Hello and welcome to your Tuesday edition of The Nerve.

I am your host, Maureen Callahan, and we have a very special episode for you today.

This may be one of my favorite episodes ever in The Nerves Young Life.

In the run-up to our Halloween

extravaganza this Friday which is going to be so fun but also smart and

interesting and dark and provocative but in the best way in today's episode in

honor of the spirit of the week, we are talking to one of the

nerves favorites, none other than Professor Sam Vaknan.

But this isn't a discussion about earthly dilemmas.

Instead, we asked Sam if he would be up for talking about the human impulse, the psychology behind the need we all have to explain the nature of our very existence, the miracle of it really, through the lens of human psychology, specifically, what do we mean when we talk about the paranormal

and the supernatural? Why have human beings since recorded history searched for spirits and worlds

beyond our comprehension? What are the limits of science in providing answers and who among our greatest

minds were surprising believers? Sam's answers may take you back a bit. They certainly did me in the

best way. Now, this segment was planned to be about 20 minutes, but because Sam is so

fascinating and so well read, and because our conversation only got deeper and richer, we kept

going and we decided to devote today's full nerve to this subject and this interview with Sam Vaknan.

Settle in because you, like all of us here at Nerve Central, it's an amazing, amazing discussion.

So let's go. Today's show is sponsored by Cowboy Colostrum.

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