This episode features a rich, in-depth dialogue with Buddhist teacher and author Shaila Catherine on her new book, Beyond Distraction: Five Practical Ways to Focus the Mind. Using a Theravada Buddhist approach for cultivating focus, clarity, and wise action, Shaila offers an effective five-step method for changing dist

Jeremy Lent’s new book, The Web of Meaning: Integrating Science and Traditional Wisdom to Find Our Place in the Universe offers a coherent worldview of deep interconnectedness by integrating ancient Taoist and Buddhist views of humanness and awakening, with a modern scientific, conceptually-oriented view of human capac

Psychiatrist, renown mindfulness and habit change researcher, Jud Brewer, MD, PhD once again disrupts conventional framing of mental health disorders and their treatment. This time the target is anxiety. Jud says you cannot think your way out of anxiety.  Because anxiety is actually a habit loop—an unrewarding reward t

Are non-human animals conscious? Do non-human animal minds have concepts, intelligence, memory, intentionality, ethics, and social behavior? Kristin Andrews, professor of philosophy, author, and pioneering researcher in moral cognition, discusses non-human animal consciousness and the ethical problems of using non-huma

This episode features Anna Lembke, MD, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University Medical School and author of the massively influential book Drug Dealer, MD. Dr. Lembke shares her immeasurable expertise in psychiatry, dual-diagnosis and chronic pain treatment, with a heavy dose of

This is a very special episode featuring Judson Brewer, MD, PhD, addiction psychiatrist, author, app developer, and associate professor of psychiatry at Brown University School of Medicine. Jud is a seasoned researcher of mindfulness interventions for addiction and developer of novel habit-change apps for abating anxie