Food for Thought
Dec. 25, 2007
Ordinary People Telling Their Stories to Each Other
Three years ago, award-winning radio producer Dave Isay created a national social history project called StoryCorps. It now has the potential to become one of the largest documentary oral history projects ever donated to the Library of Congress.
Dave joined us in our firehouse studio earlier this year. He is author of the new book, Listening is an Act of Love: A Celebration of American Life from the StoryCorps Project.
Jan. 7, 2015
The Power of Listening
William Ury explains how listening is the essential, and often overlooked, half of communication. His stories of candid conversations with presidents and business leaders provide us with impactful lessons, such as understanding the power of a human mind opening up. He asks us to join a listening revolution, and promises that if we all just listen a little bit more, we can transform any relationship.
Ideas worth spreading
March 2021
How to have constructive conversations
âWe need to figure out how we go into conversations not looking for the victory, but the progress,â says world debate champion Julia Dhar. In this practical talk, she shares three essential features of productive disagreements grounded in curiosity and purpose. The end result? Constructive conversations that sharpen your argument and strengthen your relationships.
Wisdom
Wisdom is one of those qualities that is difficult to defineâbecause it encompasses so muchâbut which people generally recognize when they encounter it. And it is encountered most obviously in the realm of decision-making.
Psychologists tend to agree that wisdom involves an integration of knowledge, experience, and deep understanding, as well as a tolerance for the uncertainties of life. Thereâs an awareness of how things play out over time, and it confers a sense of balance.
PRACTICAL WISDOM & PSYCHOLOGY
Changing the way we view
ourselves and the world one
story at a timeâŠ
ISF is devoted to championing a sense of imagination, and to teaching stories â the kind of which are contained in the large published corpus of the writer and thinker, Idries Shah.
Engaged in a wide range of charitable projects on a world-wide basis, the Foundation seeks to stimulate the minds of both young and old by regarding the world in new ways.
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November 11, 2015
Idries Shah and The Dermis Probe
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After 15 Years,
Brain Pickings Reborn
By Maria Popova
But amid our slender repertoire of agency are the labels we choose for our labors of love â the works of thought and tenderness we make with the whole of who we are.
A challenge arises when we make something over a long period of time. As we evolve â as we add experiences, impressions, memories, deepening knowledge and self-knowledge to the combinatorial pool from which all creative work springs â what we make evolves accordingly; it must, if we are living widely and wisely enough. Eventually, the name we once chose for it begins to feel not like a choice but like a constraint, an ill-fitting corset ribbed with the ossified sensibility of a former self. Joan Didion may be right that âwe are well advised to keep on nodding terms with the people we used to be, whether we find them attractive company or not,â but we are also well advised to welcome with a largehearted embrace the blooming possibilities within us â the people we are in the ongoing course of becoming, the people we will have been when our atoms give way to our afterglow.
Brain Pickings was born on October 23, 2006 as an improbable idea in a young mind only just becoming literate in the language of life. Fifteen years hence, it is reborn as The Marginalian â reborn as what it has always been beneath the ill-fitting name chosen by a twenty-two-year-old immigrant in whose ear the tired puns and idioms of a non-native language rang fresh and full of wonder: an evolving record and ongoing celebration of my readings and my loves, of all that makes me feel most alive.
âReading Allowedâ by Taylor Mali
Performed as part of a Page Meets Stage pairing
at the Bowery Poetry Club on Feb. 22, 2007.
The Moth Presents Anthony Griffith:
âThe Best of Times, The Worst of Timesâ ~ Jan. 6, 2012
In this 2007 interview, Bill talks with author Maxine Hong Kingston about helping returning soldiers find peace through writing.
TRANSCRIPT [excerpt]
BILL MOYERS: Welcome to the Journal. On this Memorial Day weekend I am reminded that I have never had to go to war, never been tested under fire, never had to kill or be killed. What I have learned about battle I have learned from the real experts, from veterans â and from poets. With their power of empathy and evocation poets open us to what lies buried in the soldierâs soul. I remember to this day hearing one of my high school teachers read Wilfred Owenâs pained cry from the trenches of France: âI am the enemy you killed, my friend.â So, even as America is fighting this weekend in Iraq, we turn to a poet, a writer, to honor all those soldiers who have served our country, in war and peace.
No one I know personally has done more to help veterans themselves bear witness to unspeakable experience than Maxine Hong Kingston.
Growing up, the oldest of six children in Stockton, California, Maxine listened to her parentsâ stories and memories of their native China. In a series of highly acclaimed books she linked those traditional stories to her life in America, blending memory, mediation, and magic to create Woman Warrior, one of the most widely taught books on college campuses for thirty years now, and then China Men, Tripmaster Monkey, To Be the Poet, and The Fifth Book of Peace. Her body of work has earned Kingston a large following, as well as many awards, including the National Book Award and the National Humanities Medal presented by President Clinton in 1997.
But for all the words sheâs poured onto the page from her own life and mind, for many years Maxine Hong Kingston has been coaxing words from others. In 1993 she put out a call to veterans to join her in workshops devoted to turning their experiences into poems, novels, and essays. Here in the hills of Northern California, over 500 veteransâŠfrom every war since World War II have taken part, and some of their finest work has now been published in this book, Veterans of War; Veterans of Peace. For many of them it has been a life-changing, even life-saving experience.
