Make Your Damn Bed

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-damn-bed

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The opinions expressed by Julie Merica and Make Your Damn Bed Podcast are intended for entertainment purposes only. Make Your Damn Bed podcast is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

Read Julie's Medium Blog.

Support JULIE (and the show!)

Support + get some bonus stuff over on PATREON.

Get an occasional personal email from me: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.com

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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.

RESOURCE: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-social-media-persona-considered-new-bf-skinner-box-bertrand

GET AN OCCASIONAL PERSONAL EMAIL FROM ME: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.com

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The opinions expressed by Julie Merica and Make Your Damn Bed Podcast are intended for entertainment purposes only. Make Your Damn Bed podcast is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

Read Julie's Medium Blog.

Support JULIE (and the show!)

Support + get some bonus stuff over on PATREON.

Get an occasional personal email from me: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.com

Tune in on INSTAGRAM AND YOUTUBE or TIKTOK

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/make-your-damn-bed.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 modern day Skinner Box" which sent me down a rabbit hole to understand what that meant.

So today, I am sharing that with you!

RESOURCE: https://www.simplypsychology.org/what-is-a-skinner-box.html

GET AN OCCASIONAL PERSONAL EMAIL FROM ME: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.com

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The opinions expressed by Julie Merica and Make Your Damn Bed Podcast are intended for entertainment purposes only. Make Your Damn Bed podcast is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

Read Julie's Medium Blog.

Support JULIE (and the show!)

Support + get some bonus stuff over on PATREON.

Get an occasional personal email from me: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.com

Tune in on INSTAGRAM AND YOUTUBE or TIKTOK

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/make-your-damn-bed.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Did 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:

1. Arthur C. Brooks "Nothing Drains You Like Mixed Emotions" for The Atlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2023/01/psychology-of-mixed-emotions-feelings-meaning-examples/672758/'
2. Arthur C. Brooks Website: https://arthurbrooks.com/

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 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/juliemerica 

The opinions expressed by Julie Merica and Make Your Damn Bed Podcast are intended for entertainment purposes only. Make Your Damn Bed podcast is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

Read Julie's Medium Blog.

Support JULIE (and the show!)

Support + get some bonus stuff over on PATREON.

Get an occasional personal email from me: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.com

Tune in on INSTAGRAM AND YOUTUBE or TIKTOK

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/make-your-damn-bed.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 perception of themselves. I think if more people realized how distorted our selfie cameras make us look, they'd feel a lot less critical of themselves.

Today's Sources:

1. Oohs St.Lou's Studios (The Visuals): https://oohstloustudios.com/the-science-of-the-selfie-no-you-dont-really-look-like-that#
2. ENT of Athens "Your Selfie is Lying to You": https://www.entofathens.com/your-selfie-is-lying-to-you/
3. Popular Science "Selfie Face Perception Distortion": https://www.popsci.com/technology/selfie-face-perception-distortion/
4. How to look better in selfies: https://www.slrlounge.com/why-your-selfies-look-awful-what-can-is-being-done-to-look-better-in-selfies/

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 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/juliemerica 

The opinions expressed by Julie Merica and Make Your Damn Bed Podcast are intended for entertainment purposes only. Make Your Damn Bed podcast is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

Read Julie's Medium Blog.

Support JULIE (and the show!)

Support + get some bonus stuff over on PATREON.

Get an occasional personal email from me: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.com

Tune in on INSTAGRAM AND YOUTUBE or TIKTOK

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/make-your-damn-bed.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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: https://www.buzzfeed.com/annaborges/recharge-then-resist

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 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/juliemerica 

The opinions expressed by Julie Merica and Make Your Damn Bed Podcast are intended for entertainment purposes only. Make Your Damn Bed podcast is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

Read Julie's Medium Blog.

Support JULIE (and the show!)

Support + get some bonus stuff over on PATREON.

Get an occasional personal email from me: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.com

Tune in on INSTAGRAM AND YOUTUBE or TIKTOK

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/make-your-damn-bed.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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: https://www.buzzfeed.com/annaborges/recharge-then-resist

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 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/juliemerica 

The opinions expressed by Julie Merica and Make Your Damn Bed Podcast are intended for entertainment purposes only. Make Your Damn Bed podcast is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

Read Julie's Medium Blog.

