MINDRAMP PODCASTS
BRAIN HEALTH
MENTAL MANAGEMENT
A GOOD DEATH
Let's not just fade away; let's FLOURISH as we age!
The MINDRAMP Podcasts focus on three key components that have been shown to contribute to flourishing in the later years of your life. You will find mini-series of episodes that explore each component.
1) Keeping your brain and body healthy - see The Roots of Brain Health
2) Managing your mental states - see Flourishing
3) Planning the kind of death you want to have - (coming 10/1/24))
You will also find the occasional episodes that focus social concerns that I feel have an impact on our well-being, for example "Elections."
Episodes
190 episodes
END-OF-LIFE #10 - RETHINKING DEATH & DYING
In the epilogue to his book, Achieving a Good Death, author Chris Palmer summarizes his thoughts on how we might reconceptualize our basic attitudes about the process of dying and death itself. Death tends to be a taboo subject, but dea...
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Season 4
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Episode 42
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13:59
END-OF-LIFE #9 - Simplify Your Life
Taking steps to simplify our lives as we age has benefits not only for ourselves but also for our loved ones. In my ninth conversation with Chris palmer, author of Achieving a Good Death, we talk about simplifying, decluttering and minimalizing...
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Season 4
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Episode 41
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11:08
END-OF-LIFE #8 -Important Documents
In this episode I talk with Chris Palmer, author of the new book Achieving a Good Death, about important documents you can prepare to make sure you have the kind of end-of-life experiences you want. Chris and I discuss two broad c...
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Season 4
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Episode 39
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16:54
END-OF-LIFE #7 - The Hard Conversations
This episode, number 7 in MINDRAMP's End-of-Life series, is about having “The Hard Conversations,” those difficult, but important, conversations with your family and loved ones about the kind of death you want to have. As usual I am talking wit...
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Season 4
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Episode 40
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14:35
END-OF-LIFE #6 - Remembrance Rituals & Grieving
This is the sixth of my interviews with Chris Palmer, author of the new book called ACHIEVING A GOOD DEATH. In this episode we discuss the purpose of remembrance rituals - memorial services, eulogies and obituaries. Chr...
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Season 4
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Episode 38
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17:51
END-OF-LIFE #5 - Body Disposition (What to do with the body)
This is the fifth episode of my end-of-life interviews with Chris Palmer, author of the new book called ACHIEVING A GOOD DEATH. To flourish as we age we need to live the best life we can and also have the best death we can. MINDRAMP's en...
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Season 4
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Episode 37
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21:19
END-OF-LIFE #4 - Exit Strategies
Chris Palmer, author of the new book Achieving a Good Death, and I discuss the different choices we have about how to exit our lives. Chris offers five "exit strategies," including: Withholding Life Saving...
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Season 4
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Episode 35
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31:49
ELECTIONS - The Media of Disinformation
This short essay., written for the Winter 2025 edition of 3rd Act Magazine, focuses on how modern media platforms provide propagandists with powerful vehicles for the disseminating of disinformation. I discuss Marshal McLuhan's ide...
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Season 4
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Episode 41
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9:35
END-OF-LIFE #3 - Prepare for a Slow Death
The third episode in our end-of-life series Chris Palmer and I (Michael C. Patterson) focus our conversation on what happens when we are in the process of dying. Chris points out that we can die in two ways: suddenly or slowly. So...
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Season 4
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Episode 34
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20:52
END-OF-LIFE #2 - We Die Two Deaths: a Conversation with Chris Palmer
To flourish we need not only to live well, but also to die well. And, conversely, the best way to insure a good death is to live as well as we can. This is the second episode in a series of conversations with Chris Palmer who has recently publi...
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Season 4
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Episode 34
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14:34
END-OF-LIFE #1 - "Achieving A Good Death," an interview with Chris Palmer
In this series of MINDRAMP Podcasts we will continue to discuss how to flourish as we near the end of our life - but with a special focus. To flourish we need to live a good life and die a good death. This series of podcast...
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Season 4
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Episode 33
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35:56
MIND - "Dreams of Young Activists"
This is a reading of an article I wrote for the Fall 2024 edition of 3rd Act Magazine. I recall the 60's and 70's when many of us had a youthful passion to create a better world. Now, decades later, we may not have the energy and e...
