Themes

A

• AcceptanceEp 8
• Alienation
• ArtEp 2

  Painting, prose style and the near-spiritual pride of making something.

• AuthenticityEp 2

  Honest criticism versus polite, piled-on agreement.

C

• ConsciousnessEp 4
• CreativityEp 2

  Creative work as an almost spiritual source of pride, set against laziness and consumption.

• Curiosity

D

• DeathEp 3
• Decision-Making
• DesireEp 6

  Buying things (Funko Pops, figurines, Amazon packages) to fill an emptiness they can't touch.

• Devotion
• DisciplineEp 2

  Writing every day, finishing the first draft, making the time despite circumstances.

• DreamsEp 4

E

• EgoEp 2

  Martial arts, solo sport and criticism as checks on an inflated ego; early success eroding hunger.

• Embodiment
• Empathy
• EquanimityEp 6

  Silence, the pause between videos, and meditation, now among the scariest experiences for people raised online.

F

• Fame
• FamilyEp 2

  Leaving Canada at 26 and returning at 42; seeing one's country more clearly from abroad.

• FearEp 2

  What actually frightens us (nuclear war, trafficking, environmental collapse) versus fantasy dragons, and science fiction that scares.

• FreedomEp 8

G

• GriefEp 5
• Growth

H

• HealingEp 1

I

• IdentityEp 8
• IntegrityEp 8
• Intuition

J

• Joy

L

• LoveEp 8

M

• MadnessEp 4
• Masculinity
• MasksEp 2

  The facades and veneers people prefer over the bare truth.

• MeaningEp 2

  Desire and aspiration as what keeps a life, or a protagonist, from futility.

• Memory
• MysteryEp 12

N

• Non-AttachmentEp 1

P

• Perception
• PessimismEp 2

  Generation X cynicism, Hungarian pessimism, and whether Grant's outlook is pessimism or realism.

• PlayEp 2

  Laughing at pain as a way to rise above it (Catch-22, Alan Watts' jester).

• PresenceEp 6
• Psychedelics

R

• RadicalizationEp 6

  How ordinary, lonely young people are drawn into extremist movements. This is Logan's research field and a core thread of Troll.

• ReadingEp 2

  Why serious fiction is worth the effort: reading as active imaginative work, meditation, and friendship with a book.

• RelationshipsEp 4
• ReligionEp 5

S

• Self-KnowledgeEp 4
• Sexuality
• ShadowEp 3
• ShameEp 9

  A thread running through the whole episode: shame from upbringing, religion, and Balkan sexual and gender norms as the material the shadow is made of, and speaking it aloud as the way it…

• Social MediaEp 6
• SpiritualityEp 4
• SufferingEp 2

  Whether pain fuels great writing, and Grant's view that pain is a beginning, not an end.

T

• Technology
• TimeEp 2

  How books change as we age, being an older student, and Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont on growing old.

• Truth

U

• UncertaintyEp 1

V

• Victimhood

W

• WorkEp 7
• WritingEp 2

  Grant's life as a writer: short stories, memoir plans, film scripts, the drudgery of editing and submitting.