In the first half, professor of psychology W. Keith Campbell, Ph.D., discussed the epidemic of narcissism in our culture and how technology and the Internet can foster a climate of self-obsession. About two-thirds of college students in America in the 2000s had narcissism scores higher than the average student in the 1980s, it has been found. Campbell delineated two types of narcissism-- grandiose and vulnerable. With the latter, people can be fragile and easily threatened, and their level of esteem can go up and down while still maintaining a sense of entitlement and self-centeredness. For grandiose cases, where people have an inflated sense of self-importance, they can initially appear charming and likable, he noted. Yet, they're often unable to achieve intimacy in a relationship and become manipulative and controlling.
A study done in the early days of Facebook showed that narcissistic people had larger friend lists and promoted themselves more. Since then, he reported that this trend has spread into other social media, with narcissists tending to have more followers and spend more time putting out selfies, attending to their appearance, and touting their success. However, he added, it has not been proven that social media makes people narcissistic to start with. In terms of how to spot a narcissist, Campbell suggested looking at someone's track record or past behavior-- those with the narcissism trait have often left a trail of broken relationships behind them. For more, check out this animated film featuring Campbell describing the psychology of narcissism.
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A civilian intelligence analyst and psychotherapist in New York City, Robert D. Morningstar, has studied the paranormal and UFOs for over 40 years. In the latter half, he talked about space discoveries, anomalies on the moon, ETs, and UFOs. He finds the new evidence about the Venusian atmosphere possibly containing life to be intriguing, especially in light of how a number of the early contactees like George Adamski spoke about their encounters with beings from Venus. With our sister planet being bathed in constant sunshine, "I believe that it's a place where plasma beings could exist," he mused, adding that for all we know, humans or their souls could be a plasma trapped in matter.
He discussed color photos of the moon, indicating that areas of the lunar surface have different hues despite how it looks entirely gray to us at night. Morningstar recalled his past discovery of NASA transcripts from the Apollo 10 mission in May of 1969, in which the astronauts inexplicably heard a strange kind of music as they traveled over the far side of the moon (listen to Morningstar's related radio play). He's pleased with the more open direction of today's NASA, along with the new Space Force. Morningstar also recounted an odd incident in 2013, in which he believes China may have made contact with ETs, as an iridescent UFO "buzzed" the Chinese lunar lander (more here).
News segment guests: Howard Bloom, Mish Shedlock