About this Episode
In this episode of The Poet (delayed), I am joined by returning guest Josh Baron for a wide-ranging conversation on uncertainty, growth, and what it means to truly live inside the unknown.
Drawing from the Tao Te Ching’s line—“darkness within darkness, the gateway to all understanding”—we explore a central idea: uncertainty isn’t something to escape, but something to enter.
Together, we examine why we instinctively avoid uncertainty—fear, discomfort, and the pressure to “have it figured out”—and what happens when we resist that impulse and instead choose to stay. Through personal stories, philosophy, and lived experience, they uncover several key insights:
• That uncertainty is not the exception, but the condition of being alive
• That clarity is not forced, but revealed over time
• That many of our reactions are not to reality itself, but to our interpretation of it under pressure
• And that growth often requires moving through discomfort rather than around it
The conversation moves fluidly through topics like faith, science, parenting, identity, integrity, and even music theory—illustrating how tension, dissonance, and uncertainty are not obstacles to understanding, but necessary parts of it.
At its core, this episode is an invitation:
to sit a little longer,
to resist the urge to resolve too quickly,
and to discover what becomes visible when we don’t leave the doorway.
I'd love to hear what you have to say about the episode including thoughts on the poetry and the topics that were discussed. You can email me at [email protected].
My books of poetry are availabe for purchase at
["The Ghost of a Beating Heart", "My Mother Sleeps" and "Haiku Village"](
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