Hosts: Armand DiMele

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Living With Physical and Emotional Pain June 9, 2015

Host: Armand DiMeleGuests: Ben Starr, Giullian Gioiello
Category: Emotions & Inner Life, Grief & Loss

Physical pain and emotional pain feel utterly different, yet both demand surrender rather than resistance. Armand DiMele, joined by co-hosts Ben Starr and Giullian Gioiello, takes calls from listeners navigating broken bones, chronic back pain, heroin withdrawal, and the grief of losing parents, exploring how we sometimes choose painful patterns and what it takes to move through them.

Cultural Differences and Human Connection April 28, 2015

Host: Armand DiMeleGuests: Ben Starr, Eliana Banagudo, Giullian Gioiello
Category: Identity & The Self, Society, Culture & Current Events

Cultural differences shape how people experience intimacy, personal space, and even anxiety disorders. Armand DiMele, co-hosts Ben Starr and Giullian Gioiello, and therapist Eliana Banagudo examine culture-bound syndromes, racial profiling in the wake of Baltimore unrest, family secrets, and what fairness actually requires across cultures.

When Trauma Cracks the Mind April 22, 2015

Host: Armand DiMele
Category: Anxiety & Fear, Trauma & Healing

Acute stress disorder is the immediate psychological fracture that follows a single catastrophic event, distinct from PTSD. Armand DiMele walks through the diagnostic criteria, from numbing and amnesia to hypervigilance, and takes calls from listeners who survived stacked traumas including assault, Hurricane Sandy, and sudden bereavement.

Crazy Making and How It Works April 21, 2015

Host: Armand DiMele
Category: Communication & Conflict, Emotions & Inner Life

Why do people deliberately destabilize those they love, and how does it work on different personality types? Armand DiMele walks through the psychology of crazy-making, using the Enneagram to show exactly which pressure points unravel each type, while callers share their own experiences of being worn down by the people closest to them.

The Taxes We Choose to Pay April 15, 2015

Host: Armand DiMeleGuests: Giullian Gioiello
Category: Emotions & Inner Life, Personal Growth & Change

Taxes are a lens for examining every obligation we voluntarily shoulder: the roommate tax, the marriage tax, the price of monogamy or truth. Armand DiMele and co-host Giullian Gioiello use Tax Day to ask callers what dues they have elected to pay in life, and why resentment of authority so often underlies the dread of filing.

The Memory of Smell April 8, 2015

Host: Armand DiMele
Category: Emotions & Inner Life, The Mind & Neuroscience

Smell is the sense most deeply wired to long-term memory, and Armand DiMele builds a rich hour around that fact. Callers share scents tied to powerlessness, lost mothers, freedom, and home, revealing how a single whiff can collapse decades in an instant.

Abolition and the Loss of Motivation April 7, 2015

Host: Armand DiMele
Category: Depression & Mood, Personal Growth & Change

What looks like laziness is often abulia, a poverty of will rooted in depression, loss, or broken structure. Armand DiMele traces the condition through job loss, retirement, post-college drift, and the Japanese phenomenon of hikikomori, then works live with callers stuck in exactly this state.

Resilience and the April Fool April 1, 2015

Host: Armand DiMeleGuests: Ed Zara
Category: Emotions & Inner Life, Personal Growth & Change

April Fool’s Day becomes a lens for examining cognitive dissonance, cruelty disguised as humor, and what it actually takes to bounce back from pain. Armand DiMele, joined by Ed Zara, argues that trust is the foundation of resilience, and that trustworthiness can be established quickly even with deeply damaged children.

Millennials Blazing Their Own Path March 17, 2015

Host: Armand DiMeleGuests: Annie Q, Ben Starr, Giullian Gioiello, Srijan Munir
Category: Identity & The Self, Personal Growth & Change

What happens when the old formula of school, degree, and stable job stops working? Co-hosts Giullian Gioiello and Ben Starr fill in for Armand DiMele and talk with actress Annie Q and Muay Thai fighter and trainer Srijan Munir about forging unconventional careers, immigrant family expectations, and finding meaning over security in a post-recession world.

Self-Actualization and the Hierarchy of Needs March 11, 2015

Host: Armand DiMeleGuests: Ben Starr, Charlie Schwinkert, Giullian Gioiello
Category: Emotions & Inner Life, Personal Growth & Change

Armand DiMele walks through Maslow’s full hierarchy of needs, from biological survival to self-actualization, with co-hosts Giullian Gioiello and Ben Starr and jazz drummer Charlie Schwinkert. The group explores what drives creative satisfaction, how appreciation vanishes in low moods, and how to move through fear by feeling it fully rather than suppressing it.