Dr. Mayim Bialik Feb 6, 2026 Mayim Bialik’s Breakdown Watch episodes & bonus content ad-free on https://bialikbreakdown.substack.com What if the things you do every single day are quietly making you sick… and you don’t even realize it? Harvard psychologist Dr. Ellen Langer, author of The Mindful Body, reveals the shocking ways our minds shape our health, aging, stress levels, and even how long we live—often without us noticing. In this mind-expanding of Mayim Bialik’s Breakdown, Dr. Langer explains why self-agency and making your own decisions can literally extend your lifespan, how expectations and beliefs shape disease progression, and why the real meaning of mindfulness has almost nothing to do with meditation. Dr. Langer breaks down:
Small, everyday habits that are secretly harming your health
Why stress is the #1 cause of illness (and not for the reason you think)
Whether healing timelines are based on real time or perceived time
Surprising benefits of positive thinking, even with terminal illness
Danger of labels, including words like “try” and “remission”
Why spontaneous remissions exist & why they’re so hard to study
Simple ways to become more mindful right now, even if you’ve never meditated once in your life
Can we train ourselves to not need eyeglasses?
The real power of the placebo effect
Can the mind cure the common cold?
Psychological treatments for chronic illness
Who is more likely to get sick & why
How color influences our biology more than we think
Why spirituality requires presence and mindfulness
How to reframe negative circumstances into positive ones, and the health benefits of doing so
How her mother’s battle with cancer inspired her groundbreaking research
This episode will change how you think about healing, stress, aging, illness, and the true power of your mind over your body! You may never see health, sickness, or “reality” the same way again. — 00:00 – Intro 01:54 – The Power of Perception in Health 07:20 – Mind-Body Unity Theory Explained 13:36 – Mindfulness: Beyond Meditation 34:47 – Mindfulness in Everyday Life 38:37 – Importance of Questioning Absolutes and Embracing Possibilities 40:12 – Do We Even Need Eyeglasses? 42:37 – Symptom Variability & Chronic Illness 45:32 – Power of Language and Perception 51:22 – Why Placebo Works 57:53 – Dangers of Labels & Diagnoses
Mark Orwig is examined by Dr. Maria Wei during a follow-up visit at UCSF in San Francisco. Orwig participated in a potentially groundbreaking trial for a novel mRNA cancer vaccine that is reporting exciting outcomes for preventing skin cancer recurrences.Heather Diehl/For the S.F. Chronicle
Mark Orwig, 73, grew up in an era before parents slathered their children with sunscreen and enjoyed a career playing and coaching tennis, spending hours in the sun every day of his adult life.
It wasn’t a surprise, then, when the Moraga resident was diagnosed with a melanoma on his face in 2023. On the surface it was small, about half the size of an eraser head, but potentially deadly. To remove it and make sure they got all of the affected area, surgeons had to carve out a 4-inch chunk of his cheek. And melanomas are notoriously tricky — he still had to contend with the risk that the cancer would recur.
But UCSF, where he was being cared for, had several clinical trials running for melanoma, including one for a cutting-edge treatment involving an mRNA vaccine that Orwig joined. His oncologist, Dr. Adil Daud, was the lead investigator for that trial at UCSF, which was the first site in the United States to test the cancer vaccine technology, developed by pharmaceutical giants Merck and Moderna.
For the first time, a vaccine that harnesses a patient’s own immune system to fight cancer appears to be working. Doctors say the therapy should be applicable to other types of cancer, with clinical trials already underway.
“This could be an entirely new strategy, both for melanoma but really other cancers as well,” said Dr. Allison Betof, director of the melanoma program at Stanford, who was not involved in the vaccine trial. “There’s a lot of excitement around having a new platform, a totally new approach to treating cancer.”
Daud cautioned that he can’t say for sure whether Orwig benefited from the vaccine. Orwig may have received a placebo, and even if he got the vaccine, it may not have helped him; Daud said the data he’s seen so far is too vague to determine who benefited and how much. And other melanoma treatments that Orwig received have improved dramatically in the time Daud has been an oncologist, even before the mRNA vaccine.
