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Stuff You Should Know

Battle Royale: Optimists vs Pessimists

16 Dec 2025

Transcription

Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?

0.031 - 3.763 Unknown

This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human.

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4.435 - 17.328 Stephen Curry

I'm Stephen Curry, and this is Gentleman's Cut. I think what makes Gentleman's Cut different is me being a part of developing the profile of this beautiful finished product. With every sip, you get a little something different.

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17.949 - 37.368 Chuck Bryan

Visit Gentleman'sCutBourbon.com for your nearest Total Wines or BevMo. This message is intended for audiences 21 and older. Gentleman's Cut Bourbon, Boone County, Kentucky. For more on Gentleman's Cut Bourbon, please visit Gentleman'sCutBourbon.com. Please enjoy responsibly. Hi, Kyle. Could you draw up a quick document with the basic business plan?

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37.708 - 58.668 Chuck Bryan

Just one page as a Google Doc and send me the link. Thanks. Hey, just finished drawing up that quick one page business plan for you. Here's the link. But there was no link. There was no business plan. I hadn't programmed Kyle to be able to do that yet. I'm Evan Ratliff here with a story of entrepreneurship in the AI age. Listen as I attempt to build a real startup run by fake people.

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59.509 - 64.193 Chuck Bryan

Check out the second season of my podcast, Shell Game, on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

65.118 - 83.019 Unknown

Whether it is getting swatted or just hateful messages online, there is a lot of harm in even just reading the comments. That's cybersecurity expert Camille Stewart Gloucester on the Therapy for Black Girls podcast. Every season is a chance to grow, and the Therapy for Black Girls podcast is here to walk with you.

83.679 - 104.121 Unknown

I'm Dr. Joy Harden-Bradford, and each week we dive into real conversations that help you move with more clarity and confidence. This episode, we're breaking down what really happens to your information online and how to protect yourself with intention. Listen to Therapy for Black Girls on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

105.522 - 120.977 Chuck Bryan

All right, everybody in Canada, we have a pretty big announcement. We are finally going to do our first big, big tour of Canada. We're going to announce the dates in the theaters in cities here first, and then we're going to give you all the ticket info. Okay. How does that sound? It sounds great, Chuck. Where are we going to go first?

120.957 - 141.956 Chuck Bryan

On June 25th, we're going to be in Montreal at the Olympia de Montreal. The next night on the 26th, we're going to be going to Ottawa, the Hard Rock Live Ottawa. And then on the 27th, finish up in Toronto at Massey Hall. And then we're going to walk to the next show. So it's going to take us a few weeks. That's right. On July 23rd, we're going to be in Vancouver at Queen Elizabeth Theatre.

Chapter 2: How does the concept of optimism differ from pessimism?

1094.743 - 1110.325 Chuck Bryan

I'll send it to you. Okay. But I went on, I guess, a bit of a tailspin. So I tried to make myself feel better. I went and listened to some Kenny G to brighten my mood. That'll do it. And I was just sitting there. I realized I was just sitting there waiting for him to screw up eventually. So I stopped listening to Kenny G. Right.

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1110.305 - 1127.773 Chuck Bryan

And I went and listened to Alone Again naturally, and then everything was all right again. Okay. That's good. Attributional optimism or pessimism is what we mentioned earlier is the other side of that coin. And that's when you're either saying, like, this thing that was good in my life is –

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1127.753 - 1141.266 Chuck Bryan

happened because of this good thing only, or this bad thing that happened, happened because of this bad thing only. It's basically assigning blame to what happens in your life. And if you're, you know, some of this stuff is kind of no brainer.

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1141.687 - 1157.102 Chuck Bryan

If you're optimistic, you are much more prone to attribute negative events to a specific thing like, hey, things usually work out for me and this didn't just because of this. Whereas if you're a pessimist, it's like, no, this happened to me just because this kind of stuff always happens to me.

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1157.082 - 1174.26 Chuck Bryan

Yeah, and in the same vein, if you're a pessimist and something good happens to you, like that was just one in a million chance it's never going to happen again. That makes me so sad. It is, but that's usually how it works on this test, the attributional style questionnaire. I looked at that one too. That's a Martin Seligman joint.

