Episodes

Sexual trauma is exposure to any amount of inappropriate sexual behavior that’s caused intense fear and anxiety. It’s also referred to as sexual abuse or sexual violence. Sexual trauma comes in different forms. There are overt types of sexual trauma such as molestation or rape. But sexual trauma can also be covert such as sexual harassment, and unwanted exposure to sex as a child. Sexual trauma can happen to anyone regardless of age, gender, or socioeconomic background. Additionally, an experien...

Good human traits typically refer to qualities or characteristics that contribute positively to individual well-being, interpersonal relationships, and societal harmony. These traits vary across cultures and contexts. Human traits, whether perceived as bad or not, often stem from a combination of biological, psychological, social, and environmental factors. Tune in and learn all about what. we are made of!

There is a growing generation that few people have heard of. Within the next few years they will outnumber the Baby Boomers, and many of them will live to see the 22nd Century. We’re talking about Generation Alpha, the children of Generation Y, and often the younger siblings of Generation Z. Simply put, Generation Alpha are defined as those born from 2010-2024. More than 2.8 million are born globally every week. When they have all been born (2025) they will number almost 2 billion – the largest ...

Gender is related to but distinctly different from sex; it is rooted in culture, not biology. The APA (2012) defines gender as “the attitudes, feelings, and behaviors that a given culture associates with a person’s biological sex. Gender conformity occurs when people abide by culturally-derived gender roles. Resisting gender roles (i.e., gender nonconformity) can have significant social consequences—pro and con, depending on circumstances. Tune in and learn how to navigate this politically charg...

The ever-increasing explosion of data puts more knowledge at our fingertips than ever before, but you need to know what to do with it. Otherwise, it is obsolete and ineffective. We see an increasing lack of insight with companies living in an “illusion of knowledge,” drowning in data, insight poor, and failing to turn information into intelligence. Why? The lack of shared understanding of what an insight is, and is not is one reason. An absence of the methodological rigor required for meaningful...

Gaslighting is an insidious form of manipulation and psychological control. Victims of gaslighting are deliberately and systematically fed false information that leads them to question what they know to be true, often about themselves. They may end up doubting their memory, their perception, and even their sanity. Over time, a gaslighter’s manipulations can grow more complex and potent, making it increasingly difficult for the victim to see the truth. Turn in and learn how we all are being gasli...

Mental illness in children can be hard for parents to identify. As a result, many children who could benefit from treatment don't get the help they need. Understand how to recognize warning signs of mental illness in children and how you can help your child. Mental health is the overall wellness of how you think, regulate your feelings and behave. A mental illness, or mental health disorder, is defined as patterns or changes in thinking, feeling or behaving that cause distress or disrupt a perso...

Online message boards and communities comprised of incels—men who are involuntarily celibate—have gained notoriety in recent years due to mass killing events that were reported as being inspired by a misogynistic ideology that emerges from this group. However, there has never been a systematic psychological investigation of this population. In a fundamental sense, incels are characterized by their identity being framed around a perceived lack of ability to form and maintain sexual and/or romanti...

Technology addictions, also commonly known as digital addictions or internet addictions, are often overlooked due to the acceptance that society has placed on using digital devices. Technology addictions often go unnoticed by loved ones because the addicted individual may appear as though they are tending to something important such as work-related tasks on their digital device, when in reality hiding behind the screen is something extraneous. When a technological problem does develop and is not...

Talking about a past relationship is a tricky affair. What starts off as a fun round of twenty questions can turn into an icy chill in no time if you aren’t careful. Finding out more about past relationships is never a good thing, and yet, like all inquisitive fools, we go looking for dirt in our lover’s past. And when we do find the dirt, we dirty our hands and are left with a stench that lingers for a long time after the discovery. Talking about exes and past lovers may feel like a bag of bric...

The psychedelic experience feels as though this self-referential moment-to-moment updating of the ego has suddenly disappeared. The perception of our familiar self vanishes. The name given to this experience is ego death or ego dissolution. This distortion of our subjective experience of self is central to the psychedelic experience. People describe ego-dissolution as a diminished sense of self and an increase in the feeling of being at one with the universe, an experience felt as enriching. The...

Narcissism tends to develop in environments where there's a mix of both overindulgence and under-indulgence. Typically, it's an overindulgence in focusing on status, money, appearance, how things look to others or just to focus on external achievements, and there's an under-indulgence in teaching kids about compassion and empathy, really developing their sense of self and their self-esteem and connection to others. Tune in and learn all about how parents raise narcissists and how to prevent it!

