Will We Ever Feel Safe?

We are talking today about a need we all have. It’s something our brain was built to be aware of and in so many ways our behavior is shaped by it: It’s the need to feel safe and protected.   Our guest Jim Dudley is someone who took a pledge to protect us. Jim is a former Deputy Chief of police for the San Francisco Police dept and is now a professor of criminology at San Francisco State University. Suffice it to say, that our feelings about policing may vary. Do police keep us safe, or make us feel unsafe? It’s a question for our times and I wanted to speak with Jim because he’s given a lot of thought to these issues as a former cop, and professor. I urge you to listen also to his podcast called Policing Matters where he delves into questions about policing and the community. Did you know that stress, like the stress of the pandemic, stresses around our finances, worries we have for our children, our health, safety, our political fears — all of these elements can affect our ability to think and problem-solve? They affect our emotional states and our long-term physical health. This is a fundamental neuroscience principle about how stress and trauma impact us. And feeling protected is a primary driver of our behavior. That’s why we say Protection is the first building block to build resilience. To learn more about us visit bouncebackgeneration.org or our media site bbgtv.org. If you like what we do and want to support our nonprofit, please give at bouncebackgeneration.org/donate. Thank you!