Insights from recent episode analysis
Audience Interest
Podcast Focus
Publishing Consistency
Platform Reach
Insights are generated by CastFox AI using publicly available data, episode content, and proprietary models.
Most discussed topics
Brands & references
Est. Listeners
Insufficient chart data. Estimates will improve as the show charts.
- Per-Episode Audience
Est. listeners per new episode within ~30 days
N/A🎙 Daily cadence·329 episodes·Last published yesterday - Monthly Reach
Unique listeners across all episodes (30 days)
N/A - Active Followers
Loyal subscribers who consistently listen
N/A
Market Insights
Platform Distribution
Reach across major podcast platforms, updated hourly
Total Followers
—
Total Plays
—
Total Reviews
—
* Data sourced directly from platform APIs and aggregated hourly across all major podcast directories.
On the show
From 11 epsHost
Recent guests
No guests detected in recent episodes.
Recent episodes
Joan Didion’s devastating vision of America
Jun 25, 2026
12m 43s
The Long-Distance Life, Part II: The Psychology
Jun 6, 2026
12m 38s
The Long-Distance Life, Part I: The Ironman
May 30, 2026
7m 04s
What if you're not anxious or depressed, but just bored?
May 23, 2026
10m 10s
What ski mountaineering teaches you about life, beauty, risk and happiness
May 16, 2026
9m 17s
Social Links & Contact
Official channels & resources
Official Website
Login
RSS Feed
Login
| Date | Episode | Topics | Guests | Brands | Places | Keywords | Sponsor | Length | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6/25/26 |  Joan Didion’s devastating vision of America | Get full access to Life Examined at lifeexamined.substack.com/subscribe | 12m 43s | ||||||
| 6/6/26 |  The Long-Distance Life, Part II: The Psychology✨ | psychologylong-distance relationships+3 | — | — | — | long-distance lifepsychology+3 | — | 12m 38s | |
| 5/30/26 |  The Long-Distance Life, Part I: The Ironman✨ | Ironmanendurance sports+3 | — | Life Examined | — | Ironmantriathlon+4 | — | 7m 04s | |
| 5/23/26 |  What if you're not anxious or depressed, but just bored?✨ | boredommental health+3 | — | — | — | boredommental health+3 | — | 10m 10s | |
| 5/16/26 |  What ski mountaineering teaches you about life, beauty, risk and happiness✨ | ski mountaineeringlife lessons+3 | — | — | — | ski mountaineeringlife lessons+3 | — | 9m 17s | |
| 5/2/26 |  What does the city of death teach us about the nature of grief?✨ | griefdeath+4 | — | Life Examined | — | griefdeath+5 | — | 5m 45s | |
| 4/25/26 |  The paradox of love: it begins with you✨ | loveself-care+3 | — | — | — | loveself-love+3 | — | 6m 29s | |
| 4/18/26 |  What I’ll miss about the single life✨ | single liferelationships+2 | — | — | — | single liferelationships+3 | — | 6m 12s | |
| 4/11/26 |  Is “Wild Geese” by Mary Oliver the best grief poem ever written?✨ | griefpoetry+3 | — | Wild Geese | — | griefpoem+5 | — | 5m 55s | |
| 4/4/26 |  Some dreamers of the Caribbean dream✨ | Caribbeandreams+2 | — | — | — | Caribbeandreams+3 | — | 8m 53s | |
Want analysis for the episodes below?Free for Pro Submit a request, we'll have your selected episodes analyzed within an hour. Free, at no cost to you, for Pro users. | |||||||||
| 3/28/26 |  "Moby-Dick" remains a psychedelic enigma✨ | literaturepsychedelics+3 | — | Moby-Dick | — | Moby-Dickpsychedelic+3 | — | 11m 10s | |
| 3/21/26 |  The Japanese Art of Happiness✨ | happinessJapanese culture+3 | — | Life Examined | — | happinessJapan+3 | — | 9m 51s | |
| 3/16/26 |  Is "Lonesome Dove" an answer to modern male loneliness? | Get full access to Life Examined at lifeexamined.substack.com/subscribe | 8m 11s | ||||||
| 3/13/26 |  In praise of quiet kindness, when the world is asking us to be loud | Get full access to Life Examined at lifeexamined.substack.com/subscribe | 6m 52s | ||||||
| 3/4/26 |  The Two Quotes I Think of — and Lean on — Every Day | What Viktor Frankl and Seneca say about meaning and mental health. An essay from LifeExamined.substack.com. Please subscribe! It's only takes a minute. Get full access to Life Examined at lifeexamined.substack.com/subscribe | 9m 07s | ||||||
| 3/2/26 |  Stay in touch with Life Examined over on Substack! | Hey everyone! It's Jonathan Bastian. Just popping in to tell you that I've been staying busy with a new weekly newsletter on Substack. I'm also spending time going through our 5yrs of archives to find hidden gems, unpublished interviews, and content that I think will be valuable to your life. It's so easy to sign up: LifeExamined.Substack.com. Just enter your email! Hope to see you over there - JB Get full access to Life Examined at lifeexamined.substack.com/subscribe | 1m 29s | ||||||
| 7/10/25 |  Robert Macfarlane: "Is a River Alive?" | Robert Macfarlane of Cambridge University shares his extraordinary journey writing and researching his latest book “Is a River Alive?” and explains why a river can be viewed very much as a metaphor for life, always flowing, twisting, changing and adapting while at the same time providing sustenance for man and nature alike. Get full access to Life Examined at lifeexamined.substack.com/subscribe | 48m 34s | ||||||
| 6/10/25 |  When to medicate the mind with Laura Delano | Laura Delano is the author of “UNSHRUNK: A Story of Psychiatric Treatment Resistance." As you’ll hear, Laura Delano speaks from first hand experience - diagnosed as a teenager with bipolar disorder, Delano shares her own struggles with mental illness, the psychiatric and pharmaceutical industry and the toll that treatment and medication took on her. Get full access to Life Examined at lifeexamined.substack.com/subscribe | 1h 04m 00s | ||||||
