Relationscapes: Exploring Human Identity and Connection

(Technically, dads get "paternal postnatal depression," but the language hasn't caught on yet...) When Dr. Christopher Choukalas first held his newborn twins, the joy he expected simply wasn’t there. He spent his early fatherhood days obsessively controlling nap schedules, struggling with panic attacks, and even darkly imagining ways he might escape his new life. Despite being a successful physician, he couldn't even begin to diagnose what he was going through.  Christopher's experience sheds light on an often-overlooked mental health crisis: paternal postnatal depression. In this episode, we explore how getting help transformed his relationships with his daughters, his wife, his patients, and ultimately, himself. His memoir is called Even the Darkest Night: A Father's Journey of Hope and Healing from Paternal Depression. Full transcript is available here at relationscapes.org.  Show Notes Postpartum Support International's resources for fathers.  Fellow Traveler Episodes More than the Baby Blues (with Teresa Wong) The Postpartum Psychosis Prophecies (with Ayana Lage) About the Guest Christopher G. Choukalas, MD, MS is author of Even the Darkest Night: A Father's Journey of Hope and Healing from Paternal Depression. He spent twelve years on faculty at the University of California San Francisco as an anesthesiologist, intensive care physician, researcher, academic author, and teacher to hundreds of students, residents, and fellows. He is now a husband and father, living with his wife, Lindsey, and their twin girls, Pia and Isa. He practices as an anesthesiologist in Marin county, California.

Most people don't think much about human biology after high school. Which is a real problem! Because most people also assume that biological sex is obvious, simple, and binary: people are either male or female. However, the closer biologists look, the more that simple perspective falls apart.  In The Binary Delusion, biologist Ari Berkowitz reveals how chromosomes, hormones, genitals, brains, and more defy the binary categories people take for granted. We explore what this complexity means for intersex and transgender people, why biology has become a political battleground, and how recognizing the full range of human variation could free all of us from restrictive expectations about sex and gender.  The stakes go way beyond scientific accuracy: they touch on bodily autonomy, personal freedom, and the right to live without being forced into stereotypical gender expectations that just don't fit. Full transcript is available here at relationscapes.org.  Show Notes Eleanor A Maguire, Katherine Woollett, and Hugo J Spiers, "London taxi drivers and bus drivers: a structural MRI and neuropsychological analysis," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Fellow Traveler Episodes Daphna Joel, The Incredible Brain Science About Sex and Gender Matthew Gutmann, Testosterone, Y Chromosomes, and Other Manly Excuses About the Guest Ari Berkowitz is a Presidential Professor in the Department of Biology and Director of the Cellular and Behavioral Neurobiology Graduate Program at the University of Oklahoma. He is author of The Binary Delusion: How Biology Defies the Myth of Two Sexes.

Death is inevitable, but most of us spend our lives keeping it at a distance. After Amelia Chiarenza lost her mother, father, and best friend within 16 months, she decided to move closer to it instead. In this mini episode, the creator of the Cultivate Being podcast explores what grief can reveal about our relationships, how unexpected people can help us reconnect with those we've lost, and why getting more comfortable with death might help us live more fully. Full transcript is available here at relationscapes.org.  Show Notes List of sources. Fellow Traveler Episodes "The Disenfranchised Grief of Sibling Loss," (with Anne Pinkerton) "Dead Dads Club," (with Maddie Norris) About the Guest From a renaissance career spanning radio; NCAA Division I athletic coaching; technology development and aerospace, Amelia Chiarenza made an intentional pivot and created Cultivate Being™. She spends her time as a speaker, coach and advisor, podcast host, death doula, kinesiologist, and cottage baker. Learn more at cultivatebeing.com.

What if some of the ideas normalized in the practice of psychology are actually causing harm? Psychologist Jonathan Mathias Lassiter joins Blair to uncover the white/Eurocentric assumptions embedded in the field of psychology. They talk about racism in the therapy room, the bizarre “diversity project” Lassiter had to complete as a doctoral student, unlearning queerphobia, finding the right therapist, and more. Lassiter is author of How I Know White People Are Crazy and Other Stories: Notes from a Frustrated Black Psychologist. Full transcript is available here at relationscapes.org.  About the Guest Jonathan Mathias Lassiter, PhD is a licensed clinical psychologist, author, speaker, and educator. Dr. Lassiter has been featured in NBC, PBS, Sirius XM, Forbes, and more. His psychotherapy practice is based in New York City. His book is called How I Know White People Are Crazy and Other Stories: Notes from a Frustrated Black Psychologist. Find him at jonathanmlassiter.com.

Teresa Wong loved her newborn daughter. At the same time, she wondered if she hated her. After giving birth to Scarlet, Teresa found herself consumed by exhaustion, shame, isolation, and self-loathing. In her graphic memoir, Dear Scarlet: The Story of My Postpartum Depression, she turns that experience into an intimate letter to the daughter she struggled to connect with.   Full transcript is available here at relationscapes.org.  Fellow Traveler Episodes The Postpartum Psychosis Prophecies, with Ayana Lage Eat the Damn Peach and Other Love Stories, with Mary Catherine Starr Back to the Feminist Drawing Board, with Audrey Hirsch About the Guest Teresa Wong is the author of the acclaimed graphic memoirs All Our Ordinary Stories and Dear Scarlet, both longlisted for CBC Canada Reads and finalists for the W.O. Mitchell Book Prize. All Our Ordinary Stories won two Alberta Literary Awards and was also a finalist for the 2025 Governor General’s Literary Award in nonfiction. Her comics and writing have appeared in The Believer, The New Yorker, McSweeney’s and The Walrus. She teaches graphic narrative through Gotham Writers Workshop and was also the 2021–22 Canadian Writer-in-Residence at the University of Calgary.