Episode 18: Well-Rooted - Terror, Tranquility, and Re-Wilding the Psyche in a Backyard Food Forest (live talk at Vegan Summerfest 2026)

Episode 18: Well-Rooted - Terror, Tranquility, and Re-Wilding the Psyche in a Backyard Food Forest (live talk at Vegan Summerfest 2026)

Four years of learning about and practicing an especially aggressive "do nothing" form of permaculture has taught me a great deal about emotional surrender and emotional sobriety—and vice versa. An intentional relationship with nature is necessary to better understand ourselves and grow along with our plants. A healthy, wild garden, like a healthy, wild psyche, requires and integrates everything: rot, renewal, and ripening. This is a recording from my live talk at Vegan Summerfest in July, 2026.

Episode 17: The Wounded Masculine and Its Discontents

In this episode, I have a deep and wide-ranging (and not nearly long enough!) conversation with Dean Abbott about the dilemmas and diversions of self-development and romantic unhappiness. We discuss the crisis of emotional immaturity in modern relationships, the over-functioning woman/underfunctioning man dynamic, why women are exhausted and men are dissociated, the real reason women get "the ick," and what it is that men and women really want and need from one another. It's a conversation where we attempt to look beyond stereotypical tropes, and instead explore the fundamental ways that men and women misinterpret and misunderstand one another. We discuss how, tragically, the qualities and behaviors that we demand from our partners—as well as those we attempt to offer to them in return—are in many ways the exact opposite of what is required for successful partnership and individual growth. Dr. Dean Abbott is a certified pastoral counselor and coach, author, poet, theologian, and mentor. You can learn more about him and his work at https://www.deanabbott.com and https://www.alifedesigned.org/dean, as well as follow him on twitter at https://www.twitter.com/altdeanabbott. (Note that this is a backup account; his main account at the time I'm publishing this has been hacked, but hopefully will be recovered soon—you can still read old posts there at twitter.com/deanabbott.) Some mentioned resources: Lindsay Gibson, "Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents" https://amzn.to/3OzVt9i [https://amzn.to/3OzVt9i] Robert Bly, "Iron John: A Book About Men" https://amzn.to/4kpWyfQ [https://amzn.to/4kpWyfQ] Dean Abbott, "Common Good: Reflections on Everyday Vices and Virtues" https://amzn.to/45Vj76f [https://amzn.to/45Vj76f] Dean Abbott, "On Character and Community" https://amzn.to/3MxSlu8 -- My book, "Truth be Told": https://www.jenhowk.com/truth [https://www.jenhowk.com/truth] For more resources including several weekly zoom groups, consider joining my community, The Collective Unconscious: https://collective.jenhowk.com [https://collective.jenhowk.com]

Episode 16: Correlation is Not a Conclusion (Interview with Professor Eric Turkheimer)

In this episode I chat with Professor Eric Turkheimer at the University of Virginia about why the fact that "everything is heritable" doesn't actually mean very much; why the concept of "heritability" itself might just be the most misunderstood term in science; how the field of behavior genetics continues to struggle to disentangle its research priorities and methodological assumptions from the segregationist and eugenic ideologies that shaped its early development; and why humans have a "genetic essentialism" cognitive bias that primes us to oversimplify very complex realities of human nature. "Understanding the Nature-Nurture Debate" by Professor Turkheimer: https://amzn.to/4l5Q6K0 [https://amzn.to/4l5Q6K0] Join my membership community, the Collective Unconscious: https:/collective.jenhowk.com [https:/collective.jenhowk.com]

Episode 15 - The Mismeasure of Meaning: Nature, Nurture, and Nuance

In this episode, I explain my concerns and criticisms of the claim that "everything is genetic." I explain both why I once found the hereditarian literature very persuasive, as well as the philosophical and epistemological reasons I am no longer willing to agree that the case can be considered closed. I've listed a few resources that might be useful for further reading below. Of course I don't agree with every single thing each of these authors argues either—and some of them even contradict one another on various details. But as a whole, they have greatly informed my thinking on this subject and many others. On behavioral genetics and biology: Eric Turkheimer, "Understanding the Nature-Nurture Debate" https://amzn.to/4l5Q6K0 [https://amzn.to/4l5Q6K0] Evelyn Fox Keller, "The Century of the Gene" https://amzn.to/3TxKFb6 [https://amzn.to/3TxKFb6] Denis Noble, "The Music of Life" https://amzn.to/4leUnuU [https://amzn.to/4leUnuU] David Moore, "The Developing Genome" https://amzn.to/4nbGeQP [https://amzn.to/4nbGeQP] Aaron Panofsky, "Misbehaving Science: Controversy and the Development of Behavioral Genetics" https://amzn.to/4k0vJNo [https://amzn.to/4k0vJNo] Philip Ball, "How Life Works: A User's Guide to the New Biology" https://amzn.to/442walX [https://amzn.to/442walX] Books not specifically about genetics but which have contributed enormously to my general philosophy of science and causality (and the weirdness of the universe): Iain McGilchrist, "The Master and His Emissary" https://amzn.to/4n8G6Bx [https://amzn.to/4n8G6Bx] Bernardo Kastrup, "Analytical Idealism" https://amzn.to/3I3NNsI [https://amzn.to/3I3NNsI] Don Hoffman, "The Case Against Reality" https://amzn.to/4jUjCBz [https://amzn.to/4jUjCBz] Robert Rosen, "Life Itself" https://amzn.to/44aDWsD [https://amzn.to/44aDWsD] Lewis Mumford, "The Myth of the Machine" https://amzn.to/4n8GVu7 [https://amzn.to/4n8GVu7] Paul Feyerabend, "Against Method" https://amzn.to/4nbIMhX [https://amzn.to/4nbIMhX] Join the Collective Unconscious: https://collective.jenhowk.com [https://collective.jenhowk.com]

Episode 14: "Cluster B" Kids with Joshua Slocum

This week I sat down with Joshua Slocum, co-host of the "Disaffected" podcast. I reached out to him to discuss the convergence of "Cluster B" pathology and the flattering mimicry of AI, as documented in one of his recent episodes (linked below.) We wound up discussing all kinds of things, including a bit of the AI question as well as the heritability (or lack thereof) of homosexuality, the consequences of our obnoxious Marxist youth, what compels us to "do the work" when our parents wouldn't, and why telling ourselves the truth about the past and who we really are is the most important thing we can do for our own healing. Plus he graces us several times with "the voice." Disaffected on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DisaffectedPodcast [https://www.youtube.com/@DisaffectedPodcast] "Out of Alignment" episode about AI: https://youtu.be/MjGCsk11sqw [https://youtu.be/MjGCsk11sqw] For more information or to reach out to Josh: https://joshuaslocum.net/ For more about me or to book a consultation, visit my website: www.jenhowk.com [https://www.jenhowk.com] Join the Collective Unconscious: https://collective.jenhowk.com [https://collective.jenhowk.com]