Twenty years ago, he said, life expectancy for someone with Orwig’s diagnosis would have been nine months. Today it’s six years, owing mostly to the development of immunotherapy drugs. Orwig is now three years past his diagnosis, and his most recent scans were all clear.
Skin cancers are the most common type of cancer in the United States. Melanomas make up only about 1% of all skin cancers, but they’re the deadliest. About 100,000 cases are diagnosed in the United States and about 8,500 deaths occur each year, according to the American Cancer Society.
The new therapy uses the same technology that allowed for the rapid production of the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines, which were invented to be used against cancer in the first place. Messenger RNA carries genetic instructions that can train the immune system to recognize and attack a specific target. Scientists have been attempting for decades to make a vaccine that would stop cancer, but have been met with repeated failures to the point that doctors such as Daud were beginning to think it wasn’t possible.
Now, he and others believe that the missing link was the personalization that mRNA vaccines allow. Because the vaccines can be made quickly — within roughly six weeks — they can be developed for patients to better fight their specific cancer. “Technologically it wasn’t possible to do this” until recently, Daud said.
“We’ve been working with cancer vaccines for years and years, and even when there was promising data it fell apart,” Daud said. “This trial required a leap of faith, because a lot of people, including me, thought vaccines would never work. But it was also a leap of technology.”
The latest trial involved about 1,000 patients, all of whom had undergone surgery to remove a melanoma. All participants received the immunotherapy drug Keytruda, and some also received the vaccine, called intismeran. The double-blinded trial compared the Keytruda-only group against those who also got the vaccine.
For patients receiving the vaccine, tumor sequencing data was run through a computer program that identified key attack points. A vaccine was then developed for that patient to teach his or her immune system to fight those targets. Patients received up to nine doses of vaccine over several months.
Merck and Moderna last week announced only broad results from their trial and expect to release more details at a meeting in October. But the top-line results are exciting, oncologists said: Patients who received the vaccine had lower risk of recurrence and spread of their cancer than patients who received Keytruda alone.
“The big caveat is none of us have seen the data yet,” Betof said. But scientists saw promising results from earlier, smaller studies, and “hopefully this is a confirmation” of those results, she said.
Side effects from the vaccine could be intense but did not appear to be any more dangerous than immunotherapy alone, according to Daud and the companies.
The therapy was tough at times, Orwig said. After each dose he suffered terrible headaches, dizziness, chills and “pretty severe lethargy.” At one point in the winter, he was so fed up being tired and inside that he would set himself up on a lounge chair, no matter how cold, and wrap himself in blankets just for the fresh air.
Daud took that as a positive sign, though, Orwig said. “A placebo is not going to have that kind of reaction, so there’s a good chance you’re not getting the placebo” vaccine, Daud told him.
Orwig said he tries not to dwell on the possibility of a recurrence, and knowing that he did everything in his power to fight the cancer —perhaps most importantly, joining a clinical trial — helps keep the anxiety away.
“I don’t worry about things. I prioritize things. And so with the melanoma it was my priority and I did everything I possibly could, and now it’s out of my hands,” he said. “And I think I gave myself the best chance.”
Erin Allday covers gender and sexuality for the Chronicle. Previously, she was a longtime health writer with a focus on covering infectious diseases, including HIV/AIDS and the COVID pandemic. A Southern California native, Erin has lived in the Bay Area since graduating UC Berkeley. She joined the Chronicle in 2006.
Five years ago this month, the fall of Kabul ended two decades of U.S.-led engagement in Afghanistan, returning the Taliban to power. Since then, the Taliban has built a system that bars women from public life — denying them more than a sixth-grade education and restricting movement without a male guardian. Yet Afghans are not giving up on a freer future; by phone, in underground classrooms, and from exile, journalists, educators, women’s rights advocates, and civic leaders are keeping a different Afghanistan alive.
The following Journal of Democracy essays explain the stunning collapse of Kabul, where the United States and international community went wrong, and how Afghans continue to fight for their freedom.
