Life Examined

The science of friendship and the value of listening

Science journalist and author Lydia Denworth explains the value of friendship and what we can learn from primates about the value of social bonds. Author, public speaker, and podcast host Oscar Trimboli explains the science behind listening and provides tips on how we learn to listen well and pay attention.

‘It’s just part of my identity’: Narratives and misconceptions surrounding disability

Philosopher and writer Chloé Jones explains how recognizing and appreciating moments of beauty in the world around her helped her come to terms with her own body and self-perception. Professor Shailen M. Singh says society needs to embrace a more equitable, inclusive, and humanizing approach, especially towards children with disabilities.

What’s meditation really about? Specialist Sharon Salzberg explains.

Jonathan Bastian talks with Sharon Salzberg  educator, co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society, and author of several best selling books including “Real Life: The Journey from Isolation to Openness and Freedom,” about her early life traveling to India and discovering meditation, and the “unparalleled” sense of learning she discovered while studying under S.N. Goenka and others. “I think back to some of those conversations, because the retreats were not completely silent in those days,” Salzberg recalls. “And the other thing was tremendous friendships, which are enduring environments to this day. Physically, it was very hard, people were getting sick, and the conditions were very tough, but it didn't matter. And that was really fascinating for a Western person to see, too.”

Autism “it’s not a disease, it’s a different way of being”

Psychologist and Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at King's College in London Francesca Happe talks about the progress in autism diagnosis especially in women and dispels some of the myths. Podcaster and writer Lauren Ober shares the story of her own later-in-life autism diagnosis.

Where does our individuality come from?

We all have characteristics unique to ourselves, from our intelligence and sexual orientation to our height, weight and food preferences. Where do these traits come from? Are we genetically pre-programmed? What can we learn from studying twins? Why do they display so many similar characteristics even when raised apart? Beyond hereditary and experience, is there also something else in the mix that makes us who we are?  

Inciting joy: Poet Ross Gay on gardening, grief, and basketball

Jonathan Bastian talks with Ross Gay, poet, essayist, and professor of English at Indiana University. Author of “The Book of Delights,” Gay’s latest collection of essays and poems is “Inciting Joy,” in which he ponders sources of joy, from caring for his father, to skateboarding, gardening, and playing pickup basketball. 
“Joy is what emerges from our tending to one another through the difficulty, making it possible to survive the difficulty,’ says Gay.  “Joy emerges from that.” 
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Carl Safina: Wolves, whales and the wonders of nature

Jonathan Bastian talks with Carl Safina, naturalist, marine ecologist, and founding president of The Safina Center at Stony Brook University in New York, about the beauty and wonder of the natural world. Author of several books including “Beyond Words: What Animals Think And Feel” and, most recently, “Becoming Wild: How Animal Cultures Raise Families, Create Beauty, and Achieve Peace,” Safina explores the inner lives of animals and the role that culture and family play in the behavior of animals. 
“Wolves are animals that, by nature, live in … family groups,” Safina notes. “They hunt together cooperatively, but what they hunt and how they hunt can differ a lot from region to region. And it can even differ a lot from family to family in the same place. For instance, in Yellowstone National Park, there's really only one wolf family there, which is very skilled at hunting bison. 
“For most wolves, bison are just too big and too tough. So how are they skilled? They weren't born that way. They learned it from adults who learned how to do it and taught their young ones.”
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Dopamine Nation: Living in an addicted world

Jonathan Bastian talks with Dr. Anna Lembke, director and chief of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic, about the role of dopamine in the brain. She also offers advice on keeping the pursuit of pleasure in check and maintaining balance and contentment, and discusses her New York Times bestseller “Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence.”
“We're living in an adicto-genic world,” says Lembke. “In which almost all substances and human behaviors, even behaviors that we typically think of as healthy and adaptive, like reading, have become addicted, have become drug refined, in some way made more potent, more accessible, [and] the internet has absolutely exploded this phenomenon.” 
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Nutrition and mental health: Exploring the surprising science of food and emotion

Clinical Psychologist Julia Rucklidge discusses the role of nutrition in treating and preventing mental health disorders. Author Michael Moss talks about how food is being designed to keep us wanting more.

Kieran Setiya: A philosopher’s guide to life’s hardships

Jonathan Bastian talks with Kieran Setiya, professor of philosophy at Massachusetts Institute of Technology about some best practices when it comes to coping with pain, loneliness, loss, and failure. Setiya’s latest book is Life Is Hard: How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our Way. 
“Let's never stop acknowledging that life is hard, not in a bleak way, but I hope, in the end, a constructive way,” Setiya says. “ Try to approach the good life philosophically with attention to that, not some abstract theory”
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