In the mid-1970s, a man loaded a station wagon with self-published books and drove across the country, walking into radio stations and bookstores until he vaulted onto the national bestseller list before the major publishers realized what happened. This episode traces the evolution of Wayne Dyer.

We follow his hard Detroit childhood in an orphanage, his transformation from academic guidance counselor to self-help icon with Your Erroneous Zones, and his later pivot from psychology to spirituality and New Thought mysticism. We also examine the controversies, including plagiarism accusations from Albert Ellis and a copyright suit over the Tao Te Ching, and how his core message of self-reliance stayed constant.

• How an institutional childhood forged his radical internal locus of control
• His war on guilt and the parking-brake m ...