The Connection with Marty Moss-Coane

Psychiatrist Frank Anderson has been a leading expert in the treatment of trauma. Even though he was a much-in-demand speaker and wrote books about the subject, he never dealt with his own traumatic childhood and the abuse he experienced at the hands of his father…until now. When Anderson became a father, he saw himself acting and reacting like his dad in his relationship with his sons and went into therapy. His new memoir, To Be Loved, is about how facing the truth of his trauma has made him a more authentic and better person. Trauma is common, resulting in shock, numbness, and a feeling of disconnection from the self and others. Untreated trauma can have lifelong mental health consequences leading to depression and anxiety. Frank Anderson joins us to discuss what trauma can teach us and how it can be healed.

Filmmaker, hip-hop artist and professor MK Asante’s 2013 memoir Buck described growing up in Philadelphia in the 90s “unsupervised, with my brother gone, my dad gone, my mom gone and me just on the block in the neighborhood, roaming the streets of Philly — just lost.” The book explored his transformation from petty drug dealer to poet. Now over a decade later, Asante has a new memoir, Nephew: A Memoir in 4-Part Harmony and join us this week to talk about it. It begins with Asante sitting vigil by his nephew Nasir’s bedside at Temple University hospital, where he is close to death after being shot nine times. The book is written to Nasir about their family’s complicated legacy of secrets, loss, faith, and redemption. It’s also about the power of music and language to connect us and heal old wounds.

There’s been a lot of fighting over how to teach the history of America – and it’s turned classroom curriculums into political battlefields. Perhaps it’s not surprising that we get emotional confronting our past, with so many painful chapters. How do we get people to face the ugly truths of the American story? Can we feel sorrow, shame and anger while still taking pride in the things that make this country great? We’ll talk with a social psychologist and a history professor about why we need to teach “hard history” and how to develop the mental toolkit to reckon honestly with our past. Our guests are Dolly Chugh, psychologist and professor at the Stern School of Business at New York University and author of A More Just Future and Hasan Kwame Jeffries, associate professor of history at The Ohio State University and the editor of Understanding and Teaching the Civil Rights Movement. 

Why are so many people so angry, outraged and resentful these days? While there’s a lot to be ticked off about, it’s not healthy to feel aggrieved all the time. It affects our sense of wellbeing, our relationships with other people — and it’s not good for our democracy. New York Times columnist Frank Bruni has been exploring our culture of complaint and joins us this week to discuss his new book, The Age of Grievance. He writes that “the blame game has become the country’s most popular sport and victimhood its most fashionable garb.” While he is critical of the left, especially college campuses that focus on trigger warnings, political correctness and microaggressions, he says nothing compares to the dangerous grievances that fueled the January 6th insurrection. This episode, a conversation about why humility is an antidote to grievance.

Jamie Wyeth comes from a family of artists. Besides his famous father, Andrew Wyeth, there is his grandfather, illustrator N.C. Wyeth. Jamie, like his family, has strong ties to the Brandywine River Valley and to rural Maine. And while he inherited his family’s gifts, he has carved out his own artistic vision. It hasn’t always been easy. In this edition of The Connection, a conversation with Jamie Wyeth about his journey to find his place in the world, the ghosts that haunt him and why he thinks painting is an odd thing to do. Also joining us is filmmaker Glenn Holsten, whose new documentary is “Jamie Wyeth and the Unflinching Eye.” His previous film about Andrew Wyeth was featured on PBS’ American Masters.

Did you have a favorite stuffed animal or blanket when you were a kid? Do you still have it today? Childhood possessions are filled with memories and meaning so we hold on to them for many years. In this hour we explore the uniquely human behavior of owning things and why we become attached to our belongings. We’ll look at how they connect us with a person or experience and become part of our identity. And we’ll talk about the downsides of having too many possessions – there are more than 50,000 self-storage facilities in the country filled with our overflow. Our guest is psychologist Bruce Hood author of Possessed: Why We Want More Than We Need.

Americans are losing faith with their religious institutions and traditions. That’s a major finding in the latest report from the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI). A quarter of Americans now call themselves religiously unaffiliated citing the clergy sex abuse scandals and teachings against the LGBTQ community as the reasons they no longer believe. On the other hand, most Americans identify as Christian even as the country becomes more religious diverse and fewer Americans attend religious services. In this hour of The Connection, we look at “religious churning” in the country and the role religion, especially Christian Nationalism, is playing in our politics this election season. Our guest is Robert P. Jones, founder and president of PRRI and author of several books including, The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy.

That gut feeling is telling you something…directing you toward a decision but you can’t pinpoint precisely why. That’s our intuition talking and there’s more truth to it then we previously understand. Psychologist and neuroscientist Joel Pearson has been studying intuition and putting it to the test in his lab. He joins us to explain where gut instincts come from, when we should trust them and how we can use them to make better choices. Pearson is the author of the brand new book, The Intuition Toolkit.

Millions of people share their lives with dogs, opening their homes and hearts to their canine companions. It’s a partnership that goes back thousands of years. We love and care for them, feed and groom them and they give us joy, loyalty and what feels like unconditional love. Today we examine the dog-human connection from both perspectives and look at what makes it so unique and fulfilling. Our guests are Alexandra Horowitz who studies dog cognition at Barnard College and is the author many dog books including, Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell and Know, and Our Dogs, Ourselves, and Clive Wynne, who heads the Canine Science Collaboratory at Arizona State University and is the author of Dog is Love: Why and How Your Dog Loves You.

Acclaimed primatologist Frans de Waal died last week. His studies of the great apes — chimps and bonobos — changed our understanding of our primate cousins and ourselves. De Waal showed that primates are smart and compassionate, cooperative and competitive. They have complex relationships and cultures, just like our own. For years, Frans de Waal directed Emory University’s Living Links Center and authored many books popularizing his findings that primates and human are not all that different. Over the years, he was also a frequent guest on Marty’s previous show, Radio Times, and this week we listen back to some favorite conversations.