Ep 933 - Pluribus Reflections: In Defense of Carol, Part 1

Infants on Thrones

Glenn Ostlund

Personal Journals, Society & Culture, Philosophy

4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 17 December 2025

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Glenn Ostlund's Psychology Today Profile

In this binaural audio meditation, I offer reflections on Pluribus—not as claims about authorial intent, but as a personal response to what the story evokes in me. I don’t presume to know the intentions of Vince Gilligan, the creative team, or what Rhea Seehorn is aiming to convey. Listening to the show’s official podcast, you can hear the care, curiosity, and shared joy behind their process—a kind of pluribus, a many-as-one collaboration that I deeply respect. My reflections exist alongside that work, not over it.

Using Carol Sterka’s resistance to the Joining as a case study, this episode explores perception as a “controlled hallucination,” shaped by memory, identity, and threat. The soundscape itself is intentionally open-ended: binaural beats move gently between theta and delta in a Fibonacci-inspired rhythm, forming a kaleidoscope of sound rather than a lesson.

This podcast also gives me space to explore ideas I often hold quietly in therapy—ways of seeing people, trauma, and meaning that belong to reflection rather than intervention. I create these episodes for my own regulation and practice, trusting each listener will take from it exactly what their nervous system needs.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to Infants on Thrones. I'm Glenn Osland, and just real quick, I started this podcast
0:06.1	back in 2012 with several friends who were all in the process of leaving the Mormon
0:10.6	Church. Back then, I didn't fully understand the mental, emotional, and physiological impact
0:17.4	of all this faith crisis stuff. But the more I learned about mental health and the human
0:22.7	nervous system, the more I began to understand how deep it actually goes. And it made me want to do more
0:28.4	than just podcast. I became a certified life coach in 2019 and a licensed therapist in 2025.
0:35.3	I'm currently building my caseload and I'm accepting new clients, so if you or someone
0:40.2	you know is seeking either coaching or therapy services, please reach out. I offer a free 15-minute
0:46.4	consultation. I'll include a link to my Psychology Today profile on the website and in the show notes.
0:52.6	So thanks again for listening,
0:54.6	and now here's your episode.
1:00.9	All right.
1:04.5	Welcome to Pluribus Reflections.
1:08.7	Are you ready?
1:10.6	My name is Glenn Osland, and this is a reflective meditation
1:14.6	inspired by the television series, Pluribus. Let's begin. You may begin to notice how the sound of words as you sit here can sometimes be allowing your body
1:40.3	less important to them the sound of the words.
1:52.0	The spaces. Between them.
2:03.6	In the background, you'll hear binaural audio, designed to gently oscillate between delta and theta brainway states.
2:33.3	One, one, two, three, moving through a Fibonacci inspired sequence.
2:40.0	You don't need to understand the science for it to work.
2:47.0	You just need a pair of earbuds or headphones.
	...

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