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Stuff You Should Know

Short Stuff: Why does it feel good to be scared?

24 Jun 2026

Transcription

Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.

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

0.031 - 2.593

This is an iHeart Podcast.

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2.613 - 15.886 Josh Clark

Guaranteed human. Hey, and welcome to the short stuff. I'm Josh, and there's Chuck, and Jerry's here too, sitting in for a day. And this is Stuff You Should Know.

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Chapter 2: What is the difference between fear and being scared?

15.926 - 24.935 Josh Clark

And we're here to answer a perennial question that everyone wants to know. Just why in the gosh darn heck do we make ourselves scared on purpose?

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25.675 - 28.418 Chuck Bryant

Yeah, here, scare me real quick. Do something. Let's do a little exercise.

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28.87 - 32.495 Josh Clark

you're starting to look old.

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33.897 - 36.039 Chuck Bryant

No, no, no. Okay. Really scary. Say boo or something.

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36.28 - 38.022 Josh Clark

Oh, okay. That's going to scare you more.

39.043 - 40.165 Chuck Bryant

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Boo.

Chapter 3: Why do we intentionally seek out scary experiences?

41.066 - 45.492 Chuck Bryant

Oh my God. Oh boy. As it turns out, that was really exhilarating and I feel great now.

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45.992 - 49.177 Josh Clark

Yeah. Well, you overcame a fear, a real threat.

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50.118 - 69.829 Chuck Bryant

Yeah. It is an interesting question though. And thanks to our old friends at house of works.com, as well as psychology today and the American brain foundation, uh, who have all, as well as other places, looked into that weird question like you were talking about. Like, why would anybody pay to go into a truly terrifying haunted house or a truly terrifying movie?

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70.009 - 89.252 Josh Clark

And like, yeah, we all know anecdotally or personally why But like if you step back and look at it from a rational standpoint, it makes zero sense whatsoever. Like we're purposefully stimulating what's meant to be like an unpleasant experience, unpleasant response in ourselves. Yeah.

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89.57 - 105.809 Chuck Bryant

Yeah, for sure. You know, we'll get into that in a second. We need to sort of delineate, though, like what we're talking about. We did an episode on fear a while back. It was a long time ago, I think. It was a pretty good one, if I remember correctly. But we're not talking about anxiety. Like there's anxiety and there's fear.

105.849 - 115.881 Chuck Bryant

Anxiety is the stuff that keeps you up at night, like existential threats or am I getting old or is our country being ruined or is there a looming –

115.861 - 129.861 Chuck Bryant

War coming to our country like things that haven't happened yet that you're truly upset and anxious about is not the same thing as as fear of something that is like somebody jumping out and saying boo something that happens right in front of your face.

129.881 - 146.863 Josh Clark

Exactly. Right. So you got that. And fear is about something jumping out right in front of your face. It's about like an immediate threat to your well-being, maybe your life. And it triggers the fight or flight response.

147.468 - 148.27 Chuck Bryant

Yeah, for sure.

Chapter 4: Why do we enjoy scary movies and haunted houses?

214.379 - 219.433 Josh Clark

I say we take a little break, Chuck, and then we come back and we go step by step how this whole thing goes for us.

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220.035 - 220.536 Chuck Bryant

Yeah, let's do it.

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220.596 - 220.877 Josh Clark

Okay.

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235.133 - 251.418 Brandon Kyle Goodman

Happy Pride from the Outspoken Podcast Network. All month long and all year round, we're celebrating being loud, proud, and always original. It's me, Brandon Kyle Goodman, host of the podcast Tell Me Something Messy. Check out my show for unfiltered takes on dating, relationships, and adulting.

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251.658 - 257.968 Greg Olsen

The more you get comfortable with someone, the more their real self comes out. They're going to be gross. What's the grossest thing about a man? Burping. Shut it down.

257.948 - 267.961 Brandon Kyle Goodman

Listen to High Key for the best pop culture takes, and there are no girls on the internet for all your tech news. For your favorite celebrity kikis, check out Outlaws with T.S. Madison.

268.121 - 277.012

Wait, so Luke was the son of Vader, and Vader was turned by RuPaul? Yeah, well, somebody turned him. Some old, old, old witch.

277.032 - 294.894 Brandon Kyle Goodman

Learn to love yourself unapologetically with BFF, Black Fat Femme, and start your day with intention with Waking Up With Ryan, coming in July. Celebrate pride with the Outspoken Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Open your free iHeartRadio app, search Pride, and listen now.

294.974 - 317.791

What did Black music, food, and culture teach us about who we were becoming? 2016 was sort of that last era of monoculture where we still consumed things in community. From Beyonce and Rihanna. Everybody wanted to be Beyonce. I don't think we'll ever see another Rihanna. to soul food, memory, identity, and the stories we carry through Black culture.

Chapter 5: How does the fight or flight response relate to fear?

496.382 - 497.904 Chuck Bryant

I like diggity toilet. Let's start a new thing.

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497.944 - 499.047 Josh Clark

All right.

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499.067 - 503.635 Chuck Bryant

Boy, that 6-7 thing went away like quicker than I've ever seen anything go away.

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503.615 - 520.296 Josh Clark

I was reading a book yesterday. It was Crime and Punishment. And I'm not just saying this just to show everybody I'm reading Crime and Punishment. But somebody mentioned something being like sixes and sevens. And I couldn't tell from the context what they were talking about still.

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Chapter 6: What physiological changes occur during a scary experience?

520.837 - 527.325 Josh Clark

I think it was kind of positive or something like that. But I was like, is that where that came from originally or is it just coincidence?

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527.83 - 534.056 Chuck Bryant

That was coincidence because they know where it came from, which I want for you to tell you that.

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534.076 - 536.759 Josh Clark

Well, it was a basketball player being interviewed, but where did he get it?

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536.779 - 557.078 Chuck Bryant

Yeah. Oh, I think it just came out of nowhere and it just caught on. But my whole point was that thing went away like in a matter of weeks. I think as soon as all the parents started doing it, like every small child, like I'm talking people my daughter's age and younger were like, no. Like I did it one time. She was like, oh, no one does that.

557.058 - 567.281 Josh Clark

Yeah, I feel like that's a valuable lesson. If we are ever all annoyed by something that the younger generation is saying, we just start saying it ourselves. Just adopt it ourselves for a week.

567.301 - 573.033 Chuck Bryant

Yeah, for sure. I love it. That's a good, we should test that out when the next stupid thing comes along.

573.053 - 573.835 Josh Clark

Okay, you got it.

574.118 - 575.821 Chuck Bryant

All right. So where were we? Fight or flight? Yes.

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