Episoder
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Sometimes we find ourself in a series of bad friendships. We form friendships with people who take from us, treat us poorly, are unkind, or, in the extreme, who that don't wish us well. Although it's easy to play the victim, the truth is more complicated - in some ways we cultivate these friendships and keep these types of friends close because they fulfil some other need we have. That could be the need to be needed, to play the hero or martyr or perhaps to feel superior in some way.
Please share your thoughts and comments at [email protected] and they will addressed in a future episode.
Materials you might find helpful:
https://captainawkward.com/?s=friend+
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Elon Musk is a man of many myths, a professional exaggerator and liar. From lying about founding PayPal and Tesla (he didn't), to lying about the death of his son and divorce from his second wife. Looking at his family history we get a little insight into the man - his father had two children with the stepdaughter he raised since she was four years old. What really defines Elon Musk though, is his capacity to wield his enormous wealth to sway public opinion and influence the democratic process.
Materials you might find helpful:
The Guardian, 2024. Elon Musk expected to join Trump administration as an adviser, 9 November. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/nov/09/elon-musk-trump-administration [Accessed 10 November 2024].
The Guardian, 2024. X (formerly Twitter) stock drops following Elon Musk's controversial statements, 2 January. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/jan/02/x-twitter-stock-falls-elon-musk [Accessed 10 November 2024].
NBC News, 2024. A timeline of Trump’s shifting positions on abortion. Available at: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trumps-many-abortion-positions-timeline-rcna146601 [Accessed 10 November 2024].
Rolling Stone, 2023. The big list of Elon musk’s hyperbole, evasions, and outright lies. Available at: https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-lists/elon-musk-twitter-zuckerberg-lies-1234808808/ [Accessed 10 November 2024].
Financial Times, 2024. Musk, Thiel and the shadow of apartheid South Africa. Available at: https://www.ft.com/content/cfbfa1e8-d8f8-42b9-b74c-dae6cc6185a0 [Accessed 10 November 2024].
Truthout, 2024. Musk pledged $6 billion to solve world hunger, but gave it to his own foundation instead, Truthout. Available at: https://truthout.org/articles/musk-pledged-6b-to-solve-world-hunger-but-gave-it-to-his-own-foundation-instead/ [Accessed 10 November 2024].
Mamamia, 2023. Errol Musk started looking after his stepdaughter when she was four. Now they have two kids together. Available at: https://www.mamamia.com.au/errol-musk/ [Accessed 10 November 2024].
New Yorker, 2023. J.D. Vance and the Right’s call to have more babies, New Yorker. Available at: https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/j-d-vance-and-the-rights-call-to-have-more-babies [Accessed 10 November 2024].
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Manglende episoder?
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The saying goes that there's no such thing as a free lunch - if you are not paying, usually it is because you are the product. Every day we interact with platforms to read articles, share thoughts, upload our posts, make purchases, conduct research or otherwise just leisurely scroll. These platforms often have required billions of dollars of investment and many years of hard work by the brightest minds to be developed, yet we pay nothing to use them. If you have ever thought this is too good of a deal to be true - you are correct. "Free" apps and services exploit our personal data, often without us fully realising the consequences on our privacy, autonomy and decision-making.
Materials you might find helpful:
Thompson, S.A. & Warzel, C., 2019. How Your Phone Betrays Democracy. The New York Times, 21 December. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/12/21/opinion/location-data-democracy-protests.html [Accessed 3 November 2024].
Wylie, C., 2020. Mindfuck: Inside Cambridge Analytica’s Plot to Break the World. Paperback ed. London: Profile Books:
BBC News, 2023. How WhatsApp became the 'app for everything' in Brazil. BBC News, 17 August. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8j7nrppny2o [Accessed 3 November 2024].
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Few have been through as many public controversies as Kanye West. During the last ten years the public has had a front row seat to Kanye's erratic, impulsive, and emotionally unstable antics. Many of these have not only been deeply offensive to many people, but they have left in their wake a destruction of his personal and business relationships, an alienation of his fanbase, a loss of credibility and increasing isolation as many in his circle publicly distance themselves from him. What is often glossed over however, is that these antics are driven by Kanye's mental illness - namely bipolar disorder - and in this context it is clear the untold story is that of Kanye as a victim of his fame and wealth.
Send your thoughts and comments to [email protected].
