The Learning To Die Podcast Ian Dunican and Ciaran O'Regan

In this episode, Ciaran and Ian sit down to have a chat on numerous topics to kick off 2023.
Links to people and things we discuss in this episode
• Bernardo Kastrup is the executive director of Essentia Foundation. His work has been leading the modern renaissance of metaphysical idealism, the notion that reality is essentially mental. He has a PhD in philosophy (ontology, philosophy of mind) and another PhD in computer engineering (reconfigurable computing, artificial intelligence) https://philpeople.org/profiles/bernardo-kastrup
• Anna I. Krylov, The Peril of Politicizing Science, The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters 2021 12 (22), 5371-5376 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.1c01475. Read the paper here for free https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jpclett.1c01475
• Bertrand Russell https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertrand_Russell
• Jordan Ernest Burroughs (born July 8, 1988) is an American freestyle wrestler and former Folkstyle wrestler who currently competes at 79 kilograms and previously competed at 74 kilos. In freestyle, he was the 2012 Olympic gold medallist, is the reigning and a six-time world champion (nine-time medallist), three-time Pan American Games Gold medallist, four-time Pan American champion, and four-time US Open national champion, and has made the US World or Olympic Team on 11 occasions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan_Burroughs
• Oil protesters appear in court after throwing soup at Van Gogh painting https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/15/oil-protesters-appear-in-court-threw-soup-van-gogh-painting.html
• Martin Shaw https://drmartinshaw.com/interview/
• John Moriarty https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Moriarty_(writer)
• Decoding Jung's Metaphysics: The Archetypal Semantics of an Experiential Universe https://www.amazon.com.au/Decoding-Jungs-Metaphysics-Archetypal-Experiential/dp/1789045657
Check us out at www.learningtodie.com.au  for all episodes and links to the YouTube video versions.
The YouTube version of this episode has a video and some slides.
Contact us at ian@learningtodie.com.au or ciaran@learningtodie.com.au.

A brief 10-minute meditation for our sleep4performance listeners led by Alexis Santos, a meditation teacher. https://www.alexissantos.io/
Please do not listen while operating machinery, driving or undertaking any safety-critical role. This mediation is designed to support having a nap or initiating sleep in a safe, comfortable environment.
Sleep Well!!!!
Ian 

Today I am joined by Alexis Santos. Alexis has been in the field of mindfulness and meditation since 2001. After graduating from Harvard University in 1995, he spent several years in medical school before leaving his chosen doctor career to seek a different path. It was while travelling in India that he was introduced to insight meditation.
Since that time, Alexis has practised in many meditative styles and traditions, including Sayadaw U Tejaniya, the Thai Forest tradition with Ajahn Sumedho, the Tibetan tradition with Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche and within the lay Western insight community where he continues to learn from the growing diversity of voices.
Alexis's primary teacher has been Sayadaw U Tejaniya, from the Burmese Theravada tradition, with whom he was ordained as a Buddhist monk from 2003 - 2005. Sayadaw encouraged Alexis to teach in 2012. Alexis also completed the Spirit Rock/IMS four-year teacher training program with Jack Kornfield and others, including mentors Joseph Goldstein and Carol Wilson. 
Alexis teaches meditation at retreat centers around the world. He is featured on the Ten Percent Happier meditation app and is co-founder of Open Door Meditation Community in Portland, Maine, where he is a guest teacher. Alexis's teaching style is natural and uncrafted. He brings a practical, intuitive and compassionate approach to the development of wisdom.
https://www.alexissantos.io/
Check us out at www.learningtodie.com.au for all episodes and links.
Contact us at ian@learningtodie.com.au  or ciaran@learningtodie.com.au

Today we are joined by Dr Myriam Francois. Myriam is a former Research Associate at the Centre of Islamic Studies (CIS) at SOAS University. She completed her PhD (DPhil) at Oxford University, focusing on Islamic movements in Morocco in 2017. She holds an MA from Georgetown University (USA) and a BA from Cambridge University (UK).
Her resume speaks for itself. She has worked with the BBC, Channel 4, Sky News, Al Jazeera, Huffington Post and many more. Some notable works include
2019 documentary “City of Refuge” examined the plight of Syrian refugees in Lebanon and aired on BBC Radio4 (April 2019) and BBC World Service (May 2019).
Myriam is the presenter of BBC World Service documentaries on Brexit in Leave-voting town in Wales (Llanelli) (2019), and on #MeToo in the Muslim world (2018).
Her Channel 4 documentary “The Truth about Muslim marriage” (11/2017) was nominated for the best investigative documentary in 2018 (AMA), as well as two BBC One documentaries, “The Muslim Pound” (aired 07/ 2016) and “A Deadly Warning: Srebrenica Revisited”, (aired 07/2015) which was nominated for the Sandford St Martin religious programming award 2016.
Website https://www.myriamfrancois.com/
Twitter @MyriamFrancoisC
Instagram myzfrancois
Links and topics of discussion in this episode
Institute of art and ideas https://iai.tv/
What is Islam?
One God and the Quran https://quran.com/en as the most recent revelation from God.
Praying multiple times a day helps to connect you to God and take a break from this world.
Ramadan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramadan
Charity and pilgrimage to Mecca https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ap-art-history/introduction-cultures-religions-apah/islam-apah/a/the-kaaba
Lebanon and Israel
The Sykes-Picot agreement https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sykes%E2%80%93Picot_Agreement
Sunni and Shia Muslim https://theconversation.com/what-is-the-shia-sunni-divide-78216
Who was Rumi? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumi
Rumi Poems https://www.rumi.org.uk/poetry/
Hyper Normalisation Documentary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thLgkQBFTPw
What is self-flagellation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-flagellation#:~:text=Self%2Dflagellation%20is%20the%20disciplinary,seen%20as%20a%20spiritual%20discipline and are ultra-endurance events a form of this, a means to go beyond?
Sayadmansour A. Neurotheology: The relationship between brain and religion. Iran J Neurol. 2014;13(1):52-5. PMID: 24800050; PMCID: PMC3968360 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3968360/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CNeurotheology%E2%80%9D%20refers%20to%20the%20multidisciplinary,and%20brain%20sciences%20in%20general.
How religions and practices are all streams going into the same ocean
The Best Catholics in the World, The Irish, the Church and the End of a Special Relationship by Derek Scally https://www.penguin.com.au/books/the-best-catholics-in-the-world-9781844885282
Joseph Massad https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Massad
The meaning of Jihad and the struggle within https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/what-does-jihad-really-mean-to-muslims
What is Sharia? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharia
Check us out at www.learningtodie.com.au for all episodes and links.
Contact us at ian@learningtodie.com.au  or ciaran@learningtodie.com.au

