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

Do you ever feel like the time we live in feels flat, complacent, timid, conformist, populated by people who are focused on playing it safe and are inwardly empty?

A century and a half ago, the Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard felt the same way about the period in which he lived, and posited that there are two kinds of ages: the revolutionary, decisive, and passionate, and the sensible, rational, and reflective.

Here to unpack Kierkegaard’s ideas on these two kinds of ages is Jacob Howland, retired professor of philosophy and author of Kierkegaard and Socrates. Today on the show, Jacob and I first discuss some background on Kierkegaard and his existential philosophy. We then get into the differences between an age of passion and an age of reflection. We discuss how in a passionate age, an individual stands as an individual, possesses an energy which focuses on truth and ideals, and has the courage to take bold leaps of faith, while in a reflective age, the individual is subsumed by the crowd, is afraid of public opinion, and gets so lost in analysis and abstraction that he never makes a decisive move. All along the way, we delve into how Kierkegaard’s description of his age parallels our own, and Kierkegaard’s evergreen call to be an individual, embrace risk, and own your opinions and actions.

Kierkegaard on the Present (Passionless) Age

The Jianwen Emperor plays shell-games with his dad's spirit tablet, decides Confucius has had it too good for too long, gets gross in his pursuit for immortality, and tries breath-play with his concubines... oh yes, and fire. So, so much fire.

Time Period Covered:
ca. 1524-1547 CE

Major Historical Figures:
The Jiajing Emperor (Zhu Houcong) [r. 1521-1567]
Empress Dowager Zhang [r. 1505-1541]
Empress Chen [r. 1522-1528]
Empress Zhang [r. 1529-1534]
Empress Fang [r. 1534-1547]
Confucius [551-479 BCE]
Minister Xia Yan
Minister Huo Tao

Major Sources Cited:
Works Cited:
Geiss, James. “The Chia-ching reign, 1522-1566,” in The Cambridge History of China, Vol. 7: the Ming Dynasty, 1368-1644, Part I.
Huang, Weibo. “The palace rebellion of ‘Renyin’ and the Jiajing Emperor’s belief in alchemy” in Xiang Chao.
McMahon, Keith. Celestial Women: Imperial Wives and Concubines in China from Song to Qing.
Zhang, Tingyu. History of Ming, Vol. 114, Historical Biography 2, Empresses and Concubines 2.
Zhang, Yongchang. “The ‘Renyin’ palace rebellion: palace women sacrifice themselves” in Quanzhou Wenxue.

The History of China

#239 - Ming 26: Red Lead Prescription

In a city filled with dangerous yet heavily regulated alchemical magic, a man from the slums discovers he may be its only hope to survive certain destruction in this wickedly entertaining fantasy. 

Welcome to Bezim, where sword-slinging bravi race through the night and rich and idle alchemists make magic out of mixing and measuring the four planes of reality.

Siyon Velo, Dockside brat turned petty alchemist, scrapes a living hopping between the planes to harvest ingredients for the city’s alchemists. But when Siyon accidentally commits an act of impossible magic, he’s catapulted into the limelight—which is a bad place to be when the planes start lurching out of alignment, threatening to send Bezim into the sea.

It will take a miracle to save the city. Good thing Siyon has pulled off the impossible before. Now he just has to master it.

A dazzling fantasy bursting with wild magic, chaotic sword-fighting street gangs, brazen flirting, malevolent harpies, and one defiant alchemist.

"From the razor-sharp social climbing to the glimmering alchemist's library to the hidden realms beneath it all, I loved getting lost in this dazzling debut." —Shannon Chakraborty

Available September 13, 2022 from Hachette Audio as a digital download, and in Print and Ebook from Orbit. 

Download: 
https://books.apple.com/us/audiobook/notorious-sorcerer/id1624503357
https://libro.fm/audiobooks/9781668620007-notorious-sorcerer
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/audiobook/notorious-sorcerer-3
https://www.audiobooks.com/audiobook/notorious-sorcerer/593122
https://audiobookstore.com/audiobooks/notorious-sorcerer.aspx
https://www.audible.com/pd/Notorious-Sorcerer-Audiobook/B0B26KLGYQ?qid=1661529559&sr=1-1&ref=a_search_c3_lProduct_1_1&pf_rd_p=83218cca-c308-412f-bfcf-90198b687a2f&pf_rd_r=B5NY9QHFDTJX19NFWDFH
https://play.google.com/store/audiobooks/details/Davinia_Evans_Notorious_Sorcerer?id=AQAAAECC9Cu0uM
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/notorious-sorcerer-davinia-evans/1140838511?ean=2940175745000
https://www.estories.com/audiobook/599432/Davinia-Evans/Notorious-Sorcerer

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Notorious Sorcerer by Davinia Evans Read by Kirsten Foster - Audiobook Excerpt

If you're someone who's a decade or two out from your high school graduation, do you ever find yourself thinking that you're just not as happy as you were back then? Of course all the positive-thinking self-talk then kicks in and you think, "Well, maybe I actually wasn't that happy before. I do like my life better now. I like the independence I have. Yeah, yeah, I really like being an adult." Yet, no matter the glass-half-full glow you try to put on things, you can't shake the feeling that your happiness has declined over the years, that at 30, you weren't as happy as you were at 20, and that at 40, you weren't as happy as you were when you were 30.

