You may think of anxiety as a reaction, a feeling, or a disorder. My guest today says that perhaps the best way to think about anxiety, especially if you want to treat it effectively, is as a habit.

His name is Dr. Judson Brewer, and he's a psychiatrist and neuroscientist, and the author of Unwinding Anxiety: New Science Shows How to Break the Cycles of Worry and Fear to Heal Your Mind. Dr. Jud and I begin our conversation with what anxiety is, and how it gets connected into a habit loop that can lead to other maladaptive behaviors like drinking, overeating, and worrying. Dr. Jud then explains how to hack the anxiety habit loop by mapping it out, disenchanting your anxiety-driven behaviors, and giving your brain "a bigger, better offer" by getting curious about your anxiety. We also talk about why asking why you're anxious is not part of this process, and end our conversation with how this habit-based approach to behavior change can also work for things like depression and anger.

#782: Anxiety Is a Habit — Here's How to Break It

Great Ming is having some problems with its border troops who think orders are actually "suggestions." The Jiajing Emperor is having some problems with his ministers being self-serving twits. Meanwhile, there's some strange happenings going on beyond the wild frontiers...

Time Period Covered:
~1510-1540 CE

The History of China

#235 - Ming 25: Some Light Treason

Rana Eid est sound designer et réalisatrice. Depuis près 40 ans, elle enregistre les ambiances de Beyrouth, sa ville natale. Elle enregistre donc les sons de la guerre civile (1975-1990), la reconstruction, la guerre de 2006, la révolution civile de 2019, l’explosion du port le 4 août 2020 et enfin l’effondrement actuel du Liban. Aujourd'hui, elle commente ses propres archives sonores qui racontent son pays meurtri et une ville qui retient son souffle. Marine Vlahovic (Carnets de correspondante) a rencontré Rana Eid une première fois en 2014 avant de la retrouver quelques années plus tard. Un manifeste sensible sur l’importance du son dans nos mémoires. 

Ce documentaire est lauréat de l'appel à projets 2021 du ministère de la Culture.

Le souffle de Beyrouth

Why do corrupt people end up in power?

By way of an answer, you probably think of that famous quote from Lord Acton, "Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely." But my guest today, Brian Klaas, would say that's only one part of what leads to corrupt individuals and cultures, the other being that people who are already corrupt are more likely to seek power in the first place. Brian argues that if we ever hope to develop better systems, from our national governments to our office hierarchies, we have to work on both prongs of this dynamic, not only preventing people who gain power from going bad, but encouraging good people to seek power as well.

Brian is the author of Corruptible: Who Gets Power and How It Changes Us, and today on the show, he and I discuss how people who possess the so-called "dark triad" of traits are more attracted to positions of power, how the framing around those positions can either amplify or alter this self-selection effect, and what a tyrannical homeowners' association president and a psychopathic school janitor show us about these dynamics. We also discuss why power does indeed corrupt people and can in fact change their very brain chemistry. Brian explains the importance of accountability in keeping a system clean, and how you can serve in positions of power without becoming corrupted yourself.

#792: How Power Corrupts

Kyle Bagenstose from USA Today gives us a look at how the US is moving forward on climate change.

The US is making a big down payment on climate change. Here's what needs to come next

Rights for women and girls have regressed by decades; the economy is cratering. Yet, for many rural Afghans, things are actually <a href="https://www.economist.com/asia/2022/08/11/afghanistan-is-poorer-and-hungrier-than-a-year-ago?utm_campaign=a.io&amp;utm_medium=audio.podcast.np&amp;utm_source=theintelligence&amp;utm_content=discovery.content.anonymous.tr_shownotes_na-na_article&amp;utm_term=sa.listeners" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">better</a> than they were before America scarpered. Silicon Valley types once righteously spurned the military-industrial establishment—now they’re <a href="https://www.economist.com/business/2022/08/08/can-tech-reshape-the-pentagon?utm_campaign=a.io&amp;utm_medium=audio.podcast.np&amp;utm_source=theintelligence&amp;utm_content=discovery.content.anonymous.tr_shownotes_na-na_article&amp;utm_term=sa.listeners" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">queuing up</a> to fund defence startups. And the surprising truth about the most famous scene in “Bambi”, which is <a href="https://www.economist.com/culture/2022/08/11/bambi-offers-a-horrifying-portrait-of-eco-catastrophe?utm_campaign=a.io&amp;utm_medium=audio.podcast.np&amp;utm_source=theintelligence&amp;utm_content=discovery.content.anonymous.tr_shownotes_na-na_article&amp;utm_term=sa.listeners" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">turning 80</a>.For full access to print, digital and audio editions of The Economist, subscribe here <a href="http://www.economist.com/intelligenceoffer" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">www.economist.com/intelligenceoffer</a> <hr> Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.

