📝 Description:
In this expansive episode of The Sound of Listening, Fi Kahani is joined by psychiatrist, writer, and cultural commentator Dr. Ravi Chandra for a profound conversation
on the psychological, spiritual, and relational roots of America’s political divide.
From Freud to Buddhism, Trump to RFK Jr., QAnon to DEI backlash—this isn’t your typical political analysis. Fi steps into the mindset of a MAGA or Make America Healthy Again voter to unpack how meaning, identity, and disillusionment take root. Ravi responds from a leftist, compassion-centered perspective, grounding the discussion in clinical insight and collective care.
Together, they explore:
Manufactured dissatisfaction and the seduction of certainty
The role of shame in both political radicalization and resistance
Why no one should be trusted just because they have 30,000 followers
What Lao Tzu, Freud, and family systems have to say about healing our country
The trauma at the heart of both the left and the right—and the possibility of a shared, consensual reality
This is a conversation about what it means to listen—to ourselves, to each other, and to the deeper truth beneath the noise. It’s not about agreement. It’s about the courage to stay in relationship while disagreeing.
Favorite quote:
“What we’re most unconscious of is how we’re related. And our dissatisfactions are connected in ways we don’t understand.”
🎙 Guests:
Fi Kahani, host of The Sound of Listening, writer, facilitator, and spiritual-political bridgewalker
Ravi Chandra is a psychiatrist, writer, filmmaker and compassion educator in San Francisco, a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and Assistant Clinical Professor (voluntary) at the University of California, San Francisco. He is the 2025 recipient of the APA/APAF’s Kun-Po Soo Award for achievement in Asian American Psychiatry. He received an Sc.B. with Honors from Brown University, an M.D. from Stanford University School of Medicine, and completed a residency in general adult psychiatry from UCSF. He has written nearly 500 essays for Psychology Today, East Wind eZine, and the Center for Asian American Media from 2006 to 2024, and he has a monthly newsletter and Substack.
🔗 Links & Mentions:
Ravi’s blog: Psychology Today – The Pacific Heart
East Wind Ezine: eastwindezine.com
Tao Te Ching quotes (Lao Tzu)
Mention of Make America Healthy Again, RFK Jr., Citizens United, and QAnon
Future topic tease: SHAME
🧘♀️ Listener Invitation:
This is a space for those tired of algorithms shaping their reality. If you’re ready to hold contradiction with compassion and disagreement without dehumanization, you’re in the right place.
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