If I’m Really Honest

Hope for Humanity - Geoffrey West

Geoffrey West, physicist and former president of the Santa Fe Institute, joins Jamin Coller to explore scaling laws, sustainability, innovation, and the accelerating pace of modern civilization.
West explains why cities and economies speed up as they grow, why innovation repeatedly postpones collapse while making future crises arrive faster, and what a mathematical “singularity” actually means — as distinct from popular AI narratives. The discussion moves into politics, belief, religion, and why rapid belief change under Donald Trump gives West an unexpected, fragile optimism.
"Scale" by Geoffrey West: https://a.co/d/3NIRLO0
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Cognitive Science of Religion - Dr. Jonathan Jong

In this episode of If I’m Really Honest, Jamin Coller and cognitive psychologist Jonathan Lewis-Jong unpack belief—what it is, how it functions in the human mind, and why it persists across cultures. Jonathan explains how the science of religion treats belief as natural psychological processes that can be measured and studied without making claims about metaphysical truth. They discuss cognitive theories of religion, terror management, meaning-making, and the implications for spiritual life and interpersonal dialogue.
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Dark Side of Meditation - Willoughby Britton

Neuroscientist and trauma researcher Dr. Willoughby Britton joins Jamin Coller to discuss the hidden risks of meditation, spiritual bypassing, and the psychology of religious and wellness communities. Drawing on her groundbreaking Varieties of Contemplative Experience study, Britton explains why meditation sometimes causes panic, dissociation, insomnia, and psychosis — and why communities often blame the victims instead of addressing the harm.
• Cheetah House – https://www.cheetahhouse.org
• Meditation Challenges Study – https://www.meditationchallenges.org
• Psychedelic Challenges Study – https://www.psychedelicchallenges.org
• Willoughby Britton (Brown University) – https://www.brown.edu/academics/public-health/faculty/willoughby-britton
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Conversation with a Psychopath (Part 2) - M. E. Thomas

In this episode of If I’m Really Honest, Jamin Coller sits down with M.E. (Jamie) Thomas, a lawyer, educator, musician, and author of Confessions of a Sociopath: A Life Spent Hiding in Plain Sight, to discuss the psychology of psychopathy, what it really means to live without empathy as commonly understood, and how identity and morality are shaped by experience rather than instinct. Jamie shares her journey from academia and law into a life of self-reflection, community engagement, and honest conversations about traits most people fear rather than understand.
 
• M.E. Thomas – Official YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@m.e.thomas7901
• Sociopath World (M.E. Thomas website): https://www.sociopathworld.com
• Confessions of a Sociopath: A Life Spent Hiding in Plain Sight https://a.co/d/dMCOmWe
• https://IfImReallyHonest.com
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Conversation with a Psychopath - M. E. Thomas (Part 1)

Lawyer, musician, and author of Confessions of a Sociopath, M.E. Thomas joins me to talk about psychopathy without fear, caricature, or moral panic. This is not a conversation about monsters. It’s a conversation about meaning, identity, empathy, boundaries, stories we tell ourselves, and what happens when a sense of self is missing—or too rigid. Topics include: Psychopathy vs sociopathy (and why the words matter less than people think)
Whether empathy defines humanity Moral gray areas and emotional triggers Sense of self, memory, and meaning Buddhism, psychopathy, and why extremes break humans Relationships between psychopaths and empaths Therapy, identity scaffolding, and building a self Why rules exist—and when they stop protecting people What society gets wrong about psychopaths and other stigmatized identities
Guest Links:
Book (Confessions of a Sociopath): https://a.co/d/9NGRTZf
Website: https://www.sociopathworld.com
 
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Death and Honesty - Victor M. Sweeney

Victor M. Sweeney joins me for an unfiltered, humane, and surprisingly tender conversation about death, grief, funeral culture, and why modern Americans are so uncomfortable with mortality. Victor explains what actually happens behind the scenes at funerals, why “predatory funeral homes” are mostly a myth, how small towns grieve differently than cities, and what it means to care for both the living and the dead without flinching. This conversation moves from practical realities (graves, vaults, embalming, checklists) to philosophy, presence, and what death teaches us about how to live.
Guest Resources:
Book: https://www.amazon.com/Now-Departing-Small-Town-Mortician-Moments/dp/1668062119
Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/death-and-with-victor-m-sweeney/id1834669994
Website: https://deathandpodcast.com/
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Dr. Aaron Adair - The Misunderstood World of Modern Physics

Dr. Aaron Adair joins If I’m Really Honest to break down quantum mechanics, infinity, cosmology, CERN optics, why the universe expands faster than light in some regions, how misconceptions spread, and why intuition is a terrible roadmap for understanding reality. This is a deep dive into what physics actually says - stripped of mysticism, marketing, and wishful thinking.
https://draaronadair.com/
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Kristen Ulmer - Turning Fear Into Flow

In this episode, Jamin sits down with Kristen Ulmer, former extreme skier and author of The Art of Fear, to unpack why most of us are taught the wrong relationship with fear—and how that broken relationship fuels anxiety, sleeplessness, and emotional overwhelm. Kristen explains why resisting fear (“letting it go,” calming it down, distracting from it) actually creates anxiety, and why intimacy with fear leads to clarity, flow, and high performance.
Kristen Ulmer – https://www.kristenulmer.com
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Dr. James McGaugh - Memory and the Brain’s Hidden Systems

Dr. James L. McGaugh - a founder of modern memory science - joins me for an hour of deep exploration into how memory actually works. We talk about autobiographical memory, the puzzle of retrieval, why forgetting is both a feature and a mercy, and what makes Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory so different from anything else in neuroscience.
He explains why PTSD persists, why emotion strengthens memory chemically, why HSAM breaks expected rules, and what neuroscientists still don’t know about how the brain pulls information into consciousness. We finish with stories about his mentors, the most surprising obstacles from early experiments, and his lifelong love of jazz.
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Andrea Hiott - The Paradox of Love and Being Human

This episode dives into the paradox of being human - how we care, how we deny care, how we form meaning, and how love requires both vulnerability and courage. We discuss the embodied nature of mind (E-cognition), the tension between self-protection and connection, and the possibility of relating without collapsing into defensiveness or certainty.
https://www.andreahiott.com/
https://www.youtube.com/@waymaking23
https://communityphilosophy.substack.com/
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