On episode 256, we welcome Gail Straub to discuss her work empowering women across the globe, being a civilian diplomat, not being taken seriously in Russia as an American Marxist, lessons about inner strength from traversing the Himalayan mountains, the complexity of political activism in China, diversity as a core component of peace, the elements of human nature uniting all of us, and what instills hope in Gail for our collective future.

Gail Straub is the author of eight books, including the best-selling Empowerment, The Rhythm of Compassion, and her feminist memoir Returning to My Mother's House. She is the co-founder of the Empowerment Institute and IMAGINE, a global initiative that has helped empower women across Africa, India, and the Middle East, impacting millions of lives. Her work has appeared in publications like Huffington Post and Spirituality & Health, and she has been a leading voice in human development and women's empowerment for over four decades. Her newest book, available now, is called Home Inside the Globe: Embracing Our Human Family.

| Gail Straub |

► Website | https://gailstraub.com

► Home Inside the Globe Book | https://amzn.to/4tRUXn8

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On episode 255, we welcome Jonathan Vigliotti to discuss the 2025 Palisades Fire, the systemic failures that caused and maintained it, the ethics of hiring private fire brigades, how climate change influenced the fire, the political neglect and flawed reasoning around effective management, fire safety standards as the bare minimum, bureaucratic collapse, Mayor Karen Bass's mistakes, incentivizing politicians to take natural disasters more seriously, the role of the 2028 Olympics in diverting attention, and problem of problem solving without accountability.

Jonathan Vigliotti is an Emmy and Edward R. Murrow Award–winning CBS News national correspondent whose work has appeared on numerous platforms including CBS Sunday Morning, Face the Nation, 48 Hours,and more. His reporting has taken him to more than forty countries and territories across six continents. His new book, available 5/12/2026, is called Torched: How a City Was Left to Burn, and the Olympic Rush to Rebuild L.A.

| Jonathan Vigliotti |

► Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/jonathanvigliotti

► Twitter | https://x.com/JonVigliotti

► Torched Book | https://amzn.to/3OwBGIm

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On episode 254, we welcome Aaron Poochigian to discuss his new translation of Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, Aaron's struggles with addiction and how the book helped him in recovery, suffering as stemming from interpretations of rather than facts about the world, meaning as stemming from virtue rather than reputation, learning to accept all of nature to manage suffering, applying the concept of 'strange beauty' to discover it everywhere, and the psychotherapeutic elements of Stoic philosophy.

Aaron Poochigian is a poet, classics scholar, and translator who lives and writes in New York City. His work has appeared in such newspapers and journals as The Financial Times, The New York Review of Books, and Poetry Magazine. He's the author of Four Walks in Central Park: A Poetic Guide to the Park, and his translations include Stung with Love (Penguin UK). His new translation, available now, is Marcus Aurelius' Meditations.

| Aaron Poochigian |

► Website | https://www.aaronpoochigian.com

► Twitter | https://x.com/Poochigian

► Meditations Book | https://amzn.to/4tO7Uyr

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On episode 253, we welcome Christopher Mathias to discuss the meaning of fascism and what ANTIFA is, fascism's ideological roots in greed and domination, the Charlottesville protests, fascist masking and the threat of being charmed by appearances, whether we owe it to fascism to allow for open debates, whether fascists care about finding the truth, if it's possible to differentiate between conservatives and fascists at this point, and why members of ANTIFA would disagree with being labeled extremists.

Christopher Mathias is a journalist covering the far right. Previously a senior reporter at HuffPost, he's done work for the Guardian, MSNBC, Zeteo, and WNYC. His reporting chronicled the rapid radicalization of the GOP, and has helped unmask white supremacist cops, soldiers, teachers, and politicians. Mathias was a Deadline Awards finalist for feature writing. His new book, available now, is called To Catch a Fascist: The Fight to Expose the Radical Right.

| Christopher Mathias |

► Twitter | https://x.com/letsgomathias

► Bluesky | https://bsky.app/profile/letsgomathias.bsky.social

► To Catch a Fascist Book | https://amzn.to/3OaBNJj

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On episode 252, welcome Benjamin Saltzman to discuss the gesture of turning away, the shame and grief behind it, how it became a moral topic, turning away in art and Timanthes's lost painting of Agamemnon, Plato's tripartite concept of the soul and turning away as a mark of confusion, rigidity and steadfastness as signs of courage and character, cognitive flexibility and knowing when to turn away, Hannah Arendt and misinterpreting averted gazes as the foundation of totalitarianism, and understanding aversion without its moral trappings.

Benjamin A. Saltzman is associate professor of English at the University of Chicago, where he coedits the journal Modern Philology. Saltzman is the author of Bonds of Secrecy: Law, Spirituality, and the Literature of Concealment in Early Medieval England and the coeditor of Thinking of the Medieval: Midcentury Intellectuals and the Middle Ages. His new book, available April 6, 2026, is called Turning Away: The Poetics of an Ancient Gesture.

| Benjamin A. Saltzman |

► Website | https://www.bsaltzman.com

► Twitter | https://x.com/b_a_saltzman

► Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/b_a_saltzman

► Turning Away Book | https://bit.ly/TurningAwayBook

Use the code "UCPNEW" for a 30% discount on Turning Away when ordering from the link above!

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On episode 251, we welcome Patricia Martin to discuss identity formation in the modern world, our preoccupation with external validation and why it's unsustainable in the internet age, Carl Jung's understanding of the persona and our tendency to perform, the persona and chronic self-doubt, socially prescribed perfectionism and the fog of self, physical practices to re-center oneself, and the importance of cultivating meaning for identity integration.

Patricia Martin is the author of four books, a researcher, and speaker. Her work has been featured in Harvard Business Review, Huffington Post, The New York Times, and Psyche Magazine. For over twenty-five years, influential brands and non-profits sought her insight as a consultant, including American Express, Oracle, and The New York Philharmonic, among others. She holds an MFA in nonfiction from Bennington College, with post-graduate work in medical narrative at Duke University, and Jungian theory at the C. G. Jung Institute of Chicago, where she gives workshops and hosts the popular podcast, Jung in the World. Her new book, available March 5, 2026, is called Will the Future Like You?: Reflections on the Age of Hyper-Reinvention.

| Patricia Martin |

► Website | https://patricia-martin.com

► Twitter | https://x.com/PatriciaMartin

► Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/patriciamartin33

► Substack | https://culturescout.substack.com

► Podcast | https://www.youtube.com/@JungInstituteChicago/videos

► Will the Future Like You? Book | https://amzn.to/3ZgU2in

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On episode 250, we welcome Amy Nathan to discuss civil rights icon Sara Keyes Evans, her own decision to not move to the back of a bus, the decades long legal battle that followed, the battle between federal and state laws regarding interstate travel for minorities, Sara's more measured and less aggressive stance on social justice, the values and temperament that were the foundation of her brand of activism, why she was unrecognized for so long, and what inspired her tenancy to fight racism.

Amy Nathan is the author of more than fifteen books, including Together: An Inspiring Response to the "Separate-but-Equal" Supreme Court Decision that Divided America, Making Time for Making Music, Round and Round Together, and A Ride to Remember: A Civil Rights Story. Her new book, available March 24, 2026, is called Riding into History: The Surprising Story of Sarah Keys Evans and the Fight to Desegregate Bus Travel.

| Amy Nathan |

► Website | https://www.amynathanbooks.com

► Twitter | https://x.com/AmyNathanBooks

► Riding into History Book | https://amzn.to/49ULzGC

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On episode 249, we welcome Jack El-Hai to discuss the Nuremberg trials and the recent film about them, the psychiatrist who analyzed Hermann Göring, Dr. Douglas Kelley's motivations for doing so, whether Nazis were monsters and if being human makes them scarier, how the results of Göring's Rorschach test reveled a narcissistic personality, the foundation of evil, Kelley's stifled ambitions and why his social contributions make his work meaningful, and the warnings in 'Nuremberg' about our political future.

Jack El-Hai is an acclaimed author and journalist whose writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Smithsonian, GQ, Wired, Scientific American, Discover, and many other publications. He has written several acclaimed books — including The Lobotomist, The Lost Brothers, and Face in the Mirror — translated into more than twenty languages worldwide. His book The Nazi and the Psychiatrist inspired the major motion picture Nuremberg, which explores the psychological dimensions of the Nuremberg Trials.

| Jack El-Hai |

► Website | https://www.el-hai.com

► Twitter | https://x.com/Jack_ElHai

► Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/jackelhai1

► Bluesky | https://bsky.app/profile/jackelhai.bsky.social

► Linkedin | https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackelhai

► The Nazi and the Psychiatrist Book | https://amzn.to/4bBoBqf

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