The Future the Taliban Cannot Control Five years of repressive Taliban rule has not extinguished Afghans’ determination to shape a freer future. Mariam Safi and Damon Wilson
The Collapse of Afghanistan The Afghan republic’s destruction was sewn into its founding. The international community’s missteps are more responsible for its failure than the country’s supposedly endemic corruption. Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili
Local Politics and Democratic State-Building Future state-building missions must learn from the failure of past U.S. interventions: It is critical to work with local power-brokers rather than relying on a centralized state. Roger B. Myerson
Drowning Democracy Afghanistan taught us that a firehose of unaccountable aid can destroy a country’s democratic future. In Ukraine, we are making the same mistake all over again. Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili and Nataliia Shapoval
The Journal of Democracy is published quarterly in January, April, July, and October. Subscribe now for full access to our archives.
I have been a clinician specializing in men’s mental health for more than fifty years. Professionally, the work began for me on November 21,1969 when I held my newborn son in my arms and made a vow that I would be a different kind of father than my father was able to be for me and to do everything I could to help men live fully healthy lives.
Personally, my work began much earlier. In 1949, when I was five years old, my forty-three-year-old father took an overdose of sleeping pills. He had become increasingly depressed when he couldn’t support his family doing the work he loved. Fortunately, he didn’t die but was committed to Camarillo State Mental Hospital, forty miles north of our home in Los Angeles.
I didn’t understand what happened to my father, but my uncle agreed to visit him at the hospital and my mother wanted me to go with him.
“Your father needs you,”
she told me. I didn’t understand why he was in a hospital or what I could do to help, but being a dutiful son I went with my uncle every Sunday for a year even though I was becoming increasingly frightened and confused seeing my father locked up with “crazy” people. I wrote about my experiences, my father’s deteriorating mental health, and his eventual escape in my book, My Distant Dad: Healing the Family Father Wound.
I grew up, went to college at U.C. Santa Barbara, then in 1965 was awarded full-tuition fellowship to attend medical school at U.C. San Francisco. I wanted to become a psychiatrist and help men like my father but found medical school to be too restrictive in their approach to treating patients.
I transferred to U.C. Berkeley’s School of Social Welfare and later returned to school and earned my PhD in International Health. My dissertation research was published as a book, Male vs Female Depression: Why Men Act Out and Women Act In. I have had a long and successful career thus far helping men and their families to live fully, love deeply, and make a positive difference in the world.
The field has changed a great deal since I first began my work in 1969. I was excited to learn about a new book by a colleague, Andrew P. Smiler, Clinical Work With Men: Understanding Masculinity in Psychotherapy. I recently had the opportunity to interview Dr. Smiler for my MenAlive podcast.
Clinical Work With Men is the kind of book I wish were available when my father needed help, but glad it is available now. Drawing on extensive research and clinical experience, Smiler introduces seven common masculinity types — from the breadwinner and the protector to the angry man and the player — each with its own strengths, struggles, and therapeutic applications. Through vivid clinical vignettes and actionable strategies, therapists will learn to:
Recognize the core values and identify themes that drive male clients’ behavior;
Build rapport by aligning therapeutic approaches with clients’ self-understandings;
Address emotional development, social connection, and intersectional challenges and
Apply practical interventions tailored to diverse masculinities.
Dr. Smiler is an award-winning author, therapist, and psychologist. His therapeutic practice focuses on helping teenage boys, adult men, and their families live happier, healthier, and more productive lives. He is a past president of the American Psychological Association Division 51, the Society for the Psychology of Men and Masculinities. He is also the author of several other books including Is Masculinity Toxic? A Primer for the 21st Century.
The Emerging Field of Gender-Specific Medicine
Marianne J. Legato, MD, is an internationally renowned academic, physician, author and lecturer. She pioneered the new field of gender-specific medicine. She is a Professor Emerita of Clinical Medicine at Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons and an Adjunct Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins Medical School. Dr. Legato is also the founder and director of the Foundation for Gender-Specific Medicine, which she created in 2006.
