The Face of the Deep
by Jen Howk
The Face of the Deep is a podcast that is rooted in psychology but unbound by any single theory. We explore what makes us who we are—from the genes and stories we inherit to the ones we struggle to rewrite. Expect conversations that weave together clinical insight, Jungian thought, behavioral science, and a bit of political and cultural critique. Whether we're talking about trauma, personality, midlife, or the politics of mental health, this show asks deeper questions about the self, the soul, and the systems we live in.
Episodes
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Episode 29: We Sit on a Throne of Lies - Facing and Feeling the False Beliefs that Rule Us
For 1:1 coaching or to join my virtual groups, visit www.jenhowk.com Join me this week on a ramble through how my emotional processing practice is focused on identifying the core false beliefs that underpin my most negative feelings, and rather than trying to "de-distort" or "question" those…
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Episode 28: Doing the Emotional Work to Heal Emotional Eating with Courtney Pool Unlisted
For 1:1 coaching or to join my virtual groups, visit www.jenhowk.com In this episode I am joined for a second time by Courtney Pool, a nutritionist and coach who works with clients to resolve the emotional causes of overeating and other issues related to food addiction and disordered food…
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Episode 27: Living by Principle (Instead of by the Wounded Self That Wants to Crash the Bus)
For 1:1 coaching or to join my virtual groups, visit www.jenhowk.com This episode discusses the power of living according to non-negotiable principles such as radical honesty and free will as a way to come into greater contact with the unresolved negative emotions that we have spent our lives...
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Episode 26: Leaning Into Abandonment, a Little Light Ego Death, and The Wisdom of Surrender
For 1:1 coaching or to join my weekly virtual groups, visit www.jenhowk.com In this episode, I explore how many of our most critical moments in life come down to the choice between abandoning ourselves or accepting the abandonment of another, and why surrendering to reality and learning to love...
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Episode 25: "What Does 'Feel it to Heal it' Even Mean?!"
For 1:1 coaching or to join my virtual groups, visit www.jenhowk.com This week is a discussion about what my current practice of "feeling my feelings" looks like in practice. I also talk about why committing to feeling our real feelings (especially those underneath anger) is the only way to limit...
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Episode 24: "Where Power Predominates, There Love is Lacking"
For 1:1 coaching or to join my zoom groups, visit www.jenhowk.com This episode continues my ongoing discussion of love vs. addiction and control in relationships, and explores how to understand the ways in which we confuse our "needs" for angry and coercive demands. I offer a few definitions of...
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Episode 23: The "Dry Drunk" Phenomenon and Reflections on 13 Years of Sobriety
For 1:1 coaching or to join my zoom groups, visit www.jenhowk.com In this episode I share a little bit about my history with alcohol abuse, and some reflections and lessons from 13 years of sobriety. I talk about the difference (as I see it) between sobriety and true recovery, and how for most of...
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Episode 22: The Shadow Never Sleeps - How Shame Sabotages Relationships
For 1:1 sessions and to join my zoom groups, visit www.jenhowk.com. In this episode, I discuss in a bit more depth how our inability to reckon with our own childhood wounds and the shame we feel from them results in our unchecked projections and sabotaging behaviors in our intimate relationships....
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Episode 21: Why Doesn't Anyone Feel "Safe?"
This week's discussion is about how a feeling of interpersonal safety emerges from authentic connection with others, and that such a connection requires that the relationship can accommodate and sustain a high level of truth telling and transparency. (Apologies for the delightful cacophony of bug...
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Episode 20: Why I'll Never "Date" Again (and You Probably Shouldn't Either)
This one might be a bit controversial....but I feel strongly that dating for the express purpose of finding romance is an upside-down way to build a long term partnership with someone. We should be seeking friends first, and truth in our connections, and discovering from there what kind of...
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Episode 19: To Tell the Truth: Cracking the Code of Food Addiction and Self-Suppression
This episode is an unscripted discussion about how I believe I've cracked the binge eating code—or at least my own personal binge eating code, if not necessarily a universal one. I believe it begins in attachment wounds in early childhood, which train us to suppress truth in order to preserve the...
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Episode 18: Well-Rooted - Terror, Tranquility, and Re-Wilding the Psyche in a Backyard Food Forest (live talk at Vegan Summerfest 2026)
Four years of learning about and practicing an especially aggressive "do nothing" form of permaculture has taught me a great deal about emotional surrender and emotional sobriety—and vice versa. An intentional relationship with nature is necessary to better understand ourselves and grow along…
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Episode 17: The Wounded Masculine and Its Discontents
In this episode, I have a deep and wide-ranging (and not nearly long enough!) conversation with Dean Abbott about the dilemmas and diversions of self-development and romantic unhappiness. We discuss the crisis of emotional immaturity in modern relationships, the over-functioning...
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Episode 16: Correlation is Not a Conclusion (Interview with Professor Eric Turkheimer)
In this episode I chat with Professor Eric Turkheimer at the University of Virginia about why the fact that "everything is heritable" doesn't actually mean very much; why the concept of "heritability" itself might just be the most misunderstood term in science; how the field of behavior genetics...
