In this episode of You Only, host Low Jackson explores American Family by Catherine Marshall-Smith, a powerful novel that dismantles the myth of the “perfect” American family and replaces it with something far more honest: a story about love, judgment, silence, and the roles we assign to one another in order to survive. Drawing from Marshall-Smith’s exploration of custody, identity, addiction, and belonging, this episode examines how families often mistake quiet strength for absence, intelligence for laziness, and unconventional care for failure.

Blending the book’s themes with personal reflection, Low Jackson shares a defining story about misjudging his stepdad—an experience that reveals how easily inherited narratives become accepted truth. Through psychological insight, attachment theory, and family-systems thinking, the episode unpacks archetypes like the hero and the mascot, showing how these roles form, why they persist, and how they shape adult identity long after childhood ends. This conversation isn’t about rewriting the past or assigning blame—it’s about seeing clearly. American Family becomes a lens for understanding how perception shapes memory, how misunderstanding becomes legacy, and how healing often begins when we learn to look again at the people who raised us and recognize the unseen work they were doing all along.

In this episode of The You Only Podcast, Low Jackson cracks open one of the most important books he’s ever read: The Emotionally Absent Mother by Jasmin Lee Cori. This isn’t a clinical breakdown or a textbook summary — it’s Low’s honest, unfiltered understanding of the book and how its ideas are helping him make sense of the wounds he carried since childhood.

Low walks through the core concepts of the book: what emotional neglect actually looks like, the subtle ways an absent mother shapes your sense of self, why so many adults still feel “unseen,” and how those patterns show up in relationships decades later. He breaks down the book’s healing steps and shares how he’s applying them in his own life — from recognizing unmet needs to learning how to feel safe, connected, and grounded for the first time.

This episode is for anyone who grew up feeling alone, misunderstood, or emotionally unsupported. Low isn’t claiming to be an expert — just a man doing the work, learning from the pages, and rebuilding himself piece by piece. If you’ve struggled with the silent ache of a mother who couldn’t show up for you, this conversation might be the one that finally helps everything click.

Inside the Violent Mind: What Creates a Killer—and What Could Stop One

What makes a person cross the line into violence? Is it trauma, biology, environment—or something darker buried deep in the brain?
In this episode of The You Only Podcast, we dive headfirst into Adrian Raine’s groundbreaking book The Anatomy of Violence and uncover the shocking science behind why some minds fracture… and others survive.

This episode isn’t just about criminals or killers.
It’s about us.
Our pasts.
Our pain.
And the invisible forces shaping who we become.

Using Raine’s research, we explore:
🔹 The brain abnormalities linked to aggression
🔹 How childhood trauma wires the mind for violence
🔹 The haunting question—are some people born bad?
🔹 And what society gets dangerously wrong about rehabilitation

As someone who’s survived the kind of childhood most people never speak about, I take Raine’s findings personally. Because when you’ve lived through violence, you don’t just study it—you feel it in your bones.

This episode is raw.
It’s honest.
And it might change the way you see the people around you… and the person you used to be.

If you’ve ever wondered why violence exists—or how anyone breaks free from its grip—you need to hear this.

Press play. Go deep. And walk with me into the mind we fear the most.