At the age of sixty-six, Dierdre Wolownick became the oldest woman to climb El Capitan, the iconic 3,200-foot "big wall" in Yosemite. Earlier that year, her son, Alex Honnold, stunned and terrified the world by climbing the same 1/2 mile vertical wall without ropes—a free solo assent. Should we see Honnald’s climbing as reckless? A sophisticated dance with passive-aggressive self-harm? Or does our strong emotional reaction to his mastery and success in this solitary sport say more about our own denial of the risks we take every day?
What if you could have the eyes of God—confidence, clarity, compassion, connection, creativity—in your everyday human life? What is an “authentic connection to the Divine?” Grace. Love. Light. Peace. I know—at this time more than ever—if you’re on a path of faith that leads to these things, sign me up. I'm in. The action of a true divine connection is a surrender. It’s a releasing into what is already there. But what’s the difference between a spiritual life and a spiritualizing life? And why—if so many Christians define their spiritual connection to God as loving, welcoming and accepting, do so many non-Christians define God as the opposite? In this episode of The Soul of Life I speak with Jenna Riemersma, an addiction therapist and author of a book called Altogether You, to talk about...
Dr. Joel Bernanke and I cover the power, potential and pitfalls of psychopharmacology and its alternatives. This crash course in medicine for the mind covers:
• Misconceptions about how medicine for the mind works
• The “pill-pushing” psychiatrist
• Can genetic testing improve psychiatric outcomes?
• What role does marijuana play in causing or treating depression?
• Safety of pediatric psychiatry including ADHD treatment
And much more....
Grief is usually not something we plan for. In today’s special edition of The Soul of Life we remember the life of Rich Simon—a person that was like Oprah for the mental health and counseling field—a hub and changemaker that helped launch the careers of many of the masters in the clinical counseling and mental health field. On November 10th, at the age of 71, Rich died suddenly. We talk about grief with the world’s foremost expert on the subject, David Kessler, co-author and protégé to the late, great Elizabeth Kubler-Ross who developed the Five Stages of Grief.
With Thanksgiving and winter holidays around the corner, there’s no better time to spend than with baker and food artist Sarah Owens.
Sarah is a California-based cookbook author, baker, gardener, and instructor, and she just might have the ingredients to help us learn to come to our senses with sourdough baking that could help you practice mindfulness in physical form.
Today I talk to Sandie Angulo Chen a film critic, entertainment reporter, and book reviewer that writes for Common Sense Media, a non-profit website that gives parents in-depth reviews of movies, shows and apps so they can make informed decisions about their family’s media diet. We also dive into our favorite film picks including Watchmen, My Octopus Teacher, The Social Dilemma, and Enola Holmes.
Yuval Levin: A Human Democracy In this episode... Today on The Soul of Life I speak with a person that has been described by a centrist/liberal commentator at the Brookings Institute as “The most thoughtful conservative theorist of his generation.”It’s no overstatement to say that Yuval Levin might be working in a senior position at the White House if this were an ordinary conservative President. And while you may not have heard his name before, he’s one of a few influential thought leaders in what is now a Republican party that may need to seriously reform itself after the shift in national politics from this week’s election.Why does a social worker like me want to talk to someone like Levin?Levin is calling for a return to humanity in our politics, saying its time to end the...
Shame is like a 1950's air conditioner that costs a fortune to operate electrically in the brain. My tangle with depression is teaching me to pay attention to all the "appliances" that drain energy from the soul. Dr. Curt Thompson is a psychiatrist and the author of The Soul of Shame: Retelling the Stories We Believe About Ourselves.
I speak with Marcia Bjornerud to talk about her book Timefulness: How Thinking Like a Geologist Can Help Save the World. Timefulness is a call to wake up to the staggering mystery of life here on Earth, become time-literate of our storied past to live sustainably, in tune to the magnificent movements in nature that took eons to choreograph.