PODOCANA: Sober Curious with Jason Gots

 

It's like a book club but instead of discussing books, PODOCANA discusses specific podcast episodes. Last night, PODOCANA discussed the Sober Curious podcast episode featuring an interview with my amazing author friend, Jason Gots. It was thrilling to welcome a whole new cohort into PODOCANA—namely many of my former UCI students who I am so proud of and am grateful to have in my life.

Crisynda, one of the regular PODOCANA members couldn't be there because she was feeling under the weather but sent me some thoughts after she listened to the podcast which I read to the group to start off the discussion:

I think one of the points of the podcast episode that struck me hard was in fact how Jason made a conscious choice to be with Mary without judgement ... not as a parental figure or a sponsor figure but simply as an accepting figure who could meet Mary where she was—not to enable her per se, but to be with her without prejudice. It got me thinking about how I think I could do that more easily with certain relationships (like a friend or a sibling) and less easily with other relationships (like a child).

Other things we pondered as a group include:

• whether time to dedicate to one's mindfulness is tied to the amount of privilege we have
• the importance of recognizing the differing cup sizes we each hold in terms of our ability to receive what another person gives to us
• whether resisting easy answers is inherently valuable or whether sometimes it's ok not to resist them just because they seem easy
• that it's ok to not do anything about changing a feeling that we are experiencing even though popular narratives might convince us that certain feelings require change
• how everybody lives with bias (even those of us who think we don't)
• the importance of recognizing context

We also shared what each of us love to drink (both alcoholic and non-alcoholic). The responses were fun to hear! My favorite non-alcoholic drink is topo chico with coconut juice. My favorite alcoholic drink as of late is an Irish whiskey (Jameson). Neat.

Here is my full book review of Humanity is Trying by Jason Gots.

If you live near Santa Ana and would like to join in on a future PODOCANA and love discussions that feel like you're in an idea lab instead of an echo chamber, send me a note.