abby
@counterfactual.bsky.social
co-host of the Ordinary Unhappiness podcast, co-founder of the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research
Reposted by abby
🚨UNLOCKED🚨 We spoke with the great
@sarahlovescali.bsky.social about climate grief, her experience of ayahuasca therapy in the Peruvian Amazon, our expectations for psychedelics, our fantasies of transformative experiences, and what we can learn from plants!
@sarahlovescali.bsky.social about climate grief, her experience of ayahuasca therapy in the Peruvian Amazon, our expectations for psychedelics, our fantasies of transformative experiences, and what we can learn from plants!
UNLOCKED: 103: Ayahuasca and Climate Grief feat. Sarah Miller - Ordinary Unhappiness
Unlocked Patreon episode. Support Ordinary Unhappiness on Patreon to get access to all the exclusive episodes. patreon.com/OrdinaryUnhappinessAbby and Patrick are joined by one of their favorite write...
www.buzzsprout.com
November 16, 2025 at 3:20 PM
🚨UNLOCKED🚨 We spoke with the great
@sarahlovescali.bsky.social about climate grief, her experience of ayahuasca therapy in the Peruvian Amazon, our expectations for psychedelics, our fantasies of transformative experiences, and what we can learn from plants!
@sarahlovescali.bsky.social about climate grief, her experience of ayahuasca therapy in the Peruvian Amazon, our expectations for psychedelics, our fantasies of transformative experiences, and what we can learn from plants!
Reposted by abby
we could've spent another two hours on this - easy. karlin was so brilliant and generous, and we went in so many directions. @counterfactual.bsky.social and I have been talking about this @unhappinesspod.bsky.social conversation nonstop since bsky.app/profile/unha...
🚨NEW EPISODE🚨 How do perception and language shape subjectivity? What makes an experience ineffable? And can LSD offer new prospects for treating MDD and GAD? We're joined by @dankarlin.com of MindMed to talk new research trials, neurobiology, and more! www.buzzsprout.com/2131830/epis...
121: LSD: Subjectivity, Ineffability, and Mental Health feat. Dan Karlin - Ordinary Unhappiness
Abby and Patrick continue their series on psychedelics via an in-depth interview with Dr. Dan Karlin. Karlin is a psychiatrist and Chief Medical Officer at MindMed, where he oversees clinical trials u...
www.buzzsprout.com
November 8, 2025 at 3:22 PM
we could've spent another two hours on this - easy. karlin was so brilliant and generous, and we went in so many directions. @counterfactual.bsky.social and I have been talking about this @unhappinesspod.bsky.social conversation nonstop since bsky.app/profile/unha...
Reposted by abby
🚨NEW EPISODE🚨 How do perception and language shape subjectivity? What makes an experience ineffable? And can LSD offer new prospects for treating MDD and GAD? We're joined by @dankarlin.com of MindMed to talk new research trials, neurobiology, and more! www.buzzsprout.com/2131830/epis...
121: LSD: Subjectivity, Ineffability, and Mental Health feat. Dan Karlin - Ordinary Unhappiness
Abby and Patrick continue their series on psychedelics via an in-depth interview with Dr. Dan Karlin. Karlin is a psychiatrist and Chief Medical Officer at MindMed, where he oversees clinical trials u...
www.buzzsprout.com
November 8, 2025 at 3:04 PM
🚨NEW EPISODE🚨 How do perception and language shape subjectivity? What makes an experience ineffable? And can LSD offer new prospects for treating MDD and GAD? We're joined by @dankarlin.com of MindMed to talk new research trials, neurobiology, and more! www.buzzsprout.com/2131830/epis...
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🚨NEW WILD ANALYSIS🚨 Abby (@counterfactual.bsky.social) and Dan watch "The Substance "(2024). From sexual difference to gendered expectations, from the male gaze to femininity as self-surveillance, it's a psychoanalytic body horror Halloween spectacular! www.buzzsprout.com/2131830/epis...
