The world is simultaneously on fire and deeply, profoundly ridiculous, and somehow you're supposed to just keep going. In this episode, certified health coach Noemie Mooney shares what collective burnout actually looks like, why looking away doesn't help either, and the 4 research-backed things that do.
Does everything feel harder right now, or is it just you?
It’s not just you.
14 minutes of negative news is enough to trigger catastrophising about your own life.
In this episode, let’s get honest about collective exhaustion: the guilt of looking away, the gap between the scroll and the street, and the four evidence-based interventions that actually help.
I’ll walk you through what the research says about subtraction, nervous system regulation, movement, and social connection, and why none of it has to be dramatic to make a difference.
In this episode:
How does negative news affect your mental health? The 14-minute threshold that changes how you see your own life
Why does looking away from the news make you feel guilty? The overwhelm-disconnection gap
Are we really as divided as the internet says? What the 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer found vs what the street actually feels like
What is cyclic sighing? The Stanford-studied breathing technique that outperformed meditation
Subtractive solutions: why your brain defaults to adding more when removing is faster and more effective (Nature, 2021)
Does exercise really help depression? The BMJ’s 218-study analysis and what it found
Why social connection has the same survival effect as quitting smoking
Timestamp:
[00:00] The world is on fire (and deeply ridiculous)
[02:07] Welcome + Lake Atitlán + why tuning out doesn’t help
[03:31] 14 minutes of negative news & why everything feels worse
[04:32] The scroll vs the street: are we really that divided?
[06:42] 4 evidence-based ways to cope
[09:53] Your experiment for this week
Mentioned in this episode:
Johnston & Davey, British Journal of Psychology, 1997: 14 minutes of negative news triggers personal catastrophising
Reuters Institute Digital News Report, 2024: news avoidance at record high (39% globally)
2026 Edelman Trust Barometer: 70% unwilling to trust someone with different values
Adams et al., Nature, 2021: people overlook subtractive solutions, especially when overwhelmed
Balban et al., Cell Reports Medicine, 2023: cyclic sighing outperformed meditation for mood (Stanford)
Noetel et al., BMJ, 2024: exercise and depression meta-analysis (218 studies), walking/yoga/strength comparable to medication
Holt-Lunstad et al., PLoS Medicine, 2010: social connection increases survival odds by 50%
Your experiment for this week:
Pick one of the 4 interventions:
Subtract something noisy.
Try five minutes of cyclic sighing.
Move for twenty minutes.
Or text someone and say “is it just me, or does everything feel a bit fucked?”
One thing. This week.
“Maybe the distrust lives in the scroll, not in the street.”
What’s the one thing you’ve stopped doing that made everything feel a bit quieter?
Noemie x
Noemie Mooney is an ACE Certified Health Coach, ICF-trained Behaviour Change Specialist, podcast host and the creator of the MAKE SPACE Method™, a science-backed framework for sustainable habits and mental health. She writes on Substack about burnout, habit formation, and evidence-based behaviour change psychology for people who want practical tools without the self-help BS.
