Welcome to a windy day walk alongside the might Saugeen River near Denny's Dam in southern Ontario. In this episode, I cast an idea that I hope might catch your interest! Here, I propose a different name than the placeholder name Generation Beta for the generation after Gen Alpha. Who wants to be second to anyone else? For the next generation, that…

Join me in episode 85 where I talk about hopes best companion effort! There are four directions we can apply effort for our wellness. A starting point is to ask the questions: 1) Why do I say what I say when I say it? and 2) Why do I do what I do when I do it? These questions allow one to "get conscious" so we can start to think about the different…

Welcome to another episode of The Hopeful Humanist Cafe. In this episode I attempt to tie a number of threads together from some of the pitfalls of self-care to the importance of hope, openness, and compassion for a healing or recovery journey. Quotes: 1) "Hope" is the thing with feathers - That perches in the soul -And sings the tune without the w…

In this episode, I provide articles for listeners to access who might be interested in learning the unwritten rules of etiquette for Pickleball. I then suggest that pickleball itself might be the meaning of life and offer ideas about what might constitute the good life. Quote: 1) "Pickleball is cheaper than therapy" - unknown 2) "Pickleball is the …

How well do you do with managing being wrong? Are you able to recognize internally when you are wrong? Are you able to acknowledge being wrong and take ownership for your thoughts and actions? Is there a difference between being wrong and making a mistake? Join me in this tip-of-the-iceberg conversation about one thread of the so many conversations…

Welcome to another unedited, blithering episode of the Hopeful Humanist Cafe. In this episode, I share with you a leisure project I have been experimenting with on X (formerly Twitter) and Minds. I believe that everyone has within them one book to write. Having said that, however, it should be noted that writing is something that requires time, ene…

Salutations and welcome to episode 80 of the Hopeful Humanist Cafe. This episode starts with a question from Danielson about the Hero's Journey - How far must one travel from one's home before it is fair to call the experience a journey? Can simply stepping outside one's door of one's home constitute a journey? Furthermore, can framing the challeng…

This episode talks about an essential ingredient and starting point for being a "good mentor" for Dawn, the-every-young person-becoming-young-adult. Before sharing one's wisdom, one must know who one is sharing one's wisdom with. Hence the question, "Who is Dawn?" Only after activating the empathetic sensibility and stepping into Dawn's worlds can …

Many of us have so much on our plates and have been pulled in too many directions by the various greedy institutions in our lives that we might have lost sight of the fact that SPRING IS HERE. It is time to step outside and do some savouring. T-shirt Idea: "One Good Book" or "One Good Poem." Delving into our "internal spring," and finding a moment …

What is the "Hard Case" for self-care? Why do we so often, when helping others, try to get to offering solutions instead of just being there to honour and validate another person's reality. Sometimes the first step in the change process is just taking time to notice. Quote for the year: "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to…

In this episode, I invite the listener to join me as I provide a summary account of a virtual, two-day training workshop that I attended about a therapeutic counselling modality called, "Acceptance and Commitment Therapy" - otherwise known as ACT. The total listening experience includes six audio segments. Each of the two days of training includes …

This episode is simply a short question. It is an invitation to put one's "self" under the metaphorical microscope. This can be a hard thing to do, but it is essential for living a deliberate and mindful life. I anticipate that I will follow-up this question with a future episode where I intend to debrief and unpack the question in order to explore…

In this very brief episode of the Hopeful Humanist Café, I will showcase what I will simultaneously call a "Sound-Story" & "Audio-Sound-Blot." The episode is simply a listening experience. One might just sit back and get comfortable or grab one's journal and open up to the possibility of an imaginative outpouring. As a "Sound-Story," the invitation…

Welcome to another spontaneous & unedited blithering at The Hopeful Humanist Café. When you do not got the motivation to tackle the Mount Everest challenges on your metaphorical life plate, tackle the small stuff. The small stuff can create momentum. For me that was focusing on the backyard shed. Unexpectedly, while getting some small checkmarks, I…

This episode is from a Substack article I prepared for my news letter, "Hopeful Humanist Cafe Newsletter." The article is called, "What will you do today." I really enjoyed making the episode and wanted to include it into the library of episodes available on "The Hopeful Humanist Cafe" podcast. Here is the link for the article: What will you do tod…

Welcome to The Hopeful Humanist Café. In episode 71, I am joined by Captain Jack and Danielson for an organic discussion and debrief about an episode from "The Psychology Podcast" with Scott Barry Kaufman. The specific episode we talked about is called, "How William James Can Save Your Life," with special guest John Kaag, who is an Existential Phil…

"Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words." - Robert Frost Episode 70 with Danielson has finally arrived. Another unedited, one take blithering session with "Just Two Ones." As indicated in the "Antidote Primer for upcoming Episode," Danielson and I will attempt to interpret and relate to six selected Emily Di…