120: Wild Analysis: The Substance Teaser - Ordinary Unhappiness
Subscribe to get access to the full episode, the episode reading list, and all premium episodes! www.patreon.com/OrdinaryUnhappinessAbby and Dan process Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance (2024), starrin...
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November 1, 2025 at 1:54 PM
🚨NEW WILD ANALYSIS🚨 Abby (@counterfactual.bsky.social) and Dan watch "The Substance "(2024). From sexual difference to gendered expectations, from the male gaze to femininity as self-surveillance, it's a psychoanalytic body horror Halloween spectacular! www.buzzsprout.com/2131830/epis...
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🚨NEW EPISODE🚨What are the fantasies, anxieties, and institutional realities of education? How does knowledge relate to authority - and to lack? And why is the figure of Jacques Lacan so seductive? We're joined by Nick Stock (@89stock.bsky.social) and Nick Peim, authors of The Lacanian Teacher!
119: Lacan, Knowledge, Fantasy feat. Nick Stock and Nick Peim - Ordinary Unhappiness
Abby and Patrick are joined by Nick Stock and Nick Peim, authors of the new book The Lacanian Teacher: Education, Pedagogy, and Enjoyment. From the origin stories teachers tell about themselves to the...
www.buzzsprout.com
October 25, 2025 at 3:50 PM
🚨NEW EPISODE🚨What are the fantasies, anxieties, and institutional realities of education? How does knowledge relate to authority - and to lack? And why is the figure of Jacques Lacan so seductive? We're joined by Nick Stock (@89stock.bsky.social) and Nick Peim, authors of The Lacanian Teacher!
Reposted by abby
people keep asking for more Lacan, and so it was a double (triple?) pleasure to be able to deliver via this excellent
@unhappinesspod.bsky.social conversation with the great Nick Peim and Nick Stock (@89stock.bsky.social). as Lacan commanded: Enjoy!
@unhappinesspod.bsky.social conversation with the great Nick Peim and Nick Stock (@89stock.bsky.social). as Lacan commanded: Enjoy!
🚨NEW EPISODE🚨What are the fantasies, anxieties, and institutional realities of education? How does knowledge relate to authority - and to lack? And why is the figure of Jacques Lacan so seductive? We're joined by Nick Stock (@89stock.bsky.social) and Nick Peim, authors of The Lacanian Teacher!
119: Lacan, Knowledge, Fantasy feat. Nick Stock and Nick Peim - Ordinary Unhappiness
Abby and Patrick are joined by Nick Stock and Nick Peim, authors of the new book The Lacanian Teacher: Education, Pedagogy, and Enjoyment. From the origin stories teachers tell about themselves to the...
www.buzzsprout.com
October 25, 2025 at 3:52 PM
people keep asking for more Lacan, and so it was a double (triple?) pleasure to be able to deliver via this excellent
@unhappinesspod.bsky.social conversation with the great Nick Peim and Nick Stock (@89stock.bsky.social). as Lacan commanded: Enjoy!
@unhappinesspod.bsky.social conversation with the great Nick Peim and Nick Stock (@89stock.bsky.social). as Lacan commanded: Enjoy!
Reposted by abby
🚨NEW STANDARD EDITION🚨 We begin "Fräulein Elisabeth von R," Freud's most accessible case study. It's a tale of a woman burdened by her family system, social roles, and bodily pain, and whose suffering finds poignant symbolic expression in her symptoms.
118: Standard Edition Volume 2 Part 7: Studies on Hysteria, Part VII: Fräulein Elisabeth von R Teaser - Ordinary Unhappiness
Subscribe to get access to the full episode, the episode reading list, and all premium episodes! www.patreon.com/OrdinaryUnhappinessAbby and Patrick arrive at the final case study in Freud and Breuer'...
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October 18, 2025 at 3:59 PM
🚨NEW STANDARD EDITION🚨 We begin "Fräulein Elisabeth von R," Freud's most accessible case study. It's a tale of a woman burdened by her family system, social roles, and bodily pain, and whose suffering finds poignant symbolic expression in her symptoms.
