Too much closeness can kill desire. Esther Perel, MA, LMFT, Psychotherapist and Author of “Mating in Captivity,” joins Armand to argue that intimacy and eroticism often work against each other, and that passion depends on mystery, uncertainty, and the space to want.
Why do so many people dread the dentist? Armand DiMele uses dental fear as a window into how the brain wires pain to neutral stimuli, how that wiring buries itself under layers of displacement, and how extinction learning and reward associations can undo it.
Legendary jazz clarinetist Eddie Daniels joins Armand DiMele and Dr. Kent Robertshaw, MD, Psychiatrist to explore what happens inside a musician at the moment of performance: the surrender of ego, the trust that technique will emerge, and the difference between doing and flowing. Weaves in reflections on anger, money, and how life in New Mexico changed Daniels.
Pain is invisible, subjective, and often disbelieved, yet it reshapes lives. Armand DiMele and studio guest Jonna Valerio examine the biology of chronic pain, the psychology of how it persists after injury heals, and how loved ones can offer genuine support without hollow advice.
Why do we fall in love with the person we do? Armand DiMele and co-host Roberta Maria Patti dig into the neuroscience of early memory, tracing how the amygdala and hippocampus shape unconscious attraction long before we can consciously recall anything, and why no rational checklist can fully explain who we end up loving.
Dr. Majid Ali, Physician, presents his framework for understanding cancer through three root causes: toxic foods, toxic environment, and toxic thoughts. Broadcast on the anniversary of 9/11, this expanded WBAI fundraising edition covers enzyme therapies, bowel and liver detox, and the case for patient self-education as a counterweight to fear.
Every person’s inner life is radically different, and sleep is where that strangeness shows most clearly. Armand DiMele moves from the diversity of human experience into the territory of sexomnia, narcoleptic false memories of childhood assault, and Ambien’s surprising links to hypersexuality and compulsive night eating.
Every living creature seeks altered states, from caffeine-loving goats to alcohol-raiding elephants. Armand DiMele and guest Ed Elkin, a longtime humanistic psychology colleague living in a shamanic community in California, trace how psychedelics open perceptual doors that yoga, meditation, and creativity can then walk through without chemicals.
Prolactin, dopamine, and serotonin shape your mood, sex drive, and sleep far more than your conscious choices do. Armand DiMele explains how post-orgasmic prolactin surge explains the sleep-after-sex dynamic, why falling asleep to a flashing TV rewires your brain, and how sugar sabotages rest. Caller Adam’s relationship tension brings the biochemistry home.
The PTSD diagnosis has been stretched so far that almost anyone can qualify. Armand DiMele traces the term from Civil War battle fatigue to 9/11 relief clinics, unpacking the three core symptoms and arguing that real trauma is rarer, and more specific, than the culture now assumes.