Materials you might find helpful:
Huberman Lab (2002), The Science & Treatment of Bipolar Disorder, Spotify. Available at: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7MX5KoUpR3Ulo2OGDc8gCE [Accessed 25 October 2024]
F.D. Signifier (2021), The Tragic Fall of Kanye West (Pt1), YouTube. Available at: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wvgehVhF9D4&pp=ygUYa2FueWUgd2VzdCByaXNlIGFuZCBmYWxs [Accessed 25 October 2024].
F.D. Signifier (2021), The Tragic Fall of Kanye West (Pt2), YouTube. Available at: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=e7e5BFJa-Ug [Accessed 25 October 2024].
Daniel Rodrigues (2018), 2005 - Kanye West Wins Grammy Best Rap Album: The College Dropout (Speech), YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2-bjGkcaJI [Accessed 25 October 2024].
Petridis, A. (2022). Jeen-yuhs: A Kanye trilogy review – a heartwarming, sometimes heart-rending biopic. The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/feb/16/jeen-yuhs-a-kanye-trilogy-review-a-heartwarming-sometimes-heart-rending-biopic (Accessed: 25 October 2024).
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Age gap relationships have existed since the dawn of time. There are many appeals for both parties - often the younger partner is looking for financial provision and protection, and the older partner is looking to hold onto their youth for a little longer. Whilst they're not necessarily always inherently predatory - they often are. Sometimes the younger partner only comes to realise this years later, long after the damage has been done.
Send any questions and comments to [email protected] and they will addressed in a future episode.
Materials you might find helpful:
Vouloumanos, V. (2023), Women Who "Dated" Older Men As Teens Are Sharing How They Realized They Were Actually Predators, And It's Heartbreaking', BuzzFeed, 21 September. Available at: https://www.buzzfeed.com/victoriavouloumanos/teen-girls-date-older-men-predatory (Accessed: 14 October 2024).
Shapiro, L. (2023), The Age Gappers', The Cut, 27 September. Available at: https://www.thecut.com/article/age-gap-relationships-couples.html (Accessed: 14 October 2024).
iNews. (2023) 'Older men dating younger women isn't automatically predatory', iNews, 10 October. Available at: https://inews.co.uk/opinion/older-men-dating-younger-women-isnt-automatically-predatory-3267630 (Accessed: 14 October 2024).
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Heterosexuality as the standard, strict gender norms and negative LGBT societal messaging create in LGBT people feelings of shame, self-hatred and a deep desire to conform to the straight world - often at the expense of their own psychological well being. This episodes focuses on the symptoms of internalised homophobia and how to deal with it.
Send any questions and comments to [email protected] and they will addressed in a future episode.
Materials you might find helpful:
Williamson, I.R., 2000. Internalized homophobia and health issues affecting lesbians and gay men. Health Education Research, 15(1), pp.97-107. Available at: https://academic.oup.com/her/article/15/1/97/775710 [Accessed 9 Oct. 2024].
McGlotten, S., 2016. Can lesbians be misogynistic? The answer is yes — here’s why it happens. Bustle. Available at: https://www.bustle.com/articles/147623-can-lesbians-be-misogynistic-the-answer-is-yes-heres-why-it-happens [Accessed 9 Oct. 2024].
Stafford, A (2010). Uncompromising Positions: Reiterations of Misogyny Embedded in Lesbian and Feminist Communities' Framing of Lesbian Femme Identities. Core. Available at: https://core.ac.uk/download/322497442.pdf [Accessed 9 Oct. 2024].
Cooper, A., 2016. Get Your Internalized Misogyny Away from My Dildo Collection. The Link Newspaper, [online] Available at: https://thelinknewspaper.ca/article/get-your-internalized-misogyny-away-from-my-dildo-collection[Accessed 9 Oct. 2024].
Ryle, L., 2013. Butch Please: Butch with a Side of Misogyny. Autostraddle, [online] Available at: https://www.autostraddle.com/butch-please-butch-with-a-side-of-misogyny-174442/ [Accessed 11 Oct. 2024].
The Guardian. (2024) 'Why the Tavistock gender identity clinic was forced to shut – and what happens next', The Guardian, 31 March. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/mar/31/why-the-tavistock-gender-identity-clinic-was-forced-to-shut-and-what-happens-next (Accessed: 14 October 2024)
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Sex, power, and corruption are inextricably linked. Control over others becomes easier when their deepest secrets are at risk of exposure. P Diddy and Jeffrey Epstein are examples of men who used people's vices against them (often through extortion and blackmail), before finally becoming victims of these same vices. They are the tip of the iceberg. Sexual blackmail and extortion is deeply baked into the deepest recesses of government and power structures, and sex has always been leveraged by both victims and villains alike to gain control. The most enduring and powerful of these vices is sex - which moral leaders such as Martin Luther King and political leaders such as John F Kennedy equally fell prey to. There are important lessons to be learned about the nature of power, sex and our vices.
