Life Examined

After years of working at the intersection of immigration and education, journalist Lauren Markham offers a different approach to writing about immigration that may lead to greater understanding. In her book  A Map of Future Ruins: On Borders and Belonging , Markham talks about challenging narratives and stories, looking at our own history, and asking what it means to belong to a place.​ Get full...

This week, renowned writer and author Michael Pollan on the new science of psychedelics. Pollan describes how new treatments using psilocybin can open pathways in our minds and when used with supervision, have been successful in treating depression, anxiety and addiction. Get full access to Life Examined at lifeexamined.substack.com/subscribe

Renowned writer and author Michael Pollan delves into his three-decade odyssey exploring America's food systems. With six bestselling books to his name, Pollan's pioneering inquiries have raised the fundamental question: ‘What’s in our food, and where it comes from?’ Pollan also explores plants that influence our consciousness, citing caffeine as a prime example. Get full access to Life Examined a...

This week, psychology and education professor at Columbia University,  Peter Coleman  explains why in turbulent times at home and across the globe, Costa Rica remains peaceful and stable. In the aftermath of bloody conflicts, Coleman says, Costa Rica intentionally chose to stop war and designed their country around that vision. Get full access to Life Examined at lifeexamined.substack.com/subscrib...

Neil Mullarkey, comedian, actor, and author of In the Moment: Build your confidence, creativity, and communication at work, shares his journey into comedy and writing and how he recognized the power of comedy at an early age. He’s toured the world, working with well-known comedians like Mike Myers, with whom he founded the Comedy Store Players in London. Mullarckey found that the skills he learned...

This week, Brad Stulberg writer and author of “The Practice of Groundedness: A Transformative Path to Success that Feeds – Not Crushes – Your Soul” on behavioral action and why the best way to feel good and bring about a change in mood is to force ourselves to start or to get going, even if when we don’t feel like it. Get full access to Life Examined at lifeexamined.substack.com/subscribe

Jennifer Chatman, Professor of Management at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business , looks at the role of narcissism in leadership and why CEOs of corporations “are more likely to be narcissistic than the population at large, by about 6%.” Ramani Durvasula , clinical psychologist and author of It's Not You: Identifying and Healing from Narcissistic People , provides the clinical definition of narc...

This week, clinical psychologist and Buddhist teacher Tara Brach on activism and how easy it is to unintentionally absorb the hate and anger leveled at others. Brach suggests that rather than reacting with the same anger, try taking an additional step and move to a place of reflection, care and understanding.  Get full access to Life Examined at lifeexamined.substack.com/subscribe

Paul Bloom, Professor of Psychology at the University of Toronto and the author of Psyche: The Story of the Human Mind, explores the history and controversial legacy surrounding the renowned 20th century Austrian neuroscientist Sigmund Freud. Modern psychotherapy has come a long way over the last century. Many of Freud’s bizarre theories on psychosexual development and the Oedipal complex have bee...

This week, Denis McManus, professor of philosophy at the University of Southampton reflects on authenticity and the allure of being true to ourselves and suggests that while authenticity may be having a moment, it is just one of many values we should aspire to.  Get full access to Life Examined at lifeexamined.substack.com/subscribe

Award-winning journalist and writer Kenneth Miller delves into our long and mysterious relationship with sleep and explores the scientists who embarked on pioneering sleep research. In his book Mapping the Darkness; The Visionary Scientists Who Unlocked The Mysteries of Sleep Miller posits that “for a long time, sleep was really [just] a sideline for scientists,” and sleep researchers struggled to...

This week, corporate speaker, former professional poker player and author of “ Quit: The Power Of Knowing When To Walk Away, ” Annie Duke says knowing when to quit can be helpful when it comes to relationships or jobs and that fear of the unknown or being alone, shouldn’t be an excuse for inaction. Get full access to Life Examined at lifeexamined.substack.com/subscribe

Acclaimed writer Leslie Jamison takes us on an intimate and honest personal journey, navigating the devastating collapse of her marriage and the joy of becoming a mother for the first time. In her latest memoir, Splinters: Another Kind of Love Story, she recounts her relationships with men, her parents, her child, and herself, drawing on her own lived experiences in order “to ask about what it fee...

This week, Yale professor of psychology  Paul Bloom  offers another perspective on retirement. Although leisure and free time are appealing, research indicates that a more balanced approach involving some work may be healthier, more rewarding and make us happier. Get full access to Life Examined at lifeexamined.substack.com/subscribe

While our modern lifestyles offer many advantages and independence, they have also led to a rise in loneliness as we’ve become less reliant on the communities that once held us together. Casper ter Kuile , former Harvard divinity scholar and co-founder of the community-building project Nearness , argues that the connections and community we build with each other “is what lifes all about.” Get full...

This week, Robin Wall Kimmerer , Indigenous ecologist and author of Braiding Sweetgrass speaks about the virtues of moss and how one of the smallest and humblest plants on the planet can teach us to live more sustainably and harmoniously with the world around us. Get full access to Life Examined at lifeexamined.substack.com/subscribe

While good habits and rituals are beneficial, brain scientists and psychologists also say the key to a fulfilling and happy life is novelty, variety, and disruption from our routines. In her book Look Again; The Power of Noticing What Was Always There, co-author and MIT neuroscientist Tali Sharot sources decades of research illustrating that greater sensitivity, appreciation, and innovation happen...

This week, Anna Lembke, addiction specialist at  Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic , and author of “ Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence ,” provides the clinical definition of addiction and says it’s becoming easier than ever adopt addictive behaviors but harder to spot the addiction in ourselves.  Get full access to Life Examined at lifeexamined.substack.com/...

Jonathan Bastian talks with Ross Gay , poet, essayist, and professor of English at Indiana University. Author of “ The Book of Delights ,” Gay’s latest collection of essays and poems is “ Inciting Joy ,” in which he ponders sources of joy, from caring for his father, to skateboarding, gardening, and playing pickup basketball.  “Joy is what emerges from our tending to one another through the diffic...

In his article “ Science can explain a broken heart. Could science help heal mine? ,” Los Angeles Times columnist Todd Martens shares his story of heartbreak and explores the science behind physical and emotional suffering. Matthew Fray, relationship coach and author of This Is How Your Marriage Ends;  A Hopeful Approach to Saving Relationships , reflects on his divorce and flags some seemingly be...

This week, philosopher and writer Alain de Botton says, simple as it sounds, there's nothing more enduring and attractive in a partner than being fully and completely heard and understood. Get full access to Life Examined at lifeexamined.substack.com/subscribe

According to psychologist Gloria Mark, the average attention span is just 47 seconds. Mark, a two-decade veteran in researching attention, says our ability to focus is declining at an alarming rate and is impacting our health. Much of this increase is due to our modern, fast-paced lifestyles and technology. Mark underscores the implications for children while emphasizing the potential for behavior...

This week, clinical psychologist and Buddhist teacher Tara Brach on suffering, the negativity bias and why it’s a good idea not to overly fixate on the negative in our lives.  Get full access to Life Examined at lifeexamined.substack.com/subscribe

Devin Sean Moss , humanist chaplain, writer, and host of The Adventures of Memento Mori podcast, discusses belief, prayer, and his role as a chaplain providing spiritual care. Throughout 2023, Moss provided support and counseling to Phillip Hancock , a death row inmate, before and during his execution by the State of Oklahoma. Moss reflects on his interactions with Hancock, delving into the signif...

This week, historian George Makari explores the powerful human emotion of hate, xenophobia and fear of the other and says some people “fall in hate, the way the rest of us fall in love.” Get full access to Life Examined at lifeexamined.substack.com/subscribe