Reposted by abby
This episode is from earlier this year - but it feels only more salient now. And if you want more @unhappinesspod.bsky.social content, including tons of exclusive episodes, please consider subscribing to us on Patreon! It's how we stay always and forever ad-free! www.patreon.com/OrdinaryUnha...
Ordinary Unhappiness | Patreon
a podcast about psychoanalysis, politics, pop culture, and more
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October 11, 2025 at 3:41 PM
This episode is from earlier this year - but it feels only more salient now. And if you want more @unhappinesspod.bsky.social content, including tons of exclusive episodes, please consider subscribing to us on Patreon! It's how we stay always and forever ad-free! www.patreon.com/OrdinaryUnha...
Reposted by abby
🚨UNLOCKED🚨 We unpack Julia Kristeva's concept of "abjection" and "the abject." It's a powerful idea that clarifies real bodily experiences, raw affects, and urgent political concerns involving violence, vulnerability, scapegoating, and disgust. www.buzzsprout.com/2131830/epis...
UNLOCKED: 107: On Abjection - Ordinary Unhappiness
Unlocked Patreon episode. Support Ordinary Unhappiness on Patreon to get access to all the exclusive episodes. patreon.com/OrdinaryUnhappinessAbby, Patrick, and Dan discuss and apply Julia Kristeva’s ...
www.buzzsprout.com
October 11, 2025 at 3:33 PM
🚨UNLOCKED🚨 We unpack Julia Kristeva's concept of "abjection" and "the abject." It's a powerful idea that clarifies real bodily experiences, raw affects, and urgent political concerns involving violence, vulnerability, scapegoating, and disgust. www.buzzsprout.com/2131830/epis...
Reposted by abby
mostly I think people should subscribe to @unhappinesspod.bsky.social which is ad free for all forever, anti AI to the end, and even has done some cronenberg content! I do love Bella tho
October 9, 2025 at 2:39 PM
mostly I think people should subscribe to @unhappinesspod.bsky.social which is ad free for all forever, anti AI to the end, and even has done some cronenberg content! I do love Bella tho
Reposted by abby
🚨 NEW EPISODE🚨 The incomparable @lilyscherlis.bsky.social joins @counterfactual.bsky.social and Dan to discuss her experience at the 2024 Tavistock conference, the meaning of “group relations" in general and for leftists in particular, the legacies of WR Bion, and much more!
117: Experiences in Groups feat. Lily Scherlis Teaser - Ordinary Unhappiness
Subscribe to get access to the full episode, the episode reading list, and all premium episodes! www.patreon.com/OrdinaryUnhappinessAbby and Dan sit down with writer and performance artist Lily Scherl...
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October 4, 2025 at 11:54 AM
🚨 NEW EPISODE🚨 The incomparable @lilyscherlis.bsky.social joins @counterfactual.bsky.social and Dan to discuss her experience at the 2024 Tavistock conference, the meaning of “group relations" in general and for leftists in particular, the legacies of WR Bion, and much more!
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🚨NEW BONUS EPISODE🚨 Our own @patblanchfield.bsky.social joins the great Matthew Sitman and Sam Adler-Bell of the Know Your Enemy podcast to talk Charlie Kirk, martyrdom, mourning, memory, and the psychic and political landscape of our moment.
www.buzzsprout.com/2131830/epis...
www.buzzsprout.com/2131830/epis...
Bonus Episode: Martyrdom, Mourning, and the Legacy of Charlie Kirk - Ordinary Unhappiness
Abby and Patrick share Patrick’s appearance on the Know Your Enemy podcast, hosted by friends of Ordinary Unhappiness Matthew Sitman and Sam Adler-Bell. Patrick, Matt, and Sam process last weekend’s t...
www.buzzsprout.com
September 30, 2025 at 5:12 PM
🚨NEW BONUS EPISODE🚨 Our own @patblanchfield.bsky.social joins the great Matthew Sitman and Sam Adler-Bell of the Know Your Enemy podcast to talk Charlie Kirk, martyrdom, mourning, memory, and the psychic and political landscape of our moment.
www.buzzsprout.com/2131830/epis...
www.buzzsprout.com/2131830/epis...