Where do thoughts come from? In episode 69, we turn to a poem from the American Poet Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (Dec. 10, 1830 to May 15, 1886) where she shares her experience of an arising thought. It is a beautiful poem. The poem provides one with the opportunity to become aware of one's thinking mind and it's relationship to one's observing mind.…

In episode 68, I am joined by Life Coach Sarah Crawte who talks about what life coaching is and is not, her journey toward life coaching, and the benefits of connecting with a life coach. Maintaining your health is often challenging and, at times, requires reaching out for help. During difficult times, help can be accessed from communities of care …

Join me for a one-take, unedited discussion about the importance of expanding our dashboards of wellness to include mental health and substance use information. According to the Public Health Agency of Canada "24 626 apparent opioid toxicity deaths between January 2016 and June 2021" were reported. Did you also know according to an article, "Loneli…

Welcome to another episode of the Hopeful Humanist Cafe. In episode 66, I will talk about some obstacles, barriers, and constraints to our ability to take care of ourselves. The invitation will not be to despair about such a reality but to sit with it and "notice" what is happening in our inner world when we are mindful of certain thoughts and feel…

Welcome to Episode 65 of the Hopeful Humanist Cafe. In this episode, I hope to provide a definition of generations, share a cautionary note about the limits and dangers when talking about generations, and raise some questions about the benefits of continuing to talk about these socially-constructed things called "Generations." Video Resource Librar…

In this episode, I take the "Ten-Word Description" podcast activity from Eric Nuzum and take it to make my own to "Reclaim my lens for a journey toward my authentic self." Entering into another lockdown during a third wave assault from covid-19 where everything is fixated on a one-pointed conversation about the pandemic, I felt a need to "bee kind"…

Welcome to another "Just Two Ones" episode where Danielson and I talk about a bunch of thoughts connected to Critical Thinking with a short special appearance from Woodrow. Let's blither ... ORIENTING THOUGHTS: 1) “Moving beyond I don’t know” (Danielson) 2) Memorizing is not learning. (Danielson) T-SHIRT IDEAS: 1)"Read Widely" & "Imagine the Unimag…

Welcome to a glimpse into a snippet of a private sharing from myself to Captain Jack. From the outside, I must say, this episode is definitely unconventional and hopefully it will not prove to be a slippery slope (haha!). The flavour of this episode is reminiscent of my "T-shirt ideas, novel first sentences, and et cetera moments" concept piece. He…

This episode is the unexpected part two to episode 60. Danielson and I continued to explore our respective relationships with the book "Siddhartha," a book we both initially picked up in early adulthood and have revisited a number of times over the different chapters of our unfolding lives. The first order of business was to provide a synopsis of t…

In this historic episode, I am joined for the first time ever with a guest - the one and only Danielson - for an unedited, in-the-moment, blithering conversation about Hermann Hesse's classic novel, "Siddhartha." Although we initially intended to start the conversation off by providing a synopsis of the story, we never actually got around to it and…

This is my creative take on a psychometric tool referred to as the "Rorschach Test." Subjects are presented with ambiguous inkblots and invited to share their perceptions/interpretations with clinicians to analyze. The goal is to discover underlying personality traits. My goal is not so lofty. It is simply to share something creative that might cau…

Quote: "Right now the world is entirely focused on people's physical health, and for good reason. But I urge everyone to take mental health just as seriously as you do your physical health. Use preventative measures and learn to spot the signs when you are struggling. Reach out to family, friends or medical professionals." - Natalie Romero from her…

Join me as I talk with Captain Jack and Danielson for over 30 minutes about a word - BOOMPF - we collectively brought into existence merely with the socially constructed wags of the tongue - this is the power of the declarative speech act! To prevent confusion, note that we are birthing the word "BOOMPF" to be distinguished from the words boomp, bo…

Welcome to episode 56! Before making our way to constructing for ourselves a list of action steps to resolve conflict in a future episode, in this episode, I will provide a definition of conflict, make brief mention of Kilmann's conflict resolution styles, and share a tip about what a person can do when going to the "balcony" (William Ury) to get s…

Salutations and welcome to a very brief tribute to the ... ... ... long pause!! For me, this was one full minute of fun. I invite you to experiment with the long pause for dramatic effect. Show Case Resource: 1) What do you think about this long pause? Caught off guard, unprepared, or a pause for deliberate effect? This clip is called, "Trudeau pau…

Conflict is inevitable. As the saying goes, "Conflict is not the problem ... the problem is how we approach and solve the conflict." In this episode, by inviting you the listener to participate in two thought experiments, I hope to raise thoughts about what the conflict resolution landscape might look like. Additionally, below I have included three…

