No bourbon this round. We open by defining political violence clearly — threats, doxing, coordinated harassment, assaults, plots, and targeted property destruction tied to political identity or institutions — and set the only scoreboard that matters: fewer credible threats, fewer doxings, fewer plots, slower rumor timelines, fewer injuries per event. 

Then we map the heat sources. History says the temperature spikes in certain cycles; today’s mix of economic strain plus culture-war identity fights is a nasty amplifier. We break down the psychology that tilts people toward violence: tribalism as a defense when you feel unsafe, projection and splitting that reinforce echo chambers, and cognitive dissonance that often resolves as lashing out instead of rethinking. 

Platforms pour gasoline on all of it: outrage travels fastest, copycat risk is real, and algorithmic rabbit holes move people from grievance to permission. Even naming perpetrators can fuel the contagion. We also distinguish mass-chaos fame-seeking from targeted political violence justified by identity; both are fed by the same pressure cooker. 

Prescriptions (what you can actually do)
• Re-humanize locally. Spend time offline with people you share a town, school, or service with. It gets harder to hate the person you know.
• Widen inputs when certainty spikes. Don’t marinate in one-sided feeds; curiosity is the antidote to fervor.
• Cool the loop. Slow rumor timelines and avoid gratuitous naming that drives copycats.
• Hold speech and norms at once. Defend free speech while refusing dehumanization and tribal score-settling.
• Leadership matters. Reward leaders who turn the thermostat down; ignore those farming fear for clicks. 

Not therapy or medical advice. But it is a sober map back to a country where disagreement isn’t a prelude to violence.

"Got Thoughts? Outrage? A Diagnosis of Your Own? Send us a text"

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Shrink The Nation is where America lies on the couch — and we pour the bourbon.
Hosted by board-certified psychiatrists and mental health pros with backgrounds in military, media, and systems thinking, we break down the psychology behind politics, culture, and public dysfunction.
Smart. Funny. Clinically sharp. Slightly buzzed.

Subscribe, rate, and share if you’re part of the exhausted middle looking for sanity in the noise.

For feedback or hate-listening invitations, hit us at [email protected].

Follow us everywhere: @shrinkthenation on X, Instagram, Facebook and Bluesky

Shrink The Nation — On the Couch With America.

No crystals, no incense. Clinically, the shadow is simple: the traits we refuse to own, exported to somebody else. “We’re the city on a hill; they’re the threat.” When identity feels endangered, denial recruits projection, moral disengagement, and story-bending to keep us “pure.” 

We trace how those defenses scale from families to a nation: liberty alongside slavery and Jim Crow; “we liberate” beside the Philippines, Vietnam, Iraq; rugged individualism blessing violence as patriotic; the American Dream on the marquee while inequality and selective memory run backstage. The point isn’t to scold. It’s risk management. Unknown material doesn’t disappear; it organizes behavior. 

Receipts included: Tulsa 1921 and the Greenwood cover-up; the MOVE bombing in Philadelphia; how fast cycles and AI-deniable “evidence” help a community memory forget itself; why violence gets framed as freedom; and how immigration mythology collides with actual history and class mobility. Nuance isn’t optional; it’s psychological hygiene. 

Prescriptions (usable, not performative):
• Teach the whole story. Re-invest in honest civic history for kids; stop whitewashing the record.
• Run the shadow worksheet. Two columns: accusations you make about the out-group vs evidence of the same in you or your side; add one fix you control.
• Language discipline. Strip dehumanization; slow rumor velocity; keep nonviolence as the only acceptable outlet for grievance.
• Reading list: Michael Harriot’s Black AF History and the young readers’ edition of Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States. 

Exceptional and flawed can both be true. If America wants the former, it has to own the latter.

"Got Thoughts? Outrage? A Diagnosis of Your Own? Send us a text"

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Shrink The Nation is where America lies on the couch — and we pour the bourbon.
Hosted by board-certified psychiatrists and mental health pros with backgrounds in military, media, and systems thinking, we break down the psychology behind politics, culture, and public dysfunction.
Smart. Funny. Clinically sharp. Slightly buzzed.

Subscribe, rate, and share if you’re part of the exhausted middle looking for sanity in the noise.

For feedback or hate-listening invitations, hit us at [email protected].

Follow us everywhere: @shrinkthenation on X, Instagram, Facebook and Bluesky

Shrink The Nation — On the Couch With America.

Your feed isn’t a therapist. It’s a slot machine with a PhD in you. We unpack how variable-reward dopamine loops keep you scrolling, why that “next swipe” feels irresistible, and how the feed learns your spikes (anger, fear, validation) to pay you in tiny hits of maybe. 