Reposted by abby
Fashion isn’t fluff but a psychic and political engine. This conversation tracks how Freud fretted over his barber and tailor, while Lacan’s gaze and Anzieu’s skin‑ego live in clothes as armor and second skin.
With Valerie Steele on @unhappinesspod.bsky.social
With Valerie Steele on @unhappinesspod.bsky.social
114: Fashion and Psychoanalysis feat. Valerie Steele - Ordinary Unhappiness
Abby and Patrick welcome Valerie Steele, Director and Chief Curator of the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, to discuss her new book, Dress, Dreams, and Desire: Fashion and…
buff.ly
September 29, 2025 at 1:03 PM
Fashion isn’t fluff but a psychic and political engine. This conversation tracks how Freud fretted over his barber and tailor, while Lacan’s gaze and Anzieu’s skin‑ego live in clothes as armor and second skin.
With Valerie Steele on @unhappinesspod.bsky.social
With Valerie Steele on @unhappinesspod.bsky.social
Reposted by abby
🚨NEW EPISODE🚨 We're joined by writer Michael Clune, author of the new novel, Pan! It's a tour de force tale of growing up, friendship, coolness, drugs, unfolding on the boundaries between the normal upheavals of adolescence and acute pathology.
www.buzzsprout.com/2131830/epis...
www.buzzsprout.com/2131830/epis...
116: Writing Panic feat. Michael Clune - Ordinary Unhappiness
Abby and Patrick welcome writer and academic Michael Clune to discuss his new novel, Pan. It is the story of Nick, a teenage boy living alone with his divorced father in the 1990s Midwest. Precocious ...
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September 27, 2025 at 12:03 PM
🚨NEW EPISODE🚨 We're joined by writer Michael Clune, author of the new novel, Pan! It's a tour de force tale of growing up, friendship, coolness, drugs, unfolding on the boundaries between the normal upheavals of adolescence and acute pathology.
www.buzzsprout.com/2131830/epis...
www.buzzsprout.com/2131830/epis...
Reposted by abby
🚨NEW STANDARD EDITION🚨 Freud goes on an alpine holiday - but altitude is no barrier to psychic distress. Joins us for the story of Katharina, the shortest, strangest, and saddest of the Studies on Hysteria. www.buzzsprout.com/2131830/epis...
115: Standard Edition Volume 2 Part 6: Studies on Hysteria, Part VI: Katharina Teaser - Ordinary Unhappiness
Subscribe to get access to the full episode, the episode reading list, and all premium episodes! www.patreon.com/OrdinaryUnhappinessAbby and Patrick read the shortest, strangest, and arguably saddest entry in the Studies on Hysteria – the case of ...
www.buzzsprout.com
September 20, 2025 at 3:17 PM
🚨NEW STANDARD EDITION🚨 Freud goes on an alpine holiday - but altitude is no barrier to psychic distress. Joins us for the story of Katharina, the shortest, strangest, and saddest of the Studies on Hysteria. www.buzzsprout.com/2131830/epis...
Reposted by abby
🚨NEW EPISODE🚨 From protective armor to revealing display, from the mirror stage to the skin ego, and from runways to our dreams, in what ways do we all use clothes, like it or not, to literally fashion ourselves?
www.buzzsprout.com/2131830/epis...
www.buzzsprout.com/2131830/epis...
114: Fashion and Psychoanalysis feat. Valerie Steele - Ordinary Unhappiness
Abby and Patrick welcome Valerie Steele, Director and Chief Curator of the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, to discuss her new book, Dress, Dreams, and Desire: Fashion and Ps...
www.buzzsprout.com
September 13, 2025 at 1:50 PM
🚨NEW EPISODE🚨 From protective armor to revealing display, from the mirror stage to the skin ego, and from runways to our dreams, in what ways do we all use clothes, like it or not, to literally fashion ourselves?
www.buzzsprout.com/2131830/epis...
www.buzzsprout.com/2131830/epis...
