This podcast is about the problem of overthinking - and how modifying one’s metacognitive beliefs can reduce stress, worry, and problem fixation. 

Thinking is an amazing capacity we all have. Humans possess the cognitive abilities to form concepts, imagine possible futures, and solve problems, but this same capacity, when it runs amuck, can keep you up at night, paralyze effect decision making and keep you in a loop of worst-case scenarios. 

Yeah, not helpful. 

My guest is Dr. Pia Callesen, who explains how to use meta-cognitive strategies to break free from this overthinking. 

Dr. Callesen is a therapist and metacognitive specialist managing several clinics in Denmark. She has a Ph.D. from Manchester University, and She is the author of Live More Think Less (2020). Her study into the effectiveness of metacognitive therapy for depression, published in Scientific Reports in 2020, suggests that MCT has considerable benefits which might exceed those of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). 

On this show, we discuss…

• Metacognition and metacognitive therapy
• Metacognitive beliefs
• The self-regulating mechanism in the brain
• When less is more when dealing with thoughts
• Trigger thoughts
• How MCT differs from traditional cognitive therapies
• Targeting specific psychological processes
• How to postpone worry/rumination
• Attention training
• The benefits and risks of mindfulness
• Detached mindfulness
• How attentional awareness helps with depression 

As a person who overthinks, I’m already benefiting from much of Dr. Callesen’s advice here. I think you will find this interesting and very helpful. 

Enjoy! 

For show notes and more, visit larryweeks.com

“Feelings, nothing more than feelings” - Morris Albert

In this episode, we discuss how emotions are made - and how insights into how our brains make us feel can help us cope with challenging situations. 

My guest is Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett, a psychology professor and neuroscientist at Northeastern University, who is the author of seven books on emotion and the brain, including the best-selling book How Emotions Are Made and, most recently, Seven And A Half Lessons About The Brain. In addition to the books, Dr. Barrett has published over 260 peer-reviewed scientific papers. She received a National Institutes of Health Director’s Pioneer Award for her revolutionary research on emotion in the brain.

Her groundbreaking research overturns many prior assumptions about how the human brain forms emotions. On this show, we cover these topics …

• A discussion about theory in scientific contexts
  The classical view of emotions
• An overview of her research in constructed emotion
• The problem with the “amygdala hijack” and the reptilian brain
• The brain as a prediction machine
• Rationality
• Mood and metabolic efficiency
• The body-budget
• How emotions can be recategorized
• A new take on depression
• The story of her daughter and the “emotional flu”
• Decision-making, rationality, and the use of emotion

For show notes and more, visit larryweeks.com/podcasts

This discussion centers on what living with purpose actually means. 

My guest is Professor William Damon. 

William is a psychologist and professor at Stanford University and a senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. He has been designated one of the fifty most influential living psychologists in the world today and is one of the world's leading scholars of human development. Bills is a pioneering researcher on the development of purpose in life and wrote the influential book The Path to Purpose. His current work includes a study exploring purpose in higher education and a study of family purpose across generations. He’s been elected to the National Academy of Education and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

On this podcast, we cover these topics and more. 

• The multiple definitions of purpose
• Vocations/avocations  
• How purpose can change over time 
• Is purpose something you find or do
• Purpose as a noun vs purpose as a verb
• On having purpose vs being purposeful 
• The benefits of a Life Review 
• Bill's story about his early family life and his new book A Round of Golf With my Father 

For show notes and more, visit larryweeks.com/podcasts

My guests are Nathan and Susannah Fur. Nathan earned his Ph.D. from Stanford's Technology Ventures Program and is an Associate Professor of Strategy at INSEE ADD, one of the world's leading graduate business schools located in France. Susannah, a designer and art historian, founded a women's clothing line inspired by her research of the intricate embroidery of Dutch women.

Our discussion centers on the benefits of embracing uncertainty, specifically the tools outlined in their book, The Upside of Uncertainty.

I've been assembling tactics for years now, accumulating a mental toolbox of sorts for dealing with challenges. Uncertainty is challenging for what it lacks - concrete information. 

How do we move forward when we don't fully know what we are dealing with? 

We usually don't act; we might freeze or delay having a lack of certainty. Dealing with uncertainty has a lot to do with mindset since we may not know what to handle. What frame of mind will help us act or move forward in the face of uncertainty? We all know making decisions in a state of fear is also suboptimal. 

So on this show, we discuss ...

• Uncertainty and evolutionary hard-wiring 
• The relationship between stress and uncertainty
• Fragile and anti-fragile 
• Upsides
• Tools for dealing with uncertainty 
• Reframing 
• Adjacent Possible.  
• Aplomb: Doubting self-doubt. 
• Uncertainty balancers
• Creating an Uncertainty manifesto. 

And much more. 

I think if you listen, you will come to the conclusion that things may be uncertain, but we can have a little more certainty that we can handle it. 

