Ellen Vora in Conversation with Michael Barbaro: Season of the Witch

Please submit questions for the speakers in the chat starting on October 14 at approximately 6 pm ET.

Holistic psychiatrist and bestselling author Ellen Vora joins The New York Times’ Michael Barbaro, host of The Daily, for a conversation about her provocative new book Season of the Witch: A Psychiatrist’s Case For Magic — an invitation to reclaim intuition, embodiment, and mystery as essential forms of intelligence.

According to Vora, every woman possesses a natural connection to magic — but our culture teaches us to disavow it. Drawing on her work at the intersection of psychiatry, functional medicine, and holistic healing, Vora argues that modern life has encouraged us to suppress ways of knowing that are deeply human — and that reconnecting with them can transform how we care for ourselves, our relationships, and our communities.

Inspired in part by her own experience of grief, Vora explores what it means to embrace a fuller vision of health — one that honors both scientific understanding and the aspects of life that resist easy explanation. In Season of the Witch, she outlines five practices for cultivating presence, trusting inner wisdom, and restoring a sense of connection in an increasingly fragmented world. In a thoughtful, provocative conversation, Vora and Barbaro explore the forces shaping our emotional lives, the growing desire for meaning in a culture of optimization, and how reclaiming intuition can make us more resilient.

Don’t miss these longtime friends for a conversation examining the tension between skepticism and belief, evidence and experience, and consider how we might rediscover a system of belief and being that incorporates wonder — one that is grounded, curious, and open to the mystery of what makes us fully alive.