Reposted by abby
we're at the fashion show
we're at the psychoanalysis show
we're at the joint fashion and psychoanalysis show
this amazing exhibit at the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology opens tomorrow; our interview with MFIT Director and Chief Curator Valerie Steele drops this Saturday!
we're at the psychoanalysis show
we're at the joint fashion and psychoanalysis show
this amazing exhibit at the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology opens tomorrow; our interview with MFIT Director and Chief Curator Valerie Steele drops this Saturday!
September 9, 2025 at 6:57 PM
we're at the fashion show
we're at the psychoanalysis show
we're at the joint fashion and psychoanalysis show
this amazing exhibit at the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology opens tomorrow; our interview with MFIT Director and Chief Curator Valerie Steele drops this Saturday!
we're at the psychoanalysis show
we're at the joint fashion and psychoanalysis show
this amazing exhibit at the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology opens tomorrow; our interview with MFIT Director and Chief Curator Valerie Steele drops this Saturday!
Reposted by abby
🚨NEW WILD ANALYSIS🚨 We finish "The Pervert's Guide to Cinema"! It's a Lynchian carnivalesque of lack, desire, and the mystery of what Zizek means, precisely, by all the "precisely"-s.
www.buzzsprout.com/2131830/epis...
www.buzzsprout.com/2131830/epis...
113: The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema, Part III Teaser - Ordinary Unhappiness
Subscribe to get access to the full episode, the episode reading list, and all premium episodes! www.patreon.com/OrdinaryUnhappinessAbby, Dan, and Patrick conclude their viewing of Sophie Fiennes’ and...
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September 6, 2025 at 1:29 PM
🚨NEW WILD ANALYSIS🚨 We finish "The Pervert's Guide to Cinema"! It's a Lynchian carnivalesque of lack, desire, and the mystery of what Zizek means, precisely, by all the "precisely"-s.
www.buzzsprout.com/2131830/epis...
www.buzzsprout.com/2131830/epis...
Reposted by abby
🚨NEW EPISODE🚨 From preparation to dose day to integration, Dr. Josh West shares the details of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy clinical trials in Australia. Plus: the history of psychedelic research, legacies of appropriation, and the ethics of care www.buzzsprout.com/2131830/epis...
112: Psilocybin-Assisted Psychotherapy feat. Josh West - Ordinary Unhappiness
Abby and Patrick are joined by Dr. Josh West to talk about some remarkable developments in psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy in Australia. Josh explains to Abby and Patrick how the clinical trials he ...
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August 30, 2025 at 1:02 PM
🚨NEW EPISODE🚨 From preparation to dose day to integration, Dr. Josh West shares the details of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy clinical trials in Australia. Plus: the history of psychedelic research, legacies of appropriation, and the ethics of care www.buzzsprout.com/2131830/epis...
Reposted by abby
🚨NEW STANDARD EDITION🚨 It's the case of Lucy R, an English governess plagued by unrequited love and haunted by phantom smells. And it's the story of Freud confronting something radical about memory, narrative, time, and the process of cure. Check it out! www.buzzsprout.com/2131830/epis...
111: Standard Edition Volume 2 Part 5: Studies on Hysteria, Part V: Miss Lucy R. Teaser - Ordinary Unhappiness
Subscribe to get access to the full episode, the episode reading list, and all premium episodes! www.patreon.com/OrdinaryUnhappinessAbby and Patrick turn to the next of Freud’s cases in Studies on Hys...
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August 16, 2025 at 1:36 PM
🚨NEW STANDARD EDITION🚨 It's the case of Lucy R, an English governess plagued by unrequited love and haunted by phantom smells. And it's the story of Freud confronting something radical about memory, narrative, time, and the process of cure. Check it out! www.buzzsprout.com/2131830/epis...
Reposted by abby
we're doing a Back to School membership special! check it out!
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Back to School Special: 20% off all annual memberships! | Ordinary Unhappiness
Get more from Ordinary Unhappiness on Patreon
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August 14, 2025 at 5:52 PM
we're doing a Back to School membership special! check it out!
www.patreon.com/posts/back-t...
www.patreon.com/posts/back-t...