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While it's generally understood that high-end fashion brands market prestige and status, it’s less obvious how this same manipulation is mirrored in military recruitment, which primarily targets people from low-income backgrounds. Both these industries prey on people's insecurities and their need for self-worth, offering false promises of value and social mobility. By commodifying both goods and lives, luxury brands and the military create illusions of empowerment, when in reality, they profit from the sacrifices of the working poor and disadvantaged.
Send any questions and comments to [email protected] and they will addressed in a future episode.
Materials you might find helpful:
BBC. (2018, July 19). Burberry burns bags, clothes, and perfume worth millions. BBC. Retrieved April 11, 2024, from https://www.bbc.com/news/business-44885983
Ilaria, M. (2018) 'The Chinese workers who assemble designer bags in Tuscany', The New Yorker, 16 April. Available at: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/04/16/the-chinese-workers-who-assemble-designer-bags-in-tuscany(Accessed: 28 September 2024).
Workers World (2022) ‘How the war machine ‘recruits’ poor, oppressed youth, 20 December. Available at: https://www.workers.org/2022/12/68299/ (Accessed: 28 September 2024).
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Mass psychology is used to shape our beliefs, desires, and actions. Whilst we may be aware that the advertisement and public relations industries are specifically designed to manipulate our desires and behaviours - we sometimes don't realise that propaganda is endemic in our educational system, our politics and that we often don't know that we have been propagandised.
Send any questions and comments to [email protected] and they will addressed in a future episode.
Materials you might find helpful:
Achbar, M. and Wintonick, P. (dirs.), 1992. Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media. National Film Board of Canada.
Chomsky, N. and Herman, E.S., 1988. Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media. New York: Pantheon Books.
Lippmann, W., 1922. Public Opinion. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company.
64Facets, 2023. Iconic Diamond Marketing Campaigns. 64Facets Fine Jewelry. Available at: https://64facets.com/blogs/64facets-blog/diamond-marketing-campaigns [Accessed 22 September 2024].
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Imposter Syndrome is that nagging feeling that you don’t deserve your achievements—that you’re a fraud, only succeeding due to luck, charm, or being the "best of a bad bunch". For women, people of colour, and people from lower socio-economic backgrounds, this can be a natural consequence of working in hostile environments with deeply entrenched systemic biases. Either way, the net effect is feeling out of place, second-guessing yourself, and downplaying your contributions. This episode discusses how to overcome imposter syndrome.
Send any questions and comments to [email protected] and they will addressed in a future episode.
Materials you might find helpful:
Clance, Pauline & Imes, Suzanne, “The Imposter Phenomenon in High Achieving Women: Dynamics and Therapeutic Intervention”, https://www.paulineroseclance.com/pdf/ip_high_achieving_women.pdf
Tulshyan, Ruchika and Burey, Jodi-Ann, Stop Telling Women They Have Imposter Syndrome, Harvard Business Review:
https://hbr.org/2021/02/stop-telling-women-they-have-imposter-syndrome
Bravata, Dena M et al. “Prevalence, Predictors, and Treatment of Impostor Syndrome: a Systematic Review, Journal of general medicine, vol. 35,4 (2020): https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7174434/
Martins, Julia “Unmasking impostor syndrome: 15 ways to overcome it at work”, Asana: https://asana.com/resources/impostor-syndrome
Jamison, Leslie “Why Everyone Feels Like They’re Faking It”, The New Yorker:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/02/13/the-dubious-rise-of-impostor-syndrome
Nance-Nash, Sheryl, “Why imposter syndrome hits women and women of colour harder”:
https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200724-why-imposter-syndrome-hits-women-and-women-of-colour-harder
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The myth persists that the way to get the love or friendship you desire is by pouring into the person you care about - whether that be energy, emotions or financial resources. Nothing could be further from the truth - it is the giver that becomes entangled in the relationship the more they give, making it near impossible for them to walk away as they fall prey to sunk cost fallacy. Meanwhile, because of the law of diminishing returns, the recipient appreciates the giver less with each act of care and kindness that is given. The only way out for the over-giver in this dynamic is to find a way to reverse the roles.
