Podcasts about recovery help us understand ourselves

Few experiences shape us more profoundly than love and loss. In this encore episode of Ojai: Talk of the Town, acclaimed author Laurel Braitman reflects on the deeply personal journey behind her memoir, What Looks Like Bravery: A Journey Through Love & Loss.A graduate of Thacher School who grew up just over the hill in Santa Paula, Braitman returns to the landscapes that shaped her life as she recounts her father's battle with cancer, the complexities of family, and the unexpected ways grief can transform us. Today she serves as Writer-in-Residence at Stanford School of Medicine, where she explores the intersection of storytelling, medicine and the human experience.The conversation ranges well beyond the memoir. We discuss her remarkable parents, growing up in Ventura County, the many changes Ojai has experienced over the decades, the craft of writing, and the rapidly evolving world of publishing. We also revisit the fascinating story of Monarch, the California grizzly whose image inspired the state flag — and debate whether the famous bear came from the Sespe Wilderness or the nearby Tehachapi Mountains.Braitman is also the author of the bestselling "Animal Madness: How Anxious Dogs, Compulsive Parrots, and Elephants in Recovery Help Us Understand Ourselves," a groundbreaking exploration of animal behavior and what it reveals about ourselves.It's an intimate, thoughtful conversation about resilience, memory, place, and the stories we tell to make sense of our lives.Originally released as Episode 138.

In a repost of a fan favorite from 2022, Laurel S. Braitman (re-)joins the podcast to talk about her most recent book, "What Looks Like Bravery: A Journey Through Love & Loss" about losing her father to cancer and finding herself in the process. She is the Writer-in-Residence at the Stanford School of Medicine. Her work has appeared in The Guardian,[5] The Wall Street Journal, Fast Company,[6] The New Inquiry,[7] Salon,[8] and a variety of other publications. She is a summa cum laude graduate of Cornell, and a TED talk fellow. She authored in 2015, "Animal Madness: How Anxious Dogs, Compulsive Parrots, and Elephants in Recovery Help Us Understand Ourselves." Braitman is a Thacher alumni and grew up over the hill in Santa Paula. Besides her father's (and mother's) remarkable life stories, we talked about the changes we've seen in Ventura County and Ojai over the decades, the writing process, how the publishing business has changed and where it's headed, and the saga of Monarch, the grizzly on the state flag. Laurel said it was captured in the Tehachapi Mountains, I believe it was in the Sespe wilderness. We did not talk about the Consumer Protection Bureau, Ventuckian musical genres or local mafia connections. Check out more about Laurel at https://www.laurelbraitman.com/

For the last few years, Laurel Braitman, has been teaching writing and communications skills to medical students and doctors at Stanford University, helping healthcare professionals connect more meaningfully with their patients, their peers, and themselves. Nearly 30% of American medical students are depressed and one in ten have thoughts about suicide. Practicing physicians are even worse off with some of the highest suicide rates in the nation. It's how we learn to communicate with one another that matters most. The most important thing we can do in the time we have here is connect with other people  and ideally, make them feel less alone. Laurel also studies we can learn from the emotional lives of non-human animals, including her New York Times bestselling book, Animal Madness: How Anxious Dogs, Compulsive Parrots, and Elephants in Recovery Help Us Understand Ourselves helped us see how we can learn a lot from our non-human animal counterparts.  

Laurel Braitman is a historian of science and the author of Animal Madness: How Anxious Dogs, Compulsive Parrots, and Elephants in Recovery Help Us Understand Ourselves. She’s particularly interested in animals held in captivity. “If their minds aren’t stimulated and challenged they can end up with all sorts of disturbing behaviors,” she explains. Braitman wondered if music could help counter animal anxiety and depression? This question led Braitman to arrange a series of concerts for all-animal audiences. Plus, we hear from Richard Prum, an ornithologist at Yale University, who discusses his latest work — the philosophy of aesthetics. It stems from his earliest research studying small South American birds called Manakins. Manakins are known for outlandish mating displays in which males perform an elaborate dance and to Prum’s eye, the diversity and complexity of these dances could only be explained as an appeal to the birds’ aesthetic preferences. In other words, it’s art. “My hypothesis,” he explains to Kurt Andersen, “is that ornament in manakins evolves merely because it’s popular, or merely beautiful.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Laurel Braitman is a historian of science and the author of Animal Madness: How Anxious Dogs, Compulsive Parrots, and Elephants in Recovery Help Us Understand Ourselves. She’s particularly interested in animals held in captivity. “If their minds aren’t stimulated and challenged they can end up with all sorts of disturbing behaviors,” she explains. Braitman wondered if music could help counter animal anxiety and depression? This question led Braitman to arrange a series of concerts for all-animal audiences. Plus, we hear from Richard Prum, an ornithologist at Yale University, who discusses his latest work — the philosophy of aesthetics. It stems from his earliest research studying small South American birds called Manakins. Manakins are known for outlandish mating displays in which males perform an elaborate dance and to Prum’s eye, the diversity and complexity of these dances could only be explained as an appeal to the birds’ aesthetic preferences. In other words, it’s art. “My hypothesis,” he explains to Kurt Andersen, “is that ornament in manakins evolves merely because it’s popular, or merely beautiful.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, Point of Inquiry welcomes Laurel Braitman, a TED fellow with a PhD in History and Anthropology of Science from MIT, and the author of Animal Madness: How Anxious Dogs, Compulsive Parrots, and Elephants in Recovery Help Us Understand Ourselves.   It might sound strange to say that animals suffer from mental illness but the brain systems that regulate anxiety, attachment, and arousal are evolutionarily ancient. If faulty neurochemistry compounded by stress can lead to mental illness in humans, is it such a stretch to imagine it in other animals as well?    Today we look into the minds of our fellow animals. What do their minds and mental illnesses teach us about sanity, insanity and the concept of consciousness?