Life Examined KCRW

After years of working at the intersection of immigration and education, journalist Lauren Markham offers a different approach to writing about immigration that may lead to greater understanding. In her book A Map of Future Ruins: On Borders and Belonging , Markham talks about challenging narratives and stories, looking at our own history, and asking what it means to belong to a place.​

This week, renowned writer and author Michael Pollan on the new science of psychedelics. Pollan describes how new treatments using psilocybin can open pathways in our minds and when used with supervision, have been successful in treating depression, anxiety and addiction.

Renowned writer and author Michael Pollan delves into his three-decade odyssey exploring America's food systems. With six bestselling books to his name, Pollan's pioneering inquiries have raised the fundamental question: ‘What’s in our food, and where it comes from?’ Pollan also explores plants that influence our consciousness, citing caffeine as a prime example.

This week, psychology and education professor at Columbia University, Peter Coleman explains why in turbulent times at home and across the globe, Costa Rica remains peaceful and stable. In the aftermath of bloody conflicts, Coleman says, Costa Rica intentionally chose to stop war and designed their country around that vision.

Neil Mullarkey, comedian, actor, and author of In the Moment: Build your confidence, creativity, and communication at work, shares his journey into comedy and writing and how he recognized the power of comedy at an early age. He’s toured the world, working with well-known comedians like Mike Myers, with whom he founded the Comedy Store Players in London. Mullarckey found that the skills he learned in his improv classes translated well into leadership and management.

This week, Brad Stulberg writer and author of “The Practice of Groundedness: A Transformative Path to Success that Feeds – Not Crushes – Your Soul” on behavioral action and why the best way to feel good and bring about a change in mood is to force ourselves to start or to get going, even if when we don’t feel like it.