Mood: Glad

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Oxytocin and the Bonds That Heal July 23, 2009

Host: Armand DiMele
Category: Emotions & Inner Life, Personal Growth & Change

Bonding is the hidden engine of effective therapy, and oxytocin is the hormone that makes it possible. Armand DiMele argues that people leave therapy not for the reasons they give but because they never truly connected, then traces how oxytocin drives love, calms stress, curbs addiction, and can be consciously cultivated through touch and eye contact.

Management Lessons from the Mayo Clinic with Leonard Berry July 7, 2009

Host: Armand DiMeleGuests: Leonard Berry
Category: Personal Growth & Change, Society, Culture & Current Events

What makes the Mayo Clinic work after 140 years? Marketing professor Leonard Berry argues it comes down to hiring for values, practicing team medicine, and treating organizational culture as a living thing rather than a slogan. Armand DiMele draws the lessons out toward any workplace or institution.

Reading People When You First Meet Them June 23, 2009

Host: Armand DiMele
Category: Emotions & Inner Life, Personal Growth & Change

What are you actually doing when you size someone up? Armand DiMele breaks down the unspoken calculus of first encounters, from appearance and energy to eye contact and attitude, then invites callers to reveal themselves through animal, color, and water imagery.

The Biology of Bitterness in Love June 18, 2009

Host: Armand DiMele
Category: Love & Romantic Relationships, The Mind & Neuroscience

Why do couples who genuinely love each other turn bitter over time? Armand DiMele traces the neurochemistry behind romantic deterioration, drawing on Marnia Robinson’s book “Cupid’s Poisoned Arrow” to explain how our mating and bonding drives conflict, and what couples can do to preserve real intimacy.

The Genius of Instinct with Henry Weisinger June 16, 2009

Host: Armand DiMeleGuests: Henry Weisinger, Stephanie D'Ambra
Category: Emotions & Inner Life, Personal Growth & Change

Our instincts are not primitive liabilities but hardwired tools for success that evolution refined over hundreds of thousands of years. Henry Weisinger, author of The Genius of Instinct, walks through six key instincts with Armand and Stephanie D’Ambra, LCSW, showing how shelter seeking, care soliciting, and emotional vulnerability help people move from merely surviving to genuinely thriving.

The Pleasure of Repetition June 4, 2009

Host: Armand DiMele
Category: Emotions & Inner Life, Personal Growth & Change

Repetition is the hidden engine behind nearly everything we enjoy, from exercise and music to sex and daily ritual. Armand DiMele argues that recreation is literally re-creation of the self, and that understanding your own repetitions is key to recognizing what you truly need. Callers explore compulsive eating, adoption anxiety, and a father’s struggle with his daughter growing up.

The Qualities of a True Leader April 30, 2009

Host: Armand DiMele
Category: Identity & The Self, Personal Growth & Change

What makes someone a genuine leader? Armand DiMele examines the qualities that define effective leadership, from integrity and humility to assertiveness and creativity, then traces how birth order and family dynamics shape the way people relate to power and authority throughout their lives.

Born to Be Good with Dacher Keltner April 8, 2009

Host: Armand DiMeleGuests: Dacher Keltner
Category: Emotions & Inner Life, Meaning, Spirituality & Philosophy

Is kindness wired into us? UC Berkeley psychologist Dacher Keltner draws on evolutionary science and Confucian philosophy to argue that compassion, laughter, and embarrassment are not soft virtues but core adaptive tools. His concept of the jen ratio offers a concrete way to measure how well we bring out the good in others.

The Urge to Fall Asleep in Your Own Life March 26, 2009

Host: Armand DiMele
Category: Emotions & Inner Life, Personal Growth & Change

Waking up is not just physical. Armand DiMele argues that most people drift through jobs, marriages, and daily life in a kind of waking sleep, and that irritability, numbness, and drug use are often just attempts to stay unconscious. Callers explore what it takes to finally show up for their own lives.

Celebrating the Primitive Self March 18, 2009

Host: Armand DiMeleGuests: Bernie Starr, Claudia Fox, Deborah King, Deidre Middleston Shide, Eric Morgan, Jeremy Spiegel, Lillian Gonzalez
Category: Emotions & Inner Life, Identity & The Self

What do parties, hunger, sex, and manipulation have in common? They all hijack the primitive brain. Armand DiMele argues that the real work of being human is learning to honor instinct and intellect together, rather than letting either one run the show.