Everybody gets depressed sometimes, typically in response to events or experiences in which goals go unmet and expectations are dashed, but such reactions tend to be short-lived. Depression is regarded as a disorder when low mood and other symptoms persist for more than two weeks. Mood dysregulation revealed by unrelenting sadness may be the sign most associated with depression, but the disorder can be reflected in impaired functioning in almost every system of the body, from sexual desire to pa...

The Dunning-Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which people wrongly overestimate their knowledge or ability in a specific area. This tends to occur because a lack of self-awareness prevents them from accurately assessing their own skills. The concept of the Dunning-Kruger effect is based on a 1999 paper by Cornell University psychologists David Dunning and Justin Kruger. The pair tested participants on their logic, grammar, and sense of humor, and found that those who performed in the bottom q...

A near-death experience (NDE) is the conscious, semi-conscious or recollected experience of someone who is approaching or has temporarily begun the process of dying. An example is a cardiac arrest that is followed by resuscitation. People who recall near-death experiences have described perceiving a variety of surreal phenomena, such as seeing themselves from above or passing through a tunnel of light. Reports of these experiences sometimes include religious or spiritual interpretations and have...

I feel dead inside is a statement you might hear people make or something that you may have felt yourself. For anyone who has never experienced it, feeling dead inside can be hard to imagine. And, those who have struggled with it might not always have the right words to explain the confusion, sadness, and numbness that comes with this feeling. The meaning of feeling dead inside is to find it difficult to process emotions like happiness and sadness. When you feel dead inside feelings take on the ...

Groupthink is a phenomenon that occurs when a group of well-intentioned people makes irrational or non-optimal decisions spurred by the urge to conform or the belief that dissent is impossible. The problematic or premature consensus that is characteristic of groupthink may be fueled by a particular agenda—or it may be due to group members valuing harmony and coherence above critical thought. The term “groupthink” was first introduced in the November 1971 issue of Psychology Today by psychologist...

The phenomenon of abruptly disappearing from people’s lives isn’t new–but it seems to be more common today. Technology has made ghosting an easy way to dissolve relationships. According to a 2018 study, approximately 25 percent of men and women reported having been ghosted in a romantic relationship, and 22 percent admitted to having ghosted someone else. The Federal Reserve even recognized the phenomenon, in which employers reported being ghosted by employees in a tight labor market. Today ghos...

During the early phase of marriage, many couples barely come up for air due to the excitement of falling in love. Unfortunately, this blissful state doesn’t last forever. Scientists have discovered that oxytocin (a bonding hormone) released during the initial stage of infatuation causes couples to feel euphoric and turned on by physical touch. It actually works like a drug, giving us immediate rewards that bind us to our lover. Tune in and learn how to restart your love life with your partner!

If the science of death remains a riddle (we’re still not exactly sure why the human body decides to die), the psychology of it has been one of our greatest conundrums. Others die, not us—or at least, that's what most of us like to think. The difficulty to conceive of our own deaths is perhaps some kind of survival mechanism to prevent it from actually happening. Rather than just being a biological impulse, however, our denial of death seems to be a psychological condition rooted in Freudian the...

Belonging is fundamental to humankind. The pursuit of it is the driving force behind our desire to be a part of groups, and its presence (or absence) has a direct impact on our mental, emotional, and physical wellbeing. Belonging grows from a feeling of connectedness with others, and the sense that you are a part of something. That could be with an individual, a group, or a larger community. But, a social connection doesn’t necessarily equate to belonging. More than just an acquaintance between ...

People tell white lies all the time in their daily lives. But if you’re in a relationship and start a pattern of telling little lies or hiding even the smallest things from your partner, it’s probably not going to end very well. Often times people will hide things from the person they love or claim to be telling these small lies for a few different reasons. One being whatever they are lying about may seem so insignificant, they don’t “feel that they need” to tell them. Or perhaps the “what you d...

A life lived without forgiveness is a life lived in the past. Living in the past is a conscious or an unconscious choice made through a connection to the past. In simple, the past is a time gone by and no longer exists in the present moment, but we choose to allow this past to occupy our minds, our bodies and our very existence. Living in the past is like choosing to cling to a chronic illness. Would you choose to be plagued with a chronic illness? Would you allow yourself to be injected with a ...