When I set out to cover this topic, “The Neuroscience of Outrage Porn,” I had this naive vision of a neat little Schoolhouse Rock cartoonish picture: when this happens, this part of the brain turns on, kind of thing.

Of course, the reality is much more complicated than that and it can even be different for different people.

And that’s why I have experts like Alex Korb on this show, to give us the nuanced reality to my cartoonish visions. On this episode of the Outrage Overload podcast, we’re going to learn what’s going on in our brain when we’re confronted with outrage porn and ways to better handle the resulting emotions.

We will cover this in two parts. First, in this episode, we’ll focus on some of the brain systems involved and resulting responses and in part two we will take a look at what we can do to be less stressed out and achieve better outcomes.

One bit of feedback I often hear is listeners looking for practical advice on how to better deal with outrage porn. This episode is loaded with great science-backed advice.

Dr. Alex Korb is a neuroscientist, researcher, professor, and best-selling author of “The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time.” He has studied the brain for over 20 years. He earned his undergraduate degree in neuroscience at Brown University and completed a Ph.D. in neuroscience at UCLA. He has published over a dozen peer-reviewed journal articles on depression, neuromodulation, and other topics. He is currently a professor at UCLA in the department of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences. As a consultant he works with companies and organizations to help them improve communication about neuroscience and enhance employee wellbeing. 

Transcript

Links and References:

Alex Korb, Ph.D. website:
https://alexkorbphd.com/

The Upward Spiral, New Harbinger Publications:
https://www.newharbinger.com/9781626251205/the-upward-spiral/