A study of 150,000 people revealed that the number of new cases of depression worldwide increased 50% between 1990 and 2017. The highest increases were seen in regions with the highest income, especially North America. John Sutter: We need to strive for a kind of a modern asceticism. He says we're all constantly hyperstimulated in so many ways.
In “Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence,” Dr. Anna Lembke says today’s superabundance of pleasurable stimuli makes us all vulnerable to overindulgence. But don’t lose hope. Anna, the medical director of addiction medicine at Stanford, says that by understanding how modern stimulants — from Instagram to masturbation machines — prey on our primitive brains, we can find ways to overcome the unhealthy dependencies that prevent us from leading balanced lives.
(This episode originally aired in December 2021.)
Host: Rufus Griscom
Guest: Anna Lembke
Executive Producer: Caleb Bissinger
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