Preconceived

We are told from a very young age that being honest is a good thing. But most of us don’t really believe that honesty is always the best policy. Most of us allow for exceptions, omissions, and the occasional white lie, if it means sparing someone hurt feelings or avoiding an awkward conversation. Michael Leviton, author of "To Be Honest", spent most of his life not making such exceptions, and bein...

Ari Nagel is perhaps the most famous sperm donor in the world. He has fathered seventy children through sperm donation and has more children on the way. Unlike traditional sperm donation, Ari does not charge any money for his sperm and is involved in varying degrees in the lives of his kids. So what prompted Ari to devote his life to this cause? How does he keep track of seventy kids? What problem...

Few would admit to regretting their decision to become parents. But that doesn't mean there are not people who do indeed regret the choice to have kids. Is it possible to still love your children while regretting the choice to have had them? Is the admission of regret necessarily a bad thing? Orna Donath, author of Regretting Motherhood, joins the podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy fo...

The boundary between adolescence and adulthood is naturally blurred. Usually, there is no distinct moment in which you seize to be a “youth” and begin to be an “adult”. But more important than identifying a key moment in time when this transition occurs, what does it actually mean to “become an adult”? Former Stanford Dean and New York Times bestselling author Julie Lythchott-Haims re-joins the po...

Christianity is the most commonly practiced religion in the world, with over 2.3 billion people identifying as Christians. Not surprisingly, the life of Jesus Christ is at the core of Christianity. Many of Christianity’s rituals, philosophies and belief systems are based on the events of his life. So what does Jesus Christ mean to Christianity, and how did his legacy shape this popular religion? B...

Money did not always exist in its current form. There was a time when goods and services were just exchanged for one another, without actual coins or cash changing hands. The preconception is that our current monetary system, the status quo, makes complete sense. But as millennia of history have proven to us, money is very complex, and there is a lot at stake. Jacob Goldstein, host of the popular...

Both the legality of prostitution and the ethics of sex work are highly debated topics worldwide. Is there anything inherently wrong with a person deciding to sell sex for money? Beyond this, what is the relationship between sex work, and the very different but often conflated topic of sex trafficking? Carly Kalish, a social worker and executive director of Victim Services of Durham Region, joins...

What is like to be on a psychedelic "trip", and what can it teach one about life's meaning and purpose? What kind of alternate form of reality and consciousness, if any, do psychedelics tap into? Jon Folak, who goes by the moniker, The Traveling Nobody, joins the podcast to discuss his psychedelic experiences with mushrooms and ayahuasca. Jon Folak's website - https://travelingnobody.netRelated Pr...

World-renowned author and historian Susan Wise Bauer rejoins the podcast to shed some "light" on the "dark ages", more commonly known as the Middle Ages. Why is this 1,000 year period of human history considered with generally negative regard? Is the Middle Ages even a real thing, or just something created by later historians? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our younger years are dominated by education. The foundation of our daily routine is attending school, and the overarching purpose of our lives, so to speak, is to become educated before entering the “real world”. But for all the hours, days and years spent sitting in classrooms, is our conventional education system actually as good as it could be? World-renowned author and historian Susan Wise Ba...

The choices available to humans have perhaps never been as widespread as they are in the 21st century. This can apply to the simple things like our choice in restaurants, tv shows, and books, and to the more serious life decisions, like which career to pursue, which partner to choose, and trying to find meaning via a myriad of different ways. But while choice can be an amazing thing that opens up...

Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia can be devastating diseases for both the patients and families affected. What is it like in the early stages of dementia, when one is aware of the further cognitive decline that is to come? When the disease becomes more advanced, is there any benefit in reorienting the patient to the present , or is it wiser to allow them to roam where their thoughts take th...

In this sequel episode, former American infantryman Alan Leggitt shares his experience of serving in the military as bisexual during the era of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell". Under this policy, which was only lifted in 2011, members of the American military were not allowed to reveal or ask questions regarding one's sexual orientation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Being part of the military is widely viewed as something honorable, dutiful and patriotic. But as the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have endured for so long over the past two decades, many questions have arisen. Are the sacrifices that American citizens have been asked to make for their country always worth it? How do soldiers respect authority and take orders from superiors, when perhaps they don’...

Gene Steinberg was born and raised in a Jewish Hasidic community in New York. At age 28, he made the difficult decision to leave orthodox-Judaism to live a life more aligned with his personal values. Gene explains what it is like to live in an isolationist Hasidic community, how he came to leave this way of life and the challenges that he and many others face when they do so. Hosted on Acast. See...

There are few sports as intense as boxing, where you are in a ring, on your own, fighting one-on-one against a fierce competitor. So what is it like to be a boxer? What motivates someone to engage in such an extreme sport, ridden with such physical risk and potentially even psychological harm? And as a sport and industry in general, is boxing still appropriate in the times we live in today? Retire...

Napoleon Bonaparte is considered one of the greatest military leaders of all time. He is often mentioned alongside names such as Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar, but whereas they existed thousands of years ago, he died only 200 years ago. And as such, his legacy is perhaps still being shaped more so than other comparatively more ancient figures. So what is the legacy of Napoleon? What are so...

In this episode, Zale opens up about his own experience with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. What is an obsession, and what is a compulsion? How does OCD extend far beyond the preconception of a pure focus on cleanliness? Zale gives a window into what it is like living with anxiety and sheds some light on psychiatric illness in general. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What are we to do with the books, movies, songs and performances created by some of society's most iconic artists who have later been exposed for certain wrongdoings? Is it enough to denounce them? Or must we reject their art as well? How do we separate the art from the artist? Or perhaps more importantly, should we separate the art from the artist? Vox.com critic Constance Grady joins the podcast...

As vaccine rollout is well on its way in many countries around the world, we can begin to consider a return to “normal life” in perhaps the not too distant future. But what does “normal” actually look like? After over a year of this pandemic, our lives have drastically changed. As we begin to look to post-pandemic life, is it realistic to think that things will simply go back to the way they were?...

There has been debate in the sports world over the last month, as Laurel Hubbard was recently selected as the first transgender weightlifter to ever compete in the Olympics Games. On the one hand, this is a huge moment of progress for the LGBTQ+ community and reflects a society that is embracing more liberal views of gender. On the other hand, many question the fairness of Laurel Hubbard’s inclusi...

With more worldwide attention being brought to issues of global warming, poverty, and human rights violations over the last few decades, more light has been shed on the role that corporations play in our societies. And as large corporations have been called out for some of their questionable actions, it often seems as if they have risen to the challenge of becoming more socially responsible. The w...

For much of human history, being left-handed has had a certain taboo associated with it. The word for left in Italian, for example, is “sinistra”, which shares roots with the word “sinister”, meaning “evil” in English. Such terminology reflects a long-held view in many societies that left-hand dominance is inferior to right-hand dominance. When you dig beneath the surface on this topic, however, t...

A year into the pandemic, almost everyone knows someone who has tested positive for covid-19. While the emphasis has rightly focused on the mortality rate, there is another side of covid that is perhaps less talked about – recovery. While many do recover quickly, there is also a large proportion of people who are suffering from longer-term symptoms and require ongoing rehabilitation weeks to month...

This is the second of a two episode mini-series regarding the situation in Israel and Palestine. We continue to examine the historical roots of the conflict, picking up the story from the aftermath of the 1967 war up until the present day conflict. What attempts at peace have been sought over the past fifty years? What were the circumstances that led to this most recent outbreak of war? Tour guide...