Why is that when a loved one dies, grief seems inescapable--and then diminishes? The brilliant Edinburgh philosopher Berislav Marusic's "Do Reasons Expire? An Essay on Grief" begins with his grief for the unexpected and early loss of his mother: "I stopped grieving or at least the grief diminished, yet the reason didn't really change. It's not like that my m ... Show More
Sep 4
Shaun Gallagher, "The Self and its Disorders" (Oxford UP, 2024)
In this interview, Shaun Gallagher discusses The Self and its Disorders (Oxford University Press, 2024) A ground-breaking theory of the self as a pattern Interdisciplinary, drawing on philosophy of mind, phenomenology, cognitive psychology, psychiatry, and dynamical systems an ... Show More
56m 51s
Aug 14
Eric Hoffer's "The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements" (1951): A Discussion with Jay Garfinkel
A stevedore on the San Francisco docks in the 1940s, who eventually taught at the University of California at Berkeley, Eric Hoffer wrote philosophical treatises in his spare time while living in the railroad yards. The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements—the ... Show More
32m 13s
Jul 17
Susanne Paola Antonetta, "The Devil's Castle: Nazi Eugenics, Euthanasia, and How Psychiatry's Troubled History Reverberates Today" (Catapult, 2025)
The Devil’s Castle: Nazi Eugenics, Euthanasia, and How Psychiatry's Troubled History Reverberates Today (Catapult, 2025) delves into the forgotten history of eugenics and links it to present-day psychiatry to explain how we as a culture continue to get mind care so wrong. In The ... Show More
1h 4m
Aug 2023
Berislav Marusić, "On the Temporality of Emotions: An Essay on Grief, Anger, and Love" (Oxford UP, 2022)
When someone close to us dies, intense grief is an expected and reasonable response. But while the reason for our grief – the loss of the person who is the object of our grief – doesn’t change, our grief itself diminishes. This diminishment is also expected, but how can it be rea ... Show More
1h 2m
Dec 2021
Michael Cholbi, "Grief: A Philosophical Guide" (Princeton UP, 2022)
We think of grief as a normal response to the death of a loved one. We’re familiar with the so-called “five stages” of grief. Grief seems as an emotional episode that befalls us along life’s way, something to be endured and then gotten over. But grief isn’t as straightforward as ... Show More
1h 5m
May 2022
The Science & Process of Healing from Grief
This episode, I discuss grief and the challenges of processing losses of different kinds. I explain the biological mechanisms of grief, including how neural circuits for emotional and factual memory combine with those for love and attachment, to create feelings of absence and yea ... Show More
2h 4m
Jun 2025
How to Cope with Grief and Loss
Grief is universal—but it rarely feels that way when you’re in it.On this episode, Haesue sits down with writer and podcaster Misty Stinnett to unpack what grief really looks like: messy, unpredictable, and often very lonely. Misty shares the story of losing her father suddenly i ... Show More
44m 34s
Mar 2023
Matthew Ratcliffe, "Grief Worlds: A Study of Emotional Experience" (MIT Press, 2022)
The grief we feel when someone close to us dies is characterized by a complex and profound experience of loss. But what is this experience? In Grief Worlds: A Study of Emotional Experience (MIT Press, 2022), Matthew Ratcliffe articulates a common structure to grief experiences ev ... Show More
1h 10m
Feb 2023
Ep 32: How to face grief
<p>Grief is a universal experience, but one which affects every individual differently. A grieving person might feel guilty, listless, frightened, or angry. And at a time when they most need support, the bereaved may find other people turning away from them, not really knowing ho ... Show More
26m 1s
Jul 2022
The Grieving Brain with Dr. Mary-Frances O'Connor
There’s a lot of loss in the world these days, both in our individual lives and in our broader communities, and with those losses comes grief. Grief is one of the most challenging emotions to be with, and it can be difficult to offer generalized advice because everyone's experien ... Show More
1h 11m