Then the psychology: the algorithm doesn’t invent your defenses, it industrializes them. Projection (“they’re the liars”), splitting (good tribe vs bad tribe), and dodging cognitive dissonance scale up into mass delusions that feel truer than reality because they fit identity. That’s how curated reality turns into civic reality. 

We map the Zeigarnik effect (brains hate open loops), autoplay as a craving cue, and why your prefrontal cortex’s brakes fail at midnight doomscroll o’clock. Also: the attention economy, micro-promises to micro-audiences, and the collapse of a shared fact set that democracy needs to function. 

Not a doom sermon; a practical one. Humans have panicked over every new medium since Plato complained about writing, and we adapted. Seatbelts for dopamine, guardrails for feeds, and norms that make tech liveable. 

Bourbon roll call: Basil Hayden, a high-rye Beam sibling (63% corn, 27% rye, 10% malted barley). Yes, we time-stamped the mash bill so you don’t have to. 

Prescriptions

• Personal brakes: turn off autoplay, charge your phone outside the bedroom, and stop scrolling before bed so your prefrontal cortex can do its job. 
• Curiosity over certainty: when fervor spikes, widen inputs. Read beyond the feed; chase background, not just takes. 
• Civic guardrails (aspirational): algorithmic transparency like a food label; incentives that slow outrage-posting instead of rewarding it. 

Smart, provocative, clinically grounded. Also petty about autoplay.

Education and entertainment only; not therapy.

"Got Thoughts? Outrage? A Diagnosis of Your Own? Send us a text"

Support the show

Shrink The Nation is where America lies on the couch — and we pour the bourbon.
Hosted by board-certified psychiatrists and mental health pros with backgrounds in military, media, and systems thinking, we break down the psychology behind politics, culture, and public dysfunction.
Smart. Funny. Clinically sharp. Slightly buzzed.

Subscribe, rate, and share if you’re part of the exhausted middle looking for sanity in the noise.

For feedback or hate-listening invitations, hit us at [email protected].

Follow us everywhere: @shrinkthenation on X, Instagram, Facebook and Bluesky

Shrink The Nation — On the Couch With America.

The “have it all” era told women to hustle harder; the algorithm replied with “soft life” and trad-wife aesthetics. We trace how empowerment got repackaged as performance, why the internet keeps selling extremes, and how to set fair, sane rules inside your own house. Also on the docket: Mr. Mom, Mrs. Doubtfire, Dana Scully, and a cruise ship full of red/blue buttons. Because culture never travels alone. 

In this episode:

• How algorithms reward pendulum swings (girlboss → soft life), and why it feels like WALL-E’s “press the new button” loop. 
• The pop-culture syllabus: Mr. Mom’s chore chaos and the Mrs. Doubtfire correction; Nate Bargatze’s “school never calls dad” bit; Dana Scully’s STEM effect. 
• Amway-style promises and why “you can do it all” maps suspiciously well onto “please buy my planner.” 
• The numbers that matter: women average roughly an extra day of unpaid labor each week compared to men. 
• Clinical pit stop: burnout vs depression/anxiety, and why treating symptoms without changing load just props up a bad system. 
• Prescriptions you can actually use: unplug the algorithm’s yardstick; read Sarah Wynn-Williams’ Careless People and retire “lean in” cosplay; use Fair Play cards; run a 20-minute Sunday logistics meeting; aim for equity over scoreboard marriage. 

Notes & asides: we also flag headlines about 350,000 Black women exiting the workforce, then live-debunk a related stat in real time, which is how adults do the internet.

"Got Thoughts? Outrage? A Diagnosis of Your Own? Send us a text"

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Shrink The Nation is where America lies on the couch — and we pour the bourbon.
Hosted by board-certified psychiatrists and mental health pros with backgrounds in military, media, and systems thinking, we break down the psychology behind politics, culture, and public dysfunction.
Smart. Funny. Clinically sharp. Slightly buzzed.

Subscribe, rate, and share if you’re part of the exhausted middle looking for sanity in the noise.

For feedback or hate-listening invitations, hit us at [email protected].

Follow us everywhere: @shrinkthenation on X, Instagram, Facebook and Bluesky

Shrink The Nation — On the Couch With America.

Uncle Sam shows up at 3 a.m., top hat on, eyes red from doomscrolling, convinced the shadows are organized and the neighbors are operatives. We’re not diagnosing a person; we’re reading a national mood. Conspiracies are the crunchy snack for anxious brains, but they don’t make a meal.

