Meredith Hackwith Edwards
The Curious Introvert
A weekly podcast covering societal taboos & cultural blind spots. Join host Meredith Hackwith Edwards as she deep dives with curiosity & nuance into philosophy, society & culture with expert guests. Episodes frequently feature philosophers, researchers, historians & journalists.
Be sure to visit the podcast's website and support the creator: www.meredithforreal.com
Author
Meredith Hackwith Edwards
Category
Podcast website
Latest episode
Oct 12, 2026
Where to listen?
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Episodes
Ep. 291: Anthropology of the Afterlife? NDEs & Ancient Cultures 12.05.2025 45:21
Gregory Shushan, PhD, is the leading authority on near-death experiences and afterlife beliefs across cultures and throughout history. He is an award-winning author affiliated with Birmingham Newman University, University of Winchester, Marian University, and the Parapsychology Foundation. In this episode, he shares why studying NDE’s is time well spent, how historical NDEs differed from the relig...
Ep. 290: Allergies or Aerosols? The IGNORED Reason You’re Tired & Sick 05.05.2025 39:34
Mike Feldstein worked in the natural disaster restoration sector, witnessing firsthand the impact of polluted air on people’s health. Later he went on to found Jaspr, a health company that makes commercial-grade air scrubbers. In this episode, you’ll hear the danger in your dentist office, what sick building syndrome is & what the Manhattan project has to do with HEPA. If you like this episode...
Ep. 289 The REAL Reason You’re Unhappy! Ancient Brains & Modern Emotions [REMASTERED] 28.04.2025 36:31
Dr. Loretta Breuning was unconvinced by prevailing theories on human motivation & after researching the animal origins of our brain chemicals, wrote the book Habits of a Happy Brain. Here she shares why we find ourselves saying, “I shouldn’t be so unhappy! I have everything I need” or doing late-night shopping at the expense of your savings account, drinking more than we said we would, or goin...
Ep. 288 Could AI Make Us MORE Human??! 21.04.2025 44:22
Nichol R Bradford is the Chairman & co-founder of The Transformative Tech Lab, where she specializes as a futurist focusing on human-centered AI adoption. We not only discussed theoretical scenarios of human betterment due to AI, but practical AI tools that are available now that could make the internet safer & more supportive for your kids as well as what your personal AI agent could be l...
Ep. 287 If Aliens are Real, Why Does No One Care? 14.04.2025 51:12
Michael Glawson, PhD, is a philosopher of science and technology with a background in theology. He’s also the host of the podcast Anomalous Review & the UAP Studies Podcast. In this video, we cover the public’s love affair with cryptids, why new information is unlikely to smash our world view, ancient aliens, data vs entertainment & how the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies collects da...
Ep. 286 What is Medically Assisted Sex? [REMASTERED] 07.04.2025 29:25
Trish St John is the founder of Sensual Solutions in Vancouver, Canada, an intimate care service for adults with disabilities. With everyone trying to be more sex-positive, we ask the question, why then is it so uncomfortable to think about someone with a spinal cord injury having sex? In this episode, she shares how she went from HR executive to sex surrogacy agency owner, why we prefer people wi...
Ep. 285 Is Heart Coherence a Chaos Cure-All? Health, Behavior & Intuition 31.03.2025 47:11
Rollin McCraty, PhD is Psychophysiologist & Director of Research at the HeartMath Institute where his primary areas of focus are the mechanisms by which emotions influence cognitive processes, behavior, health, & global interconnectivity between people & Earth’s energetic systems. His research has appeared in journals including the American Journal of Cardiology , Journal of the Americ...
Ep. 284 Can You Get Fit on Fast Food?! Supersized to Shredded 24.03.2025 45:38
Matt Lane is a certified personal trainer, behavioral change specialist and practicing registered nurse who gained 50lbs ON PURPOSE, so he could experiment on himself to see IF it was possible to lose weight by only eating fast food for 60 days. In this episode, you’ll hear the emotional impact of his weight gain, the fallacy of portion control, food as a cultural cornerstone & what it was li...
Ep. 283 Is Narcissism on the Rise? Internet, Influencers & the Dark Triad 17.03.2025 48:39
Dr. Stephanie Sarkis is a psychotherapist with over 20 years of experience specializing in ADHD, anxiety, & narcissistic abuse. She’s a contributor to Forbes & Psychology Today & the Author of Healing from Toxic Relationships: 10 Essential Steps to Recover from Gaslighting, Narcissism, and Emotional Abuse . In this episode, you’ll hear the reason there isn’t a lot of research on narcis...
Ep. 282 Are Technology, Religion & UFOs Connected? [REMASTERED] 10.03.2025 34:05
Dr. Diana Walsh Pasulka is a Professor of religious history at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Her research focuses on religion and technology, but it was her research about purgatory specifically that lead her to UFO culture, a journey she documents in her book, American Cosmic. Here she helps us understand the connection between tech, religion & aliens, explains why you might th...
Ep. 281 Family Influencers: Are Kids Content? 03.03.2025 41:14
The world of family influencers is one we all know, but what are the impacts of on the children of these influencers when they come of age? Erin Quinn Kong is a longtime magazine editor, having worked at Allure & UsWeekly. Her most current endeavor led her to merging real influencer allegations into a fictional novel called Hate Follow about a teenage daughter of a family influencer who sues h...
Ep. 280 Is Hawaii Haunted? History, Pele & Pizza [REMASTERED] 24.02.2025 33:57
Lopaka Kapanui is a native Hawaiian who was adopted by a non-Hawaiian family & raised Catholic. When he was 7, he died during a medical procedure & his near-death experience left him with some unusual gifts & an open door to connecting back to his culture. He now celebrates over 25 years of owning & operating Hawaii’s only locally-owned ghost tour company, Mysteries of Hawaii. In t...
