Life Examined

Christian Wiman, author of Zero at the Bone: Fifty Entries Against Despair, discusses life after being diagnosed with a rare and incurable form of his cancer and how preparing for death influenced his thought, faith, and poetry. Wiman, the Clement-Muehl Professor of Communication Arts at Yale Divinity School, examines anguish and despair and his “real desire to make faith more the center of my life, not to live it quietly to bring it into my work to bring it into my life.”

This week, Anna Lembke, addiction specialist at Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic, and author of “Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence,” discusses the human tendency to lie and why telling the truth not only brings us closer together but is actually healthy for us. The intimacy created from being truthful, Lembke says, is a wonderful and healthy source of dopamine.  

Robert Sapolsky, a professor at Stanford University, discusses the concept of free will and how our choices are influenced by genetics, biology, and environment. He explores the impact of the prenatal environment on brain development, the influence of culture on child development, and the role of dopamine receptor variants on human behavior. Sapolsky also explores the implications of life without free will in the criminal justice system, self-perception, ethics, and social behavior.

This week, Oliver Burkeman, journalist and author of Four Thousand Weeks; Time Management for Mortals explores our relationship with time and asks how our common belief that our ultimate happiness or contentment will only happen at some point in the future - perhaps when we’ve got a top job, house or kids- is impacting our sense of happiness and contentment day to day.  

Katherine May, British writer and author of Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times, shares her love of the winter months, describing her physical feelings when immersed in the cold local sea as a “sensory delight.” Writer, surfer, and swimmer Bonnie Tsui shares stories from her latest book Why We Swim and explains why humans have such a long and deep connection to water.

This week, Cassie Holmes, Professor of Marketing and Behavioral Decision Making and author of “Happier Hour: How to Beat Distraction, Expand Your Time, and Focus on What Matters Most,” suggests ways to value and savor the more ordinary moments and says when it comes to finding happiness, it helps to measure those less extraordinary moments in our lives. 

Jonathan Bastian talks with psychologist Paul Bloom about the role that hardship and pain play in living a good life. Bloom, author of  “The Sweet Spot,” explores why — from running a marathon to eating spicy food — suffering helps us to thrive and gives us satisfaction.

British author Katherine May explores the concept of wintering as a period of rest and reflection for physical and psychological well-being. The podcast reflects on the parallel between difficult periods in life and the experience of grief, emphasizing the importance of valuing emotional well-being. The chapter discusses the profound lessons about life that can be learned from hibernating animals. The speaker reflects on the sensory landscape and altered consciousness that comes with being in the sea. They discuss the transition from wintering to finding beauty and meaning in the world once again. The podcast explores the feeling of enchantment and its diminishing as we grow older. The speakers reflect on the experience of seeking the green flash at sunset and finding solace in connecting with nature.

This week, Harvard divinity scholar Casper ter Kuile talks about the power of ancient ritual and how incorporating a tech sabbath and switching off our phones, can help us refocus and recenter our lives.

Carl Safina, ecologist and founding president of The Safina Center at Stony Brook University in New York, shares his experience raising a small owl. Safina recounts what he learned and why this period of his life was so joyful in his latest book Alfie and Me: What Owls Know, What Humans Believe. Writer Jennifer Ackerman, who’s written several books on birds and is author of What an Owl Knows:The New Science of the World's Most Enigmatic Birds, describes why the owl is the absolute apex predator.