PATH OF FREEDOM
In the harsh environment of a Rhode Island menâs prison, a group of fifty inmates are transforming their lives through the practice of meditation. Path of Freedom follows former inmate Fleet Maull as he visits the prison to share his strategies for surviving on the inside. The film offers a rare glimpse into the inner lives of men reaching for forgiveness, inner peace and freedom behind bars.
March 1, 2015
The Subversive Power of Beauty
By Michael Fryer
Beauty has the potential to be a transcendent and transformative element in conflict situations. In John OâDonohueâs book, Divine Beauty: The Invisible Embrace, he argues that beauty has real power, a power that can be subversive.
Moments of beauty â be it music, art, nature, or an act of kindness â can take you out of a space of weary familiarity. Beauty, in whatever form it takes, can interrupt a pattern of behavior or a way of thinking and cause us to stop in our tracks and take notice of it. There are people holding out on the toughest frontiers of existence, surrounded by misery, but yet somehow sustained by a moment of beauty.
A story can act as a vehicle for transcendence. Joseph Campbell suggests that a story has the power to pitch you out of your everyday experience. Once youâve heard it and return to where you were, you see the world, or the person telling the story differently. He likens it to walking down 5th Avenue in New York City and stepping into St. Patrickâs Cathedral. Suddenly youâve left the busy metropolis and are standing in a huge open space. The light is different. Itâs quiet. You begin to think on a different level. And, when you return to the bustling world of the street, cars still rush by, people still hurry about their business, but stepping into that different space creates a moment of transcendence.
October 27, 2021
From the astronauts to humanity itself,
âEarthriseâ has left an indelible mark
Told firsthand by the Apollo 8 astronauts, the Emmy-nominated film Earthrise (2018) documents their remarkable voyage to the far side of the Moon, and the importance of the timeless image they captured. Using archive footage and interviews, the filmaker Emmanual Vaughan-Lee transports us behind the lens of the 70mm camera that memorialised the moment the spacecraft fell into the shadow of the Moon as Earth rose over the lunar horizon. From questioning their faith to recognising that space exploration could bring humans closer together as a species, the three astronauts were indelibly changed by this new vantage. They became messengers of peace, and their sobering reflections rippled throughout the world via that âEarthriseâ image. In it, humanity could see the stark difference between a lifeless and a living planet.
Moyers & Company
January 17, 2014
Neil deGrasse Tyson on Science,
A new poll by Pew Research has found that one-third of Americans do not believe in evolution, with Republicans far less likely to believe that humans evolved over time than Democrats. That may be why the teaching of evolution to children continues to be an often temper-flaming debate. In states like Texas, some public school students are opening their biology textbooks to find evolution described as âdogmaâ and an âunproved theory.â
While astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson believes all individuals have a right to their own beliefs, heâs passionate about what should be taught in science class â science.
âIf you have a religious philosophy that is not based in objective realities that you then want to put in the science classroom, then Iâm going to stand there and say no, âIâm not going to allow you in the science classroom,ââ Tyson tells Bill.
In the second part of their conversation, Tyson and Bill discuss whether science and religion can ever be reconciled, explore the cosmic enigma known as dark matter and the possibilities of parallel universes. Neil deGrasse Tyson is host of the upcoming series Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey premiering Sunday, March 9, 2014 on Fox.
Academic rigor, journalistic flair
Friday essay: what do the 5 great religions
say about the existence of the soul?
Published: April 15, 2021
Author: Philip C. Almond
Emeritus Professor in the History of Religious Thought
The University of Queensland
A recent survey found almost 70% of Australians believed in or were open to the existence of the soul â meaning they believe we are more than the stuff out of which our bodies are made.
The soul can be defined as the spiritual or non-material part of us that survives death.
Western pop culture is currently bewitched by what happens to us after death with TV shows such as The Good Place and Miracle Workers set largely in the afterlife. And the Disney film Soul depicts the soul of a jazz pianist separating from his earthly body to journey into the afterlife.
Seeking The Divine
Journey of The Soul
Religious History Documentaries
May 13, 2022
Is There Scientific Evidence That God Exists? | The Case For A Creator
Award-winning journalist and longtime atheist Lee Strobel embarks on an intense search for scientific evidence that God exists. Strobel, a former writer for the Chicago Tribune, questions his lack of faith when his wife converts to Christianity. Based on his bestselling book, The Case For A Creator asks if science can solve the ultimate question that the faithful take for granted.
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Jan. 28, 2022
The Scientific Case For Creationism | Origin
Can science really explain the origin of life? Are creationism and materialism mutually exclusive? This remarkable documentary challenges the paradigm of scientific materialism and the belief that life is nothing more than the product of blind, undirected processes.
Exposing the flaws of materialistic theories, Origin guides us through a molecular universe to encounter extraordinary biological engineering fundamental to the survival of every organism that has ever existed. Engineering that points clearly to intelligence and mind.
From an Evening of Storytelling 2018
Symposium
Moments of Truth
By Marian Sandmaier
Storytelling is nearly as old as language itself, a way of communing with others through showing and telling whatâs meaningful â even necessary â in our lives. Many linguists believe that sharing in-person tales is encoded in our very DNA, with tone of voice, facial expressions, and gestures combining to more fully engage others and develop intimate connections with them.