Ep. 279 Blurred Boundaries: Deepfake Porn Ethics & Impact 17.02.2025 43:32
Sophie Compton & Reuben Hamlyn are the directors of Another Body, a documentary highlighting an engineering student's experience becoming a victim of nonconsensual intimate imagery or what most call deepfake porn. The documentary walks through how a young engineering student became a victim of image based sexual abuse and in this conversation you’ll hear, how this can be legal, the origi...
Ep. 278 Morbid or Sacred? Let’s Talk about Death (with a Death Doula) 10.02.2025 52:20
Dr. Sarah Kerr is the founder of The Centre for Sacred Death Care & has been a practicing death doula since 2012. In this episode, she shares conversational onramps to death conversations (including kids), the difference between death the moment & death the process, how to find death rituals that feel authentic & what a death doula does. If you liked this episode, you’ll also like epis...
Ep. 277 Divorce Revolution: Living with Your Ex (& his new wife) [REMASTERED] 03.02.2025 30:31
Ep. 277 Divorce Revolution: Living with Your Ex (& his new wife) [REMASTERED] Living together while divorced sounds crazy, but it’s the story of Suzanne Vickberg, PhD, an author & psychologist who chose a divorce by design rather than a divorce by default. She shares her thought process & divorce success story to answer the questions, can divorce be a good thing? When is divorce the be...
Ep. 276 Are Aliens Humans from the Future? [REMASTERED] 27.01.2025 58:51
Dr. Michael P Masters is a professor of biological anthropology at Montana Tech University. Part of his research draws on anthropology, astronomy, physics & astrobiology to investigate UFO phenomenon, specifically the premise that aliens may be our human descendants, returning from the future to visit & study their own hominin evolutionary past. We discuss why thinking about this is more t...
Ep. 275 Is Ambition Anti-Happiness? Reasonable Happiness & Fetishizing Wealth 20.01.2025 47:13
Paul Ollinger was one of Facebook’s first 250 employees. At age 42, he walked out with a pocket full of cash in what most would consider an ideal situation, but what he found instead left him wondering what’s next while he explored the relationship between money, happiness, work, and meaning. In this episode, we discuss how wealth changes us, leaves us the same and why it even matters for the ave...
Ep. 274 What’s Up with Foot Fetishes? 13.01.2025 40:45
Three guests. One fantastic conversation! Dr. Carol Queen from Good Vibes, a sex educator, a woman whose partner has a foot fetish (she doesn’t) & Ramon, a man who has a foot fetish along with his wife and who are the hosts of the Foot Fetish Podcast, join me for an educational (& hilarious) conversation about the most common of fetishes: feet. You’ll learn the difference between a kink &a...
Ep. 273 Autism Up 241% Since the Year 2000: Why & What Now? 06.01.2025 47:06
According to the CDC, 1 in 36 children in the US are on the spectrum. Beth Lambert is the founder & Exec Dir of Documenting hope, a non-profit research org that over the last 15 years has collaborated with physicians, parents, scientists, & health organizations to examine the cumulative impact of environmental stressors in order to re-think the way we approach children’s health. In this ep...
Ep. 272 Breaking Free: Death Threats & Deprogramming Victimhood 30.12.2024 44:57
Dima Ghawi grew up in a small Christian community in Amman, Jordan, the daughter of a man with an unpredictable temper & a mother who felt a decent marriage proposal for her daughter would be an opportunity out. In this episode, she shares how her dream suitor turned into a nightmare situation that included death threats from her father, a brave escape & a braver rebuilding of self. You’l...
Ep. 271 Tripping to Success: Psychedelics and Career Growth? 23.12.2024 46:55
Paul F. Austin is the founder of Third Wave, research-based psychedelics education and community platform. In this episode, we explore the intersection of psychedelics, personal transformation, and professional success. You’ll hear macro vs micro dosing, which psychedelics deliver the best professional edge, how nicotine, caffeine and alcohol keep us in the industrial age & how AI will change...
Ep. 270 Accidental Swingers [REMASTERED] 16.12.2024 1:02:37
A couple in their 50s happily married for over 20 years shares the hilarious story of how they accidentally became swingers, how it has improved their marriage & their tips for more open, vulnerable communication with your partner. You’ll also hear how they handle disclosing to friends & family, including their sons, her response to her mom who said, “Why don’t you just get divorced?” &...
Ep. 269 Exercise & Cancer: Chemo Bells, Business & Google MD 09.12.2024 53:25
Tom Incledon, PhD is the Founder & Chief Scientific Officer of Causenta Cancer Treatment Center. He not only has a number of published researches & serves as a reviewer for peer-reviewed journals, he’s also the guy that the heads of big cancer centers go to for treatment when they have cancer. He’s combined his diverse academic & personalized medicine backgrounds to develop cutting ed...
Ep. 268 Science & the Psychic: the Utility of a Sixth Sense 02.12.2024 44:40
Stephen Ng Qui Sang is a mechanical engineer who worked for the Ford Motor company & was looking for a way to be more efficient. This was the unlikely launching point down a path that led him to become the interim Executive Dir. Of the Monroe institute, a non-profit mostly famously known for partnering with the US Government to train soldiers for remote viewing. He’s now the president of Tech...
Ep. 267 Grieving During the Holidays: Sneaky Symptoms & Finding Joy [REMASTERED] 25.11.2024 40:43
Dr. Alexys Hillman is a medical doctor specializing in grief advocacy. In this episode, we explore how to make room for grief in moments of joy, what unresolved grief looks like in physical symptoms & how to move through less recognized sources of grief like estrangement & loss of opportunity. This episode originally aired December 12, 2022 If you liked this episode, you’ll also like episo...
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