Ideas Folgen

If you're someone who thinks reading is therapeutic, you aren’t alone. On the surface, bibliotherapy might sound like another personal wellness trend, but it definitely isn’t. In fact, it’s an approved form of mental health treatment in Canada. And it’s been around for at least a century. In this episode, researchers Sara Haslam and Edmund King discuss the World War Ⅰ roots of this practice in the UK. Author Cody Delistraty considers its role in moving him forward in the grieving process. And psychiatrist Martina Scholtens explains why she created an evidence-based reading list online, tailored to a range of mental health diagnoses.

Disgust — an emotion that makes us human. It can keep us safe from drinking milk that's gone off, thanks to the revolting smell. And as Charles Darwin suggests, disgust serves as part of our core evolutionary function. But it also has a dark side. Disgust has been co-opted by culture, to religious and political divides. Scholars say we need to reckon with this complicated emotion that has the ability to make the world more dangerous.

For centuries, Western philosophers have contemplated the question: “Who am I?” To get to the answer, 19th-century German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel suggests, start by replacing the “I” with “we.” His philosophy looks at why we should care what others think of us because people’s perspectives play a huge part in how we see ourselves and how we look at the world. His theory is that traits and habits from the people around us impact what we see in ourselves.