In her 2002 book, Eve’s Rib: The New Science of Gender-Specific Medicine and How It Can Save Our Life, she says,
“Until now, we’ve acted as though men and women are essentially identical except for the differences in reproductive function. In fact, information we’ve been gathering over the past ten years tells us that this is anything but true, and that everywhere we look, the two sexes are startlingly and unexpectedly different not only in their normal function but in the ways they experience illness.”
Dr. Legato is not the only clinician and researcher to take the risk to tackle sex and gender issues. There are many, including David C. Page, MD. Dr. Page is professor of biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and director of the Whitehead Institute, where he has a laboratory devoted to the study of the Y-chromosome.
“It has been said that our genomes are 99.9% identical from one person to the next,” says Dr. Page. “It turns out that this assertion is correct as long as the two individuals being compared are both men. It’s also correct if the two individuals being compared are both women. However, if you compare the genome of a man with the genome of a woman, you’ll find that they are only 98.5% identical. In other words, the genetic difference between a man and a woman are 15 times greater than the genetic difference between two men or between two women.”
In looking ahead to the future of gender-specific healthcare, Dr. Paige is hopeful.
“Here’s what I think. We need to build a better tool kit for researchers that is XX and XY informed rather than our current gender-neutral stance. We need a tool kit that recognizes the fundamental difference on a cellular, organ, system, and person level between XY and XX. I believe that if we do this, we will arrive at a fundamentally new paradigm for understanding and treating human disease.”
One of the most innovative and effective programs in this emerging field is Man Therapy, led by Joe Conrad.
“Man Therapy was launched in 2010,” says Conrad. “We realized early on that if we waited until men were in crisis, we would be too late. From the beginning, our team set three goals for Man Therapy:
1) Break through the stigma surrounding mental health by making it approachable.
2) Encourage help-seeking behavior.
3) Reduce suicidal ideation.
“Through research, men told us to just give them the information they needed to fix themselves, so we built a website that provides a broad range of information, resources, and tools to do just that. It is extremely rewarding to know that we are accomplishing our goal of positively impacting and changing men’s lives.”
Another important program is the American Institute for Boys and Men (AIBM) founded by Richard V. Reeves, author of the book Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What to Do About It. One of the chapters in the book, and a focus of the work of AIBM, is titled “Men Can Heal: Getting Men into Jobs of the Future.”
Reeves notes there has been great success getting more women into STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) professions. Now we need to get more men into HEAL (Health, Education, Administration, and Literacy) professions. Given the challenges facing men today, there is a great need to get more men trained to work in the field of men’s mental, emotional, and relational health.
Dr. Smiler Offers Help For Men and Their Families Now
Following our interview Dr. Smiler offering some concluding remarks about what he hopes other therapists will learn when they read the book.
“I want to expand how you think about men and masculinity and help you move away from cultural stereotypes so you can meet your male clients where they are and recognize the positive and negative components of their masculinity.”
Dr. Smiler offers therapy and coaching services as well as workshops. He offers practical problem-solving for men and those who support them.
“Whether you’re a guy looking to improve your own life or you’re a concerned parent, teacher, or coach — creation starts here,” says Dr. Smiler.
You can learn more about Dr. Andrew P. Smiler and his work here:
Tenebrous is an adjective that means dark, shadowy, or hard to see through. It can describe a physical place lacking light, like a gloomy cave, or a hidden, confusing situation. [1, 2, 3]
Meaning and Uses
Physical Darkness: Rooms, alleys, or forests filled with deep shadows.
Figurative Obscurity: Plans, secrets, or ideas that are hard to understand or make sense of.
Gloomy Mood: A heavy, sad, or frightening feeling. [1, 2, 4, 5]
Word Origin
Latin Roots: Comes from tenebrae, which means darkness.
Related Art Style: Connected to tenebrism, a painting style using harsh contrasts between light and dark. [1]
“[Ontology] understood will bring true individuality where the other kind of individuality is a veneer. In other words there’s a difference between individuality and personality.
“Personality can be achieved by hair styling and dressing, and all sorts of class instruction about how to behave to be an outstanding personality. But there is a thing that can be learned and experienced through Ontology that makes individuality shine through the personality and give it great distinction.”