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My First Client, My Best Teacher
By Susan Johnson
My journey as a therapist began as a counselor in a residential treatment center for emotionally disturbed adolescents in British Columbia, Canada. Overnight I was plunged into doing individual, group, and family therapy with kids who showed up with every problem under the sun, including schizophrenia, homicidal behavior, and anxiety disorders. I had an undergraduate degree in English literature and one year of teacher training. My actual training for helping these kids at the time was exactly zip, nada.
Back then, the human potential movement was in full swing. Encounter groups were the cutting edge, with everyone lining up to beat a cushion with a tennis racket and yell about their mother, thereby releasing their deep inner rage. Gestalt therapy and primal screams were everywhere. For a nice, polite English girl, it was like being thrown in the touchy-feely deep end without a life jacket. And I was lost!
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The Hearing
By Kirsten Lind Seal
So there I was in the courtroom. I walked up to the witness stand, put my right hand up in the air and my left hand on the Bible, and I promised to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God. . . .
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Jimmy
By David Treadway
A raised eyebrow. A tilt of the head. Pursed lips. A subtle shrug. Growing up, that was the language we used in my old New England Yankee family to express anger, and even rage. Yes, we were an incredibly charming and handsome family. So much so that in 1949, Look magazine printed a photo of us as a full-page, glossy model of the ideal American family. We were so well-mannered and well-behaved that youâd never guess that of the six of us, my sister and my father had florid psychosis, my mother would commit suicide, and my two brothers would end up with lifelong addictions. Of course, this family also produced a family therapist. Big shock.
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Karaoke on Five South
By Martha Manning
After youâve been through years of killer depression and agitation that escalate into repeated interventions, itâs impossible to ignore how much youâve taken your family along for the ride.
By the time she was in college, my daughter Kearaâs optimistic cheerleading approach to my illness had exhausted itself, leaving her weary, angry, and cautious. As a psychologist, I knew this made perfect sense. As a mother, it broke my heart.
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A Complete Life
By David Kessler
As a specialist in issues of death and grief, I was called in by an oncologist to see a 29-year-old patient named Leslie, who was dying of cancer. As I approached her hospital room, I found her mother, tall and straight-backed, standing outside like a guard waiting to meet me. She said, âUnder no circumstances should you tell Leslie that sheâs dying.â I nodded, having heard this kind of thing before. âI donât want her to know,â the mother continued. âShe needs to keep fighting. She needs to have a complete life.â
March/April 2020
Case Study:
By Peter Rothenberg
In Pedagogy of the Oppressed, author Paulo Freire demonstrates that nothing is more empowering than teaching people to name their world. As therapists, we know this applies especially to our clientsâ inner worlds. Even relatively high-functioning people can find it difficult to know what theyâre experiencing and how to express it. Imagine what it must be like for the people with autism who donât talk but have a world of perceptions, feelings, thoughts, fantasies, and desires swirling around inside them. Imagine the frustration, isolation, and confusion they experience.
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September/October 2021
A Therapist Reclaims His Buried past â and Upends His Practice
By David Treadway
Years ago, out on the workshop circuit, when Iâd talk to therapists about many of us being some version of a âwounded healer,â Iâd describe my own role as a parentified child and my futile efforts to counsel my mentally ill mom and somewhat clueless, disengaged dad. Many of us were the children whoâd taken care of family members as a way of staying out of the line of fire and feeling good about ourselves. At some point in my presentation, Iâd observe that for some of us, our childhood coping strategies made us highly effective therapists. Jokingly, Iâd conclude, âAnd who knows, maybe if I ever really do get well, Iâll retire.â
Little did I know that this throwaway line would become my lifeâs koan.
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When Are We Enough?
By Gabor Maté
When problems arenât fixable, as they can often seem in these times, we therapists are faced with the predicament of trying to solve the unsolvable. This predicament lies at the very source of our distress as healers. Itâs the weight of trying to fix the unfixable and manage the unmanageable thatâs stressing us.
And yet, although you might be worn out, thereâs no such thing as compassion fatigue. No one gets tired of being compassionate. Compassion is part of our nature, and we donât get tired of being ourselves. In fact, Iâm going to suggest that we get tired of not being ourselves. The problem is not with compassion directed toward our clients, but with a lack of compassion for ourselves.
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Liberating Ourselves from the Pursuit of Perfection
By Linda Gask
Iâm a psychiatrist whoâs experienced recurrent episodes of depression, sometimes quite severe, since my 20s. At medical school, I was extremely anxious and needed psychiatric help. Nonetheless, I found it easy to speak to patients with mental health problems â which encouraged me to pursue a career in psychiatry myself.
During the 33 years that I practiced, when I was well, I was always certain that psychiatry was the right career for me; at other times, Iâve considered myself to be a total failure, despite evidence of my success as a doctor and academic. There were even periods when life no longer seemed worth living.
Since then, psychodynamic and cognitive behavioral therapy have helped me make many necessary changes in my life, but theyâve been insufficient in preventing relapses. And while medication has helped me considerably â and Iâve seen it help many people in my practice â Iâm still ambivalent about taking the pills.
