Life Examined

British author Katherine May offers some (heart)warming advice on winter and explores simple ways to rediscover the joy of enchantment. Get full access to Life Examined at lifeexamined.substack.com/subscribe

This week, Harvard divinity scholar Casper ter Kuile talks about the power of ancient ritual and how incorporating a tech sabbath and switching off our phones, can help us refocus and recenter our lives. Get full access to Life Examined at lifeexamined.substack.com/subscribe

Carl Safina, ecologist and founding president of The Safina Center at Stony Brook University in New York, shares his experience raising a small owl. Safina recounts what he learned and why this period of his life was so joyful in his latest book Alfie and Me: What Owls Know, What Humans Believe. Writer Jennifer Ackerman , who’s written several books on birds and is author of What an Owl Knows:The...

Elizabeth Rush, Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of The Quickening: Creation and Community at the Ends of the Earth , describes her voyage to the most remote place on earth, Antarctica, to see the Thwaites Glacier , a crumbling sheet of ice the size of Florida. It’s melting so fast that it's known as the "doomsday glacier.”  “The only thing I could think of as a metaphoric likeness was the wall...

This week, British author Katherine May offers a (heart) warming perspective on winter. Rather than dread or endure the cold and dark days, rediscover some of the simple ways to enjoy some of the beauty and stillness that winter offers. Get full access to Life Examined at lifeexamined.substack.com/subscribe

Yiyun Li, writer and author most recently of a collection of short stories Wednesday’s Child: Stories, talks about the beauty of storytelling and how she uses stories to explore the relationship between parents and their children — including mothers, like her, who suffer the loss of a child: “That's one thing that literature does well, is to examine losses in life,” she says. In the 20 years since...

This week, cognitive scientist and professor of psychology at Yale University Lori Santos explains that negative emotions are very much part of the human experience and essential to leading a happy life. Leaning into these emotions and accepting them is better for us than trying to dismiss or suppress them.  Get full access to Life Examined at lifeexamined.substack.com/subscribe

Jonathan Bastian talks with Dr. Anna Lembke , director and chief of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic , about the role of dopamine in the brain. She also offers advice on keeping the pursuit of pleasure in check and maintaining balance and contentment, and discusses her New York Times bestseller “ Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence .” “We're living in an...

Lisa Miller, professor of clinical psychology at Columbia University and author of “The Awakened Brain; The New Science of Spirituality and Our Quest for an Inspired Life,”  talks about the connections between a spiritual life and mental health, specifically what happens inside the brain when a religious or a spiritual practice are introduced. Miller, a scientist and not a theologian, talks about...

This week, professor and director of the Convergent Behavioural Science Initiative at the University of Virginia Leidy Klotz explains why when it comes to solving problems or finding ways to improve our lives -  subtraction rather than addition can be the less instinctive but often the most effective solution. Get full access to Life Examined at lifeexamined.substack.com/subscribe

Oliver Burkeman, journalist and author of Four Thousand Weeks; Time Management for Mortals , explores our relationship with time and the modern obsession with time management, efficiency, and making the most of this valuable resource. Depressing as it may sound, Burkeman says, the average person has about 4,000 weeks. Drawing on history and philosophy, Burkeman offers a sane and sensible approach...

This week, psychology and education professor Peter Coleman explains that conflicts and disagreements are not just normal in relationships but actually a good thing - we don’t learn without conflict. Get full access to Life Examined at lifeexamined.substack.com/subscribe

Professor of American Indian Studies Mishuana Goeman addresses the common misconceptions about Native American land and the ties between the land and language. Indigenous ecologist and author of Braiding Sweetgrass Robin Wall Kimmerer draws on the knowledge of Indigenous peoples and speaks to the value of living in reciprocity with the natural world. A member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation Kimme...

Welcome to the Midweek Reset from Life Examined, where host Jonathan Bastian takes a small pause for a new perspective. Get full access to Life Examined at lifeexamined.substack.com/subscribe

Doctor Sunita Puri and hospice and palliative RN Hadley Vlahos share their perspectives and first-hand experiences helping people approach the end of life. Puri, who is the Program Director for the Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship at the UMass Chan School of Medicine , says that more and more Americans are electing to die at home. Vlahos, author of The In- Between: Unforgettable Encounte...

Welcome to the Midweek Reset from Life Examined, where host Jonathan Bastian takes a small pause for a new perspective. Get full access to Life Examined at lifeexamined.substack.com/subscribe

Psychology and education professor Peter Coleman explains that conflict is “a necessary component of the human condition.” As the Director of the Morton Deutsch International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution at Columbia University, Coleman has worked with families, communities, and entire nations on building constructive resolutions and sustainable peace. Coleman says that humans hav...

Welcome to the Midweek Reset from Life Examined, where host Jonathan Bastian takes a small pause for a new perspective. This week, mentor and author of  “Deep Listening: Impact Beyond Words”  Oscar Trimboli shares his tips on how and why to become a better listener.  Get full access to Life Examined at lifeexamined.substack.com/subscribe

Kemi Nekvapil , executive coach and author of POWER: A Woman’s Guide to Living and Leaving without Apology , shares how women are shifting the landscape when it comes to leadership and power. Allowing for an abundance of power enables us to promote and support each other, rather than hold power over each other and compete.   “I'm not afraid of your power,” says Nekvapil. “If I have power, I will h...

Welcome to the Midweek Reset from Life Examined, where host Jonathan Bastian takes a small pause for a new perspective. This week, educator and meditation specialist Sharon Salzberg shares an instruction from the Tibetan Buddhist tradition on finding a Middle Path and maintaining a healthy emotional life.  Get full access to Life Examined at lifeexamined.substack.com/subscribe

Long-distance walker, writer, and author Raynor Winn describes her 1000 mile walk from Scotland to the South West of England. With tents, backpacks, and minimal supplies, their plan was to walk the 230-mile Cape Wrath Trail — some of the toughest terrain in Britain. But after they completed that trek, they kept on walking.  Winn talks about her passion for walking, how she feels “intrinsically enm...

Jonathan Bastian talks with Annie Duke , corporate speaker, former poker player, and author of “Quit: The Power Of Knowing When To Walk Away” about how poker informed her decision making. Duke sees quitting a vital skill and shares some of her tools and strategies. Whether you're an athlete, partner, or employee, Duke provides a better understanding when to quit and when to show grit. “There's no...

Jonathan Bastian talks with economist Russ Roberts , author of “ Wild Problems: A Guide to the Decisions That Define Us ,” about a variety of approaches to tackling some of life’s big decisions, and how those decisions play a part in who we are and will become. Later, Susannah Furr, entrepreneur and co-author of  “ The Upside of Uncertainty: A Guide to Finding Possibility in the Unknown ,” shares...

Psychologist George Bonanno , author of “ The End of Trauma: How the New Science of Resilience Is Changing How We Think About PTSD ,” explores the history, science, and nature of trauma. He says that contrary to popular opinion, trauma plays a significant role in building human resilience and that people are overwhelmingly resilient to adversity. Trauma or traumatic events, Bonanno says, have “bec...

Ross Gay , poet, essayist, and author of Inciting Joy , shares how losing his father impacted not only his writing, but more or less everything else that he now does. Witnessing his own sorrow, Gay says, was both terrifying and a revelation: “If you can't be close to your sorrow, then you're gonna miss your life. Get full access to Life Examined at lifeexamined.substack.com/subscribe