Not As Crazy As You Think Podcast

In the episode, "The Shamanic Journey: Making Meaning  and Breaking into Reality Through Psychosis (S2, E14)" I share the process of madness inside the shamanic journey that so many bipolars and schizophrenics enter with ease but never learn how to navigate. In shamanic cultures, the dreamwalker is not viewed as mentally ill but as healer, the gifted one who can access information from t...

In the episode "Retrieving the Beautiful Brain I Was Born With: My Psych Meds Withdrawal Journey Begins (S2, E13)," I share the start of my withdrawal journey from psychiatric drugs. After being on forced brain meds for 27 years,  I take on the challenge and face the dangerous path of removing my psych meds for good. After reviewing the experience of what the institution took away from m...

In the episode, "The Creative Learner: Expressing Mood Through Music and Art with Musician Tom Bitondo (S2, E12)," musician and piano teacher Tom Bitondo shares his insight on what it means to live with purpose through a creative mind. Whether it be in his own music or connecting with his students, Tom's depth of knowledge and passion for music tell a lyrical story that inspires. We...

In the episode "Cannabis Talk with Dr. Lynn Parodneck: New York Recreation and What's Next for the Plant That Heals (S2, E11)," I interview  expert in the field Dr. Lynn Parodneck, a medical doctor with over 20 years of experience. Lynn branched out into community based medicine and now offers her skills in helping patients with medical marijuana treatment. We chat about the healing...

In the episode, "The Imperialist Global Mental Health Movement and a Reading of Chapter 5: A Sentence to Bear (S2, E10)," I share how the global mental health movement gained some traction in 2018 with the release of a report published by The Lancet Commission on Global Mental Health and Sustainable Development, which was presented at a lavish summit hosted by the UK. Jhilmil Breckinridg...

In the episode, Transhumanism is the Future--Whether We Like It Or Not: Are You Terran or Cosmist? (S2, E9), I give an introduction to the beginnings of transhumanism philosophy, which will shed light on our current race towards the singularity, as the biotech explosion is affecting every area of our future. The Transhumanism agenda is growing steadily and reaching a charging  momentum. Are we rea...

In the episode, "CRISPR, Germline Editing, and Market-based Eugenics: A Glance at Modern-day Science Ethics (S2, E8)," I share the history, non-ethics, and worldwide scandal of the troublemaking CRISPR along with its off-target philosophy. With the 2020 Nobel Prize honoring two women in Chemistry last year for their co-discovery of the gene-editing technology CRISPR, the world of medicin...

Show Notes: A reading from my memoir, Not As Crazy As You Think Chapter 4:      The Taj Mahal Along the 7-hour bus ride to the Taj Mahal, Aneesa from South Africa becomes my traveling companion, while a Bollywood-wannabe tour guide shares every detail about the most beautiful monument of love yet to stand on the face of this earth. The triumphant Taj Mahal reveals to me the kind of breathtaking be...

In the episode, "On TikTok and Mental Health: A Non-Professional Conversation from the Heart with Kailey Bartholomew (S2, E6)," Kailey and I analyze a commentary in an article highlighting the mental health creators on TikTok and discuss why the informal conversation on mental health needs to take place even more now than ever before. Opening up about her own personal experience on thera...

Show Notes: In this episode I read the third chapter "The Brahman Class," from my memoir, Not As Crazy As You Think. In 1994, I arrive in New Delhi, India to visit an old college friend, who was born into the royal Brahman Class. After meeting Sumit's parents, I learn how this highest class believes they’ve earned their lucky place in the caste system at the top of the evolutionary...

Show Notes: With the combination of Covid Zoom classrooms and distracted kids, ADD, or Attention Deficit Disorder, experienced a nationwide "most popular" diagnosis last year.  What are the symptoms, treatment and prognosis of this phenomenon, and does it last forever? In psychiatry, medication is always the main form of treatment, but are there others? My friend Katie, a high school stu...

