The Kevin Miller Podcast

Using Our Imagination To Help Ourselves Instead Of Just Constantly Scaring Ourselves w/ Imagination Psychologist Cassandra Vieten

September 21, 2026·1h 7m
Episode Description from the Publisher

When a new book on imagination was sent to me for review, I initially began thinking how we have culturally seemed to decrease in being imaginative. We seem more black and white and limited than ever, lacking the imagination to consider other perspectives, alternatives, and options to evolve ourselves and our lives. But in reviewing the material it dawned on me that from another angle we may be more imaginative than ever. We are experiencing a mental health crisis at the hands of our own anxiety, which is in essence our propensity to sit around imagining all the bad things that could happen to us. That is plenty of imagination, just not in a very productive direction. To dig further into this, I bring you Cassandra Vieten. Cassandra is a licensed clinical psychologist, clinical professor in the department of family medicine, and director of research at the Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination at the University of California, San Diego. She also directs the Center for Mindfulness at UC San Diego and serves as clinical psychology director at the Center for Psychedelic Research. Her research has focused on imagination, spirituality and health, transformative experiences and practices, and the development of mindfulness-based interventions for emotional well-being. She has authored three books and her new one that I’m grateful was shared with me is, IMAGINE THAT: Transform How You Think, Feel, and Live with the Science of Imagination. Find her at cassandravieten.com Sign up for your $1/month trial period at shopify.com/kevin Go to shipstation.com and use code KEVIN to start your free trial. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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