{"podcast":{"title":"Deconstructing Yourself","slug":"deconstructing-yourself-57243","podcast_index_feed_id":57243,"rss_url":"https://rss.art19.com/deconstructing-yourself","website_url":"https://deconstructingyourself.com","image_url":"https://content.production.cdn.art19.com/images/42/27/fa/ba/4227faba-743f-4b34-8a46-5ad37ffbd99f/a8f04bc49fa95ff9c41dc54dbf496cd3611bdf06e6fc984a359899ae116e4a2de4a208efded4b6a6271986a4f51fe4494a55c22f381a7d91659fb1ca60cae3cc.jpeg","author":"Michael W. Taft","episode_count":112,"summary":"Dedicated to liberation in all its forms, Deconstructing Yourself is passionate about fearlessly investigating, attempting, and questioning all things to do with awakening, meditation, mindfulness, brain hacking, consciousness, neurofeedback, and more. Your host Michael W. Taft interviews some of the most interesting thinkers, authors, and teachers around, as well as other offerings. In this hard-hitting, radical, and fun podcast we look at secular post-, non-, un- Buddhism, Vajrayana, nondual Hindu Tantra, philosophy, the neuroscience of the sense of self, neurofeedback and the consciousness hacking movement, aspects of artificial intelligence, entheogens, and much more. If you’re looking for fresh directions, free from dogma and conformism, think of the Deconstructing Yourself podcast as the radical cafe where you can hear from the most interesting luminaries either from the outside edges of dharma, or a fresh take from more traditional teachers. If you’re interested in more, check out the Deconstructing Yourself website at https://deconstructingyourself.com .","last_synced_at":"2026-06-21T06:18:15.814279+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/deconstructing-yourself-57243"},"episode":{"title":"Nonduality and the Ego with Jake Orthwein","slug":"nonduality-and-the-ego-with-jake-orthwein","published_at":"2025-09-21T07:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/deconstructing-yourself-57243/nonduality-and-the-ego-with-jake-orthwein","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/deconstructing-yourself-57243","url":"https://deconstructingyourself.com/nonduality-and-the-ego-with-jake-orthwein.html","audio_url":"https://rss.art19.com/episodes/cc95d83a-75fb-41d8-88f8-84aa0190dcfe.mp3?rss_browser=BAhJIg90cmFuc2NyaWJyBjoGRVQ%3D--952c5701c84ad333c69d5faa668f8177091704f0","summary":"Host Michael Taft talks with Jake Orthwein about the self as a construction, the distinction between no-self and emptiness, the crucial difference between having a functional ego and being identified with it, psychedelics and meditation and ego dissolution, the Buddha-nature vs. the True Self, dereification vs. defabrication, Taft’s distinction of nondual one vs. nondual two, and the importance of a healthy ego. Jake Orthwein is a filmmaker based in Brooklyn, NY, and a dharma student of Michael Taft’s. His most recent film, “Unraveling the Dream,” was produced in collaboration with the Waking Up app and focuses on the history and neuroscience of psychedelics.  Jake's website You can support the creation of future episodes of this podcast by contributing through Patreon . See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .","meta_description":"Host Michael Taft talks with Jake Orthwein about the self as a construction, the distinction between no-self and emptiness, the crucial difference between…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3736,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/deconstructing-yourself-57243/episodes/nonduality-and-the-ego-with-jake-orthwein/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/deconstructing-yourself-57243/nonduality-and-the-ego-with-jake-orthwein.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}