Recorded June 28, 1970 Approximately 60:00 minutes
The Prosperos School of Ontology invites you to attend a zoom talk with Heather C. Williams, High Watch Mentor and Ontological Artist
Why is our CURIOSITY so important today?
I’m sure you agree that a human being must be free (mentally, emotionally and politically) in order to stand quietly and question or be curious and wonder about what is going on in the world today. A free-thinking person will not be easily conditioned to do this or that – while a non-curious person prefers to simply follow the orders of a group or leader (corporate, government or social media, etc.).
I’m sure you know that we all are conditioned by the ancient survival dynamic of “Fight or Flight”. We are conditioned to react in anger in order to fight a problem – or – we react in fear and run away from the problem. Curiosity raises us to a higher level of consciousness when we ask: Hey, what is this? Why must I do this? Who am I?
You may be one of the curious people today who seek freedom from the old patterns of control, from old fear-based conditioning. Do you yearn to connect with the Wholeness of your Innate, True Self? If so – you may be interested in exploring The Prosperos Classes! The Prosperos School of Ontology was founded in 1956 for the purpose of making Spiritual Truth an effective force for ordered freedom and common good. Remember that a democracy is a system of government where the citizens hold the power. Prosperos classes help you to express your true Power.
The Prosperos offers two tools to help you use your problems as doorways opening to your Innate, Spiritual Self.
Tool #1: TranslationR: This is a tool where you use your intellect to go beyond your intellect. We do not heal, alter or change anything in the world around us. Instead we translate what appears to be a problem back to principle behind it. Come! Liberate yourself from your separate ego identity and release the changeless, formless Principle of your True Identity as Consciousness! Translation Class: October 24 & 25, 2026.
Tool #2: Releasing the Hidden SplendourR – This is a tool where you work with a personal memory of you feeling angry, fearful, being hurt, insulted, injured, etc.). You use your emotions (your feelings) to draw out and express your feelings and to GIVE-UP the old pattern FOR a new understanding! You will study biblical stories of Moses, Joseph, Ruth & Naomi and Job. These people suffered enormous challenges and they turned within, listened to God and awakened to a whole new understanding! Releasing the Hidden Splendour Class: September 26 & 27, 2026.
Heather has used these tools for over 50 years and is very grateful to share them with you! It is time NOW for you to turn within, open up to the deeper Truth, practice forgiveness, protect yourself from life’s storms, free yourself from ego and to BE ALL THAT YOU CAN BE!
Dr. Mayim Bialik Jul 14, 2026 Mayim Bialik’s Breakdown Watch episodes & bonus content ad-free on https://bialikbreakdown.substack.com/ Dr. Diana Walsh Pasulka — professor of religious studies, author of The Others: UFOs, AI, and the Secret Forces Guiding Human Destiny — is here to answer one of the most controversial and fascinating questions of our time: what if many of humanity’s oldest spiritual encounters weren’t interpreted correctly at all? Dr. Pasulka breaks down:
Shocking similarities between alien abductions & purgatory that first pulled her into UAP research
Whether historical Catholic supernatural experiences would be interpreted today as UFO encounters
Why many researchers believe we need to radically rethink the concept of “aliens”
Physiology of UAP encounters and how experiencers may access altered states or different parts of the brain
Carl Jung’s theory that UFOs could emerge from the unconscious mind
Why belief in nonhuman intelligence is rapidly increasing, and why it may function as a modern religion
Reports throughout Catholic history describing encounters with nonhuman entities
Whether aerospace engineers and scientists are receiving “downloads” or ideas from nonhuman intelligence
Recent deaths and disappearances of scientists connected to nuclear and aerospace programs (Are they connected to UAP research?)
