“Loneliness does not come from having no people around you, but from being unable to communicate the things that seem important to you.”
That Carl Jung quote anchors this entire conversation.

In a time where the Surgeon General has declared loneliness a public health epidemic, we break down how we got here — not because we lack people, but because we’ve lost depth. We talk about why you can be in a room full of friends and still feel alone, how technology replaced real presence, and how shallow interactions slowly erode meaning without us noticing.

Ryan and MJ explore:

• Why our lives are 100 miles wide and one inch deep

• How phones became the Trojan Horse that stole our attention

• Why we skip from video to video but can’t sit through a song

• The compounding path toward disconnection

• Why connection requires two people willing to put the phone down

• How to rebuild depth through rituals, presence, and intention

• The counterculture that might save us — and how you can join it

This episode is a direct challenge to the superficiality shaping modern life. It’s a reminder that connection doesn’t happen by accident — it happens by attention.

If you’ve been feeling more overstimulated yet more empty, more occupied yet more alone, this conversation will help you understand why, and what to do next.

In this powerful episode, we sit down with Lorna Brunell, a lifelong mentor, performer, author, and community builder who has spent 30 years helping others find their voice. This conversation is different. Lorna opens up about her year of surviving colorectal cancer, navigating an unexpected pulmonary embolism, and rebuilding her identity through rituals of gratitude, purpose, and community.

She shares how she kept her mindset intact through chemo, surgery, and isolation, how she continued to lift others even while fighting for her own life, and why purpose is the most stabilizing force we have when everything becomes chaotic. We explore her daily rituals, her spiritual grounding, how she pulled energy from creativity when she couldn’t pull it from food or movement, and why meaning-making isn’t optional – it’s necessary.

This is an episode about resilience, identity, and the real work of staying alive, connected, and intentional. Lorna’s story is a testament to what purpose can do.

“Life can only be understood backwards, but must be lived forwards.” Using Kierkegaard’s line as our anchor, we unpack the healthy tension between reflection and action. We look at why hindsight clarifies meaning, how overthinking can paralyze progress, and how journaling helps you close the loop on a day so you can move on. We introduce a simple “zoom” lens for attention - from cosmic perspective to in-the-moment flow - and show when to zoom in, when to zoom out, and how to set aims that generate momentum. You’ll learn practical ways to balance presence with review, avoid getting trapped in narrative, and build purpose you can live toward right now.