@MYDBpodcast is a bite sized, real talk, daily motivation podcast to play while you make your bed every morning. Build momentum - better your life. Each episode is around 10 minutes and intended to encourage, motivate, and inspire you to get out of bed - so you can start making it! Julie Merica and Make Your Damn Bed Podcast is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. All content, including text, graphics, images and information, is ...
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Mydb Podcasts
Embrace the idea that life may lack inherent meaning, but that doesn't mean you can't create your own. Define your own values, goals, and purpose in life, even if it's in the face of apparent meaninglessness. RESOURCE: https://philosophy.stackexchange.com/questions/64941/what-is-the-meaning-of-life-in-the-myth-of-sisyphus AND https://en.wikipedia.o…
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Don't get down on yourself if you're unable to "visualize" your future + your goals. Focus on finding the feelings that drive you. RESOURCES: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_management AND Pareto principle AND https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tickler_file WATCH: www.youtube.com/juliemerica GET A MONTHLY NOTE FROM ME: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.com …
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1545 || what if society was good, actually? (fan favorite episode)
8:29
8:29
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8:29Utopia feels far away, post-scarcity feels less so. According to wikipedia: Post-scarcity is a theoretical economic situation in which most goods can be produced in great abundance with minimal human labor needed, so that they become available to all very cheaply or even freely.[1][2] Post-scarcity does not mean that scarcity has been eliminated fo…
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1545 || the drone of the magic around you (fan favorite episode)
10:10
10:10
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10:10When things become familiar to us, we no longer acknowledge them. The drone of cicadas in the background becomes impossible to hear unless you’re really listening. The pile of papers on the table becomes impossible to see unless you’re reminded they need to move. Things that no longer pose a threat, become obsolete to our focus. This is the same th…
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girlboss feminism + choice feminism prioritize individual privilege to the collective, which inherently means it is anti-feminist. today we read some discourse on what genuine feminism should look like. The Sources: "Embrace Intersectional Feminism" https://thebutlercollegian.com/2024/10/embrace-intersectional-feminism/ Empowerment > Choice Feminis…
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Choice freedom is the idea that any choice a woman makes is inherently feminist, but it's missing a LOT of context and ignores real consequences as a result. Today we're defining, tomorrow we're talking about how to avoid it. The Sources: Anita Sarkeesian: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOmIIAact4s&t=117s Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskFemini…
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How would you spend your time if you had more of it (and didn't need to monetize it)? Other sources: Why capitalism is stunting science: https://communist.red/why-capitalism-is-stunting-science Reddit thread on hobbies/capitalism: https://www.reddit.com/r/LateStageCapitalism/comments/11fj1tj/hobbies_used_to_be_fun_weve_lost_our_way/ Resources for R…
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We've discussed in the past how "guilt" can be a sign of empathy and growth, but today we dig into the science + the practical ways to deal with debilitating guilt, when it goes too far. THE SOURCE: https://www.upworthy.com/guilt-is-sign-of-trustworthiness https://www.calm.com/blog/how-to-stop-feeling-guilty https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PM…
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Today I'm offering some relationship advice from people who have been in relationships for nearly 4 decades!!! The source: https://www.upworthy.com/marriage-advice Resources for Resisting a Coup: https://makeyourdamnbed.medium.com/practical-guides-to-resisting-a-coup-b44571b9ad66 SUPPORT Julie (and the show!): https://supporter.acast.com/make-your-…
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1539 || how to escape an awkward conversations
7:30
7:30
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7:30Some people are bad at reading social cues, and they'll hold you hostage in a conversation. Today we talk about how to deal with those people. The Source: https://www.upworthy.com/people-who-talk-too-much Resources for Resisting a Coup: https://makeyourdamnbed.medium.com/practical-guides-to-resisting-a-coup-b44571b9ad66 SUPPORT Julie (and the show!…
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1538 || the final points of connection we all need
7:37
7:37
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7:37Research indicates that a variety of different social behaviors help prevent loneliness and foster a sense of community and belonging. 1. Have a neighborhood emergency contact 2. Belong to a community of identity 3. Join an activity-based community 4. Connect with a friend or family member at least twice a week 5. Finding your third place in the co…
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1537 || the points of connection we all need
9:11
9:11