For show notes and more, visit larryweeks.com/podcasts

"It is by squeezing your life into a single tube that you set yourself up for definitive failure. Projects fail, and people fail in them. But we have come to speak as if a person can BE a failure - as though failure were an identity, not an event" - Kieran Setiya

Kieran Setiya is a Professor of Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is known for his work in ethics, epistemology, and the philosophy of mind. Setiya is a co-editor of Philosophers' Imprint, and he is also the author of several books, including Practical Knowledge, Reasons without Rationalism, and Knowing Right From Wrong.

Kieren's newest book, Life is Hard, How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our Way, is the topic of this podcast. In this episode, Keiran challenges the idea that happiness should be life's primary pursuit. Instead, he argues that we should try to live well, and living well means how one lives in relationship to difficulty - not without difficulty.

Keiren has a great phrase, "the digressive amplitude of being alive." Life IS oscillation; it's up-down, backward-forward, and expecting anything different is a setup to suffering, adding to whatever hard thing you are experiencing. 

Topics covered in the show…

• On thinking philosophically
• On consolation
• Relating to pain
• Failure and your credit report
• The Experience Machine
• Autotelic vs exotelic experience
• The metaverse
• On the profundity of the movie Groundhog Day

For show notes and more, visit www.larryweeks.com. 

On this podcast, we're going to talk about Brain Chemistry, specifically, what happens in our brains when we are traumatized, severely depressed, or anxious. And for those stuck in that state, what are the latest clinical treatments using medication, that can help someone get unstuck.

My guest on this episode is the distinguished  Dr. John Krystal MD. Dr. Krystal is the Professor of Psychiatry, Neuroscience, and Psychology; Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at Yale University; and Chief of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health at Yale-New Haven Hospital.

Dr. Krystal is a leading expert in the areas of alcoholism, post-traumatic stress disorder, schizophrenia, and depression. His work links psychopharmacology, neuroimaging, molecular genetics, and computational neuroscience to study the neurobiology and treatment of these disorders. He is best known for leading the discovery of the rapid antidepressant effects of ketamine in depressed patients.

He is the co-founder and Chief Scientific Advisor of Freedom Biosciences, a clinical-stage biotechnology platform developing next-generation ketamine and psychedelic therapeutics that recently emerged from stealth in August 2022. 

On this show, we cover topics that include ...

• The neurobiology of a depressed brain
• The relationship between thought and brain chemistry
• Anxiety and its connection to depression
• Pharmacology; getting into the various medications for treating depression.
• How antidepressants were discovered
• The efficacy of current antidepressants
• The neuroscience of psychedelics in the treatment of severe depression and PTSD
• Ketamine therapy; benefits, risks, and treatment protocols (the different delivery mechanisms, dosages, etc.) 

Since we do talk about substances like ketamine which has psychedelic-like properties, here is a disclaimer: I'm NOT a doctor, nor do I play one on the interwebs. None of the content in this podcast constitutes medical advice or should be construed as a recommendation to use any medications mentioned. There are psychological, physical, and sometimes legal risks with usage. Please consult your doctor before considering anything we discuss in this episode.

All right, that all said, here is more information for you to consider. 

Enjoy! 

Much more For show notes and more, visit www.larryweeks.com 

My guest is clinical psychologist and author Dr. Lindsay Gibson.

Dr. Gibson has two graduate degrees in clinical psychology, including a Doctorate of Psychology from the Virginia Consortium Program in Clinical Psychology – an Adjunct Professor for the College of William and Mary and Old Dominion University.

She has written a few best-sellers, including a series on dealing with emotionally immature people, the first of which is Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents: How to Heal from the Distant, Rejecting, or Self-Involved.

On the podcast, Dr. Gibson sheds light on the high-conflict personality type and gives some great psychological and tactical advice for dealing with the emotionally immature.

On the show, we discuss

• Why she wrote the book and its origins from her practice
• EIP personality characteristics 
• The single most essential factor in human relationships
• How can I be sure I am emotionally mature 
• The impact an EIP might have on you emotionally
• Why an EIP is like they the way they are 
• How to deal with an EIPs 
• Where people go wrong in dealing with them
• What your main goal should be in interacting with an EIP (good tips generally when caught in an argument with anyone) 

Much more For show notes and more, visit www.larryweeks.com 

My guest is Mary-Frances O'Connor.

Mary-Francis is a professor of Clinical Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of Arizona and is the Director of the Grief, Loss, and Social Stress Lab, where she and her colleagues are creating new frameworks for understanding grief and the grieving process; and her book The Grieving Brain: The Surprising Science of How We Learn from Love and Loss is the topic of this episode.

On the show, we discuss...

• Her work at the lab and what she is learning about grief
• What happens to the brain when someone is experiencing grief
• Defining complicated grief
• An update on Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’s grief model
• How grief is prolonged
• We discuss the mortality rates for those who fail to adapt to loss
• General loss, death isn't the only loss type we grieve; it can be a job, an identity, or anything we are attached to
• How lost loved ones really stay with us, outside of any mystical experience

For show notes and more, visit www.larryweeks.com