The Connection with Marty Moss-Coane

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.

You don’t have to be a comedian to try improv — or get up on a stage in front of a bunch of people. The principles of improv apply to daily life, too. They can help us become more positive and spontaneous, more open and willing to take risks, and help us connect with others. In this episode, we learn how to improv, about its psychological benefits and how to apply the skills to our life. Our guests are Jennifer Childs, co-founder and artistic director of 1812 Productions, Dannagal Young, communications professor at the University of Delaware and member of Philadelphia ComedySportz, and Clay Drinko, educator and author of Play Your Way Sane: 120 Improv-Inspired Exercises to Help You Calm Down, Stop Spiraling and Embrace Uncertainty.

Psychotherapist Esther Perel joins us for a conversation on love and intimacy. Perel is one of the country’s most well-known relationship therapists with an almost rock star status. She’s the bestselling author of Mating in Captivity: In Search of Erotic Intelligence and State of Affairs: Rethinking Infidelity, and has a hit podcast. We’ll talk with Perel ahead of her national tour, about what she’s discovered in her years counseling couple’s about love and desire and how to sustain an intimate relationship in a time of conflict, anxiety and upheaval.

“What if friendship – not marriage – was the center of life?” That’s what Rhaina Cohen asks in a new book, The Other Significant Others. With fewer people getting married or marrying later in life, high divorce rates and a loneliness epidemic, maybe it’s time to rethink the value of our friends. University of Maryland psychologist Marisa Franco has been studying adult friendships for years. She’s found that these relationships can be some of the most sustaining but are often overlooked. In this episode, we’ll talk about our closest non-romantic relationships and how they enrich our lives. And, need advice making new friends? We’ll cover that, too.

Human beings are built for sleep. It’s a normal, natural process and yet many of us have a troubled relationship with it. This Friday on The Connection — how to make sleep your friend. We’ll dive into the fascinating physiology of sleep and explore what our brains and bodies are doing during these “off” hours. We’ll discuss how sleep affects our memories and mood, how our daily activities affect our sleep cycles and what we can do to get restorative shut eye. And we’ll also dispel some myths…does everyone needs 8 hours a night? Our guests are Duke University sleep medicine specialist Jade Wu, author of Hello Sleep, and Penn Medicine sleep specialist Indira Gurubhagavatula.

A good conversation can immediately connect you with another person, make you feel bonded to them, and bridge divides. But some people are better talkers than others. Journalist and author Charles Duhigg calls them ‘supercommunicators’ and he’s written a new book looking at the power of conversation. In Supercommunicators, Duhigg pulls on neuroscience and psychology to explain the different types of conversation and how we can all learn to be better talkers and listeners.

As drug overdose deaths continue to rise, we look at addiction and new ideas around treatment and recovery with neuroscience journalist Maia Szalavitz. Szalavitz recovered from an addiction and she shares her insights from her experience and the latest thinking on harm reduction and substance use disorder treatment.