For many, 2020 has been a scary year. In an effort to get to the root of why many people feel this way, the first thing we did was something we probably should have done a long time ago — we reached out to a psychiatrist. In a new season of "Things That Go Boom," The World's partner podcast from PRX, host Laicie Heeley also asked listeners, friends and family to answer what might seem like a pretty simple question: How safe do you feel? The answers weren't simple at all.

Guests: Arash Javanbakht, psychiatry researcher; Bunmi Akinnusotu, host of What in the World?

Additional reading:

Sex and Death in the Rational World of Defense Intellectuals, Carol Cohn

The politics of fear: How fear goes tribal, allowing us to be manipulated, Arash Javanbakht

When mask-wearing rules in the 1918 pandemic faced resistance, Becky Little

As the 1918 flu emerged, cover-up and denial helped it spread, Becky Little