Pulling The Thread with Elise Loehnen

Marieta Pehlivanova, PhD, is a research scientist at the University of Virginia’s Division of Perceptual Studies (DOPS), which is a highly unique research group that investigates the mind’s relationship to the body, and the possibility of consciousness surviving physical death. They study children who report past-life memories, people who have near-death experiences, and more. Their work is fascin...

“I think that we are most likely to benefit from such an encounter than to suffer from it,” says physicist Avi Loeb, PhD, who describes himself as an optimist in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Today, Loeb shares: What astronomy and dating have in common. His theories on the three interstellar objects that have been observed (including 3I/ATLAS). Why it’s likely that other intelligen...

Lucy Kalanithi, MD, continues to instill hope in me. Today, she shares lessons from her life and her work as a primary care physician (she’s also Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at Stanford University)—along with reflections on the legacy of her husband Paul Kalanithi, MD, who wrote the now canonical memoir When Breath Becomes Air before his death in 2015.    For the show notes, head to m...

Journalist and bestselling author Jennifer B. Wallace shares the key ingredients to feeling like you matter, and to making others feel like they matter, too. She covers my favorite stories and stats from her new book Mattering, along with the practical tools, habits, and practices she leans on in her own life. We talk about the importance of putting a bow on things; how we can use the mattering le...

In this month’s solo episode, I’m sharing more about the model of developmental psychology that I’m finding incredibly useful right now: Spiral Dynamics. As a framework, I think it can help us understand our world and culture better—and it can guide us in the best, and most effective ways to respond to it.  If you want to go deeper into Spiral Dynamics, there is a ton more for you in the show note...

Tori Dunlap is the author of Financial Feminist and the host of the podcast of the same name. She has a very compelling way of helping women to effectively approach (and earn) money, while addressing underlying emotions, traumas, triggers, and stories. I think you’ll find her advice helpful if: You’ve ever been told, or thought, that you’re bad with money. You feel like you need to justify any spe...

Michael Meade is a groundbreaking storyteller, author, and scholar of mythology, anthropology, and psychology. He blew my mind with a historical gem that he shared in this conversation. I was also moved by his perspective on our “crisis of masculinity” and the manosphere, what might be the antidote to monoculture, and why the hero’s journey is a bit of a fallacy. And, even more so, his case and ho...

Kelly Corrigan Wonders recently launched a 6-part series called Super Traits, featuring conversations with people like NBA coach Steve Kerr, writer George Saunders, and do-gooder Father Greg Boyle, all masters of the super traits. These deep dives are one part inspiration and one part How To guide on how to get yourself in the right headspace for a great 2026. Tune in to hear fantastic conversatio...

 ”That’s what everything comes back to for me—are you feeling the way that you want to feel every single day?” says podcast host and author Liz Moody. “And if you’re not, how can I give you more tools and more resources to do so?” Here, I asked Moody to share her life mottos, philosophies, habits, and ways of thinking that I find particularly compelling. Such as: Your body is for living, not looki...

Psychological astrologer Jennifer Freed shares a preview of 2026, her tips for each sign, and, of course, many more nuggets of her signature wisdom. For the show notes, head to my Substack. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Here’s my take on New Year’s resolutions and what I think many of us are ready to resolve and let go of. For the show notes, head to my Substack. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week—for some joy, levity, and laughs—I asked my very funny friend to keep us company. Nora McInerny is an author and the host of the podcast Thanks for Asking. Today, she’s sharing some holiday traditions that would be fun to try out with your family or friends, along with a minimal gift-giving method that truly impressed me. We talk TV show recommendations for the season, personality survey...

Anna Malaika Tubbs is the New York Times–bestselling author of The Three Mothers and Erased. Today, we talk about some of the cultural forces and figures that have certainly shaped us—but that have largely been hidden from us. For the show notes, head to my Substack. Get 50% off Monarch, the all-in-one financial tool, at www.monarch.com/thread. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....