May 10, 2018
How to recover from depression
Leading depression expert and clinical psychologist Dr. Michael Yapko draws on research and shares his insights from 40 years of working with those suffering this common mental health issue. Learn the simple skills that research shows can help you or a loved one to recover â and even prevent depression occurring â in this heartwarming and uplifting speech for the Australian Psychological Society.
January 24, 2022
Annie Wright LMFT
Dismissing and Diminishing
Your Past Keeps You From Healing
We may dismiss and diminish our pasts as an unconscious coping mechanism.
THE CONVERSATION â April 29, 2022
Psychologists are starting to talk publically about their own mental illnesses â and patients can benefit.
From sports and entertainment celebrities like Simone Biles, Ariana Grande and Ryan Reynolds to everyday social media users on Facebook, Twitter and TikTok, more people are talking publicly about mental health.
Yet both students and professionals across fields have long been advised that talking openly about their own mental health experiences risks negative judgments from co-workers and supervisors, which can potentially damage their careers. Ironically, even professionals in mental health fields are advised to conceal their own experiences with mental illness.
This culture of silence is counter to what psychologists know to be true about battling stigma: that talking openly about mental health can help reduce stigma and encourage others to seek help.
Stigmatizing openness about mental illness can also result in the systemic discrimination against and exclusion from mental health professions of people who can make valuable contributions to the field â whether in spite of or because of their unique mental health experiences.
April 14, 2021
Aphantasia: The People Without a Mindâs Eye
If you close your eyes and picture an apple, how clear is that apple in your mind? Most people can visualise images in their head instantaneously â this is known as the mindâs eye. But in 2015, a scientific study shed new light on the relatively unheard-of phenomenon known as aphantasia, a mental blindness where the brain is unable to call images to the mindâs eye.
This short documentary uncovers the root cause of a personâs emotional detachment from people and events â and the unexpected advantages that come with it. Alex Wheeler shares the story of how his experiences with aphantasia have affected his life, particularly his grieving process after losing his mum, as he seeks answers from Adam Zeman, Professor of Cognitive and Behavioural Neurology at the University of Exeter Medical School.
The rapidly changing field of psychology encompasses a wide range of concepts, theories, experiments, and related scientific disciplines. The JRank Psychology Encyclopedia web site endeavors to provide useful information on many aspects of psychology. Famous experiments, psychological theories, mental disorders, and the science of the human mind are just a few of the topics covered in the thousands of articles collected here.
Some of the databaseâs highlights include:
- Stanley Milgramâs obedience experiment, which tested an individualâs willingness to harm others when instructed to do so by authority figures.
- The science and logic behind the Rorschach Technique, or ink-blot test.
- The symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment of common conditions such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and bipolar disorder.
- The life of Sigmund Freud and how it shaped modern psychoanalysis and contemporary popular notions of psychology.
- Psychologist Abraham Maslow and his famous theory about the hierarchy of needs and self-actualization.
4 Common Ways
Highly Sensitive People
Are Misunderstood
By Dr. Annie Hsueh, Ph.D
October 1, 2021
December 9, 2021
7 Behaviors You Should Never Tolerate in Relationships
We may give people we love free passes sometimes, but there are some behaviors you might not want to accept in any relationship.
Toxic relationship behaviors arenât just about arguing or jealousy. They can also include more subtle actions that affect the way you see yourself and the world.
Identifying which relationship dynamics harm your mental health can help you make decisions and protect yourself.
November 7, 2022
How to Identify and Cope With Emotional Abuse
Signs and Red Flags
By Sherri Gordon
Emotional abuse involves controlling another person by using emotions to criticize, embarrass, shame, blame, or otherwise manipulate them. While most common in dating and married relationships, mental or emotional abuse can occur in any relationshipâincluding among friends, family members, and co-workers.
In general, a relationship is emotionally abusive when there is a consistent pattern of abusive words and bullying behaviors that wear down a personâs self-esteem and undermine their mental health.
The underlying goal of emotional abuse is to control the other person by discrediting, isolating, and silencing them. It is one of the hardest forms of abuse to recognize as it can be subtle and insidious. But it can also be overt and manipulative.
Either way, emotional abuse can chip away at your self-esteem, and you can begin to doubt your perceptions and reality. In the end, you may feel trapped. Emotionally abused people are often too wounded to endure the relationship any longer, but also too afraid to leave. So, the cycle repeats itself until something is done.
Dealing With People You Canât Stand: How to Bring Out the Best in People at Their Worst, by Dr. Rick Brinkman and Rick Kirschner
From Chapter 3: The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions
Once someone determines that what they want is not happening, or that what they donât want is happening, their behavior becomes more extreme and, therefore, less tolerable to others. We now can observe how threatened or thwarted positive intentions lead to the behaviors of difficult people.
Threatened Intent to Get It Done
Through the distorted lens of the thwarted intent to get it done, others appear to be wasting time, going off on tangents, or just plain taking too long. The intent increases in intensity, and the subsequent behavior becomes more controlling. The three most controlling behaviors and types are the Tank, Sniper, and Know-It-All.
