We begin this show with some reflections from addiction specialist Gabor Maté. His talk, "Who We Are When We Are Not Addicted: The Possible Human" is a personal reflection which draws from his book 'In The Realm of Hungry Ghosts'. Going beyond specific medical and psychological insights relating to addiction, he presents a bigger picture of human potential which echoing points made by Charles Eisenstein in his Ascent of Humanity (read in episode 463). Maté notes that the skin encapsulated ego is a mere state of mind - albeit an almost all pervasive one in modern society. He outlines a deep hunger, a painful inner void which is deeply but generally not consciously experienced, and which fuels people's addictive consumption, whether of drugs or consumer goods. He suggests that instead this could be filled by connection to the world around us. We start our second hour with a light-hearted reference to people's gnawing sense of insecurity, disconnection and the feeling that the world is going to pot around them, Tony Hendra's 1972 satirical spoken poem, Deteriorata. Then we hear a radio adaptation of the 2009 film, Consumed - The Human Experience. This film applies evolutionary psychology to understand consumerism.

Music: Deteriorata by National Lampoon