First, we draw the clinical line: paranoia is a delusion aimed at “me,” while conspiracist ideation is a subclinical, society-wide suspicion that hidden groups run the show. Then we map the defense mechanisms that light the fuse: splitting into “pure us vs evil them,” and externalizing our own mess onto the out-group.

History check: Salem wasn’t just superstition; it was anxiety plus scapegoats with a body count. Over 200 accused, 20 killed. Panic organizes fear but shreds agency, and we’ve repeated the pattern more than once.

Why now? Because when uncertainty spikes and personal control feels low, conspiracies promise clarity and belonging. They thrive on our pattern-hungry brains and negativity bias; when paranoia goes mainstream, democracy wobbles.

The cost isn’t abstract. The deeper you chase the dots, the more you hand away agency. You’re “researching,” not repairing anything in front of you.

Prescriptions
• Uncertainty first aid: pause and breathe; verify with lateral reading; talk it out offline with a trusted person. Slower is saner.
• Occam’s Razor + X-Files: prefer the simple, human-error explanation; save the cinematic cabals for reruns.
• Re-entry plan: if someone chooses to leave a conspiracy community, welcome them back. Belonging is the antidote to the rabbit hole.

Bourbon roll call: a wheated pour to start, because even hard topics go down better when the mash bill isn’t trying to fight you.

"Got Thoughts? Outrage? A Diagnosis of Your Own? Send us a text"

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Shrink The Nation is where America lies on the couch — and we pour the bourbon.
Hosted by board-certified psychiatrists and mental health pros with backgrounds in military, media, and systems thinking, we break down the psychology behind politics, culture, and public dysfunction.
Smart. Funny. Clinically sharp. Slightly buzzed.

Subscribe, rate, and share if you’re part of the exhausted middle looking for sanity in the noise.

For feedback or hate-listening invitations, hit us at [email protected].

Follow us everywhere: @shrinkthenation on X, Instagram, Facebook and Bluesky

Shrink The Nation — On the Couch With America.

We invited psychiatrist Allison to finish the round. She arrives with receipts and zero patience, calling out our blind spots and the culture’s. The episode opens with the bourbon roll call (Angel’s Envy, Jim Beam Black Label, and Allison’s lemon seltzer) and a confession: bringing a woman into a conversation about men wasn’t optional; it was overdue.

Allison introduces the Smurfette Principle and why tokenism distorts the narrative, then pushes past evo-psych shortcuts to how patriarchy actually operates in daily life. Drinking game included.

We also deconstruct the headlines about a “male loneliness epidemic.” Allison points out the numbers aren’t the story you’ve been sold, and we hash out what loneliness really tracks in 18–28 year olds.

Prescriptions:
• Read Chanel Miller’s Know My Name (or start with her middle-grade book if you need a softer on-ramp).
• Listen to one woman. Then listen to another. Yes, that counts.
• Men 18–28: before you post, imagine it getting screened by the oldest woman in your family. You’ll type better.

Smart, provocative, clinically sharp, and occasionally bruising. That’s the point.

"Got Thoughts? Outrage? A Diagnosis of Your Own? Send us a text"

Support the show

Shrink The Nation is where America lies on the couch — and we pour the bourbon.
Hosted by board-certified psychiatrists and mental health pros with backgrounds in military, media, and systems thinking, we break down the psychology behind politics, culture, and public dysfunction.
Smart. Funny. Clinically sharp. Slightly buzzed.

Subscribe, rate, and share if you’re part of the exhausted middle looking for sanity in the noise.

For feedback or hate-listening invitations, hit us at [email protected].

Follow us everywhere: @shrinkthenation on X, Instagram, Facebook and Bluesky

Shrink The Nation — On the Couch With America.

Shame used to be a regulator. Now it’s background noise. In this bourbon-fueled consult, David and Rob put “Uncle Sam” on the couch and sort the difference between shame (“I am bad”) and guilt (“I did a bad thing”) and why only one reliably leads to repair. We unpack Nathanson’s compass of shame (withdrawal, self-attack, avoidance, other-attack) and how those last two blow up our politics and relationships. 

Then we zoom out: social media’s confessional culture gives a quick hit of validation, followed by 2 a.m. regret and next-day loneliness, while partisan incentives reward riding out scandal instead of resigning. Result: a post-policy era where words are theater and hypocrisy barely stings. 

Prescriptions you can actually use:
 • Before you post, ask: am I confessing, performing, or connecting?
• Use a 24-hour rule on anything personal or inflammatory.
• Write down your values and hold yourself (and your leaders) to them at the ballot box.
Also featuring Crow 86 in a plastic bottle, Horse Soldier for contrast, and the required roast of pajama pants in public.

