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Education

Bewildered

by Martha Beck and Rowan Mangan
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Latest episodes

  • When Hard Work Works

    October 21, 2026 · 1 hr 10 min

    Most of us would probably agree: We wish to work less, but not get paid less. Is that countercultural, or just common sense—or both? On this episode of Bewildered, we’re looking at the distinction between working hard for the culture and…

  • Blessed Are the Wigglers

    October 7, 2026 · 57 min

    In the face of the unprecedented complexity of today’s world, how do we navigate our days? On this episode of Bewildered, we explore why five-year plans and rigid schedules no longer work, and how to trust the unexpected pockets of beauty…

  • Are We There Yet?

    September 23, 2026 · 56 min

    We’re all chasing a destination—that big promotion, that perfect relationship, that hundred million dollars—convinced that once we arrive there, life will finally stop life-ing and everything will fall into place. This time on Bewildered…

  • Hadestown and the Mythology of Work

    September 9, 2026 · 59 min

    This time on Bewildered, we’re doing something kind of interesting… Using the brilliant Broadway musical Hadestown by Anaïs Mitchell, we explore how we feel about work, money, “the man,” patriarchy, capitalism, and the grind that feels…

  • Why is This Always Happening to Me?

    August 26, 2026 · 59 min

    Trying to figure out why something always happens to you? In this episode of Bewildered, we’re talking about recognizing patterns that repeat in our lives, what causes them, and how they feed the culture (and the culture feeds them). By…

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  • Playing Without Performing

    August 12, 2026 · 53 min

    Do you ever feel like there are invisible people in your head criticizing your every move, even when you’re by yourself? We’ve found that a lot of people have this experience, us included. The good news is we don’t have to be stuck with…

  • Enriching Your Enclosure

    July 29, 2026 · 1 hr 7 min

    We all need more hobbies…and we’re not joking. In this episode of Bewildered, we dig into why the culture dismisses hobbies, pushing them to the margins, when really they can be radical forms of rebellion. We talk about how to “enrich your…

  • Afraid to Thaw

    July 15, 2026 · 55 min

    This time on Bewildered, we’re talking about the human tendency to brace against good things happening—to freeze in place, even in the middle of a summer day. The culture teaches us that if we let go of our pessimism and caution for a…

  • Following Your Inner Pull

    July 1, 2026 · 1 hr 0 min

    Have you ever kept pushing toward something that keeps pushing back? We’ve all been there. In this episode of Bewildered, we’re talking about the “push” and the “pull” and what it means to “jump into the river.” Many of us spend our lives…

  • How to Open a Closed Mind

    June 17, 2026 · 1 hr 22 min

    For this episode of Bewildered, we’re bringing back something we haven’t done in ages—the BeWild Files! This time we’re answering an excellent question from listener Jaison about whether true discernment is possible when our amygdalas are…

  • The Good Faith Footprint

    June 3, 2026 · 56 min

    On this episode of Bewildered, what starts as Ro's confession about late-night online shopping soon spirals into a story about our panicked late-night rescue mission for a box of creatures that weren't what we thought they were. In telling…

  • You Can't Waste Time

    May 20, 2026 · 52 min

    Have you ever mastered something...and then felt the urge to throw it all away and start fresh? In this episode of Bewildered, we explore the rhythm of growth and why change is not failure—it’s our true nature. We talk about the sunk cost…

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About the show

What if we stopped listening to the controlling voice of the culture around us, and instead learned to reconnect with our own true nature?  Sometimes we aren’t even sure why we feel so bewildered… and discontented… and even downright miserable. Often it’s because we have let the forces of society replace our own instinctive knowledge of what is right for us.  Now, it’s time for us to find that voice again—before it’s too late. For Martha and Rowan, Job One is to live according to our deepest truths, making the commitment to feeling good even when it means looking weird. We believe that this is how we will reinvent our world—from the inside out— to create a society that’s kinder, more equitable, and more ecologically sustainable than the one we see around us right now.  This is the vision that we laugh and stumble and chat and feel our way towards here on this podcast.  Did we mention LAUGH? We want no part of personal and global transformation if it isn’t fun! So if you struggle to find a place where people who are as idealistic and brokenhearted, as silly and deeply sincere, as bewildered as you are—you might have just arrived.  Welcome!