Mood: Sad

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Breaking Out of Isolation January 8, 2014

Host: Armand DiMeleGuests: Dr. Bill Hickok, Giullian Gioiello, Linda Vanella
Category: Emotions & Inner Life, Personal Growth & Change

Isolation can feel safe, but stepping into the world transforms a person. Armand DiMele walks through eleven therapeutic factors that make any group experience healing, from a coffee house to a marriage, showing how Linda Vanella, LCSW-R, applies the same principles in her women’s groups. Callers round out the conversation with their own experiences of loneliness and connection.

The Fear of Being Alone January 7, 2014

Host: Armand DiMele
Category: Emotions & Inner Life, Meaning, Spirituality & Philosophy

Armand DiMele and his studio guests probe the difference between painful isolation and liberating solitude, drawing on Buddhist sunyata, Freudian theory, Beckett, and callers’ real lives including veterans struggling to reconnect after combat and a caller who rebuilt himself after losing everything in 2008.

Looking Back on 2013 December 31, 2013

Host: Armand DiMeleGuests: Aileen, Alexandra Beller, Carla, Christina McDowell, Elisa, Giullian Gioiello, Jamie Ross, Linda Vanella, Mariah Haskins, Mark, Mimi, Rashida, Rick
Category: Personal Growth & Change, Trauma & Healing

New Year’s Eve 2013 becomes an occasion for taking stock. Linda Vanella, LCSW-R, shares her year working with combat veterans and their families on PTSD, and Armand reads an open letter from Christina McDowell confronting her father’s fraud. Callers reflect on loss, loneliness, and the quiet sustaining power of memory.

The Healing Heart of Medicine with Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen November 12, 2013

Host: Armand DiMeleGuests: Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen
Category: Meaning, Spirituality & Philosophy, Personal Growth & Change

Medicine was never meant to be a collection of procedures and tools. Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen, physician and UCSF professor, describes her course The Healer’s Art, now taught in half of American medical schools, which helps first-year students reclaim the values of compassion, service, and human connection that drew them to medicine in the first place.

Fear and the Compulsive Advice Giver November 6, 2013

Host: Armand DiMele
Category: Anxiety & Fear, Emotions & Inner Life

Childhood entrapment quietly drives adult fears, including fear of flying. Armand DiMele traces a caller’s claustrophobia to her violent, alcoholic home and explores why some people compulsively give advice, linking it to feelings of inadequacy and a need to feel powerful.

Nobody Can Reject You September 4, 2013

Host: Armand DiMele
Category: Emotions & Inner Life, Identity & The Self

Rejection is not a feeling, it is a perception, and that distinction changes everything. Armand DiMele argues that “feeling rejected” is a cover story for deeper truths about loneliness, narcissism, and the emotional habits laid down in childhood. People who overreact to rejection are often those least at peace with themselves.

Migraine Pain and Its Many Faces with Dr. Fred Sheftel August 28, 2013

Host: Armand DiMeleGuests: Dr. Fred Sheftel
Category: Emotions & Inner Life, The Mind & Neuroscience

Migraine is not just a bad headache but a potentially disabling neurological disorder, and Dr. Fred Sheftel, founder of the New England Center for Headaches, walks Armand through the real differences between tension, migraine, and cluster headaches, including triggers, aura, misdiagnosis, and the trap of rebound headaches from overmedication.

Addiction as a Survival Strategy August 8, 2013

Host: Armand DiMeleGuests: Andrew Tatarski, Deborah Hillman, Dr. Harold Urschel, Emily Anthes, Roberta Maria Atzi
Category: Addiction & Compulsion, Identity & The Self

Addiction is not weakness but a misfired survival mechanism rooted in perceived isolation. Armand DiMele and co-host Roberta Maria Atti trace compulsive behaviors, from substance abuse to sex and food addiction, back to what they call the refugee syndrome, drawing on interviews with Dr. Deborah Hillman, MD, Dr. Andrew Tatarsky, Addiction Psychologist, Dr. Harold Urschel, Author, and science journalist and author Emily Anthes.

Journeys into Emptiness with Dr. Robert Gunn July 17, 2013

Host: Armand DiMeleGuests: Dr. Robert Gunn
Category: Identity & The Self, Meaning, Spirituality & Philosophy

Emptiness is not a problem to solve but a journey to undertake. Dr. Robert Gunn, author of “Journeys into Emptiness,” joins Armand DiMele to trace three stages of emptiness, from painful longing through letting go to a Buddhist sense of wholeness, drawing on the lives of Dogen, Thomas Merton, and Carl Jung.

How Men Fear Love and Intimacy June 12, 2013

Category: Identity & The Self, Love & Romantic Relationships

Men fear intimacy more than they lack interest in it, and that fear drives most of their confusing behavior. Armand DiMele argues that testosterone, social conditioning, and the terror of vulnerability combine to keep men walled off from real connection, tracing the pattern from adolescent sexuality through the lone-cowboy model of manhood.