The Tank. On a mission, unable to slow down, pushing you around, or running right over you, the Tank has no inhibitions about ripping you apart personally. Yet the irony is ⊠itâs nothing personal. You just happened to get in the way. In an effort to control the process and accomplish the mission, Tank behavior ranges from mild pushiness to outright aggression.
The Sniper. A strategist when things arenât getting done to their satisfaction, the Sniper attempts to control you through embarrassment and humiliation. Most people live in fear of public embarrassment â a fact that Snipers use to their advantage, by making loaded statements and sarcastic comments at times when you are most vulnerable.
The Know-It-All. The Know-It-All controls people and events by dominating the conversation with lengthy, imperious arguments, and eliminates opposition by finding flaws and weaknesses to discredit other points of view. Because the Know-It-All is actually knowledgeable and competent, most people are quickly worn down by this strategy, and finally just give up.
Threatened Intent to Get Appreciated by People
Through the distorted lens of a thwarted intent to get appreciation from people, the lack of positive feedback combines in their mind with the reactions, comments, and facial expressions of others, and tends to be taken personally. The intent to get appreciation intensifies in direct proportion to the lack of appreciative feedback, and behavior becomes increasingly aimed at getting attention. The three most difficult attention-getting behaviors that result from the thwarted desire to get appreciation are the Grenade, the Friendly Sniper, and the Think-They-Know-It-All.
Grenade Behavior. They say they donât get any appreciation and theyâre not getting any respect. When the silence and lack of appreciation become deafening, look out for the Grenade: The adult temper tantrum. âKaboom!@#$* Nobody around here cares! Thatâs the problem with the world today. Kapow!*%^&@# I donât know why I even bother! No one appreciates just how hard it is for me! Katung! &%$#*.â Ranting and raving are difficult to ignore. But since this desperate behavior produces negative attention and disgust, the Grenade is ever more likely to blow up at the next provocation.*
The Friendly Sniper. This Sniper actually likes you, and their sniping is a âfun wayâ of getting attention. âI never forget a face ⊠but in your case I will make an exception.â Many people have relationships that include playful sniping. Normally, the best defense is a good offense, because instead of offending, a return snipe is a sign of appreciation. But if the person on the receiving end doesnât give or receive appreciation in this manner, they may be laughing on the outside while bleeding from an emotional wound on the inside.
The Think-They-Know-It-All. The Think-They-Know-It-All is a specialist in exaggeration, half truths, jargon, useless advice, and unsolicited opinions. Charismatic and enthusiastic, this desperate-for-attention person can persuade and mislead an entire group of trusting people into serious difficulties. If you argue with them, Think-They-Know-It-Alls turn up the volume and dig in their heels, then refuse to back down until you look as foolish as they do.
* The difference between the Tank and the Grenade is that the Tank uses focused fire in a single direction, and the Grenade produces an out-of-control explosion in 360 degrees. The Tank takes aim with specific charges, but leaves other useful people and office equipment standing. The Grenade introduces elements that have little or nothing to do with the present circumstances. A Tank attack is a demand for action. A Grenade explosion is a demand for attention.
March 26, 2021
What Youâre Saying When You Give
Someone the Silent Treatment
Social ostracism has been a common punishment for millennia. But freezing someone out harms both the victim and the perpetrator.
By Daryl Austin
Kipling Williams has studied the effects of the silent treatment for more than 36 years, meeting hundreds of victims and perpetrators in the process:
A grown woman whose father refused to speak with her for six months at a time as punishment throughout her life. âHer father died during one of those dreaded periods,â Williams told me. âWhen she visited him at the hospital shortly before his death, he turned away from her and wouldnât break his silence even to say goodbye.â
A father who stopped talking to his teenage son and couldnât start again, despite the harm he knew he was causing. âThe isolation made my son change from a happy, vibrant boy to a spineless jellyfish, and I knew I was the cause,â the father said to Williams.
A wife whose husband severed communication with her early in their marriage. âShe endured four decades of silence that started with a minor disagreement and only ended when her husband died,â Williams said. Forty years of eating meals by herself, watching television by herselfâ40 years of being invisible. âWhen I asked her why she stayed with him for all that time,â Williams said, âshe answered simply, âBecause at least he kept a roof over my head.ââ
A teacher. A sibling. A grandparent. A friend. Each story that Williams, a psychology professor at Purdue University, told me was more heartbreaking than the one before. As I listened, the question that lingered most was How could these people do this to those closest to them?
The silent treatment goes by many names: shunning, social isolation, stonewalling, ghosting. Although psychologists have nuanced definitions for each term, they are all essentially forms of ostracism. And the tactic is nothing new. Ancient Greeks expelled for 10 years citizens who were thought to be a threat to democracy, and early American settlers banished people accused of practicing witchcraft. Religions have frozen out individuals for centuries: Catholics call it excommunication, herem is the highest form of punishment in Judaism, and the Amish practice Meidung. The Church of Scientology recommends total âdisconnectionâ from anyone deemed antagonistic toward the religion.
âMy research suggests that two in three individuals have used the silent treatment against someone else; even more have had it done to them,â Williams said. Experts told me that although they need more data to know for certain, instances of the silent treatment have likely increased over the years as new forms of communication have been invented. âEvery new method of connection can be used as a form of disconnection,â Williams said.
