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by Elise Loehnen
Writer Elise Loehnen explores life’s big questions with today’s leading thinkers, experts, and luminaries: Why do we do what we do? How can we understand and love ourselves better? What would it look like to come together and build a more meaningful world?
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“ I think we're stumbling towards a rediscovery of depth and meaning that has drained out of the contemporary world,” says storyteller Michael Meade. I’ve been reading Michael Meade’s books for a long time now, and I loved his latest, The Heart of Transformation. I was thrilled to have him back on Pulling the Thread to talk about: What gives rise to our own transformations, renewals, and rebirths. A different (and more helpful) way to think about our resistance to change. Where to look for our genius and our gifts. And how to go about fulfilling our inner dreams, and responding to the call to live our own unique lives. For the show notes, go to eliseloehnen.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
I got to chat with Dr. Jill Biden about: the first draft of her memoir View from the East Wing; her new job and her forever love of teaching; her early family life; grieving, processing anger, and attempting forgiveness; caregiving and aging; and moments of divine intervention. Plus, the books she’s been reading and loving lately, and the one she recommends to people going through it. For the show notes, go to eliseloehnen.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In October’s solo episode, I’m sharing what I’ve read this month (including the rare novel, which I loved!), and what’s inspiring my latest attempts to resist the compulsion to overwork. I’m also sharing my takes on some things that are happening now in the media landscape: changes that YouTube has made, ways we measure our value, what this means for how we create meaning, the next cycle that’s going to crash, and how to avoid getting totally mucked up by algorithmic forces. To see the show notes and my newsletter, to register for upcoming events with me, and to join our growing community for more—head to eliseloehnen.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
“Globally, across many cultures, across the lifespan, many people have a deep mistrust of joy and other positive emotions for different reasons,” says psychologist, teacher, and author Kelly McGonigal, PhD. In her new book, Joy Is a Risk Worth Taking, she shares the research that’s shaped her approach to joy as a pessimist. It’s the best case for joy as a moral obligation that I’ve heard. But whether you see joy as frivolous or meaningful—whether you find it easy or challenging to feel, show, or seek joy—I think her way of seeing joy can bring more of it into all of our lives. For the show notes, including a link to that space for sharing joy we talk about toward the end of the conversation, head to eliseloehnen.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
“ I was raised in a culture that says it’s cooler and it's smarter to say this is just a material, senseless, random world where atoms are bouncing off of each other, and there's no meaning or order or divine wink to any of it,” says psychiatrist Ellen Vora, MD. “I was missing that charm and that joy of, mmm, feels like something's happening here. I don't know what, but it feels like something is—and that gives me an immense amount of meaning and intrigue.” Today I’m talking to Ellen about her new book Season of the Witch, and how she came to think about the rational and intuitive parts of herself, our understanding of the left and right hemispheres of the brain, and where our skepticism often comes from. Ellen shares how, now, she’s helping people to reconnect to their own intuition, and to stay intact and open up to what—personally—brings them great joy and meaning. For the show notes, head to eliseloehnen.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In her private therapy practice, renowned psychoanalyst Galit Atlas, PhD, has identified six archetypes that shape our intimate relationships as adults. She says that every adult carries one of these archetypes with them, and that usually we carry more than one. She’s named them: the frightened child, the melancholic child, the ashamed child, the invisible child, the guilty child (I identify big-time with this one), and the chosen child. Today, we talk through these archetypes as Galit brings us into the therapy room and shares some incredibly resonant stories from her work with her patients. After you listen, I also highly recommend reading her new book, Come Closer: Childhood Wounds, Adult Love, and the Secrets of Emotional Intimacy. For the show notes, head to eliseloehnen.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
“The alchemy pathway brings back synchronicity, unity, harmony to all of these different parts of self,” says psychic medium Carissa Schumacher. Her book—The Alchemy Transmissions: A Pathway to Miracles—is out this week, and it’s a series of transmissions she channeled from Yeshua (Jesus)! Today, we’re talking about what else this pathway might offer us, how to navigate the new era that we’re in, how to become more consciously mature, and how to step more deeply into your own unique essence. For the show notes (including a link to Carissa’s 92nd Street Y event on October 3, which you can stream), head to eliseloehnen.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
It’s just me today, sharing an update on my next surgery (I’m still doing well!), and reflecting on something that someone shared with me at a book event a few weeks ago. It got me thinking about how our gifts are emergent; they show up at different times in our lives, and in different ways. And sometimes, we’re being called to simply be present. I’m also starting to reflect back on the last seven-year cycle (more about why in the episode), and hope you’ll join me in thinking about who you were, too, in the fall of 2019. To see the show notes and my newsletter, to register for upcoming events with me, and to join our growing community for more—head to eliseloehnen.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Writer Elise Loehnen explores life’s big questions with today’s leading thinkers, experts, and luminaries: Why do we do what we do? How can we understand and love ourselves better? What would it look like to come together and build a more meaningful world?
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