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In this episode of Flourish As You Age, Michael C. Patterson explores the “accidental mind”—not a perfectly engineered machine, but a brilliant kluge (pronounced klooj): an evolutionary patchwork that works despite its awkward design. Drawing from David Linden and Iain McGilchrist, we look at why the brain’s jury-rigged architecture needs scaffolding—culture, contemplation, and mature perspective—to function wisely.

You’ll hear about:

• Why evolution builds “good-enough” solutions—and what that means for flourishing
• Opponent processing: the productive tension of neural opposites
• The hemispheres in dialogue: big-picture right, analytic left, and the role of the corpus callosum
• How skillful integration (not uniformity) turns inner tension into growth

This episode is part of a series based on Michael’s forthcoming book, Welcoming Wisdom: How Mature Minds Can Help Shape a Kinder, Wiser Future.

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