Dr. Martha Beck

So you take the negativity bias, it sees the most negative thing in the room or online. The algorithms are written to give us more of whatever our attention lives on the longest, you know, when we fixate attention. It gears those algorithms to give us similar material, which is an externalization of what's going on in our brains. We see something negative. We think it's gone wrong.

So you take the negativity bias, it sees the most negative thing in the room or online. The algorithms are written to give us more of whatever our attention lives on the longest, you know, when we fixate attention. It gears those algorithms to give us similar material, which is an externalization of what's going on in our brains. We see something negative. We think it's gone wrong.

So you take the negativity bias, it sees the most negative thing in the room or online. The algorithms are written to give us more of whatever our attention lives on the longest, you know, when we fixate attention. It gears those algorithms to give us similar material, which is an externalization of what's going on in our brains. We see something negative. We think it's gone wrong.

We smell something. Oh, that's strange. Then immediately it's, oh, goodness, what if there's a gas leak? Oh, my God, I know somebody who died in a gas leak. And that story, instead of being seen as fantasy, which it is, is reinterpreted by the primitive levels of the brain as an actual environment, right?

We smell something. Oh, that's strange. Then immediately it's, oh, goodness, what if there's a gas leak? Oh, my God, I know somebody who died in a gas leak. And that story, instead of being seen as fantasy, which it is, is reinterpreted by the primitive levels of the brain as an actual environment, right?

We smell something. Oh, that's strange. Then immediately it's, oh, goodness, what if there's a gas leak? Oh, my God, I know somebody who died in a gas leak. And that story, instead of being seen as fantasy, which it is, is reinterpreted by the primitive levels of the brain as an actual environment, right?

So when you say, oh my God, the IRS is coming to take everything, your amygdala responds as if you are actively physically being attacked. And it can stay in that high fight or flight excitation level for literally years while you slowly die of degenerative illness because you were never meant to live in that high state of fear arousal. So, yeah, it's one way.

So when you say, oh my God, the IRS is coming to take everything, your amygdala responds as if you are actively physically being attacked. And it can stay in that high fight or flight excitation level for literally years while you slowly die of degenerative illness because you were never meant to live in that high state of fear arousal. So, yeah, it's one way.

So when you say, oh my God, the IRS is coming to take everything, your amygdala responds as if you are actively physically being attacked. And it can stay in that high fight or flight excitation level for literally years while you slowly die of degenerative illness because you were never meant to live in that high state of fear arousal. So, yeah, it's one way.

It's what scientists call an unregulated feedback system. It goes in, it feeds on itself. It drives itself higher and higher. And unless you actively defuse it to mix a bunch of metaphors, it's just going to keep going up and up and up.

It's what scientists call an unregulated feedback system. It goes in, it feeds on itself. It drives itself higher and higher. And unless you actively defuse it to mix a bunch of metaphors, it's just going to keep going up and up and up.

It's what scientists call an unregulated feedback system. It goes in, it feeds on itself. It drives itself higher and higher. And unless you actively defuse it to mix a bunch of metaphors, it's just going to keep going up and up and up.

Yeah, I used to think that too. But I am a sociologist by training. And when I started looking at the difference between a healthy fear response and chronic anxiety, I saw basically that we have come from a place of anxiety and fear, and we have created institutions, media, and all kinds of other devices that are designed to reflect our obsession with what is dangerous.

Yeah, I used to think that too. But I am a sociologist by training. And when I started looking at the difference between a healthy fear response and chronic anxiety, I saw basically that we have come from a place of anxiety and fear, and we have created institutions, media, and all kinds of other devices that are designed to reflect our obsession with what is dangerous.

Yeah, I used to think that too. But I am a sociologist by training. And when I started looking at the difference between a healthy fear response and chronic anxiety, I saw basically that we have come from a place of anxiety and fear, and we have created institutions, media, and all kinds of other devices that are designed to reflect our obsession with what is dangerous.

even 300 years ago, you or I might have woken up in a village where we heard mainly winds, water running, trees rustling, each other's voices, birdsong. We would get up and we would do things all day that we had evolved to interact with, animals, plants, each other. And it's interesting that

even 300 years ago, you or I might have woken up in a village where we heard mainly winds, water running, trees rustling, each other's voices, birdsong. We would get up and we would do things all day that we had evolved to interact with, animals, plants, each other. And it's interesting that

even 300 years ago, you or I might have woken up in a village where we heard mainly winds, water running, trees rustling, each other's voices, birdsong. We would get up and we would do things all day that we had evolved to interact with, animals, plants, each other. And it's interesting that

in the modern society, the things that we do on vacation, hunting, fishing, basket weaving, whatever it is, the reason we enjoy them so much is that they are what we evolved to do and they are highly regulating to our nervous systems. But we don't live that way. We get up into a world that is very, to cite the work of the wonderful Ian McGilchrist, who you

in the modern society, the things that we do on vacation, hunting, fishing, basket weaving, whatever it is, the reason we enjoy them so much is that they are what we evolved to do and they are highly regulating to our nervous systems. But we don't live that way. We get up into a world that is very, to cite the work of the wonderful Ian McGilchrist, who you