(Ep. 9) The Knowledge of Good and Evil: Why Managing Our Shame Isn’t the Solution

What if the endless pressure to be "good" is quietly doing as much damage as anything "bad" you've ever done?In this episode of Triggered & True, Laura Duncan and co-host Brian Freise take on the idea Laura calls the root of nearly all anxiety and depression: the knowledge of good and evil. Going back to the Garden of Eden, they unpack why the problem was never just knowing evil — it's the exhausting, never-ending chase to be good enough, the push-and-pull that keeps us trapped on the shame cycle and disconnected from who we really are.Laura shares the distinction that changes everything: sin wasn't the only problem in the garden; shame was there too. Nobody drove Adam and Eve into the bushes; they hid on their own. She and Brian explore God's first question — "Who told you that you were evil?" — how children start out blissfully free of this weight before becoming "shame conscious," and why so much of our striving is really a rat race to quiet the voice that says you'll never be enough. Along the way: what Laura learned to work with men in a purity group, and why real forgiveness starts not with the offense, but with the wound underneath.In this episode: 🔹 Why the knowledge of "good" can be as damaging as the knowledge of evil — and how it fuels the shame cycle 🔹 "Who told you that you were evil?" — why shame, not sin, is what kept Adam and Eve hiding 🔹 How children begin free and slowly become "shame conscious" — and what that reveals about your true self 🔹 What weeping men in a purity group discovered: your struggle was never who you are 🔹 Why "no one can hurt you" the way you think — and how present pain is usually old pain being pressed on📩 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.comhttps://lauraduncan.com