The Unlearning Playground

The new year is upon us, and with this being the last episode of 2022, I wanted to leave this year with a positive message for everyone listening. The message this episode hopes to convey is one of hope and equanimity, and having more positive vibes. In the sensationalist times we live in (read hustle culture and social media world), it’s almost as if everyone is rushing around trying to be the ne...

Diwali is the festival of light and prosperity . We have all heard and read this line in our childhood textbooks, but what is its real significance? What is the real meaning of the festival of Diwali? And then of course – the central question that occupies our social media around this festival – should we burst crackers on this day? And going even deeper – what can we learn from the life of Shri R...

The gambler's fallacy is one of those logical fallacies of the human psyche that is equal parts hilarious and equal parts serious. As you'll see in this episode, the examples I provide for this fallacy are almost laughable and ridiculous at times. But the impact it has on our everyday lives is uncanny. And that makes this a very important episode in the series of my episodes on human cog...

Ours is the time of the ego - rampant, self-indulgent ego. Selfies, personalised feeds, personalised ads, personalised everything - almost all good products, but almost all terrible if left unchecked or unsupervised. And isn’t that true for our times? We have let the idea of our “selves” go too far - far more than we ourselves can handle it. And that is impacting not just our public discourse and...

Everyone goes through the highs and lows of life - no matter what social situation they're in, no matter how much privilege others perceive in their life situation, life has its highs and lows for everyone. By their very definition, the low phases of life are more difficult to navigate for us. Join me in this episode as I talk about a few general dos and don'ts during such times.  Of cou...

The human mind has a tendency to over-homogenize its outgroups. Statements and narratives that generalise and stereotype our outgroups seem to be more easily acceptable to us than we would expect from our rational selves. Join me in this episode as I talk about the outgroup homogeneity bias. I know it’s a bit of a mouthful, but it is one of those cognitive biases that is actually very fascinating...

In the modern world, there are three broad kinds of issues we face when it comes to perceiving and talking about religion, god and spirituality. Join me as I walk you through these three problems and how we can go about solving them. After all, the greatest merit in pointing out problems lies in at least trying to put forward solutions too. That’s exactly what I’m doing in this episode. The conten...

An old quote of mine reads, “ More than being identified with the victim in your story, be identified with the observer of it. The latter is closer to the truth. ” In this episode of The Unlearning Playground, I expand on what I mean when I say this. Like most of my everyday-life advice episodes, this one is also centred around wisdom that’s applicable to and is pragmatically focussed on our day-t...

The framing effect is one of the easiest cognitive biases to understand and make sense of. Join me, Chetan Narang, in this episode of The Unlearning Playground podcast as I walk through an easy explanation for the same. In addition to just talking about the framing effect, I talk about how it is very easily spotted in our modern day public discourse atmosphere via two frames or narratives that swa...

For almost all of us, the way in which we perceive the idea of reincarnation, rebirth and karma - both believers as well as skeptics - is limited. Join me, Chetan Narang , in this episode of The Unlearning Playground podcast to go into the depth of understanding these heavy terms. We unpack what these terms do not mean, what are the misconceptions surrounding them in our everyday interpretations o...

So much of our waking lives revolve around words that we barely get time to think about what is the right relationship to have with our own words. We interpret everything – all the quotes we read, all the videos we watch, all the podcasts we listen, all the conversations we have, all the social media posts we consume – all of it passes through the mental models engrained in our minds. The path fro...

Money is not everything but it is something.  While most of us agree on this basic statement, we still do not quite understand what is the right relationship to have with money. How much money is too much money? How much money is enough? What is the right way to think about money? These are some questions that remain perpetually unanswered for a lot of us, in the busy lives that we lead these days...

Want to thank yourself later for having spent some quality time on the internet finally? You are at the right place. Unlearn with me at The Unlearning Playground Podcast. Let's get to the root of philosophy, spirituality, self, god and all of that jazz while never letting go of the truth in favour of what's comfortable. Let's unlearn our biases and delusions and attune ourselves to...

A meditative discourse on spirituality, philosophy and its utility in our everyday lives. I walk through an understanding of the root of eastern philosophy - The Advaita Vedanta or Nonduality - via the metaphor of dreams. And then I talk about how the realisations that follow this understanding, can actually lead to a better future for ourselves, for humanity and for Life at large. Did I do any ju...

A short and fresh perspective about a quote that I find to be amongst the most potent ones ever - "Perfect is the enemy of good." I think this episode is far from perfect, but it is good. Practice what you preach, eh? Tune right in. I’ll see you in the playground. -------------- Check out all of my work on my website - https://chetannarang.org/ For one-on-one personal sessions for philos...

Another standalone episode in our series about human cognitive biases and logical fallacies. And I dare say, this is amongst the most “useful” episodes I would do in this series. If you let it, the concept covered in these ten minutes has the power to change the way you’ve been thinking about your life thus far. Am I exaggerating? Only one way to find out. Tune right in. I’ll see you in the playgr...

Another episode in our series of episodes about human cognitive biases. In this one, I talk about Cognitive load , which is an overarching phenomenon that affects our moment-to-moment state of being and thus, affects our ability to make decisions, to understand and process information - in short, it affects how we think. And hence, being aware of it is important. I also briefly touch upon the need...

Join me as I build on one of the most influential quotes I've had the good fortune of coming across - "We see the world as we are, not as the world is." Cognitive biases and logical fallacies govern so much of our day-to-day thinking that it's almost mind-boggling when we encounter them for the first time. In this episode, I talk about the three levels at which our perceptions...

Most of human life is relationships - personal, professional, casual. Join me as I walk you through an extremely potent and a really effective method that has the power to improve all your relationships manifold.  It is based on a meditation that my friend Rocco Jarman shared with me quite recently. Like most of the man's work, it is powerful, it is moving and it is worth looking at with eyes...

In the name of development and progress, we modern humans have complicated our lives way more than needed. And in the name of paying our bills or advancing our careers or earning a livelihood or being independent, we complicate them even more. Isn't this true? It is. It most definitely is. This episode is an attempt from my side to make you, the listener, think deeper on this subject. It is a...

An episode dedicated to God - what the word actually means.  Absorbing the content here should give you a whole lot of clarity about these burning questions we all have about God: Is there a creator? What are the atheists missing? What does the word God really mean? Where do most religions converge in their teachings? What is the real answer to that age-old question “Who am I”? In the information...

One of the most potent advice you can give someone is to ask them to go within, or to know themselves. We have all heard the old sayings from eastern philosophy. "Go within." "Know thyself." I try in this episode to throw some light on these beautiful sayings. Join me as I walk you through a basic introduction to what it means to go within, what is the ego, what is the self and...

Ironically, one of the most important words that mankind ever came up with is also one of the most misinterpreted words of all time. That word is "God". And that word also forms the bedrock of some of the most potent questions a human being can ask: Is there a God? Is there a Creator? Are the atheists right? Do you believe in a God? What is the creator fallacy? Is there some truth about...

If anyone asks me what is the one thing everyone should realise but doesn't, I would send them this episode of mine. There is of course a lot of unlearning that needs to happen to really enable absorbing all of it and let it change the way you perceive the world, and that is exactly what The Unlearning Playground is all about. The separation fallacy is one of the most fundamental ways in whic...

There is an old Buddhist quote that says, " Learning to unlearn is the highest form of learning. " I, Chetan Narang , firmly stand by that quote as I introduce you to my podcast, The Unlearning Playground .  More often than not, the biggest blocker standing between us and the truth is our idea that we already have it. Getting to the truth then, is more an act of unlearning falsities rath...