1175.361 - 1196.534 Chuck Bryan

And it's 12 questions, 12 situations actually, where it says, so for example, one of them will say, a friend compliments you on your appearance. And then it asks you to write in what the cause was, right? Like you got some new duds or something like that. Right. Fresh haircut. I've got an even better example. There's one that said you've been looking for a job unsuccessfully for a long time.

1196.775 - 1222.03 Chuck Bryan

Then you'd write in the cause. Say you said it was a bad economy or you even said I'm not good at interviewing. Then it says, OK, they ask you questions about the cause, like how much of that is due to the actions of yourself versus other causes. And so you might say like, well, I'm going through a bad spell right now. So, you know, it's probably me and my gloomy nature right now.

1222.551 - 1238.098 Chuck Bryan

And they'll say, well, how likely is it that the issue is going to be present the next time that you interview? You can say, well, I expect to be feeling a lot better next time, so maybe I'll be doing a little better. And then how much does it extend to other parts of your life? So there's 12 of those.

1238.218 - 1244.11 Chuck Bryan

And from that, apparently you can glean quite clearly whether somebody leans pessimist or optimist.

Chapter 3: What are the psychological roots of optimism and pessimism?

1391.281 - 1412.709 Chuck Bryan

Oh, good. Such that he can can speak. And, you know, I mean, I think he's doing as well as he can be for, you know, such a I think is a pretty massive stroke. But the interview I saw was like he had a sense of humor and was engaged and people really, really loved hearing from him again. That's wonderful. I'm glad I asked then. Yeah. I just saw that kind of recently, too. That's funny.

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1412.789 - 1437.312 Chuck Bryan

You must be in my algorithm. I'm all up in there. Should we take a break or should we go through this last bit? We should go through the last bit. Okay. So here's something that's probably not surprising. Is it dispositional and attributional optimism are really correlated to one another? And really no surprise, they're also – I was about to say comorbid, but that always sounds bad –

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1437.292 - 1462.387 Chuck Bryan

But correlated to high self-esteem, positive affect, feeling like you're in control of your life and your outcomes. And obviously negatively correlated with feeling depressed or stressed or alienated or having anxiety or hopelessness. Yeah, and as far as big five personality traits goes, it's most closely related to emotional stability, optimism is.

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1462.407 - 1462.627 Unknown

Yeah.

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1463.388 - 1483.266 Chuck Bryan

So essentially, if you put all that together, that's the kid from your high school that you hated because everybody loved him and he was in a great mood all the time and he loved you. Yeah, that was kind of me. Oh, no. Oh, really? Yeah, sort of. Mine was Scott Galvin or Tony Appie. Ah, man, Tony Appie, that guy. Mm-hmm. So I say we take a break. Okay. We'll take a break.

1483.567 - 1489.253 Chuck Bryan

We're going to think about our lives and where this podcast is headed, and I'm feeling pretty good about it. Not domestic. We'll be right back.

1503.155 - 1516.072 Stephen Curry

I'm Stephen Curry, and this is Gentleman's Cut. I think what makes Gentleman's Cut different is me being a part of developing the profile of this beautiful finished product. With every sip, you get a little something different.

1516.693 - 1537.252 Chuck Bryan

Visit Gentleman'sCutBourbon.com for your nearest Total Wines or BevMo. This message is intended for audiences 21 and older. Gentleman's Cut Bourbon, Boone County, Kentucky. For more on Gentleman's Cut Bourbon, please visit Gentleman'sCutBourbon.com. Please enjoy responsibly. Dad had the strong belief that the devil was attacking us.

1537.912 - 1546.122 Unknown

Two brothers, one devout household, two radically different paths. Gabe Ortiz became one of the highest-ranking law enforcement officers in Texas.

Chapter 4: How do optimism and pessimism affect our health?

3020.285 - 3030.375 Chuck Bryan

Yeah, I think that's a great one. Like that ball of foil. That's right. There's another variation called defensive pessimism. I like this one.

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3030.596 - 3046.512 Chuck Bryan

I mean, this isn't really me, but I think there's a lot of validity here in that if you have lower expectations and you're sort of planning for the worst, that's almost the same as being optimistic in a way as far as it helping you in life, because it can really help manage your anxiety and

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3046.492 - 3068.128 Chuck Bryan

It can make you feel like you have some sense of control and you're not, you know, like during covid, they found that if you were a defensive pessimist, then that correlated with taking more precautions and being safer and I guess being healthier. Yeah, if you ever put two words together to describe me, it's defensive pessimist. Yeah. For sure. I can see that.

