On Living

Leanh Nguyen, Ph.D.

What does it mean to be human? What do we make of this life? How do we hurt, and heal, one another? What does it take to love? What does it cost to hate? How do we stay fully alive to our humanity? How do we find the means to behold beauty and kindness? How do we live fully and authentically? Through this series of intimate, thought-provoking conversations, you will have a chance to reflect on questions about survival, fulfillment, connection, living and dying well. We encounter a deep place of questioning and, ultimately, awaken toward the powerful questions and ambitions that lay unbidden in our daily existence. Dr. Nguyen brings 25 years of engagement with trauma survivors, refugees of war and persecution, immigrants from all over the world, and patients from all walks of life. As with her work, this show is an opportunity to explore the meaning of being alive and to support people in the ambition toward a life fully lived. read less
Society & CultureSociety & Culture
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On living and being human: The case about psychotherapy
Jan 24 2019
On living and being human: The case about psychotherapy
In this final episode on Voice America, Dr. Nguyen opens up the question about what her profession offers toward the struggle to be human.

Episodes

On living and being human: The case about psychotherapy
Jan 24 2019
On living and being human: The case about psychotherapy
In this final episode on Voice America, Dr. Nguyen opens up the question about what her profession offers toward the struggle to be human.
How do we love each other: The case for curiosity
Jan 17 2019
How do we love each other: The case for curiosity
Dr. Nguyen continues to make her case for human connection by questioning the forces behind curiosity, Friendship, and psychotherapy.
How we de-humanize each other
Jan 10 2019
How we de-humanize each other
In continuing to make her case for kindness and tenderness, Dr. Nguyen examines the forces that prevent our recognition of each other's humanity and corrupt our sense of connection to each other.
What makes us human: The case for tenderness
Jan 3 2019
What makes us human: The case for tenderness
Dr. Nguyen gives a retrospective of the series. In her review of what has been gleaned from her conversations with guests, the host highlights the basic fact of the human condition and speaks of the current breakdown in mutual recognition and connection in human intercourse. This episode circles back to her debut hour and makes an impassioned argument for kindness and tenderness.
Fighting against trafficking: Retrieving the human.
Dec 27 2018
Fighting against trafficking: Retrieving the human.
In this last interview of a guest for the show, the host features a Vietnam-based foundation that is devoted to the empowerment of women and youth via the fight against human trafficking. Dr. Nguyen’s conversation with the Director of Pacific Links Foundation exposes the historical, socio-economic and human conditions in Pacific Asia that makes trafficking a lucrative business. They also discuss the strategies to restore dignity and power to victims of trafficking.
Training for music or for life
Dec 20 2018
Training for music or for life
In this special, intimate episode Dr. Nguyen is in conversation with a celebrated concert pianist about her work. The host interviews her fellow Vietnamese about her life experiences and insights as a musical prodigy, an immigrant, and a teacher. Her guest will also share her own insights into her favorite composers. The conversation seeks to tease out the parallels in her musical training and her training for life.
Living as Art
Dec 13 2018
Living as Art
In this episode, Dr. Nguyen is in conversation with the Executive and Artistic Director of Carnegie Hall, about his view on Art and Life. Through this interview about his mission at Carnegie Hall, Sir Clive Gillinson speaks with Dr. Nguyen about his view on the value of the arts, the meaning of happiness, and the parallels between the making of an artist and successful living.
Making Art and Selling Art
Dec 6 2018
Making Art and Selling Art
The host is in conversation with two senior staff about the value of Art in our lives Specifically, she interviews the Chief Marketing Officer on the creative aspect of her job in making music accessible to the general public, and the Assistant Director of the Early Childhood program on the rewards and challenges of facilitating the creative impulse in young children and their families.
Looking at the other
Nov 29 2018
Looking at the other
Dr. Nguyen interviews a psychoanalyst-cum-painter who devoted many years to painting portraits of homeless people. As her guest reports on the life stories of these marginalized, forgotten individuals, the host probes into his own process of being with them. In particular, she asks about the act of looking at another human being --what it requires of him and what it brings to him in terms of understanding theirs and his own humanity.
The arts in repairing young lives
Nov 15 2018
The arts in repairing young lives