| 5/27/25 |  Yale happiness guru Laurie Santos on the power of time off and modern parenting traps | Laurie Santos talks about the power of a sabbatical, burn out, and her new online course titled: “The Science of Well-Being for Parents” —a direct result of discovering just how much pressure, stress and anxiety parents are under these days. Get full access to Life Examined at lifeexamined.substack.com/subscribe | 50m 54s | ||||||
| 5/15/25 |  Ocean Vuong: "The Emperor of Gladness" | Ocean Vuong is a Vietnamese American poet, essayist, novelist and professor of modern poetry and poetics at New York University. Some of you may already be familiar with his best-selling debut novel, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, which received a MacArthur “Genius” grant and was nominated for the National Book Award for Fiction in 2019. Vuong’s award-winning poetry collections include, Time Is a Mother (2022) and Night Sky with Exit Wounds (2016). His latest novel is “The Emperor of Gladness. A Novel.” Get full access to Life Examined at lifeexamined.substack.com/subscribe | 59m 15s | ||||||
| 4/26/25 |  “He showed us what simplicity could offer:” Pico Iyer and Paul Elie remember Pope Francis | Pico Iyer, essayist and author of numerous books including “The Half Known Life:In Search of Paradise ” and most recently “Aflame: Learning from Silence,” reflects on the death of Pope Francis and highlights the extraordinary impact Pope Francis’s life had, despite Iyer’s non-Christian faith. Pope Francis’s humility, simplicity, and actions, Iyer says, which exemplified his teachings had and continue to have a great impacted over Iyer’s spiritual life. Paul Elie, religion scholar with the Berkley Center at Georgetown University, and author of “The Last Supper: Art, Faith, Sex and Controversy in the 1980s” shares his first hand impressions of meeting Pope Francis and particularly how humble and unpretentious the Pope was. Elie says some of Pope Francis’s early experiences growing up in Argentina shaped his more progressive world views and reflects on the legacy that Pope Francis leaves behind on the world and on the Catholic Church. Guests:Pico Iyer Travel writer and author of Aflame: Learning from Silence, The Art of Stillness : Adventures in Going Nowhere, and, Autumn Light: Season of Fire and Farewells, “The Half Known Life:In Search of Paradise ” Paul Elie Senior Fellow with the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown University, and author of “The Last Supper: Art, Faith, Sex and Controversy in the 1980s” May 27, 2025 Get full access to Life Examined at lifeexamined.substack.com/subscribe | 51m 57s | ||||||
| 4/23/25 |  Midweek Reset: Life: less itinerary - more flow | This week, economist and author of “Wild Problems: A Guide to the Decisions That Define Us,” Russ Roberts offers a different perspective and approach to tackling some of life’s biggest challenges and decisions.Revisit the complete episode of Life Examined with Russ Roberts which originally aired August 27th, 2022 Get full access to Life Examined at lifeexamined.substack.com/subscribe | 3m 30s | ||||||
| 4/19/25 |  Brainwashing; the history and complexity of coercive persuasion | Rebecca Lemov, professor of the history of science at Harvard University and author of “The Instability of Truth: Brainwashing, Mind Control, and Hyper-persuasion,” talks about the origins of brainwashing. The term ‘brainwashing,’ was first used to describe what happeded to American POW's during the Cold War in Korea. After enduring terrible conditions and indoctrination by their Chinese captors, 21 American prisoners of war refused to return home, believing that life in China and under communism would be better. Lemov explains that our psyches can be manipulated and it is that the same malleability of the mind which helps us to grow and evolve also makes us extremely vulnerable to coercisve persuasion. Lemov also reflects on some of the more subtle 'soft brainwashing' techniques that we’re exposed to today, techniques that are primarily fed to us through our screens. Guest:Rebecca Lemov Professor of the history of science at Harvard University and author of “The Instability of Truth: Brainwashing, Mind Control, and Hyper-persuasion.” Get full access to Life Examined at lifeexamined.substack.com/subscribe | 51m 52s | ||||||
| 4/16/25 |  Midweek Reset: The Myths of Meritocracy | This week, Michael Sandel, professor of political philosophy at Harvard University and author of “The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good?” addresses the myth of meritocracy - the idea that, if all chances in life were made equal, then people would advance based on merit and succeed as far as their talent and effort would take them. Less acknowledged, Sandel says, is the role of luck; family, teachers, neighbors, time and place in success. Shifting from a merit-based perspective and appreciating the contingency in life, fosters a much deeper understanding and humility towards those who are less fortunate. Get full access to Life Examined at lifeexamined.substack.com/subscribe | 3m 45s | ||||||
| 4/13/25 |  Fred Luskin: ‘forgiveness is being at peace with your life.’ | Fred Luskin, director of the Stanford University Forgiveness Project, reflects on the nature of forgiveness and the value of letting go of grievances. Get full access to Life Examined at lifeexamined.substack.com/subscribe | 51m 59s | ||||||
Showing 25 of 336
Pitch Fit is a Pro feature
See how bookable this show is for guests, which brands already advertise, the per-episode ad value, and the best-fit guest and sponsor profile. The numbers are blurred on the free plan.
How readily this show books outside guests like you.
How proven this show is for host-read sponsorships.
For Guests
ProFor Advertisers
ProUpgrade to Pro to unlock guest cadence, sponsor categories, fit scores, and per-episode ad value for this show.