Hi there, I'm Jason Gatz and you're listening to Think Again, a Big Think podcast.

When I was a teenager and music was still on cassettes, a mixtape was an act of love.

The selection and sequence of songs were a kind of message to the listener that left plenty of space for their own thoughts and feelings.

Back in June, Think Again hit its fourth year and its 200th show, and it feels like the right time to take a step back and revisit some of the places the conversation has gone this past year.

I'm intuitive rather than strategic about choosing guests for the show and books to read.

When it works, it's an art rather than a science. And as with any art, themes emerge and recur

and combine in different guises. In this episode, I'm putting together some of my favorite moments

of 2019, strung together with minimal interruption from me. So kick back and enjoy this

eclectic collection and feel free to write me through my website, jasongots.com, and let me know

your thoughts, feelings, insights, or send me a mixtape of your own. Joseph Goldstein is a legendary

American Buddhist teacher whose Dharma talks and guided meditations I've been a fan of for over a decade.

He's also the author of the wonderful book, Mindfulness, a Practical Guide to Awakening.

I've worked a lot with fear. In my own practice, I know it really well because it was the main difficulty motion I had to deal with

and over years.

So one of the great lessons was that it's okay to feel fear.

It's unpleasant.

It's not like we would choose to feel it, but if it's there, it's okay to feel it even if it's unpleasant.

So this is one of the deepest aspects of our conditioning. We like what's pleasant and we don't like what's unpleasant.

I think I've got it with anger. I get angry a lot and I like refuse to admit that I actually ever get angry.

But you know, you can get confused if you then think that, well, then the thing is to express

the anger and just be, you know.

Yeah, so this is an important point.

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