Disgruntalist Time

In this episode, I chat about whether or not New Year's Resolutions are a bit of an own goal because it allows us to compartmentalise the need to reflect on and improve this global shitshow to one single day, and gets us to think about improving ourselves rather than improving things for others. I also mention the slightly odd route I've taken from satire to wanting to become a psychologist (as well, not instead of!).

In this episode, we discuss a common sense intepretation of Karma and how it's actually just science by another name, and how we can maybe, slowly, make social media better. Also there's a reality show where animals are judged on which one is best to be reincarnated as.

In this episode, I ask whether a more self-centred culture, and one that incentivises and rewards complaining about and identifying with our suffering, is generating a broad cultural intolerance to adversity. Have we developed an entitled attitude that presumes we have a right to get from birth to death with nothing inconveniencing us in between? Are we starting to see a pain / inconvenience-free life as a norm, rather than seeing suffering as all "part of it"? Discuss :)

In this episode, we chat about whether or not the often-sexualised visual language of TikTok (and Instagram) means that the way mindfulness memes etc are presented on there are counterintuitive to the outcomes they purport to promote. Discuss :)

In this episode, we look at getting rid of your smartphone, the lengthy process involved in convincing people you actually mean it, the benefits of getting a "dumb phone", plus one or two of the negatives (but they were surprisingly few and low impact. Finally, there's a reflection on how beneficial, freeing, and paradigm-shifting it is to suddenly confine the internet to a physical space and turn its access into a finite resource.

In this episode, we discuss how trying to tactfully navigate someone's delusions (due to dementia) requires similar strategies to how we might engage someone online whose beliefs are vastly different, or totally opposite, to our own.

In this episode, Jazz reflects on how a lack of discussion around death and its absence from the spotlight in daily mainstream culture might have led him to be ill-prepared in handling his father passing away. Should we introduce courses, or structured daily reflections, on death and grieving? It's not pleasant to be discovering how to navigate these frontiers when you're "in" the moment; it's not reassuring to learn how to grieve "on the job".

After returning from a trip to the UK to help look after my mum, suddenly my father passed away. It's been a real shock. What was already taxing now feels nearly impossible, and this episode documents the physicality of immediate grief in the first few days, and how mindfulness has helped me weather multiple waves of agonising emotions.

After a month in the UK looking after my mum, who has dementia, this episode reflects firstly on how mindfulness techniques were useful in confronting traumatic situations. It also discusses how expanded, non-judgemental awareness allows competing, or contradictory, feelings to co-exist and how this might be useful in developing a constructive response to the Queen's death.

In this (bonus) episode we discuss how reading fiction may increase our capacity for empathy and why, therefore, it's so important as a form of workout that will help us overcome our differences and make the world a better place.

**BONUS EP** I'm still on a break :) In Ep 12 we chat about how attachment leads to a worse kind of fandom, one that's either so attached that it's completely uncritical, or so attached that it's easily too critical because a certain aspect of a show isn't exactly how they wanted it. Either way, the best kind of fan is an unnatached one. We also talk about how "fan" mentality seems to pervade other walks of life, like celebrity trials and medicine, not just pop culture.

We chat about the implications of the election, and how any feelings of catharsis, victory, or "Job done!" have to be temporary, instead steeling ourselves for continous hard work and finding better ways to be the winners. It's easy firing pot shots when you're not in power: well now (if you support Labor, Greens, Independents) you're in power! So now you / we have to live up to all the criticism we've been firing at the other side. The easy bit's over. Now the hard work begins. Also, Pete Lawler (stalwart fan) wanted me to plug the Discord here, so... support the podcast and get access to the Discord! :)

We chat about NFTs, how they magnify, rather than replace or disrupt, the worst aspects of capitalism by whittling it down to its purest, almost algebraic form. What would real "disruption" look like? We also chat about how this technology is emerging with the worst possible timing, right when we need more connection to the natural world, we're focusing on acquiring digital assets with disproportionate worth. PS If a Bored Ape thingy is worth $400,000 (or whatever) then a single tree should be worth Nine hundred billion dollars

In this episode, we talk about some handy metaphors for conceptualising "oneness", our place in the ecosystem, and how pain, negative experiences, and suffering in general should be a vehicle for us to connect to others rather than worn as a badge of uniqueness or a barrier that no one else can get through.

In this ep, we talk about how our obsession with hypocrisy isn't such a great thing, and that what we often label hypocrisy is actually evolution and improvement by any other name. Also, we dig into an audience question about how frustration around meditation is also part of, and can help, meditation.

In this episode we look at trying to separate wellness culture from spirituality and the harm that comes from the association between the two. We look at why wellness influencers appeal to us, how they shortcircuit our brains, and how self-improvement isn't something that comes with products you can sell or be sponsored by. Exercise and meditation aren't products that can be sold. Also we look at a certain prominent online "guru" and cultural commentator and debunk a few of the techniques used to simultanously garner views while being seemingly innocent of stoking controversy.

In this episode, we chat about how fasting as an attitude, rather than just a food-related practice, can bring all sorts of benefits to all sorts of contexts: not just eating. We chat about how creating distance between yourself and your impulses, feelings, and needs, is necessary for resilience, and how the internet has created a culture of constantly needing to be sated all the time, to the extent that "bingeing" has gone from a vice to a praiseworthy virtue.

In this episode we talk about Ukraine and how consuming so much news that you become exhausted, and then *tell* people about the exhaustion, is a form of self-centredness that distracts from those that need our support and compassion. We also quesion the notion that "staying informed" is an act of service, or shows that you care. Finally, we talk about how loving kindness, rather than becoming news junkies, may be the best course of action for the time being.

Don't worry: "you don't exist" doesn't actually mean the scary thing you think it means. It just means the way we think of ourselves as existing might need a little rejigging. In this episode, we dip our toes into the first little ways we can overcome that knee jerk reaction when you're told there is no self, as well as discuss some of the early problems and frustrations of insight meditation.

Ep 3 explores why social media doesn't just incidentally nurture ego, but is purposefully built to do so, which flies in the face of contemporary and ancient advice on how to live a content, happy life. We look at the totally contrasting impact of meditation versus social media on the default mode network, the region in the brain responsible for our sense of self and the passage of time, and thus also, partly responsible for depressive and anxious thoughts. Yay social media! We also get stuck into an awesome metphor involving Elk. Your ego is like an elk.