Graves wrote "I Claudius" about the fourth Roman Emperor, he set the stage for our interview with Justine Ezarik, better known as iJustine, who is to me "The Empress of the Internet." She is a content creator for nearly two decades who has over a billion views on her YouTube channel, and even has young fans who were not yet born when their parents started watching her. We sought to understand the personal and professional trajectory that led to her becoming such an authority on technology and an inspiration to so many. We learned that passion and balance are central themes of her life. Firstly, technology is iJustine's first love. She observes that, "Today's technology is so accessible that we can do really anything we want, if we have the will to do it." This promise lights her up, and powers the fire of her hard-driving work ethic across all her varied interests. Secondly, there is balance - the Tao - the middle way between two extremes. Justine works hard, but also plays hard. She used to be very public about her life, but has now dialed that back to reclaim some of her life for herself. Consequently, she rediscovered authentic fun from what had become "fake fun." There are troubling aspects about social media, but so too there are amazing aspects that grace those who can strike the balance and curate their consumption carefully. The same goes for Artificial Intelligence (AI) - there are negative uses while at the same time there are wondrous uses. She cautions against becoming too alarmist. Seeking to avoid labels, stay positive, channel creativity, champion access and maintain balance, iJustine - The Empress of the Internet - shows the way. Join us to learn how she does it all.

In this episode we journey with one of the pre-eminent film editors of the last half century, Walter Murch, through tales of his career as an editor and sound designer. His film credits are impressive, including an Oscar for Apocalypse Now, and numerous other iconic films including the Godfather franchise and American Graffiti. Murch's reflections shed light on how an editor makes sense of the footage a director shoots and renders a "delicious" product, much like a chef whipping up a scrumptious meal from whatever comes home from the hunt, be it mastodon or mouse. Get the Cliff Notes on his Rule of Six, and hear about the recently released sleeper documentary, Coup 53, that illuminates the CIA-organized coup to install the Shah of Iran and set the stage for today's geopolitics. Film aficionados will relish Murch's recollections and inside baseball on his many movie credits. Film students will glean valuable guidance on the craft of movie making, collaboration with the director, and creativity in general. Everyone will find inspiration from Murch's curious mind and "polymathic" abilities. Lucky for us that he had a knack for sounds, a passion for tape recorders, and a love of story. Had he not, we might have lost him to the ocean floor or quantum mechanics. Join us for a delightful hour of movie history and history in-the-making.

Join us for a globetrotting "memory lane" walk-a-bout through naturalist Michael Ellis's countless national and international adventures. These recounted travels feature spectacular natural highlights, present challenging ethical quandaries, and inspire deep metaphorical reflection on our lives in general. Ellis' favorite international destinations are the Serengeti - birthplace of humanity, the gorillas of Rwanda, Bhutan, Namibia, the South Georgia Islands, the sharks of Palau, the jaguars of the Pantanal and the ecosystem diversity of Brazil's Mato Grosso. Closer to home, The Cedars in Sonoma County, mountain biking through Canyonlands or Santa Rosa, the whales off the California coast, chipmunk biodiversity in the Sierras, the simultaneous macro and micro expansiveness of the Mojave desert, and the sanctum of the redwoods. Contained within are the largest, oldest and most exotic lifeforms imaginable. How do we ethically appreciate these miracles? Ellis points out that we can love these places to death, smothering them with too much tourism or generating excess carbon in our travel. At the same time, tourism provides the strongest economic incentive for local peoples to protect their natural treasures, without which habitat becomes farmland and bushmeat becomes dinner. There are no easy answers. The majesty of the natural world invites us to release our expectations, be here now, and pause to be amazed by the miracle of it all.