Please send your thoughts to [email protected] and they will be addressed in a future episode.
Some materials you might find helpful:
Women Who Love Too Much by Robin Norwood
Generous Person, or Over-Giver? Always Gift-Giving? by Andrea M. Darcy, Harley Therapy: https://www.harleytherapy.co.uk/counselling/generous-person-or-over-giver.htm#:~:text=Over%2Dgiving%20tends%20to%20come,or%20with%20the%20other%20person.
The Wound That Causes You To Over Give by Amy Chan, Heart Hackers Club:
https://hearthackersclub.com/the-wound-that-causes-you-to-over-give/
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Jesus, the central figure of the Christian faith was over the course of centuries, white-washed from what he would have looked like - a Middle-Eastern, brown skinned, dark-haired and likely bearded man - to the white Jesus with light hair and light eyes that we know today. This transformation has not been by accident and its effects have not been without deep consequences on the psyche of all Christians and the material reality of people of colour.
Please send your thoughts to [email protected]
Episode notes:
Muhamad Ali - Why is Jesus white?, interview with Parkinson (1971): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eXdt1eGgCA
The Religion of White Supremacy in the United States by Eric A. Weed
The Mis-Education of the Negro by Dr. Carter G. Woodson
Who people believe rules in heaven influences their beliefs about who rules on Earth, Stanford scholars find, Stanford Report, by Melissa De Witte: https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2020/01/consequences-perceiving-god-white-man
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The occult is experiencing a resurgence - as it always does following periods of social, political and economic instability. People, feeling out of control and desperate for an order to the chaos and hope for the future turn to astrology, fortune tellers, mediums and a whole host of other 'alternative' spiritual practices to fill the void. Whilst on the surface these may seem harmless - that is not the case. We pay a price for their salve.
Please send your thoughts to [email protected].
SHOW NOTES:
Info on Barnum statements:
https://instruct.uwo.ca/psychology/023/pdfs/Barnum_bw6.pdf
Why Witchcraft Is on the Rise, The Atlantic by Bianca Bosker:
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/03/witchcraft-juliet-diaz/605518/
How TikTok Is Drawing Young People Into the Occult, Newsweek by By Pandora Dewan:
https://www.newsweek.com/newsweek-com-seance-social-media-tiktok-young-people-occult-witchcraft-1754927
Drawn to the occult: Spirituality is evolving, The Commonwealth Times:
https://commonwealthtimes.org/2018/10/10/drawn-to-the-occult-spirituality-is-evolving/
Generation Z Is Turning to the Occult for a Spiritual Path — Here’s Why, Church Leaders by Religion News Service:
https://churchleaders.com/news/395584-generation-z-is-turning-to-the-occult-for-a-spiritual-path.html
‘Revival of the occult’: French youth turn to tarot, astrology during Covid-19, France24 By:
Charlotte Wilkins:
https://www.france24.com/en/france/20210522-revival-of-the-occult-french-youth-turn-to-tarot-astrology-during-covid-19
Occult rises to mainstream in S. Korean media, The Chosun Daily by Baik Su-jin,Kim Seo-young:
https://www.chosun.com/english/kpop-culture-en/2024/07/18/RKHUAQBEVBGKTIPSX4BRHDANAI/
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Sexism is pervasive and infiltrates every aspect of our lives—from language and social norms to the structural infrastructure of our political and legal systems. The ugly truth is that all men are sexist - and that women are complicit in maintaining the sexist order in various ways.
Please send your thoughts to [email protected].
