Episode 32

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Published on:

26th Nov 2021

Brené Brown: Matt and Chris courageously embrace their vulnerability

Brené Brown is an American professor, lecturer, author, storyteller researcher, and podcast host. She's made it her life's work to help people rise strong, brave the wilderness, and dare to lead - all through overcoming shame and embracing their own vulnerability.

So naturally Chris and Matt - being the emotionally unavailable, culturally stunted and cynical gits that they are - bemoan all this positivity and do their level best to try and drag her down to their bitter and petty level.

Can you get the secret to self-actualisation in a TED talk? Or is it more a sequence of inspirational quote memes strung together? Or are these things one and the same?

Perhaps Professor Brown is honing in on universal psychological truths. Or alternatively, she might be an unwitting expression of American hyper-individualism and self-obsessed culture.

Well, you're gonna get the Irish and Australian take on that.

Thanksgiving is obviously the perfect time for the hosts to tell their US listeners that American culture sucks and that kids shouldn't follow their dreams but prepare to be cogs in the machine.

No, no, they don't do that. Well... not entirely.

Well, what do they say? What is there take? You'll have to tune in to find out!

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About the Podcast

Decoding the Gurus
A psychologist and an anthropologist try to make sense of the world's greatest self-declared Gurus.
An exiled Northern Irish anthropologist and a hitchhiking Australian psychologist take a close look at the contemporary crop of 'secular gurus', iconoclasts, and other exiles from the mainstream, offering their own brands of unique takes and special insights.

Leveraging two of the most diverse accents in modern podcasting, Chris and Matt dig deep into the claims, peek behind the psychological curtains, and try to figure out once and for all... What's it all About?

Join us, as we try to puzzle our way through and talk some smart-sounding smack about the intellectual giants of our age, from Jordan Peterson to Robin DiAngelo. Are they revolutionary thinkers or just grifters with delusions of grandeur?

Join us and let's find out!
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About your hosts

Christopher Kavanagh

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A Northern Irish cognitive anthropologist who occasionally moonlights as a social psychologist. Chris has long standing interests in the psychology of conspiracy theorists and pseudoscience. His academic research focuses on the Cognitive Science of Religion and ritual psychology. He lives happily in Japan with his family.

Matthew Browne

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An Australian psychologist and numbers-guy. He does research on all kinds of stuff, but particularly enjoys looking into why people believe the things they do: religion, conspiracy theories, alternative medicine and stuff. He's into social media in the same way people slow down for car accidents.