I’m going to invite people into the process of my next project related to human intelligence and the need to rethink the way we see intelligence. In this first episode about it, I talk about Multiple Intelligence according to Howard Gardner and also about VIA Character Strengths. At the end, I invite people to take my in-progress screening survey on multiple intelligence and the VIA survey. The link for those are both listed below. Take the VIA survey first so you can tell me what your top 5 cha...
Feb 14, 2019•43 min•Season 2Ep. 19
After a few years of students from the second-year neuroscience class I teach at the University of Guelph-Humber asking for how they can learn more neuroscience, I decided to take some of them on as part of their placement requirements. Here we will be exploring various topics in neuroscience. This is our first formal audio meeting where we hear from them, what they are interested in and give us some idea of how to proceed for the next couple of months working together.
Feb 12, 2019•14 min•Season 2Ep. 19
Sarah Johnson Sat, Jan 19, 1:18 PM (2 days ago)to me In this episode, originally sent as a voice memo to Mandy and Mike, Sarah recounts the immediate aftermath of being kept up overnight by side effects of one of her treatments. This was back in September 2018, before recording the first podcast we published with Sarah on Mandyland. But she wants to share this note as it captures feelings of vulnerability, frustration, confusion, and exasperation that arise in dealing with cancer treatment. It's...
Jan 21, 2019•38 min•Season 2Ep. 17
I’m with Sarah in San Diego, at the Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting, a place we have been together many times. We had many slow(er than normal) days and quiet nights in our hotel room. And then we got a chance to really dive into what her new normal is. The conference was a perfect place to compare what use to be, with what is now.
Jan 21, 2019•29 min•Season 2Ep. 16
Mike and I got into a conversation about The Interoceptive Mind , a way of feeling our inner body provoked partially by a book that I picked up at the Society for Neuroscience back in November. According to the authors Interoception is “the body-to-brain axis of signals originating from the internal body and visceral organs (such as gastrointestinal, respiratory, hormonal, and circulatory systems). [It] is the sensing of the state of the inner body and its homeostatic needs, to the ever-fluctuat...
Jan 10, 2019•21 min•Season 2Ep. 15
Clearly, I have more important things to do with my time than creating episodes. Here’s a little snapshot into that. Note, this was recorded by Mike at the end of our date night, on Dec 1st. I only found out about it yesterday (Dec 9th). Apparently he sent it to me but I didn’t even see it or listen to it. Enjoy. ;P
Dec 10, 2018•3 min•Season 2Ep. 14
An introduction to focusing on the breath, a basic concentration practice that sets a foundation for meditating and for deepening your practice. Mostly instruction and practice, with a little bit of commentary on why we are meditating.
Nov 03, 2018•14 min•Season 2Ep. 13
I reconnected with one of my favorite students from Ryerson. He was that super engaged student who asked good critical-thinking questions and really took things to another level. So when he contacted me to say he developed a game on scientific thinking, I was super excited to meet up and learn more about his game. And what he showed met my expectations. Jon is reflective, intelligent, a deep critical thinker, and a social justice advocate. All of these elements came out clearly in our conversati...
Oct 29, 2018•41 min•Season 2Ep. 12
I’m taking a Facebook Sabbatical… and this is why. Resources CBC episode with Jeron Lanier (the internet guy who talks about getting off social media): https://www.cbc.ca/listen/shows/the-current/segment/15610520 . Also see: Talk also by Lanier: https://www.ted.com/.../jaron_lanier_how_we_need_to... ZigZag is a podcast about changing the course of capitalism, journalism, and women’s lives. For real. https://zigzagpod.com/about/ Me and Mike talking about Blockchain... http://www.mandyland.ca/.../...
Oct 25, 2018•23 min•Season 2Ep. 11
An introduction to meditation with some pretty basic instructions with a bit of commentary.
