(Ep. 17) Social Media & Emotional Health

What if the app designed to know you better than you know yourself is actually handing you a map to your own unhealed pain?In this episode of Triggered & True, Laura Duncan and co-host Brian Freise take on a topic that feels like a departure but lands right at the heart of emotional health: social media, AI, and what your feed is doing to your inner world. Brian, who's been studying this closely, breaks down what artificial intelligence actually is — a machine trained to get to know you the way a spouse of eighteen years does — and why that's not mystical, but is worth understanding.Together they trace how platforms built to connect us quietly push everyone toward extremes (because moderation doesn't keep you scrolling), how algorithms exploit our pain and unmet needs, and why cutting social media out entirely is only a temporary boundary, not a healing. Then Brian does something genuinely brave: he lets Laura walk him through the remote control exercise live, on-air, using his own real trigger around a hot-button issue — and discovers the anger isn't about the issue at all, but about an old feeling of being unheard and alone. It's a vivid, honest demonstration of turning your most charged reactions into an opportunity to know yourself.In this episode: 🔹 What AI actually is — demystified through the simple idea of getting to know someone over time 🔹 Why platforms drive us to extremes — and how algorithms exploit pain and unmet needs 🔹 Why your reaction to a hot-button topic is rarely about the topic itself 🔹 A live remote control exercise: Brian works a real trigger down to sadness and feeling unheard 🔹 Why cutting social media out is a temporary boundary — and what facing it looks like instead📩 Get your free Weekly Dose of Compassion — two short notes in your inbox every week. One to speak over yourself. One from Laura: https://www.lauraduncan.com/pl/2148814868🔗 Learn more: https://triggeredandtrue.com https://lauraduncan.com