Last night, I played tag and hide-and-seek with my two oldest children. Before that, they were both on their tablets. While we don't enforce screen time rules with our kids, we aspire toward what Aaron Stupple discusses in his book, 'The Sovereign Child', that children should be treated as autonomous individuals - as people with their own desires, capacities, and rights - rather than primarily beings to be controlled, disciplined, or shaped to conform. I worry about their screen time, but we aren't enforcing any rules on them. However, absolutely any time I offer them the chance to play tag, hide-and-seek, or other games of their choosing, they always choose play over the tablet. We don't need to control screen time. We need to recognize whether they are getting the interaction, relationships, and stimulation that their hearts desire. #dadstr #parenting

I think we're entering a point in American History where Saul Alinsky's 'Rules for Radicals' are being explicitly called out for how manipulative and destructive they really are for building a better world. The ends don't justify the means.

There’s a lot of division and conflict in our society right now. In moments like this, we often hear that we need to “listen to each other.” But I’m not sure that’s the real problem. From what I can observe, two people can watch a debate and come up with drastically different interpretations of what was discussed or what each perspective represented. I don't think we have a problem where we don't listen to each other. We have a problem where we don't comprehend each other. We have problems in our ability to temper our emotions and think critically. Anger is a legitimate emotion, but it demands a low-time preference, patience, proper processing and decision-making. We have too much of an urge to come to a conclusion of why a person we never met decided to act horrifically in a location hundreds or thousands of miles away from us. We rarely pause to recognize logical fallacies— reification, false dichotomies, circular reasoning, ad hominem attacks, appeals to the consequent, the fallacy of composition, and so on. We rush into “debates” without agreeing on definitions beforehand, and too often treat them like battles to win rather than opportunities to clarify differences and seek consensus. Meanwhile, media and social platforms (including this one) reward emotion over logic, amplifying division instead of fostering reason. That leaves us vulnerable—pawns on a chessboard we don’t even realize we’re on. I don't want to be too prescriptive with this post. I'm a neurologist whose a lot better at diagnosing problems than curing them. But I suspect we’d all benefit from occasionally stepping away from the algorithm, having face-to-face conversations with people who disagree with us but whom we still recognize as safe, and—quite literally—touching grass. Here's a picture from Heber, Arizona, one of my favorite places where I'm literally touching grass and spending time with my family this weekend.

In the wake of the recent murders of Charlie Kirk and Iryna Zarutska, as well as the mixed reactions I've seen all around me, I felt compelled to write essay. View article →

Doctors cannot diagnosis disease if they are censored to the symptoms.

My Latest Video: Don't Be A Pawn #chess #authenticity #independence #awareness

Fix the money, fix the world.

My Nostr Article Regarding The Art of Medicine View article →

My recent experience reminding me about what it means to practice medicine. #health #doctor #desire #healthcare

My video essay discussing the concept of reification. #Philosophy #Neurology #Neuroscience #Definitions #Reification

My latest article tackling a concept I wrestle with, but very few talk about: the fallacy of reification. View article →

If you have to make a hard decision in life, play with your kids the night before you do. You'll know what you need to do.

My video responding to a group of physicians who propose, in a recent New York Times guest essay, that we need to redefine brain death to optimize rates of organ procurement and transplantation. #philosophy #logic #desire #mimesis #girard #jordanpeterson #motivation #authenticity

Life is short. Be courageous. Poke the bear.

The authors here completely fail at acknowledging the is/ought problem from David Hume: "Reason is, and ought only to be the slaves of the passions" (A Treatise of Human Nature, 1739)

Opinion | Donor Organs Are Too Rare. We Need a New Definition of Death.

Once higher brain functions are irreversibly gone, does a person really exist?

Freedom is not an end goal. It's the impetus needed to do what you love.

I've been gradually getting the sense that Nostr provides the space in our modern day for perhaps the highest 'creativity/ego' ratio I've seen.

A beautiful and authentic response about success from the highest ranked golfer in the world. #authenticity #success

Less than 24 hours after a deep clean… This is what our family room looks like again. If you have kids under 5, you already know: mess is inevitable. Toys everywhere. Chaos on repeat. But I’ve started to see it differently. A messy house used to feel like an inevitable lost battle. Now, I’m learning it’s a sign of something else—something good. This isn’t just a living room. It’s a lab. A workshop. Ultimately, we as parents build a home not only as a save haven, but as a creative hub for our kids to explore. We create the environment for them to use their agency to imagine, play, experiment, innovate and create. Whenever I clean up my office or desk, I feel clarity of mind to think, write, experiment with ideas and just do more. In the same way, I think when our kids see a clean house, they have increased inspiration to get the toys, papers, and crayons out again and do more with their creativity. The mess comes quickly—but so does the magic. I'm starting to think less of cleaning our house as a never-ending chore, but an opportunity to 'clean up the lab'. It's an opportunity each day for our kids to see an environment that is both safe and bountiful; to test their boundaries and see where their mind can take them. We’re not just cleaning a house. We’re preparing the stage for discovery. #parenting #creativity #philosophy #sovereignty

My latest video: In a world where our desires are fundamentally mimetic, how do we find authenticity? #authenticity #philosophy #desires #mimesis #motivation