Support JULIE (and the show!)

Support + get some bonus stuff over on PATREON.

Get an occasional personal email from me: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.com

Tune in on INSTAGRAM AND YOUTUBE or TIKTOK

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/make-your-damn-bed.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 incredibly important to these beginning stages of AI. Today we talk about a few of the ways I'm engaging with ai more consciously.

1. 15 times it's good to use AI, 5 times not to: https://www.oneusefulthing.org/p/15-times-to-use-ai-and-5-not-to
2. Protecting the Freedom to opt out: https://theconversation.com/avoiding-ai-is-hard-but-our-freedom-to-opt-out-must-be-protected-255873
3. Preventing AI from doing all the thinking: https://spencereducation.com/cognitive-atrophy/
4. Avoiding AI article: https://www.voxweb.nl/en/they-are-not-using-ai-avoiding-it-is-actually-really-easy
5. Exploring the ethical use of AI: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0268401223000816

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 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/juliemerica 

The opinions expressed by Julie Merica and Make Your Damn Bed Podcast are intended for entertainment purposes only. Make Your Damn Bed podcast is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

Read Julie's Medium Blog.

Support JULIE (and the show!)

Support + get some bonus stuff over on PATREON.

Get an occasional personal email from me: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.com

Tune in on INSTAGRAM AND YOUTUBE or TIKTOK

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/make-your-damn-bed.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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=OjKaOsE7GWKfm15p&t=868

Environmental racism, Energy Waste + Terror: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jul/08/terrorist-groups-artificial-intelligence

Training models = unethical. https://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/news-events/the-hidden-human-cost-of-ai-in-conversation-with-professor-mark-graham/

Exacerbates issues. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKCynxiV_8I&t=3s AND https://apnews.com/article/chatbot-ai-lawsuit-suicide-teen-artificial-intelligence-9d48adc572100822fdbc3c90d1456bd0

Bad for Brains: https://www.media.mit.edu/publications/your-brain-on-chatgpt/

Stealing Jobs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uJHHOO5ZmY and https://www.vox.com/technology/418525/ai-chatgpt-google-office-work-white-collar-jobs

Biased. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/even-chatgpt-says-chatgpt-is-racially-biased/ and https://news.uchicago.edu/story/ai-biased-against-speakers-african-american-english-study-finds

Privacy Violation. https://www.aclu.org/news/privacy-technology/machine-surveillance-is-being-super-charged-by-large-ai-models and https://www.govtech.com/artificial-intelligence/new-chatgpt-gov-enables-use-of-non-publicly-available-data

The opinions expressed by Julie Merica and Make Your Damn Bed Podcast are intended for entertainment purposes only. Make Your Damn Bed podcast is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

Read Julie's Medium Blog.

Support JULIE (and the show!)

Support + get some bonus stuff over on PATREON.

Get an occasional personal email from me: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.com

Tune in on INSTAGRAM AND YOUTUBE or TIKTOK

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/make-your-damn-bed.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. https://youtu.be/TWpg1RmzAbc?si=OjKaOsE7GWKfm15p&t=868

Environmental racism, increasing consumer's energy bill.

Terrorism: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jul/08/terrorist-groups-artificial-intelligence

Training these models is deeply unethical.

Exacerbates mental health issues.

Bad for User’s Brains: https://www.media.mit.edu/publications/your-brain-on-chatgpt/

Stealing Good Jobs.

Biased.

Privacy Violation.

Deepfakes + Harmful Misinformation: perpetuates extremism

Affects Societal Trust + Relationships.

Worst Corporations Backing AI

Moral Questions of Control + Freedom

As historian Yuval Noah Harari has written, to “never summon a power you cannot control”

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 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/juliemerica 

The opinions expressed by Julie Merica and Make Your Damn Bed Podcast are intended for entertainment purposes only. Make Your Damn Bed podcast is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

Read Julie's Medium Blog.

Support JULIE (and the show!)

Support + get some bonus stuff over on PATREON.

Get an occasional personal email from me: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.com

Tune in on INSTAGRAM AND YOUTUBE or TIKTOK

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/make-your-damn-bed.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.