In Chapter five of Out of the Fire, Ken takes us back to years as an undergraduate at The University of Vermont. The story opens with a vivid roof scene in June 1967, as Ken and a friend drop acid and drift into Whitman, awe, and the seductive idea that the self can expand beyond limits. That framing matters because the episode is less about a campus timeline and more about a 1960s coming-of-age story where belief, identity, and morality feel pliable. For listeners searching for stories about self-discovery, trauma, and the psychology of belonging, Burlington, with its liberal “live and let live” facade has a lot happening underneath. We are taken on a summer visit to Ken’s mother in Arlington, Virginia after his abandonment by his mother in 1961. The episode places personal trauma alongside national hope as Ken listens to #Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech and then sees President #John F. Kennedy speak to interns on the White House lawn. That optimism foll...