Today I am joined by Mary Dennett or should I say, Sister Mary Dennett MA, BSc (Ed) Grad Dip (Ed Admin). Mary is a Sister of Mercy with many years of experience in secondary education. She has attended the Earth Literacy Course in Genesis Farm, New Jersey, USA and Teilhard de Chardin’s Prayer of the Universe and completed a MA in Culture and Spirituality at Holy Names University in California. In addition, she is my wife’s auntie and is currently in palliative care in Melbourne, Australia. This was a privilege for me; talking to Mary at the end of her life at a young spritely 83 years old was beautiful and emotional. It has made me question many things in my life, and Mary has inspired me to value each day. It's hard to believe that Mary is in care; other than her lack of physicality, Mary is sharp, quick-witted and insightful about life. I hope you enjoy this episode.
Sisters of Mercy https://www.britannica.com/topic/Sisters-of-Mercy
Check us out at www.learningtodie.com.au for all episodes and links Contact us at ian@learningtodie.com.au   or ciaran@learningtodie.com.au.

In this episode, Ciaran and I are joined by Dr Shane Creado in Chicago. Shane is a double board-certified sleep medicine doctor and psychiatrist. He practices functional sleep medicine, integrative psychiatry, and sports psychiatry, combining all those skills to uncover underlying factors that sabotage the patients, comprehensively treat them, and help them achieve their goals. He completed an undergraduate degree in physical therapy and went on to do an MD, graduating at the top of his class with Honours in every subject in medical school. He completed his psychiatric training at the University of Wisconsin, where they awarded him the graduating resident award for academic achievement. He then went on to a fellowship in Sleep Medicine at the University of Wisconsin because of the huge overlap between sleep and psychiatric issues.
Topics we discuss in this epic episode with Shane.
The value of storytelling and narrative for convey historical truths
The neolithic burial chamber in Ireland called Newgrange
Carl Jung archetypes
Learning about yourself from facing your shadow, integrate the shadow
The guesthouse by Rumi https://gratefulness.org/resource/guest-house-rumi/
The role of suffering to better our life
The story of Job https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Job_(biblical_figure)
Ying and Yang, Unification and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yin_and_yang
“Without contraries is no progression. Attraction and repulsion, reason and energy, love, and hate, are necessary to human existence.” William Blake https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Blake
In Heraclitus’s Fragments, he notes that tension is the very thing that makes life sing. Take a guitar string, for example. If you wind it too tight, it will snap. Too slack, and it will buzz and make no note at all. Heraclitus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heraclitus
Jordan Peterson on Evil https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqoyQNUrGls
The story of two wolves https://www.urbanbalance.com/the-story-of-two-wolves/
The use of biblical stories in today’s world
Carl Jung anima and animus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anima_and_animus
Boethius https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boethius
Thomas Jefferson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson
Catholic church historical, social, cultural, religious, and personal context
Stoicism in Catholicism and Christianity https://dailystoic.com/stoicism-and-christianity/
The Best Catholics in the World: The Irish, the Church and the End of a Special Relationship by Derek Scally https://www.penguin.com.au/books/the-best-catholics-in-the-world-9781844885282
On the Genealogy of Morality https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Genealogy_of_Morality#Summary
Carl Jung and the shadow https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhzBo0dZNpY
Catholic church raided during service
https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/coronavirus/outrage-after-police-stop-mt-hawthorn-st-bernadettes-church-service-to-check-masks-c-5565472
Derrin Brown https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derren_Brown
Roland Fryer on Police violence in the USA https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/fryer/files/empirical_analysis_tables_figures.pdf
Coleman Hughes https://colemanhughes.org/
Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
Covid in Sydney: Military deployed to help enforce lockdown https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-58021718
Who was Rumi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumi
Jungian Dream Interpretation - Marcus West https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x73dOSrn4fw
Leo Tolstoy, A Confession, a short book https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Confession
A Tough Mind and a Tender Heart by Martin Luther King
Purchase Shane’s book here Peak Sleep Performance for Athletes: The Cutting-edge Sleep Science That Will Guarantee a Competitive Advantage
Contact Shane at shanecreado.com
Check us out at www.learningtodie.com.au for all episodes and links Contact us at ian@learningtodie.com.au   or ciaran@learningtodie.com.au.