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Episode 15 - The Mismeasure of Meaning: Nature, Nurture, and Nuance
In this episode, I explain my concerns and criticisms of the claim that "everything is genetic." I explain both why I once found the hereditarian literature very persuasive, as well as the philosophical and epistemological reasons I am no longer willing to agree that the case can be considered...
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Episode 14: "Cluster B" Kids with Joshua Slocum
This week I sat down with Joshua Slocum, co-host of the "Disaffected" podcast. I reached out to him to discuss the convergence of "Cluster B" pathology and the flattering mimicry of AI, as documented in one of his recent episodes (linked below.) We wound up discussing all kinds of things…
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Episode 13: Strained and Estranged - The Mother/Daughter Rupture
In this episode of Face of the Deep, I talk a bit about my own difficult relationship with my mom, and reflect on some themes that have come up in my groups and with clients recently about mother-daughter ruptures and how we can think about them and potentially heal them. If you'd like to join my...
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Episode 12: Reclaim Your Inner Outlaw with Jungian Analyst Lisa Marchiano
In this episode I sit down with the brilliant Lisa Marchiano, an award-winning author, podcaster, and certified Jungian analyst. I found Lisa through the depth-psychology podcast "This Jungian Life," from which I have learned so much, and I look forward to listening to each week. I also wanted to...
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Episode 11: The Trouble With Twin Studies - Does DNA Really Make Us Who We Are? (with Jay Joseph)
In this episode, I sit down with clinical psychologist Dr. Jay Joseph to discuss the issue of genetic research in IQ, personality, and psychiatric disorders—particularly in the context of the thirtieth anniversary of the publication of "The Bell Curve." While twin studies are exalted by…
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Episode 10: Introduction to My New Book, "Truth Be Told"
You can order my e-book "Truth Be Told" directly for immediate download at https://jenhowk.gumroad.com/l/truthbetold To order the audio book, you can do so via https://jenhowk.gumroad.com/l/truthbetoldaudio For more information or to join my mailing list, please visit: https://www.jenhowk.com My...
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Episode 9: The Seduction of Certainty
This is an excerpt of my new e-book, "Truth Be Told." For more information about Iain McGilchrist, you can visit his website here: https://channelmcgilchrist.com My advisor Steve Hanson's book on ideological clarity can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/2mx35dub To pre-order my e-book for...
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Episode 8: Gone Girl - Perfectionism, Shame, and the Binge-Restrict Cycle in the Plant-Based World
This episode is about how in too many ways, the plant-based world is just another face of diet culture, and how it encourages (and monetizes) the binge-restrict cycle just like everyone else does. I talk about my own lifelong experiences of weight gain and loss and discuss how a singular emphasis...
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Episode 7: Childhood Trauma is Like Learning to Drive
This episode discusses Episode 6 (an interview with therapist and somatic experiencing practitioner Jenna Pacelli) in more depth, and also explores my current conceptualization of developmental trauma and how its lingering influence can shape our adult lives (and what to do about it, or at least…
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Episode 6: The Issues in Your Tissues - Somatic Awareness and Healing (with Jenna Pacelli)
In this episode, I sit down with Jenna Pacelli, a licensed marriage and family therapist and Somatic Experiencing Practitioner for a rapid-fire discussion on a variety of topics and perspectives including: her background in wilderness therapy, early developmental trauma vs. "shock" trauma and…
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Episode 5: Misguided Self Care - Understanding Addiction (with Adam Sud)
In this episode I sit down with behavioral wellness and nutritional expert Adam Sud to discuss the roots of addiction and the promise of recovery. Why do some of us become addicted in the first place? Is it just a question of "supernormal stimuli" and unlucky genetic susceptibility, as I had…
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Episode 4: Highway to the Discomfort Zone
This episode is an overview of my central New Year's resolution for 2024, which is to intentionally seek out challenging and uncomfortable situations to explore what's actually "real" about my nature and personality and what's just an evasive maneuver to avoid feeling something unpleasant. This...
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Episode 3: The Truth Will Set You Free - Emotional Suppressionand Binge Eating (with Courtney Pool)
My guest this week, Courtney Pool, is a nutritionist and coach who, like so many of us, "tried everything" to resolve the binge eating issues that have been with her since age 5. What finally worked for her was a combination of a healthy plant based diet and also a brutally honest,...
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Episode 2: The Defended Self - Internal Family Systems as a Path of Awareness
In this episode, I sit down with my good friend Chrissy Benson for a conversation about Internal Family Systems, or IFS. Chrissy is a trained IFS practitioner with a decade of experience in the field, and she is, like myself, someone who has struggled with compulsive overeating/binge eating, and...
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Episode 1: The Unbearable Burden of Pleasing
In this first episode about my it's-a-show-about-everything podcast, I talk about the midlife unraveling of our protective armor, and how a radical honesty practice is the most brutally efficient (and for me. necessary) way to finally encounter the truth of who we really are. General topics...
About this show
The Face of the Deep is a podcast that is rooted in psychology but unbound by any single theory. We explore what makes us who we are—from the genes and stories we inherit to the ones we struggle to rewrite. Expect conversations that weave together clinical insight, Jungian thought, behavioral science, and a bit of political and cultural critique. Whether we're talking about trauma, personality, midlife, or the politics of mental health, this show asks deeper questions about the self, the soul, and the systems we live in.
Hosted by
Jen Howk