Episode 01 · May 20, 2026 · 43 minutes
Two psychologists sit down to talk about the thing everyone keeps asking them about: AI.
Gabriel Lowe and Reid Kessler get into what actually happens when people bring their problems to a chatbot. Not the think-piece version, the clinical one. What an AI companion can offer at 2 a.m. when no one else is awake. Why the conversation feels so good at first, and what's missing that takes longer to notice. What it means that a language model will never be bored by you, never misunderstand you, and never need anything back.
That last part sounds like a selling point. Reid makes the case that it's the whole problem. Therapy works partly because there's another mind in the room, one you can disappoint, surprise, and repair with. Friction is not a bug in human relationships. It's where the change comes from.
Along the way: AI as a rehearsal space versus AI as a replacement, what therapists should actually do with patients who use chatbots between sessions, and why "being known" is a different experience than being responded to.
Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
Related reading: Reid wrote about this on the Undercurrent blog in "Can AI Replace Therapy?"
Where Did Your Mind Just Go? is hosted by Gabriel Lowe, PhD, and produced by Coastal Therapy Group, a psychologist-owned practice in Carlsbad, Encinitas, and Vista. New episodes drop the first and third Wednesday of each month.