We live in the safest, most connected, and technologically advanced period in human history.

So why does modern life feel increasingly empty?

In Part 2 of our deep dive into The Master and His Emissary, we explore a provocative idea from psychiatrist and neuroscientist Iain McGilchrist: that the growing emptiness, anxiety, disconnection, and loss of meaning many people feel may not be random. It may be the result of how our culture has shifted toward one mode of thinking over another.

According to McGilchrist, the brain’s left and right hemispheres don’t simply handle different tasks, but instead represent radically different ways of relating to reality. The right hemisphere sees the world as living, connected, meaningful, embodied, and whole. The left hemisphere categorizes, abstracts, analyzes, controls, and turns reality ...