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3068.148 - 3088.808 Chuck Bryan

And I think there's no greater description than this, but defensive pessimists don't focus as much on pursuing happiness. They focus more on avoiding regret. Yeah. Which is, I mean, they can still have the same outcome, but it's what you're chasing is different. You're avoiding a negative outcome rather than pursuing a positive outcome, but the outcome's still the same. You succeeded.

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3089.088 - 3089.188

Yeah.

3089.725 - 3107.869 Chuck Bryan

Because you're pursuing something. Yeah, you're actually you're it's based on the idea that you can change your fate. Right. Like you can take actions to affect this outcome and make it as close to the outcome you want as possible. That's the same thing as optimism. It's just coming at it a different way.

3108.187 - 3129.721 Chuck Bryan

Yeah, I really like that idea because, I mean, it's not me, but I love it for you because it's not like, well, this is just going to happen to me no matter what. It's like, boy, I have a bad feeling that this is going to happen to me unless I take these steps. Right. The only downside of it is like you won't let yourself think about the future being good because you'll jinx it, essentially. Yeah.

3130.241 - 3154.813 Chuck Bryan

Yeah. Jinxing is a whole other part of this thing. So what you just described, though, is what I think is the worst one, fatalistic pessimism, which is everything's wrong and I can't do anything to change it. That is a sad, sad disposition that I like to think that is not set in stone. It's just because of life circumstances or it's a particular low point in your life. I don't know.

3154.894 - 3178.093 Chuck Bryan

But I don't like to think that anyone out there is at their base of fatalistic pessimists. That's just sad. Yeah. Yeah, agreed. On the flip side of that coin, you have toxic positivity. I mean, we almost don't even need to say anything else because I think everyone knows what that is. It can lead to bad things because like that's sort of the Pollyanna thing I was talking about.

Chapter 5: How can we measure optimism and pessimism?

3629.032 - 3652.882 Chuck Bryan

So I feel like if you have the ability to shift between pessimism and optimism as the situation calls for it, that's probably ideal. Yeah, for sure. Or, you know, if you're a defensive pessimist, it's not about aiming low. It's about not expecting too high. And then if you have and it sounds bad to have like you should have low expectations. It's more like realistic expectations.

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3653.483 - 3673.808 Chuck Bryan

And then you outperform those like that's got to feel great to a pessimist. For sure. It's like planning for the worst, but hoping for the best. Yeah, that old t-shirt. Isn't there a cat hanging from a tree or something? I think that's hanging there, baby. Okay. You got anything else? I got nothing else. That was a good one. I enjoyed it. Agreed.

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3673.828 - 3696.082 Chuck Bryan

Well, Chuck enjoyed this one, which means he automatically unlocked listener mail. You know what? I don't have a great listener mail prepped for today. So let's just mention once again that we are going on tour again next year. We are super excited. We got shows lined up in January out west-ish in the Midwest in April and then We're finally going all across Canada, you guys.

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3696.122 - 3720.3 Chuck Bryan

We're reaching out with an olive branch. Such weird times between our countries and saying, hey, don't boycott us. We want to come visit you. We're going to Montreal. We're going to places we've never been before. And tickets are on sale now, and we'd love to see everybody. Yeah. Starting out, we're going to be in Denver and then Seattle and then San Francisco on January 27th, 28th, and 29th.

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3720.42 - 3732.737 Chuck Bryan

Yeah. And for those tickets and all tickets as they come on sale, you can just go to stuffyoushouldknow.com, click on the tour button, and it will take you where you need to go. That's right. Can't wait to see everybody, eh?

3732.937 - 3733.037

Yeah.

3733.27 - 3742.727 Chuck Bryan

Yeah, hey. And if you want to get in touch with us in the meantime and send us an email, we would love that. You can send it off to stuffpodcasts at iheartradio.com.

3746.093 - 3755.43 Unknown

Stuff You Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

3761.671 - 3774.583 Stephen Curry

I'm Stephen Curry, and this is Gentleman's Cut. I think what makes Gentleman's Cut different is me being a part of developing the profile of this beautiful finished product. With every sip, you get a little something different.

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