Ostracism can also manifest in lesser ways: someone walking out of the room in the middle of a conversation, a friend at school looking the other way when you wave at them, or a person addressing comments from everyone in a message thread except you. âPartial ostracism,â Williams told me, might mean monosyllabic repliesâa terse period at the end of a one-word text message. But in serious cases, ostracism can take a heavy toll whereby victims become anxious, withdrawn, depressed, or even suicidal.
âBecause we humans require social contact for our mental health, the ramifications of isolation can be severe,â Joel Cooper, a psychology professor at Princeton, told me. âIn the short term, the silent treatment causes stress. In the long term, the stress can be considered abuse.â
Defense Mechanisms
Close relationships often arouse our deepest emotions, and sometimes we turn to defenses to manage those emotions. Yet this can lead to more anxiety by driving a wedge into the relationship, so itâs valuable to reflect on whether you or your partner use certain defenses.
Addressing Abuses of Power
Power is the ability to influence the events, people, and environments around us. However, people do not always use their power well. Sometimes people (intentionally or unintentionally) use power in ways that cause harm to others. When power is used unethically, the affected parties may wish to see a therapist. A mental health professional can help restore a balance of power and teach people more sustainable ways of asserting themselves.
POWER AND ETHICS
Possession of power is not the same thing as using power. A strong person may have the ability to strike a rival, but they are not obligated to do so. Sometimes, refraining from using one type of power (like physical coercion) can lead to an increase of another type of power (social status).
The right use of power, as defined by Cedar Barstow, MEd, in her book of the same name, is âany use of power that does any or all of the following: prevents harm, reduces harm, repairs harm, promotes well-being⊠power is the ability to have an effect.â Powerâs effects do not always match a personâs intent. For example, a person who manipulates their friends âfor their own goodâ will still likely hurt the people they care about.
Power does not always corrupt: it can be used for prosocial or antisocial purposes. Context can heavily influence how a person uses power. According to a 2008 study, individuals who are in a conflict scenario are more likely to use their power in an antisocial way. But individuals who are primed to think of others (such as in a health care scenario) are more likely to use their power in a prosocial way.
A series of conversations between Dr. Michael Shermer and leading scientists, philosophers, historians, scholars, writers and thinkers about the most important issues of our time.
EPISODE # 222
Suzanne OâSullivan on psychosomatic disorders and other mystery illnesses, based on her book The Sleeping Beauties: And Other Stories of Mystery Illness
September 12, 2022
Are Personality Traits Genetic?
By Kendra Cherry
Personality traits help make us unique individuals, but not everyone agrees on exactly how many different traits exist or what factors contribute to these characteristics. Is personality genetic, or does the environment play a greater role in shaping who we are?
This article discusses how personality traits are defined, whether personality is genetic, and how traits can sometimes change over time.
August 10, 2024
Endless Memory; Mind Reading; Mindfulness
From 2010, Lesley Stahlâs profile of people with Superior Autobiographical Memory who have the ability to remember a large number of facts about themselves. From 2009, Stahlâs report on how neuroscience is able to determine the nature of certain thoughts. From 2019, Stahl’s follow-up on the advancements in neuroscience since 2009. And from 2014, Anderson Cooperâs story on scientists who are investigating self-awareness.
March 27, 2008
Secrets of The Psychics
Part 1 of 6
February 3, 2021
Ralph Lewis M.D.
How Can So Many People Believe Such Weird Things?
Beliefs contradicted by evidence are the norm, not the exception.
Why, sometimes Iâve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast â Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland 1
A longtime patient of mine, whom I like very much, recently shared his views with me on the COVID-19 pandemic.2 He expressed how disappointed he is with most people for being such unquestioning âsheep,â believing everything the government tells them about the virus. âIâm just so disappointed in people. They canât think for themselves.â He, in contrast, does not trust the authorities and does his âown research.â He told me about how he had watched YouTube videos of certain experts on COVID-19, who disagree with the views and advice of public health officials. These âexpertsâ explained that COVID-19 is no more dangerous than the flu, that widespread mask-wearing is unwarranted, and that mass quarantines and lockdowns are unjustified and are just intended to serve particular political interests.
Skeptic
2019
A Thousand Words is Worth a Picture
By Kenneth Grooms
1978
March 4, 2021
MORE FROM HOW TO BUILD A LIFE
By Arthur C. Brooks
Norman Rockwell painted some of the most iconic images of 20th-century America. His paintings, such as Rosie the Riveter and the Four Freedoms series from World War II, and The Problem We All Live With and Murder in Mississippi from the civil-rights movement, were intended to evoke the best in people who saw them: hope, solidarity, courage, justiceâbut most of all, happiness. The bulk of his work captured scenes of lighthearted joy. Consider Shiner, which depicts a young girl with a black eye, sitting outside the principalâs office with a grin that tells you she has just been the victor in combat.
I have seen these paintings my whole life, starting with my grandfatherâs beloved, dog-eared coffee-table book of Rockwellâs greatest works. A printing-press operator in Longview, Washington, my grandfather was no art connoisseur. But he gave this assessment of Rockwell: âThese pictures make me feel happy.â
And yet, Rockwell himself struggled with happiness. In 1953, he moved to Stockbridge, Massachusetts, a bucolic town in the Berkshiresânot for its natural beauty and peace but because it happened to be the home of a psychiatric hospital where he and his wife could receive treatment for chronic depression. There, he was a patient of the world-famous psychoanalyst Erik Erikson, with whom Rockwell racked up a therapy bill so large that he had to accept commissions for Kelloggâs Corn Flakes magazine ads.