This is an unusual episode with one of my favorite psychic mediums, Carissa Schumacher—who is also a channel for Yeshua, or Christ Consciousness. Wild, I know! Here, Carissa is sharing insights pertaining to what is going on in our upside-down world currently, and what is ahead for us in 2026 (and even beyond, going into 2027 and 2028). She covers the major themes of the new era we’re entering, an...

Two of my favorite teachers started collaborating with one another to help us to individually, and collectively, release our burdens, heal, and deepen connection: Internal Family Systems (IFS) founder Richard Schwartz and group facilitator Thomas Hübl. Today, they share their process, helpful exercises and tools, and more from their new book, Releasing Our Burdens. For links to my previous episode...

“ We know in clinical science, there is nothing that is a quarter as protective against suffering as spirituality,” says psychologist Lisa Miller, PhD, author of The Awakened Brain. Miller shares poignant research and patient experiences that changed the way she thought about mental health, and her life. She outlines three significant windows in our lives—and how we might approach each. And she al...

In November’s solo episode: A major reframe I had. What you might learn from the Trickster archetype. Little ways I’m finding meaning in the universe. Other ways of thinking about the process of evolution and change. How we might hold inspiration and discernment at once—and why this is crucial. Thoughts on the guru-ification of our culture and other things happening in our upside-down world. The (...

James Kimmel, Jr., PhD, is an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine and the author of The Science of Revenge. He’s known in part for identifying compulsive revenge seeking as an addiction. He explains how perceived wrongs, grievances, and revenge desires—and how we deal with them, or not—affect us all. Actually trying to get revenge is pretty much always a lost...

Renowned psychic medium Laura Lynne Jackson shares how each of us can use our own intuition and respond to messages from our teams of light, as she calls them, to live a more meaningful, connected, and fun life. She also shares the download she received from the other side that prompted her to write her new book Guided, which follows her New York Times bestsellers Signs and The Light Between Us. F...

“We’re in a time of masking and masks, whether we know it or not,” says psychotherapist Satya Doyle Byock. “And my hope is that us talking about it draws that into greater consciousness for people to make decisions about when to put them on and when to take them off.” Today, we’re talking about persona, in the sense of the masks we wear for various reasons (some beneficial, some nefarious). And, h...

“I believe basically what I’ve seen in the laboratory,” says scientist Dean Radin, PhD. “I'm driven by experience just like anybody else, except my experience is experiment.” Radin studies things like telepathy, consciousness, quantum physics, and more parapsychology. He shares some of the most fascinating discoveries from his lab, broader research, and new book The Science of Magic. Such as, how...

In my one episode sans guest this month, I’m reflecting on: how we might enjoy solitude more (and fear loneliness less), the manifestation program I just finished (called the Money Challenge), how I’m feeling about attention and power these days, and a couple of other micro and macro realizations that are surfacing right now. For the show notes, head over to my Substack. See omnystudio.com/listene...

“There are so many blessings in the in-between,” says Jessica Gill, chief content officer at To Be Magnetic and cohost of the Expanded podcast with Lacy Phillips. “You can manifest amazing mini manifestations or just kismet opportunities or these things that you wouldn't even believe would transpire in the midst of doing this work.” Today, Gill breaks down the deeply intuitive—and simple, but not...

Social psychologist Carol Tavris, PhD, breaks down cognitive dissonance, why it’s so hard for us to see our own blind spots, the power and danger of self-justification, and the pyramid of choice that can lead us to some unexpected places. She also shares some fascinating findings about anger and catharsis that turn a few assumptions on their head. In doing so, she helps us understand our own behav...

Longtime sex-advice columnist and author Dan Savage shares how he thinks about monogamy, marriage, infidelity, and repair. We explore how sex and relationships get conflated. We get into identities, orientations, preferences, language, and how we’re raising kids today. Also, Savage’s take on heteropessimism, what makes a man an attractive partner, and a word he introduced me to: tolyamory, meaning...