Oct 23, 2018•23 min•Season 2Ep. 10
In this monologue, Sarah recounts her feelings over the past 3 years of dealing with cancer both how it looked from the outside and how it felt from the inside. At the beginning, she wondered "how am I going to come out the other side?” It felt like she was walking through a doorway in Alice in Wonderland and then suddenly stumbled upon the strange universe. She realized that the way that you look at the world shifts. And a big theme for her, is that cancer is slow.
Oct 19, 2018•40 min•Season 2Ep. 9
Today... I felt my existential depression... and am so glad I happened upon that term recently. For reference, I was reading from the book A Parent's Guide to Gifted Children, by James Webb, Janet Gore, Edward Amend, and Arlene DeVries.
Oct 15, 2018•19 min•Season 2Ep. 8
Ok so Mike learned a whole bunch about the blockchain a while ago when we bought some bitcoin and ethereum and all that fun cryptocurrency stuff. I didn’t. But then I started listening to the Zig Zag podcast and wanted to learn more about it. So… on our next date we find ourselves going down the rabbit hole of trying to figure it out. It got fun for me when we realized that I was part of the internet era before the world wide web and he was not. Mike’s 5.5 years younger than I am, which equates ...
Oct 04, 2018•14 min•Season 2Ep. 7
Sarah and I have been talking for a long time about her cancer but this conversation was planned as a way of starting her series of episodes for Mandyland. We had a bunch of ideas planned but realized early that it was hard to figure out where to start. So we started with why she has been hesitant to share this, despite her desire to. That got us talking about her career and the impact cancer has had on her career. From there we talk about where she is now and a brief introduction to her cancer....
Sep 27, 2018•43 min•Season 2Ep. 6
At the end of Season One, I put out a call to listeners to send in voice-memo reactions to anything from Season One. Sarah replied and is now a regular guest on Mandyland for Season two! This is her reply.
Sep 25, 2018•5 min•Season 2Ep. 5
I love Paul’s curiosity about mental health, psychology, and neuroscience. We sat down at the Centre for Social Innovation, which is where we met, on the upstairs patio of the Regent Park location. He is prepping for his new book to be released, which will be a very interactive journey populating the content around the book in curious ways, through public story telling events and conversations with others (like me) about mental other. It was a privilege for me to have this conversation with him ...
Sep 18, 2018•24 min•Season 2Ep. 4
August 2018 might just be the last of me breastfeeding! This is a big one for me. I’ve been breastfeeding for 3 years and 2 months and I think…. I think… we’re done. Breastfeeding has been amazing and so hard in many ways, as it typically the case for many women. Sometimes it’s the act of doing it that’s hard… sometimes it’s the emotions around it. For me, it came naturally from a very physical sense but it’s been an emotional rollercoaster from then on. I’ve felt trapped and like my body is bei...
Sep 07, 2018•13 min•Season 2Ep. 3
So we’re starting off with a doozy… me and Mike talk about his recent diagnosis of Renal Cell Carcinoma. Yup, that’s what’s been happening over the summer. It started with a few scans for an unrelated reason and a tumour in his left kidney was detected incidentally. Surgery is planned and there is a good prognosis for it being curable. Here we discuss our feelings about it… sort of.
Aug 29, 2018•33 min•Season 2Ep. 2
Welcome back! Just a short little introduction to what you can look forward to this season and why!
Aug 28, 2018•6 min•Season 2Ep. 1
Well, that's a wrap. It's been a year of this project and it's time to end one season and start anew. There are lots of ideas brewing so I can't wait to start. Therefore, it won't be that long before it starts again.
Aug 02, 2018•16 min•Season 1Ep. 30
Background I hadn’t met Terrence in person before this conversation but Jenn Chan (another regular guest on Mandyland) mentioned him when I was talking about death one day. She told me that Terrence has a brother with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and that his brother was considering Medical Assistant in Dying (MAID). I provoked Terrence with a little facebook comment about having him on my podcast and he took the bait. We chatted a few times on facebook just to organize timing and then here we ge...