October 15, 2019
Nikola Tesla â Limitless Energy & the Pyramids of Egypt
Nikola Tesla (July 10, 1856 â January 7, 1943) was a Serbian-American inventor, electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, and futurist who is best known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current (AC) electricity supply system. Tesla held over 300 patents and is responsible for inventing the laser, x-ray, radio, Tesla coil, Tesla turbine, neon signs, induction motor, remote control and many more. Tesla was a brilliant mind, but did not focus his energy on monetizing his inventions and had difficulty socializing. He died alone in a small hotel in New York.
African-American Singer-Songwriters Who Greatly Impacted Music and History, Reggae, Rock n Roll, Soul
Music wouldnât have the same impact without lyrics. Itâs the words that we find in each composition that have inspired people to take action against injustice and make their way to find peace through music.
Join us as we close out Black History Month by celebrating some of the best African-American songwriters of all time.
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From the award-winning documentary, Playing For Change: Peace Through Music comes Stand By Me, the first of many Songs Around The World produced by Playing For Change. This Ben E. King classic features musicians around the world recorded by the Playing For Change team during their travels. This song continues to remind us that music has the power to break down boundaries and overcome distances between people.
Sittinâ On The Dock Of The Bay
Words of Wonder / Get Up, Stand Up
Playing For Change is proud to present this video of the song What a Wonderful World featuring Grandpa Elliott with childrenâs choirs across the globe. In these hard times, children and music bring us hope for a better future. Today we celebrate life and change the world one heart and one song at a time!!
In Celebration of Universal Childrenâs Day, we are proud to release this Song Around The World featuring children from all across the globe. Children are our hope for the future and it is up to us to pave the way so that their future is bright. Come one, come all and join together to make this world a better place for us and the generations to follow.
Amplified – Classic Rock & Music History
June 26, 2021
Woodstock: 3 Days (in 1969) That Changed Everything
Woodstock started as a music festival but became something more. Its mix of music & ideals resonate now more than ever.
“Woodstock was not about sex, drugs, and rock and roll. It was about love, about sharing, about helping each other, living in peace and harmony.” ~ Richie Havens
November 16, 2021
Peanuts, Franklin, and Racial Representation in Cartoons â Beyond The Scenes
Franklin was introduced as the first Black âPeanutsâ character in 1968, opening up a conversation about race and representation in comics. In this episode, Roy Wood Jr. sits down with Daily Show writer Josh Johnson and Franklinâs namesake and creator of JumpStart Comics, Robb Armstrong, to discuss how the character was created, and the impact of comics.
âFood for Thoughtâ by Tom Gauld
Michael Moore
April 21, 2020
Michael Moore presents a film by Jeff Gibbs, Planet of the Humans, a documentary that dares to say what no one else will â that we are losing the battle to stop climate change because we are following leaders who have taken us down the wrong road â selling out the green movement to wealthy interests and corporate America. This film is the wake-up call . . .
âGreenâ billionaires behind professional activist
network that led suppression of âPlanet of the
Humansâ documentary
MAX BLUMENTHAL | SEPTEMBER 7, 2020
November 22, 2022
SAM BANKMAN-FRIED AND THE LONG ROAD TO TAKING CRYPTO MAINSTREAM
The disgraced founder of FTX played on the vanities of the establishment, reassuring V.C. firms and the media that smart-guy insiders like him could save the world.
By Jay Caspian Kong
In the beginning, there was Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous programmer who created Bitcoin and promised an entire new way of thinking about money â and, by extension, power and politics. But, after it became clear that Nakamoto wasnât going to appear on some mount and pass his tablets down to the masses, the cryptocurrency world began to yearn for a proper evangelist. The people who have tried to fill that role have mostly been self-appointed, such as Roger Ver, the loud and impassioned former C.E.O. of Bitcoin.com, and the man behind Bitcoin Cash; Vitalik Buterin, the enigmatic and perpetually bemused creator of Ethereum; and the Winklevoss twins, the Facebook-involved duo immortalized in the film âThe Social Network,â who started the Gemini exchange and pushed for years for a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund, which they argued would spread the gospel to every brokerage account in America. The reason that the crypto community felt like it needed someone in this role was relatively simple: Internet money requires a leap of faith in a new society. What that particular new world might look like has always been a bit vague, with a few nods to the Austrian School of Economics, or seamless economies that are run entirely on smart contracts. But the pitch to you, the consumer, has always remained the same: In the crypto future, whatever it is, you will be incredibly rich.
Bankman-Fried was the latest and the most effective crypto messiah, precisely because he did not really seem to take crypto all that seriously.
October 2, 2023
Rise and fall of Sam Bankman-Fried, FTX at center of Michael Lewisâs new book
Author Michael Lewis met with FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried more than 100 times. Lewis breaks down the crypto superstarâs rise and fall in his new book, Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon.
