Cass and Dr. Bob talk with Brynda Quinn, a local Psychologist here in middle Tennessee. We met at the Nashville Sunday Assembly where she spoke on the same Sunday that Bob and Cass spoke. She doesn’t have a strong religious back story, but Christianity doesn’t have a corner on causing shame. Brynda’s story involves a chaotic dysfunctional family, a stint in Saudi Arabia, and her personal pursuit of perfection and the toll that takes on the human experience. This episode is our nod to the benefits of psychology. We play an excerpt from a TED talk given by a Psychologist who has greatly influenced Brynda: Kristin Neff. Neff is an associate professor in the University of Texas at Austin's department of educational psychology. She created the Self-compassion Scales. She has been credited with conducting the first academic studies into self-compassion.
Brynda is a big proponent of Sunday Assembly, the atheist “church” started by Sanderson Jones and Pippa Evans in 2013 in London. Wikipedia describes it as a gathering mostly for non-religious people who want a similar communal experience to a religious church, though religious people are also welcome.
We taped this talk on Nov. 14th, 2015. Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn and most podcast platforms.  If you’re feeling grateful for our podcast, Patreon.com is like a per episode tip jar for our work.
Credits: "Towering Mountain of Ignorance" intro by Hank Green https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3v3S82TuxU Intro bumper "Never Know" by Jack Johnson All other music is by Cass Midgley