"Got Thoughts? Outrage? A Diagnosis of Your Own? Send us a text"

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Shrink The Nation is where America lies on the couch — and we pour the bourbon.
Hosted by board-certified psychiatrists and mental health pros with backgrounds in military, media, and systems thinking, we break down the psychology behind politics, culture, and public dysfunction.
Smart. Funny. Clinically sharp. Slightly buzzed.

Subscribe, rate, and share if you’re part of the exhausted middle looking for sanity in the noise.

For feedback or hate-listening invitations, hit us at [email protected].

Follow us everywhere: @shrinkthenation on X, Instagram, Facebook and Bluesky

Shrink The Nation — On the Couch With America.

Pour a glass of bourbon and settle in: we separate persuasion from propaganda, starting with David’s cold open that lands the thesis—propaganda isn’t posters, it’s the background noise telling you who to fear and what’s “obviously” true. It doesn’t argue; it feels, repeats until it sounds true, and wraps itself in identity and duty. We map the three levers every campaign pulls—repetition, fear/anger, and identity/duty—then trace how they’re working on your brain in real time. 

From sunk cost and anxiety relief to why leaving a tribe can feel worse than death, Keith lays out the individual psychology that makes simple stories so sticky. Allison and Rob bring it home with the modern twist: propaganda has been outsourced to the group chat—sometimes to Aunt Cindy—and the network effects are brutal. David drops the math on how a single WhatsApp forward can hit millions in minutes, which is exactly why “feels true” keeps beating “is true.” We close with a practical spotter’s guide for when propaganda tips into conspiracy: C.O.N.S.P.I.R.

Pop Culture & References
Thomas Paine’s pamphlets → the OG push notification. 
Chomsky and “violence to dictatorships” → the democracy contrast. 
“Lord of the Flies” → quick sting into governance and group psychology. 
Edward Bernays (Freud’s nephew) → modern advertising’s daddy. 
Goebbels/illusory truth → lies repeated into “truth.” 
Bill of Rights as neutral propaganda → when systems use the same tools. 

Episode Highlights
Separate persuasion from propaganda; both use emotion, only one is trying to collapse your choices. 
The Three Levers: repetition, fear/anger, identity/duty. 
Why sunk cost and anxiety relief make simple stories irresistible; why leaving a tribe hurts. 
From ministries to micro-voices: the propagandist is your group chat now. 
Printing press → social feeds: reach without budgets, responsibility, or brakes. 
C.O.N.S.P.I.R.: a field test to flag conspiracy bait before you boost it. 

Prescription
Watch a little C-SPAN to recalibrate your sense of “how things actually work,” then read 1984 with a stiff drink.
Add one literary palate cleanser: Gogol’s “The Overcoat.”
Model better conversations: John Ronson’s Things Fell Apart for compassionate curiosity across divides. 
Before you share, pull two or three outside sources; if you feel angry, pull a third. Start with Snopes. Nobody is immune. 

Short version: it’s not a trench-coat guy anymore. It’s your aunt. Use the levers to see the levers.

"Got Thoughts? Outrage? A Diagnosis of Your Own? Send us a text"

Support the show

Shrink The Nation is where America lies on the couch — and we pour the bourbon.
Hosted by board-certified psychiatrists and mental health pros with backgrounds in military, media, and systems thinking, we break down the psychology behind politics, culture, and public dysfunction.
Smart. Funny. Clinically sharp. Slightly buzzed.

Subscribe, rate, and share if you’re part of the exhausted middle looking for sanity in the noise.

For feedback or hate-listening invitations, hit us at [email protected].

Follow us everywhere: @shrinkthenation on X, Instagram, Facebook and Bluesky

Shrink The Nation — On the Couch With America.

Pour a glass of bourbon and settle in: Shrink the Nation is back to separate hormones from hype—why “testosterone made me do it” isn’t a clinical defense and why bad behavior is still…bad behavior. We get honest about what’s driving the ultra-masculine aesthetic in Gen Z men, the “death of shame” in public life (yes, including that White House headline), and how to give young men purpose without turning politics into a cage match. 

We map the real stuff—agency, work, competence, belonging—and the inner stuff—shame, grandiosity, and the Jung-y blend of masculine/feminine that actually builds intimacy and maturity (not just dominance theater). Along the way we raid the pop-culture pantry: Road House, Junior, Kindergarten Cop, Will Ferrell’s Janet Reno, and the Liam Neeson/Jason Statham archetype of measured strength. Then we pivot to education and AI, where we sketch how better tools (and better expectations) might keep young men from tapping out before they’ve even started. 

