These Days

The Baltimore Orioles boldly traded All-Star catcher Adley Rutschman for a haul of  talented prospects from their division rivals, the Boston Red Sox. In the end this deal may have less to do with disappointing stats and pending free agency than with team culture and leadership.  Always more at dimitrigats.com

In May legendary house music DJ Philipp Jung died. His partner was six months pregnant with their first child. Jung, who scored a major EDM hit with the track "Body Language," also curated an absolute trove of music via his Get Physical Label. His passing is a bittersweet reminder of the power of music and the fragility of life.  Philipp's GoFundMe page to help his partner and their...

McSorley's Old Ale House, the oldest bar in New York, once had as its slogan "Good Ale, Raw Onions and No Ladies." Recent time at the gym, replete with the wonderful distraction of women, raises the question: Might we sometimes benefit from having male- and female-only spaces? Always more at dimitrigats.com

Recent events at a rave in DTLA proved both traumatizing and elucidating.  Always more at dimitrigats.com

Our phones combine the pleasures and harms of an on-demand tv and a pack of cigarettes. What can we do to escape their seductive vortex? On "the father of media studies" Marshal McLuhan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_McLuhan , https://www.marshallmcluhan.com/ Always more at dimitrigats.com

A rare chance to eat and drink with the great public intellectual still begs the question: What would our public discourse be like if he were still with us? Always more at dimitrigats.com

During this World Cup Fox Soccer co-analysts and former players Zlatan Ibrahimović and Alexi Lalas have sparred in studio. Ibrahimović may have taken the early rounds but his actions say a lot about him—and nearly none of it is good.  Always more at dimitrigats.com

Tempting as it may be to continually and justifiably lambast Trump, he's largely reflection of us and our own collective ills. What are we missing?  Always more at dimitrigats.com

Trump's summit with Chinese premier Xi Jinping meant far less practically than it did symbolically. And in this regard, the  Chinese philosopher king met the beleaguered U.S.  bully. Round 1: China.  Always more at dimitrigats.com

Tech is sold to us as an enhanced extension of ourselves. But on the most basic level it fails us, diminishing our instincts and replacing them with palpable tension and angst.  Thread on Suzy Cream Cheese . Always more at dimitrigats.com

While Trump is indeed a major problem for our society, he is a symptom of a much larger problem ailing us at this time.  Always more at dimitrigats.com

The Baltimore Orioles made many high-impact acquisitions this offseason—from NY Mets slugger Pete Alonso to new manager Craig Albernaz—to complement and develop their highly touted young core. What can reasonably be expected from this year's team?  Always more at dimitrigats.com

Virtually everything, including our politics, is personal . And so to truly understand Donald Trump and his presidency we must factor in the man's psychopathology. Recent events put this on clear display.  Link: What is projection ? (<5 is a sub series of the These Days podcast, presented in episodes of less than 5 mins.) Always more at dimitrigats.com

In the 1920s cigarettes were dubbed "coffin nails." Forty-plus years later we got a government warning about their harms. Something disturbingly similar is taking place with our phones and AI.  Always more at dimitrigats.com

American Christianity and Liberalism at one point would have served as effective bulwarks against the depravity of Donald Trump. That they haven't points to a deepening American crisis.  Always more at dimitrigats.com

Attorney General Pam Bondi's performance before the House Judiciary Committee marked a new low in in the history of American politics. Her lack of self-respect, the way in which her moral judgement so willfully capitulated to kowtowing and cultishness, was pitiful in the truest sense of the word—a real-life manifestation of Trump Derangement Syndrome.   Always more at dimitrigats.com

It's tempting to blame all our national ills on Donald Trump. But the devastation of our values that he represents goes back decades. Bill and Hillary Clinton, with their greed, indecency, corruption and blatant denials—along with the ongoing denials of millions who voted for him—helped set the stage for this era of toxic politics.   Always more at dimitrigats.com

Six-time Super Bowl winning head coach Bill Belichick was denied entry last week into the National Football Hall of Fame on the first ballot, setting off outrage among the punditry. Here's why the decision makes sense.  Always more at dimitrigats.com

A recent  Times  piece reported that "at least one in four American adults is estranged from a close relative." I, along with many of my patients, are among them. This is some of what I've learned.  Always more at dimitrigats.com

Long after Trumpism fades, the U.S. will feel the effects of a media that, as with wokeism a few years before, has capitulated when it mattered most.  Always more at dimitrigats.com

(Short.) What happens when two drivers in Hollywood get pissed and refuse to budge? Always more at dimitrigats.com

As one fascinated by our interactions with dogs, I've sought the knowledge of experts over how best to rear them. One of the best pieces of advice ever given was, while daunting at first, strikingly simple: "Never let them win." Always more at dimitrigats.com

There's an adage that "everything is political." This is not true: Even the political is in fact personal, reflecting and saying much about one's own psychology. Once a person comes to understand, and to accept, their own thoughts and feelings (even the so-called crazy ones) everything changes. An acceptance of self after all facilitates an acceptance of others. So preventing p...

My daughter once asked me, as a clinician who works daily with psychopathology, "Dad, do any people ever scare you?" Very few in fact do, I replied—save for those who believe in violence as a means to silence another's point of view. The horrific events two days ago demonstrate how that tendency, espoused through the norm of cancel culture, has now morphed into something with calami...

Much like the Columbine shooting in 1999, the assassination of Charlie Kirk is a cataclysmic moment of these times, and one which portends more violence. The killing also reflects how sick, on both sides, our society has become. As our politicians and media continue to mislead us, offering the same division that has led us here, we have hard questions to ask about what moving forward we wish to va...