Naming the Real

We live in a hurried age, that's obvious. And yet we still fail to grasp how imperative slowing down and living in unhurriedness is for everything that matters in life. In this episode, we explore why and how slowing down matters so much and what it opens up for us. And we explore six practices that you can engage to live in unhurriedness, even if your calendar remains full and busy. Because there...

We live in a disconnected world—increasingly alienated from ourselves and our bodies, from the natural world, and from others. Much of this disconnection is catalyzed by hyper-individualism which sets self-expression above self-transcendence. This episode is about encountering the seeming intelligence of the universe which seems to be constantly inviting us into a life of deep connection. Along th...

Brandon sits down with one of his heroes to discuss the process of becoming a fully flourishing human, even when it involves walking through trauma and grief. An exploration of mindfulness, presence, the importance of sex, and the need to tell our stories. We start with the reality that we are never fully "healed," but that life is an ongoing process of stepping into wholeness and healing. And we...

Are you happy right now? And what do we even mean when we use the word "happy"? Our society has implicit notions of what happiness is and how we attain it, but often these notions are incomplete at best and backwards at worst. In this episode, we explore a rubric for happiness and some practical steps for becoming truly, wildly happy. 

When we think of the brain, what probably comes to mind (pun intentional) is our conscious thinking. And while our pre-frontal cortex and verbal processing is amazing, ninety-five percent of our intelligence is non-verbal, occurring outside of our conscious intelligence. In this episode we explore the "iceberg" model of brain functioning with its three layers (conscious, subconscious, and unconsci...

We tend to think of emotions as things that "just happen," and there's a lot of truth in that. But it's also true that we have far more agency to cultivate and develop our emotional life in specific and stunning ways, changing the experience and direction of our lives. We don't have to become stuck in emotions or live devoid of emotion. In this episode, we follow the work of Dr. Candace Pert and e...

We tend to think of emotions as things that "just happen to us," and indeed that is part of our human experience. But we may also miss the degree to which we have a say over and agency in what emotions we experience and how we experience them. In this episode, the first in a short series on the world of emotions, we explore what Dr. Brené Brown calls "emotional granularity"—the skill of distinguis...

We deconstruct trauma by telling stories. In this episode—another conversation with Brandon's cousin, Dr. Alex Gee—the story of their black and white family is told in greater detail. But this episode is not just about race; it's about we connect, how we tell hard stories, how we be human with each other, and how we transcend trauma together.

In our first interview, Brandon, a white man, sits down with Dr. Alex Gee, his black cousin, to discuss family, race, trauma, and what "woke" actually means. Because they have both been pastors (in Alex's case, still is a pastor), their conversation culminates in a discussion of good/bad theology and the reality that "white theology" often eschews the black experience/blackness, forsaking the very...

We live in a traumatized world where everyone has some degree of pain and trauma to be addressed. In this episode, we explore Peter Levine's work around trauma and how it gets frozen in our nervous system through an immobility (or "freeze") response. Recognizing this reality can change everything, as we discover our need to complete trauma responses by moving out of immobility and into our bodies,...

This episode follows the work of neuroscientist Jill Bolte Taylor, who experienced a stroke and had her left brain (including verbal processing) go off-line in an instant. Her story leads us into an understanding of the four "characters" in our brains (two in the left hemisphere and two in the right), which are the sources of our self-focus, our fear, our drive towards connection, and our ability...

Classically, the purpose of a university is the pursuit of truth. But according to Jonathan Haidt and other sociologists, there is a movement in American universities to replace the quest for truth with a quest for social justice. This, as it turns out, is a major issue and is reflective of currents and issues in American society more generally. In this episode, we explore this crisis in education...

Trauma can keep us from living mindfully. This episode—part 3 in a mini-series on mindful living—has two parts: we start with an exploration of what trauma is and how it gets stored in our bodies. Then we turn to practices, including meditation and others practices that involve our bodies, with the goal of developing fully embodied lives that are resilient in the face of trauma and pain. The ultim...

We all have chatter in our brains, and our brain is where so much of life's battle is: the mind can make us miserable, or it can set us free. In this episode, we explore scientifically-backed methods for changing the conversation in our brains, including Ethan Kross's notion of "distanced self-talk," Chip and Dan's Heath guidance on how to make better decisions, and Robert Keegan's work on moving...

A brief update on some ideas and concepts to be explored in Season 3, as well as some news on what's been happening at Naming the Real. Talk soon!

Our society's acquisitive drive for "more" can keep us from experiencing "enough." Life can hurry by without being truly tasted, savored, or enjoyed, and then be over before you know it. In this episode, we explore what mindfulness is and how it can radically change our experience of every moment, interrupting our tendency to live on automatic and propelling us instead towards life-altering awaren...

How do we make sense of the ubiquity of violence and evil throughout human history? In this episode—part of The Barbaric Impulse series—we explore how racism, violence, and all manners of evil are connected to a fear of impurity. Using René Girard's mimetic theory, we explore how societies function by finding scapegoats to quell this fear of impurity and, ultimately, how we can choose to live free...

As humans, we tend towards automatic thinking and behavior that keeps us stuck. Over time, we end up not seeing possibilities for something new or different, even when they do exist. In this episode, we explore the concept of rackets, which is a rubric for seeing why getting stuck is so natural for us: it provides a big payoff (of comfort or certainty or safety) that we like even if it keeps us mi...

Despite self-doubt and whatever shame and guilt we may carry, the drive to be good lies deep within our humanity. But how do we become good? In this episode—the final episode in the "Critique of Evangelical Christianity" mini-series—we explore how the pursuit of goodness is often just the ego's game of "looking good and being right" dressed up in fancy clothes, and how rigid religion mistakes look...

In a world of suffering, we all want answers and we all want certainty to soothe us, but at some point, being right and certain can get in the way of becoming good. In this episode, we explore how the quest for certainty can keep us from thinking creatively and with holy imagination, and what it takes to recover and develop a life of awe, mystery, and wonder, which are necessary for the cultivatio...

Christianity began on the margins: from a Jewish man whose parents were refugees. What if this reality—that Jesus was a man "with his back against the wall"—is essential to understanding the Christian message? In this episode, we explore dynamics of power and powerlessness and how alluring power (through rightness, certainty, or respectability) is, and how it can be the trap that keeps us from flo...

Christianity often ceases to be a lifestyle—a path towards transformation and goodness—and becomes obsessed with certainty and defending belief systems. In this episode, we explore how spirituality devolves into mere religion, fueled by a fixation with making judgments of who's good and who's bad and fueled by an addiction to certainty and having all the answers. More importantly, we explore what...

Scripture is easily and often abused and manipulated to support agendas that run the gamut from silly to downright evil. In this episode, we explore some of the history of this abuse and what lies at its root: a "plain meaning" reading that adopts principles from the Bible while ignoring the methods of interpretation that Scripture itself champions. By adopting the developmental methodology which...

(1) Naming the Real is launching its first public training. It's a 3-day training [re]Storied, and it explores the practices, habits, and disciplines it takes to live a flourishing life of courage and hope, for the sake of the world! It's designed to help you discover agency, authority, and authorship in your story. Learn more at namingthereal.com/trainings  [re]Stories will be the first in a seri...

American evangelicalism has tragically stripped key parts from Jesus' life and teaching in order to focus on conversion while neglecting ongoing transformation—of us and of the world around us. This "Gospel Americana" is a reduction of Jesus' provocative message to something more manageable, controllable, and comfortable, but without much power and with increasingly less credibility. Yet there is...