• “UFC fight on the White House lawn” → the death-of-shame moment that kicked this off. 
• Will Ferrell as Janet Reno → the comic image for integrating masculine & feminine. 
• Junior (Schwarzenegger gets pregnant) → parody of “all masculine, all the time.” 
• Kindergarten Cop (“It’s not a tumor”) cameo as we talk archetypes. 
• Road House (1989, Swayze) > the remake → calibrated violence + caretaking as a masculinity template. 
• Liam Neeson / Jason Statham → the “calm until decisive” hero model. 
• Yin/Yang and Jung → why dominance without empathy never buys intimacy. 
• Mark Twain’s “lies, damned lies, and statistics” → closing riff on data abuse. 
• Dunkin’ Donuts, Monster, Red Bull → our ongoing, shameless (and unfunded) beverage pleas. 

• Separate biology from choice: hormones ≠ hall pass; responsibility still lives at the individual level. 
• The “death of shame” and why public spectacle is replacing standards. 
• Masculinity that works: strength with restraint, plus empathy and care. 
• Education & AI: stop generic pipelines; build competence and future-proof skills. 
• Paths to purpose: work, service, community—real stakes beat online status. 

• Swap “testosterone made me do it” for “I chose that—and I can choose better.” Start there. 
• If you’re drifting: pursue competence (school, trade, training), show up for real work, and pick a tribe that expects your best—without excusing your worst. 
• Optional homework: watch Road House (1989), then ask where you’re strong, where you’re tender, and where you’re faking both. 

Join us for bourbon-fueled group therapy for America’s exhausted middle—clinical where it counts, funny where it helps, and always pro-responsibility over performative rage. (Also, som

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Pour a glass of bourbon and settle in: Shrink the Nation returns with a clinically sharp (and frequently ridiculous) take on why so many Gen Z men are gravitating toward a harder-edged identity—where UFC/WWE aesthetics bleed into politics—and why the answer isn’t mockery, it’s empathy. Between Jefferson’s Reserve and a tall pour of Elijah Craig (yes, including the “fish barrel” origin myth), we trace how belonging, agency, and meaning got scrambled for young men—and how to unsnarl it without turning every disagreement into a cage match.

Dr. David, Rob, and Keith dig into the numbers (think: “65% not in relationships”) and the culture—Testo-Rage-Max jokes and all—while refusing the easy dunk. We map the psychology: how the non-college cohort became the swing lane, and how a myth-making machine (hello, WWE) offers black-and-white hero stories that feel like a rite of passage—even when they don’t deliver intimacy or purpose.

Pop Culture & Historical References:
 • Willard Galen’s The Male Ego (with Rob’s combat-zone “book under the bed” origin story)
• Joseph Campbell on the loss of unifying myths (a.k.a. why we’re story-poor)
• Robert Bly’s Iron John and the missing rites of passage
• Mr. Rogers (as proposed walk-in music… and maybe a better model of strength)
• A-10 vs. F-35 (close air support and why modern “war myths” feel different)
• Ukraine’s trench reality and the search for a genuine shared purpose

Episode Highlights:
 • What’s actually shifting: identity and culture more than stated ideology
 • Why “belonging” beats “being right,” and how dominance never produces intimacy
 • Mentors > algorithms: replacing 4chan/8chan rabbit holes with real guidance
 • The empathy move: acknowledging the void (work, purpose, partnership) without pandering
 • Why WWE-style mythmaking feels good—and how to build healthier rites of passage
 • The “work as meaning” argument—and why the cool kids work

Prescription:
 • If you’re not old enough to work, volunteer—try a local food bank (we shout out Feed My Starving Children) to feel purpose and community.
• Read Starship Troopers (the book, not the movie) for a clearer picture of duty and leadership.
• Consider service (yes, even the Army)—structured challenge can forge confidence and connection.

Plus: A frank detour through incel/sigma-alpha jawline nonsense and why the intimacy you want will never come from dominance—or from doomscrolling.

Join us for bourbon-fueled group therapy for America’s exhausted middle—equal parts compassion and provocation—where masculinity, myth, and mental health get the straight talk they deserve. Stick around for walk-in music picks (Shinedown’s “Sound of Madness,” anybody?) and some merch/newsletter teases.

This episode is for education and entertainment; it is not medical advice.

"Got Thoughts? Outrage? A Diagnosis of Your Own? Send us a text"

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