Jul 10, 2018•57 min•Season 1Ep. 29
Dawn, who shared what it’s like to have depression and anxiety earlier this year, now shares her experience with her gradual return to work and ultimately her having to stop working. She describes her very visceral experiences as she attempts to go back and subsequently the failure she feels not being able to. Like before, this is a great window into the what it’s like to struggle with anxiety and depression. At one point I even admit that I want to help her and fix her and how hard it is for me...
Jun 14, 2018•Season 1Ep. 28
I was walking with my dog Jett one spring day and noticed the beautiful sounds of the birds chirping. So I decided to record them as a 5-minute mindfulness meditation. Background: Mindfulness is paying attention to and sensing the present moment. Every moment is an opportunity to practice this simple act of paying attention and just noticing sights, smells, tastes, sounds, feelings, and even thoughts as they come up inside of us. So just pausing for 5 minutes to hear the sounds of birds chirping...
Jun 11, 2018•5 min•Season 1Ep. 27
Talking with Emily made my friggen week! I didn’t know her before this first encounter except through email briefly. A few weeks before this, I put out a call for training proposals for a retreat that I’m running for my coaching/teaching staff at the Centre for Applied Neuroscience. Emily replied offering a workshop on intuition based on her PhD work in education philosophy. I was OVER THE MOON with her email and before even meeting her I booked her to train us! This conversation was our first o...
Jun 05, 2018•50 min•Season 1Ep. 26
Background Greer (another neuroscientist) and I began talking after I posted something on facebook about how I wanted to honour the female brain. She replied to my post with something like “YES!” and so we planned a conversation without any idea of where it would actually go. We went around and around and covered much ground including: 1) what does a woman leader looks like?, 2) valuing women in the workplace, 3) the female stress response of “tend and defend”and the maternal brain, 4) the diffe...
May 17, 2018•52 min•Season 1Ep. 25
I recently started reading about giftedness in children. I came upon it somewhat by accident, more out of a curiosity prompted by many people commenting on Ashar’s unusual alertness since he was a baby, his incredible comprehension even before he was verbal, and always seems to be thinking. A few of these people suggested he might be gifted. So one day I googled it and became almost immediately captivated by what I was reading, mostly about the special needs of gifted children. It’s been almost ...
Apr 18, 2018•1 hr 12 min•Season 1Ep. 24
We’re on a date night… and this is what we end up doing: talking about death! We talk about it from the perspective of my fear of dying and also from Mike’s perspective of not being afraid and then with respect to (assisted) suicide and enlightenment. Reflective Questions What happens when we don’t take care of our needs or don’t advocate for what we need? Gabor Mate thinks our body will say “no”. How does taking your own life (either by assisted suicide or other) affect our ability to transcend...
Mar 30, 2018•30 min•Season 1Ep. 23
I have always enjoyed consulting the cosmos for support. Actually, if I trace my psychology interests back, I can see it within my interests in the paranormal, for example, dreams, ghosts, telekinesis, superpowers, unsolved mysteries, and oracles. Something about these unknowns deeply resonates with me and they bring me great comfort especially when I feel lost in other ways. To me, a session like this IS therapy, a therapy that feels a million times better than any other therapy I have ever tri...
Mar 16, 2018•1 hr 40 min•Season 1Ep. 22
A few days before this conversation Jenn and I (along with our partners and kids and friends) attended an open house for an alternative school in our neighbourhood that we both want our kids to get into. The conversation natural meanders through a variety of topics including school ratings, learning styles, starting a new school, starting a summer school, tracking how kids learn, neuropsychoidiology, strength-based approach to learning... Resources Equinox: https://equinoxschool.ca/ Education Qu...
Feb 14, 2018•38 min•Season 1Ep. 21
So I made a big decision recently, which was to quit playing competitive ultimate this summer. The process was gruelling for me and it brought up a lot of interesting things for me. I start with wrapping my mind around letting go of an identity (in my own monologue) to discussing my body with Mike and ending with confidence in how I want to grow old with my body and try to embrace death with Mike, Lindsey, and Bronwyn (and the kids in the background). Who knew it would be a spiritual journey to ...
Feb 02, 2018•18 min•Season 1Ep. 20
