We live in a culture that prizes youth and tells us that, once our wild 20s are over, we're basically on the slow train to decay and death. But modern science tells us otherwise, as we set out to explore in this episode.

Given the cultural narrative of decline and fall, do we even have a sense of what the stages of life are beyond child–teenager–worker–pensioner–dead?

New research suggests that there are seven distinct 'primes of life', each with their own strengths, which call into question the narrative of inescapable decay. We look at what we gain as well as what we lose as our years increase – but not without questioning how the scientists came to these conclusions!

The studies prompt us to ask what we should prioritise at different stages of our life – when's the time to go all-out, to study something deeply, or to be hitting the gym on the regular?

The story of our physical and psychological development is complex and sometimes paradoxical. But beyond the science of it all, how can (and how should) we conceptualise all this so we can say we've led a Good Life?

We dig into:

• the different strengths we gain as we grow older
• the power of myth to make sense of and value our different primes
• what we actually lose and gain
• how Jungian Psychology can reframe our dismissive, mocking attitude to having a 'midlife crisis'

Jon riffs on what Carl Jung called the 'Individuation Process', the ancient concepts of the Daimon and the Genius, and we ask how these theories can help us to grow and become who we truly are.

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The scientist whose creativity was unleashed after having a stroke is Dr Jill Bolte Taylor. Check out her TED talk here.

Jon’s been getting disturbing dispatches from Andrea.

Is the economy about to crash like never before? Was 2008’s Big Short just a dress rehearsal for an incoming apocalypse that will shred the stock market and rewrite the future of society?

More importantly, should we all be investing in GameStop?

Well, perhaps.

Andrea’s been going incredibly deep into this very confusing world and he’s back to fill the rest of us in. Jon’s not convinced the end is nigh, but there’s definitely something disturbing going on in the financial heart of our ‘civilisation’.

Whatever happens next, we need to arm ourselves with better information and think about the kind of society we’d want to build in the prospective ruins of the current world order.

Andrea returns for a live, YouTube-streamed episode as we finally get back in the recording saddle!

And we're back with anger. Or at least, a certain kind of anger: the channelled variety which Andrea says is essential to making a true connection with and impact on the outside world.

We've decided to shake things up a bit, so we're putting aside our coverage of 'The Laws of Human Nature' and, starting with this episode, will be focusing on issues that fire us up and which need to be talked about.

What better place to start than a global conspiracy that continues to put the blame and responsibility for global warming and natural destruction on the shoulders of individuals rather than the true culprits... No, this isn't a 5G conspiracy – it's much worse than that...