Let me start off by saying, "I very much enjoy long pauses as they provide 'fill-in-the-blank" interactive opportunities for the listener." Having shared that, it should come as no surprise then that this episode concludes with an ("awkward"??) long pause that will invite you to think about what you might do during this long weekend to "flower wate…

Aesculus Hippocastanum! In this episode, I will tell you how to have a chestnut fight. I believe it is a North American variation of a game that is called ¨Conkers¨ in England and has been played for generations. I try to weave some additional thread-like thoughts from Thich Nhat Hanh and Maslow´s Hierarchy of Needs into the discussion in the hope …

Why not start your morning with a daily dose of inspiration about self-care and happiness? Below, I have provided links to calendar creations from both Action for Happiness and the Greater Good Science Center. Also, I share some thoughts about the idea that self-care is selfish and indulgent. My thought, which would make a great T-shirt tag is this…

In this open pod (open mic) episode, part 2 of a possible 3 in a series on Common Sense, I hand over the discussion, without introduction, to Danielson to share his ruminations about common sense and politics or maybe more aptly the politics of common sense. Danielson brings to the conversation some "hmm" thoughts that seem really relevant especial…

In this episode, I wrestle with the relative and universal qualities of common sense. While I do not have anything definitive to offer, I still believe there is value in having conversations that generate questions, even in the absence of answers. It is a "seed" conversation about an "idea in flow." Additionally, I introduce some preliminary though…

In this episode, I talk about an idea worth writing about. I have attached the article that sparked for me a number of interesting questions about the impact of covid-19 on professional sports. I leave my meandering thoughts with this question: So what do you think? Is it in fact an idea worth writing about? If so, maybe it is time for you to "Blog…

With the rise of remote work, it could be helpful to look for the red and green flags in our ability to separate our work lives from our personal lives. If we are not careful life spheres (what I like to call "Life Domains), might blur in such a way that one sphere creeps into and violates the boundary of another sphere. A red flag/green flag inven…

Join me, Steve, The Hopeful Humanist, for another unscripted blithering moment as I talk about an activity for standing up to anxiety called, "The Things On My Plate Mind-map." In this episode, the activity is the showcase resource. While it is pretty straight forward it is none-the-less very impactful in terms of creating perspective that can allo…

Join me for a creativity-building activity as we imagine working in the "Off Script Living" department for a car manufacturer to explore ways to help Generation Alpha adjust to a mobile existence in a jobless world. In order to equip our children and youth for the world of tomorrow, creativity has to be a major focus for the learning curriculum of …

"What if" is an example of an automatic negative thought (ANTs) that fuels anxiety. In this episode, instead of turning away from the debilitating "what if," with mindfulness the "what if" is compassionately embraced to nurture more positive empowering thoughts (PETs). The episode ends with the invitation to reflect upon the possible benefits of op…

As the accidental experiment of remote work/telecommuting unfolds in response to a Covid-19 reality, what are the implications we will discover downstream of this new social reality as people sit in front of screens for inhumane amounts of time, looking at surreal representations of co-workers on ZOOM one may never have met in real face-to-face tim…

What does a beach party have to do with the meaning of life? In this morning file, I invite you to join me and Woodrow II as we start off the day with some music and a thought for the day to make one think. The thought of the day is a quote from Viktor Frankl which is one of my favourites about the meaning of life. The quote comes from the book, "M…

Open the curtains, get comfortable, and sip some tea for a moment of mindfulness to orient the day. I discovered this gem while reading, "Awakening The Buddha Within," by Lama Surya Das. I would like to quote what Lama Surya Das wrote about this prayer on page 184: "The Buddha himself said that if you repeatedly practice this meditation and recitat…

Jump into this episode (#40 and not #37 as would be expected) with me as I talk about the importance of showing care in the way we talk to one another to avoid avoidable regrets. Words, while limiting, are also powerful. We need to be mindful and practice "Right Speech." During this episode, appropriately, I was wearing my "No Regrets" T-shirt whic…

A two word title for a "One Word" podcast episode - possibly the shortest podcast episode ever! In this episode, Blazing Phoenix takes centre-mic for another Sanity Quickie. Before listening to the episode, I would like to invite you to join me in a creativity challenge. Imagine you have been asked to create an episode for a podcast called, "The Ha…

Welcome to another Sanity Quickie! In this episode, I hand the microphone over to Captain Jack as he shares his off-the-cuff thoughts about a possible Stoic response to the question about how fate plays itself out in our lives. Peace, take care & be well!Oleh Hopeful Humanist

Welcome to an ¨S.Q.¨ moment, a Sanity Quickie, where I will share with you a daily practice I have incorporated into my days to stand up to the chaos thrust into our lives because of the covid-19 Pandemic. The tile for this episode is both a description of the shared hardships of our collective reality and a sanity prescription to boost optimism, e…