Why proof of nonhuman intelligence may NOT destroy religious belief
Why some people believe AI could be the antichrist, while others think resisting AI is the true danger
Whether governments are in a position to confirm historical religious events
Psychedelics, altered states, and historical encounters with nonhuman intelligence
Why certain people appear far more open to supernatural experiences than others
Hidden role sci-fi plays as a framework for understanding modern UFO phenomena
Real function of religion and how humanity uses belief systems to explain what science still can’t
Measurable physical & neurological benefits of prayer
Whether humanity is heading toward a religious revival, or if religion has become too politicized to recover
This episode of Mayim Bialik’s Breakdown explores the intersection of UFOs, religion, consciousness, AI, mysticism, Catholicism, neuroscience, psychedelics, government secrecy, and the future of human belief itself. If you’re interested in UAP disclosure, nonhuman intelligence, ancient religions, consciousness research, alien encounters, spiritual experiences, or the future of AI, this conversation will challenge everything you think you know! — 00:00 – Intro 03:53 – Purpose & Function of Religion 10:25 – Limits of Religion 15:42 – Religion Beyond Materialism 17:38 – From Skeptic To UFO Research 20:20 – Visiting a New Mexico UAP Crash Site 24:23 – Angels, Saints, &UFO Parallels 36:35 – Who is More Open to the Supernatural? 43:20 – Does the Vatican have Evidence of UAPs? 45:14 – Catholic Views on Nonhuman Intelligence 52:54 – What Happens When Religion Gets Political? 56:05 – Similarities between Alien Abductions & Purgatory 59:04 – How Culture Shapes Encounters 1:01:32 Sci-Fi as New Mythos 1:10:34 Disclosure & Plato’s Cave 1:15:21 Accessing NHI through Psychedelics? 1:29:30 – Are Recent Disappearances Tied to UAP Research? 1:39:36 – AI Antichrist Debate 1:46:23 Faith & Disclosure
New Thinking Allowed with Jeffrey Mishlove Aug 23, 2026 New Thinking Allowed Audio Podcast Tony Ærcyus Christie is a mystic, spiritual teacher, and Messenger of Oneness. based in Cork, Ireland. He has been working with labyrinths for almost twenty years, and is the creator of Labyrinth Wisdom Cards. He is also author of Labyrinth: Your Path to Self-Discovery. His newest book is Death – You Gotta Love It: Choosing Love over Fear in Life’s Greatest Transition. He is based in Cork, Ireland. His website is https://www.tonymchristie.com/ Tony explores death not as an ending but as a transition of consciousness, drawing on near-death experiences, reincarnation, life reviews, and the practice of choosing love over fear. He discusses gratitude as a path beyond the fear of death, Irish traditions of honoring the departed, spiritual guides, and accounts of loved ones welcoming people at life’s final threshold. Christie reveals how the ancient labyrinth serves as a symbol of transformation, helping people navigate both life and death as interconnected journeys of awakening. 00:00:00 Introduction 00:03:25 Fear of death 00:09:42 Choosing experiences 00:16:24 Preparing for death 00:22:41 Mastery over fear 00:28:13 Welcoming loved ones 00:34:56 Labyrinth wisdom 00:41:01 Sacred symbol 00:48:32 Living consciously 00:56:16 Conclusion New Thinking Allowed host, Jeffrey Mishlove, PhD, is author of The Roots of Consciousness, Psi Development Systems, and The PK Man. Between 1986 and 2002 he hosted and co-produced the original Thinking Allowed public television series. He is the recipient of the only doctoral diploma in “parapsychology” ever awarded by an accredited university (University of California, Berkeley, 1980). He is also the Grand Prize winner of the 2021 Bigelow Institute essay competition regarding the best evidence for survival of human consciousness after permanent bodily death. He is Co-Director of Parapsychology Education at the California Institute for Human Science. (Recorded on Monday, July 13, 2026)
Marianne Williamson Aug 23, 2026 An Introduction to the Fifty Miracle Principles Recorded Live Sunday, August 23, 2026 There are objective, discernible laws of inner experience just as there are objective, discernible laws of the outer world. While most of us know enough about how the material world operates to navigate it effectively, we’re usually far less aware of the power of our own minds. In this powerful hour, Marianne introduces the 50 Miracle Principles that are the beginning of A Course in Miracles. There is only one Truth with a capital T, and A Course in Miracles is only one expression of it. But if it’s for you, you know it. And if it’s time for you to study it, your life will never be the same. You’ll also learn how to go deeper with Marianne daily. Get the details here: https://marianne.com/acim/
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