Well, that feeling is more than a nostalgic hunch, and it's not unique to you. It's actually been born out by hundreds of research papers and studies and shown to be a near-universal experience. My guest today has authored many of those papers. His name is Dr. David Branchflower and he's a labor economist who not only studies the data around money and jobs, but also around human happiness. Today on the show David explains how happiness follows a U-shaped curve, and starts declining around age 18, and continues to fall into midlife, before picking back up again, and David shares the average age at which happiness hits its very lowest point. While it's not entirely clear why the U-shape of happiness occurs, we talk about some possible reasons behind it. And while the U-shape is consistent across the world, it can be lower or higher, and so we discuss how factors like gender, socio-economic and martial status, and having children affect happiness, and whether it's possible to mitigate the dip.

While the fact that it won't be until your mid-60s that you feel as happy as you were at age 18 might seem depressing, David argues that it's comforting to know that the feelings of declining happiness you experience at you approach midlife are normal, and will not only pass one day, but start moving in the other direction.

#795: The U-Shaped Curve of Happiness

Understanding storage options for a new Mac Mini. Disabling first-party ads on Windows 11. Leo Laporte's thoughts on the Tesla EV. Creating a home media server with Plex. Troubleshooting an iTunes verification issue. Troubleshooting Firefox's picture-in-picture feature. Finding a doorbell camera without a monthly subscription. Troubleshooting poor cellular service on an iPhone 11. Plus, conversations with Scott Wilkinson, Johnny Jet, and Dick Debartolo.<ul> 
<li>Relax: Instagram Did Not Turn on 'Precise Location' to Help People Stalk You | PCMag</li> 
<li>Mark Zuckerberg Tells Joe Rogan That Running Facebook Sucks, Metaverse Is Better</li> 
<li>Horizon Worlds | Virtual Reality Worlds and Communities</li> 
<li>Randomly selected quotes from Zuck's very, very long interview | TechCrunch</li> 
<li>What Is 'the Merge'? - The New York Times</li> 
<li>Mac mini - Apple</li> 
<li>Move your content to a new Mac - Apple Support</li> 
<li>Tech Talk with Scott Wilkinson Episode 9: Light Field Labs CEO Jon Karafin | AVS Forum</li> 
<li>Light Field Lab</li> 
<li>How to disable annoying ads on Windows 11 | Windows Central</li> 
<li>Media Server Downloads | Plex Media Server for Windows, Mac, Linux, FreeBSD and More</li> 
<li>Synology Inc.</li> 
<li>Plugins | Plex Support</li> 
<li>Johnny Jet | Simplify your Travel</li> 
<li>Remove and reinstall iTunes and related software components for Windows 7 and later - Apple Support</li> 
<li>iTrax – High-Resolution Music Downloads</li> 
<li>AIX Records – High-Resolution Music</li> 
<li>Amazon.com: Digital Music</li> 
<li>Amazon.com : sandisk clip</li> 
<li>About Picture-in-Picture in Firefox | Firefox Help</li> 
<li>How to Be More Productive with Hot Corners in Windows - Make Tech Easier</li> 
<li>Logitech Circle View Wired Video Doorbell - HomeKit Enabled</li> 
<li>Smart Video Doorbell | Netatmo</li> 
<li>Dual Cameras, Double Security - eufy</li> 
<li>Nest Doorbell Front Door Video Cameras - Google Store</li> 
<li>Video Doorbells – Wyze</li> 
<li>LastPass developer systems hacked to steal source code</li> 
<li>Small Size, Big Sound! | Giz Wiz Biz</li></ul> 
Host: <a href="https://twit.tv/people/leo-laporte">Leo Laporte</a> 
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The Tech Guy 1921

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Auggie Smith - .08

Jordan Poole - NBATV (9/25/22)

The markets are so far entirely unconvinced that the new administration’s <a href="https://www.economist.com/leaders/2022/09/22/liz-trusss-selective-reaganomics-wont-work?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">Reagan-esque economic plans</a> will work to spur growth—just look at <a href="https://www.economist.com/britain/2022/09/26/the-pound-is-plumbing-near-historical-depths-why?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">sterling's tumble</a>. In Tibet, China’s <a href="https://www.economist.com/china/2022/09/13/chinas-government-is-mass-collecting-dna-from-tibetans?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">mass collection</a> of DNA samples has one unabashed motive: social control. And the curious wave of “unretirees” <a href="https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2022/09/15/against-expectations-covid-19-retirees-are-returning-to-work?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">returning to work</a> after the pandemic.Additional audio courtesy of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.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> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.

In for a penny, in for a pounding: Britain’s economic gyrations

What made Teth Adam, soon to be played by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson in a major motion picture, go from a villain who appeared only once during the 1940s to one who changed the hierarchy of the DC Universe? Let’s dig deep into the history of Black Adam, Shazam’s greatest foe!

Additional research & writing by Diego Nunez - https://twitter.com/Blackcrow521 

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434: Black Adam

State media have taken to calling President Xi Jinping “the helmsman”; at the five-yearly meeting he <a href="https://www.economist.com/china/2022/10/16/at-chinas-communist-party-congress-xi-jinping-sails-on-undaunted?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">defended</a> his means of steering the country. We ask how to read between his tightly prepared lines. Many of America’s firms will soon deliver disappointing profits—and there is <a href="https://www.economist.com/business/2022/10/09/have-profits-peaked-at-american-businesses?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">more to blame</a> than simple business cycles. And research suggests that parenthood causes fathers’ brains <a href="https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2022/09/28/becoming-a-father-shrinks-your-cerebrum?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">to shrink</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> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.

Helmsman’s high water: China’s Communist Party Congress

Each week, Ashley and Jason will educate you about a different character from geek culture. Geek out, laugh, and learn! Get ready to enter your mind university.