Learn why talking to yourself in the third person can help you keep your emotions in check. Then, learn about “superbugs” (and why we need to stop them) with Dr. Matt McCarthy, author of the new book “Superbugs: The Race to Stop an Epidemic.” In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following story from Curiosity.com about research that suggests talking to yourself in the third person can benefit your mental health: https://curiosity.im/2I2Raxy Additional resources from Dr. Matt McCarthy: Pick up “Superbugs: The Race to Stop an Epidemic” on Amazon — https://amazon.com Official website — http://www.drmattmccarthy.com/ Follow @DrMattMcCarthy on Twitter — https://twitter.com/drmattmccarthy What Superbug Hunters Know That We Don’t | The New York Times — https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/20/opinion/hospitals-antibiotic-resistant-bacteria-superbugs.html If you love our show and you're interested in hearing full-length interviews, then please consider supporting us on Patreon. You'll get exclusive episodes and access to our archives as soon as you become a Patron! https://www.patreon.com/curiositydotcom Download the FREE 5-star Curiosity app for Android and iOS at https://curiosity.im/podcast-app. And Amazon smart speaker users: you can listen to our podcast as part of your Amazon Alexa Flash Briefing — just click “enable” here: https://curiosity.im/podcast-flash-briefing.
Learn why talking to yourself in the third person can help you keep your emotions in check. Then, learn about “superbugs” (and why we need to stop them) with Dr. Matt McCarthy, author of the new book “Superbugs: The Race to Stop an Epidemic.”
In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following story from Curiosity.com about research that suggests talking to yourself in the third person can benefit your mental health: https://curiosity.im/2I2Raxy
Additional resources from Dr. Matt McCarthy:
If you love our show and you're interested in hearing full-length interviews, then please consider supporting us on Patreon. You'll get exclusive episodes and access to our archives as soon as you become a Patron! https://www.patreon.com/curiositydotcom
Download the FREE 5-star Curiosity app for Android and iOS at https://curiosity.im/podcast-app. And Amazon smart speaker users: you can listen to our podcast as part of your Amazon Alexa Flash Briefing — just click “enable” here: https://curiosity.im/podcast-flash-briefing.
Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/superbugs-and-antibiotic-resistance-w-dr-matt-mccarthy-and-third-person-pep-talks
CODY: Hi! We’re here from curiosity-dot-com to help you get smarter in just a few minutes. I’m Cody Gough.
ASHLEY: And I’m Ashley Hamer. Today, you’ll learn why talking to yourself in the third person can help you keep your emotions in check. You’ll also learn about “superbugs” (and why we need to stop them) with Dr. Matt McCarthy, author of the new book “Superbugs: The Race to Stop an Epidemic.”
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
To Keep Emotions In Check, Talk To Yourself In Third Person — https://curiosity.im/2I2Raxy (Ashley)
ASHLEY: Here’s a fun trick: research suggests that talking to yourself in the third person. Is great for your mental health.
CODY: Cody does this all the time [ad lib]
ASHLEY: This comes from a 2017 study published in the Nature journal Scientific Reports. Researchers from Michigan State University and the University of Michigan wanted to see how volunteers' emotions were affected by the way they talked to themselves during negative experiences. In the first experiment, the volunteers looked at a series of negative and neutral images while researchers recorded their brain activity on an electroencephalograph, or an EEG. While they looked, half of the volunteers asked themselves, "What am I feeling right now?" and the other half asked the same question, but used their own names in the third person. So for instance, if I was a study participant, I’d say, "What is Ashley feeling right now?" Then in the second experiment, participants recalled negative past experiences and asked themselves the same questions. While this was going on, researchers watched to see which areas of their brains were active, using an fMRI brain scan. And they found that when people spoke to themselves in the third person, the emotional activity in their brains dropped off a lot faster than the people who analyzed their feelings in the first person. The third-person participants also showed less activity in the part of the brain that's usually on high alert while reflecting on painful memories, and they also used less brainpower overall than the first-person participants. This all adds up to suggest that analyzing your feelings in the third person gives you a better handle on them and keeps them from going to extremes. Feeling better isn't the only benefit to talking to yourself with your own name, by the way. Other work from members of the research team behind this study found that people who referred to themselves in the third (or second!) person while they were preparing for a speech felt calmer and more confident, AND performed better than those who used the first person. They also felt better about the speech when it was over. The researchers think the third-person approach works because it leads people to think about themselves in a more similar way to how they think about others, and you can see evidence for this in the brain. It helps people gain a tiny bit of psychological distance from their experiences, and that can be useful for regulating emotions. After all, when you need a pep talk, who knows you better than yourself? [ad lib]
[INDEED]
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ASHLEY: New users can try for free at indeed.com-slash-podcast. That’s indeed-dot-com-slash podcast. Terms, conditions and quality standards apply.
Matt McCarthy 1 - What are superbugs and where do they come from? (3:10) (Cody)
CODY: Every day, more and more bacteria are becoming resistant to antibiotics, and you might be surprised to hear exactly how quickly this is happening. We took a deep dive into the world of antibiotics research in September 2017, in one of our first episodes of the Curiosity Podcast. And since then, we’re happy to report that there’s been a lot of progress in antibiotics research. That’s why today and tomorrow, we’re getting back into antibiotics with a two-part interview. Our guest is Dr. Matt McCarthy, an assistant professor of medicine at WHILE Cornell and a staff physician at New York Presbyterian Hospital, where he serves on the ethics committee. He’s also the author of a new book, “Superbugs: The Race to Stop an Epidemic,” which is his personal story about what it was like working on a groundbreaking clinical trial testing a new antibiotic to fight lethal superbugs. Tomorrow you’ll hear about that trial, but today, we’re gonna lay some groundwork. Here’s Dr. McCarthy explaining: what exactly are “superbugs,” and what’s this epidemic we’re trying to stop?
[CLIP 3:10]
Again, that was Dr. Matt McCarthy, and his new book is titled “Superbugs: The Race to Stop an Epidemic.” He’ll be back tomorrow to talk about the current state of antibiotics research, and to share some very good news: specifically, how the groundbreaking study he was a part of could change the way we both prevent and cure future superbug infections.
Read about today’s stories and more on curiosity-dot-com!
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