My love languages are being philosophically stretched and intellectually challenged. If you’re here, chances are it may be one of yours too.
Instead of contributing to Black Friday overwhelm, I’m offering a well-curated list of the books, podcasts, and a documentary have kindled my soul fire:
PODCASTS
Eating Ourselves to Death on Honestly with Bari Weiss.
Bari interviews Dr. Kasey Means about why she quit her residency five years in and left being a doctor behind (hint: she wasn’t trained to or rewarded for getting people well). Everything Means shares is what I discovered over 15 years ago; it’s what fired me up to leave my own Corporate job to health coach.
After listening to this in September, I sent it to many close friends and family. Each person was astounded as Means provides a powerful synthesis of all the competing forces that have led to a public health crisis. And how the path forward begins with taking your health into your own hands and campaign finance reform to reduce the outsized profit-focus that guides health norms.
Self Help, LLC: Winners and Losers on What Works with Tara McMullin.
I see Ronald Reagan as a root-cause for most of our current problems in America. And this episode illustrates that what actually trickled down during the Reagan era was a philosophical shift towards ruthless individualism.
Tara maps how the “personal responsibility” ethos Reagan ushered in gave rise to the self-help industry we know today and it’s blistering blindspots. I also loved “Good Bodies with India Jackson, Tiffany Ima, and Jessica DeFino” in this series as it compliments what Anne Helen Petersen and I discussed on the Insatiable episode, The Religion of Wellness Culture.
NETFLIX
Stutz. Actor Jonah Hill interviews his therapist, Dr. Phil Stutz, where they traverse the truths of healing, grief, and being human.
Hill also allows us into his own weight struggles. And how even though he is no longer the outcasted, overweight teen, these wounds persist. I loved the segment with his Mom and the transformational healing that happens when they sit in the truth and hold the AND: she thought she was doing the “right” thing to help him lose weight based on what his doctor (and culture) was telling her was “right”, the effects of this on his relationship with women, and that he doesn’t blame her because he knew she was doing the best she could.
BOOKS
4,000 Weeks by Oliver Burkeman. I’ve been deep in examining my relationship to time the past few years. And having just turned 44 and in “midlife” (sounds better than middle age!), I understand on an even deeper level that my time is ticking. And then you learn in this book that the average human life span is only 4,000 weeks…
This book was a refreshing, honest look at the history of how we’ve related to time and when it became a “thing” to stress about. Burkeman is honest about the reality that you’ll never have time for everything. And, most time-saving and productivity hacks just set you up for more work!
I had Carlos read this and it spurred some really great conversations and planted some seeds of how we want to shift our lives to be able to more deeply experience the time we have with Eça, each other, and our individual lives.
And with that, I hope you have some new content to nourish your own soul during your holiday season or on the docket for 2023.
Be Well,
P.S. Wednesday, December 7, 12-1:15 pm EST is our next FREE Food as Safety gathering. The first one was a huge hit! Catch the recording when you register. In our next gathering, you’ll discover:
- 3 protection strategies that make us feel more stressed and unsafe (and cause all-or-nothing eating and living)
- How self-sabotage is actually self-protection
- Discussions and questions, re: Insatiable Season 13, Episodes 3-4
- Live coaching for a few participants stress eating.
Join here. If you can’t make it live, you’ll receive the replay.
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