October 25, 2023
RUIN: Money, Ego and Deception at FTX
RUIN is a feature documentary about Sam Bankman-Fried and the stunning collapse of his cryptocurrency exchange, FTX, as narrated by Bloomberg journalists and some of the central players in the rise of digital assets.
âThereâs an element here that people should understand about the human condition that has been here since the beginning of time: Greed. Greed is powerful,â said Kevin OâLeary, former FTX spokesperson and Co-host of Shark Tank.
January 13, 2017
GREED â A FATAL DESIRE
Part 2
From Buddhists and bankers to Eskimos and psychologists, we explore the phenomenon of greed with people from all walks of life. How can it be defined? What makes us greedy? And what are the repercussions?
June 20, 2016
The CENTURY of the SELF
Part 1: “Happiness Machines”
The story of the relationship between Sigmund Freud and his American nephew, Edward Bernays. Bernays invented the public relations profession in the 1920s and was the first person to take Freud’s ideas to manipulate the masses. He showed American corporations how they could make people want things they didn’t need by systematically linking mass-produced goods to their unconscious desires.
Bernays was one of the main architects of the modern techniques of mass-consumer persuasion, using every trick in the book, from celebrity endorsement and outrageous PR stunts, to eroticising the motorcar.
His most notorious coup was breaking the taboo on women smoking by persuading them that cigarettes were a symbol of independence and freedom. But Bernays was convinced that this was more than just a way of selling consumer goods. It was a new political idea of how to control the masses. By satisfying the inner irrational desires that his uncle had identified, people could be made happy and thus docile.
It was the start of the all-consuming self which has come to dominate today’s world.
Originally broadcast April 29, 2002.
Written and Produced by Adam Curtis | BBC
March 23, 2022
Why Does Evil Exist? | The Story of God with Morgan Freeman
Where does evil come from? Morgan sets out to understand the root of evil and how our ideas of it have evolved over the millennia. Is the devil real? From the underworld of ancient Egypt to a modern-day maximum-security prison, Morgan discovers that evil might be more than a supernatural force. The birth of religion may be inextricably tied to the need to control evil.
April 6, 2023
Ku Klux Klan – An American History | Part 1
The Ku Klux Klan is the oldest terrorist group in the United States. This secret society, created in 1865, has survived throughout the decades and has always managed to rise from its ashes. It has been making the news for over 150 years. 150 years of hatred, racism and horror. A cruel history whose demons still haunt America.
Part 1 looks at the beginnings in 1865 through the 1920s when a movie “The Birth of A Nation” mainstreamed the Klan across the country.
August 16, 2019
‘One Child Nation’ Exposes the Tragic Consequences
of Chinese Population Control
Documentary filmmaker Nanfu Wang reveals the history and horror of Chinaâs one-child policy.
Imposed in 1979, China’s one-child policy devastated generations of families. Countless children were abducted or killed, women were subjected to forced abortions and sterilizations, and millions of girls disappeared before the Communist Party finally ended the policy in 2015.
In the documentary One Child Nation, out now in select theaters and later this year on Amazon, director Nanfu Wang revisits her experience growing up in rural China in the late 1980s and ’90s. The film is both a deeply personal portrait of family life under the one-child regime and a searing exposĂ© of its draconian horrors.
One Child Nation won the Grand Jury Prize at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and has earned rave reviews from critics. In it, Wang interviews both the victims and the officials responsible for enforcing the one-child policy, revealing the true devastation it wrought on all Chinese citizens, including her own family.
Wang sat down with Reason’s Justin Monticello to go behind the scenes and delve deeper into some of the revelations contained in her highly-anticipated film.
amazon.com/One-Child-Nation-Nanfu-Wang
June 10, 2019
THE YOGIS OF TIBET – Rare Documentary Film
The yogis in this film took unprecedented risks. Once vowed to extreme secrecy to maintain the purity of their practices, they agreed to these unique interviews and rare demonstrations to help preserve for posterity their vanishing culture.
March 5, 2024
The Eugenics Crusade | Full Documentary
Uncover the shocking history of the early 20th-century campaign to breed a âbetterâ American race.
THE EUGENICS CRUSADE tells the story of the unlikelyâand largely unknownâproject to breed a better American race, tracing the rise of a movement that turned a scientific theory of heredity into a powerful instrument of social control. Populated by figures both celebrated and obscure, it is an often revelatory portrait of an America at once strange and eerily familiar.
MAGAZINE
Weekly Review
September 4, 2024
July 12, 2024
The Problem With Elon Musk
The Billionaire Whoâs Not Like Other Billionaires
Is Elon Musk a net positive or negative for society? We spoke to people heâs worked with and researched his childhood, past business ventures like Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink, and X (formerly known as Twitter), and what heâs currently working on to answer this question.
Oct. 26, 2024
Stories About Lawyers | Full Episodes
From 2017, Steve Kroftâs profile of a man who discovered he had a brilliant mind for the law while he was serving time in prison for armed bank robbery. From 2022, Anderson Cooperâs report on the organization helping prisoners in Africa become lawyers and paralegals. Also from 2017, Cooperâs conversations with New Orleans Public Defenders who claimed that innocent clients went to jail because they lacked the time and resources to defend them properly. And from 2023, Lesley Stahlâs story on litigation funding, a multibillion-dollar industry for investments in lawsuits with little oversight.
