Hello and welcome to the Mark Grove podcast.

As you know, a core value of mine, and it likely is a value of yours because you're here

is connection and community and knowing just the biological importance of togetherness,

of relating, of this human journey.

And what are we doing here if we're not doing it together?

If we're not sort of being lost in the mysteries of life and in the world and the way the universe works and laughing

at it and also that there's this biological part of us that needs to connect and is terrified

of losing connection and wants to be here and simultaneously is wondering what the hell we're

doing here and to be stuck in this paradox and doing it

alone is next to impossible. That's why since the beginning of the pandemic, if you've been

listening to me that long, you know that I have been very against lockdowns.

I have said from the beginning that the harms of lockdowns will far exceed the harms of COVID.

And there's just something innately within them that is anti-human, anti-life.

And I have constantly been on, you know, I wasn't saying those things with

no desire to learn about what my position was. I came to that position, one, because of just how

I felt intuitively. And two, based on consuming all sides of the argument, I can't wait for you to hear today's

podcast episode because I'm like, hey, I can say it, but I don't have any professional

credential behind what I'm saying.

I can gather and assimilate information and share with you what my position is on a subject,

and you can say that's not good,

or I don't agree with you, or whatever it is. And that's totally fine, because I respect

other people's opinions, of course. And I was like, I got to get someone who, this is their job.

...