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
180 episodes
FLOURISH - "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 to 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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MIND - Managing Our Emotions
We are emotional illiterates. We have limited vocabularies to describe the subtleties and nuances of our moods, feelings and emotions. As a consequence, we find it hard to explain our feelings or to understand the feelings of others. &nbs...
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Season 4
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Episode 39
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14:38
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MIND - Creative Use of Our Multiple Minds
In this episode I focus on two aspects of creativity, making the points that creativity is a dynamic dance between novelty and routing and that creativity is a multi-phased process that requires the use of multiple mindsets and divergent cognit...
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Season 4
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Episode 38
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11:27
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MIND - Managing Our Monkey Minds
To improve our happiness we need to quiet the incessant internal chatter of self-criticism, self-sabotage, self-blame, self-pity, self-aggrandizement, and the other forms of neurotic self-absorption that plague us. To fl...
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Season 4
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Episode 37
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15:13
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MIND - A Wandering Mind is an Unhappy Mind (The DMN #1)
This episode is the first of a two-part focus on a specific brain network known as the Default Mode Network (DMN). In part one I discuss how the DMN undermines our happiness and our sense of well-being. I make the case that to impro...
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Season 4
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Episode 36
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9:50
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MIND - No Self = No Ego
Buddhist scholars suggest that the "Self" is an illusion and that awakening to the revelation of "No Self," leads to greater happiness and peace-of-mind. Just what are they talking about? The idea of No-Self makes more sense to me ...
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Season 4
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Episode 34
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10:12
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MIND - Psychedelic Mysticism
I’m interested in mystical and psychedelic experiences because they seem to evoke radically altered states of mind that are akin to spiritual awakening. They enable people to feel more at peace with the flow of existence and are often a portal ...
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Season 4
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Episode 33
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11:03
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MIND - Mysticism: The mystery that there is something rather than nothing.
Mystical experiences have a core set of characteristics that seem to promote mental wellbeing and flourishing. People who have mystical experiences, including psychedelic trips, report feeling a profound unity with something vast and d...
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Season 4
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Episode 32
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13:43
MIND - Transcendent Equanimity
A while back I wrote an article for 3rd Act Magazine that explored how equanimity is a key to flourishing as we age. In this podcast I revisit the article and add some perspective. I suspect that aging will be much eas...
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Season 4
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Episode 42
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12:17
