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.
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.
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.
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.
Personal timing, the inner rhythm that governs how we move through life, is more powerful and more invisible than most people realize. Armand DiMele, with co-hosts Giullian Gioiello and Ben Starr, explores how timing shapes acting, romance, aging, and even why grandparents push for grandchildren.
Five habits that quietly drain your strength, from offloading blame to living in the future or the past. Armand DiMele, joined by co-hosts Giullian Gioiello and Ben Starr, frames year-end reflection as muscle-building, arguing that awareness of these patterns, repeated often enough, is how real change finally takes hold.
What we hide behind a first impression reveals more than what we show. Armand DiMele and co-hosts Ben Starr and Giullian Gioiello unpack why people announce what they are not (threatening, needy, angry, afraid) and how every social mask points back to the insecurity underneath it.
What do we actually want people to see when they first meet us? Armand DiMele, co-hosts Giullian Gioiello and Ben Starr, and three studio guests probe the gap between the image we project and the neediness, sensuality, and childlike joy we keep hidden until we feel truly safe.
Everyone develops a strategy for getting through life, and most of them form in childhood. Armand DiMele, joined by co-hosts Ben Starr and Giullian Gioiello, maps out the recurring patterns: the beauty-seeker, the easygoing half-asleep type, the controller who trusts no one, the dramatic emotional type. Understanding someone’s strategy, rather than judging it, is the path to genuine connection.
ADHD affects far more adults than is recognized, and Armand argues the same traits that make childhood difficult can become creative gifts. Linda Vanella, LCSW-R, draws on clinical and personal experience, while co-host Ben Starr shares his own journey through medication, video games, and self-medication to quiet the mental buzz.