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9:11Research indicates that a variety of different social behaviors help prevent loneliness and foster a sense of community and belonging. 1. Have a neighborhood emergency contact 2. Belong to a community of identity Tomorrow we cover the next four pieces to the puzzle: 3. Join an activity-based community 4. Connect with a friend or family member at le…
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Research from the HeartMath Institute has shown that our bodies pick up on the electromagnetic field of information that radiates from another’s heart. READ THE ARTICLE: https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_to_find_support_in_difficult_times Resources for Resisting a Coup: https://makeyourdamnbed.medium.com/practical-guides-to-resistin…
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1535 || how to actually respond (the conclusion)
6:22
6:22
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6:22Today is the final day of the how to deal with "bad faith actors" series. I share an article from "Honor the Earth" about how to respond to fascism in real life. https://www.honorearth.org/news/what-is-fascism-and-how-can-we-fight-it The Alt Right Playbook on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJA_jUddXvY7v0VkYRbANnTnzkA_HMFtQ Other So…
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Bad Faith Actors (or BFA's) don't give a fuck about the argument itself, they're playing a very different game altogether, and they're very skilled at baiting people into engaging with them in bad faith. The Alt Right Playbook on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJA_jUddXvY7v0VkYRbANnTnzkA_HMFtQ Other Sources: "Troll Wars": https://w…
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1533 || how to create an open + tolerant society
9:57
9:57
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9:57OKAY WE SHOULDN’T ARGUE WITH BFAS, WHAT SHOULD WE DO? We should not bury our head in the sand about these beliefs, but amplifying problematic, anti-social ideas is does not help. We can’t win in debates but we can't do nothing. And for me, that starts by understanding the tolerance paradox. Read Popper's Original Work (for free): https://archive.or…
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Bad Faith Actors (or BFA's) don't give a fuck about the argument itself, they're playing a very different game altogether. PROBLEM #1: The point is: You cannot win because the game is rigged and the points don’t matter. PROBLEM #2: You are validating and platforming the position of the agitator, even if you “win” because (see problem #1). Other Sou…
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1531 || discipline vs. devotion || a special patreon preview
9:32
9:32
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9:32Tune into the full episode on Patreon: www.patreon.com/MYDBpodcast Resources for Resisting a Coup: https://makeyourdamnbed.medium.com/practical-guides-to-resisting-a-coup-b44571b9ad66 SUPPORT Julie (and the show!): https://supporter.acast.com/make-your-damn-bed DONATE to the Palestinian Children's Relief Fund: www.pcrf.net GET AN OCCASIONAL PERSONA…
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fascists don't give a shit about facts, logic, or reality. They only care about framing their narrative as legitimate, and as soon as you engage with them, you lose. "A lie can travel half way around the world before the truth can even get its boots on." Sartre's Words: https://redsails.org/sartre-reason-falsely/ Other Sources: "Troll Wars": https:…
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BFA's are hell bent on preserving their identity, and they'd rather avoid reality completely than address the contradictions in theirs. Trolls don't care about reality at all, as long as they can engage you at all? They win. And it bears repeating: You cannot reason with the unreasonable. The Sources: "Fascism is not an idea to be debated but a set…
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Bad Faith Actors - meaning going into interactions with either 1. the intention to deceive or 2. A belief and conviction and faith so profound that they become unable to confront facts or logic or reality that contradicts that belief in any way. The Sources: "Fascism is not an idea to be debated but a set of actions to fight": https://lithub.com/fa…
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1527 || my fight with a bigot (a true story)
10:28
10:28
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10:28"He had sown chaos between me and my friend and he truly didn’t give a fuck. In fact, he looked like he was enjoying it. He was manipulating me and I was watching it happen but unaware of how to make it stop. I couldn’t let a man who didn’t deny being a nazi get away with this, but I truly had no idea how to stop him." Later I learned, defusing and…
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According to Meg-John Barker at rewriting the rules, "My own way of dealing with meaninglessness in life, has also been to embrace it as an inevitable part of life which will happen with some regularity. There will be times – perhaps quite frequently – when we feel that our projects are pointless in the grand scheme of things, or when the world fee…
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Because humanity has been here a while, and books exist where people write down what they do to deal with hard shit, there are plenty of first hand accounts of people not just surviving but thriving after dealing with the impossible. Survival is context based and has no rules or generalizations that would be fair, so I’ll skip that - but beyond sur…