Poorer, hungrier, safer? Afghanistan one year on

<ul> 
<li>Apple is just three weeks away from showing off the iPhone 14.</li> 
<li>Apple workers launch petition over company's reported return-to-office plan.</li> 
<li>Apple's new iPad multitasking system doesn't cut it</li> 
<li>Apple releases iOS, iPadOS and macOS security fixes for two zero-days under active attack.</li> 
<li>Tim Cook, Jony Ive, and Laurene Powell Jobs to speak at Code 2022 conference next month.</li> 
<li>iOS VPNs have leaked traffic for years, researcher claims.</li> 
<li>M2 MacBook Air runs Windows 11 faster than pricier Dell laptop.</li> 
<li>Former Apple engineer accused of stealing automotive trade secrets pleads guilty.</li> 
<li>John Foster: In memoriam.</li> 
<li>10 million watched 'House of Dragon,' HBO says.</li> 
<li>Apple fails in bid for Big Ten Conference streaming package.</li> 
<li>Apple brings Self-Service Repair to the Mac.</li> 
<li>Jason found a funny bug in macOS beta.</li></ul> 
Picks of the Week<ul> 
<li>Alex's Pick: Stellar X2</li> 
<li>Andy's Pick: Anker Nano II 65W GaN Charger</li> 
<li>Jason's Pick: One Thing &amp; Shortery</li></ul> 
Hosts: <a href="https://twit.tv/people/leo-laporte">Leo Laporte</a>, <a href="https://twit.tv/people/alex-lindsay">Alex Lindsay</a>, <a href="https://twit.tv/people/andy-ihnatko">Andy Ihnatko</a>, and <a href="https://twit.tv/people/jason-snell">Jason Snell</a> 
Download or subscribe to this show at <a href="https://twit.tv/shows/macbreak-weekly">https://twit.tv/shows/macbreak-weekly</a>. 
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MacBreak Weekly 832: A Fine Patina

If making small talk makes someone anxious, it may just be because they have a fear of such interactions, and my guest today, Rich Gallagher, can help them overcome it through his practice as a therapist. Or, someone’s anxiety around small talk can be based in part on simply not knowing how to do it, and in that case, Rich helps them by teaching them the mechanics of conversation, which he shares in his book Stress-Free Small Talk, as well as on today’s show.

Rich and I begin our conversation with how small talk is important as an on-ramp to bigger things, how it’s a skill that can be developed like any other, and how learning its mechanics can dampen the anxiety you feel about taking part in it. We then turn to these mechanics of making comfortable and effective small talk, including doing prep work, embracing tried-and-true openers, and avoiding talking too much yourself. We also discuss how to join conversations that are already underway, manage committing a faux pas, acknowledge others to build connection, and end a conversation gracefully. We end our conversation with small talk strategies for first dates and job interviews, and what to do when you go to a party where you only know the host.

#802: Stress-Free Small Talk

During World War II, Henry Beecher, an anesthesiologist serving in the U.S. Army, noticed that 32% of the soldiers he treated for horrific battle wounds felt no pain. A further 44% experienced only slight or mild discomfort, despite the fact they had shrapnel embedded in their bodies. Beecher hypothesized that the euphoria of surviving battle resulted in the release of a natural painkiller. When morphine was running low in Europe, Beecher thought he could harness the mind’s seeming ability to produce natural painkillers in a different way by injecting soldiers who were about to undergo surgery with a simple saline solution, while telling the soldiers they were receiving morphine. About 90% of these patients underwent the surgery with little or no pain.

Beecher’s field-expedient placebo treatments would go on to open up decades of research into the power of our expectations. On today’s show, my guest will walk us through that fascinating research, and how the connection between the body and the mind is a lot stronger and wilder than we know.

His name is David Robson and he’s an award-winning science writer and the author of The Expectation Effect: How Your Mindset Can Change Your World. David and I begin our conversation with how and why the brain operates as a prediction machine, and how the expectations it generates can shape the reality we experience. We then discuss how even when someone’s pain or condition is very real, the placebo effect can have an equally real effect on their physiology — even when people know they’re taking a placebo. We also get into the “nocebo effect,” where your expectation that a drug will have negative side effects, in fact produces those side effects. From there we turn to how the expectation effect has powerful results beyond the medical world, and shows up in the areas of sleep, diet, and fitness, including how thinking of doing chores as exercise actually increases the health benefits of that activity, how reframing your anxiety can turn it into a performance-enhancing boost, and how your perception of getting older hugely affects how you will actually physically and mentally age.

#803: How Your Expectations Can Change Your Life

In the 19th century, the source of the Nile River remained one of the greatest mysteries of geographic exploration. The story of how the British eventually found it is one of adventure, danger, and bravery, but also arrogance, envy, and resentment.

Here to offer some snapshots from this dramatic expedition is Candice Millard, author of River of the Gods: Genius, Courage, and Betrayal in the Search for the Source of the Nile. Today on the show, Candice shares how two men who were very much opposites, Richard Francis Burton and John Hanning Speke, ventured together on two years-long expeditions to locate the source of the longest and most legendary river in the world, the harrowing obstacles they faced in their quest, and how their partnership devolved into a bitter rivalry. Along the way, we discuss what made Burton such a compelling character, why we remember his name but not Speke's, and the African guide who was the unheralded hero in the achievements of both men.

#804: Genius, Courage, and Betrayal in the Search for the Source of the Nile

Link’s dream of riding horses, a deadly new animal named after Pink Floyd, whether or not it’s ethical to eat a talking pizza and more on this week’s episode of Ear Biscuits.

Support Jake's fight against Lyme Disease here: https://www.gofundme.com/jakesidwell

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#782: Anxiety Is a Habit — Here's How to Break It

The Art of Manliness

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