Dr. Nguyen interviews a fellow psychologist about his work with troubled youth. The conversation explores the role of the creative arts in helping repair the emotional damage wreaked on adolescents that come from a history of childhood deprivation, racism, poverty, and abuse. The host and her guest also reflect on how the arts function as a resource in the project of staying connected as humans.
Mediating divorce: Supporting connection and kindness.
Nov 8 2018
Mediating divorce: Supporting connection and kindness.
This episode explores what breaks down in the sense of self and of connection when people go through a divorce, and what resources we can call on to remain in kindness and trust. Dr. Nguyen interviews a divorce mediator who has worked with couples in the belief that conflict can be a tremendous opportunity for growth and transformation. Their conversation touches on the nature of fear and hate, as well as the hope that moves at the center of divorce. The host and guest discuss the element in their work that aims to support human connection.
The place of money
Nov 1 2018
The place of money
Dr. Nguyen interviews her guest, a financial planner and former hedge-fund research analyst, about the role of money in living. The conversation explores how our value systems, purpose, and emotional conflicts play out in our use of money.
In Guantanamo: Survival instinct and resilience.
Oct 25 2018
In Guantanamo: Survival instinct and resilience.
Dr. Nguyen continues the conversation with Pardiss Kebriaei about her work with the detainees of Guantanamo Bay. Specifically, in part 2, Pardiss Kebriaei describes how these men survive comments on what she sees as the psychic deformities that are incurred by US policies regarding national security and counter-terrorism. She also reflects on how the connection that she formed with these men over the years of her advocacy on their behalf.
The wounding of 9/11: The men of Guantanamo
Oct 18 2018
The wounding of 9/11: The men of Guantanamo
Continuing with the effort to explore how the wounded lets the light enter, the episode features a conversation with an attorney whose work is devoted to defending the constitutional rights of people against governmental abuse in the context of national security. In particular, the host and her guest speak about the men who were/are held Guantanamo Bay, as a result of America's campaign against terrorism following the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center. The discussion centers on what has been stripped of their humanity, how these men manage to hold on to their humanity in the face of ongoing dehumanization, and how their attorneys connect with these men.
From child to person: how we raise a human being
Oct 11 2018
From child to person: how we raise a human being
Dr. Nguyen interviews a fellow psychologist who specializes in treating children and families on issues of traumatic loss. The conversation explores the process of becoming a person and the resources and priorities as well obstacles that are currently at play in helping our children toward being fully human.
The work of caring for others
Oct 4 2018
The work of caring for others
The host interviews a fellow Vietnamese immigrant about her work as a doctor, a human rights activist, and a politician. The guest is Dr. Mai-Khan Tran who ran for Congress in the wake of the election of Donald Trump. She will speak with Leanh Nguyen about the motivation and purpose in her work as a physician and an activist. The conversation revolves around the link between caring for children and caring for the world, the coherence between protecting human lives as a doctor and a politician.
What it takes to give birth
Sep 27 2018
What it takes to give birth
A doula speaks with the host about what we need to protect and cultivate during the birthing process. Dr. Nguyen and her guest talk about how the de-humanizing forces of medical technology and racism affect infant mortality, but also how lives are saved by the process of connecting with another human being and with oneself.
Feminism, abortion rights, and the meaning of personhood
Sep 20 2018
Feminism, abortion rights, and the meaning of personhood
The guest is a psychotherapist who identifies her work with being a psychoanalyst and a feminist. Dr. Nguyen speaks with Jane Hassinger about her work with abortion providers in Africa and Asia. The conversation will explore notions of personhood across cultures and the values and conceptions of a good human life.
Faith and being human.
Sep 13 2018
Faith and being human.
In this special episode, the host interviews Imam Khalid Latif on his work as a university chaplain and a leader in multi-faith initiatives. The conversation explores the meaning of faith and its role in the project of living. The host and her guest also discuss the challenges and resources that our contemporary society has in the effort to stay human.
A psychoanalyst in China
Sep 6 2018
A psychoanalyst in China
A conversation with a psychoanalyst in her 80s whose most recent project is to export psychoanalysis to China is an opportunity for the host to explore and compare notions of happiness, good living, an personhood in the East versus the West. Dr. Nguyen also asks her guest to speak of her own personal process of finding her purpose and engaging with Life.