 In the episode, “Reclaiming the Authentic Self through Exploring the Divine Inner Child with Robin Queen Finkelstein" (S2 E3), Jen Gaita Siciliano interviews psychospiritual counselor Robin Queen Finkelstein, who shares her unique style of non-traditional counseling rooted in compassion and an integrative holistic treatment of mind, body, and spirit. Robin shares her recipe for real therapeu...

In the episode, “Changing the World From Within: Cooperation and the Process with Mr. D,” Jen Gaita Siciliano interviews once again spiritual teacher and former Social Studies instructor, Mr. D , or Don DiBenedetto.  Don offers insight on tapping into acceptance and understanding of others in our nation's trying time, along with thankfulness, enjoying the process, and how joyfulness is always...

In the episode, "Deleting Facebook and an Artist's Electronic Health Records,"  I share the experience of deleting my account on Facebook in response to its violation of privacy laws, this time affecting bipolars directly. In Part 2, I reveal notes from my Psych hospital reports that show the false interpretations and inaccuracies of what the institution records about me for their e...

In Episode 8 of Not As Crazy As You Think Podcast, "A Call to Techies with a Conscience! Facebook AI, The Social Dilemma, and a Visit from Nancy." Part 1 shares a letter I wrote to a handful of techies from the movies The Social Dilemma and The Great Hack demanding a call to action to help us prevent a civil war. In part 2, I read an excerpt from a true short story I wrote, The Rise of A...

In Episode 7 of Not As Crazy As You Think Podcast: "Exploring the Dream Realm with Warren Falcon: Jung, the Unconscious and the Breakthrough," Jungian-oriented counselor and dream expert, Warren Falcon, illuminates a deeper mental reality through his knowledge and insight on the collective unconscious and the immaterial world of dreams. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcast, iTunes, S...

In Episode 6, I discuss the reality of what it meant to travel across the world in 1994. In my reading of Chapter 2 from my book, Not As Crazy As You Think, entitled "The Scientific Library," while working as a periodicals clerk in the American Museum of Natural History library in 1994, my wise supervisor Roscoe, once a world traveler and 1960s black civil rights activist, inspires me to...

 In Episode 5,  "How Psychiatric Labeling Leads to a St. Patty's Day Lockdown: Reading of Chapter 1 from My Memoir (S1, E5)," I give a commentary on the concurrence of COVID-19 and a rise in psychiatric labels, followed by a reading of Chapter One of my book, Not As Crazy As You Think; where I find myself in the emergency room of Northern Westchester Hospital suffering human rights...

In Part I of Episode 4, a reading of the short story "Cheerios and Bananas" highlights my years at The Carmel Diner--the people, the flavors, and the local psychiatric hospital. Former colleague and friend, Shannon Peterson, joins the conversation in Part II, sharing her personal views about the unsound practices of the psychiatric institution. Connect: Subscribe to the Not As Crazy As Y...

In Ep. 3 of Not As Crazy As You Think Podcast: "Adapting Creatively with Entrepreneur Tina Klideris," founder of Artemix shares her story in adapting to change when the entertainment industry went on hold during Covid. She discovered that even in such a difficult time, positives popped up through unexpected creative outlets. Find the podcast on Pandora, Spotify, Amazon Music, Stitcher an...

In Episode 2, Jen Gaita Siciliano interviews author Lyn Liao Butler, whose work offers a fresh perspective on the Taiwanese narrative infused with honesty and humor. Lyn shares how she taps into her well of creativity, as she keeps the characters in her stories alive in her mind in everyday life. Along the road to success in becoming an author, she struggled with depression but learned to overcome...

In Episode 1, Jen Gaita Siciliano talks mental health strategies in an interview with Mr. D, or Don DiBenedetto, her Social Studies teacher from 5th-8th grade, whose personal spiritual insight offers valuable tools for sustaining long-term mental health. On everything from visualizing, letter writing, affirming, and living life like a 3 year old in a Superman cape, Mr. D shares engaging stories wi...