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Season 4
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Episode 34
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7:59
MIND - Managing Multiple Minds with Meditation
This episode summarizes my current thinking (as of September 2024), about how we can manage our minds to flourish as we age. I suggest that the quirky nature of our mind is more understandable when we realize that we have multiple, semi-i...
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Season 4
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Episode 33
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26:36
ELECTION - A Reading of the January 6 Indictment of Donald Trump. Parts 1 & 2
The indictment of former president Donald J. Trump related to his attempts to overthrow the 2020 election is, arguably, the most significant trial in American history. We are all witnesses to history and should understand the full extent ...
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Season 3
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Episode 29
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1:44:19
ELECTION - Project 2025 - The Hungarian Connection
Trump and MAGA Republicans are following a playbook for the future (Project 2025) that was put together by The Heritage Foundation and The Danube Institute of Hungary. The Danube Institute is dedicated to spreading Viktor Orban's v...
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Season 1
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Episode 5
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13:37
MIND- How Elections Effect Brain Health & Wellness
In addition to taking personal responsibility for your brain health and mental well-being, you must recognize that the environment you live in and the social support systems that are available to you also have a profound effect on your brain an...
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Season 4
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Episode 32
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15:18
ELECTION - Jamie Raskin Writes in Praise of President Biden
On July 6, congressman Jamie Raskin send President Biden a letter encouraging him to caucus with Democratic leaders to hear their concerns about his continuing in the campaign. On July 21, Biden decided to withdraw from the campaign and to endo...
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Season 1
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Episode 5
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10:30
MIND - How Psychedelics Open The Mind & Quiet the Default Mode Network
This episode explores how and why psychedelics, like psilocybin, are capable of making our minds more plastic and malleable. Research on Psilocybin has found that the drug de-synchronizes the Default Mode Network (DMN). The DMN is ...
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Season 4
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Episode 32
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12:02
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MIND - The Entropic Mind Hypothesis
Neuroscientist Robin Carhart-Harris has developed the "Entropic Mind Hypothesis" that suggests our minds operate along a continuum of conscious states ranging from organized and even rigid on one end to the opposite extreme of disorganized, eve...
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Season 4
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Episode 41
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10:51
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ELECTION - "Trump is Unfit To Serve: NYT Editorial Board Statement
On July 11, The New York Times' editorial board called on voters to reject Donald Trump's reelection bid, stating that the former president is "unfit to lead" a second term. It is an important statement that should be read, or listened to, by a...
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Season 1
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Episode 4
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31:44
MIND - No self = No ego
Buddhist philosophers say that our "Self" is an illusion and that we can be much happier once we recognize this hallucination and learn to live without a Self. What does this mean? I think the Buddhists mean we need to escape from the d...
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Season 4
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Episode 35
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12:23
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ELECTION - Is Trump Above the Law? - U.S. Court of Appeals Ruling - Part 1, Background
One of the huge issues facing the nation is whether Donald Trump is immune from prosecution for alleged crimes committed during and after his term as President of the United States? Is Donald Trump - or anyone else - above the law? <...
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Season 3
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Episode 29
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14:32
ELECTION - Is Trump Above the Law - U.S. Court of Appeals Ruling - Part 2, Executive Immunity
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, the nation’s second highest court, has ruled unanimously that Trump is NOT immune from prosecution, nor is he above the law. They explained every aspect of their decision in a 67-page docu...
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Season 4
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Episode 31
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1:05:34
ELECTION - Is Trump Above the Law? - U.S. Court of Appeals Ruling - Part 3, Double Jeopardy Principle and Conclusion
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, the nation’s second highest court, has ruled unanimously that Trump is NOT immune from prosecution, nor is he above the law. They explained every aspect of their decision in a 67-page docu...
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Season 4
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Episode 32
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13:15
MIND - Lose Your Mind, Come Back to Your Senses
As I continue to investigate how to flourish as I age, I find that the "Hemisphere Hypothesis," does a good job of defining mental changes I need and want to make. In broad terms, it will be easier to flourish when I learn to quiet my thi...
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Season 4
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Episode 40
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11:48
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