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🚨NEW EPISODE🚨 We mark the demise of "And Just Like That..." by giving it, and "Sex and the City," a psychoanalytic send-off. From ambivalence to desire to neurosis to the meanings of clothes and the psychic stakes of fashion, we go all in! www.buzzsprout.com/2131830/epis...
110: Wild Analysis: Sex and the City Teaser - Ordinary Unhappiness
Subscribe to get access to the full episode, the episode reading list, and all premium episodes! www.patreon.com/OrdinaryUnhappinessAbby and Patrick mark the announcement of the end of And Just Like T...
www.buzzsprout.com
August 9, 2025 at 2:07 PM
🚨NEW EPISODE🚨 We mark the demise of "And Just Like That..." by giving it, and "Sex and the City," a psychoanalytic send-off. From ambivalence to desire to neurosis to the meanings of clothes and the psychic stakes of fashion, we go all in! www.buzzsprout.com/2131830/epis...
Reposted by abby
🚨NEW BONUS EPISODE🚨 @patblanchfield.bsky.social goes on @inbedwiththeright.bsky.social to talk Epstein: what we know, what we don’t, what we’ll never, what we always did, and what all these contortions of knowledge, secrecy, anticipation, and obviousness might mean www.buzzsprout.com/2131830/epis...
Bonus Episode: Jeffrey Epstein: Open Secrets (Crossover with In Bed With the Right) - Ordinary Unhappiness
We’re happy to share In Bed With the Right's latest episode. Patrick sits down with friends of OU Adrian Daub and Moira Donegan to reckon with the Epstein case - what we know, what we don’t know, what...
www.buzzsprout.com
July 29, 2025 at 10:07 AM
🚨NEW BONUS EPISODE🚨 @patblanchfield.bsky.social goes on @inbedwiththeright.bsky.social to talk Epstein: what we know, what we don’t, what we’ll never, what we always did, and what all these contortions of knowledge, secrecy, anticipation, and obviousness might mean www.buzzsprout.com/2131830/epis...
Reposted by abby
🚨NEW EPISODE🚨 What do people mean by 'somatics,' and what does that have to do with politics? We're joined by Sumitra Rajkumar of @actionlabny.bsky.social to talk the body, the forces that shape it, therapeutic practice, organizing, and collective transformation www.buzzsprout.com/2131830/epis...
109: Somatics, Politics, and Practice feat. Sumitra Rajkumar - Ordinary Unhappiness
Abby and Patrick are joined by somatics practitioner Sumitra Rajkumar to clarify the theory and practice of somatics and its relationship to ideas of personal and collective transformation. Sumitra wa...
www.buzzsprout.com
July 26, 2025 at 1:08 PM
🚨NEW EPISODE🚨 What do people mean by 'somatics,' and what does that have to do with politics? We're joined by Sumitra Rajkumar of @actionlabny.bsky.social to talk the body, the forces that shape it, therapeutic practice, organizing, and collective transformation www.buzzsprout.com/2131830/epis...
Reposted by abby
🚨 NEW STANDARD EDITION EPISODE🚨 Abby and Patrick read the case of "Frau Emmy von N" AKA "the one where Freud learns to listen." Then they go behind the pseudonym for the real Fanny Moser's tale of wealth, scandal, and maybe even True Crime! www.buzzsprout.com/2131830/epis...
Episode 108: Standard Edition Volume 2 Part 4: Studies on Hysteria, Part IV: Frau Emmy von N. Teaser - Ordinary Unhappiness
Subscribe to get access to the full episode, the episode reading list, and all premium episodes! www.patreon.com/OrdinaryUnhappinessAbby and Patrick examine the case study of “Frau Emmy von N.” From t...
www.buzzsprout.com
July 19, 2025 at 2:54 PM
🚨 NEW STANDARD EDITION EPISODE🚨 Abby and Patrick read the case of "Frau Emmy von N" AKA "the one where Freud learns to listen." Then they go behind the pseudonym for the real Fanny Moser's tale of wealth, scandal, and maybe even True Crime! www.buzzsprout.com/2131830/epis...