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Maybe you don't need more things, you just need a thing. What happens when the shit that surrounds us starts to feel like it’s weighing us down rather than free us? When it feels like more shit to deal with, rather than tools and resources, or sources of joy. Resources for Resisting a Coup: https://makeyourdamnbed.medium.com/practical-guides-to-res…
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1523 || becoming optimistic using the ABCDE method
8:30
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8:30The ABCDE coaching model has five stages: Activating event or situation, Beliefs, Consequences, Disputation of the beliefs and Effective new approach to dealing with the problem. It's a coaching model that can help challenge your more pessimistic beliefs and actually improve how you respond to life. The Source: https://worldofwork.io/2019/06/abcde-…
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Some of us are predisposed to less optimistic than others. Fortunately, there are ways we can LEARN to be more optimistic with time and practice. The source: https://positivepsychology.com/learned-optimism/ Resources for Resisting a Coup: https://makeyourdamnbed.medium.com/practical-guides-to-resisting-a-coup-b44571b9ad66 SUPPORT Julie (and the sho…
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You weren't absent, you were on high alert. Survival mode means. you can't make memories. Let's talk about ways to get out of survival mode, and why it's so important to do so with intention, regularly. @TheCafeScrawls Post on Threads: https://www.threads.com/@thecafescrawls/post/DMBSvjtzCsq Resources for Resisting a Coup: https://makeyourdamnbed.m…
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1520 || shame, cringe, + the fear of being perceived.
10:17
10:17
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10:17Cringe is the ultimate vibe killer. Plus, when I fear being judged that's me writing your story for you, and that's not fair for either of you. Today we talk about the fear of being perceived and how I'm working around it. THE INSPIRATION VIDEO: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8k8BVdo/ Resources for Resisting a Coup: https://makeyourdamnbed.medium.com/p…
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Why have some gifts of nature remained free? By: Alyssa Battistoni THE RESOURCE: The Value of Nature: https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/the-value-of-nature/ Resources for Resisting a Coup: https://makeyourdamnbed.medium.com/practical-guides-to-resisting-a-coup-b44571b9ad66 SUPPORT Julie (and the show!): https://supporter.acast.com/make-your-d…
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Why have some gifts of nature remained free? By: Alyssa Battistoni THE RESOURCE: The Value of Nature: https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/the-value-of-nature/ Resources for Resisting a Coup: https://makeyourdamnbed.medium.com/practical-guides-to-resisting-a-coup-b44571b9ad66 SUPPORT Julie (and the show!): https://supporter.acast.com/make-your-d…
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NOTE: This is an old episode that never got published!!!! I decided to release it today before we move on to new topics. Science confirms that facebook is a skinner box and we are just rats but we can be more conscious with our most valuable asset (our attention) and life will improve. we just have to be conscious we're a part of the experiment. RE…
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Note: This is a revisitation of a past episode from 2023. I used uptime.app to check out the brief spark notes version of "Antisocial Media: Siva Vaidhyanathan's How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy" (available here: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/antisocial-media-9780190841164?cc=us&lang=en&) and he said: "Facebook is a mo…
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1515 || mixed emotions are worse than negative ones
8:32
8:32
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8:32Did you know that mixed emotions can be more emotionally taxing than purely negative ones? Today we talk about this + how to deal with it through things like “dialectical thinking," which is the attitude that opposite emotions are normal and compatible. The Sources: Arthur C. Brooks "Nothing Drains You Like Mixed Emotions" for The Atlantic: https:/…
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I am starting to think some of us are looking at ourselves too much, and if you stare at anything too long, it will start to look weird after a while. Plus, the internet has warped our perception of what real humans + real aging is supposed to look like. But today, I want to talk about the ways "selfie-culture" has distorted many people's perceptio…
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1513 || self care in trying times (finale)
10:27
10:27
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10:27With everything going on in the United States, chances are you’ve been working to stay informed, and maybe even help out in some ways — both of which can take a lot of mental energy. Your main goal is to find the balance between taking action and taking enough care of yourself that you’re actually able to work effectively. - Anna Borges The Source:…
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With everything going on in the United States, chances are you’ve been working to stay informed, and maybe even help out in some ways — both of which can take a lot of mental energy. Your main goal is to find the balance between taking action and taking enough care of yourself that you’re actually able to work effectively. - Anna Borges The Source:…
