Life Examined

In today’s job market, “good communication skills” is often listed as a top requirement. This essential ability not only helps you connect and collaborate with others but also effectively express your needs within the workplace. Strong communicators can unite us, foster positivity, and create a sense of shared potential. Moreover, today’s technology has made communication more accessible and rapid...

This week,  Kemi Nekvapil , leadership coach and author of  “Power: A Woman’s Guide to Living and Leaving without Apology” shares a couple of power practices that can help women and especially women of color feel more empowered and reconnect with who they are. When it comes to standing in one's own power, Nekvapil says, practice, role play and experimentation are essential tools in helping to help...

There may be no greater pain in life than that of losing a child; the gaping hole felt when a young life is abruptly cut short, leaving parents to deal with a void that can be difficult to comprehend, and a journey to make sense of the heartache that follows. For poet Rosemerry Wahtula Trommer, the pain is palpable and the grief — the kind of grief only a mother can know — remains unwavering . Tra...

This week, Alain de Botton , philosopher, author and founder of The School of Life talks about why today’s social and cultural environment is contaminating our peace of mind. De Botton suggests that in order to switch off and achieve some kind of balance in our lives, we need to become better editors and curators of what we are exposed to and shut out as much external negativity and noise as we ca...

Sarah Hill, professor of social psychology at Texas Christian University and author of This is your brain on birth control: The surprising science of sex, women, hormones and the law of unintended consequences, shares her journey into exploring the effects of oral contraception on mental health.  “I actually spent my early career studying the way our sex hormones can affect psychological states an...

This week,  Terry Real , renowned couples therapist and author “ Us: Getting Past You and Me to Build a More Loving Relationship”  reflects on the keys to building a successful long term relationship. In order to change inherited behaviors and dysfunction, Real cites his own struggle with family trauma and offers hope that with courage, discipline and hardwork change is indeed possible.   This epi...

If you’ve ever been accused of ‘gaslighting' someone, you might find yourself unsure about what exactly you're being accused of.  The term is the latest amongst a growing collection of popular psychological buzzwords used to describe manipulative or calculating behavior, but it's often misused and misunderstood.   The term originated from the 1940s black-and-white film Gaslight where a husband man...

*This episode originally aired on July 2, 2022. British writer Robert Macfarlane grew up loving mountains. A keen hiker, he says mountains are in his DNA – Macfarlane's father was a mountaineer and his grandfather oversaw some of the early expeditions and the first summit of Mount Everest in the 1950s.   Macfarlane’s own passion for the extremes of the mountains and the wilds of the outdoors foste...

This week,  Rabbi Steve Leder , author of “ For You When I Am Gone: Twelve Essential Questions to Tell a Life Story” reflects on the legacy we leave after we’re gone and suggests that rather than a long list of accomplishments, it’s the quality of our relationships, throughout our lives that have the biggest impact on our own happiness and how we are cherished and remembered by others.  This  epis...

*This episode originally aired on January 14, 2023. From our earliest ancestors, we’ve been travelers — first as nomadic tribes, and later as raiders, traders, explorers, and colonizers. Whether by ship or by foot, it’s human nature to move and explore.   Jonathan Bastian talks with travel writer, podcaster, and vagabond  Rolf Potts  about the merits of travel. Potts is the author of several trave...

After 30 years of experience counseling couples, therapist  Terry Real  reflects on what makes building a long-term relationship difficult and the skills needed to keep a partnership intact. Reals says that even with changing dynamics and non-traditional partnerships, the age-old problems still exist. “Despite all of the gender fluidity and all of the experimentation, a two-person paired-for-life,...

Judith Orloff ,  UCLA clinical psychiatrist  and author of  The Genius of Empathy: Practical Skills to Heal Your Sensitive Self, Your Relationships, and the World , explains that empathy is what connects us. It’s the ability to care, to listen, and to open our hearts. The practice of empathy, Orloff says, is a simple yet “precious gift” and that displaying empathy is  the “best of who we are.” Orl...

This week,  Katherine Morgan Schafler, author  of  The Perfectionist’s Guide to Losing Control , explores our relationship with the ideal of being a perfectionist. Morgan Schafler encourages greater self-awareness in managing perfectionism, saying it’s OK to be inspired without the expectation that we will ever achieve that goal.  Katherine Morgan Schafler. Photo courtesy of Eric Michael Pearson T...

Doctor Elizabeth Comen and Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Linda Greenhouse talk about gender bias and its lingering impact on women’s healthcare and reproductive rights. Get full access to Life Examined at lifeexamined.substack.com/subscribe

This week,  Casper ter Kuile ,  co-founder of  Nearness , and author of “ The Power of Ritual, ” discusses the value of building community and coming together, and offers some practical advice for forging meaningful connections including the ability to shift away from some of our accustomed patterns of giving advice and instead offer our full attention, loving presence and just listen.    Get full...

Jonathan Bastian talks with writer, lecturer, and author Susan Cain about the sweet joy of sadness. Cain, author of  Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole , reflects on the touch of sweetness that comes from sadness and despair and shares how a greater acceptance of these emotions can be beneficial and even therapeutic. Delve deeper into life, philosophy, and what makes us human by joi...

This week,  Ryan Holiday , speaker and author of  “ Discipline is Destiny: The Power of Self Control ” shares some advice on the stoic virtue of self discipline.  Holiday says that in today’s world of abundance, self discipline and self imposed boundaries are fundamental to meeting our potential, achieving balance and leading a good life.  Get full access to Life Examined at lifeexamined.substack....

Psychologist Katherine Morgan Schaflter talks about her book The Perfectionist’s Guide to Losing Control , the universal desire to seek perfection, and the need for greater self-awareness in managing perfectionism. Get full access to Life Examined at lifeexamined.substack.com/subscribe

Pulitzer-prize winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen discusses his memoir “ A Man of Two Faces: A Memoir, A History, A Memorial ” and the challenges and pain he faced growing up a Vietnamese refugee. Get full access to Life Examined at lifeexamined.substack.com/subscribe

This week,  Gloria Mark  ,  Professor at the University of California at Irvine  and author of the book  “Attention Span:A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness and Productivity,”  explains how much harder it has become to resist the urge to be distracted mostly because of the constant access to our our digital devices. Mark says we should be more cognizant of these types of distraction...

Scott Galloway discusses his book "The Algebra of Wealth" and the growing disconnect between young people and their economic futures. Get full access to Life Examined at lifeexamined.substack.com/subscribe

This week, Kieran Setyia, professor of philosophy at MIT and author of “ Life Is Hard: How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our Way ” reflects on failure and suggests we push back on how we frame our lives through successes and failures, winners and losers. Doing so, Setyia says, doesn’t make us succeed more but allows “failure to take a different shape and have less centrality” in how we value our liv...

Journalist Abraham Lustgarten and scientist-turned-activist Rose Abramoff discuss the impacts of climate research on human migratory patterns and activism. Get full access to Life Examined at lifeexamined.substack.com/subscribe

KCRW Life Examined host Jonathan Bastian makes a guest appearance on KCRW’s How’s Your Sex Life, and talks about his insights on relationships, divorce and heartbreak.  Get full access to Life Examined at lifeexamined.substack.com/subscribe

This week, Scott Galloway NYU professor, podcaster and author of “ The Algebra of Wealth: A Simple Formula for Financial Security,” reflects on life’s blessings. Galloway says he’s grateful for the many successes in his life, which he attributes not to hard work but to the people, time and circumstances that made them possible.  His message to others who share his good fortune, "don't hoard wealth...