SHOW NOTES
Articles:
Gender study finds 90% of people are biased against women, BBC: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-51751915
Human Rights by Council of Europe: https://human-rights-channel.coe.int/stop-sexism-en.html
Misogyny runs deep: how to stand up to sexist language By Clemmy Manzo, Womankind Worldwide: https://www.womankind.org.uk/misogyny-runs-deep-how-to-stand-up-to-sexist-language/
Unconscious bias: most women believe sexism still exists but most men disagree by Margie Warrell, The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2016/sep/02/unconscious-bias-most-women-believe-sexism-still-exists-but-most-men-disagree
You're sexist. And so am I. by Alia E. Dastagir, USA Today: https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/03/23/everyone-is-sexist-internalized-sexism/99528476/
Nationwide strike by Indian doctors over Kolkata medic’s rape, murder, Al Jazeera:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/8/17/nationwide-strike-by-indian-doctors-over-kolkata-medics-rape-murder
Indian women lead night protests after doctor's rape and murder, BBC:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crmwj4z1xpko
Indian medics step up strike in protest at doctor’s rape and murder, The Guardian:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/16/indian-medics-strike-protest-doctor-rape-murder-kolkata
Books/papers:
Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture by Roxane Gay
The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
Why Sexist Language Matters Sherryl Kleinman
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Following the horrific events on the 29th of July 2024 in Southport where a 17-year-old boy stabbed and killed three girls– a wave of unprecedented xenophobic violence against Muslim people and other people of colour took place. So far, 800 rioters have been arrested and 350 charged. Amid the chao two things are clear – (1) the spread of misinformation (including by figures like Elon Musk, Tommy Robinson and Nigel Farage) played a central role in inciting the violence and (2) the rioters used this incident to further their agenda.
Please send your thoughts to [email protected].
Readings:
UK riots: five essential reads on what triggered a week of violence by Laura Hood
https://theconversation.com/uk-riots-five-essential-reads-on-what-triggered-a-week-of-violence-236536
The Take: How far will the UK riots go?, Al Jazeera:
https://www.aljazeera.com/podcasts/2024/8/7/the-take-how-far-will-the-uk-riots-go
Look back and see a British history of riots and racial progress. It isn’t pretty, but it is us by Robert Winder:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/aug/10/british-history-riots-racial-progress
Riots take British Asians back to 1970s and 1980s by Sima Kotecha
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckg2r3lxzedo
Britain is hoping its riots have peaked. But the far right is lingering, and more trouble could lie ahead by Rob Picheta
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/08/10/uk/uk-far-right-riots-tension-intl-gbr/index.html
UK riots: What happens now? Planned counter-protests mapped including Nigel Farage’s office by Albert Toth
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/uk-riots-planned-today-counter-protest-london-b2594351.html
Video doorbells, CCTV, facial recognition: how the police tracked UK rioters by James Tapper and Shanti Das:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/aug/10/video-doorbells-cctv-facial-recognition-even-masked-rioters-could-end-up-in-court
Tommy Robinson ‘could face jail’ over film screening at London protest by Christy Cooney https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/jul/27/eight-arrested-at-far-right-tommy-robinson-protest-in-central-london
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Bill Gates is a man with many personas. He is the boy wonder that co-founded Microsoft despite being a college dropout. As the head of Microsoft he destroyed the competition, but eventually had to answer to congress over Microsoft's antitrust and monopolistic practices. Like a chameleon, he reinvented himself as a the world’s most generous man until the late 2010s when his relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was exposed. This was just the tip of the iceberg. Whether global health, agricultural reform in African countries or educational reform in the USA - his seemingly good works all seem to belie his darker, self-serving agenda.
Share your thoughts and comments at [email protected].
References:
The Bill Gates Problem by Tim Schwab
It’s No “Mistake” That Bill Gates Was Palling Around With Jeffrey Epstein by Natalie Shure
https://jacobin.com/2021/08/bill-gates-jeffrey-epstein-mistake-cnn-interview
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Sonya Massey thought there was an intruder in her home and did what any person would do - she called the police for help. Shortly thereafter, after a benign and positive interaction in which Sonya was polite, sweet, had told them 'I love y'all' and thanked them for their service - Sean Grayson, one of the attending police officers, had shot her in the face and killed her while she crouched fearfully uttering 'I'm sorry' multiple times.
Listeners' discretion is advised for this episode.
Please send me your your thoughts and comments at [email protected].
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There is a great myth that is sold to young people that tells them that university education will be their guarantee to wealth and financial independence. Millions of graduates out there can attest that is a lie - they are broke despite having undergraduate (and sometimes even postgraduate) qualifications. Does that mean university is overrated?
I'd love to hear your thoughts and comments - please email [email protected] to let me know what you thought of the episode.
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The Drake vs Kendrick rap beef dominated the music industry news cycle for weeks, with fans on both sides egging on the beef for our entertainment. It is clear that Kendrick won this battle. Kendrick won by showcasing the fundamental ingredient that Drake lacks - authenticity.
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There's a conspiracy to make us fat - whether it is through predatory advertising, mass production of addictive junk food or through the intentional spread of misinformation - the food industry needs us to eat to excess. This episode is about how and why the keeps us overweight.
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