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Engaging with AI ethically is never going to be black and white, but we shouldn't feel shame or guilt for using these things with more awareness and tact. Being conscious is the best way to avoid the risks + potential consequences that come from engaging with an unregulated new technology. Managing our expectations and understanding the risks is in…
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We should be cautious about normalizing AI before establishing regulations: Unreliable:https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11729512/#:~:text=This%20study%20indicates%20that%20ChatGPT,back%20to%20an%20existing%20publication. AND https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07930- Plagiarism machine: https://youtu.be/TWpg1RmzAbc?si=OjKaOsE7GWKfm15…
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Here are some reasons we should be cautious about normalizing AI + ChatGPT before establishing regulations: It’s unreliable. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11729512/#:~:text=This%20study%20indicates%20that%20ChatGPT,back%20to%20an%20existing%20publication. AND https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07930- It’s a plagiarism machine. ht…
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AI is becoming increasingly unavoidable. It's in our phones, our TV's, and emails. But ChatGPT is one we STILL have a choice on how much we use it. There is a vast number of reasons we should be moderating the amount of AI we’re engaging with, while we still can. Here are some reasons we should be cautious about normalizing AI + ChatGPT before esta…
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People are more productive than ever before and YET our wages are not reflecting the growth in labor. Our wages have been stolen by the wealth hoarders and redistributed to shareholders at the expense of our dignity. We need to ensure their propaganda about laziness doesn't continue to influence the people around us. The robber barons are worse tha…
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I'm baaack!!! and today I'm diving into Zohran Mamdani's platform and campaign which has given me a surprising amount of renewed hope for the future of American politics, if we can stay focused on resistance, revolution, and harm reduction. SOURCES: NYTimes on Zohran: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/25/us/politics/what-is-democratic-socialism.html …
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there are so many different "consequentialisms" out there + it's important to not get lost in the "sauce" of the different combinations, but focus on the perspectives you can manage now, ideally the ones that affect you, your community, and the world around you. RESOURCE: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/consequentialism/ GET AN OCCASIONAL PERSON…
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What to expect under an authoritarian regime: 1. Democratic election through fear mongering. 2. They will divide + rule. 3. They will subjugate media outlets to create a propaganda machine. 4. They will create a sense of chaos + fear. 5. They will distort truth and lie to create confusion. 6. They will slander their "enemies" 7. They will create di…
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Hypernormalization: Pretending everything is fine, when it is obviously NOT fine. The goal is to keep us overwhelmed and confused and disengaged. Resist your apathy. Resist in any way you can. Join a co-op, a tenants union, a mutual aid network, a food pantry, local politics, and fight for a new reality that doesn't force so many to pretend it's no…
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I'm back!!!! I've missed you so much and wanted to ramble about community again (for old time's sake). GET AN OCCASIONAL PERSONAL EMAIL FROM ME: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.com TUNE IN ON INSTAGRAM FOR COOL CONTENT: www.instagram.com/mydbpodcast OR BE A REAL GEM + TUNE IN ON PATREON: www.patreon.com/MYDBpodcast OR WATCH ON YOUTUBE: www.youtube.com/j…
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stop intellectualizing everything + create something
8:45
8:45
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8:45we tend to over-intellectualize our feelings because we don't allow ourselves to work through them. Working through means DOING, CREATING, ACTING, PLAYING, and SEEKING JOY. Let down your walls + learn to feel through the act of creation. GET AN OCCASIONAL PERSONAL EMAIL FROM ME: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.com TUNE IN ON INSTAGRAM FOR COOL CONTENT: …
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1500 || resisting the persuasion of reciprocity
8:57
8:57
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8:57It starts with recognizing the game. If someone is doing you a favor out of the kindness of their heart, it won't be so difficult to offer them a favor in return. When someone is attempting to manipulate you with that favor??? You're allowed to respond in whatever way you see fit. DONATE:www.pcrf.net Get Involved:Operation Olive Branch: Spreadsheet…
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When you change the way you show up in your world, you encourage others to do the same + like the butterfly effect, sometimes the smallest + simplest changes can make the largest and most complex impacts! Resource: https://creaworld.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/All-About-Power.pdf More resources:https://commonslibrary.org/ DONATE:www.pcrf.net Get…
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