A transit strike hits New York and Armand DiMele uses the chaos as a live laboratory, walking through how obsessive, narcissistic, sociopathic, and explosive personality types each respond to sudden disruption. Callers share raw feelings about getting to work, managing depression, and solidarity with striking workers.
Holiday cheer masks real pain, and Armand DiMele digs into why. He traces seasonal depression and Scrooge-like bitterness to absent or cold fathers, unpacks the hidden psychology of gift giving and receiving, and takes calls from listeners carrying loneliness, loss, and family estrangement into the season.
Why do so many people skip the 13th floor? Armand DiMele traces the hidden origins of common superstitions, from the Last Supper to Roman gazing pools, and argues that superstitions often serve those in power by shaping behavior. Callers share family traditions spanning the West Indies, Ireland, and Santeria.
Uncomfortable feelings like jealousy, disgust, and schadenfreude exist because they once helped us survive. Armand DiMele and co-host Roberta Maria Atti apply evolutionary psychology to seven “deadly sentiments,” showing how emotions override rational thought to shift behavior instantly in the face of unforeseen threats or losses.
Childhood sexual abuse is far more complex than stranger rape, and the family ties that bind a child to a perpetrator make the damage uniquely lasting. Armand DiMele speaks with Dr. Christine Courtois, author of “Healing the Incest Wound,” about definitions of incest, sibling abuse, long-term effects including PTSD and fibromyalgia, and recovery in adulthood. Callers share raw personal testimony.
Emotions did not arrive randomly but were shaped by evolution, starting with mate selection in lush early environments. Armand DiMele and co-host Roberta trace how song and dance triggered the first feelings of love, expanded the human brain, and gave way to speech, testosterone, and the emotional complexity we carry today.
When we cling to a fixed idea of who we are, something in the mind can sabotage us, as with a kicker who missed three field goals in front of his cheering family. Armand and two Gestalt therapists, Sherry Oren King and Gladys Santopal, explore how rigid self-concepts block authentic living and what awareness, inner reliance, and stopping the urge to change others can actually do.
Food is social technology, and the holiday feast is one of humanity’s oldest rituals. Armand and co-host Roberta Maria Atti trace the evolutionary and cultural logic of feasting, from the politics of salt to the symbolism of abundance, and close with practical comfort for people facing the holidays alone.
Cult tactics reveal how easily the mind surrenders its autonomy. Armand DiMele and co-host Roberta Maria Atti walk through techniques like love bombing, confession, disinhibition, and time deprivation, showing how the same methods appear in malicious cults, EST training, casinos, and even well-meaning recovery programs.
Flowers evolved 140 million years ago and may have developed beauty as a survival strategy by triggering genuine happiness in humans. Armand DiMele and co-host Roberta Maria Ati examine research showing 100% Duchenne smile responses to flowers, the contagion of facial expressions, and the deep evolutionary bond between humans and flowering plants.
