Welcome to Episode 0.125. It’s an impromptu addition to our prequel series, where we decided to turn the psychiatric lens on ourselves. We noticed in our text thread we were all having interesting reactions about finally putting our work out into the world, and the only logical next step was to put ourselves on the couch and let the shrinking begin. This process brought up some interesting themes around narcissism, imposter syndrome, and inadequacy. Yes, shrinks work through all of that too. So, join us as we explore our thoughts and feelings surrounding the soft launch, in real time. Because in psychiatry, it's all grist for the mill, and sometimes we also need our own time on the couch.

Deeper Learning Points

• “Grist for the Mill”
  • A metaphor for therapeutic material coined by therapy giant Dr. Irvin Yalom
• Overton Effect: A thing we plan to trademark
• 🧰 Overview Effect: A repeat from episode 0
• Overton Window
  • Per Wikipedia, “The Overton window is the range of subjects and arguments politically acceptable to the mainstream population at a given time”
• Self-disclosure
  • Self disclosure refers to how much we reveal about ourselves to our patients. We try to be intentional about it as the therapeutic setting is a unique environment and relationship wherein the exploration of the psyche is inherently more one-sided. Historically, therapists were supposed to be a “blank slate“, but even Freud let his patients into his personal life at times, and it is important for us to consider when this may or may not be therapeutic, and what the risks and benefits of self disclosure may be.
  • A major premise of the show Shrinking is exploring the different perspectives that the therapist characters have on self disclosure and just how rigid or permeable our boundaries can and should be.
• Imposter Syndrome
  • Some people are immune :)
• 🧰 Acceptance and Commitment Therapy/Values
• 🧰 Healthy Narcissism
  • We’re fans of the Psychiatry and Psychotherapy podcast, and they do a nice episode on healthy narcissism, to include its adaptive aspects
• Positive stress (“Eustress”)
• Freud’s psychoanalytic approach
  • There’s a lot to cover with Freud, including the concepts of transference/countertransference, which we refer to in the episode
• Loneliness Epidemic: The surgeon general declared this a public health issue in 2023
• Community Episode: We’re planning this for episode 4, released August 5th!
• 🧰 Internal Family Systems (IFS) / “parts theory”
• 🧰 Humor as Defense

We've been chipping away at this podcast for a while — balancing our collective perfectionism with a "good enough" energy, finding time in chaotic millennial midlife to meet, laugh, and record together on an almost weekly basis. When Artemis II launched, we couldn't help ourselves. Turns out when your co-hosts include a former military pilot, a Navy flight surgeon, and someone who applied to the astronaut program — twice — space is never really far from the conversation. 

Kyle, our closest brush with NASA, got us going on a conversation that covers a lot of range. So since this felt time sensitive, and because it was finally time to take one small step, we're doing a soft launch before we get fully underway in June (June 24th, to be specific). And why May the 4th? Come on. Space, exploration, the hero's journey, daddy issues...too good to pass up. Join us for a slightly rambling conversation about space, exploration, and what it means to reach for something.

For Deeper Exploration...

• 🧰 Toolkit Item: Hawthorne Effect
• 🧰 Toolkit Item: The Overview Effect
  • Earthscape VR
  • Astronaut Profiles
  • Christina Koch Overview Video 1and Overview Video 2
  • NASA: The Overview Effect
  • The Pale Blue Dot
• The Science of Astronaut Wellbeing
  • And also The Burden of Space Exploration on the Mental Health of Astronauts
• The Hero Archetype
  • How mythologist Joseph Campbell made Luke Skywalker a hero
  • “A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: The hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.” - Joseph Campbell
  • “We need a great rebirth of the heroic in our world. Every sector of human society, wherever that may be on the planet, seems to be slipping into an unconscious chaos. Only the heroic consciousness, exerting all its might, will be able to stop this slide toward oblivion. Only a massive rebirth of courage in both men and women will rescue the world.” – Moore and Gillette
• 🧰 Toolkit Item: Cognitive Dissonance
  • Cognitive Dissonance, More Detail
• The Drive for Discovery/Exploration
  • We hadn’t read it before we recorded, but this article captures so much of what we discussed–the drive for exploration and the cost, shooting for  the stars versus grounding on earth and solving the problems here, knowing what really matters in life: “Billionaire space race: the ultim