“If you examine your thinking process, you may come to the same conclusion; that thoughts happen to us, we don’t necessarily control them.”

Psychiatrist Dr Dan Mierlak returns to In the Balance to discuss his new book, The Spanish Molecule, a purposefully sassy and thought-provoking read. He and Susan discuss some of the central themes of the book - and by extension, themes of the human condition - including how to avoid becoming captive to the choices we make in life, why it’s important to respect and go with the flow, and what happens to the population at large when a world-changing event like the covid-19 pandemic forces us to ask ourselves how we want to live our lives?

“For many people, they feel I give them permission to tell their truth.”

Poet, photographer, and artist Alexis Rhone Fancher returns to In the Balance to discuss her unapologetic and exquisitely done poetry. She tells us that her work stems from two different perspectives of the life force: eroticism and grief, evoking images and experiences from true life, a way of “trying to figure things out and laying it out on the page.” She and Susan discuss how to be creative while in quarantine, why writing erotica is not the same as writing pornography, and why we all should read poetry.