Humor as Catharsis

Amanda met comedian Jamie Kilstein at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and found an unlikely kindred spirit. Both arrived at Fringe to prove themselves, battle misconceptions, and reclaim their narratives through art. Both know what it's like to have the world decide who you are before you get a chance to speak. Kilstein was a prominent progressive stand-up comedian and co-host of the political podcast Citizen Radio, with a rising career and appearances at major comedy festivals. In 2015 he was publicly accused of emotional manipulation and infidelity, losing his audience, career, and platform almost overnight. In this conversation recorded between fringe festival shows, Amanda and Jamie dig into cancellation, community, betrayal, and the terrifying vulnerability of performing your worst moments on stage. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The emergency room and the ICU are not just emotionally draining and traumatic environments for patients, but for healthcare workers as well. ER doctor Kat Moore tells us how Zen Buddhism is working its way into emergency rooms to improve the wellbeing of both patients and doctors. Learn more about the Contemplative Medicine Fellowship at: https://zencare.org/contemplative-medicine-fellowship/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When you finally deliver a creative project you've been working on for a long time, how do you cope with the emotional hangover, how do you make space to reflect, and how do you give yourself grace to not have the answers or know what's next? Amanda and Chris reflect the day after the final performance of her sold out run of Cartwheel, her one-woman show, at the Edinburgh Fringe festival. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What happens when fighting for your life becomes a crime? Why are thousands of women and girls who defend themselves against violence prosecuted as offenders, sometimes for life. Amanda sits down with journalist Justine van der Leun to discuss her new book Unreasonable Women which investigates "criminalized survival". They dig into the "reasonable man" standard, the believability problem facing survivors, and why the legal system seems built to disbelieve women even when the evidence is overwhelming. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Trauma" has become a controversial word in the current culture wars. It's a point of pride for some, an excuse for others. But trauma is undoubtedly real, and it effects the body. Dr. Christy Gibson, author of The Modern Trauma Toolkit, has studied the neurophysiological effects of trauma and how we can alter the body's reflexive responses to find post-traumatic growth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What if a quiz show could fix America's political divide? Amanda talks with Harvard psychologist Joshua Greene about the neuroscience behind moral decision-making, why people don't donate to the charities that do the most good even when they want to, and how a simple cooperative quiz game is measurably reducing animosity between Republicans and Democrats. Amanda and Joshua also dig into effective altruism without the guilt trip, why dialogue alone often fails to bridge divides, and Joshua's own surprising evolution on religion and meditation. Added bonus: Listeners can try Joshua's donation-matching platform at givingmultiplier.org/knox to give to a cause you love (Amanda's is The Innocence Center) and a highly effective charity at the same time, with bonus matching funds for Hard Knox listeners. https://givingmultiplier.org/invite/KNOX Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As she prepares for the premiere of her one-woman show, Cartwheel, at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this August, Amanda has been thinking about the relationship between tragedy and comedy. This episode from her 20-part Resilience series on the Waking Up app is a look at why finding humor in tragedy is more than a coping mechanism, but a genuine survival skill, and how that idea has shaped her approach to bringing her story to the stage. Hear the full 20-episode Resilience series at wakingup.com/amandaknox. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Seth Ferranti is a former LSD kingpin and fugitive on the US Marshall’s Top 15 Most Wanted list who faced a highly publicized and lengthy prison sentence due to the DEA's early-'90s crackdown on LSD. The self-described outlaw and ahead-of-his-time activist is now a journalist and filmmaker whose past life informs all aspects of his work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Amanda woke up to good news and bad news arriving at the exact same moment — again. In true Hard Knocks fashion, that personal experience sends Chris and Amanda down a rabbit hole exploring one of life's most disorienting puzzles: is there really such a thing as good news or bad news at all? From the Buddhist parable of the farmer to Stoic amor fati to Mel Brooks playing ball with the universe, they dig into what Zen, Taoism, and a lifetime of very public verdicts can teach us about staying sane when fate won't stop flipping the script. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The death penalty is often sold as justice. But what if it's just a very expensive decades-long process, doesn't deter crime, and gets it wrong often enough that 190 people have been exonerated from death row? Amanda sits down with Laura Porter, executive director of the U.S. Campaign to End the Death Penalty and former public defender of 12 years, for a conversation that refuses to stay on the surface. They get into the historical roots of America's cultural attachment to capital punishment, why the deterrence argument has been largely debunked, and what evidence-based violence prevention actually looks like in practice. They also ask the harder question underneath all of it: if the goal is a safer society and genuine healing for victims, is the death penalty even aimed at the right target? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices